Happy 6th Birthday Brady!

We celebrated Brady's 6th birthday with a lego-themed party at Monkey Bizness, a giant indoor playground-y place! The party was for up to 25 kids, so after including all of the cousins, Brady also decided to invite all of the boys in his kindergarten class, plus a few other friends from preschool and KED.  He was SO excited to be able to get together with all of his buddies!

Everyone gathered in a waiting room to go in...Andrew, Brady, Eli, Jake, and Danny.

And Nolan also wanted a picture with the birthday boy, so cute!

And, they're off!  All of the kiddos scattered everywhere as soon as the doors were open.

Heath and Lando.

Even Brooks and Arie found some fun things to play on!

The giant blow up slide was definitely a hit for the big kids (and the adults!)

Payton got to bring along Grace and Rosalind so she wasn't the ONLY girl :)

And even Oma took a turn!

Climbing through the maze...

Payton is such a goof!

Opa and Payton raced through the obstacle course...

After 3.2 seconds, Payton clearly had the lead.  See her head already peaking over the hill?

Grandma Inge and Grandma Tammy decided they preferred to just hang out :)

On your mark, get set, go!

Rylan--doing what he does best--making silly faces :)

After an hour of playing, it was time for dinner and cake.  Here are all of the hot and sweaty Mark Twain boys...I can just picture them twice this size in high school in a few years!

We could bring in any food except for pizza (they wanted to sell us their own expensive pizza), so we ordered 35 cheeseburgers from McDonalds and added some chips/pretzels/grapes/drinks, and everyone grabbed a seat to eat...

The ladies and the cousins...

And the birthday boy :)

After dinner, it was time for some lego cake!

And just like that, it was time to head home.  Each kiddo left with a lego head marshmallow pop favor. Well, most of them ate it on their way out the door!

 

Given our short time at Monkey Bizness, we piled ALL of the presents into the car and headed home with the grandparents.  It was awesome watching Brady take time to read each card (he's getting SO good at reading!) and enjoy the presents everyone got him.  Legos were definitely the theme, and he has almost built everything he got just two weeks after the party!

Brady Michael, it's hard to believe that you are already six years old.  

We are so proud of the little man you are becoming.  

We love you so much.  Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Wesley!

A few weeks ago, we celebrated dear Wesley's birthday.  (I just keep falling behind with blogging!)  My parents hosted our traditional "choose-your-own" meal at their house.  Wes chose his favorite, bbq from Winstons.  It is so good!

Nolan, Heath, and Brooks all had pink eye, so Abby had to stay home with boys (we missed you!).  But, Mark came over to join the slightly smaller crew.  

My mom found one of Brad's old hats, so Payton thought she was quite cool wearing it all night. :)

I know this picture is dark, but I'm not sure this little monkey could be any cuter!

 Love these two!

 Lando took advantage of the fact that Uncle Mark's lap was free most of the night!

 Bradley and Arie.  That little guy always seems to be sleeping, so he doesn't get into very many pictures!

Opening presents...

Brady is getting quite good at reading, so he helped his dad read the cards.

Grandma Tammy joined in the fun as well.

And finally, time for cake!

Happy Birthday Babeski.  We love you very much.

Junior Toms Take Two

The night before we left for Mexico, Payton participated in the Junior Toms.  She did this a year ago and really enjoyed it, so she was anxious to sign up again.  The Toms are the dance group at my school, they actually won the 5A State Championship this year, so they are awesome!  Almost 200 elementary school girls signed up.  They practiced for a few hours on Tuesday night and then they performed at halftime of the boys basketball game on Wednesday night.

Uncle Brad coaches the JV boys team, so we came a little early to watch him coach.

 Talking very seriously to Nick.

 Landon and Cohen had a blast climbing around the bleachers.  Here they were dancing with the pep band.

 Brady's buddy from school, Andrew, had a sister who was dancing as well.  So, they had a great time (mainly out at the concession stand!)

 Lovebirds?!

 And finally it was time for some dancing!  This is Juliana, Grace, and Payton.  They are all in the same class at school.

The girls did a great job and the crowd loved it!

Nice work Payton!