the last five months-july

in july, we did stuff. some memorable, some not so much. 

july 3rd at prairie meadows waiting for the firework display. someone also discovered her nostrils. 

introducing the littles to 'snakes'. 

we celebrated adam's niece's wedding, two days after we celebrated our 4th anniversary. 

the daughters of four of the original neighbor girls. these four are all within four months of each other. 

ellie, nov. mckenna, dec.  brynlee, feb. zoey, march

the kids took swim lessons. they loved it. the bottom picture is distorted if i make it bigger, but im sure you get it. 

we met some friends at the pool one afternoon and then headed to have froyo afterwards. 

we attended camryn's first annual christmas in july toy drive. 

practicing for saturday night live. an old tradition that my parents and their neighbors did when i was young. now when all the 'kids' are in town, we all partake as our littles run and play like we used to. 

the past five months-may

i've blogged a bit since may, but not nearly enough to keep updated with all that we did or happened. i will {attempt} to get caught up. no promises this time, but i already have two scheduled, so i'm already making progress. i'll start with May and work my way to the current happenings in our lives.

MAY

fletcher had his last speech session of the 2011-2012 school year. we also found out that ms. diane2 would be leaving us and that we would be getting a new SLP. i did not do well with this info, and actually shed a few tears over the news. 

happy mother's day from the hubby and the kids. adam made me this garden box that i've been wanting for the last three years. 

my sister and i decided to take an eight hour (one way) trip to minnesota for our cousins graduation party, with five kids, 5 years and younger. we got some strange looks, but we had fun and the kids were pretty good, most of the time. 

the kids did a lot of playing. 

and one final thing to note, daycare boy had his last day here on may 17th. it was nice having him, but it's nice to just have my kids to worry about and be able to go and do what i want, when i want. 

wordless wednesday-mommy photographer

fletch's birthday party

three weeks ago tomorrow, we had fletcher's birthday party. we invited family and a few friends to help us celebrate.

this was a morning party so everyone could make it, and we were trying to avoid naptime meltdowns as well. since most everyone had to drive at least 30 minutes, i did breakfast food to enjoy. egg bakes, french toast bake, fruit, sausage, hashbrowns, and bagels with cream cheese. i was nervous that there wasn't going to be a good variety or enough, but there was enough that adam and i had leftovers for a few days.

i had the dr. seuss theme planned for a good three months prior. i had these great visions, but i should know by now that not everything i dream up in my head will happen or is even realistic. the table clothes, paper plates and balloons were enough of the seuss theme that made me happy, but there was more that i wanted to do. we did have mimosas though, that vision was one of the most important that i followed through with.

my boy is spoiled by the ones that love him. he got so many great gifts, he goes from one activity to the next like he has a 2 minute attention span.

adam and i got him his very own set of wheels. i missed his first reaction because the camera was being stupid, but he loves it. he talks about, 'me tuck' all the time and he even wants to take his sister for a ride. she suffers from mild cases of whiplash after she's done riding with him (he's not a very good driver yet).

my mohter-in-law made the cat in the hat cake and i made the flags to go in the cupcakes. she did a great job on the cake. this year fletcher understood to blow out the candles and he even thought he needed to take a bite out of the cake.

  fletcher gave all his cousins/friends a dr. seuss book for coming to his party and helping us celebrate.

aside from the crappy weather, getting started 30 minutes late and my visions not coming through for me, it was a pretty good party. there was laughing, chatting and smiles~that's what a 3rd birthday is really about. 

one final thing i'm very excited about is that i have a new, updated family picture from that day. please look past the wrinkled sheet that was covering our canned goods and used as a backdrop. and because my kids can only cooperate for a few short minutes, the second was taken to show how they really feel about family photos.

the rest of easter weekend

the friday before easter, we had stayed with my parents since we wouldn't be seeing them on easter. they had baskets for the kids and had plans to do a little easter egg hunt but the weather was rainy and cold so my mom scratched that idea. once it had stopped raining, i figured we could do a little one along the sidewalk, so i headed out and placed the eggs for fletcher to find them.

 we've got a peeker

adam and my parents came out with the kids and fletcher knew exactly what to do. brynlee looked cute holding her basket while her brother put the pink and purple eggs in for her. she attempted to get a couple eggs, but she ended up falling over. 

 and they're off

 what a good brother

 he found another egg

\

trying out the egg hunt thing

after fletcher checked out the loot, we loaded up and headed out.

sunday morning, i took my grandparents to church at 8am and adam stayed with the kids. when i arrived back to the house, i asked fletcher if the easter bunny had come. he wasn't quite sure, so i had to coax him into the kitchen to prove to him he had been there.

 i think he appreciated what was left...especially the cadbury creme eggs. the bubble gun was a close contender.  however, sister was NOT a fan of the bunny ears.

we were meeting the rest of the mick clan at 12:30 for lunch, so before we headed there, we stopped by my grandparents' house to visit with them a bit and so they could see the kids. my grandparents are such troopers. anything to make my kids smile.

grandma doesn't seem too amused 

when we got to benton place for lunch, everyone was there and was ready to eat. we loaded plates with all the yummy food and we sat in good company. it was pretty low-key, but it was relaxing and we were around family. fletcher sat with aunt jenni and before i could look over, he was asleep. he stayed that way until we left. brynlee on the other hand, was all over the place and made the rounds. 

aunt jenni was a good pillow

making faces with cousin jake

playing with cousin eli

rolling on the floor with pops

gg glo and uncle dave think i'm cute

that's it. a long, fun, eventful easter weekend filled with family. hope yours was just as fun.