May 2014

It sounds repetitive, but just when I think we can't get busier, or have any more fun, we have a month like this one. It was knock it out of the ball park fantastic. Every single day.

So many big events this month, and they will each have their own post. But this here is for all of the rest of those brilliant moments we had. With end of Kindergarten activities like Olympics, day at the park and Graduation school was super fun. And tee ball of course. And Brad's last day and the first lake trip of the summer. And Big Daddy Brad's birthday celebration. And garden planting, and pond fishing, and flower planting. Every single moment was great.

 

We'll start off with an obligatory "tichin" pic because it's EVERY.SINGLE.DAY.

 

We had a few nights of fishin' with friends and without. This particular night was with Christian and Ray who completely rock.

Mom and Dad's house totally rotted and had to be worked on for many, many weeks. It was crazy. But she added a roof on the back porch and everything looks so good now.

 

Ben's 3rd tooth got loose and fell out. It was a top one though and I was so nervous that he was gonna look completely different. These are the last pics of him before it fell out. My adorable handsome boy.

We tagged along with Ben's grade when they went to tour their new elementary school. Crazily, it's the very same school that me AND my dad went to for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade!!! It was an emotional morning walking those halls with my little man. Same library, same cafeteria, same 1st grade hallway. It's really, really cool. Here Ben and his friends (and Des and G as tag-alongs) are checking out their new playground!



 

We made our second round of garden markers...

 

We were invited to the most beautiful birthday celebration I've ever seen. Tiffany and Carrie went all out for Adam and Trent's surprise birthday dinner. I felt like I had jumped into the pages of Southern Living magazine and loved every minute. It was a gorgeous evening with fun friends, delicious food, and ambiance to die for.

 

 

This girl realized that painting isn't the only fun way to create and draw. She fell in love with markers and coloring books and started to create daily masterpieces.

G. and Des played dress up...

 

She still loves driving her car.

 

 

The weekend before his Kindergarten Graduation, that top tooth wiggled it's way out!

Another night of fishin' on the farm...

 

G. playing at the park with her big brother's class. They were OBSESSED with her and not just the girls. Those kids pushed her in the swing and helped her down the slide. I'm pretty sure she climbed in here to hideaway from all the attention!

 

 

Papa took me and his boys to see the Pokes play in the BIG12 baseball tournament. It was hot, but it was amazing...even if Des got a fever on the drive up and slept the entire game in my sweaty, sweaty arms!

Such a fun month!

Flamenco Girl

I know you've seen this but GAWSH. Check out my gg wearing her authentic Flamenco gear all the way from Spain. Waaaaayyy back when Brad and I were traveling the world in 2005, we made friends with the most wonderful people in Cortegana Spain. We haven't seen them since, but Susie does wonders at keeping in touch. She sent this when she found out we were having a girl. Then the package was lost and she sent another!!!! She is amazing. G finally fits into the gown and we had a blast dancing away the other day in the full get-up, accessories, high heels and all!!!

Halloween.

Wednesday, October 30th

We woke to POURING rain and it continued to just downpour all day long. Our back yard had two full rivers running down on either side of the house and two geysers that were shooting water into the air from the water running into rocks. It was crazy!

Des had been really upset about our family costume idea for awhile. He realllllly wanted to be Mario and well, it just didn't fit into our theme. Once he found out that he could dress up as Mario on Wednesday and do trick or treating at the library, he was totally fine. So, he was Mario and G. was a little pumpkin, princessy, cute halloween outfit girl. (That's a thing right?)

Grady and Graham came over, braving the rain, to borrow some last minute costumes and we headed to Storytime.

The library did a great job. One of my high school friends read the stories and did a great job keeping the kids entertained. They handed out plastic pumpkins already 1/2 full of goodies and then we "trick or treated" a few stops around the library until our pumpkins were full! Then there were cupcakes and balloons. It was perfect.

Here's Des and G. getting ready to go. They were so excited!

Graham picked out a football player costume in his continued efforts to court G.

Our trick-or-treaters!

Then it continued to rain all day long so Des just sat inside and ate that candy non-stop. Ben was a little jealous when he heard we got to go without him but his siblings happily shared their goodies with him. 

Thursday, October 31st

The most perfect Halloween ever. We woke up to Ben in our bed telling us that his bottom tooth was loose...and it was! AAH! Then I made everyone pumpkin and ghost shaped french toast and eggs and milk with orange sprinkles.

We are a group of misfits in the morning...

Then after dropping Ben off in his Buzz lightyear costume at school, we went to teach yoga. Des was dressed up in his favorite OSU football player gear and G. was back in that adorable pumpkin outfit. Ms. Gene (the childcare watch lady) had planned a special party for the babes and they celebrated with cookies and punch and bags of treats! We headed home happy and sweet and got ready for the party at Ben's school. They had a parade of costumes at 8:30 which we missed, but we were able to make it to their 12:30 party. We brought a little veggie tray to balance out all that sugar. (Needless to say, it wasn't the most popular item at the party! But at least it looked cute.)

The party mainly consisted of a bunch of parents distributing treats to all the kids and seeing them get excited! They did play pin the nose on the jack-o-lantern...and all raced to see who could finish their bottle of water first when Mrs. Moreno offered an extra sticker. :)

There were enough cupcakes for these two. Please notice the icing...

 Ben looking studly...

There were lots of chairs for G. to sit in...and lots of open cups of paint for her to find!

The kids were about to play some more games but I checked Ben out so that we could get home and get ready for Trick or Treat on Main Street! 

Mom and Dad left this morning for Las Vegas, so I promised Dad I would help hand out candy at his office. I had made our costumes from a bunch of thrift store sweatshirts and hot glue. I think I spent about $30 total and most of that was the 2 feather boas I had to order for the chicken. I love making our costumes and I love dressing up as a group. It's so much fun for me. So, here we are...

Farmer Brad and his Barnyard Crew.

We didn't have anyone take a group photo! AACK! And this is the only one I have so far with me in it. :)

 Aren't they adorable!?!?

No one is smiling here, but they loved their costumes! It was so fun getting ready and they were fighting over who got to get dressed first! Everything is just glued together so by the end of the night we were literally falling apart leaving traces of cotton and feathers and stuffing all over downtown. 

We got to Papa's office like an hour early because we were so excited. We made a short lap, getting tons of more candy and cut across the street because Ben saw Collin. We handed out TONS and TONS of candy to some awesome costumed kids. There were so many people there and Ben kept track of how many kids he saw that he knew. :) Brad handed out candy next to us with his SSC Business Club and then went inside when they ran out to corral his crew. 

At 5:30 we crossed the street to compete in the costume contest and WE WON FIRST PLACE! 

During the judging, Ben was so, so nervous and Des kept asking, "Did we lose?" so I kept them distracted by making them make their animal's sound. It was hilarious. They were all so excited when we one. And G. just kept that piggy nose on almost all afternoon. She loved the attention she was getting!!!

(They took a picture of us as the winning group so maybe I can get a copy of that!)

We came home to hot beans and garlic bread, put G. to bed and carved pumpkins with the boys on the back porch. During dinner Ben said, "Mama. Thank you for coming up with those costumes. That was so fun." Then this morning, Des said, "Mama! That was the best halloween! I had so much fun!"

I DID TOO.