Well, Olivia’s yelling at me to “COME ON MOMMY, LET’S BUILD A HOUSE REALLY QUICK!!!” so I better make this as brief as possible.

We went to the park on the 3rd to celebrate Olivia’s third birthday with Josh’s family, who had come up for the occasion.

Josh’s dad promptly got himself stuck in the tunnel slide.

Have I ever told you guys about the titanium rods he had surgically placed in his back? Yeah, yeah, long story short, he can’t do things like this anymore.

Josh, however, still has much back flexibility, as proven here by his dare-devil back-flip.

I’m so impressed with you, honey.

Benjamin wasn’t feeling well at all this day, in order to get him to look up, I had to pretend I saw a puppy. (“Foof! Foof!”)

Hmm, now what do you think Gammy’s looking at?

At her beautiful grandchildren, of course!

Yeah, so Benjamin had a fever of about 103 that day. Poor boy. Kept scowling all day. Actually, this shot reminded me a bit of Blue Steel.

This look, however, was just plain misery.

Maybe The Cake will cheer him up! Oi, that cake used to be a lot prettier… before Olivia picked up the cake carrier and turned it sideways, that is…

Close up of the collateral damage.

“How old are you today, Olivia?”

Look how nice and clean they are…

He’s smiling on the inside. Promise.

Presents! Note the ecstatic look of excitement on her face. Or lack there-of. Yeah, she gets her emotional tendencies from her father.

But she did love it. Don’t you be fooled. It’s all she wants to do anymore. “Let’s build houses, Mommy!”

She also loves her medical kit (or should I say Me-DIKE-al kit, Melissa?) despite that look on her face.

And these are our Fourth of July pictures. What better way to celebrate our independence than to scale the balcony of our apartment? Um, yeah.

Ready for fireworks!

Benjamin’s fever was gone. And he was feisty.

Olivia was a fireball, too, that night. Here she is, mid-slap, with her Aunt Sassa.

“I WUV YOU! DON’T EVER GO BACK TO AUSTRALIA! EVER EVER EVER!”
(She really said that… honest… ;-))

Passed out, angelic, on the ride home from the fireworks.

NOW, to go play HOUSES!

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To participate in Meet-and-Greet Monday: Post pictures of someone you’d like to us to “meet” on your blog. It doesn’t have to be someone new each week (obviously – I post of the same two people each week). The idea is that someone new from the blogosphere will happen upon this site each Monday and we can “introduce” ourselves to them. Because this is a friendly place. Also, this is a great excuse to post pictures for the Grandmas.

Just make sure you are linking to your Meet-and-Greet post – NOT your homepage. It just makes life easier that way. Then put a link in your post back to here so that your readers can “meet” someone new today, too! And as always, thanks for keeping it family friendly