Hannah's birthday gift

This year for Hannah's birthday we decided to do things a little different.  Her gift from us was a party at Wine, Paint and Canvas.  We scheduled a private party for 10 friends and arranged for them to paint Olaf, from Frozen.  

On party day we had two open seats, so David took one of them and painted Olaf too.  

Big Hannah and Billy, in usual form: non stop hilarity.  

Hannah and Vivian, birthday buddies from day 1.  

Vivian, and Jared and Kadence in the background.  

Here you can see Sara Beth, the little girl in the front left.  Beside her is Logan, beside Logan is Aria and her dad Paul.  On the other side of the table is Ashley, Logan's mom.  

Here you can see Aria and Logan again.  Across the table is Alayna, with her mom Karen.  

On the right side is Alayna and Karen.  Then Iris' head and her mom Ashley.  On the other side is Aria, then Sara Beth beside her.  In the far back, on the left, is Big Hannah, Billy and Grandpa Bob.

Hannah and her Olaf. 

Vivian and her Olaf.  Jared, fixing Kadences' Olaf.  My understanding is parental fixes were needed in all of the kids' paintings.  

Hannah, with all her friends.  

David said the party went well, but he thought the 2 hour time block for that age group was a bit too long.  He also said all the kids had to have some kind of parental recovery with their painting.  However all the kids had fun, and they all liked their painting, which is what mattered.  

Girls getaway

About a month ago, Michelle and I headed down to Myrtle Beach in an early celebration of Vivian's birthday.  We headed out Thursday afternoon, after picking up Vivian from school. We got in to town a little early, so we made a stop at an outlet mall in the area. This way the kids could run around for a bit. They were a little wound up and excited during the car ride. 

Here's Riley, never one to be left out. 

I like Vivian's pose here. 

I learned something during this stop. Ya know those musical car rides outside all kids of shopping areas?  Well I discovered that you don't even need to put money in them for kids to have fun with them. 

Riley and Logan in the space shuttle. 

Vivian and Hannah in the muscle car. 

Excitement over being at the hotel. 

Riley had to nap after we got there, so Michelle took all the kids down to the water. It wasn't exactly hot, but none of us needed it to be hot to enjoy our time at with the ocean. 

This was one of the indoor swimming areas that the pool had. 

We went shopping at another outlet mall on Friday. I picked up a hat for Riley, which she's modeling here. 

Friday night, Michelle went out with Vivian for some one on one time and when she got back, I went down with Hannah for some one on one time. It was nice. Hannah and I hung out in the hot tub the whole time. 

Our beach goodbye. 

There goes Riley. 

It was great to have my own time with Michelle. We don't have that time as much as I'd like. It's hard. But it's so nice she. We can make it happen. 

Our first sleepover

Recently Michelle and I formulated a plan.  Every other month, I'll take her kids for a sleepover at my house.  On the months I don't take her kids, she'll take mine for a sleepover at her house.  The genius in this plan is that the parents hosting the sleepover get a break and the other parents get about a day and half to do whatever they want.  And everyone has fun.  

I like this picture, David and Dustin in our backyard.  

This past weekend was the first sleepover, which we hosted.  Over the days leading up to the event, I got pretty excited.  The kids were SUPER excited.  Michelle and Dustin went to see a broadway show in Durham and had plans to stay the night up there.  Michelle and Dustin get here a little after 10 am to drop the kids off. 

I helped Michelle do her eye makeup, and in that moment, I got excited for David and I next month.  

As for the sleepover, it went great!  And it snowed!  

The kids went on rotation.  They would spend about 30 to 40 minutes outside in the snow before they got too cold.  They'd come, and take off all the wet clothing.  The clothing went in the dryer and the kids went to play upstairs, which would last about an hour.  Then they'd be ready to come back outside.  

Jared and Noelle came over with Kadence.  So there were 5 kids.  And no fighting. 

Meanwhile, David built a big bonfire in the backyard, to get rid of some big stumps we had in the backyard.  

We threw up the tent for Riley.  She kept up with the big kids, for the most part.  She did spend  more time sleeping than usual though.  

Crafting their snowman.  

Poor little guy.  

They got along beautifully, and only slowed down when we put a tv show on for them at about 730 that night.  

So our first sleepover was a huge success.  We did get out the door with all of them to church.  Which was rather comical, with David running around constantly trying to coral all the kids so that they wouldn't get distracted.  

Italy Gals Reunited

The third week in June Michelle, Patricia, Brittany and I met up at Brittany's house in Dahlonega, Georgia for a reunion of sorts.  This part of Georgia is absolutely gorgeous.  It's green, mountainous, and peaceful.  Brittany's house sits tucked in the mountains, she's got a big back yard with a pool and an awesome tree house.  

Brittany's house

Here we are at Amicalola Falls State Park.

Just one of the waterfalls located within the park.

Panning for gold at Crisson Gold Mine.  Georgia was the site of a very large gold rush

The most awesome tree house ever!

Swimming

The big water balloon fight.  Why is filling water balloons so time consuming?!??

5 years 

I feel so fortunate to have meet these ladies.  Ya see, unlike many "moms groups," we all knew each other before we got pregnant.  It started with Susan, Michelle and I.  Then this group formed when we got pregnant, we all gave birth within about 6 weeks of each other.  Except for Gretchen, who couldn't make it this time.  She's our group advice leader; her kids are much older than ours. ; )  We've stuck it our for 5 years so far.  We have our own little email circulations, emailing about daily to each other.  Sometimes it's less, sometimes it's many in a day.  Sometimes our emails contain 1 sentence, other times they are small novels.  And we discuss all sorts of things!  We want to make our get reunions annually, but it's hard because we're all so spread out.

Next year, we'll see where we end up.  With Gretchen in Texas and me in Chicago, we're trying to find the middle from there.