2016 July Jubilation - hot off the press!

I'm pretty sure everyone in the States starts off their July in the same fashion - with a bang! As it should be I say - its the month I was born and everyone should be excited and celebrating! Fireworks or sparklers (at the very least) are in order and I love it all! The 4th of July parades around St Louis are plentiful and we beg Mom or Dad to take us to as many as possible. 

- Right after breakfast we head to Webster Groves for the good old fashion city parade. In 2016 we met Stella, Ruby & their Dad to catch candy and sway to the music. Macho even loves to see the "floats" and dressed up cars. 

- After lunch we headed downtown for the Vail Profit Parade. Its fun but Mom says its super creepy. I try to get her to look at the clowns that walk around on their hands but she always suspects what I'm up to. The really weird part is when they have the failed profits come out with the "queen of love and beauty". Vailed old guys + young ladies = makes my skin crawl. Below is a the parade in fast forward. 

trying to process it all is exhausting

The best part of the day comes when we get to get to our friends house who lives right across from Forest Park. Their house is one of my all time favorites as they have a pool, a tree house, a dog names Butters and lots of kids. Their parties are the BEST and have a ton of yummy food - its the best way to kick off my favorite month - July!!

Whats better than celebrating 4th of July - Fourth of July with Mallory decorated cookies - that's what!! Jane's Family and I went to the Companion baking headquarters to have a class of decorating cookies and it was CRAZY delicious.

I learned, but maybe didn't master, the technique of  holding a  piping bag of frosting without it blowing out the back end (most of the time too! I can't wait to go back!! Check out my Patrick Star Cookie - that mouth is Epic!

You won't believe this but St Louis has its very own IKEA now and I'm pretty sure I want to be an IKEA team member as soon as I can get a work permit. They have the cutest stuffed animals, I love their pasta and chicken strips, you can smell fresh baked cinnamon rolls as you walk through the front doors AND they sell itty bitty doll/mouse furniture that I am totally obsessed with for my Maileg Family of mice and bunnies. Morty even loves it there so you know if Mr. Grump loves it - its a mighty fine establishment.

Watch out for hazardous children in IKEA!

After months of Maeve and I hearing how much we needed to start taking care of our own hair and listening to the parents call our hair "Scraggly" or that it "reminds them of a birds nest" we decided to make a pact and donate our hair to kids who really need wigs. WE had our Mom's go online and see how many inches of length we needed to cut and we had JUST enough to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths - a  whole 9 inches!!! 

Before

Mom  let me straight iron my hair so they didnt cut off more than we thought - EEK!

Macho was worried too, he came to protect me from Mom

Maeve went first and then Face-timed me from the car on the way home. I could tell she was too stoked about how short her hair was and kept saying "Its not SOOO bad". I felt bad for her but her hair cut looked really cute and was perfect for summer and easy to manage. There was NO  going back now so we steadied ourselves for my appointment a week later. 

Anna at Salon Basia was sooooooo sweet. She had curly hair just like mine and knew just what to do and she really helped me get through my nerves. We ended up taking off 10 inches (1 inch to style the cut) so it was REALLY short when all was finished. My haircut was super cute with the back being shorter than the front and I had a ton of compliments.  It was a win win for all of us! 

Now we come to the seriously wicked awesome part of the summer. The part we look forward to all year long and as soon as school lets out Morty begins the Cape Cod Countdown. Every morning he says to mom.. "How many more days until Cape Cod?" One day she will wise up and just hand him a calendar but until then I w ill have to listen to their banter .... blah blah blah. 

and we are off into the wild blue yonder!

THE path to Nono's beach (we miss him!)

Waiting for our dinner at Chatham Bars Inn and making the most of it

Lei-Lee is really good at the nose succession like mom. Creepy!!

getting our beach time in w/ mom

The first birthday of Gamma's Birthdays we have spent with her on cape Cod - Yay!!

Some days are just crazy windy

but it makes for fun pics

You know Harry Potter is my all time favorite series right?
Well the Bean Boozler game  seemed to be right up my alley, or so I thought. 

You see, some of the jelly beans taste like vomit (seriously) or grass or  candy...
you just never know what you're going to get!

Daddy and Morty have started to paddle board when they get the chance,  its good bonding time I say

Like my no sunscreen needed bathing cozy from 1930?

Mortys attitude needed to be in check sometimes.

Cruisin' in Nown's car with the Bee Gee's on full blast is exactly what we need 

The MOMENT we have ALL been waiting for --- My FLAMINGO 9th Birthday!!!

Tell me this isn't the happiest, best birthday them idea ever?!! Am I right?

Sometimes we get a little tired of the same old same on the beach,
I know that sounds crazy but it happens. As you can't see the outcome was beyond fantastic. Mom was a bit worried if it would come off Landy's face but he insisted!

So we found these old body art makeup sticks and decided to see what we would look like tattooed.
Of course i chose #9 - it was still my birthday/month !!

Landy wanted to have a "Fly Guy"

The birthday smiles. Ages 9, 39 & 6

Every year we have a cake on my birthday and then one with the whole family. I like to give mom a really hard cake to make for my day-of birthday and see how she does. This year was obviously Flamingos. I give her a score of 7 max - only one flamingo? I'm 9 Mom!!

This is a closeup of morty is a rare, no grump mood. You can tell he is about to lose his first top tooth and its driving is all nuts that he won't just pull it!

Mom made us pose for this pic so she could show the whole entire world that Mo is about to pass me up in height. jerk.

I took this photo of Mo. This is how he spends rest time every day after the beach.
He's  such a dude these days.  

Another favorite about going to CC in the summer time is going to see the Chatham Band on Friday nights and getting swirly balloons, candy from Candy Manor (the best sweet shop around)
The Fantasy Fudge was Nono's favorite and mine too! They ship too.

Morty is all too happy to show you his summer buzz cut and the residual blue die from his candy of choice. Ew!

Grinning like fools. Can you feel the love? Grody to the max!

Mallory's 9th Birthday part deux! I knew you were wondering what happened at the family party.
There were even guests from Germany (She She's close friends)

Mimi  the babysitter came too, she is the sweetest

The Dads - waiting to open gifts after eating copious amounts of cake.
This time the cake was from "Shoop n Poop". A flip Flop Beach cake with Flamingo Candles. 

Of course everyone's favorite part of my birthday parties is watching me open presents. It was a HUGE success.

I'm pretty sure we have discussed Snapchat before. Mom won't let us have it unless she is with us and we use it on her phone. How awesome was this photo shoot? 

Magical Maiden

Hippie Sundae

Mom showing her true colors when she gets mad

This year we FINALLY got to fish. Morty had the best time but ask him how many fish we caught ally summer?
ZERO

My favorite end of summer moments are when its just us on the beach, just hanging out and talking to Gamma - even when the sun refuses to shine - we make it work.

That's JULY ! Its a wrap - stay tuned for August 2016~