Happy Birthday Payton! (Which Actually Occurred In May) & Memorial Day Fun

So, about two months ago, our one and only daughter PR turned TEN!  She requested another backyard water party, which was just fine with me.  Super easy, and the kids have a blast.  On the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, Payton invited all of her buddies over and we got busy celebrating.  

We planned a bunch of water games, but it was kind of chilly, so we filled our buckets with warm water from inside the house.

This was a sponge relay.  Pass the soaked sponges down the line and see which team could fill their cup first!

 Next up, partner-squirt-gun-cup-fill...or something like that.

 Brady and Ethan (the neighbor boy who felt left out because his sister came), cheated and stood about 6 inches away from each other!

 The very focused birthday girl.

 Next up?  Pop the balloon with your partner on the tramp.  Not as easy as it sounds!

Brady and Ethan.

 Payton and Camden.

 Rosalind and Grace.

 Payton and Arabella.

 A water balloon toss!

 And finally, what all the kids had been waiting for....a shaving cream fight!

 She is such a dork!

 Lucy got in on the action as well.

 The whole crew!

 After all the games, we had some pizza, opened gifts, and ended up with some cake!  Again, Payton is being an animal and looks like a total dork :)  I tell her this and she just laughs...

 Payton and Camden bought Payton the first series of Warriors--a sci fi cat book about clans and powers and all kinds of stuff I don't know about.  Sounds like Lazer Cats from SNL, but she LOVES the books and devoured all six in about three weeks.  Love that she is reading!

 Money is always a great gift!

 The party was great and it was so fun to see PR in her element.  On Monday, Memorial Day, we headed up to the cabin for some relaxation and a little more celebrating with the family.

The boys played a little baseball.  Uncle Mark teaching Brady how to throw some pitches.

 Trying them out on his father.

 Some horseshoe fun.

 And what boys do best.  Run!

 A little snack for the men.

 Payton wanted to hike for her birthday, so almost everyone took a walk down the hill.  Then a smaller group of us continued on to O'Fallon Park.

Discussing life.

 Best buds with a photo bombing brother.

 Ninja Lando.

 This group kept going around the circle.  Nolan, Payton, Brady, Rosalind, Landon, Wes, and I continued our trek towards the river and O'Fallon Park.

Brady took this one.  He almost chopped off our heads, but I'll take it.

 Just like his daddy.

 Mr. Nolan.

 More running.

 When we finally got to the park, we let the kids wade a little bit in the river.

 Do you see the title of class clown in her future?!

 Man, do I love these three.

 Opa picked us up and drove us back to the cabin just in time for some dinner!

 And a second round of bundt cakes for the birthday girl.

 Happy Birthday Payton.  It's hard to believe this is your last year of elementary school!  We love you so much!

Happy Birthday Brady! (Which Actually Occurred In March)

So I really thought I was going to catch up on blogging this summer.  Then I started grad school.  So, every minute that I'm not hanging with the kids, I seem to be staring at the computer doing homework.  I really wish I would have taken care of my masters about 15 years ago, but I got busy with marriage, kids, coaching, and everything else...oh well.  It's going ok so far (after my initial almost mental breakdown and cry fest), just totally consuming the time I'd rather be using for something else.  Like blogging, for example.

So, on March 15, you know, over three months ago, our oldest son turned 7.  This year, this handsome stud requested a party at Chuck E. Cheese.  So, we booked a party, invited friends and fam, and got busy partying.

The birthday king.  Funny how I already think he looks older now than he does in this picture.

Payton and Arie.

Cohen playing some air hockey.

Uncle Bradley helping Lando whack at some moles.

Heathy loved the hungry dog that eats all the plastic balls.

Brady's two best school buds, Danny and Andrew.

Nolan and his horse.

Wes battling Danny in ping pong.

Most of the gang sitting down for some pizza.  It's so fun to watch Brady with all his buddies.

I think the highlight of the evening was when Brady got his chance in the ticket blaster.  For one minute, gale force winds blow tickets everywhere in a glass chamber.  Whatever tickets you can grab, you can keep.  I tried to tell Brady to shove the tickets in his shirt, but he couldn't here me and didn't have much of a strategy.  It didn't matter, he loved it anyway.

Sitting inside the ticket blaster is a coupon worth 1000 tickets.  The jackpot prize.  No, Brady did not actually catch the 1000 ticket coupon.  Our host happened to be one of my former students, so she nicely slipped the coupon into Brady's hand.  He was SO pumped!

Cousins.

After pizza, Chuck E. Cheese made an appearance for cake and singing.  The kids felt compelled to give him hugs.

And finally, it was time for some cake.  Brady requested a football field cake so he could put all of his favorite helmets on it.

Brady had a great time and was in heaven with video games, pizza, pop, cake, and his buddies.  What more could you want when you're a seven year old boy?

Happy Birthday Bradster.  We love you so much.

Photo Phun

Now that it's summer, I will attempt to catch up on the last few months of blogging...Brady's birthday, Easter, Payton's Birthday, Memorial Day...but for now, here's a few snapshots to whet your appetite:

Happy Birthday Wesley!

Now that it's been a month, I should probably post about Wes's birthday!  

We celebrated Wesley turning 37 with a weekend full of a few different fun celebrations.

Lindsay and Jeremy had been telling us about this really cool 20's style speak easy called Williams & Graham.  They had been there once before and really enjoyed it, so we headed down there together on Friday night.  The entrance looks like a book store, and when they are ready for you to come in, they open a secret door in the wall!

We waited in the "standing" area for a bit before a table was ready for us.  They don't really make standing bars that fit all sizes of people :)

It was SUPER dark inside, so these are my phone pics very altered to allow us to even show up.

We ordered some fun drinks and decided to try a few adventurous apps--bone marrow with bacon jam and buffalo frog legs!

After dinner we headed to another one of Lindsay and Jeremy's favorite restaurants--a Native American Chipotle-ish place called Tagabe.  It was really good!  Finally, we met up with Dana, Nate, and Trish for a few drinks.  It was a really fun night!

Saturday was Wes's actual birthday.  So, in the morning, the kids surprised Wes with breakfast in bed!\

Wes and Tim went ATVing for most of the day, which was Wes's birthday wish come true.  That night, although I didn't take any pictures, we hung out with Gwen and Tim and had dinner together.

Finally, on Sunday, after another round of ATVing with Jer, we celebrated at my mom and dad's house with the family.

Both Payton and Brady made homemade cards.  Payton came up with 37 reasons why she loves her dad, and Brady got to about 10 and then just said 'that's pretty old!'  But, it was so cute to read all of their personal reasons.

After a great hamburger lunch, we topped off the weekend with a birthday bundt cake.  Landon got to sing with the birthday boy!

Happy Birthday Babeski.  We love you so much!