My niece and nephew were here for over 2 weeks in July, which meant we got to do lots of things we probably would not normally do. These are pictures of one of those things---going to a Farm and riding the tractor.

Not only did we get to ride behind the tractor, the kids got to all DRIVE the tractor. and more than once. Man did they have fun.

Aren't these boys so cute. They had SO MUCH fun together. Wish they lived closer.

Even little Paige drove the tractor.

We went to Ginny and Dwayne's farm. Dwayne said Jaden had the MOST FUN of all the kids---driving the tractor.

Does he look serious or what!! He even put his seat belt on, only Jaden would do that.

Then they boys were trying to TOUCH a cow. They got pretty close, but they didn't get to touch one. I've never been IN a herd of cattle. Have you? (well, and I still wasn't, I didn't know when they took off towards the cows and once I figured out what thy were doing, was taking pictures!)

The cousins---minus Mason. Not sure were he was!!

There's Mason---with Tyler trying to hold him and "take care" of him.

And, the 2 girls...sitting on their chair in the trailer, behind the wagon. We just drove in circles in the field. over and over and over so each kid could drive. and remember, they drove more than once!!!


Side note: Jaden and Paige NEVER miss their naps. They may lay down late, but they always get their naps. They just need them. You can TELL when it is nap time. Especially Paige, she gets whinny and will sometimes ask to lay down between 1 and 2 pm.

Well, never say Never. For whatever reason, neither Jaden or Paige slept on this day...

And, after dinner, we found Paige laying on the cot inside the little "cabin" on the Farm. I am SURE, if we hadn't found her right away, she would have gone to sleep. It was the funniest thing!!

So, that was our adventure On the Farm. We are "City" folk, but we had fun on the farm for one night!! and we'd love to do it again!!

Jaden's b-day

WOW---I did so good keeping my blog up to date and then I left for my Premier Rally and I have been playing catch up since then! Jaden's birthday was Tuesday the 14th and I left at 5:30am on the 15th for Rally, for the rest of the week.

So---Here's Jaden's 4th BIRTHDAY PARTY pictures!!

My 2nd cake, I have ever made! Of course, our theme was Basketball---Jaden's favorite "thing", if you will!! I of course am learning as I go. I want to buy a cake plate of some sort. I don't like the cardboard wrapped in foil. There are other things I need to learn too, but not too bad for my 2nd time!

Presents: High School Musical movie, a horn for his bike, HSM basketball, K-State baseball bat/ball, sports coat hook, Barney DVD's, Basketball music CD (maybe his favorite!), Planet Heros space-ship, money, Target gift cards, .... It was a good day!!

The guests:

Uncle David and Aunt Amanda

Grandma and Grandpa Roth

Uncle Scot and Aunt Stephanie

Grandma and Grandpa Balzer

And MY cousin, Terry, was able to join us! It was fun having him there!

Great Aunt Barb and Great Uncle Jim

And Jaden's big gift was a real basketball goal outside.

Jaden's last gift he opened was his High School Musical basketball. We then told him to go outside and show everyone how he could dribble. So, the family filed outside and waited for Jaden to come out. It was the funniest thing....

Jaden came out, finally saw the basketball goal and just started shooting baskets, like the goal was nothing new!! It was so cute!!

Happy Birthday Jaden! We love you so much!!

You are so cute and fun! Your smile brightens up a room and makes ME smile!! I love having you sit on my lap. You love to ride your bike and play outside. You are not a follower. You will swing or play outside by yourself, but you also love to play with kids! Leah Wilkinson is one of your best friends and you have started going to her house for "play-dates". You love to watch High School Musical and listen to music. You can clean your room by yourself, which amazes us. We can't wait to see what you learn this year!!

We love you lots,

Mom and Dad

Build a Bear

One good thing about having kids 11 months apart is that when they are little, they can have dual birthday parties! As I was planning their party/parties, I decided they had the exact same friends. They love each other and have fun together---so why not have a birthday party together!! So, to Build-a-Bear we went for THEIR party!!

The Birthday Princess and Birthday King!!

holding their new bears to be stuffed


First---
fill the bear with stuffing

Waiting for his friends to fill their bears

Second--

give your bear a bath and brush it off

Third---

Hearts for inside the bear

Rub it in your hands to warm it up, rub in on your forehead, and give it a kiss

before putting it inside your bear

A cousin picture!!

This year we were lucky that Jeremy and Sydney--cousins from Michigan--were here for their birthday party! (Not sure where Tyler was during this picture---probably running around!)

After Build a Bear--

we headed to the mall eating area to have a BIRTHDAY COOKIE!!

THE GANG!!!

**And, now tomorrow is Jaden's family birthday party! It's just one big party at our house the last 3 weeks!!**

Paige's Party

Our Baby is 3!
So, of course we need a birthday PARTY!!

Loved, her b-day outfit! She was NOT liking the pants. She probably asked me 10 times to change her clothes, but I would say no or change the subject. It was just too cute!!

