Happy Birthday Brayden!

Over the weekend, we had Brayden's 5th birthday party!

It was a nice day-not too hot so not many people went in the pool at the party....just a few kids and my husband (because my kids said they were going to go in and then once he was in the felt how cold it was!).

But this pool Minion cake was so adorable!

And the kids opted to go in the hot tub-all 9 of them at once! It was quite comical! And it was funny that most of them didn't like the jets turned on, so basically it was like being in a warm tiny pool!

We had a very yummy dinner followed by presents!

Love the face he's making!

opening our gift-a Mario backpack

And a Mario lunch box

After presents, it was time to dig into that cute cake!

Make a wish!

We had a really fun time at his party and the kids had a blast as usual! Happy 5th Brayden!!

August?!

I can't believe it's August already.

Did you see when I last posted? Over a month ago. Life has been so crazy. With Avery home all summer, I've had zero time to be doing this. Normally I fiddle on this during naptime when my housework is done. But now I have Avery home, so naptime isn't really "my" time right now. I'm lucky I get the housework done these days!

Anywho....we've been so busy this summer.  Our entire month of July was booked before July even started-including my days off during the week. Doctors appts, dental cleanings, going places, visiting with people. And our weekends were the same way.

I don't even know where to start so this is just going to be a random post of stuff from the last month. Avery chose a pretty cool birthday present this year...but that will be it's own post when I can get to it!

We had Gabe's annual family reunion at the lake on July 4th....

Red, White, and Blue!

and even got to go on a boat ride! Avery loved it! Cassie wouldn't step foot on it!

Bianca, Molly, Owen, Mark

The kids had a good time swimming that day too!

Avery

My Mom had a few free tickets to an amusement park here that I haven't been to in about 15yrs! So we decided to take the kids for the day. My Mom met us there and my friend Megan and her family met us too. We had a really great day-the kids loved it. Avery wanted to go on everything, but of course wasn't tall enough to. Cassie was a stinker and refused to go on a lot of things, but eventually we dragged her on a few rides and she had fun!

Avery and I at the top of the ferris wheel

Avery and Leigha

Gabe and I celebrated 7 years of marriage! My Mom watched the kids so we could go out for dinner that night-was really nice!

YUM!

Before dinner, I had a chance to visit with my old neighbor. His Mom and my Mom have lived on the same street for at least 35 years and him and I grew up together. I haven't seen him in probably close to 10 years (he lives out of state now) and we actually were in town at the same time for once. It was really great seeing with him and briefly catching up!

Dominic and I

We also have gotten some use out of the bounce house this summer! My friend Jessica came in to visit us for the day and we had a great time. I think it had been at least a year since we saw each other, but we picked up like it was yesterday. Our kids all played really well together too!

Connor

Caroline

It's been a really great summer so far-it's hard to believe we have less than 4 weeks left until school starts back up. And of course those weeks are quickly filling up with things to do!

Turning 6-Party #2!

Over the weekend, we had Avery's  second party for our family and close friends.

Avery and I ready to party!

We had a not-so-nice day for her party. It was freezing all weekend-like low to mid 60s. We had planned to set up the bounce house like usual, but unfortunately that was out of the question. It was strange having people over in long sleeves and pants at the end of June (hello summer? Where are you?). But...we managed. Everyone arrived and we had snacks and a nice cookout.

Then we tried to get a group photo of all of the kids, which didn't work out all that well...

Avery opened up her nice gifts...

keychain

bathing suit #1

bathing suit #2

After presents it was time for cake!

She wanted another cat themed party so I scoured the internet for some cat cake ideas. This is what I came up with! I will say that I cursed at it many times in the making, but I think it turned out ok! She loved it and that's all that matters!

Happy Birthday, Avery!

Make a wish!

Despite the bad weather, we all had a great time! Party #2 was a success!

Turning 6-Party #1!

Avery's 6th Birthday is next weekend. She wanted a party with some of her classmates so we gave her a few options of where to have it.

Surprisingly, she chose a pool party at a local Rec center. We had never been there, but the place was pretty darn cool!

Lazy River

As you can see from the photos, there was a splash park, water slide and lazy river area. There was a larger pool as well (looked like for lap swimming) but we never went in it.

Avery ended up with 9 kids coming, which was the perfect amount! About half of the parents stayed too, which was helpful.

Avery and Cassie

We had the first hour as swim time and the kids really loved it.

Then it was up to the party room for food, cake and gifts. We did the party at an "off" time of day so all we did was snacks, which made it super easy!

Avery We decided this year that instead of gifts, we would have each kid bring a donation to a local animal shelter instead. She really doesn't need anymore toys and since she wanted a cat themed party, I thought this was a good idea. We had a lot of good feedback on it as well-the kids loved shopping for the animals!

After she opened gifts, we did cake!

Singing "Happy Birthday"

Make a wish!

Before they all left, we got a quick group photo!

And I found a woman locally who makes amazing cookies! She made us these for favors to give each kid! So freakin' adorable!

After we got home, I took a picture of Avery with all of the donations she collected! We'll be taking them to the animal shelter very soon! I'm so proud of her!

One party down, one to go next weekend!

Long Overdue

Over the weekend, we took a long overdue trip to Buffalo.  We haven't been there in at least 2 months I'm guessing...which is a long time for us!

Megan and Renee and their kids stopped by for some fun!

Puzzles:

Celebrating Noah's birthday a month late!

Cassandra loving up a "baby" (Sabrina-who's just as big as her!)!

Sabrina

As you can see, my friends have very tall kids....Sabrina is 20months old and Cassie is 3!

Leigha is only about 11wks older than Cassie!

Cassie and Leigha, Noah and Avery!

We had a nice, relaxing day! And at the end, my girls showed that they do love each other-well, at least Cassie loves her big sister! Haha!

No plans to go back yet, but hopefully now with summer vacation coming, we can go sooner rather than later. Although we do have a special birthday coming up which is interfering with our weekends!

Happy 2nd Birthday Dylan!

Yesterday we went and celebrated Dylan turning 2!

It was a great day-nice and sunny out and a little on the cool side. Perfect day for a party! We went to our friends' house around 4 to get things started!

The kids enjoyed playing some putt-putt on their putting greens they had set up!

Lots of playing on the swingset too! After some pizza and dinner, we had some delicious ice cream cake!

Dylan loves Mario Brothers so I think he was in awe of the cake!

After cake, it was time for presents! Yes, he stripped down for those!

After presents, we all went back outside to play some more. They started a fire in the firepit and we enjoyed that a bit. We left before the marshmallow roasting, which the kids were disappointed about, but we had to get them home!  It was a super fun party! Happy 2nd Birthday Dylan!!