Quality Time

We were so lucky to have my brother and his family come stay with us at the beginning of the month. They live in Maryland, so we never get to see them. This was the second time Baylee has seen them (the first time was the Christmas after she turned 1), and the first time Payton has ever met them. We had so much fun with them, and since we never see them, there's definitely a lot of pictures (plus my sister-in-law Katie took tons of pictures and sent me a cd of them). So, here's some of what we were up to while they were here:

Saturday:

Payton and baby Charlotte played. It was also our first time meeting Charlotte. Payton loved having someone more his size around. They are about 4 1/2 months apart:

Baylee and Claire became instant friends. They entertained themselves for hours, mostly playing dress up:

We went to my uncle and aunt's for a BBQ, so I made lemon blueberry cupcakes with lemon cream cheese frosting (pretty tasty!):

At the BBQ we swam (well, I guess I didn't, but there was swimming):

and the kids had fun on the trampoline with my cousin Brooke's kids:

Sunday:

The kids had fun playing one of Baylee's games:

We refilled the pinata from Baylee's birthday party (it never broke, the bottom just opened so we taped it back up). Luke had a turn:
Baylee took some swings in her twisted blue Power Ranger outfit (Ben's sister Jenny gave us a bunch of dress up clothes):
The bottom opened back up so we had to tape it, and replace some of the candy. Payton tried to be quick in getting some:
Claire took some hits in the lovely pink Power Ranger costume (we loved that her pulled up dress made her some love handles):
The kids didn't quite crack it, so Scott gave it a whack:
Jim modeled the beaten Space Ranger space ship:

The kids had fun sleeping in the tent Ben set up for them:

Monday:

We went to Tempe to play at the splash pad, and it was a great way to cool off:

We had dinner at my grandparents. Claire and Baylee had fun with the dress up clothes there (ones I had played in when I was a little girl- my aunt Melissa had some great dance costumes):

Tuesday:

We started out the day shopping at a mall. Later we made the girls and Luke cute button bracelets (found them on my sister-in-laws Jenny's friend's blog):

Ben, Jim, and Baylee hit a baseball game, but didn't take any pictures.

Wednesday:

Katie and I made flower clips for the girls (and I've already lost one):

We took them to the pool we went to for Baylee's birthday, and had a ton of fun cooling off:

That night we BBQed for dinner and made s'mores in our fire pit (we probably could have roasted them on the cement though, it was so hot):

Thursday:

We went to Joe's Farm Grill for family pictures and breakfast (family pictures will be another post). Katie got this cute picture of Payton and me:

Before they left for the airport, we unsuccessfully attempted to take pictures of the all the cousins:

We had so much fun with Jim and Katie and kids! It was great to see them all, and the kids played really well together. We hope to see them sooner than 2 1/2 years this time!