The Farm

This is the 2nd year Jeremy and Sydney came to Kansas for 2 weeks during the summer.

And, this is the 2nd year ALL the cousins have gone to Dwayne and Genny's Farm.

All 7 grandkids get to take turns driving the tractor!!

This year the thrill was driving over a "bridge" (for lack of a better word)---

it would SHAKE the trailer and just CRACK EVERYONE UP!!!!!

It's just FUN hanging out with our cousins!!!

These 2 have so much fun together!!!

Even Mason gets to drive the tractor.

"ME TOO" -- MY TURN"--there's no leaving him out!!

This is something my kids look forward to now!!!  Experiencing the Farm!!!

July 4th

Last year several families hung out at the community pool ALL DAY on the 4th.  

The guys golfed in the AM, then they met us at the pool for lunch.
Swam all day.

Kids took naps---I stayed at the pool

Then, everyone went to Wilkinson's for a BBQ and Fireworks!!

SO---we are all planning for the same fun!

But, instead.....this year.....

IT RAINED AND RAINED AND RAINED AND RAINED!!!!

What a bummer!

The rain did quit long enough to do fireworks and eat at Wilkinson's!! 

 But, no relaxing at the pool this year.

Not sure about Tyler's face!!

He's probably saying---"uh, don't take my picture!"

Tyler and Braedan

Paige, Leah, MaryKate

Last year Brian Thompson bought a role of 8,000 firecrackers!  WOW!!!

This year, Brian Wilkinson bought 16,000!  WOW times 2.

This is the roll, it's just a big joke now.  I hope they don't go for more next year.  It's sort of funny---but after 6 straight minutes of CRACK CRACK CRACK!!!!!  You are ready for it to STOP!!

And, it leads to the kids doing this....

This is the only firecracker that makes the kids hold their ears----it's just SO LONG

Jaden being Jaden!!!

Watching the show...

Pump It Up

With Jaden and Paige only 11 months apart in age (and birthdays 3 weeks apart) it is easy to have a Birthday Party together!!  I tried this year to have separate parties for them...but as they were making their guest lists....the same names keep repeating!!  SO---I asked them if they wanted to do a b-day party together!  YES!!!  OH YEAH!!!!!  There was no quarreling about this idea!


In fact---Tyler was mad and threw a "tyler fit" because he wanted to share his b-day party with someone.  Oh man---if he only knew it really was NOT cool to share a b-day party!


But, until Jaden and Paige think it's un-cool, I guess we'll just go with it and do the party together!!


So, this year we went to Pump It Up.  It's a bit expensive (and I wouldn't do a party there again). But, when you can share the party between 2 kids, it makes the cost better!

The BIRTHDAY BUDDIES!

The PARTY GUESTS--

Mary Kate Wagoner, Leah/Hallie Wilkinson, Emmi/Levi Harden, 

Alexis/Braxton/Braeden Thompson, Kendall Nusz

(our cousins--Syd and Jeremy and Taylor and Mason came later)

Not sure why they have such straight faces

Hopefully all their b-day wishes come true!

WOW

It's been ONE MONTH since my last post!  WOW!!! 


Here is what we have been up to and what you can look forward to--as I am going to try to get caught up quickly.  In just 2 weeks we start school---so that will be LOTS MORE pictures!!



FUN TIMES the past month--


Paige and Jaden's "friend" birthday party
Jaden had to get 3 silver teeth
Jaden's family b-day party
A week vacation to Michigan
I went to Premier Design's National Rally (training) for 4 days
We went bowling
We went swimming
We finished our Summer Reading Program
My dad had open heart surgery
We went to the Drive-in Movie
We had a water balloon fight


I'm sure there's more---but these are the major things that have filled our last 4 weeks!  Now to sort and edit all those pictures!


Happy Summer!!!  But, only 2 more weeks til school starts!

Happy Birthday Jaden

July 14--Little Jaden turned 5 years old!!

**These pics were taken last Oct--but I haven't blogged them yet!!**

This picture cracks me up because this is a look we often get from Jaden!  

Jaden is SO lovable!  I call him my "love-bug".  His smile brightens a room.  He is our child that most wants to please us.  Last year we would have said he was quiet, but now I would describe him more as silly and funny!  He will just crack us up with some of the things he says.  He loves to play "mom and dad" with Tyler and Paige or whoever will play with him.  He LOVES sports!  And, he just learned to ride his bike without training wheels, this week!!!  He is super proud of himself and thinks he is big stuff now!

And, here is Jaden 5 years ago---

Tyler was the first one to get to hold Jaden!

