Maggie's pre-school show

Pre-school has come to an end for my Maggie.

Really? Is it true?

Since we went to her end of the year show I guess it is true.

Oh, she did so well in her show. I was so proud watching. So was her cousin, and daddy, and siblings. I wish the lighting was better so I could get better pictures but oh well, the memories are there.

After the show the kids were pretty excited to make sundaes, not just because they are so yummy but it was a hot day and the school was really hot.

Our family!!! Thanks Sarah for trying to get a good picture!

Next stop? Kindergarten!

Softball, family, and friends

It seems to be taking me longer and longer to blog lately! So, again, this day happened to be a couple of weeks ago.
Some friends and family came to our town to watch Katelyn play in her softball game. Katelyn was so excited!

She had a great game and loved all the attention from Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and friends that came to watch.

She was even able to play one of her favorite positions, catcher during that game. One of her cousins is an amazing catcher so that made it even more exciting.

Maggie got to love on baby Caylee which made her a very happy little girl too!

Katelyn had been hoping to win the game ball for a few weeks and it couldn't have happened on a better day. She totally deserved it with a great hit and a couple great outs at first and one at home!

After the game everyone came back to our house to enjoy the beautiful weather and great company!

Does life really get better then this?

Everyone happy, and healthy, enjoying a beautiful day!

I really don't believe it does.

The kids even went in the pool for a bit but I kinda thought they were crazy. It was a beautiful day but not that warm. They didn't care though! I had to drag Ben out shivering and blue lipped for dinner.

Oh, and have I mentioned before how much I just love this little baby?

Because if I haven't, which I think I have, but just in case I will say it again, I LOVE this little munchkin! I do wish she would slow down her growing a little though!

What a day!!!!

Dr. Ben

A couple weeks ago we celebrated Uncle Drew's 40th birthday. One of his gifts was this golf shirt and for some reason Ben wanted to put it on.



Uncle Drew obliged and Ben thought it was just great even though he was swimming in it.

Ben walked over to me and I said, "Oh, look, it's Doctor Ben!" thinking he looked like a doctor in a lab coat.

He looked right at me, serious as could be, and said, "No, I Harry Potter." Oh. My. Goodness, every one of us in that room just started laughing! Now that is one of those moments I will NEVER forget!

Ben, where are you?

Last weekend I saw Ben go into the kitchen, heard the fridge open and shut, then heard him leave the kitchen. A minute or so later I finished what I was doing and called out to Ben, as I do every couple of minutes when I can't see him.

Ben, whatcha doing?

Silence...

Ben, whatch doing?

Silence...

Ben, where are you?

Silence...

I started looking for him at this point. It took me a minute of calling out and looking before I found him behind the rocking chair in the living room. I already know he must have been getting into mischief but finding him there told me I was absolutely right.

This is how I found him...


In just a diaper and some adorable monkey boots eating a block of cream cheese one finger scoop at a time!

Yep, he is already getting to be sneaky! Look out!

Connor's 7 yr old party

Connor turned 7 last week!
Yep, seven!
We tried to talk him into picking a friend or two to take for a special activity like the movies or a water park but he had his heart set on having a few friends over and having a Bey blade party.
I wasn't sure how it would go and really wasn't coming up with ideas of what to do with 6 kids, all different ages and different personalities.
Thankfully I have some pretty creative kids so I basically let them plan the day.


They told me the plans and I just helped them make the plans happen.

First it was "pin the performance tip on the bey blade". Katelyn came up with this game and created it all by herself! The kids really liked it!

Then the kids got to pick a balloon, which had a tiny paper in it with the name of a bey blade, and had to figure out a way to pop it without using their hands, feet, or mouth. The giggles during that were great.

After they popped their balloon and read the piece of paper they went to find their bey blade that they would then use for the "Bey blade tournament".

We had a full bracket and everything! Dylan, my nephew, came in first and Connor came in second followed by Kyle at third and Sierra in fourth.

Daddy went and picked up some pizza and then we had desert. Connor's not a cake guy so we had cheese cake to put the candles in.

But the real desert was "make your own sundae" which the kids just loved!

Finally it was time for the pinata. Since there was no bey blade pinata we settled for Sponge Bob. The winner of the tournament got to go first and then the rest went in order of where they placed in the tournament.

I was a little worried that some kids wouldn't get a chance to hit it because it would break quick but I was worried for nothing. Sponge Bob was a tough guy! Each of the kids hit him three or four times and loved it!

He was hit pretty good and had no arms or legs left but just wouldn't break enough so we finally pulled the strings and the kids went to town picking up candy and reptiles (pretend of course!).

Words of advice though.... When picking out candy for a pinata do not pick lollipops or hard candy as many of them shattered into tiny pieces and ended up being all over the floor, which then got stepped on and tracked through the house. Oh well, not that big of a deal.

The party ended up being a success. The kids had a wonderful time! I can't take credit this time though, my kids are the ones who put on this great party!

Julia's day

Just in case you are wondering what Julia did on June 4th from 2:30-4:00pm I am here to show you....

Just in case you were wondering....

Man, I love my niece!

And would like to thank my other wonderful niece, Heather, for documenting this for us!

Our art gallery

I'm the kind of person that admires brightly painted walls in other peoples homes but is just not brave enough to paint my walls nice bright colors.

But our playroom was in desperate need of a new coat of paint. So I did it, went out and bought a bright blue!

Not only was I brave enough to buy a bright blue paint but I was also brave, or crazy, and let Maggie and my niece Sarah help paint it! We only did one wall. The wall that was colored on and had so many smudges you couldn't tell what color it originally was. That was actually my plan all along which was good because I think all the walls in this color would have been a bit too much.

Then the next day I went to a craft store and bought four canvases. I was quite surprised at the price of blank canvases but was very excited to find a few on clearance, yay. I also bought a whole bunch of acrylic paint in lots of colors.

Each of my monkeys worked very hard on a canvas to hang up on our nice, bright blue wall! Ben made "Mama's flowers". The entire time he was painting he had a very serious face and was concentrating like a famous painter would and he kept telling me, "My paintin mama's flowers". Love that guy!

Maggie painted a rainbow with some clouds and a sun and called it "Sunny Day Light". She was like a little artist, mixing paints and everything.

Connor painted a snake, lizard, turtle, and mouse and called his "Reptile Party". At first he said that the reptiles were gonna kick the mouse out of the party but then decided that they invited him as a snack!

Katelyn painted a big bunny on her canvas. On the food bowl she wrote "Mr. Hoppy's carrot bowl".

They all came out perfect! So absolutely beautiful and bring a smile to my face every time I walk into that room!

When I get more motivated I will paint the rest of the walls in that room a lighter blue, I think, but for now I think it is a big improvement!