First Day of Kindergarten... sniff sniff

Today is a tough day. Not because I think Hannah will have a hard time in kindergarten, I'm just sad that our baby is no longer a baby any more.
:-(

Four Wheelin' in the Mountains

Chris's department at work had a mini-retreat scheduled a couple of weekends ago in the mountains. We figured it was a nice opportunity to take Cole with us to enjoy the fresh mountain air.


We finally got our new camera (thanks Uncle Billy!) and I brought it with us to play around with some of the fancy-schmancy settings. Here are some of the shots I took.


Ain't she cute? I wonder why her hair looks wavy in this shot. Maybe the lack of pollution in the air made her hair kink up?


Of course, Chris could NOT resist taking the kids out on the four wheeler.


You see, Chris grew up in the... ahem... WOODED part of New Jersey. Wooded and remote if you get my drift. Four wheelers were practically a class in school for him. Which is why he just had to take the kids out on one.


He'd love to buy one for himself, you know Kim for hauling big branches and stuff..., yeah whatever. Like he hauls a lot of branches. Nice try.


Anyway, the kids seemed to enjoy it.


Thankfully it does not go very fast, otherwise I'd be a nervous wreck.


Let's hope he does not run me over. By the way, this is when I had to switch to my old camera. The card on the my new camera was filled up. Sigh.



This is as fast as Chris got. And of course Hannah is happy as a lark. Little speed demon.
:-)

Chalk Art

Here is a recent example of some of our collaborative chalk art. We made this in honor of the ice cream social that was taking place at our church later that day.


I thought Hannah did a really good job on the person eating the giant ice cream cone. His tongue is out and everything.
:-)

Happy 5th Birthday Sierra!

Sierra is Hannah's best friend at daycare. We made it back from the mountains (more on that later) just in time to go to Sierra's birthday party. We are going to miss seeing Sierra and her family everyday once Hannah starts kindergarten.


Sierra had her party in the park again this year. When you've got an awesome playground, water park AND train - how could you go wrong?


Everybody, this is Connor. Connor this is everybody. According to Hannah, Connor is going to marry her. They are going to have their reception at McDonalds and "Angel is the Centerfold" by the J. Geils Band will be played at her wedding.



Notice how DRY Hannah's hair is. Seem suspicious? She is in a bathing suit afterall. But alas, by the time we were finished playing at the waterpark - Hannah's hair was slightly damp at best. Sigh.


Because I am evil, my favorite feature at the waterpark is a bucket that periodically dumps water on the kids heads.


Hee hee. "It keeps getting funnier every single time I see it!" - Beetlejuice.


Hannah with Breanna and Katie.


Happy Birthday to you...


After cake, it was time for the train.


My goodness, I am going to miss Sierra. She is such a sweet little girl. Happy Birthday Sierra!
:-)

Hannah's 5th Birthday Party

My apologies that this post was such a long time coming - I did not realize how many pictures I took at the reunion. Anyway, here's the birthday girl all dolled up for the luau.


This party was a major team effort, from the decor to the wardrobe and the balloons to the food & cake, and big hug and huge thanks to everyone that helped!


We even put the birthday girl to work.


Bouncy Castle in full effect. That's just how we roll.


Of course she's wearing a grass skirt... why would she wear anything else? Who are you thinking you're dealing with here? I even made Cole change into a hawaiian shirt.


On the party invitations I added a reminder to bring a bathing suit. I didn't say it was a pool party, but I could see how one could make that assumption. However, our pool is small. I asked for the bathing suits because two of the games I had planned involved water. This didn't stop a few of kids to take me aside point at our little pool and say "Is THAT the pool?". And I had to sadly nod "yes". Wow, nothing like a couple 6 year olds to take you down a peg. Sigh.


One of the games was a duck game. Before the party I had a mental plan of how this was going to go. Then a mob of children came running towards the pool at the same time and things had to change. FAST.


Thankfully I had (barely) enough prizes to go around so that each child could play individually. Basically they had 10 seconds to scoop up as many ducks as they could. And since I am evil, I asked a few of kids to do it with their eyes closed... just for fun. hee hee


And look, Maison scooped them all up. Showoff. :-)


Next was the water balloon toss. Since I lost my voice counting to ten about 30 times during the duck game, it was Daddy's turn. Besides a water balloon toss seems more like a guy thing anyway.


While the game quickly fell apart, Chris did a good job of getting the kids organized. We just had some older kids who knew the drill in the front of line and that's where things went a little haywire.


At least the little kids will have some type of basic knowledge of what a water balloon toss is. Maybe we'll try again next year.


After the water balloon toss, it was on to the mountain of presents. We decided to do the gift opening outside, just in case any of the guests hadn't suffered from heat stroke yet. ;-)


Then it was cake time! The sand castle was a big hit. An even bigger hit was the sea shells made out of chocolate! Mmmmmm.


I just love Hannah's expression in this picture. Sheepish little thing.


Make a wish, now blow out the candles!


This is one of favorites pictures from the day. This is Chris's Dad hosing down some of the kids after the party started to wind down.

Man, I'm tired just from recapping this party. I guess I've got to start planning next year's party... now.
:-)

Reunion 2010, Part Five (Finale)

Hannah and Anna started their morning by coloring.




After breakfast, Laurie gave a quick violin lesson to the girls.


This is Kaya. She is the daughter of the caterer/face painter. She is a very sweet girl and she really enjoyed hanging out with the girls.


Jilan and her Daddy, Steve.


Hannah and her future boyfriend, Nate.


A strong photo candidate for the Christmas card this year.


One big happy travel group.
:-)

P.S. A big shout out to Laurie for putting together this reunion. We had an amazing time and feel like we were brought even closer to these families through the time we spent together.