May 2012

May 1- school, field trip to the new Science museum wing with klick's, lots of playtime, picked morgan girls up from school and went to ice cream for a treat, kiddos played, and met klick's at CFA for dinner.

May 2- testing for the big kids while the youngest two spent the morning playing in water at the klick's, picked them up and stayed for lunch/playtime, played all afternoon with the kiddos, lots of piano practice from cailey, and a fun family night together.

May 3- kinsey's gotcha day!!, EOYS (end of year school aka math review/flashmaster/phonics for K), ran errands, got e's haircut, celebrated K all day, met kelly at Bojangles since kinsey wanted it for her gotcha day, found out in BoJ's that they were def moving to TX:(, picked up morgan's from school and got them slushies in celebration of both gracie's bday and kinsey's gd, went to IHOP with morgans for more celebrating, then to their house to watch gracie open gifts.

May 4- watched alex, baked and decorated gracie's beach ball cake, met kelly at Jumpin Beans so the the kids could play, loved our 'talk time', traded kids for playdates and caroline came home to play with us for the afternoon while braden went to their house, baked fish cupcakes while visiting with cheryl all afternoon, leslie came over with winston and we finished the party prep while the kiddos were at choir rehearsal, and went to kohl's with Les so the boys could pick out a toy:).

May 5- soccer games, choir rehearsal all day, jackson's party at north hills park, toy store to get ephram's first super hero toy with brian!, kiddos played after choir, helped leslie with gracie's party (which cailey went to:)..and got some chat time in, and crashed after a busy few days.

May 6- church, lazy day, sleepy cailey, and the bayleaf choir program where the kiddos did awesome!

May 7- EOYS, walked at the Y with kelly then they came over for lunch, watched carter during gymnastics, kinsey went to their house for a playdate all day, poor cailey came home from the Y with a fever and spent her day in bed with a tummy ache, shrimp and linguini:), scouts for braden, and lots of playtime with my littlest guy.

May 8- EOYS, cailey still had a tummy ache all day:(, spent hours cleaning out my closet and it looks AWESOME!!, cleaned the kiddos closets too, read and played in between, and caught up with adele on the phone.

May 9- at home day, laundry (EVERY piece of laundry in the house!), got a SURPRISE call from chelsea:)!, snuggled with my still tummy ache cailey girl, read lots of dr. seuss to ephram, played games with kinsey and braden, EOYS, had to cancel a playdate b/c of cailey's tummy ache:(, and did lots of praying with my girl.

May 10- EOYS, cailey didn't feel well still, ran errands, youngest three played outside most of the day, picked the morgan girls up from school and cailey started feeling better so she played, made chicken parmesan:), had the klick's over for dinner and a fun night of freeze tag/laughing/blogging/remembering/and hanging out together....plus brownie make your own sundaes with the klicks and morgan girls.

May 11- came downstairs to kiddos playing games, brandon brought cfa for breakfast, watched the klick's and alex, lots of playing outside on the nice cool day, tons of laughing, went to cfa for free receipt day with kelly, went to AHG for the mother/daughter tea while the boys were at Kel's, played with the girls...and they played together nicely:), went to molly's shower at simply crepes and crashed!

May 12- kinsey and cailey's soccer games and award ceremony's, kinsey played in for cailey's team who was low on players and did great!:), impromptu play date with abby and lily after soccer...first to McD's then home for playing, spelling bee where C and B WON for their grade levels, kiddos played more with the girls (making hair things and playing outside) until dinner then we watched home videos as a fam. LOVE.

May 13- woke up to all four kiddos singing "Happy Mother's Day" to me and bagels, church, went to target together so the kiddos could use their gift cards from the spelling bee, cleaned the garage with the kiddos/then b, relaxed, went to the mall w/ the fam, and got lots of hugs and snuggles.

May 14- piano lessons, EOYS, LOTS of free time to play:), cailey spent the day making hair wraps, and took the girls to CFA for a mommy/daughter dinner date.

May 15- EOYS, lunch/playdate with Keel's all afternoon, date with Marsie and all the boys to the mall playplace and dinner, while brian hung out with the girls and took them on a walk/dinner at home/and played soccer with them.

May 16- EOYS, Y with Kelly, playdate with the Schoenlings, tons of playtime, triples at HT three times, cailey had soccer tryouts, outside play together, one on one time and stories with e, and games with the oldest two while K crashed.

May 17- EOYS, Y with beth for a HARD workout:), tons of playtime, picked up the morgan girls from school and got slushies before an afternoon of playing, soccer tryouts canceled because of storms, Cailey and Braden's piano recital, and triples with the whole fam AND the daddy cart:).

