The Real Deal!

Here are some pictures from Sam's actual birthday. It was a very long and busy day, jam-packed with fun things for the birthday boy. We started off the morning by letting him open two presents from Mom and Dad.

These, of course, were selected especially by daddy...his first real golf clubs! It just so happened that the Kindergarteners were having lunch at school that day to "practice" for first grade. We went and joined them for lunch and brought balloons and brownies. Sam wanted to bring his lunch from home, but Andrew ended up eating school lunch when he saw that it was chicken nuggets! That afternoon we had 10 of Sam's friends (plus a few younger siblings and moms) from school and church over for a party. It was a LOT of kids! The weather was threatening rain, but with that many kids running around, we headed outside anyway! We played red rover, red light green light and then just let them run and play on the trampoline. Once they had gotten some energy out, we headed inside for cake and presents. Here's a shot of some of the kids. I forgot in all the craziness to get a shot of everyone at the party, these photos are as close as we got!The cake was an "Ice cream oreo cake." The middle layer is vanilla ice cream, with oreos crumbled on top. Very simple...and very yummy!

Then it was time for presents! This picture is with one his best buddies from school, Tess.

After that fun party, we had about an hour to recover before the evening events. We had an early dinner (grilled cheese sandwiches with "spaghetti soup" AKA tomato soup) then Sam and Daddy headed off to play laser tag. Sam got to invite one friend and he choose Jared. So, Sam, Jared and the dads went to LaserQuest. They had a blast (once they got over the dark maze, black lights and loud music) and came home with lots of exciting things to tell about the evening. Sam was EXHAUSTED...and so were Mom and Dad! It was a great birthday.

Happy Birthday to my big six year old. I can't believe how fast he's grown!

Sam's Pre-Birthday party

On the Sunday before Sam's birthday we got the family together for a pizza night at Grandma's house. It's our favorite way to celebrate any event! After dinner we played Bingo, it's a new favorite game for the cousins to play together!Then, it was time for cake...er, I mean...cookies! Sam asked for cookie/ice cream sandwiches for his birthday dessert. They were delicious!

And then it was present time! Andrew and Abby were more than happy to help and were waiting patiently to get started!


Some of his favorites were the Transformers, waterguns, and Lego HeroFactory. It was a fun kick-off for his birthday festivities.

Parade Time!!

Still playing catch up...this was back in May!

Once again, we braved the crowds (and this year, the weather!) to go to the Lilac parade this year. We had such a great time last year, we decided to go again. We actually ended up sitting in the exact same spot and meeting up with the same crowd...it was lots of fun!

Andrew was ready to go! Only about two hours until showtime...

Me and Sam!

Just hangin' out...killin' time!

It was a little colder than we expected, we were already bundled up with everything we brought to keep warm...before the sun had even gone down!

Me and Breanna, she's the one who got us hooked on the parades!

Megan was cute with Abby all night, eventually Abby warmed up to her!My boys!

Abby was a good sport, but she was so tired! This was towards the end, she just gave up, laid down and tried to get some rest!

"Excuse me, I'm trying to sleep!"

It was another fun (and late!) night. Just like last year, the boys LOVED the marching bands. Sam was especially smitten with all of the princesses who were waiving...just at him! It was fun to visit and just enjoy the festivities. We stayed until the very end...and the weather held out for us. We felt the first raindrops as we got to our van, perfect timing!

Accessories

Abby loves her accessories. Hair pretties, sunglasses, necklaces, hats, you name it...she loves it! She will find about anything around the house to be pretty, this day she wore this around all afternoon. It was very cute!

Pretty girl!!!

(It's a Wii nunchuck, in case you can't tell!)

The Hunt

This year we had BEAUTIFUL weather for the Easter Egg Hunt at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It's a big tradition and always a great time. Mike and Madison came up from Salt Lake, so three of my four brothers were there with their families. We had hundreds of eggs, some filled with candy, others had prize coupons, and then there were the confetti eggs. It's a fun family tradition that my parents picked up when we lived in Texas years ago. It's always fun to introduce this tradition to our friends! We invited a few families from our ward, but somehow they are not in any of the pictures! Next time, I'll have to take a turn on the camera...but then, more than likely, I'd forget to take any pictures at all! Thanks to Joe and Bre for all the pics!

Once all the eggs are found, then the smashing begins!

Oliver wasn't quite ready to join in the action this year, but he (and his mom) were as cute as ever!

The Eggs!

I know that I'm a little behind, but at least the pictures are starting to show up! Here's the beginning of the Easter Pics...

Every year we have a big Easter Egg hunt at my parents house. We invite a few friends (and so do each of my brothers) and it usually ends up being a pretty good crowd. To get ready for that we make lots of "confetti eggs". This year we colored around 12 Dozen! (That's not counting what my two sister in laws colored for the event!) It took a while, but the boys had a great time!

Stay tuned for the pictures of the actual event, then you'll see all of these eggs put to good use!

Our New Toy

We got the kids a trampoline! These pictures were taken the day that Joe and my dad were setting it up, they hadn't gotten the enclosure up yet. I had the kids at my mom's house for the morning so that it could be a surprise. It happened to be Easter weekend (we ordered it online and that's when it arrived) so the kids thought that the Easter Bunny had brought it :-) It didn't help that we used a trail of Easter candy to lead them to the backyard when we got home so that they'd discover it...but we did explain later that it is actually from Mom and Dad and G&G Lodge as part of their birthday presents this year. They don't care where it came from, who are we kidding!


They have loved it, but unfortunately we've had SOOOO much rain they haven't been able to be out there as much as they'd like. If Spring could just stick around for more than a day or two, that would be great!!

Oh yah, and almost as cool as the trampoline....

...were the boxes!!!