The beginning of April is when we celebrate Michael's birthday.  He got some new cub scout gear.  A Class B uniform which he loves and a pocket knife which he earned by showing us as a wolf that he was responsible to take care of it.  We also got to take some joy rides in a Cessna-our family friends rented one for the day. 

Bekah turns 7 years old!  Our awesome friends, the Andersons, helped us celebrate.  Bekah picked an all-you-can-eat buffet.  At home, the kids like to set up a "throne" for the birthday girl/boy to sit on to receive/open presents.  We like to decorate when someone actually comes all the way out to visit us.  Sometimes it's a big banner, sometimes just sidewalk chalk all over the driveway.  All the kids love to sing on the karyoke machine. 

Sarah's 5

Sarah's birthday party. She invited Haley Barnard, Kristen Fox, Samuel Kitchen and Elias (she calls him "Elitas") from PreK. They made snow globes and candy houses. She picked a snowflake cake to go with her winter party and she had a great time at her party with her friends.

Wrapping up summer

We love our friends from church and utilize the summer to get together since we all go to different schools. Here are pictures from one of our outings to the park to play in the fountain. It was also Hannah's birthday-we entered double digits, I feel so OLD! Sarah started school (again, feeling old). She goes to 1/2 day PreK and was so excited to start. Rachy is like a little doll to her siblings-here they dressed her up, did her hair and even put on makeup and nail polish.

Goings on in June

So, here's an overview of June: Rachy turned two! The kids helped me make her a farm themed cake. She got lots of gifts and really loved the cards with the $2 bills. Thanks grandpas and grandmas! Michael enjoyed raingutter regatta and Brenda enjoyed girls camp. Rachy's back and elbow are healing-no long lasting damage (physically or emotionally).

Back in May

Here is a picture of Brenda's birthday, Sarah (with giraffe) and Rachy (with goslings) at the zoo, Michael camping at Father's and Son's, and all of us camping at Wilson Lake with the Barnards. It was beautiful there and we had a great time with friends: eating, hiking, swimming. Rachy didn't come away unscathed, however. She got some 2nd degree burns on her elbow and back that scared us pretty bad.

MIchael's birthday

 

Michael is eight! His birthday requests this year were: Star Wars legos, a third Wii remote, and a lock for his bedroom door(Sarah and Rachel go in his room while he's at school and break his lego creations). His "party" wasn't till Friday, which was also the night of the pinewood derby. His car is the silver rocket car-which came in second in most of it's races. He was very happy to be there! His friend Joseph came over after and had cake and ice cream with us and they had a sleepover-Michael's first ever.

Bekah's all day birthday

 

Bekah's birthday fell over spring break this year and we had fun all day long. First the Anderson's took us bowling and brought ding dong cupcakes(Bekah is pretending to blow out the candles on her Birthday girl headband). Then Sister Harvey took us out to Golden Corral where the staff sang a birthday song to a very embarrased Bekah. Last she had the Anderson's come over for birthday cake and ice cream and got to open her presents from her family. This is a mermaid barbie the kids got her.

Sarah's 4th birthday

 

Ever since school started this year Sarah's been asking us when she gets to go to school and we always tell her "You have to be four." Well needless to say she was very excited to for this birthday and now we have to come up with a new way to explain the time before she can start school. She wanted a horsie cake, so we let her pick the mix and the frosting and then put a horse on top (she's licking the frosting off so she can play with it). She got this new bike basket and bell so we let her bring her bike in. The kids followed her around and everytime she would enter the room we would all clap and cheer. She had so much fun.

Hannah's birthday

We celebrated Hannah's 9th birthday by going to Golden Corral for dinner the day before. She invited her friend Irene and they had a lot of fun. Then on her birthday, she had Emma come over and they played hard all day. She wanted a sun cake so this is what we came up with. I will never make one like that again-what a pain to frost each ray! The Andersons came over for cake and Hannah got a new webkins from them. She loves to play in webkins world so she's so glad she'll have another year to do that. Her other request was that she get to take her leftover sun cake with her to activity days to share. Last but not least she was excited to buy some new hanging earings at the mall with her birthday money.

Rachel's birthday hippo

Rachel's 1st birthday

 

June 11th was Rachel's 1st birthday. She was adorable sitting in her decorated high chair eating her little star shaped cake. The rest of us ate an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. She couldn't blow out her candle so Daddy helped her, but she loved being serenaded. She sat in the special chair to open her presents, but she didn't know how to do that either, so once again Daddy helped her. She got a hippo shape sorter and a new outfit from us, and a rock and roll Ernie and 3 new dresses from the Anderson's. She had no interest in the clothes, loved playing with the hippo, and was terrified of the rock and roll Ernie.