May 18- watched alex, went to the mall with kelly so the kiddos could play, cleaned, eve and cameron came for lunch!! along with kelly and her kiddos, left for the beach while brian came home early to watch the kids, went out to eat Italian for dinner, hung out at Joe's parents before being SURPRISED by Anne who joined Eve and I!

at home: kiddos played the rest of the day and then had a Star Wars movie night with brian.

May 19- took our time getting up then headed out for some shopping at the outlets, went to the condo, walked on the beach, ate at Benjamin's (YUM), walked around broadway for a little while, laughed, played games, and went to bed at midnight

at home: kiddos had a yard sale with brian and played in the tent, kinsey went to caroline's birthday party, and they went out to a Korean restaurant for dinner!

May 20- woke up to Krispy Kreme doughnuts, went out on the beach briefly before eating at Chili's, spent the rest of the day on the beach in the GORGEOUS sunshine, said goodbye to anne, went to Mellow Mushroom with Eve (yum), went to broadway for fun shopping and ben and jerry's for ice cream, then played some more games with eve.

at home: brian took kiddos to the Got to Be NC festival from 10-4!! where they had a blast riding rides all day and eating, then they went to their Awana meeting and awards night..where the girls got American Girl Dolls and braden got an Ipod Touch.

May 21- packed up to go home, left the beautiful beach, picked up Cameron then came home to my family for tons of hugs!!, made dessert, unpacked, more hugs, surprised eve and the kiddos with a visit from Laura and her kiddos, lots of fun hanging out, ate together, watched Rebecca open the American Girl Doll from Cailey, went on a walk together while Braden had his scout awards night, and stayed up chatting.

May 22- went walking with laura while eve watched all nine kiddos!, hung out with the girls until laura took eve to the airport...kiddos played together, braden and i made a coffee cake together, surprised the girls with a TWO night sleepover!!, went to CFA together, everyone had a great time hanging out and playing together, 31 party was canceled but leslie/cheryl/and laura and i hung out and had a great time talking while the kiddos had a movie night....and got a call from kelly saying that maybe tonight was the night to meet Charlotte!!

May 23- kelly called to say Charlotte was def coming today!, watched the klick kids for the day:), went on a walk with all 11 kids before lunch (which included a WHOLE loaf of bread), said goodbye to the welch's after a fun morning, played games with the all the kids, power outage fun, pizza for dinner, Charlotte was born at 5:20, took the kids back, read tons to the kids, and crashed only to have a little visitor in my bed:).

May 24- EOYS, played with the kiddos, laundry, cleaned, addison came to play for the day, went to see Kelly and Charlotte with Cailey, and ate Arby's with her before playing outside with the kids.

May 25- EOYS, watched Alex, Janet came over so the kids could play and she could help me with curriculum picks for next year, read on my IPAD:)!!, lots of reading for the kiddos, played games with all the kiddos (age appropriate for each), took Braden out for his birthday date with Brian for Chinese/bookstore/chocolate store while the morgan's watched the kids, and kids played outside until DARK...aka 8:45!

May 26- visit from granny!, kiddos played outside ALL day in the pool and with friends, brian (and me a little) started redoing the deck by taking all the old wood off, worked with the kids to bring all the new wood to the back yard, and movie night.

May 27- worked on the deck with brian all day while the kiddos played outside in the pool again...ephram spent the day at the morgan's getting lots of treats and attention:).

May 28- another deck day, all the kiddos played in the pool for the day and LOVED it!:).

May 29- last day working on the deck, kiddos helped with clean up and did GREAT team work (proud mama moment), had a hilarious time with the family trying to catch a baby bunny together...chasing it all around...and we succeeded and loved on it for a while before letting it go...kiddos continued trying to get it afterwards unsuccessfully, saw tons of "runaway the turtle" during the deck rebuild, got rained on/therefore couldn't stain it, and was SUPER proud of Brian for the great job he did!

May 30- pool date with cheryl rained out:(, played games and read books with the kids all day long:)!, lots of pente with the oldest three:), was silly together, menu planned with cailey, found out both cailey and braden got main parts AND solos for choir camp, and read TONS more with ephram.

from e who built a big lego 'ship'- "this is the ship where the Jedi's live...dark Vader can't get in."

May 31- first pool day of the season!! tons of fun swimming, chasing, splashing, catching, snuggling, racing, got the morgan girls from school and kiddos played, and went to CFA block party night with the lawleys for rock climbing (kinsey did AWESOME!! her first time making it to the top!) and she inspired her siblings to join her at the top:), bounce house, face paint...fun family night!

random April/May

this boy LOVES capes!! he always asks me to tie on scarfs or blankets
so he can be a super hero!

free frozen lemonade day!!

going to nonny and poppy's and see saw with sissy

and learning extra awana verses

ipad time and a random rash that appeared on ephram all over his body that FREAKED us out...then left an hour after it came.

jammie road trip and always reading:)

first ring pop (and thrilled) and another silly clementine girl

box head, another ring pop, and harrison's birthday party. these two get along great but their height difference always makes me smile:).

canceled party...or not??

