Bicycle Fun

Here's behind the scenes from taking school pictures with John and Kelsey. The other kids (Jack and Bekah) were feeling a little left out of the spotlight. I can only imagine they won't want to have any part of picture taking in the coming years (eg. teenage school pictures with boys are going to be fun...hah!), but they were sad not to have pictures taken of them. To keep them happy, Mom let them ride Bekah's bike. Shawn came up with this idea...and it made the rest of us laugh!

And Jack wouldn't be outdone by his big sister...so, he had to have a turn too.

Hooray for wheels and little kids! It makes us all have smiley days!

Fruits of our Labors

We have done fairly well with the little garden at the side of our townhome again. This year found new veggies on the vine and a trial for bell peppers. We've done okay with our zucchini. We haven't seen any cucumbers like last year, but those plants got a late start. I guess we should be lucky we got much of anything since Joe was born right when we should have been seeing peas growing in the garden. But the kids have been super excited to see tomatoes, zucchini, and now peppers. We have been blessed!

Now, if only I could get Jack to smile for the picture...

It's Back to School Time!

And here are the kids, all ready for a new school year! Don't they look great in their new uniforms? John's going to be in first grade and Kelsey gets John's class in kindergarten! Mom's looking forward to naptime with only three kids at home! Yippee!

Kelsey did a great job posing for the pictures. Such a pretty girl!

Can you believe she's such a big girl? All ready and excited for kindergarten!

And John's so excited for first grade! He's ready to show off all he's practiced over the summer to his new teacher. Such a good lookin' kid!

Let's get ready to learn!!

Happy Birthday Jack Jack!

Jack Jack's two years old!? We very nearly didn't get any pictures for his birthday this year. We had a small family party on his actual birthday and had chicken decorate cupcakes to celebrate. He called them "ducks" but just about any bird is a "duck" to him. He actually blew out the two candles we put on the cupcake. He wouldn't do it for the larger cake we ordered for Saturday. Ah well. So goes life.

But he was in love with the fishing pole and magnetic fish that went with it. His brother and sisters were in love with the Duplo Lego set that he got. He got to play with all of his toys later, but it was funny to see how possessive he was of his fishing pole.

Happy Birthday, Jack!

Princess Party

Another year and another princess party for my girls. This time, I didn't feel like dressing up. But the girls wouldn't dream of missing THEIR party. So, we pulled out the pretties and went to the grocery store's local tea party. It was fun for the girls to be treated like princesses. They loved the attention. This year, instead of coloring your crown, they had loose "jewels" you could glue in place. I think they enjoyed this craft much better than the crayon version from last year. Happy Princess Day, Kelsey and Bekah!

Wednesday Fun at the Park

So, we had Field Trip Fridays and Duck Park Wednesdays this past summer. Most of the time, we'd pack a lunch and walk a couple blocks to the Paul Ream Wilderness Park just down the road from us. The kids who could ride their bikes/trikes responsibly would go on those "vehicles" while I pulled Jack and Joe in the covered Radio Flyer wagon.

Anyway, the kids loved playing at the park. Jack followed the kids anywhere he could. He would frighten Mommy when he'd climb the taller ladder thingy's and I knew I couldn't get there fast enough to catch him if he fell (it's kinda hard juggling life while feeding Joe).

But they all did great! The kids even stayed away from the high, fast moving river. The water levels were so high, I could see the water splashing over the bank. A bit scary but that's life when there's spring runoff. The only thing that could have made this more perfect were shade sails or trees over the playground. We could have stayed much longer and the sun wouldn't have burnt us so much.

Happy Fourth of July

Happy Freedom Days! We spent Friday morning before the fourth watching hot air balloons inflate and then rise into the sky. The kids were pretty impressed by the amount of fire it took to get the balloons into the air. It was awesome! The wind actually allowed the balloons to go up this year but wasn't cooperating enough to let the balloons play their games. Ah well. I guess you can't have it all.

We had a few "characters" show up this year for the festival. Smokey the Bear (as seen from below) and the pink piggy bank are regular attendees. The Coke bottle showed up after all the balloons had left the field. But the main attraction was the Darth Vader balloon all the way from Belgium. Wow! There were even stormtroopers, Darth Vader, and the Emperor who made their appearance. It was fun!

Speaking of the Coke balloon. It inflates but rarely flies. The crew actually had volunteers from the crowd (preferably those under the age of 12) come roll the air out of the balloon before it got stuffed in the giant bag and put in the trailer. We talked John into helping out with the crew. And before the end of the line, Jack decided to help a little. We got that on video.

All of the kids were pretty good. We all tumbled out of bed and they showed up in their jammies. It was so much fun. Maybe we'll see some of you next year and we can show you around the festivities!