Lake and Party time!

We've had quite the busy weekend, but it was so much fun!

First we hung out Friday night with James & Amy at the pool for a pizza party. Dave and Mere and their kids had just gotten there when a lightning bolt hit down about 20 feet from where we were (it hadn't even been raining or thundering before that!). With three kids in the pool at the time, we quickly grabbed them out (said a huge prayer of thanks for safety) and headed to James and Amy's house to continue the fun.
Minus Kylah getting a toy firetruck crashed into her nose and a huge bloody mess, we had a great time! :) She was no worse for the wear...her dress just looked like she'd been in a street fight.

Saturday morning we headed out to Beaver Lake. Joe has gotten to know one of his patients who is retired with her husband. Their kids live away, so they asked Joe if we would all come out for a day at their lake house. They said to bring whomever we wanted, so we asked the Adair's to join us. Kurt and Anita were so nice and hospitable.

Here is Kurt loading up the boys in the Green Machine to head down to the lake. The boys had an absolute blast at the lake!

All the big kids with Joe in the bow(?) of the boat. Mere may correct me on that...she did grow up on a ship... :) This was the first time any of our kids had been on a boat, and they were all fascinated. Kurt told us that he bought this boat new in 1984 and has kept it up since. Pretty amazing!

Matty was the cutest passenger on the boat. He fell right asleep in his little life vest!

Best buddies.

I love this with Kylah's hair blowing in the wind.

Then she headed back to the stern(?)---I really have no clue if the stern is the back of the boat or not, but I think it will be funny for Mere to read this if I'm totally wrong!! :)
Kylah all of a sudden looked so old when I put her hair back in a pony tail.

Back at the dock, the daddies and the kids hopped in for a swim.

Joey riding the inflatable jet ski. So cute that Kurt and Anita had all these blow up toys!

Mere and I lounged on the dock and watched the fun.

This was an attempt at a picture after everyone had turns jumping off the dock into the deep water. Kylah was not too happy to have to be done!

Our fearless daughter just jumped right in off the dock.

We were so proud of Joey. It took him a while to get up the courage, but he eventually jumped off! He really has come so far in his 3 weeks of swimming lessons.

We headed home from the lake, and the kids took a nap in the car.
When we got home it was time to decorate for Joey's birthday party!

Here is a picture of his cake and candy. It was a blue and green Rhyming party. It was fun to do. (The cake split down the middle because I forgot to trim the two halves so they weren't curved. Oh well, it still tasted good!

The balloons kept the kids entertained for quite a while. Joey had 5 little friends at his party (conveniently the kids of our friends!) :) Connor, Audrey, Jakin, Anna and Zeke. Mikaiah and Kylah joined in on the fun too.

First we played a little rhyming matching game. The kids did really well.

And then it was time for the highlight---a rhyming scavenger hunt!

It was fun to see the kids figure out the clue and go to the next one. It took Joey a few clues to figure out what you were supposed to do. He thought he was supposed to act out what the clue said. For example, the first clue was leading them to where Joey sleeps. So, Joey just laid down on the floor and pretended to sleep.
Well, this clue out on the pool said, "The next clue you will see, is where you go pee-pee. Well, what does Joey do...

Yep, he pulls down his shorts and underwear right there in the yard and pees! It was hilarious! Joey, I'm sorry that you'll read this when you're 15 and be embarrassed, but it was so cute!

They did finally make it to the clue in the bathroom. How fun is it to see all these little kids jammed in a small bathroom?!

They had to stop to let me read each clue after they found it because obviously the 4 year old can't read! They were so attentive and then would race to find the next clue.

And then the final clue led them to their treasure (goody bags to take home). It's so fun to see kids get so excited about blowers and cards and pencils!

Blowing out the candles on the birthday cake. (Zeke is the one sitting next to Joey. He is the son of my good friend, Callie, whom I have known since 5th grade. Crazy that we both live in Bentonville now!)

This was the inside of the birthday cake. Goes with the blue/green theme. :)

All the kids gathered around for cake time!

