Summer Fun

We have been spending ALOT of time at our neighborhood pool this year! It is so nice to have a pool right around the corner and we are usually the only ones there unless we call some neighbors to meet up with. The kids are all getting to be very good swimmers too! We try to head over after morning chores are done and I love that it wears the kids out. Then its home for lunch, Paige takes a nap and the boys watch a movie, play games or work on projects. We throw in a few visits to the library, PetsMart, Target, etc to change things up a bit, but this has roughly been our summer routine. I have to admit, it has been nice to have a break from school and have the kids home each day.

Off to the pool....again!
Last week we were over at Matt and Ashley's for dinner and we had hot dogs and corn on the cob, so this is Clark's combination of the two... he stuck the corn holders into his hot dog! Funny kid!

Our neighbors had a really fun birthday party on Saturday with water slides, pizza, cotton candy, sno cones, THE WORKS! I even went down the slides a few times and it's even more fun than it looks! And you definitely can't go wrong with freshly made cotton candy.....yummy!

It's BIRTHDAY TIME!!!!

I would like to wish my sweeetheart a very Happy Birthday. Jana, I love you so much!!! Not only are you my best friend but you are the love of my life. You mean everything to me, so on this your 29th birthday, I would like to wish you a Very Happy Birthday!!! big kiss, big kiss, little hug, big hug, little hug, little kiss!!!!

Love forever,

Byron

Happy Birthday!

Somehow all our kids birthdays landed in the same week, so the first week of June ends up feeling a little like Christmas at our house. It is so much fun and I love that we can cover it all with one big party! On Sunday we had all our family over for dinner and cake and ice cream. We ended up going with having pizza on the grill for dinner, which turned out very yummy. Then we decided to make a special birthday cake for each of the kids. Thank goodness I have a creative husband! He helped a lot with the cakes, and once we figured out what to do, they really weren't that hard to create either.

The Birthday Kids

Clark (4), Benson (6), Paige (2)Benson's Indiana Jones cake...

complete with snakes, a jeep, and even a guy stuck in a sand trap.

Go Indy!! Clark's Race Car Cake...

fruit roll up flames and chocolate donut tires, all of his favorites!Paige fell in love with her princess cake (it's actually strawberry ice cream that I carved, covered with pink cool whip and then stuck a Barbie doll into...super easy, but super cute!)

Here are some of the boys' presents....$1 squirt guns make any kid happy, right!?Benson (and a few of his uncles) hit all the wiffle balls over the fence, so we got a new stash of balls to hit!Clark got a new basketball so he is be happy to have a ball that actually bounces and holds air! (His other one is flat!)

Fun with our cousins!!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my wonderful children!

You each make me so happy in your own unique way and

I am so proud to be your mom!

Pool Party

We have a great neighborhood with tons of kids on our street, so what better (and easier) way to throw a party than meet at the pool for hot dogs and cupcakes?!

The Reptile Guy

Last week we had the Spencer kids for a night while Loren and Claire enjoyed his graduation festivities. WAY TO GO LOREN!! It was the day of the reptile show that the library puts on each year and I've had it on my calendar for a while, so I decided to be brave and load up all the kids and go. Byron was kind enough to take Paige on some errands for work while I took the 5 boys! I know, I'm crazy but I saw this show last year and knew they would love it. There are lots of snakes and huge lizards, even one with a blue tongue. And for the grand finale they bring out an albino python that eats pigs for lunch! Crazy! The kids even got to touch the python after the show! Here are some shots of all the boys...Benson and BriggClark and Tyden (aka Tiny!)JaxonOops! He got stuck in the fold up chairs!

Here we are waiting to touch the python!

Paige's Birthday

Here is our little girl on her big day! She loved opening her presents and especially loved that most of them were PINK! It is so fun having a girl and she is at such a fun age right now!
Here she is testing out her new toy princess camera. Notice the fancy shoes she is wearing. She hardly took them off the rest of the day!Nothing like bangle bracelets to make a girl feel pretty! Her big present this year was a princess scooter. She is always trying to ride the boys' scooters, so we thought she'd really love this. Now she just needs to learn how to ride herself and not just stand on it and be pushed around by her brothers! The whole gang!

For Paige's birthday dinner we made homemade pizzas out on the grill. It was an experiment, but they turned out awesome! I wasn't about to heat up my oven to 500 degrees in the middle of summer, so we gave it a try. They were so good that I think we will make them again and do a build-your-own pizza on Sunday when the whole fam comes over for dinner. Yum!

Last Day of School

SCHOOL'S OUT FOR SUMMER!!Last week the kindergarteners did a big end of the year program for all the families. Thanks to our awesome grandparents for coming out for Benson! The program was wonderful! We could really tell that a lot of hard work and practicing was put into this and I was amazed at how well the kids all performed. There were about 7 classes of kindergarteners up on these risers and each one knew the words and actions perfect. It was so enjoyable to watch! My mom even brought her now famous graduation light up baton to wave at Benson after the program. Luckily there was no jumping and yelling like at Tyson's graduation!

Here are Clark and Paige after the kindergarten program. Clark is wearing his tye die shirt that we made for the last day of preschool. They were really fun to make and turned out so cute!

Paige is such a little tease! Isn't she adorable?!

Benson and I thought that buzzing his head after the last day of school would be a fun way to kick off the summer! Maybe it will become a new family tradition!

Of course, we had to shave the sides first and do the mohawk. Then we buzzed the rest off for a nice and easy summer haircut!

HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!!

Happy Birthday Paige!

Well, birthday week has officially begun at our house. Today was Paige's 2nd birthday. We are so blessed to have the sweet feminine touch she brings to our family. Although she is tough and can hold her own when it comes to playing with the boys, she also loves shoes, purses, makeup and all the other fun pink girly stuff. The boys are really sweet with her and she really does bring out a tender side in all of us. We are so glad that Paige came into our family! Happy Birthday Paige, Sugarface, Princess, Cookie, Paigie Pie! We Love You!!