BBQ

We had our friends the Berrys over for a barbeque this week.

The kids had fun playing with their giant bubble wands,
and drawing with sidewalk chalk.

But, the most fun was turning our backyard slide into a waterslide.

Drew was a little nervous the first time down.

Legos

Grant and Brady love to build with legos, and when they're done, it's always fun to bury Drew with the extras.

Camping at Greenleaf Lake

We went camping this weekend with our friends the Wixoms. There is nothing better than cooking hot dogs over a fire, eating sticky gooey smores, bike riding and hiking on the trails, seeing beautiful views of the river and lake, fishing, riding paddle boats, and sleeping in tents. The weather turned out perfectly...not too hot and not too cold. We were even able to take the cover off of our tent, so we just slept under a mesh top. It was beautiful to lie in your sleeping bag and look at the stars as you fell asleep. It was great to wake up in the morning and eat delicious pancakes and bacon that Stephanie made for all of us. Grant said she made the most delicious breakfast ever. We always have so much fun with the Wixoms. They have children the exact same ages as Grant, Brady and Drew (plus a one and a half year old), so everyone has a friend to play with. We're lucky to have such great friends.

Brady and Drew slept in a tent with Nick and I. The last time we camped Drew was a little nervous about sleeping outside, but this time he thought it was great. He called it our "sleeping tent". Drew was also very impressed with peeing on the trees. We had only been home from camping for about an hour when I found him outside "watering" the grass. Uh oh!
Grant and Cole slept in their own tent for the first time. I think they stayed up later than any of us, but what a fun adventure!
Setting up tents and starting a fire is hard work! Nick needed a little break after it was all done.

Venomous Spiders?

This is a picture of the Daddy Long Legs we found on our cooler. We started talking about whether or not these spiders were poisonous. Most of us had heard that Daddy Long Legs were very venomous, but their fangs were too short to bite humans.

Scott did a little research and found out that not only is the Daddy Long Leg not poisonous, it's also not even really a spider. I guess it was just a myth. It's a good thing we had the Internet on our camping trip to figure that out! We came down with yet another stomach virus on yet another trip. Yuck! Brady and Sydney were both really sick on Saturday. It was sad that they had to miss out on all the fun Saturday, but at least they had fun the night before. What are the odds of having a stomach virus on the 2 trips we have taken in the month of May?

Fishing

Paddle Boats

Grant and Cole had a great time riding paddle boats on Greenleaf Lake.

Last Day of School

Every year we try and make the last day of school really special for Grant and Brady. We have a couple of traditions that we do each year. The first is that they wake up to find signs all over the house. There were signs...

on the bathroom mirror,

on Brady's bedroom door,
on Grant's bedroom door,
and on the breakfast table.

My kids NEVER get sugary cereal before school, so it's a huge treat to be able to choose any fun cereal they want for the last day of school.

Then, after they are home from school, it's time for a treasure hunt. They have to follow clue after clue to find their treasure. This year the clues were all riddles. For example, "When your clothes have been washed, I give them a spin; to find your next clue, just look within."
This year's hunt was the longest ever. They had to find 15 clues before they finally discovered...

the treasure box filled with fun surprises!

I love that my kids are still young enough to enjoy fun things like this. They're growing up so fast!

It's a boy!

Today at 12:58 p.m. my sister Alicia gave birth to a baby boy. He weighed in at 7 lbs 5 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. His name is Garrett Michael, and I think he is such a cutie! Alicia and Garrett are both doing great.

Emily's Birthday Party

On Saturday we went to our friend Emily's 4th birthday party. There was a jupiter jump, face painting, a magician, and pizza and cake. The kids loved it!

Andrew Winter kept trying to jump onto the 4 wheeler, so Grant grabbed onto him and they went for a ride.
Brady painted Tyler's face, then Tyler turned Brady into a tiger.

Drew taking his buddy Kaleb for a wild ride. They pinned me against the fence with the 4 wheeler, and Grant had to come to my rescue.
Brady, Drew and Brayden Dickerson

Happy Mother's Day!

Top 10 reasons why my mother's day was perfect:

1. Grant and Brady woke me up with presents from each of them. Brady gave me a jewelry box that he had built and painted, and Grant gave me a birdhouse that he had built. They had also both worked really hard on homemade cards that were precious.

2. I have a great husband who not only helped the boys make my mother's day presents and patiently let them use his tools, but he also thought about it early enough to have it done before we went on vacation this week.

3. Brady made me a delicious breakfast.

4. I got in my van to go to church and found that Nick had shampooed my carpets and detailed my van after I went to bed last night. It really needed it after our road trip, and that was a great surprise.

5. The boys sang a beautiful mother's day song in church, and all of the moms got chocolate.

6. After church, Nick entertained the kids while I took a really long nap.

7. After my nap, my Aunt Suzie made a delicious dinner for us at my grandmother's house. I love it when I don't have to cook! The best part was that she sent the leftovers home with us. That means I won't have to cook tomorow either. Plus, we were able to spend the evening with some of my favorite moms and greatest examples...my mom, Mimi, and Aunt Suzie.

8. All day Drew was hilarious as usual, and that reminds me why I love being the mom of a 3 year old. This morning he was trying to figure out what you do for Mother's Day. He asked us if we were going to have a Christmas tree or go trick-0r-treating.

9. After the kids went to bed tonight, I watched a video of my darling niece Kaylee and nephew Brent singing Mother's Day songs on their blog. Being an aunt is so fun.

10. I think that being a mom is the best and having a day to celebrate that is pretty great. Motherhood is the greatest joy in my life!

Happy Mother's Day to all the great moms out there!

Cousin Fun

This weekend we took another trip to the Great Wolf Lodge in Grapevine, Texas. My mom and dad met us there, and so did my brother and sister and their families. The first hour of the drive to Texas went great, and then all of a sudden Drew started shivering. I reached back and felt his head, and he was running a high fever. We stopped at a pharmacy for Motrin, but even after taking the medicine, he was pretty miserable the rest of the way. He didn't feel great the first day of our vacation, but after that he was fine. The second day was Nick's turn to feel lousy, and the third day my dad and Grant came down with it. Grant was hit the hardest with the virus, so we ended up leaving a little early on Saturday to get him home. By the time we got home, he was feeling good enough to eat some dinner, and by bedtime he was back to normal. We were thankful that it was a short illness, but it would have been nice for everyone to feel good the entire time. I guess with that many people on a vacation together, the chances of someone getting sick are pretty high. Despite the yucky virus, we still had a great time. (To see more about the Great Wolf Lodge, check out my post from our last trip there on March 16)

We LOVE our cousins!
Mazee and Drew racing down the slides.

Birthday Fun

Brent and Kaylee both have May birthdays, so we had a party for them at our hotel. My sister made a cute Thomas cake for Brent who is turning 4, and pretty cupcakes for Kaylee who just turned 2. Alicia has another May baby coming in less than 2 weeks. Doesn't she look amazing?

Our cousins, Stevie, Damen and Tyler live in the Dallas area, so they met us for the birthday party. You can't have a birthday party without games, so we played Duck, Duck, Goose in our hotel room. Stevie and Tyler are really good sports, and they even played along.