Father's Day 2012

 

 

For Father's Day I decided to do something that I had seen on Pinterest. I love the ideas that I find on Pinterest but it makes me lazy about coming up with my own........ :) The kids thought it was pretty fun and the bigger ones loved writing their own messages and posing. Caleb was happy for 1 shot - it turned out blurry - he was not happy when I tried to get him to sit for one more :) They decorated all around the steps of the school while they waited for me to be done. Overall it was a success and they got to picnic at the park afterwards. Matt said he needed some more pics for his office at work - I hope this works!!

Catching fireflies

 

I think I've said before that one of the coolest things about living in the East are the fireflies :) They come out when the weather starts to get really warm and doesn't cool off very much at night - so June/July. They come out just before dark so the kids have to stay up late to go out to catch them. We only do it a couple of times but they love it. Hailey can even catch them this year. She was pretty happy about that. We caught about 15 before letting them go and heading in to bed about 9:30 pm!

WOW

 

Hailey went over to play with the little girl next door and came home with this fancy face :) She thought she looked great and she was so proud of her friend for helping her out with her make up.

2 Caleb 2

 

Whew! The baby is not much of a baby anymore! It's so hard yet so fun to watch them grow up. I miss the ages they were but love the ages they are at. He LOVED that it was his birthday. We had decorated a little with streamers but he didn't catch on until we started singing happy birthday to him. He got all excited when he realized it and tried to blow out the candles right away. When we we were on vacation in TN last month he loved seeing the helicopters flying overhead all the time so I thought I would try to make him a helicopter cake. I searched around online but didn't find a good, simple design...... so, I came up with my own :) It turned out really well and was easy to do. Those are my favorites. He loved opening his presents. His eyes lit up when he pulled the blanket off of that little bike. He also got an umbrella (our kids love those), a bat and ball, an airplane set that came with a drill to take it apart and put it back together, and a paper guitar. This little guy is so fun and so full of personality. He is starting to talk a lot more. Well enough that I can understand him most of the time :) It will take a little while before most people catch on though. He loves to play ball of any kind, and loves balloons and nerf guns. One of the chores the kids can chose to do is play with Caleb for 15-20 min. Jackson will chose that one fairly often and does very, very well with Caleb. They both love it! He is still a Momma's boy and will cry/scream when I leave him behind. He gets over it fairly quickly now though :) He doesn't play all that well on his own because he wants to be with me all the time. If I disappear it only takes a minute before he starts to yell "Mom? You?" (Mom, where are you?) I will call back from whereever I am and he responds "Oh" and comes to find me. He runs, jumps on the trampoline, jumps off the diving board, climbs all over everything and when he wants something he just gets it himself...... snack, juice, scissors, markers..... yeah, it's not always a good thing.

my birthday

 

Here is my birthday pic - with Jackson as the photographer I think. I chose a cheesecake sampler. It was very good. All the kids love cheesecake too. It was good practice for Caleb since his birthday was just a few days later :)

Enjoying the deck..... in progress.

 

You can see these guys enjoying the deck already :) Ok - maybe that's just a few boards we pushed over to the door so they could go in and out.....

Deck in progress

 

These are from a few weeks ago. We have made a little more progress since then but it's not done yet..... but it is coming along nicely. It will be awesome when it's done! There is a picture of the kids enjoying their newest playspace.... Matt doesn't like that at all :) My garden is growing nicely now. Matt and I built those garden boxes to attempt a small garden this year. I just wanted to take a picture of the swings and things with all the trees so we remember what it looks like when we move. I will miss some things.... shade trees being among them. Many MANY black gnats?? Definitely will not be missed!!

Super

 

Not sure this picture even needs an explanation..... except to tell you that it's Maggie in the Spiderman costume :)

Art show

 

Towards the end of the school year - Maggie and Jackson had an art show open house. It was held in the gym, very casual but the kids were very, VERY excited to see their artwork on display. Jackson pointed out his and a few others then he was off to run crazy with Hailey and Caleb (our kids run crazy in any large indoor space.... ). Maggie pointed out hers and then wanted a picture with every. single. piece. made by someone she knew. We now have a lot of pictures of artwork made by her friends :)

Oh what a mess

 

As I was sewing that cute pennant flag decoration..... Caleb was happily playing by himself. Since this is pretty rare I took advantage of the time to finish my project. I could hear him running all over the place upstairs but he wasn't fussing at my legs for attention so I kept going. When I brought it upstairs to hang it up I saw what had kept him so very entertained..... dog food EVERYWHERE! He had happily spread it all over the place! Not sure if finishing my project was worth having to clean up this mess afterwards......actually, it kept him busy and I've cleaned up much, much worse :) I plan on sewing a similar flag banner for a 4th of July decoration. I wonder what Caleb will find to do then???

Hailey and I

 

Hailey had to take in a picture for a Mothers Day project at preschool. This is what she got :)

Caleb and Hailey

 

Now that Caleb is getting a little older he and Hailey play quite a bit more. He especially loves rough and tumble boy play :) It's pretty fun to watch them play and bond. Now that summer break has started all 4 will be able to play together a lot more. Usually the two neighbor girls are in on the action too. I am very glad that we have a backyard for them to burn off energy in!! They still like to dig out the skates occasionally and go around the house. Caleb still needs help but he thinks it makes him big so he loves doing it.