I was having a 31 party while Laura was here because she loves it but the person throwing it got sick so we decided to still get together with a few of the people coming and hang out. These three ladies are all SO sweet and love me...and are the best at encouraging me:). I am so glad we were all able to hang out together!! Love yall!

ifamily

We LOVE our iproducts around here and now that the kids are getting older they have joined in on the the love. Along with our imac I have an ipad that Brian got me last year (and of course I thought I would NEVER use it!) Cailey got an ipod touch for Christmas and Braden just earned one from the awana store!! Yes...our AWANA was THAT awesome!! We don't have much screen time around here (even though there are lots of screens:) but they do love playing both wordfeud and scramble with their friends. Oh..and most recently Brian got me an iphone to replace the droid I rarely used and I LOVE it!! I didn't think I'd use it much and was all for getting me a regular 'old style not smart' phone...but he thought I'd want it. Thanks to being used to an ipad I have really loved it and actually answer my calls and keep it charged now:). These were all lined up and Braden decided to take a picture of them:).

it's been a while...

It's so hard to get ephram to smile normal...as in not 'cheesy' with his eyes closed!! He tries SO hard that it's funny but Brian caught this picture of us and I just had to post it! I LOVE this picture of me and my littlest guy together!

Ephram and I love to dance together and it makes him laugh so much! We dance while the kids are practicing piano or even for no reason..I've done it (and still do:) with all the kiddos. Looking at this makes me realize how big he's getting and just how blessed I am that God chose him to be in our family!!

Mother/Daughter Night

Chick Fil A had a mother/daughter night (after the father/son campout) and the girls were so excited to go together! They both decided to dress up for the occasion:). There were yummy FREE desserts (both the girls picked ice cream and toppings), crafts, nail polish (they even put it on the girls!), someone from Mary Kay...the girls both tried some lip gloss:), and friends! We saw a ton of people we knew there and even got to sit beside our friends who we didn't know were coming until right before we left. I prepared a cute questionnaire for my girls just so we could have conversation starters...it was super fun!

i love that cailey still isn't too old to make and wear a crown:). and a picture with our sweet friends!!

2012 Spelling Bee

Cailey and Braden did a great job at the spelling bee!! They were both super excited and won for their grade levels!! It was done a bit differently this year because there weren't as many students so all the grade level winners had a spell off together. Cailey ended up winning second place and lost to last years winner...a boy a few grades ahead of her. Braden got out on the word optical because he thought they said obstacle (and spelled that instead). Cailey ended up getting out on fanfare because she spelled it fanfair...and knew she made a mistake. Once again it was a great experience and they both loved it! Kinsey was bummed she couldn't participate and is excited about joining them next year! Oh..and the prizes?? a $20 gift card for Target which they both used to buy new bike helmets! Cailey has another 20$ because she came in 2nd overall but hasn't decided what she wants to use it on yet:).

Tea Time

The girls and I went to the AHG Mother Daughter Tea while Kelly graciously watched the boys. It was such a sweet time to focus on them and get to just BE with my girls. Their were REAL tea cups, cute sandwiches and other food, and even entertainment from the girls! Cailey chose to play the keyboard:).


Me and my sweet girls!! Kinsey's group was supposed to serve the food but she was feeling shy so Cailey jumped right in to help her:)!

sweet friends

big boo boos.

This is after a week of healing. Kinsey got BIG boo boos on her hands after doing the monkey bars over and over. She's got 'SOMETHING' in her that makes her persist through failure or pain. I've seen it in doing monkey bars, learning how to hula hoop, and learning how to master her cartwheel. She's AWESOME!! But this day she was so sad and I hurt for her hands that were dripping blood everywhere. She had trouble writing, washing herself, and even using a fork. Thankfully after a few days she had figured out how to work around her boo boos.

Mother's Day

This picture was not taken on Mother's Day but looking through all those I couldn't find any where everyone had their eyes open...so I chose to use this one instead. This morning the kids and Brian woke me up with bagels from Panera (my request the night before:)and handmade cards and gifts. Then we went to church and had outback burgers for lunch...yum! After organizing the garage a bit (super fun for this type A mama) I went inside and just rested. It was a very relaxing day! We all went to the mall in the evening just to walk around...and spent more time together when we got home. Family. We were all together all day long. I'm a VERY blessed and thankful mama.

The Amazing Grace Race

The kids did a GREAT job in their spring musical, "The Amazing Grace Race". Cailey auditioned for a part (and solos) and got them! She played Claire who was a girly girl runner...and did a great job! Kinsey and Braden were part of the 'choir' and were just so sweet. Kinsey girl would just GRIN so big whenever she caught our eyes looking at her and knew all the words and motions to everything...even people's part!! Braden was very focused on the songs and motions too!

