Jenna's 5th birthday

On the day of her birthday, Jenna bounded downstairs and exclaimed "I'm 5 now!"  Yep, sweetheart you are.  After a special birthday breakfast, it was present time:

Andrew picked out a singing birthday card for her...needless to say, it was a hit (with all 3 kids)

"Awesome! A dizzy draw!"

Her newest prized possession...a swimming baby.  (yes, it really swims)

Showing off her new birthday outfit & her new birthday number (5!)

After celebrating a little at home, it was time to pack up & hit the road....we were heading to the lake!  We gave Jenna the choice of spending her birthday at home, and leaving on Friday; or spending part of her birthday in the car & being at the lake that evening....she picked the lake.

Seeing if the fish are biting

Fishing sweetheart

Birthday girl w/ her cake

Happy Birthday Jenna!

Father's Day

 After all that partying for Jenna's birthday, Bruce had a pretty low key Father's day.

I couldn't decide which picture I liked of him & the kids best, so here they both are:

Happy Father's Day!

Jenna's 5th Birthday Bash!!!!

Jenna got to have her 1st friend birthday party this year, and it was a lot of fun.  When I asked her what type of party she wanted & who she wanted to invite she already knew exactly what she wanted (she'd been planning for a while, knowing that this was the year).  She wanted a hula party, and already had knew which friends she wanted to invite (we told her 5 friends since she was turning five) .

When the big day arrived she could hardly contain her excitement.

When each of the girls arrived, they were given a pink hula skirt & lei.  The 1st activity was drawing themselves on the driveway...Bruce made their outline, then they decorated away.

Chalk artists

They decided that Bruce needed to be outlined too....
Mikey was not very sure about this...(he was super concerned about Bruce!).

Party crew

 Then it was time for a treasure hunt in the sandbox.  Bruce & Andrew had buried items in the sandbox, and over each item put a letter of Jenna's name; then added a bunch of other random letters in other places in the sand.  To find their prize each girl had to find a letter in Jenna's name & start digging.

 A party wouldn't be complete with out a pinata!

Birthday Girl giving it a try.

Here's the birthday girl w/ her hula girl cake:

Bruce & Jenna (daddy's girl)

After cake & presents they played on the swing set for a bit as parents were coming to pick everyone up.  Jenna had a great party & is already planning her 6th birthday bash!  

Go Carts!

For Andrew & Jenna's birthday this year they ended up with a surprise gift.....go-carts, well Razor Ground Force Drifters to be exact.  Both of them were ready for more than the battery powered car & truck, but Bruce & I didn't want the yard ripped up from a 4-wheeler, so we decided on these.  We gave the go-carts to them before their family birthday party & boy were they surprised & excited!

"No Way! Cool!"

"Can we test them out?"

just a little excited :-)

All ready to go! (Mikey too!)

 They had a blast testing out the go-carts.  They look like a ton of fun & according to Andrew & Jenna they are.  Pretty soon our families started to arrive and the kids all decided to take a dip in the pool(s).  Andrew & Jenna played in the 'big' one (for the most part) while the 2 & under crowd tested out the little pool.

Belle, Jenna, Franklin & Mikey





Belle & Franklin playing...these to were hilarious, two peas in a pod when it came to the pool.

 After playing in the pool it was time for presents & cake:



 



The kids had a great time, it was nice of those that could make it to come & help the kids celebrate.

Last Day of School

We had a very busy last day of school at our house this year, both  kids had activities to go to.  Luckily there were at different times so we were able to go to both places.

We started off the festivities with Andrew.  His teacher worked with a local photographer and they put together a great slide show of the kids.  It was fun to watch kids see themselves on the screen, they were all pointing & giggling, it was very cute.  After eating lunch we all started to head over to the playground, but the sky opened up & it started to POUR, so instead we ended up hanging out in Andrew's classroom.  I don't have many pictures since I forgot the camera, but was able to snap a few with my phone.

Buddies

 Andrew and his friend played Kid-Cala, and kept trying to explain it to me, but I didn't get it.....they seemed to enjoy playing it tho.

Playing Kid-Cala

Then it was off to preschool for an ice cream social with Jenna.  Her teacher put together a slide show of the class with pictures from throughout the year, and had some really cute crafts and a book for us (that Jenna made). 

Jenna & her best friend Abby

Jenna & Ms. Missy

The girls

Hard to believe that in the fall Jenna will start Kindergarten & Andrew will be in 2nd grade.

Turning 7!

This year for Andrew's birthday, we did something we'd never done before....held the party somewhere other than our house!  It was his golden birthday (A big thing when you are a kid!) so we let him pick (within reason) where he wanted to go.  So after some deliberation he decided on SkyZone, which is an indoor trampoline park.  He had a blast!  

Andrew with his buddies

They have a lot of fun stuff to do on the trampolines.  One of the 1st stops was the foam pit.  There are long, narrow trampolines that you can bounce on and then get some height (if you want) and bounce into a pit full of foam blocks.  We enjoyed watching all the crazy ways they would try to land (flips, cannon ball, belly flop, etc.).

Andrew & S. getting out of the foam pit (way more difficult than you would think)

The boys also spent some time trying to get a slam dunk.  They defiantly got some air, and we only ended up getting the ball stuck once :-)

Dodge ball was definitely a popular thing to do, and the boys spent a lot of time in the dodgeball courts.

S., Andrew & N. waiting for a dodgeball game to begin

After an hour of jumping, dodgeball, etc. it was time for pizza, cake, and presents.  They were all sweaty messes, but you could tell they had fun!

Ninja Go Cake & Goodie Bags (it's a Lego thing for those w/o little boys)

Poster Bruce made Andrew

Birthday crew enjoying their pizza

Time for Cake!

It was nice to not have a mess to clean up at home, and Skyzone was really great with the kids.  It also was very helpful that Aunt Lynn came to help supervise :-)  3 adults for 9 kids made it much more manageable.  Thanks Aunt Lynn!

On Andrew's actual birthday (June 7th) he got to have birthday cupcakes for breakfast (Jenna & Mike thought that was pretty cool too).

 Then it was time for presents:

Listening & laughing at the singing card

Then it was off to school!