Anna's 7th Birthday and more TN fun

 We went to Tennessee in late June to help celebrate Anna's surprise 7th birthday party. What made me laugh so much about this party is that Anna told Kelly that she wanted a Surprise Frozen Pool party. What a kid! lol :) Not quite convinced that's how surprises work, but at least she knows what she wants! lol :)

~

Here are the guests lined up and waiting for the birthday girl to arrive

 Here she comes...

 Such a sweet smile from such a sweet girl! :)

McKinley hanging out with Kelly

 Everyone always loves to play with Pappy

 Looks like the boys might have been ganging up on poor Charlie... :)

 While we were in Tennessee we visited the Sligers and were able to meet their new grandson, Martin, for the first time. He is such a sweet baby! Not sure why I didn't start snapping pictures earlier on or how I only managed to get a couple, but at least I got one of McKinley checking out Martin.

 The Kellys had us over to enjoy all their wonderful fruit! The kids love to raid their raspberry and blueberry patches. Their farm is always so much fun and such a great place for my wild and crazy kids to run and play! :)

 I couldn't believe McKinley snuggled with Aunt Nancy so quickly but it wasn't at all a surprise that she loved the fresh raspberries! :)

 I have a lot of these berry pictures, but I just can't help it since they're all so cute! :) 

 Time to sit and eat them all!!! :)

I thought this was a sweet picture of Reagan and Aunt Nancy having a chat while looking for a rabbit they had spotted.

 Hanging out by the barn, 

 in the hammock, 

 and don't forget the amazing tire swings!!! 

 Somehow, neither Grand-Dad or I managed to take a single picture at Grammy and Grand-Dad's house, but they were of course a large part of the fun too! Thank you to everyone for always making us feel so special and welcome in Tennessee! :)

Hermie - 2013

There is always great excitement in our house when our elf, Hermie, appears for the month of December. Last Christmas Hermie had several new and fun ideas he had never tried before like wrapping our toilet one night! 

 One morning the kids discovered Hermie had left a gift. It turned out he had been paying attention to what we were studying and decided to bring them a Viking ship to build.

 Aunt Marta gave the girls Elf on the Shelf chef outfits and the girls thoroughly enjoyed wearing them to help bake some of our favorite Christmas treats. :)

Hermie must have felt inspired by the girls and his matching chef's hat because he decided to try his hand at cooking breakfast for the kids one morning. I personally thought this concoction of spaghetti, ketchup, cookies, popcorn balls, cheerios, M&Ms, marshmallows and more looked pretty disgusting, but not only were the kids excited about it they ate it!

Both Frosty (who sent back cotton candy snowballs) and Rudolph sent notes back with Hermie this year. Rudolph sent some small cute treats including a flashing read nose for Jackson.

  Hermie certainly didn't want us to forget the reason for the season so on Christmas Eve we found him in our Nativity scene presenting a gift to Jesus with a note telling the kids "God Loves You!"

 The kids are looking forward to seeing Hermie again in about a month for Jackson's birthday and it won't be long now before he's back for this Christmas season! :)  

Waveland Park - Group Violin Lesson

For our first group violin lesson of the semester Miss Bethany had us meet at Waveland State Park. The kids enjoyed playing their violins outdoors and then having the opportunity to play with each other afterwards.

 Jackson brought his new kite from Uncle Van and Aunt Marta to try out.

 Looks like it was a hit! :) 

 Tim pretending to fall asleep mid swing. The kids loved this! lol :)

 Miss McKinley enjoyed her swing time too. :) 

 Every time we come here I think this little log house (complete with fireplace inside) is absolutely adorable! All the kids think its pretty cool too! :)

 Tim was such a good sport playing the part of the ogre for the kids.

 Sweet girls :)

Reagan said she would like all our practices to be at Waveland from now on! :)

Jackson's Birthday Gifts

Jackson's primary gift for his birthday this year was the Imaginext castle, dragon, ogre and accompanying accessories. He received most of it from us and Grammy & Grand-Dad. He also received the knight and wolf set from Uncle Andrew and Aunt Jen. Thank you so much to the LaBars for their generous contributions to this new collection! 

~

Jackson is enjoying opening gifts more than he used too but he still enlists the girls to help him which they are more than happy to do! :)

 A pretty excited birthday boy about his new castle!

  This castle is so awesome because it recognizes the dragon, ogre and other various accessories. For instance when the dragon flies by knights begin shouting "Dragon!" or "Stay away from it's mouth!" or "Ogre, it's an Ogre!!!" It is super cool and we've all been enjoying it. :) I would highly recommend it for any little boys who like knights and castles.

 The dragon's first victim!

 The Hamlins gave Jackson a bag of Cars gifts that he loved! He now sleeps with this Cars blanket every night.

 

 A Cars movie and coloring/sticker book too! :)

 The Sligers sent Jackson a huge package with lots of fun things! Jackson was so excited to open his big package that was expecially for him! 

 Jackson was excited about everything (and the girls were pretty excited about the tether ball set) but Jackson's favorite (as you can see from his face) was the new horse for his knights! 

 Thank you also to Uncle Chuck and Aunt Julie who gave Jackson a gun when they visited in August and to Grandma and Grandpa for the card and generous gift of money. Increasing the college fund is always EXTREMELY appreciated!

~

I hope we didn't miss anyone as we appreciated everything very much! We are especially thankful to all of you for making Jackson feel so special through gifts, phone calls or e-mails and Facebook messages! Thank you everybody for all your birthday wishes for our big 3 year old boy!