This is Callie's youngest, Lucas. Isn't he so cute?!

And then it was time for the pool and slip 'n slide!

We should have known with Joe, Dave and Brian out there with the kids, that they would come up with something to make the slide bigger and better! It actually looked really fun, and the kids played on it forever!

The Adair's and Matchell's stayed for dinner and games last night. We put all five of the bigger kids to bed in Joey's room last night. We let them talk for a while, and then the dads went in there to tell them to go to sleep and no more talking. We didn't hear a peep from any of them after that! They were all exhausted (and did a great job of obeying!)

And then we had a little competitive game of Catch Phrase with the adults! :)
So much fun!

Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted last night.

Around 4:00 am last night, we hear Joey open our door, say something, and then proceed to puke all over our floor! (He told us that he just came into our room instead of calling for us because 'I'm 4 now, so I don't need the monitor. I'll just come get you if I need something.') :) Poor thing. I don't know if he has a little flu bug or just had too much sun and excitement this weekend. We kept him home from church today to let him rest. He's been acting OK today; just not as active, and doesn't want to eat much. He seems to be on the mend.

When Joe got home from golfing, Joey challenged him to a game a Connect 4.

We all had great naps today (except for Joe who went golfing during nap time). Now we are working on the laundry and packing to head out to my parents on Wednesday for our 4th of July get together!

Joey's 4!

Today is Joey's 4th birthday.
What a blessing Joey has been to our lives. He says something new every day that just cracks us up. He definitely keeps us on our toes! He is so sweet and has the most tender heart.

We had a fun day today. It started with swimming lessons, playing with friends here at our house, and then a good nap. :) And then a birthday supper and celebration when daddy got home!
Here he is blowing out candles. He asked at 7:00 this morning when he came into our room if he could go have his birthday cake right then, so he had a long time to wait!

Kylah was pretty excited all day that it was Joey's birthday. She kept saying, 'happy bir-day, Joey!'

Joey got some new puzzles from Kylah.

Yep, we make him hug her and tell her thank you right after opening the gift (just like we had to when we were little!) :)

He got a Leapster from daddy and mommy. He knows what this is because he has played his friends' before (Logan, Olivia and Connor all have one!) He was pretty excited!

This is how he was the rest of the night.

OK--this could be my favorite gift of the day. When we showed up for swimming lessons this morning, Connor had a birthday gift for Joey that he made for him all by himself, and wrapped by himself.
Can you tell what it is?

Nope, it's not a Kleenex box glued to paper---it's a car garage! I love it! And Joey loved it as well. He knew what it was right away and he's been playing with it off and on all day! So cute (and why do we buy our kids real gifts?????) :)

Joey has had quite the extended birthday (which is how I think all birthdays should be!) :)

First, he had the birthday celebration when my parents were here.
Then, Joe's parents came down this past weekend for a few days. We celebrated Joey's birthday with them too while they were here!

He got some really fun Cars stuff from Grandpa and Nana. He got a Frank with tipping tractors (if you've ever seen the movie you know what I'm talking about...) He played with that one non-stop!!

He got a fun squirt gun along with lots of other fun goodies and clothes!

Grammy sent a bag full of presents for Joey too! This is a fun activity book (I'm saving that one for our 12 hour trip to Ohio in a few weeks!) Thanks Grammy!

Nana always brings cute new clothes for the kids (I call it 'shopping in Jennifer's loft'---Jennifer has a room up in her loft that is full of kids' clothes that she buys when she sees good deals. Let me tell you, it is a life saver, and I love it!)
Here are their new church clothes she brought.
Joey was loving the new suit, and Kylah wanted to wear the dress all weekend! (Thanks for the cute bow, Elisa!)

Grandpa and Nana are always up for doing fun activities with the kids, so Sunday afternoon we all went to Jump Zone (a big warehouse-like room with lots of inflatable slides and bounce houses.)
Joey does not stop from the moment he steps foot in that place.

