The Gang and Father's Day Weekend

Meet the Summer Gang

I'm at the point of thinking that this group needs a name. W is spending lots of Summer days with his grandma, so he's been coming over. It's so hard to believe that he will be 10 years old. It doesn't seem that long ago when he use to come over and see us. As soon as he learned to walk, he loved to run back and forth on our front porch for some reason. Now, he's a yellow belt in Karate, likes to listen to hip music and loves to play video games. LOL!

I got tickled at Katie and S teasing W and M. The older boy (W) and girl (M) in the above picture are both the same age. Katie and S (giggling) said that W and M were boyfriend and girlfriend. I think they got a little embarrassed. It wasn't long before W and M were sitting in my glider talking, while K and S were running around the yard having a good time. Sweet!

Doug and his dad and our kiddos

My dad and Colton

I hope you had a great Father's Day weekend. It was wonderful and very busy for us. We went to Millard and Peggy's for lunch and later headed over to Kevin and Maryann's for supper. I have the hardest time getting a picture made of just me and my dad because everytime we get together, it's crazy. The men are usually in their comfort zone, watching sports and us ladies are visiting in a different part of the house. Have you ever tried to get a man pulled away from a ballgame just to have his picture made? Not easy in my household. LOL! So, I had Colton climb up in dad's lap during a commerical. Of course, dad's dog, Snickers, had to be a part of the photo opp. Haha!

I made my chocolate pies like I made apple pies.  Do you remember This Post.  I made them for Father's Day.  I ended up with 10 chocolate and 10 apples pies.  We served them with vanilla ice cream and toppings like hot fudge sauce.  They must of been a hit because I brought home an empty container.  I'm not going to post the chocolate pie recipe that I came up with just yet because I want to tweak it a little bit.  I think I need more butter.  Susan told me that it reminded her of her chocolate gravy that she makes sometimes for breakfast with biscuits. 

Sitting around planning Whitney's baby shower

Whitney looks so darn cute pregnant! Her and Zayne have picked out their nursery theme, but haven't quite decorated yet. They have plenty of time though, no rush. She's showed me her nursery set from Babies-R-Us online and it is so cute. They are going with a jungle theme. She thought it would go great with the soft sage green color that they planned to paint on the walls. The comforter's animals are a 3D. Too sweet! Natalie and Maryann found a baby shower theme to go along with the nursery "King of the Jungle". The invite and most decorations have an adorable lion with a crown on his head. Sweet! We have at least 8 ladies down to host the party and at least 50 people invited for the big event. YAY! So far we have the food, specialty items all equally divided among us all. I'm responsible for making animal print ribbon trees for the tables and making the spinach dip.  Stay tuned as I begin making them. 

VBS

This week is our church's annual Vacation Bible School.  This  year's theme is "Panda Mania".  I've been busing in our neighborhood kids along with my little girl.  They are having a ball!  The two girls, S and M do not attend church, so this is good that they are having fun and are learning God's word.  Please pray that God will do His magic, like always.  I've accepted that we are on a mission possibly from God Almighty and I just pray His Will will be done through us as his tool.  I hope we don't miss a blessing in the works. 

 

Colton

Colton looked so darn cute with his new hair cut that I had to take his picture.  I've failed so many times, taking photos of the kids and especially video.  I'm such a slacker!  Here are a few of my favorites.  Enjoy!

As you know, last week we had some friends over for our Pirate Party. Colton cracks me up.  Ever since the party, he has been playing pirate. He definitely has the language down pat. He'll grab his blow up sword, point it at you and says "arrr!" Sometimes, he wears his pirate hat and hook to go along with his sword. It's just too cute. He is at that fun age.

Katie

This week will be busy, not only with Vacation Bible School at church, but I hope to start painting Katie's room this Thursday.  The plan is that Colton will spend the night with Millard and Peggy Wednesday, so as soon as I drop the girls off, I can start in her room.  The paint is bought and my my it is PINK!  Katie picked out the color.  Surprise, surprise.  She is so tickled that she is actually getting a pink room after all.  I think once it's done, it will be adorable.  Stay tune for upcoming pictures. 

Katie has one more gymnastic class for the Summer.  She will not start back until school starts back.  She absolutely loves it and I can't get over how well she's done thus far.  Yesterday was balance beam and bars.  The only thing, I could tell was her arm strength wasn't as good as her leg.  She has to use the big thick mats in order to jump up on the bars, to straighten her arms up on the bars.  I don't know the language, so I hope I'm describing it well for you to understand.  Most important that I can tell, if she can't do a specific position perfectly, she'll try and try in order to get it right.  So she's eager to learn.  I think she's doing GREAT. 

After class last night, we decided to have a little mommy and daughter time.  We wandered over to Books-a-million and checked out the latest.  I've had my eyes open for a chapter series just for Katie. Well, I found the fairies series for 6 years and up.  I remembered that Katie bought one of these fairy books during last year's book fair.  One book jumped out at me and I had to get it.  It's called "Princess Posey and the First Grade Parade".  It's about a little girl's, Posey, experience starting the first grade.  How she was so nervous and her imagination got carried away with her. How was first grade really going to be like when her mom has to drop her off instead of walking her to class?  It's a chapter book and I think so far Katie likes it.  I had her read the first chapter to me tonight.  At the end of the story, we talking about what happened in the story.  She seems excited to find out what happens next.  I had to help Katie with a few words in the story, but overall I think she did well. 

Speaking of school, I've never seen a kid so eager to start back to school.  She absolutely. can. not. wait!  I figure with her being a little older, she might be nervous or not excited about going back.  Nope!  Not her.  I'm so glad, especially after me having class every now and then with her. 

With Katie's hair cut so short, she keeps it back with a headband now all the time.  It kills me how big and growny she's become.  Every now and then, she can still be such a little stinker or have selective hearing.  I hear it just gets worse every year.  YAY!  She is so prissy.  Yesterday and today, she insisted on wearing a dress because she has to look pretty for VBS.  Ugh!