Willow Park

Here are some more pictures from Andrew's birthday party at the park.

Sean pushing Simon and Liam on the swings.

Austin giving Abbie a push on the swings.

Yep, Abbie like the swings.

Even the big boys like the swings!

Abbie had fun following Austin around.

Liam coming down the slide.

Andrew falling out of the slide (love those action shots!)

Abbie coming down the slide.

Landon enjoying his juice box.

Off to the zoo to see the animals.

Monkey see, monkey do...

Yep, she's a climber.

Checking out the ducks.

Abbie tripped while she was running and skinned her knees. Here's Andrew examining her owie.


We had lots of fun at the park. I'm glad Andrew wanted to have his party there. I love that my kids have their cousins in town so that they can be such good friends.

Andrew's "real" birthday

We had Andrew's "real" birthday at Willow Park. Parties at the park are so easy! The kids played on the playground until everyone got there. Then it was time for cake. Andrew picked out a Scooby Doo cake.


He agreed that he was 5 after he blew the candles out. Kids make me laugh. I wonder where they come up with this stuff!


After everyone ate cake, I surprised Andrew with water balloons. The kids were very excited about that. Aaron seemed to be the main target.

The only people Andrew wanted to invite to his party were his cousins. I kept asking if he wanted to invite some of the neighbors or his friends from daycare, but he kept saying no. Funny kid.

After his party, we walked around Willow Park Zoo. It's a tiny zoo, but the kids have fun when we go.

My nephew, Patrick, is 12. For the last few years, it's been my mission to kiss him whenever I see him. He doesn't like it so he fights me. I have to do it while I can, because he'll be bigger and stronger than me pretty soon. Andrew's birthday party was no exception. He put up a good fight, but I got him to the ground and pinned him. His mom thought it was so funny, she took a picture.

MWAHHH!!

Andrew's "fake" birthday

Andrew's 5th birthday was on Thursday, July 9. However, we didn't have his party until the 11th. According to him, it was his fake birthday on Thursday because he didn't have a party/cake. Even Friday was his fake birthday and he kept telling people that he was still 4.

On his birthday, we went to Ryan's Place Park, had a picnic, and played. Vicky came with Simon and Liam, and Grandma came too. It was really hot, but somewhat bearable in the shade. The park even had these misters that the kids played in. You can still get really wet from the misters. Too bad I forgot my camera.

Thursday night, all 3 boys got haircuts. I was a little sad to cut off Andrew's curls, but it was time.


We had Little Ceasar's pizza for dinner and ice cream cones for desert. The kids enjoyed their ice cream and Andrew was still in denial that it was his birthday.



I can't believe my baby boy is 5 and will start kindergarten next month. How time flies...

Little Abbie

My little Abbie makes me laugh. She is so full of life and curiosity. She doesn't want to miss a thing and is constantly getting into everything. She is turning into quite a little monkey. She loves climbing on the chairs, the back of the couch, the dining room table, and the top bunk. She use to struggle getting up on the top bunk, but not any more (thanks to her brothers encouraging her even though I have repeatedly told them I do not want her up there).

And she loves bugs. Yep, that's my little girl. We were sitting at the table one night, and she started squealing "Itzabug!" Sure enough, there was a spider on the ceiling. She gets so excited when she sees bugs. If it happens to be on the floor or outside, the poor little bug will be enthusiastically squished by her shoe. She even enjoys smacking pictures of bugs in books. Silly girl.

July 4th weekend, Aaron showed me this huge scab on Abbie's head. We have no idea where it came from. I would think her head would have bled from this gash. If she had done it at daycare, they would have told me. The scab is gone now, but we still have no idea what she did to her head.


This is what happens when I let Abbie play with markers. I don't know if she had more fun coloring on the paper or on herself, but I'm betting it was funner to color on herself....

Funny stuff

My mom told me I need to stop spending so much time on Facebook and work on my blog. Geez, ya think she would want to see pictures of her grandkids or something. Just move out to Utah, Mom, and you can see them all the time!!

Funny story: Tasha showed up on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago with some shampoo for Abbie. She and Jim had bought a 4-pack of Suave kids shampoo at Sam's Club, and my brother refused to use the pink Fairy Berry Strawberry shampoo on his boys. Oh yes, I laughed and laughed. He grew up as the only boy with 5 sisters...I think he's scarred for life!! By the way, Andrew loves that pink shampoo!

Whenever my nephew, Landon, comes over, he has to get into my cupboards (mine aren't baby proofed). My kids think it's fun to climb in there with him too. Andrew's so nice, he even pulls the buckets of flour out so they'll all fit. :)


Abbie is a daddy's girl, no doubt about it. Her favorite thing to do is mow the lawn with him. Now, usually toddlers are afraid of the mower because it's so noisy. Not my Abbie. She's not afraid of anything. She fearlessly clings to her dad's shaved head, and enjoys the ride!

Yep, she loves it!

Andrew got a soccer medal at his last soccer game. He's so proud of it. I thought I'd better get a picture of it because I bet ya he has no idea where it is now!

Abbie's middle name is Irene, so named after my grandma. I have memories of going into my grandma's closet and looking at her rows of shoes and trying them on. Yes, my grandmother has a shoe fetish. I believe this has been passed on to Abbie, so she I named her appropriately. If she's not putting on her own shoes, she's putting on whatever shoes she can find laying around. Heck, sometimes she'll have on two shoes (that usually don't match) and be carrying around three or more other shoes. Then she'll sit down and switch the shoes on her feet. Maybe I should try to get her interested in hats to cover up her almost bald head...