Biking and other summer activities

 Joey has really loved riding his bike lately. A few nights ago I took him and Connor on a bike ride on the trails. They did great, and we had a lot of fun. After taking Connor home, Joey said, "that was a really fun bike ride, Mommy. Can we do that again soon?"  Yes we can! :)

 We went up to Joey's school the next night to ride around the track and let Kylah get practice on her bike. Of course Joey wanted to race Joe. :)

We moved Kylah up to a bigger bike and put training wheels on it, and she can ride so much easier now (we probably should have done that a while ago...) She didn't want to stop riding!

Norah has inherited Kylah's little bike. She hasn't quite figured out how to pedal to keep the bike going, but she's getting close, and I'm sure she'll get it soon. In the meantime, she looks pretty cute. :)

After riding around the track, Joey wanted to go play on his school playground for a little bit. He wanted to show me how he could climb on the monkey bars. While watching him do this, I realized why THREE kids in his little Kindergarten class have broken their arms this year!!

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The weather hasn't been extremely hot yet (which has actually been nice!), but it's been hot enough to fill the little pool in the backyard. Norah and Matty had a blast in it the other day.

Joey is so sweet to Andrew and Matty. Here he is playing with Andrew on the blanket.

And then teaching Matty how to get the bad guys. :)

 

 

School's Out for the Summer!

 Joey has finished up Kindergarten. He has had a great year, and has learned a lot. He was very ready for summer break and to be called a 1st grader now! :)

 A look back at the first day of school back in August.

I am ready for a fun summer!

The party

 Before we get to the party...Josh, Val and the kiddos came down this past weekend to help us celebrate Kylah's birthday! It was so special to have them here, and we always have a great time with them. Having company is always a good excuse to cook something yummy on the Green Egg, so Joe cooked us all a fabulous meal on Friday night when they got here.  

Saturday morning was fun to hang around the house for a little bit and for these two little ones to cuddle. :)  They were so cute all weekend. Norah pretended that Caleb was her baby, and Caleb was happy to let her pretend. So sweet!

 The party wasn't until later that afternoon, so first we hit up a park and then a splash park to cool off. Grandpa and Nana drove all the way here from Kansas for Kylah's party, so they joined us at the parks. Kylah loved having them here, and we appreciate them driving all that way!  

I loved watching Caleb in the water. He was fearless! Our usually fearless Norah has not been a fan of the splash park up until this point, but I think seeing Caleb enjoy the water got her to finally go into it!

Josh got a shaved ice, and of course he was surrounded immediately. :)

After letting the little ones take a nap, it was party time! Even though her party was at a park, Kylah wanted to wear a pretty dress. I couldn't say no to the birthday girl!

Kylah wanted a Lalaloopsy party and a cake with the little Lalaloopsy dolls that she could keep and actually play with. This made the process of making her cake so easy. Rectangle cake, frost, and put in little dolls. Check!  Val and I had to research how to decorate cupcakes to look like buttons, but most of the recipes involved fondant, which I don't know how to make yet. This is what we came up with, and I think they turned out pretty well! (My main goal was for people to know they were buttons, and they did!)  :)

Joe and Josh filled up about 200 water balloons for the party. That was a labor of love, I'm sure...

But, the water balloons were a hit at the party! First, a water balloon toss.

Which quickly turned into a water balloon fight!

I saw this sweet smile on Kylah's face a lot during her party. She was having so much fun!

I try to light candles at our outdoor parties every time, and I don't think I have gotten them to light one time. I will keep trying, though!

Kylah was a good sport and just pretended to blow the candles out. And she loved having everyone sing to her.

Joey's best buddies. I love these little boys!

Grandpa held Andrew for a while...and I'm pretty sure he gave him his first taste of a cupcake. Yum!

This was Kylah's face while opening every present. Priceless!

The group shot. This was surprisingly a quick and easy photo. It's like the kids have learned that if they just line up and quickly smile then they can quickly go back to playing.  :)  It was a fun group of kiddos at Kylah's party. She had a few school friends, a few church friends, family friends and cousins. I love it!

And, then we saw Norah walking around with one of the leftover cupcakes. :)

And then getting into the candy with Caleb.  Oh well, they were having fun!

