Happy Birthday Landon!

Another year has come and gone. Another year where I think gosh can't time just slow down. But i'm coming to terms with the fact that my littles are growing fast. As sad as it is that they are leaving their baby looks and ways behind, its exciting that they are finding new big boys adventures ahead of them.

Their birthday is a special day for them. Requests are taken for what cake they'd like and I do my best to make that request come to life. I think he was happy with how it turned out.

Happy 7th Birthday Landon! I'm looking forward to where this year will take you.

Candy Store

How convenient for the kids that a candy store just so happens to be placed next door to the cookie cutter store.

So when I ran to get another cutter the other day, we ventured over to the candy store.

 

 



 

They wander and searched and checked every table over to try to decide just what candy to get.

 

 

I told them they could have only 2 pieces each and to my surprise Lainey did great following those rules. Every time she found something new and added it to her bucket, she knew she had to put another piece back to leave just 2 in that bucket.

 



 

 



I sometimes forget about these small business that are close to home and opt instead to head to the big box stores. I'll have to remember the next time the kids are up for a special treat to give these small business the business. Besides they have WAY more to choose from.

Little Baker

What do the girls do while the boys are away?? We bake of course. We ran some errands and Mackenzie spotted an easy bake oven cupcake mix and sucked me into buying it. We don't have one of those little ovens, but I figured we could just bake it in the big oven.

 

As soon as we walked in the door she was ripping open that box to get started. I had to laugh because she pulled out my big cupcakes pans and I had to tell her no honey we need the little one. Away she went lining the pans.

 

 

And she did a great job mixing up and mix and scooping it into the pans, with a little watcher close by.

After they were cooled she went to work frosting them, with a little help from Mom, but then put the sprinkles on all by herself.

 

 

How proud she was of her little cupcakes, she's already asking to make more. Next time I'll skip the $6 easy bake oven mix that only made 9 cupcakes and just get box a box of cake mix. That way we'll get way more for way less ;)

 

And they're off!

10:15 this morning on the dot we were at Mr Bakers house to drop Michael off. I have no worries about this boy. He will LOVE camp and probably miss me very little. Like I've said a thousand times before he is my social butterfly. This is what he strives for, making new friends and having free time. I know he will have a blast and I am so excited he is enjoying cub scouts so far.

 

I was a girl scout for several years and the thing I looked forward to the most was the summer week long camping trip to Camp Evelyn. It was sooo much fun to be on my own, make new friends and do all sorts of fun activities. I'm so glad they are now at the age to start enjoying these fun camping trips with friends.

 

 

 

 

 

When I initially told Landon he would be going to camp, but a different one than Michael he immediately responded "I'm not going" After several chats with other Dads and boys that went and telling him all the fun things he will do, he finally warmed up to it. So much in fact that he wanted to be dropped off first, even though his drop off time wasn't scheduled til 11:15.

 

Because of Michael's age and rank in the cub scouts he had to go to a different camp, so the 2 had to be separated. Luckily for Michael most of the boys in his cub scout group were going too. Unfortunately for Landon none of the boys his age, in his group that he's met with all year long were going. (if I had know this sooner, I may not have sent him) So instead he went with the boys that are a year older than him.

 

The cub scouts get together once a month for a big meeting, so Landon has seen the other boys around.  But the mother in me is just worried that he will be left out and all alone. I felt much better after dropping him off today when I over heard one of the Dads call him over and say "would you like to drive with us" and his little head shook yes. I had given that Dad a heads up as to how nervous Landon was, so hopefully he'll take him under his wing.

 

 

Ok I'm done worrying, its 10:15pm and I haven't received a call yet to come get him, so I guess that must be a good sign.

 Right!?

Landon's Birthday game

Landon's birthday is right around the corner and my Dad came up with the idea to take him to a Brewer game rather then buy him yet another toy that he doesn't need. It's memories like these that mean way more than another toy that will just get tossed into the corner.

