Happy 30th Shane!!!

Shane is officially OLD right along with me. He just had his 30th and seems to be adjusting well. He was gone on his actual Birthday (pretending to be young still and playing in the Gus Macker) so the kids and I made him dinner and desert when he returned. Have you ever seen candles in ice cream? It was cute.

The weekend after his Birthday, we arranged a get together at Rum Runners and all his friends came to celebrate. They took Shane on stage and made fun of him, Ashlie participated in a dance contest on stage, and we all enjoyed the music and company. It is not very often we can all get together now that we are old but when we do, we sure have fun.

Going on a treasure hunt.

One rainy evening not too long ago,

I decided on a treasure hunt we will go.

I wrote all the catchy clues

Telling the kids exactly what to do.

All about the home I cleverly hid them

and then encouraged the kids to get them.

They found them all and in front of their eyes

Was a treasure chest and a nice surprise.

This was so much fun and the kids are begging for more. We even got dressed up for the hunt. The funniest moment was with the clue for the pantry.

I wrote "Rub a dub dub, three pirates in a tub. This is where we go for some grub."

Now Ian had been answering most of these right away but little Anna knew this one.

She yelled "WALMART!" Oh how sweet. I simply said "No. But I like what you're thinking."

Congrats LaTesa.

Shane's sister is getting married in August and Anna and Ian are in the wedding. Anna is so excited and LOVES her "Princess" dress and now sparkly shoes to go with. Tesa had a bridal shower last week that we got to attend. It was a very nice shower and the food was great. Anna and Tesa took some pictures together and I threw one in of our gift to her. Mostly because I want to toot my own horn.

I love Duck Duck(s)

It has been 2 years since Miss Anna J's surgery and her relationship with Duck Duck began. She is so attached/in love with him that I don't see an end in sight. So much so that the constant washing and dragging every where has begun to take its toll on Duck Duck.....or should I say Duck Ducks. Yes plural. We are now on Duck Duck #6. I swear she will be walking down the isle with Duck Duck as her something old.

Good Bye Training Wheels!

Ian Scott has learned to ride his bike without training wheels. The first day he mastered down and back in the parking lot. Yesterday, he mastered the turns and starting/stopping on his own.

Look at him concentrating. He is biting his own lip. I think this was more to keep from bursting out in giggles - which he did very frequently. I think he amazes himself at times.

Although he mastered it all, Mom and Dad still ran beside him - Just in case. I think this was more to comfort us than Ian.

Anna wanted to learn to ride her bike to and did very well.

There is a really cool Spiderman bike that Ian has been asking for. I told him - not thinking it would be any time soon - that once he learned to ride his bike we would get him a bigger one. He proved me wrong. Guess where we will be going soon.

VACATION!!!!

I love vacations. This year we took a longer weekend vacation to the lake. We invited our good friends - the Schackow's - to go along and we all had the time of our lives. On Friday some more friends/family came up for the 4th and some relaxation. This was the first time we got to use our camper we got last summer. It was a hit.

Jen and I took the kids up Wednesday night and the boys followed Thursday afternoon. Wednesday was a very stormy night and what better to do on a stormy night then tell ghost stories. The kids had so much fun telling funny stories and sleeping in the pull out couch together. Jen and I were not so worried about the stories as there was a tornado brewing outside. We could not see across the lake it was raining so hard and we had no idea on the weather map where we were. I guess that may have been for the best.

All Ian wanted to do the whole time was fish. He loves it. He would follow boats down the shoreline talking to them about fishing and what he caught and so forth. He cracked us up. Anna had to take a turn since Ian was. She sat for about......30 seconds and then was off.

Instead of dragging the kids out to the middle of the lake with 300 other boats for fireworks, we did some of our own over the lake. I think we should fire the operators as a few of them came awfully close to the crowd.

One of the days we took the pontoon out and threw the anchor down. The kids jumped right in and swam around enjoying the water with no weeds. We packed a lunch and drinks and ate on the boat enjoying the nice sunny weather.

There was corn hole, pudgy pies, smores, drinks, late night talks and fun fun fun. We had a blast and think we need to take a whole week next summer. The kids all agreed.

Lake Vacation Warm-up

The Heath's and Schackow's are spending the week at the lake. This past Friday we took some things up and spent the night just relaxing and getting ready for a week of lake fun. We cooked out, had smores, swam and played a little corn hole. I am so excited, as well as the kids, to just enjoy the company and scenery this holiday weekend.

Kids all eating dogs and chips.

Anna and Bray played on their ship while Ian and Madi did cannon balls off the pier.

Yummy Yummy Smores - Look at the chocolate faces.

All the kids at the end of the night (when we could get them away from fire fly catching)

Cook-Out

We have been taking advantage of the nice weather and having some yummy cookouts. These pictures are of the kids playing in the back yard while we wait for the food to cook. Our friends, the Schackow's, have joined in the fun and the kids have a ton of fun together.

Gone Fishing..

Shane has had this fishing hat for a long time (as you can tell). Ian found it and has not taken it off since. He loves it and will put it on for just about anything. I think he is the cutest fisher I ever did see....even if he doesn't catch anything.

T-Ball Pictures

Ian's season and T-Ball career is over. He had a blast and made some new friendships this summer. For one of his games most of the family came to watch and we snapped a picture. At the end of the season each kid got a medal and they had some contests for the kids. Ian was excited yelling "I got my very first medal!" He was also in the base running contest. They gave out ribbons to the top 3 kids in each age group. We think Ian was third but had the wrong time wrote down and didn't get one. He was upset but the medal helped.

Towards the end of the season, the kids finally got their uniform socks. Anna thought they were cool and wanted to try them on.