Happy Birthday Joshua!!

Joshua is 7!! Happy Birthday to my firstborn! I won't go into the whole "story of the day he was born", but I will say that my life changed for the better the day he came into it :)

He wanted bbq chicken this year, and we had about 30 people coming for his Family Party last night, so I've been buying chicken every time I go grocery shopping for about the last 6 weeks, lol! I fried up a bunch and then Rick was so kind as to grill up the rest with some bbq sauce. I made a bunch of potato salad (which ran out way too quickly), and we had some baked beans and pretzels. It was very picnicky and that was what I wanted. Joshua LOVED IT! We were able to have the party outside, even though it was chilly, and Rick had a bonfire going which was really nice. Kids played on the playset and had a blast! Here are some pictures:

Here he is with his Bumblebee cake:


Joshua got some great gifts, but his favorite from Aunt Cheryl and Nick. It was a CD, and in the picture, he's trying to figure out which one it is:


And this is when he realized it was TAYLOR SWIFT!!!!!!


He got TONS of money too:




Today we went to McDonalds for lunch and then to the movies. I had asked Joshua what he wanted to do - play putt putt, go to Craigs Cruisers, Chuck E Cheese, a movie at the theater - whatever he wanted! He chose a movie, so we went to see "Shorts". It was actually really cute! Even Logan sat through almost all of it!! It was only about the last 15 minutes that he started to get fidgety, but the theater was so empty, I just let him go sit wherever he wanted and he was fine.

Tonight we had a party with some of his friends. He doesn't start school until after Labor Day, so if we were to have a party with classmates, it would have to wait until midway through September, so this year, we decided to invites some friends of ours who have kids that Joshua plays with and call it good!! It was TONS of fun! Tacos and cupcakes!! It doesn't get better than that! The kids brought swim suits and played in the hot tub. More playset and another bonfire!!

Here is Rick helping the kids with the cupcakes:




Joshua's best friend, Nick, who came out from Coopersville:


Logan, Sydney and Morgan:


Morgan and Chase:


Cameron, Joshua and Andi:


Opening presents:


A hot tub full of kids!!!!


Joshua had SO MUCH FUN! Here he is with Nick - I think that was the highlight of his birthday, seeing Nick again! Amy, thank you SO MUCH for making the drive from Coopersville!!!


Here's Sydney, Joshua and Morgan - he is DEFINITELY his father's son - surrounded by the ladies :)


And some new friends were even made (Andi and Sydney):


Happy Birthday to you! You live in a zoo! You look like a monkey, and you smell like one tooooooooo!!!

WE LOVE YOU JOSH! Hope today was everything you hoped for and more!

Maritime Festival

The White Lake Area Maritime Festival started today. It's actually a really fun festival. There is a community picnic, arts and crafts fair, beer tent, shrimp boil, trout pond for the kids - tons of fun stuff. Tonight was the Community Picnic. For $2 you got a hot dog dinner with chips, cookies and a drink - can't beat that! Plus, there were games for the kids with prizes and stuff.

I had never been to the picnic before, but I brought the boys and met up with my friends Kait and Dawn, and their kids. There were TONS of people there but it was actually pretty fun. The highlight of the night was the "Foam Penny Scramble". Basically, they put a bunch of money in the grass, then the firefighters cover the whole area with fire retardant foam!!!!!! On the count of three, the kids all rush into the pile of foam and start digging for money, LOL!! Joshua and Logan had an absolute blast :)

The pictures that I got are off my phone, so the quality is far from fantastic, but it's good enough that you will get the idea!!

Here is Logan, just after he slipped and fell UNDER all the foam and was covered from head to toe. I had to wipe his face off so it didn't get in his eyes, lol. He was less than thrilled at this moment:



Joshua LOVED the foam - he had so much fun slipping and sliding everywhere!!!



Logan decided to give it another go and had more fun the second time around:



And Joshua again:



It was right into the shower when we got home to wash all the soap, grass and dirt off, lol!! I am really glad the kids had fun because I only spent $6 total for the night! I can't wait to check out the trout pond on Saturday - I think they are gonna LOVE that!!!

Oh, and I can't wait for the beer tent tomorrow night :)

Water Fun

I SO desperately wish I had taken pictures of this yesterday, but I was in the middle of cleaning, so I didn't. I will warn you, however, that this story is so much funnier with a mental picture, but I still wanted to record it so I don't forget it!!

Yesterday was H-O-T and humid in Michigan. Almost 90 degrees, even on the lakeshore!! There was a decent breeze that made it bearable, but it was still crazy hot. I was trying to clean house, so I sent the boys out to water the vegetable garden before lunch. When they were done, they asked if they could play with the hose, and that was fine - I thought they'd enjoy the FREEZING COLD well water that we have out here, lol. I sent them out to the middle of the yard so they didn't get the laundry on the line wet, and told them to have at it.

