This picture reminds me of being a kid. When I was little I used to play under our kitchen table ALL the time. It had a ledge that went from one side of the table to the other and I used to line up my Little People under there and play for hours.

With school right around the corner I figure it's time I start working with Blake ....and Claire. Andrew was sick all last week so I figured why not start since we were couped up in the house!

Dot letter A.
Claire was proud of her work!
Making the A with marshmallows.
Claire worked on stacking them. She was concentrating hard and would get mad when it would fall over!! (temper like her Daddy! ha!)

Can't believe our summer is almost over! It has really gone by too fast! I have to remind myself this is my last year with Blake home. :( CRAZY!!

porch fun

It was a pretty nice day today, so I had the kids eat lunch on the porch. I love when the kids can eat outside. I don't have to sweep under the table!!

Afterwards I took some pics for fun.

Andrew didn't want his picture taken. He was too busy playing his iPod.

Claire was stalking our neighbor who was out playing with his dog.

Claire-bearplaying peek-a-boo!

Not sure what is so funny!!

Blakersplaying hard I'm definitely enjoying these nice summer days. Next week we can see mid 90's so we are soaking up the low 80's while we can!

the big 6!

I can't believe it's been 6 years!!

Oh how my life has changed in those 6 years. I remember when I thought having one child was a lot of work. HA!

I can't believe how much Andrew has grown and matured over these 6 years! It's gone by fast. He's always been a tender hearted little boy who definitely wears his heart on his sleeve. I'm so glad God has blessed us with this spunky little boy and I can't wait to see how he will grow into a young man.

We love you, Andrew!! HaPpY BiRtHdAy!!!

blake's camp

This summer I signed Blake up for some special day camps at a preschool. It wasn't at the preschool he went to so I was a little worried he wouldn't enjoy it or would be scared, but he did fine. Here's some pics from each day.

Pirate Day

Dinosaur Day

Toy Story Day
Thomas and Friends Day

He had a lot of fun going on treasure hunts, tracking dinosaur tracks, riding Bullseye, and crashing like trains. I asked him which day was his favorite and he said all of them!! I will definitely be signing him up again next summer!!!

almost 6!!

Tuesday night we celebrated Andrew's birthday with some friends. For years now he's been wanting to have a party somewhere besides the house. :) We told him when he was in Kindergarten we would grant that wish. So, he invited 20 friends and we all went to P.E. 101.

We had a few more kids show up than I expected. I was only thinking we'd have 14 kids and brought 17 cupcakes that I made thinking some of the adults would have some too. I was wrong. We had a total of 19 kids so Matt ran during the party and got some cupcakes from Target. They weren't nearly as awesome as mine were, but they did the job!

I tried to take a group picture, but some of the kids wouldn't get in.

My neighbor came and kept Claire out of harms (all those boys) way. She had so much fun jumping on the trampoline!

Andrew picked a sports theme for his party. I was thinking he was going to want something like Super Mario or fish, but he chose sports. Once we got home and Claire to bed, we opened up all the gifts. He was SOOO excited. I'm pretty sure he just wanted a big party to get lots of gifts. ;)
I will say the kids had fun and were wild! I was glad that I didn't have it at my house!!!

Anyway, Andrew had fun and is so excited for his actual birthday!

Can't believe he's almost 6!

t-ball boy

Andrew just finished up his first season of t-ball. We got rained out a lot this season, but he learned a lot and definitely came a long way! I was a little worried he was going to get hurt! I'm pretty sure I'll never let him play football! I was so proud of him because he was not one of those kids diggin in the dirt or talking to his friends. He tried his best to pay attention to what was going on. I probably scared him when I said if he didn't always keep his eye on the ball he was going to get hit! I know, I'm mean, but it could happen!! He was so funny because ANYtime he would make a good play he would look at us and give us a big thumbs up!! He was so proud of himself...and we were proud him!

Here he is playing first base.

His favorite part was getting a medal at the end of the season!! It will be interesting to see what sport he sticks with as he gets older!!

