First Day of School

Derek started Kindergarten today and Joseph started 1st Grade. They both had a great day.

Fun at Grandma's

Trips to the waterfall, dinosaur museum, and park.



Jason was so pleased with himself to be able to climb all by himself just like the older kids.



Croquet game with daddy.
Jason the woolly mammoth.
Lorelei asked me to take her picture with the t-rex head.

Joseph had many questions for the student working on this paleontologist stuff.

Airplane Trip

We took a trip out west to visit with some family. The trip to went really well. The kids were well behaved and we got there ready to play. The trip home was much more exhausting so almost all the pictures are from the 'to' trip.

Here we are after parking our car on the shuttle bus to the terminal.


We see our airplane and are waiting to get on.



Jason had his own seat this trip. I can't believe how much better that made the plane rides.

I bought each of the kids their own mp4 player so they could watch videos. They were well worth it!



Major disadvantage of sitting in the back of the plane is having to wait for eternity to get off.

This last picture is on the way to the airport going home. car seats car seats and more car seats. lol

Happy Birthday Derek

Derek turned 6 years old on July 16 this year. He was so excited for his birthday this year. Each night a week before his birthday he told me he was glad to go to bed so it would be closer to his special day. Finally the day came and he got a bike (with a broken pedal so he had to wait a few days to ride it) and a bunch of legos. He also is old enough now for his own library card.






This year Derek asked for a Vanilla cake with vanilla frosting. For my own sanity the kids get to pick the flavor/type of cake they want but not the shape. Derek is such an awesome kid he was simply thrilled with green sprinkles. I LOVE this boy!!

All dressed up Saturday night for a baptism.

Summer Paper Crafts

This is what the kids and I made today.



here Kathy is the website: http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/2024/list_15_1.html

End of the Year and Happy birthday Jason

Joseph's kindergarten class.
Joseph and his teacher Miss Shipp
Derek with his preschool teachers, Miss Collyn and Miss Lynn.


Joseph won a couple of awards this year: Terrific kid and music recognition.


On June 6th My little man turned 1. Time seems to have flown by. He's a walking, talking (ok not talking more like screeching) wonderful monster.



my my.. I think he liked his cake.

Family Photos

It's been 1 year and 8 months since we last had family photos taken. I kept looking up at my wall and feeling bad that Jason didn't have his picture up there. So we drove the hour to the studio and braved the Saturday crowds. I bribed the kids for their good behavior ( there is no shame in this) by going to chuckecheeses after. I had fun with the pictures, the kids had fun with the games, and frank..... well... luckily has the day off tomorrow with nothing planned. We all win!

Rather than post all 86 photos taken, I'll post some of the more Interesting photos... aka the ones I didn't buy.


Ok, here we have "THE REACH". Neither Frank, me or the photographer noticed Jason had to touch my arm for the next 6 shots.



"THE ONE-LEGGED BOY" So Joseph had an itch and took his shoe off in the middle of snapping pictures to scratch it. lol



When we first got there Christian was very nervous and wouldn't be his normal self. This is the best one we had when we were looking at all the photos and I asked the photographer if we could actually go back and get some better ones of Christian.



And that produced "THE GROWL"

Disney Vacation

Our first day in the parks we went to magic kingdom. Originally I heard complaints about wearing a mickey mouse shirt from the husband, but he came around to my way of thinking. (he usually does )

Our very first ride- Astro Orbitor. Sorry Christian, didn't mean to cut you out of the picture.


Lorelei was so cute on the carousel- she LOVED it!

The parks were so hot that all Christian would eat was fruit and drinks.

Gotta try out the swords after pirates of the Caribbean.


Day 2 we headed off to Disney's Hollywood Studios

In line for Toy Story Mania. It was a very fun ride for all of us.


My most favorite ride was here at DHS- the Tower of Terror. Joseph, Derek and Grandpa rode it with me. (I rode that ride 3 times that day and would have happily ridden it all day long) Here the boys tried on some hats after the ride.

My kids aren't super into characters so it wasn't worth it very often to wait in line for them. We did get to see Sorcerer Mickey (Lorelei was having some classic melt down time here)

I'm not in this group photo because we were too tired to ask for the photopass people to take our picture.


Day 3 we started off early in the morning going to Epcot. I'll be honest. Epcot is not for us.

This is about how we felt about it. Here Lorelei and I are sitting out after being told she wasn't tall enough to ride test track. I was very annoyed having measured her myself before the trip. After crying about it we folded up some guide maps and stuck them in her shoes. After that, she was good to go on all the rides. I just wish I had done it two days before in magic kingdom.

Here she is right before we were allowed on. Such a happy girl!



The park was hot and we were all a little miserable. We decided the best bet would be to park hop over to animal kingdom. Right before we walked out of the park we ran into my boys' favorite character with NO line. Howdy Stitch. That was the best thing about epcot.



Animal Kingdom. It was such a good idea to park hop!


The boys loved the dinosaur ride!We watched the Lion king show and just had a better time at this park. We stayed until it closed at 6.

Day 4
We were so exhausted from going the whole day before we decided to adjust our plans and take this day off. We headed over to downtown disney not realizing that place is just as bad a park day. It was very hot again and Christian ended up throwing such a huge fit that Frank took him, Lorelei and Jason back while the rest of us stayed and shopped.

Joseph spent some of his birthday money at the Lego store.
The boys also picked out stitch to buy.


I got Lorelei and Christian a souvenir too.


Day 5. My mother offered to take the youngest three swimming while Frank and I took Joseph and Derek back to the park. After so many meltdowns from Lorelei and Christian we decided everyone would have the most fun this way. With no strollers and getting there very early, we were able to ride every ride we wanted by 11:00. It was awesome.
By noon we went home and took a nap. After a thunderstorm, Grandpa, Grandma, the oldest two and I headed back to magic kingdom to see the fireworks and parade. I couldn't believe how much more crowded it was at night.

I sat the teacups out because they make me want to puke.

But I can't turn down a stroller ride.

uhh.... resting? on grandpa's bed.
Originally I had the camera and I told Frank to climb in for me to take the picture. He was too fat.

Here was the last character my boys actually cared to see, and I happened upon him just coming out so another no line!!

All in all we had a great and exhausting trip.