Then, he was taken to NICU for 10 days because he was having lung/breathing problems.  Later one lung actually collapsed!  It was a HORRIBLE 10 days.  The longest 10 days ever!  And, we had a 2 1/2 year old at home with grandparents!  Isn't this the saddest picture ever.  All those tubes!

But, he came home and has not had any troubles since!

Too cute Jaden Baby!! 

We love you LOTS!!!  And we love watching you grow-up into a real BOY!!!

Happy Birthday Silly Boy!!!  

Rainbow Cake

Pagie's 4th birthday CAKE

We were going to have a BALLET "birthday party" (for the family), but there were NO ballet plates/napkins  to be found---at a price I was willing to pay.  I found on Ebay, Super cute, angel ballet napkins, but with shipping one pack of napkins was $10.  Not doing that.

--

So we went with DORA!!  Paige's favorite show to watch is probably Dora right now---if her brothers will let her watch it.  And I found PINK Dora "stuff"---so that works!

So, now a cake...I didn't want a dorky Dora cake!

A year ago I had saw a RAINBOW CAKE on another blog and I have wanted to make it, but was afraid of what it would entail!   I  wanted to make it so badly that I put "make rainbow cake" on our 

SUMMER FUN LIST!!

So--I decided to make it for Paige's birthday....

AND IT WAS A HIT!!!!!

Isn't it so pretty!  So girly!

I borrowed 4 bright food colors from a friend and thought I had orange.  Well, I didn't have orange, so I had to use my normal food coloring.  I had borrowed TEAL and then I used BLUE  from my stash.  I was afraid yellow wouldn't show up and red seemed to bright.  I don't know what my other options were, but I choose blue.  I should have choose a different color, but that's ok.  It still looks cool.  So---the 2 blues are not the exact same color, even though in the picture they look as if they might be.

My kids LOVED the cake.  ALL 3 OF THEM!

Jaden asked if he could have a rainbow cake for his birthday and then I reminded him we were going to make him a K-State cake!!

They also LOVED the taste.  They just loved it all---the colors, the fun, the taste, the butter-cream frosting me MADE...

It wasn't even that hard to make it.  Jaden was at Gpa and Gma Roth's so I let Tyler and Paige help and they had a great time mixing the colors.  (much easier to do with 2 kids than 3 kids!!)

So---we will for sure be making this cake again.  Maybe on the first day of school with Primary colors?  Who knows when---but we will be making it again.

A Funny---

Steve made some AMAZING pork smothered burritos for the family dinner.  They were so yummy and some delicious mexican rice too.  So, our neice, Emily (19) said---

"you and Steve should open a mexican restarant/cake business"

TO FUNNY!!!!!  First, I don't think those 2 things go together, but more funny is....

someone telling ME, I should SELL my cakes.  But, it sure did make me feel SUPER GOOD!!

So, thanks Emily!!!

Now, I have to start thinking about how to do a K-State cake.

I think Steve will be put in charge of that.  

Swim Lessons

One thing on our SUMMER FUN CHECK-LIST was SWIM LESSONS!

This year we tried swim lessons at Goddard Municpal pool.  The last 2 years Tyler has had private lessons at our community pool---across the street from our house.  

This was convienent.  But, I wanted to try something new.

I remember EVERY summer, FOREVER...

I had to take Red-Cross swim lessons.  And I mean FOREVER!!!!  

So, I wanted to try Red-Cross certified lessons for our kids.

I really liked that the kids learned WATER SAFETY and that the teachers has specific SKILLS

  they HAD to teach the kids.  

Tyler did not want to do swim-lessons-- said he didn't like them (from past experience).

He really liked them this year.  I think It's just more fun to do it with other kids!!

Either Steve or I would sit at each lesson, outside, and WATCH!!  Each time Jaden would do a skill, he would right away look at us to make sure we were watching.  If I happened to not see what he had done---I would still give him a THUMBS UP when he looked at me!!  And, let me tell you....he looked over at us EVERY SINGLE time he did anything!!  It was super cute!

Lessons were for 2 weeks--50 minutes a day!

That's a lot of lessons, a lot of driving, a lot of disrupting our regualr schedule.  

But---I can tell both boys gained lots of skills.  I think the repitition of every day for 2 weeks helped a lot.

I also like that at the end we got a check-list of what they could do and what they need to be able to do to pass their level.  Neither boy passed their level, which is fine.  So--we'll do level 2 and 3 again next summer!  But, I know they have learned a lot.  Both boys were the youngest in their groups.  But, I would rather them be in a higher level group and not pass than be in any easy class and pass!

Overall, it was a good experience!

So---next summer we will do it again.

That's what summer is about, right??  Learning to SWIM!!!!