The Farm 2013

Every year we go with my friends and go fruit picking at a local farm. The trip is always full of adventure and tummies satisfied with yummy fruit. I am pretty bad at the "bringing fruit home" concept; I can't seem to fill up my bucket faster than the kids can eat the fruit I put in it.

 

 

It was a hot day, upper 90's. Here the kids are taking a break in the shade of the blueberry bushes. Please notice the lack of blueberries in there bags and bucket. While they rested they enjoyed the fruits of my/their labor...hehe, get it.

 

 Best Friends.

 All the kids in the crew this year. There were so many little ones that it was hard to get a picture with all of them looking. This was the best I could do. :)

 

After we pick all the fruit our basket and tummies can hold the kids jumpo on this GIANT yellow trampoline blob. It is, of course, their favorite part. 

 

Brother and sister playing on the big yellow blob together.

  

 Brady getting big air. ;)

 

Best Brothers. We always have fun at the farm.



The Speedway

Do you ever feel like you need to be outside listening to cars fly by you so loud you can barely talk with your super fun friends that you are hanging out with? Oh girls you don't? Boys DO! They love it. They want to see the sprint cars flying around the dirt track, the spin outs, the race to the finish from the final corner...all while coming close to ear rupture from the sound emitted from these racing machines. Because I happen to have two boys and my friend's famliy has four boys, we decided to hit up the Speedway for our Saturday night plans. I have to say I had a lot of fun. God gave me little boys because I kind of think stuff like this is awesome!

 

Cody and Brady totally into the race.

 

I begged, "Please let me just get one picture of your cute little faces," but Cody could only miss seconds of the race before he turned back again. So, thus, he is only a blur. :)

 

If you don't want to feel like a fatty, don't be so close to the camera when the ONLY family picture documenting this fun event is taken...okay. I must post it though because it is the only proof that Kennedy and I were there too. No guts, no glory.

 



The Real Owner of the Blanket Fort

This girl, she is the funniest little thing. She has no problem being the center of attention. She laughs at her own jokes and loves having pictures taken of her cute, little face. This picture was taken the night of the blanket fort. Some pictures say it all...she has that sweet and at the same moment silly/little naughty face with the legs crossed casually like she owns the blanket fort. Yes, this picture definitely captures what she thought was going on when all the kids were playing in the fort. Thoughts like, "Queen of the Blanket Fort" were swirling in her little head.  

Blanket Forts

Throw a blanket over the backs of some chairs, get ALL the couch pillows off the play room couch and EVERY box out of the toy room, put it all together and you have a fort that will bring tons of fun and tons of CLEAN-UP. Although this fort did end up with all of the items listed above, it was not too impressive in its size. It seemed like most of the couch cushions and toys went inside the fort instead of forming the fort. I kept having to control myself not to help the kids make it. First I did try to help, "This would be so cool guys, let's use the cushions as walls and make it bigger" I encouraged. I then started to move a pillow from where it had been placed and got MAJOR backlash of how I messed up their fort and that they wanted that pillow RIGHT THERE!  Oh man, I had an entire mansion designed in my head. :) 

 

I had them sneak out while they were hiding from bad guys so I could take a picture. The fort quickly became the backdrop for a story they had concocted...it was their military fort, they were fighting bad guys...obviously. 

 

 Shooting the bad guys from the safety of the Fort.

 

 

 Sister wanted in on the action.

Sorry about the blurry pic. She was in their creating all kinds of havoc. The boys did a good job including her in their game. There was only 1 foot of cubic space inside the fort in which to play though, so the fort quickly met its end falling with all three of them inside. Sweet memories, building forts, creating games, creating messes.  :)



 

 

The Little Shed

This event actually took place a few months ago, okay in June. I wanted to document it, although it's late. Sooo...upon my begging for more storage, Jeff built us a little shed. It is little. It had to fit in this very specific spot on the side of our house next to the garage, but NOT covering the laundry room window. It had to be custom made because of its footprint. It was little, but it was big enough that we had to have a concrete truck deliver the concrete and that was a pretty fun experience. Or maybe the concrete truck was a little overkill, but I think Jeff thought it would be awesome to NOT hand-mix all that concrete in the back of a wheelbarrow. Jeff, my dad and my sister's hubs got the pad ready. Then we all watched as this BIG truck navigated the little space between our house and the fence to dump the concrete. It was exciting. :)

 

The kids perched for the entertainment of the concrete truck.

 

An absolute must was to get the kids' handprints in the concrete. I love stuff like this. See Kennedy's tiny 9 month handprint? Oh my heart.

 

 Forming up the walls.

 

The kids were the project managers and supervisors. They helped Jeff by sitting and eating ice cream while Jeff did all the hard work. I think at this point it was July and as you can tell by Kennedy's face, it was really hot outside.

 

I can't remember if Jeff was finishing the roof at this point, but I think Brady was up there eating an otter pop. Since this picture was taken the trim and walls were painted and it looks absolutely perfect. It is snug up against the house and does not draw the eye. It is painted to match the stucco and Jeff did a great job! Thanks honey!I love it. 



Laser Tag Birthday Party

Our cousin turned 10 and had a laser tag birthday party! It was AWESOME!!! It was definitely one of the top 10 birthday parties I have ever been to for little kids. Here is why, the little boys thought they were in heavy combat and played for two hours straight. The parents thought they were in heaven as their children ran around continuously while they sat with their coffees and pizza and talked uninterrupted. Okay so the previous description of the parent's was actually the just the moms. The dads were out playing laser tag with the little boys, inflating their male egos as they one upped their children and shot them from distances much farther than their boys could muster.

Brady in the combat zone.

Cody ready for laser action.

 

Brady did not really get the "hide behind an object so that you don't get shot" memo. He just walked out and took action. He is so brave.

Cody facing off with one of the big boys.

The little girls ran around the laser tag course screaming and laughing for a while, but then decided that the horses were really where the fun could be found. Cousin Kohle and little Kennedy, they are sister/cousins. It was a fantastic day. Thanks for having a laser tag birthday party Carter!!!!

The 3rd Child

When Brady was this age and he crawled on the dishwasher, I freaked out. What if he falls? What if he bonks his head? I swiftly picked him up, told him no, and fervantly fought the good fight of keeping him off of it until he realized he was going to lose. When Cody was this age and he crawled on the dishwasher, I freaked out. What if he breaks the door...and his head? I swiftly picked him up, shut the door and resigned to doing dishes only while he was taking his nap. I was too tired to fight the good fight I had fought previously fought with Brady. Cut me some slack, I had a 3 year old, a 1 year old and was preggie with my third baby. So now that Kennedy is this age and crawling on the dishwasher, I don't freak out about her bonking her head...she will probably be fine. I don't freak out about the door breaking...the hours of play time justify the cost of fixing the door, right? I mean the dishwasher is basically an indoor jungle gym anyways. Instead, I think she looks so cute that I stop what I am doing and take a picture. Oh the third child, they get away with everything.