Kylah loves it too! I know it looks like she has a terrified look on her face, but she hops off of these slides and goes right back up them!

Nana gets in a game of air hockey with Joey.

Look who went down one of the big slides!! Grandpa will do anything for his grandkids! :)

And then we went down as a little family. I love this picture! And the kids of course wanted to do this over and over and over!

Kylah loves her grandpa! She cuddles right up to him, wants him to carry her all the time and gives him tons of kisses!

Family foosball time. I'm pretty sure Joey scored more against his own team than for his team! :)

Thanks again for coming Jody and Jennifer! We had a great time, and the kids loved all the special time with their grandparents! (They got to go to Chuck E Cheese on Monday while we were at work too!)

We have one more little birthday celebration for Joey with some of his friends here on Saturday. After that, I'm pretty sure we'll officially end his birthday! :)

new nephew!!

We have a new little nephew!

Luca Alfred Manes was born around 7:30 am this morning to my brother, Andy and his wife Kelly. Both mom and baby are doing great!

We tend to have big nephews...this little guy weighed in at 9 pounds, 8 ounces and 21 inches long.

According to my brother, he's got a nice bit of dark hair, a good Manes dimple in his chin, and is a healthy little guy. His name, Luca, is the Italian version of Luke. Alfred was the first name of our grandpa (mom's dad) who is now in heaven. So cute!!

I can't wait to see him. And, lucky me, I get to see him in just a few short weeks at our family's July 4th get-together at my parents!! You can bet I'll be fighting with my mom for baby time! :)

Congratulations Andy and Kelly (and big brother Michael!)

swim like a fish

Joey started swimming lessons last week. He goes Tuesday and Thursday mornings for 30 minutes, so today was his 4th lesson.
Let me tell you, he has come a LONG way since lesson #1.
Parents are technically not supposed to watch during lessons, but we do take a peek now and then. During the first lesson when I took a peek, I saw Joey sitting on the side of the pool crying or in the pool clutching one of the teachers for dear life. But, the amazing thing I did see, though, was that, even though he was crying, he would get up and do whatever the teachers told him to do. I was so proud of him for doing it even though he was so afraid.

Lesson #2 only involved a few tears during the lesson, and by Lesson #3 he was excited to be at swimming lessons. He would tell me afterwards that he was just a little bit "nervous" and "frust-er-ated." I have no clue how he knows the word frustrated, but it's pretty cute anyway! I keep telling him he is learning to 'swim like a fish' to encourage him.

Meredith picks up Joey at Joe's work on Thursday mornings and takes him to swimming lessons (Connor and Audrey are in his same class) and then takes him back to school, since I work on Thursdays. (Yep, she totes all three of her kiddos and Joey!)

Well, according to Meredith, Joey did awesome today.
He went down the slide by himself, went under water, then the instructor turned him around, and Joey swam THREE feet ALL BY HIMSELF with his face under the water.
I didn't know I could be this proud!! :)

Here he is getting ready to go down the slide.

Joey and Connor before swimming lessons. They both have green goggles because, of course, green is both of their favorite colors!

The kids love going to swimming lessons. Not only do they get to swim for 30 minutes, they get to run on a fun path to get to the pool from the car. It goes by a little pond, so of course they throw rocks into the pond on the way back. We usually get there a few minutes early, so they get to run around in the grass for a few minutes (while Mere and I try to keep them somewhat under control so we aren't those moms that let their kids disrupt the current lesson!) :) They are fond of the dog that runs around, which they have named "poopy dog" because they saw the dog eat some poop the first time they saw it. :) Oh, to be an almost-4 and almost-5-year-old boy (luckily I never was one!!)

All that to say, we are enjoying our summer swimming lessons. Kylah has a little bit of a hard time because she sees the pool and the slide and wants to swim. Her only consolation is that she gets to sit with the mommies and baby Maffew (Matty)---whom she isn't really allowed to touch yet.... Well, at least Mere lets her watch Dora on her I-phone! :)