After the party we headed home to freshen up and then head out on an ADULT-only DOUBLE DATE! I know, that never happens!  Josh and Val and Joe and I headed to Bonefish for a fabulous meal and fabulous company. After dinner we headed to Starbucks to sit outside and talk and just enjoy the evening.

Unfortunately, this is the only picture we got of the night.

Such a fun weekend!

Mommy Facts

Joey had a Mother's Day Tea at his school a few weeks back. I wanted to show everyone this cute thing he made for me. 

My two favorite parts are that he thinks I weigh 61 pounds and that he knows my favorite Sonic drink! :)

Graduation x 2

 I'm a little behind on blogging, but we have had TWO little graduates in the past few weeks.

Kylah graduated from preschool first. Isn't she just the cutest little graduate you've ever seen?!

Her teachers made "awards" for everyone based on their personalities. (The awards they gave them were candy of some kind.) Kylah got the Hershey's Kiss award for being so sweet. 

These are Kylah's two little best friends at preschool, Leyton and Braylen. She is going to miss these two next year!

Joey made it back from his baseball game just in time to watch his sister's ceremony.

  

We're so proud of you, Kylah!

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On Monday night Joey had his Kindergarten graduation ceremony. Instead of the traditional cap and gown ceremony they had an "Aloha Celebration." It was super cute, and the songs they sang were adorable.

  

So cute! I have some cute video, but can't upload it right now, so ask to see it next time you see me! :)

They had one parent come up to receive a "gift." The gift was that the kids gave their parent their lei and told them Aloha. It was adorable. 

Before the ceremony began we had a few minutes to wait, so we had some fun with the camera.

Norah's faces just crack me up!

Monday was the day of the big storms. We didn't actually get a tornado (thankfully!) but we did get some high winds and heavy rain. We were at Joey's ceremony when the storm started, but we thought we could maybe beat it so we ran to our cars and headed to Dave and Mere's house (concrete walls that can withstand 700 mph winds...we're headed there for storms from now on!) Anyway, we probably should have stayed put at the ceremony until the storm passed, because as we were headed to our cars the storm hit hard and fast. We had two cars so Joe had the older two kiddos and I had Norah, and we parked in opposite parking lots. I was running in the crazy wind (in heels!) trying to protect Norah from the heavy rain and praying that a tornado was not going to come and swipe us up. We made it to my car, drenched and scared but safe. Next time, we'll just stay put! 

Here's what the storm did to the tree on the side of our house.

Crazy! 

But I'm so thankful that all we got was high winds and heavy rain and no crazy tornadoes like Oklahoma did. I've been praying all week for those in Oklahoma.

Birthday girl!

Yesterday our Kylah Sue turned five years old! Unbelievable! I kept telling her in the days leading up to her birthday that she wasn't allowed to turn five, but she would just laugh at me. :)

While she was sleeping the night before her birthday, Joe and I decorated her room with streamers and balloons. She was so excited to wake up to this in the morning. I think Joe though I was a little crazy, but he should know how much I love birthdays! :)

I took the day off of work to spend some time with the birthday girl. Kylah loved it, and commented in the morning that we had never stayed home just me and her without Norah before. Success!

We picked up her little friend Kennedy and headed to get donuts and then to get our nails done.

Kylah loves soaking her feet in the tub with me while getting a pedicure.

After pedis and manis, we took her little friend home and headed to Joey's field day at his school. Kylah got to join in on all the activities which was fun for her. 

Joey was sweet and protective of her, and let her join in with him.

We had a great time, and the weather was awesome!

Back to the birthday girl...she was so excited about her frosted brownies (I decided not to make a cake since I will make a cake for her party this weekend.)

She got some fun swimming stuff from Norah and Joey.

And she got a baby cradle from mommy and daddy.

Everyone got in on rocking the baby. :)  (If you are curious, a patient of mine actually made this cradle. Isn't it amazing?!)

She takes her job as a mommy very seriously. 

I knew Norah would think the cradle was for her baby too. :) Kylah was sweet and let Norah put her baby Emma in the cradle (but only for a few minutes!)  :)

I snuck in and took this picture after Kylah was asleep last night. Too precious!