Father's Day

We came home from our St.Louis trip (another post to do!) on Father's Day.  The kids drew a picture of the Brandon on each side of the gift bag.  He got new swim trunks for all of swimming fun!

Elizabeth's pictures of daddy had arms, legs, and hair.

Grant drew daddy with no legs! What does it mean when there is no neck? Neither of them gave B necks! 

The kids did a father's day quiz for him (see below)

My Dad is 10 years old, 10 inches tall and weighs 11 pounds.

His hair is black and his eyes are brown.

He is smart because he knows how to cook steaks on the grill.

At his job, my dad works.

My Dad is really good at driving the car.

My favorite memory with my Dad is going to a Cardinal game.

His favorite food is steak and mushrooms and tacos.

My favorite thing to do with Dad is play with him.

It makes him happy when I’m good.

Daddy always tells me what he had for lunch.

If he could go on a trip, he would go to Florida and he would take me!

I am just like my Dad because I have brown eyes.

I really love it when my Dad cuddles and watches TV with me.

If I could give my Dad anything it would be chocolate. 

What I love most about my Dad is that he loves me!

Love, Elizabeth (Father’s Day 2014)

My Dad’s favorite dessert is ice cream with hot fudge sauce.

His favorite game to play is air hockey. 

He loves to watch football.

He loves to play t-ball.

He is the best at cooking hot dogs and hamburgers.

My favorite thing to do with my Dad is watch TV.

His favorite thing to wear is Illinois!

What I love most about my Dad is that he loves me!

Love, Grant (Father’s Day 2014)

Grant's 4th Birthday

First up, the annual birthday quiz!

1) WHAT IS YOUR NAME? Grant 

2) HOW OLD ARE YOU? 4

3) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE COLOR? All of them!

4) WHO IS YOUR BEST FRIEND? Gavin

5) WHAT DO YOU WANT TO BE WHEN YOU GROW UP? A Farmer

6) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOVIE? The Pirate Fairy (also happens to be the last movie he watched!)

7) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE TV SHOW? Barbar and The Adventures of Badou (or as the kids call it Bu-Bum-Barbar!)

8) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE BOOK? "When I Was Young in the Woods" He likes it because one of the characters kills a snake

9) WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY? When my mom feeds me

10) WHAT MAKES YOU SAD? When I  get in trouble

11) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE FOOD? Hot Dogs

12) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE SONG? Jesus Loves Me

13) WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE GAME TO PLAY? Ice Breaker, the Grill game and he really likes penguins 

14) WHAT WAS YOUR FAVORITE GIFT? So many great gifts this year, he couldn't choose!  Kenny Pops is building him a swing set and Ima & Johnny Pops are taking him to a horse ranch!

This year Grant wanted to have a swim party.  Unfortunately, I can't control the weather and 45 minutes before the start of the party a lovely thunderstorm rolled through, but luckily it kept rolling!  We let the kids bounce downstairs for awhile and then the skies cleared and they were able to swim.  His party was baseball themed.  Guess what popular food is served at ballparks? Yes we had hot dogs!  Elizabeth gave him strawberry gum.  We didn't allow her to chew  gum until she was 5.  She decided that if it is was ok with us she would be ok with Grant getting gum when he was 4.  Well you can tell by his expression he was confused.  "I chew gum when I 5, not 4!"

Daddy adjusting his new tee.  

After a few near misses of the bat being swung in the house it now resides on a high shelf in the garage. 

Popcorn & Nachos

Measuring the bday boy before bed.  He grew 3 inches in the last year!

Dance Recital

This past weekend was Elizabeth's dance recital.  Her class was a tap/ballet combo, but for the performance they just did ballet to the song Big Rock Candy Mountain (by Lisa Loeb).  It was a really cute song and they did a terrific job.  Elizabeth was the mountain peak at one part and all of the girls point to her.  She was picked for this strictly due to the fact that she is the tallest girl in the class, and thus the center!  She had quite the cheering section for her two performances and received lots of flowers!  She enjoyed watching the other girls perform as well.  I think she wants to give gymnastics a try next so I am not sure when or if the ballet slippers will return but she is going out on top (pun intended!)