Presents: pink beanbag, pink princess pig (pillow), a Barbie computer, 2 new Barbies, lots of Barbie clothes, a new dress and tank top (she LOVES dresses!!), 2 pairs of sunglasses, a book, K-state pom-poms, a Little People camper (that Tyler has been playing with), Barbie suitcase to carry her Barbies, Princess basketball, pink (dress-up) hair, doll with high-chair, and money! And, her big girl bike!!

Pretty good night!--hopefully I remebered everything!

The Theme: Barbie

It's sometimes hard for me to choose what "theme" to do for my kids, because they have never been huge into toys. I was going to do Dora for Paige, but she doesn't necessarily love Dora, it's just the only thing I could think of. Then, the past month or so, all 3 kids have started playing Barbies together. (yes, I know it's funny the boys play Barbies, but they do and they all get along, so I just go with it!!!) So, we decided on a Barbie party and I think it turned out to be a good idea!!

The Guests:

Uncle David, Aunt Amanda, Taylor, and Mason

Grandma and Grandpa Roth

Grandpa Balzer---

Grandma was sick in bed with the yuckies!! She sure hated to miss.

Aunt Stephanie, Uncle Scot, Emily, and Annie!

This turned into a cousin picture--cute!

GREAT Aunt Barb and GREAT Uncle Jim!

Paige is holding her Barbie computer.

And, of course MOM and DAD were at the party!

These sunglasses were on the top of Grandma and Grandpa Roth's present, so Paige took them off before the gifts even made it downstairs and wore the glasses for the first part of the PARTY!!

The Food:

Pizza and Salad. I always try to let the birthday kid choose what they want for the meal. So, Pizza is what Paige choose. We bought 2 pizzas from Papa Murphy's (Vegetable and Chicken Pesto)---these were the favorites. I bought them for the GIRLS and bought regular meat pizza for the boys from Pizza Hut. But, EVERYONE liked the "girly pizzas"!!

And, then cake and ice cream, of course!!
Happy Birthday Princess!

Barbie Cake

Paige had a Barbie birthday so I thought I would attempt to make her a Barbie cake. (When Tyler turned 1 Steve and I attempted to make Tyler a tractor cake for his birthday. It was a mess...to say the least... and luckily my friend Kelly came over and helped us fix the cake a few hours before the party! It was a nightmare because Steve and I both have personalities that "we can do it" and we don't want the others opinion or help. That doesn't work too well---especially when neither of has really had a clue on how to decorate a cake!!) So, this time I enlisted Amanda's help with the Barbie cake and mom came along too to help!! It was a fun morning!

This is the reason I don't like to do things like.....make cakes! My kitchen was a COMPLETE disaster! As you can see---I got my big mixer out that I have not used in maybe 8 years (I got it for a wedding gift 9 years ago!) We made frosting from scratch---and it was AWESOME!!!! I did not make the cake from scratch----the box was just great!!

And, here' Princess herself. She is the only reason I attempted to make the cake. I knew she would love it!!

And, here's the finished project. I was quite impressed with it. Total it took us 4 hours. (that does NOT include baking the cakes!) But, it does include letting it set in the freezer a couple times in between layers and decorating! I looked at TONS of Barbie cakes on-line and took aspects of different cakes that I liked to make this one! Of course, Paige's had to be PINK!!!

Time to cut the cake now---all the hard work and it's going to be crushed!! But, I was pleased it even tasted good! The frosting, was amazing!!! It looks like a small cake, but it fed 16 people with no trouble.

For our cake, we took the legs off the Barbie and just stuck her in the top of the cake a little. Jaden was VERY concerned about Barbie losing her legs. He kept asking (for 2 days) when we would put her legs back on, when we were going to take Barbie out of the cake, etc. That's all he could talk about. So, when it was time to cut the cake, I let Jaden pull Barbie out of the top. And, here's him just looking at the Barbie.....still not sure what to think.

And, now we've decided to just keep the top of Barbie because I will probably make another cake similar to this, again, and Amanda will make one at some point for Taylor, and anyone else can borrow Barbie's top 1/2 too.

SO---now I get to make Jaden a basketball cake and who knows what Tyler will come up with in January for his cake. Then, after I have made each kid one "cool" cake, then we'll re-evaluate and see if we continue this tradition or not!!

July 4th

I've decided that we have too much going on---always---to keep my blog perfectly up to date. However, it is MUCH more up to date than my scrapbooks, but still I can't keep it current from day to day. So, here is our family pic from July 4th!

I now have to blog Paige's b-day from last week and then I'll post more 4th of July pics.
And then this week we have, Paige and Jaden's birthday party and then Jaden's family b-day party. Plus, my niece and nephew are here from Michigan, so there will be lots of pictures with cousins this week. And, then next Mon. we are going camping for Jaden's b-day. SO----it continues to be crazy busy, which means my posts will continue to be a week or so behind.

Happy July 4th weekend!