Night at the Zoo

I got an ad for members night at the zoo and we decided to give it a try.  I had very low expectations - but it was so fun!

 First up touring the elephant barn.  The elephants were maybe 5 feet outside that window.

 We (and a few hundred other people) got up close and personal with the tigers, otters, monkeys, and anoas next.  They have all kinds of spaces for the tigers to go and walk behind the exhibits, and we learned there are 6 tigers, but usually only 2 out.  Same with several of the other animals, they swap out who is out in the exhibits and who is hanging out in the back.  Very cool, but very smelly.

Tour behind the aquariums.  They had all kinds of seahorses and jelly fish back there. 

 First peek at the new shark exhibit.  We need to go back and explore that more.

 Up close and personal with a polar bear.  He was going to bed for the night.

 Then a ride on the carousel to end the night.  Our kids didn't even know there was a carousel so they were pumped.  Kyle rode a walrus, Evan a horse, and Grace a pink horse.  They were three very happy kids.

Dunk Tank Day

 At the end of the school year the kids' school has a dunk tank.  Anyone who walked 10 miles at recess gets to throw a ball to dunk either my dad, or one of the teachers.  Grace and I stayed for the whole thing this year and it was so fun.  So glad my kids have teachers who are willing to do this kind of stuff, and that my dad is there so we get to see him too.

Minion Party

Kyle turned 7 last week and we had a minion party to celebrate.

 Brandon pulled through with the cake again (I sent twinkies for his class wrapped as minions - picture later)

 It was a family party but Kyle told his best buddy Sawyer about, so it was family plus 1 this year.  Here they are showing off their minion tattoos.

 All the kids got minion goggles too.  Very hard to see out of.  You can kind of see our pin the eye on the minion in the background.

 We managed to surprise him big time this year with the Disney Infinity game. He opened these characters first and we told him they were just to play with and he was totally okay with it.  Then when he opened the game next he was thrilled (as were his cousins and siblings).

 Kyle had asked for a hula hoop a while ago, and Grammie and Gramps came through.  He said he was an expert and he did not disappoint.  He has a stance, lots of hip action, and was showing off turning, changing speed, jumping, etc.  I see a lot of hula hooping in our summer, from him and his siblings who are determined to learn how now.

 Everybody loved 2 week old baby Gwen.

In the end our boy had a great 7th birthday.  He has made a lot of progress coming out of his shell this past year and we are excited to see what the next year brings.  

Anniversary/Birthday

Our anniversary was on a Sunday this year, so we decided to do a "fancy dinner" at home with the kids.  We busted out the china, chargers, and crystal which the kids thoroughly enjoyed.  We didn't dress up, although I'm noticing Grace did wear a crown.  Brandon made delicious chicken cordon bleu and rice pilaf to go with our sparkling cider.  Everybody was happy.

 12 years!

 The next day we celebrated my birthday

Brandon came through with my rice krispie treat cake and the kids told me happy birthday every time they saw me.  Mom took me shopping for some new clothes, the kids made me a cute card,  and Grace helped Brandon decorate which involved paper lanterns and a lot of red streamers.  It's fun now that they get birthdays and are trying to make it special for us as parents. I love seeing what they think is a great birthday.

Soccer Season

For the first time ever we had all three kids in soccer at the same time.  Grace was finally old enough and we went for it.  It was a little crazy having soccer practice 4 nights a week, and 3 hours of games every Saturday, but we survived and everybody had a good time.

Grace didn't really care about the game all that much, but she ran around a lot and had a fabulous time.  She did connect with the ball a few times and was very excited about it, and we had a great time watching.  Successful first season.

 Kyle is starting to develop some real skills as a defender.  I don't know why he decided that was his position, but he has and he's stuck with it.  He isn't afraid to attack anybody with the ball and he saved quite a few goals.  In a completely un-Kyle like move he scored twice in the last game.  He was so excited about it, and exhausted when he came out from running so hard.  

 Evan played with a team we loved this year.  His coaches were awesome and really worked with him to develop some skills.  By the end he was doing well as a defender and had the idea of the different positions down.  Probably the most improvement ever in one season, and although his team only won one game, he loved every minute of it.

 One game was especially rainy and this was us huddled watching. There were puddles in the tent and we were all soaked by the time we got back to the car - although nobody was as soaked as Evan.

 Evidence of said rain.  It was insane.

 The last game he was all over defense, stopping quite a few people near the goal.  It is so fun to watch his team as they are figuring it out and it is looking more like real soccer and less like everyone just running around following the ball.  It will be fun to watch them continue this fall.

 Two pictures Kelli took of the spectators at Evan's game.

Easter 2014

 I did a horrible job taking pictures, but the day before Easter we had a gathering with my dad's side of the family, complete with a cousin egg hunt.  Our kids are loving having more cousins around.

 This morning - waiting for us to take the dog out and then hold him so they could hunt.  We didn't want him unattended with candy on the ground.

 I love how fast they run around hunting, and how intense they are about it.  Espeically since they know that in the end it all goes together and we share the candy.

 All dressed up for church.  

They insisted on a pose with Finn.  He did pretty well so he may be allowed in more photos.

 Don't know what's going on with her hand, but I love this kid.  We register for kindergarten tomorrow and it makes me so sad.  She is getting very grown up.

 Check out his snaggle teeth.  The new teeth are definitely pushing out his top two, but he is not ready to pull them yet.  The one is going sideways more and more every day.  I'm guessing it will fall out soon on its own.

Looking older and older, but so fun that the real meanings of holidays are making more and more sense to him.  I miss my babies but the big kids are turning out to be pretty fun too.

Science Fair

Evan decided this year he wanted to do the science fair, and that he wanted his project to be judged.  This meant whatever he did he had to be prepared to answer a lot of questions about it.  I was very nervous for him, but he picked out a project and we went with it.

 We went over some practice questions and the day of the science fair came.  Here is his display.  He told me everything to say, picked the fonts, pictures, etc.  Even designed the graph. I did the typing - but only to speed it up a bit.

He nailed the questions that day and only missed one point on the entire project, earning him a first place ribbon.  We were very proud of his hard work and he is already excited for next year (Kyle was inspired too so we may have to do 2 projects next year).