Elizabeth & Devery, her awesome teacher!

Front of the canoe

Look at that line! :)

After the recital craziness - all smiles!

I am so bummed that this is blurry!  My action, dark theater camera skills are not up to par!  But this is Elizabeth as the mountain peak and I love how perfectly her friend Julianna is posed!

Listening to the "buzzing of the bees in the peppermint trees!" 

The perfect bun head!

and here are her biggest fans!

Yes those are flowers arranged like a dog!

Solo Time

My dad and Brandon were both traveling last week so my mom offered to take the kids, but one at a time so we could each have special one on one time with them.

Grant stayed with my mom first and Elizabeth and I had a girls night.  I took her to her last dance class and then we went to "chips and salsa" (local Mexican restaurant) for dinner.  We then ran to the mall quick to complete our family picture outfits.  Since daddy was out of town, we even took the Camaro and luckily beat the rain home!  Once home she wanted to take a bubble bath.  While in the tub she ate dessert and watched YouTube videos on how to make play-doh dresses for Barbie dolls.  We were suppose to have bad storms but we both snoozed right through them.  We were so busy making play-doh dresses in the morning we almost forgot to eat breakfast!  It was a fun girl's night.

Grant got to play mini-golf with Ima and she promised him if he stayed dry overnight she would take him back the next day.  Guesss who stayed dry?! Ima took us and our friends to play mini-golf the next day and we kicked off summer break!

Cheerleader Barbie

Elizabeth original design 

Mini-golf!  Fishing the ball out of the water was a favorite thing to do!

Grant and I had a great time too.  We spent the afternoon playing outside.  I asked him what he wanted for dinner.  Don't fall off your chair....he requested hot dogs.  The worst part was he insisted I have one too!  (not my favorite!)  I need to work on his food tastes!  His request was to go the park and play.  We did that until dusk and then it was his turn for a special bath.  He dunked Oreos in milk while in his bath!  We snuggled up and he fell asleep watching an animal show.  He stayed dry again! We went back to the park the next day!

My mom and I both enjoyed our special time with each of them.  It is funny how my kids love to be an only child, but just for a short time!  I hope we can do these kinds of things more often.  It is nice to be able to give undivided attention and not have to discipline (because they were soooo good!).  Interesting (as Grant would say)...I only have to discipline them when they are together because they just pick at each other!  Go figure they are always angels when they have all the attention and get to do what they want and the simplest of things are special, because it is just them!

No Training Wheels!

Grant was riding without training wheels at the very end of the fall last year but with our harsh winter he didn't have must time in between to practice and this spring we just started with the training wheels.  However, we convinced him he could do it without and he took right off!  It is always exciting to see your kids conquer things.  He of course wanted me to hold on and not let go (and of course I said I wouldn't but of course did!).  He was riding Elizabeth's old bike because it had the trainers already off.  When Brandon got home he took the training wheels off of Grant's green bike.  He fell right away and he blamed the bike (well after he blamed me - I was 10ft away, but somehow was at fault!).  It has been a struggle to convince him to ride his own bike.  I even got out the tape measure and showed him that they were the same size.  But for now Grant is zooming right along on the polka dot bike with streamers and  a cute basket on the front!

Love that smile!

Good Neighbor Days (aka Cherry "Festibal")

The Cherry Festival has been renamed Good Neighbor Days because these good neighbors have emerged through this challenging time for our city.  The kids still call it the Cherry Festival and the 5K Run t-shirts must have already been printed, because it was still the Cherry Festival 5K.  I convinced my good friend to run with me and she completed her first 5K and I was so happy to have a running partner!  It was a great morning to run and we followed it up with the pancake breakfast with our families.  The next few hours we let the kids put their ride wristband to good use and they rode every ride they could as much as they wanted until the heat finally drained us!  We rested and then had a pool party and watched the fireworks.  It was such a fun, perfect little family day.  It feels so good to be home and to be part of such a great community :)

Our cheering section for the 5K

This was almost like the Tower of Terror!  Nevermind the operator who was beating on the ride with a hammer, while the kids were on it! 

This year I didn't see the operator running on the inside to get the ponies started! 

Getting dizzy

Action shot!