Birthday Fun!

Today we had Cade's birthday party. It's so hard to believe that he is really 5! The kids seemed to really have a good time. There were close to 20 kiddos there. They all enjoyed the party jumper a lot. Cade has some great friends (and family) and almost all of those that we invited were able to come! He had a great day!! He (and Chance) are at the moment playing with his cool presents. Here are a few pictures of the day. I didn't get to take as many pictures as I would have liked. It's hard to get that many kids to stop long enough to take a picture!! That's okay.
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I made a Scooby Doo cake for his birthday!
The party jumper was a big hit! He got so many great gifts!

Happy Birthday Cade!

Today is Cade's 5th birthday!! Wow..how time goes by! Cade got to eat breakfast on our birthday plate this morning. We will be going to pizza hut tonight for supper because that's what the birthday boy wants. We will have his birthday party Saturday so I'll post about that then!

Theme-Black and White

Here is my entry for the week. This was Chance watching the fireworks this past July. If you want to enter a picture go to iheartfaces.

Indoor Relay Races

It's been very cold the past 2 days...too cold for me to take the kids outside. Today we spent some of our time indoors having relay races. We did this a couple of weeks ago and the kids really had fun with it so we decided to do it again today. Today our relays included the pillow case race, crab walk, jumping on one foot, etc. They had fun for a little while until my two big boys started arguing because they each wanted to do different races and didn't want to do what the other wanted. I finally had to call it quits and move on to something else. it was fun while it lasted though. Cooper even likes to get in on the the pillow case race but has some trouble keeping his pillow case in place! He stays mad the whole time because it just doesn't work like he thinks it should. I figure in another year or so he'll be right in there with the big boys!!

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Valentine's Week Fun!

This week we've had fun doing several Valentine's Day activities! My collages are all different sizes..sorry about that! Just click on them to see the images enlarged!
The boys helped make heart shaped Rice Krispy treats one day. The girls got to cut a heart shaped treat too.

One day we dyed noodles red and then glued them on a heart the next day.

A few of our other activites included Valentine butterflies, white chocolate covered pretzels with red sprinkles (that was nice and messy!), and Valentine hugs! I found the cute poem on-line.

This activity was not done by us but was given to us by Cassidy and Claire. I thought it was too cute not to share. The idea came from FamilyFun.com. The rocket is made with a roll of Rolo's and a Hershey's kiss for the tip.

Isn't she just precious!!!!

Last night I met my newest niece for the first time. Matilyn is 6 months old now but because my little brother Matt and his wife Katy live in upper Michigan we haven't seen them in a year or more. We all met at my sister Amanda's house and ate a great supper and enjoyed little "Mattie" for a while. She was just adorable and loved me as soon as I walked in the door!!! Okay I'll admit it was really my necklace she loved! I hate that we live so far apart! Makes me sad to think that the next time I see her she'll be walking around and probably talking! So sad! I'm so thankful we were able to spend some time with them last night! Thanks Amanda for the great supper!!

Theme-Silly

This weeks theme at ilovefaces is silly. Here is my entry. This was taken of Cade last summer. Go visit the link if you want to enter a picture or just see all of the great pictures!!

A Trip to the Webkinz Zoo!!!

Last night we enjoyed spending time with our great friends Mark and Stephanie and their kids Parker and Kinlee. Stephanie fixed a delicious supper which I ate way too much of. We really miss seeing them and are so glad we got to spend a few hours with them. Kinlee and Parker worked all day fixing a zoo for the kids to visit. I don't know how many Webkinz they had but it was a TON!! Each animal had it's own home (water, grass, dirt, etc.) drawn on a piece of paper. They had a bucket with food (that was drawn) for each animal. Kinlee gave each of the boys a card with their name on it. They would get a piece of food and feed it to the correct animal. Each time they fed an animal Kinlee would punch their cards. A lot of preparation went into making this zoo. They boys really liked it a lot!
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Not only did they get to go to the zoo..they also got to go to a souvanier shop. They gave each boy a bag of pennies to spend on different items. There were several piles of things that cost different amounts. Cade was very funny and really tried to get the most with his money. The boys got to take their bag of goodies home! Unfortunately we left two of the bags at their house but we have plans to get them in the near future!

