"Tea" Party

These pictures are just precious and speak for themselves!






Hannah doing the sign for "water".

A petting zoo at the library

I love all the activities available for the kids during the summer. I love having ALL of my kids with me for fun stuff like this!

Our library had a petting zoo day as a part of their summer reading program. The kids LOVE our library and this was a fun activity.

A thank-you party

A few weeks ago, the kids got their BIG birthday gift. And by BIG, I mean it takes up half of our backyard!! Yep, they got a wooden playset, finally! We were going to buy one new, but when my uncle heard that he offered us his because he's in the process of moving and couldn't take his with him. I figured that was a win-win deal, so we got it!

Chris lined up several friends and a large trailer and spent several hours one Saturday getting it moved. They didn't even take it apart very much--the main two-story section was separated from the tunnel/swing set, and the rock wall, slide, and ladders were removed. It was quite comical watching the guys move that huge two-story structure into our backyard. I wish I had taken pictures. It was too large to go through our gate, so they actually knocked out a section of our fence and tramped through my flower bed (filled with weeds right now, but my daylilies did take a beating) to get it in the backyard.



Isn't it great? So many playtime possibilities, and I am looking forward to locking the kids out of the house this summer and knowing they will not--or should not--get bored! (I'm only half-kidding...) The last couple of weeks our afternoons have been mostly spent in the backyard, and I love hearing the games they come up with, like animal rescuer and police and robbers.

Once we had enjoyed the playset for a couple of weeks, and Chris did some work to get it anchored down, we invited all his helpers and their families over for dinner.


Love this one of my sweet boy!


Some of the sand was still in the sandbox at the end of the evening!


Claire just loves her swings!


The grown-ups had a great time as well.




Chris cooked up some great burgers and dogs. No, he didn't burn them, despite what this picture seems to indicate.




Hannah really enjoyed her dinner! Strawberries, grapes, and goldfish crackers!


The kids played and played until it was dark and they could barely see. Near the end of the evening the came up with a game called "train" or something like that, but I thought it was so cute seeing them all lined up on the playset.






These are the four 5-year-old (soon to be 6!) cousins!


We're looking forward to a summer of fun!

An old post

Just before I started this blog, I attempted to start one on another site. I remembered about it today, and went to delete it, but found this sweet post. I just had to copy it over here.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Indulge me here, I'm going to share a video of my kids. Yesterday afternoon it was cold and rainy, and Aaron asked to paint. Why not? They cracked me up so I broke out the video camera. Aaron had this roller thing (I think it was made to stick down labels, but it was a paint roller to him!). I donned the kids in their smocks (Daddy's undershirts cinched up at the neck with chip clips...ingenious, huh?), and Aaron insisted that he needed his "artist's hat"...which happens to be Daddy's camo cap. He was so serious about his painting, and he told me he was an artist, but Claire was a painter. He also told me he was painting an island. Claire was having a great time with the paints. I wish I had caught the moment after the video finished when she painted her forehead and cheeks. Too cute!



Click this link if the video above doesn't work:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v450/ntaylor/?action=view&current=MVI_0062.flv

Halloween Fun, part II

What we did all in one day on Saturday was enough to wear even the kids out!

After the pumpkin carving and naps for the kids, we got up, got dressed up, and stopped by the gift shop that had sold me the pumpkin. I just had to show them the picture (on my camera screen) and thank them again for their pumpkin!

Then we headed to a double birthday party for a brother and sister. It was lots of fun! We were late because naps had run over, but we had fun nonetheless.

Claire in her princess get-up. She wouldn't wear her unicorn.


Aaron caught in the act...


Me with my little pumpkin, with cold toes because I forgot her socks.




Eating birthday party snacks...


After the party we made a quick stop by the fire station so Aaron could show the real firefighters his super-cool costume.


Finally, we picked up Daddy (who had been hunting and then at his dad's building the zip line!) and headed to a Halloween party with Allie Rae.


They got to do a neighborhood hayride/trick-or-treat, which was so fun! My kids had not done any real trick-or-treating, except for a few houses last year right around our house, so this was so fun for them! They ran and ran and ran from house to house. The squeals of delight just kept me smiling.






One of the sweet ladies who was just riding along volunteered to hold Hannah for me so I could enjoy the evening with the kids...


These next two pictures are at Ellen's house. We got to church with them, and Ellen gave the kids BIG candy bars and told them "These make grown-ups sick." Thanks Ellen!





After that house, Claire and Allie Rae announced that they had one more house and then they were DONE! I knew the kids were wiped out, so we loaded up and came home to inspect our loot and go to bed. Thank goodness for the extra hour we got Saturday night thanks to the time change! We certainly needed it!

And here's all the pictures, if you're interested!

Halloween Fun!

We had the best Halloween ever this year!

Chris was hunting so I had the kids by myself most of the day. We started out with a yummy homemade whole-wheat blueberry waffle breakfast. I love doing big breakfast on Saturday!

Then we headed out in search of the perfect pumpkins. I don't know why I had not bought pumpkins already...but I learned my lesson this year. Do not wait until Halloween day to buy one. The first pumpkin stand we went to had smaller pumpkins, good for carving, but NOT big enough to put Hannah in. And that was the priority. I bought two of the smaller pumpkins, and headed to two more stands looking for large pumpkins. All the other stands were OUT of pumpkins! I couldn't believe it. I started to panic--what if I couldn't get the all-important pumpkin picture with Hannah, like I did with the first two children? That would be a travesty!! I already feel guilty enough about not doing stuff for my 3rd child!

I drove through our Old Towne area to see if the farmer's market was there, although I knew it wouldn't be. I just didn't know what else to do. When I drove by Old Towne Gifts, which is owned/run by my friend Stephanie, I saw two large pumpkins, either one perfect for my picture! I worked up my nerve and went inside. I introduced myself to Stephanie's boyfriend, and told him my dilemma. I offered him $20 plus the two smaller pumpkins I had bought earlier in the day in exchange for one of his big pumpkins. Thankfully, he took my offer! He wanted me to bring the picture by later--he said they might like to use it in an ad or something! Wow! I went back to the first pumpkin stand and bought two more carving pumpkins, and we headed home.

We put Hannah down for a nap, and started to work on our pumpkins. Aaron drew how he wanted his face to look (he was specific about having a trapezoid nose), and Claire wanted to copy her pumpkin bucket.


We started gutting the pumpkins. Aaron really liked the pumpkin guts. Claire wouldn't touch them with her hands--only the spoon.


Aaron got to the point where we had to tell him over and over to STOP with the guts already. He kept putting them back into the pumpkins...driving me nuts in the process!




Then we started drawing our designs and cutting...


Mom was there, so we actually got a picture of me!


The finished pumpkins!


When Hannah woke up from her nap, she ate and got happy, and it was time for her to get in her pumpkin! We had to try a couple of times, but I finally got her legs folded comfortably and she sat and looked around. A couple of times she smiled, and I got the best picture ever!


That was so worth the $27 pumpkin!

She tasted it, too.


And the rest of the day will have to be another post! This one is too long already!