While the boys were at VBS last week I took Claire outside to try and get some pics of our flowerbed out front for my dad. When we moved in, there was a pond there and we immediately pulled it out. I didn't like it with little ones. We decided not to plant anything because winter was right around the corner. My dad came down in May and I figured that was the perfect job for his ADD self. :) He did a great job and the flowers are blooming!

Claire wouldn't get out of the way. Papa let her walk around in there while he was planting and she still thinks she can romp around in there!! Thanks, Dad!

I decided to try and get some decent pictures of Claire.She only sat for a second....
and was constantly on the go.

The pink flip flops are a must have with EVERY outfit these days....even if they don't match...but I don't fight it.

randomness

Here's some random pictures from my phone and camera. I could probably do a post for each one, but I don't have the time or energy!! Hence the random post!!

I sent Matt to the store to buy two pools. A rectangle one for the slide and one for Claire to play in. This is what he came home with. The kids love it. It's actually been too chilly some days to use it! Crazy!

Claire came out of her room all frustrated the other day. She was trying HARD to get this diaper on her baby! She loves her babies....loves to feed them, hug them, tuck them in their bed, push them in their stroller and now I guess she's into changing their diapers. Last week we painted her toes. Well, I was painting mine and she wanted hers done. Then when I was painting my fingernails she wanted me to paint hers too. I wasn't about to go there.

I loves those chubby feet!

The other night we went to check on the boys after they went to bed and this is how we found Blakers. Crazy kid. The last couple of days he's been running around with his mask and cape on saying he's an Incredible.
Movie night is always fun with popcorn and M&M's!! Andrew's the only one who eats the popcorn! I think this movie was Super Mario.Matt's been taking the boys fishing quite a bit lately. They caught a lot of fish the last time they went and were finally okay with bringing them home to eat. Of course, the only person who ate them was Matt. :)

And this pic of the clouds is from a storm that blew through the other night. The sirens went off and everything, but after I woke Claire up I realized the sirens went off because the wind was more than 75 mph. Oh well, we just call it our little practice run!!

cruise '11

At the end of May we headed down to Mobile, AL to go on a cruise with my family. This was a gift my parents gave to us last Christmas. We all were anxious for the big day!!!

It was a 5 night cruise with two stops. We went to Cozumel and Playa del Carmen. I was worried someone would get seasick, but thankfully that never happened.

The boat on the right is the one we were on....Carnival Elation.

One of the pool areas. The cruise had a camp for kids 2 and up that was free. They had all sorts of activities and the boys enjoyed it. I thought with their cousins there they wouldn't want to go, but they didn't mind. They really only went in the mornings for 2 hours. They made t-shirts, crafts, played video games on free play day (the boys loved this) and even watched a movie.

Claire was too young to go every day with them. On days of excursions she was allowed to go at the same time, but we would have had to pay for her and on days at sea she could go before 10. She went a couple of times. She was a little nervous at first, but did fine.

There was a lot to do on the ship and a lot of stuff going on in the evenings, but I usually called it a night early with Claire. My parent's had a room right next door so a few nights I'd sit in there and watch tv while she went to sleep. I had a video monitor so I felt okay leaving her.

We tried hard to get a decent family picture, but it wasn't easy!!!

Here's a picture of my lovely parent! Our first stop was Cozumel. Matt and I didn't get off the boat right away when we docked like EVERYONE else did. It was kind of nice. I felt like we had the whole boat to ourselves. Since that day we were docked all the kids could go to the camp at the same time. We sent them all and relaxed by the pool!! That afternoon Matt and I left the kids with my family and went to check out the shops. Our next stop was Playa del Carmen. This day we went out on an excursion with the boys while my parents and sister kept Claire. I have lots of pics from this day, but don't feel like uploading them. Anyway, we went to a fun beach area with my sister and her family.
The boys had fun in and out of the water...


and playing with Daddy.

I will say the best part of the trip....aside from the help from family and the BEAUTIFUL water...I definitely enjoyed not having to cook or clean for the week!!

We had a great time and enjoyed being with family. Hopefully it won't be too long before we go on another one!!!