The BIRTHDAY cowgirl!

Birthday wishes: Tower of cookies with a toy on top
Pink, sparkly, cowgirl hat
Tea party set to play "happy birthday" with
A treasure box with silly bands in it to keep jewelery safe
A new play dress
Some more dolls with beautiful dresses

(See my new "anniversary floor"?) But mostly, notice:

the hat, the dress, the tower of cookies, the dress up magnetic dolls, the jewelry box you can see in the background with a purple flower drawer handle, and beneath all that wrapping is a tea set, a wooden play birthday cake, some sillybands, and too much more!

At least she HAS to know that she is LOVED! We adore our fun, energetic, and very dynamic 4-year-old!

the "WATER" party

So the party that started at 3pm, started with a HUGE bang, as in thunder, lightning and BUCKETS of rain! Good thing everyone had come ready to play in the water, because they definitely got drenched...not by the slip n'slide, little pool, or water balloons as we had planned, but you would think that we of all people would have learned NOT to plan things by now!

We had to move the party all into the garage...with every other mess that is piled in there.

But, of course, the kids still LOVED every minute!

On to Better Things.

School is officially out for the summer. YAY! And Makinzie believes she is MUCH more mature now that she is a "second grader."

Her teammates for field day.
Mrs. R said she really hated her digital camera...so she is struglling here with it, but I loved how in the background Bailey and Kinz had their fishing poles catch eachother in the "pond."She might be my most cautious child, but she is still quite competitive. She loved making the other kids not be able to catch the splash ball...

Mrs. R was WONDERFUL, by the way...a perfect 1st grade teacher!

and she also helped her team win every relay race...

I have one shot of the Christmas party (making graham houses).

The only other time I took pictures at school: November's stone soup day.

Truck...Rock...Little Man

So, we borrowed a truck...

To get a LOT of rock like this... (Like 10 times more than I could fit in this picture)

To start making paths...

And do a few other landscaping things...

But then, once all the rock was unloaded, we had to sit in the "Bestest Trucky" one last time, after it was all clean again, because it was "Really Big" and was the "best truck to ride in to go on babentures..." And couldn't daddy please trade Mr. Chris? Because this truck was "way much better than your little car" ...According to our Little Man

Accomplishments

My lack of accomplishment: always being behind on my blogging and always seeming to forget to take pictures when we have visitors...I am just soaking in every moment and then I am sad when they go and I have no great captured moments!
Addellyn and Coleson: These two woke up, and quietly read books together (it even seemed like they enjoyed it). It was a wonderful morning! (notice the boots, ha)

Makinzie: finished spring soccer! And, sadly, had to tell a few more friends good-bye as they move on in life, like Lauren (and the super cute blond boy behind them, whom I LOVE).

Poor girl seems to keep losing good friends faster than she can find new ones...

On a happier note: she is VERY into fashion...what do you think of the shirt/belt/skirt combo and the creative hair piece? She designs it all herself!

When company comes...

We LOVE them and smother them until it's time for them to go home WAY too quickly. The week FLEW by! We had a wonderful, relaxing time: shopping with mom, not having to cook (thanks to dad!), walking through and soaking up the beauty all around us, trying to catch up on a year's worth of conversation, enjoying convenient babysitters for my "all too frequent" trips to the Dr, and just being in our home TOGETHER.
It was SOOO good to see them again. (It's been hard going from seeing them EVERYday, in the same home, to not seeing them for an entire year! Really, really hard.)

Papa, Tank and Ooper jumping from the cement to the grass! You should see our boy jump, HAha!

We spent our last day at the park riding the brand new bike Kinzie picked out and celebrating Nana's birthday (a few weeks early).

The kids LOVED spending quality "reading" time with Nana.

We took a hike to the lake...

Every day that they were here we went on some type of "bAbenture!" according to Coleson. (adventure)

...and then Ty ran back to the car while we played on the playground and waited for him to come pick us up. I guess 1.5 miles was about all the kids could take, ok, and all my "gimpy" body could take, but I like to blame the kids.

Enjoyed the GREAT outdoors

The weather was wonderful. It is so beautiful here!

We did a lot of walking...(we walked ALL over the place throughout the week).

And "ooing"...

And apparently a whole lot of pointing! It was so much fun to walk through the "Old" part of town on an overcast Spring morning.

a LONG awaited arrival!

It was a long day trip to Raleigh...to visit the temple one at a time and then to get our favorite Nana and Papa from the airport.

Good thing the airport had a fun little park to run around in and listen to the control tower. There was a lot of energy to release before the long ride home.

But what we really couldn't figure out is why it was over 90 degrees and 80% humidity in the middle of MAY?!? Oh well, welcome to the South!

Where do they come from?!?

Luckily he no longer wears diapers...yup, he is officiallly a big boy, or, according to him he makes caterpillar shaped bubbles in the potty now...

He ALWAYS is performing, dressing up, or pretending to be some type of fighting animal or character.

But, no matter what, he is ALWAYS in his cowboy boots. Silly kid! (And if my video uploader worked you could have heard the song he was singing into that pink microphone...stinkin' blog!)