Mikey's 5th Birthday!!

Mikey is such a big kid!! For his 5th birthday, he wanted to have "a knight birthday party, with an obstacle course, water balloons, and cake". And that's just what we did!! We invited his guests to make their own shields, gave them their own swords (foam ones, thankfully), and sent them out back for some real knight training! Here's some of the highlights:

Mikey's cake turned out awesome...of course that's cause I didn't make it!!

Knights-to-be making their shields (personalizing the "crest" on the shield):

Time to head out back to train on the "sweet" obstacle course Jaron made for the kids:

They had to "joust" the balloons (w/a water noodle) and slay the dragon (toy) to rescue Buzz Lightyear!! (in his laundry basket dungeon!!)

The water balloons came in handy when that dragon wouldn't die and we had to splash him off the fence!! (Don't be deceived by his size, he was vicious!)

The Knights all did a fantastic job of saving the Kingdom!!

Back inside for some Knight food:

We love you Mikey!!!

Springtime Catch-up

Right after school got out, the kids and I went to Indy for a week to visit Nana and Opa. Deanna and her girls came out from Cinci to join the party, and we had SO much fun with them!! We went swimming, did a LOT of jumping on the tramp with the sprinkler underneath, went bike riding on a beautiful trail, ate delicious food, and played at the Children's Museum. I love this pic of Nana reading to the kids, because they love the time they get to be close with her, and be spoiled by her reading LOTS of books with them. The cousins (including Chief the dog!) got to sleep all together in the living room--they loved that!!

I love this pic of Kate (Dee's baby) because 1)she's adorable! 2)gotta love those thighs!! 3)I've never known a baby to do the splits!! It was fun cuddling her and squinching her thunder thighs!

Bike riding on the Monon Trail.

Fun at the Children's Museum.

Gotta love a clown!

One day this spring, I couldn't find Trev anywhere, and after looking frantically for a while, I finally found him bouncing up and down on his bottom on our front door-step. He must've snuck out the garage and walked around to the front door. I thought he looked so cute there, so I ran inside for the camera.

Spence Played "Pitching Machine" baseball (his 1st year), for the "Cleveland Indians". He was one of the youngest on his team, and he did an awesome job! It was exciting to see his progress with hitting and fielding over the season. He got so good that whenever we play baseball in our yard, it's no fun playing with Spence anymore 'cause he's always hitting home-runs!

Mikey played soccer in a "3-4 year-old" league (even though he turns 5 in August). As you may imagine, there is a HUGE difference between a young 3-year-old and an old 4-year-old when it comes to playing sports. Needless to say, Mikey had his time in the limelight for a full season. I kind-of felt bad for the younger kids who didn't get much ball-time, but half the time half the team was getting snacks from their parents or oblivious to the game going on...so I'm sure they didn't care too much.

Here's Mikey (black shirt #9), going for a goal!

Have I mentioned that we really love to bike ride?? :-) Here's a trail close to our house, and the kids found a frog one day in the creek. I made them let it go before they got any ideas about bringing it home for a pet.

A Few of Our Favorite Things

There's so many things I love about my children and being their mom, so I wanted to highlight a few in this post.

1) Mikey's kisses.

Every day when I dropped Mikey off for school last year, he would step out of the car and then turn around and blow me a kiss, then wait for me to blow him one and catch it on his cheek. Then he'd walk a few paces, turn around again, and blow and catch one more time. Two kisses. Each morning, without fail. It melted my heart each time, and I'll really miss that when he starts riding the bus to Kindergarten in a couple weeks!

2) Spencer the Robot.

Spencer played a Robot in his class play last year. He gave a stunning performance--not a line spoken, but his movements were so convincing!

3) Bike riding with my boys.

During the summer, I love to take the boys on bike rides (translation: I get my exercise by running, while they ride furiously ahead of me). We've explored lots of trails and routes this summer. One of our favorite "running" routes is to a fun park and back (with some bonus exercise playing at the park).

4) Popsicles.

Since we live on a hill (a "Monster Hill", if you ask my kids!), we usually have a big surge at the end of each bike ride, so the boys have learned that if they make it to the top of the hill (by any means--riding, walking, limping--it doesn't have to be pretty), they'll get a popsicle. It's their reward for exercising with Mom. (Trevor's just a free-loader in the jogging stroller, but he gets a popsicle anyway since he's so darn cute.)

5) Trevor's Ice Cream Face.

Did I mention that he loves ice cream? And we sure love his messy ice cream face, so it's a win-win situation for all of us! (Notice how he eats from the top AND bottom of the cone...that's the secret to a truly messy ice-cream face!)

6) Camping with Trevor.

Actually, this is the exact opposite of my "favorite thing", as any parent of a one-and-a-half-year-old could guess. But I guess he was still pretty fun, even if it was at the expense of getting a good night's sleep. Here he is, having a hey day in the tent at bedtime:

(p.s. We did have a fun trip, other wise--Jaron tried his hand at fly fishing, we cooked s'mores, and we even did a little midwest rock climbing!)