Stephanie started a handprint wall in her house with prints from Parker and Kinlee's friends. What a really cool idea. They boys got to put the first prints on the wall. I'm sure the next time we visit the wall will be filled with handprints. Cooper had to do his print twice because the yellow didn't show up. You can see it in my pictures but you couldn't see it on the wall.

Definitely not my best picture but I wanted to post it anyway. I look so much taller than Stephanie which I'm really not. I was wearing boots and she was wearing fuzzy slippers!!!

We enjoyed our visit very much and hope we can get together again soon. Thanks Stepanie (and Mark) for the great supper. Thanks Parker and Kinlee for the great entertainment. The zoo was a huge hit!! On the way home Cade gave me a list of Webkinz he now wants after visiting your zoo!!

Thankful Thursday

I've been meaning to do this for the past three weeks and just haven't taken the time to do it. I decided that I would tonight while the boys are having a movie night with dad. This week I am thankful for...

1. Chad! I am so thankful for the time he spends with the boys! The boys love their daddy. From the time he walks in the door each day until the kids are in bed he is spending time with the them. He is a wonderful husband and father. God has blessed me greatly with him.

2. McDonalds $1 large drinks!! I have been taking advantage of these for a few months now.

3. books. I love a good book! I've been reading the Twilight series the past couple of weeks and have really enjoyed them.

4. boys who love books! All three of my boys love books. We read lots and lots of books. Sometimes at night after the boys have been in bed (or at least I thought they were in bed) I'll go in and find them with a pile of books looking at them quietly. I hope that they never lose their love of reading!

5. Friends! I have truly been blessed with some wonderful friends.

6. the friends my boys have. My boys have some great friends...some their own age and some much older. They are all special to them and me.

7. Haven, Cassidy, Claire, and Clint, and the occasional extra. These are the kiddos I keep that allow me to stay at home with my boys!

8. my vacuum cleaner!! I'm sure you can imagine what my carpet looks like after 6 kids have been on it all day. If my vacuum cleaner ever dies I don't know what I'll do. I use it everyday and sometimes 2 or 3 times a day!!

9. hand-me-downs. I very rarely have to buy my children anything as far as clothing goes. My sister is always so good to pass things that her boys have outgrown down to us (or just fun stuff she finds at the dig store). It helps out SO much. I got a few things today! Yay!! I've also had friends pass things along to us also. It's so nice to have friends with kids the same age who can pass along things their boys have outgrown. It won't be long and I can start passing things along too.

10. I guess my last thing for this week is going to be e-bay!! Cade wants a Scooby-Doo birthday cake in a few weeks. I checked the library..no luck, checked with Becky and her mom...no luck, so I went to e-bay and found the cake pan I wanted for very cheap! It came a couple of days ago. Cade was very happy with it. Now let's just hope I can make the cake look as good as it's supposed too.

Fun Times

This week is Lectureships at Freed. We love this time because we get to spend time with friends we don't see very often. Ms. Rhonda has had a house full this week. We went to school with the Lyons family so we've known them for a long time. We spent quite a bit of time at Ms. Rhonda's house visiting with them. They came over some too. They have 3 kids like us so the kids had a blast playing with each other. Hopefully it won't be another year before we get to see them again. Kyle who was one of Chad's college roommates stayed here last night and he and Chad stayed up way too late playing!!

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We really enjoyed having everyone here. They all had to leave today. Hopefully we will see them again soon!

The boys were not ready for Mr. Kyle to leave this morning. They had fun playing with him last night.

Theme-Eyes

Took this of Cade last summer while he was swimming. His eyes aren't open as wide as they usually are but I love this picture of his eyes! If you want to put a picture in the contest go to iheartfaces.blogspot.com or click on the icon above.