Famous last words, LOL!

I was going about my cleaning when I heard crying coming from the backyard. I walk over to the sliders and Logan is standing on the patio, covered in mud....... Apparently, the boys decided to make a waterslide. Great idea, except we don't have grass in the backyard - just weeds and dirt. they didn't see that the waterslide was creating a mud hole at the bottom of the slide.

Logan went down the slide, and fell... right into the mud hole, LOL! Now, it was hot, so the kids were chilling in their underwear. I didn't really care because they were in the backyard and we don't have neighbors, lol. It definitely made it funnier to see Logan in his Scooby Doo underwear with his butt COMPLETELY covered in mud, lol. I so wish I had taken a picture before I hosed him off!

They had a blast - and that's the important thing. But, the look on Logan's face when he turned around to show me his muddy butt was absolutely priceless!!!!

Fun Couple of Days!!

Rick went out of town yesterday, so the kids and I decided on a little mini golf - something "Daddy didn't get to do because he was gone", lol. I took a couple of pics of the boys before we left:



Funny faces:



Today I sent the kids out to play until lunch. I heard a MASSIVE amount of screaming, went flying to the slider door to find out that "THERE'S A FROG IN THE SOCCER NET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!". I told Josh to see if he could catch it, and he was successful. It's currently swimming around in a bucket of water in the backyard :)

Joshua's new friend:



Froggy close-up:



A REALLY great shot of my oldest:



I didn't want to leave Logan out of the post, so I asked him if I could take a picture of him playing on the swing - he very reluctantly agreed that I could take one, lol!!



I love having boys :) As long as they don't ask to keep the frog, lol. Or catch a snake!

Playset Pics!!!

I know I was supposed to have these posted a while ago, but life happens!! Here are the pics of the new playset. I need to re-do the fabric on the top, but in order to do that, I need to find time to get to Joann Fabrics, lol.

Anyhow, without further ado:







Pretty sweet, huh!! I'm looking forward to having it for Joshua's birthday party at the end of the month :)

Hurray!!

The play set is up and functional :) The boys are uber excited to play on it tomorrow. We let them play a bit tonight before bed, but tomorrow, I can kick them out into the backyard for an extended period of time, lol. Maybe now stuff will stop being overturned in the backyard as the kids look for bugs - that's the only thing they would do out there before....

I have pictures, but I need to re-size them, so I'll try and get those up later tonight or tomorrow :)

Yay!!!

Busy week on tap!!

Looks like August is starting out with a bang! This week alone, is already filling up on the calendar! If the weather holds, we might be going to a pig roast today with Rick's mom. It's supposed to be a lot of fun and Josh and Logan are looking forward to it. Then tomorrow, we've been invited to Mona Lake, so hopefully Rick can get someone to cover the store. He's been working 7 days a week lately and it's not an easy thing to adjust to, especially in the summer!!

On Monday, we're getting our swing set - I haven't told the kids yet, but they'll be stoked when it gets dropped off in the backyard! It will be SO NICE for them to have something to do outside, other than look for bugs (yes, I have a couple of future entomologists living under my roof!!). Josh and Logan know that we're getting a swing set, but they don't know it's coming Monday. Plus, I can send out invites to Joshua's birthday party now that we'll have it! We were going to rent the pavilion at the park down the road, but we decided to save ourselves the money if we could get the swing set in time.

Tuesday is my brother's birthday. I think maybe we'll take him to Craigs Cruisers or something like that. He'll be leaving for grad school soon, and I'm gonna miss having him around! He's been staying with us during the weeks this summer and it's been nice to have someone to play tennis and volleyball with.

Oh boy... on Thursday, one of my good friends is having her bachelorette party. I haven't gone shopping for that one yet, but I'm looking forward to it! I'm going to meet up with them later in the evening for some bar hopping in Grand Haven. I love bachelorette parties, so that will be loads of fun :)

And she gets married on Saturday! I need to find someone to watch my kids for me that day and night. Rick is HOPEFULLY going to be able to get someone to cover the store so he can escort me to the wedding, but otherwise, here's hoping he can make the reception. I love going to weddings and receptions because it is literally the ONLY time and place my husband will dance with me in public, LOL. Plus, it's an excuse to dress up and wear make-up, so I'm all about that!

Oh yeah, I still have to shop for a wedding gift too... I'm such a procrastinator!!!

More stuff coming up next week, plus my nephew turns 3 and Joshua turns 7 this month!! I can't believe how fast time flies...