Charlotte's day

Today was Charlotte's official birthday. I wanted to do whatever she wanted to do today. The first thing she asked when she woke up this morning was, "Is Peyton and Whitney coming to my birthday party?" Apparently she forgot she already had her birthday party, but I called them up anyway and we had an impromptu playdate.


They said the sun was in their eyes.

We went to Meijer to pick up some mini cupcakes for school. Red and blue for the boys and pink and yellow for the girls. We played with Peyton some more after school and then went to Burger King to eat and play (and sit in the air conditioning).She has a hard time giving me a straight face.
Brooke was there too!
When we got home, daddy was finally home from Detroit. We opened presents and look what we got! This is the first movie she ever sat through at the theater. She loves it.

Happy Birthday Charlotte!

Playing hooky

Yesterday we took the girls out of school and went to Lake Michigan. It was going to be the hottest day of the week and we wanted to go one last time before we moved. We had a lot of fun playing in the sand and the water. I will really miss that place!

Daddy made him a seat in the sand!
Hey, we want in!

Let's bury him!
Charlotte's turn!
Now Brooke!
Brooke drawing mom's name in the sand.
A rare picture of me in a swimsuit. You're lucky it's just the top half.

The bad news? I got sunburned...bad. I know, I know, I should've worn sunscreen. I've never had it this bad though. But I think I may have evened up my farmer's tan.

Heat Wave!

Here in Michigan we are enjoying a heat wave! My only complaint is we don't have air conditioning in our apartment. You'd think living with an A/C man he could rig us up something, but I digress. I don't really mind it. I love wearing shorts or Capri's and flip flops. I hate the winter and trudging through the snow and bundling the kids up to go places. Blah, Blah, Blah. Apparently it snowed in Utah today. Sorry friends! That stinks! Although, it would be nice to cool down in for a few minutes...did I just say that out loud??

Anyway, we had a pool party yesterday with some neighbors. They invited us to use their slip and slide and pool. We happened to have water balloons so we used some of those too. It was a great way to cool down!

We started with a free for all water balloon fight. They were gone in less than a minute and wanted it more.

Then we had an official water balloon toss and that last a bit longer.
I love Charlotte's face in this picture. :-)

Then they wanted Nathan to dump the rest of the water on them. Oh yes, and one little boy didn't get the memo that it was hot outside.
It was a fun afternoon. Today and tomorrow it's going to be in the 90's. Is there anything wrong with taking our kids out of school to go to the beach?

Pretty, Pretty Princesses

Today Charlotte had an early birthday party with just her friends. She has made some really good friends here and I wanted it to be all about them. So they all put on their best princess attire and we played, played, and played some more. We played pin the crown on the castle, duck, duck, goose, pass the slipper, bingo, fishing, etc. We also did a scavenger hunt for princesses, had a tea party, and sang and danced to "The Charlotte Song". All the girls had a great time and it was even fun to plan!!

Playing duck, duck, goose
On a scavenger hunt for the missing princesses
Pin the crown on the castle. Gotta love the Dollar Store!
Whitney is the winner!

Pass the Slipper, played like hot potato.
The cupcake cake.
Blowing out the candles.

I was trying to get a group shot by the banner, but they were all being silly.
I somehow snapped this picture as Charlotte was running towards me, screaming "CHEESE!!"
Here's a little sampling of their song and dance performance.


I think everyone had a great time, even mom and dad! These girls always have fun playing with each other. Oh, and please excuse the boxes in the background. If you've forgotten, we're moving :-)

WII Sing It

Just a little sampling of Brooke singing on her new WII sing it. She's destined to be a professional the way she moves the microphone from one hand to the other.

7 is Heaven!

Brooke just had a birthday, and around our house, we don't just have ONE birthday, we have LOTS! It turns into a week-long thing here. Her first celebration was Saturday night with my family in Indy. The highlight of the night was the Hannah Montana Cake.

The headphones must have been a preview of what was to come. On her actual birthday, we just opened presents with our little family and went to eat at her favorite restaurant. Buffalo Wild Wings!! YUM!! Most of the evening was spent playing this:
Surprisingly she even let daddy and Charlotte in on the action. She was so thrilled with this gift, she declared she never had to play outside again!! Hmm...we'll see how long that lasts.

Today, was the big birthday EXTRAVAGANZA!! We had a double birthday party with our friend, Peyton. We took the kids out of school and drove an hour to go to BOUNCE PARTY. There is nothing like it in our little town of Big Rapids. This place had inflatables galore!! The kids had a great time, but I think the adults had even MORE fun!! That's right! The adults could play too! But I'm paying for it today. ;-)

Shawn, Aric, and Coleman having a blast.
Jump, Jump!

Poor Melanie and four 4 year olds.

Whitney and Charlotte
Brooke
Charlotte climbing up the "monster"
This slide is pretty much like sledding to me. It was very steep but I had to take one for the team. Unfortunately, I now had two rug burns on my elbows to show for it.
The mother of all cakes. Brooke saw this cake at the Meijer Bakery and HAD to have it!

Happy 7th Birthday Brooke!!

Look what I found!

We were in Louisville over the weekend looking for a place to live. We were staying at a hotel that was less than a block away from an LDS church. When we left in the morning, there were several big tour buses in the parking lot. We thought that was pretty interesting but went about our day. When we were on our way back to the hotel that evening, there were tons of people lined up outside waiting in line. I thought the Prophet was there or something, so I made Nathan stop so we could ask what was going on. I found some missionaries to ask, and at the same time, Nathan ran into some good friends from Indy. Turns out, Gladys Knight was in town performing with her choir. In case you didn't know, she's a member of the Church. We got our free tickets and into the concert we went. It was quite impressive. It was even better because we got to spend the evening with these two lovely ladies!

Girl Time!

Yesterday my friends and I treated ourselves to some pampering. Three out of the five of us will be leaving in the next month and one will be leaving for the summer this weekend. So it was going to be the last time all of us would be together at the same time. We went and got pedicures, some of us got eyebrow waxes, and one got a manicure as well. It was so relaxing and a fun way to spend our time together. We also had lunch at a yummy Italian restaurant.

Fun at School!

Brooke had all kinds of fun at school last week. Monday was their Spring Concert, Wednesday they went on a field trip to the zoo, Thursday was the annual Children's Parade, and Friday was Spring Fitness Challenge.


All the kids from all the schools march down Michigan Street all the way to the park. Don't worry! It's not that far, just 3 or 4 blocks. :-)


Lucky for Charlotte, we got to stay and play a little bit.
For the Spring Fitness Challenge, they did a series of obstacle courses. They jumped, hopped, crawled and more.
Charlotte got to play once again.