a trip to the hunt house

we took a trip to the hunt house to surprise poppa for his birthday.

but, we ended up doing way more than partying!

poppa took grace and carter hunting...i think they lasted an entire 10 minutes in the stand.  maybe.

we went on a pond adventure.

there were some explorations. 

we found a snail.

there was a terrifying experience with a stick bug.  DO NOT ask carter about it!  ha!

but, mostly, we just hung around with our family!

{january}

growing up definitely has its perks!

three day weekends are FUN!!!

celebrating john's birthday!  we were pretty excited about it because we kind of like him!

date night...full tummies and the grizz!

hi five

hi, five!

this five year old loves all things legos, star wars, soccer, basketball, the grizzlies, the cavaliers, and winning. 

carter's birthday festivities began with a cinnamon roll breakfast, of course.

after opening a couple of gifts, he chose chuck e cheese for his birthday dinner.

mimi, poppa, grandma, and grandpa came to play!

we partied hard!!!

oh, and i kicked john's booty in skee ball!

happy birthday, carter man!  love you bunches!!!

it's great to be eight

this girl just turned eight and it is great!

she is really my favorite girl...she is growing up to be so sweet and smart and pretty and fun!

we celebrated with the traditional cinnamon roll breakfast.

she opened up a couple of gifts and started playing right away!

later, we picked up a couple of cute boys and went jumping!!!

we ended the celebrations at kooky canuck with grandparents and 18 scoops of ice cream!!!

now, please, no more growing!  eight is great after all!!!

september stuff

we supported the grizz on team night at awana.

this girl is my favorite!

we had fun celebrating with friends at this star wars party!

go girl!

these two.

these are the things nightmares are made of.

my sweet class spoiled me with lots of goodies, cards, a yummy lunch, and tons of hugs on my birthday!

then, grandma came over and watched the kids while john and i went out to dinner together.  it was a perfect birthday!!!

tonight was CrAzY hAiR niGhT at awana!

another birthday

this guy never gets a big birthday celebration because christmas was a month ago and babies are always born in january and then babies grow and have birthdays too and...

anyway, he still didn't get a big celebration.  but, we did celebrate.  with pizza.  and it was yummy!

happy birthday, john!  we love you a bunch and we appreciate ALL that you do for us.  for real!

party people

grace and carter were super excited to celebrate their birthdays especially since their party included pjs and cereal!!!

when the guests arrived, they began making their fruit loop necklaces.

next, we tossed pancakes.  there were lots of giggles during this game.  carter and pierce were chunking the pancakes at each other.  andrew kept trying to eat his and then turned it into a hat.  allie had to dodge them.  pancakes landed in lots of unusual places.

the kids enjoyed lots of yummy breakfast foods...cereal, donuts, pancakes, and fruit.  mmm!!!

before our friends left, we played one last game...

this may have been the most entertaining!

we loved having friends and family over to celebrate!!!