It is SUCH a blessing to have our sweet neighbors in choir with them! Gracie and Emily Ruth did
a super job!

The whole group

I'm so proud of my sweet singers!!

CFA campout

After some fun (imaginary) light saber time at the park....

Brian and Braden headed CFA for a father/son campout! When I first told Braden about it he was beyond excited since he missed his scout camping trip the weekend of his birthday party. CFA had planned a TON of activities for them during the evening and into the night...they had so much fun! I showed up to take a few pictures early on and couldn't believe the number of tents and awesome dads who were doing this for/with their sons! Our air mattress fit perfectly inside the tent so the boys were extra comfy.

Brian took these pictures during the night. There was a giant rock climbing wall, a children's author reading a funny story she wrote about her naughty dog (who was also there), smores..then midnight ice cream sundaes (oh..and someone was there who taught the boys how to start a fire), a jousting ring, a bounce house, then they had movies and games at midnight...they had so much fun!

In the morning they ate their yummy CFA breakfast and headed home in time for soccer games. Braden had such a GREAT time and ephram can't wait until he's old enough to go. We are so thankful that our CFA has so many great opportunity's to grow families closer together!

Braden did a journal entry about it the next week:

This weekend I went on a camping trip at Chick-fil-A. I got to have only Daddy come because it was a father son camping trip and Ephram was too young. I knew I was going to have a lot of fun and couldn't wait to get there!

As soon as we got there I helped daddy set the tent up. Then we had a yummy dinner in front of the tent. I had chicken nuggest and fries and daddy had a sandwich and frieds.

After dinner I went to jump in the bounce house. I also did other fun activities, like climbing a rock wall, jousting, and making a fire starter. My favorite was the tall rock wall.

Later that night we roasted marshmallows and made smores. They were delicious and chocolatey! We also had ice cream sundaes. I put m&m's and gummy bears on mine.

Then the rocket learning group came and taught us how to build a fire. Daddy told me that you need oxygen to keep a fire going. After that an author came and read us a book around the campfire about her naughty dog.

A little while later we watched part of a movie. Then we went to sleep in our comfortable tent. The next morning we pack, ate breakfast, and left. I had a fantastic time camping at Chick-fil-A!

Front Yard Picnics

The kids and I have lunch picnics in the front yard all the time when the weather isn't too hot. On Sunday when we came home from church it was gorgeous so we decided to have a family picnic and daddy joined us. Such a simple thing...yet so fun for our family! Brian and I used to picnic ALL THE TIME when we lived in MA. We'd bring our blanket out to Lynch park and sit between rose gardens and the ocean or even just pull it out on the seminary lawn. After lunch we'd always play cards for hours....love those memories that we can now turn into family fun!

Ephram decided he wanted to try his bike that day too! He hasn't quite gotten the handle of pedaling and seems to be more like the older two (who are NOT my daredevil ones) so it may still be a while:). Thankfully he has siblings who love to push him around on it, though! I can't believe he's big enough for that!

Science Museum

We went to the Science museum downtown to check out the new sections that have recently been opened and it was SO neat!! We could have spent so many more hours there than we did and I know we'll go back a bunch just to scratch the surface of everything they have to offer...especially for the older kids.

While we waited for friends to come we hung out downstairs answering questions about whales..which was a GREAT review for us since we learned about God's creature of the Sea during the first half of the year. Cailey and Braden loved seeing how much they knew about them. Then we went upstairs and watched a planet earth video inside the globe before I took the older kids into on the of the research rooms and the younger kids went with Kelly to check out the aquarium downstairs.

The research room was AMAZING for Science lovers. Above is an interactive table where the kids can put real (dead and stuffed) animals down and a ton of facts will pop up about it. They could have spent all day with just the table! They had beavers, squirrels, owls, mice, birds, turtles, all sorts of things...which were all "real".

They also had animal which had been dissected with the parts labeled inside these see through containers. I mean...all over the place. There were pigs, frogs, fish, birds, etc. The picture on the left is the pig while the picture on the right shows the 21 day cycle of a chick inside the egg. Pretty amazing for the kids to see...and def backs up the fact that life begins on day 1 of conception!

After spending tons of time in the first research room we went down to check out the aquarium and headed out to a pretty rock garden to eat lunch. Afterwards we explored the third floor together looking at giant virus models and other neat exhibits. Then the younger kids went with kelly to the discovery room and I took the older kids into another research room where they studied planets (on a touch screen computer...was awesome), held holograms!! and tried to figure out some complicated computer puzzles.

Finally we went to meet the littles who were dressed up oh so cute and exploring all the fun things offered to play with. Kinsey was busy being a spider and spinning a web:). We had such a GREAT day at the museum and can't wait to go back!