Ashley's 10th Birthday Party

Ashley is 10, she is growing so fast!

The theme for Ashley's birthday party this year was "Glow-in-the-Dark". It was an overnight sleepover so we could play games after it got dark.

Ashley's happy birthday sign even glowed in the dark! It was so cool!

Before dinner the kids played on Gpa Stone's swings in the front yard.

Mike BBQ'd some delicious cheeseburgers for dinner

Ashley got so embarrassed when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her

Ashley didn't want a regular cake for her birthday she wanted "Faux Sushi". They were so yummy! I even made candy wasabe and ginger to go with their dessert sushi.

Ash got so many great presents from her friends

Ash wanted her friends to take home a souvenir from her party so we bought hats that they decorated with glow-in-the-dark puff paint. They all turned out very different. Some dried pretty quickly and some took over 24hours!

Can you see us??? The kids played tons of games with their glow-in-the-dark sticks, bracelets, necklaces, balls, etc. The girls even had flashing "braids" that they put in their hair to add to the sparkle! We went through at least $40 worth of glow toys and it was awesome!

I got the kids to stand in a line and wave their glow sticks around for a picture.

The kids came inside for movies. We watched "Kung Fu Panda 2" (thanks- you know who you are!) and Gnomeo and Juliet.

CJ was the 1st one to fall asleep. He helped set up the party and played really hard during the party, he was exhausted. He didn't even wake up when the other kids were yelling and bouncing around using their glow sticks as light sabers (they were sticks that were 14" long and 3/4" wide, they made perfect looking light sabers!)

In the morning Uncle Jeff flipped pancakes onto their plates for breakfast.

All the kids were exhausted the next morning but surprisingly cheerful!

Here are some of the kids in thier hats.

Alexsis (from school), Ashley, CJ, Cousin Kade, Cousin Addy, Makayla (from church), Cousin Adidan, & Cousin Auston

CJ only wanted a single football on his hat

Ashley designed her hats with dashes and dots.

Thank you everyone who came to the party and everyone that helped out! The party was fantastic! Ashley had a great time!

End of 1st Grade for CJ

This year in class the kids watched caterpillars grow and turn into butterflies. They learned about the cycle they go through to become beautiful butterflies.

On the 1st day of school the kids made a self portrait.

CJ made this beautiful butterfly (above his head)

One of the last projects the kids made was decorate a flower pot and put flowers in it to go with the card the kids made for their mothers for Mothers Day.

End of 4th Grade for Ashley

Ashley graduated 4th grade with flying colors! She had a great year with fun field trips and amazing science projects.

Ashley did a science project about growing crystals and created a cool poster board showing her results (thanks dad and liz for your help!)

It seems like in no time at all she will be sitting in the teachers chair for real!

Having fun at the park

Today we went to the park near Park West Place. We played in the playground after eating our picnic we bought at Sonic. The kids decided it was a great day to play in the water feature they have there (even though it was only a little warm and a little breezy) We ended up staying for 1 1/2 hours playing in the water!

The kids memorized the pattern of when the spray would come out of which nozzle in the floor...

and found that if they placed their empty cups from Sonic on top they acted as missiles!

CJ liked to fill his cup up and pretend he was drinking it.

The concrete was warm from the sun and when they got too cold to keep playing they would take a break and lay down for a little while.

I found that if i layed my little camera on the ground it took some cool pictures of the kids while they were resting.

mmmm... getting warm is nice...

Ashley and Addy would talk and talk and talk every time they took a break. They are such good friends.

Calin, Ashley, Aidan, Addison

Eating right out of the garden

Today we had Addy & Aidan over for play dates and after running through the sprinklers all the kids started poking around the garden and eating things. They didn't even bother to run the food into the house to wash. They just started popping food into their mouths! (its a good thing that i have an organic garden and don't use pesticides!)

Ash & Addy finding ripe strawberries to eat.

Grabbing sweet peas off the vine was definitely a hit! They stood there forever snapping off a pod, eating the peas inside then dropping the pod back into the planter. They stripped both plants of all their ripe pods!

Aidan loved to pop open the pods and count the individual peas as he ate them. He always commented when there were more/less in this one or how that one had bigger peas.


Today made all the time/work/sweat i have put into the garden worth it! It gave me much joy watching the kids eat things that i grew and love every bite!

CJ in a cop car...

This week's lesson at boy scouts included learning safety from a police officer. The kids got cool handouts and got to "play" in a police cruiser. They had the best time!

Right after i noticed how cute CJ was smiling i noticed the HUGE shotgun right next to him!

Goodbye Roxy

The kids and I decided to bury our dog Roxy under a tree at our house. The kids wanted to give her a headstone so we would always remember her. So we made this cement headstone with the diamond letters from her collar and her dog tags.

Roxy 13 years old

(Thank you Aunt Leslie for giving us a chance to love this little girl)