 

So when the phone rang this evening and Dad said "I have a spare ticket, does Landon want to go?" Landon of course jumped on it. I think he had his jersey and hat on before I even hung up the phone.

 

 

 

 

So Landon got to enjoy the game with grandma, grandpa and his god mother Aunt Jenny! What a lucky boy!

 

 

Half way through the game I got a text with this picture, he got to meet Bernie Brewer, how cool is that!

 

 

I'm looking forward to him getting home so we can hear all about his fun pre-birthday bash!

 

Happy early Birthday Landon!

HOT, HOT, HOT!

How are you staying cool on these HOT summer days? We have been spending ALOT of time close to home in our pool. But yesterday with the temps reaching 95 again, we opted to head over to Lake Michigan. We live a quick 2 miles from Harrington Beach, which is rather convenient on these hot days. 

It was a spur of the moment trip, but the kids were all for it!

And to my surprise it was much more comfortable at the lake. Maybe it was the occasional clouds that rolled in and out covering the sun, or the nice breeze off the lake. But whatever it was it sure was better than the humid 95 in our backyard.

The kids quickly got to work burying each other, 

 digging a giant hole fort,

 and simply splashing around in the water.

Already looking forward to our trip back!

6 months

It's hard to believe that 6 months ago I was awaiting the arrival of my friends 2 little beauties.

 

 

 

 

Miss Sloan has these beautiful big eyes and Mr Ryker is a little ladies man.

 

It's hard for their Momma to get their feedings and naps timed just right to venture out on play dates, so when her Mom offered up her house and pool, the kids and I jumped at the chance to go play. Ok I jumped at the chance to go cuddle these cuties, while my cuties were occupied in the pool.

 

 

 

 

 

My kids were in heaven in the pool, thanks to the fact that it is heated!

 

 

 

 

We were also joined by another coworker and her twin girls and 10 year old daughter. Mackenzie loved having 2 new friends to play with. Next time the twins may have to show her some of their modeling moves :)

 

 

And Michael enjoyed doing tricks in the pool with Maddy.

 

 

As usual that fearless Lainey LOVED jumping off the diving board with the big kids!

Rainy Days

I always feel bad for the kids when they are forced into long boring car rides while I have to run errands. So the other day when we had to head to Milwaukee for a cookie drop off, I thought we'd venture over to Discovery World since we were in the neighborhood.

Once we arrived I reminded them that today they were in charge, I would follow where they wanted to go, which we normally do anyways, but I really wanted them to feel this trip was going to be fun since Michael was already fussing about not wanting to go.

Mackenzie got to pick first, and off to the fish we went. Next was Landon's pick, and over to the boat we headed.

Michael couldn't wait to get us over to the bed of nails. And yes Miss Lainey insisted on going second, Mackenzie however was not ready to try it. Maybe next time.

Our last stop was the airplane stimulator. I was willing to wait in line so the boys could give it a try since it was raining hard out. The timing ended up perfect, by the time they were finished, there was a break in the rain so we could run out to the truck and head home.

And in the end the boys who didn't want to go had a great time after all.

Zoo

My sister in law Lynda had the day off last week Friday and was looking for something to do with the kids. Since she has not been to the Zoo for several years, that is where we headed.

 

 

 

 

I love the bright colored flamingo's, but my camera, just doesn't do them justice.

 

 

We came across these beauties. They really are unique in how similar they are to humans. We watched them for a while. Commenting about how cute the mom and baby were. And then what we thought was the baby sat down to snuggle. We quickly realized that was NOT the mom and baby! We quickly grabbed the kids and headed on to the next stop, today was not the day I wanted to discuss sex ed.

 

 

Lynda wanted a picture of her and her god daughter, so it only seemed fitting that we take advantage of this photo op.

 

 

After getting home and going through the pictures, I discovered this was the only picture of the kids I had taken of the kids at the zoo. Oh well, there's always next time...

 

 

 

 

Aside from the heat that got 1 little girl a little crabby, they all did rather well. Lynda may need a LONG break before our next adventure, but we are ready for it.