Happy Mother's Day!

We spent Mother's Day at Disneyland this year, I feel terribly spoiled!  It was a gorgeous day and fun was had by all.  What a treat to have Grandpa and Grandma O with us!  Thanks for making the trip, Mom and Dad, and for all of the help you were with the boys our entire trip! 

our little "cheese" bear

 Waiting patiently for the parade to start! Grant LOVED the parade!

 We walked back to the park for the fireworks display while Grandpa O was kind enough to stay at the hotel with Parker snoozing

Many more Disney photos to come....

Granddad Frank

We spent last Saturday celebrating the life of Frank's Granddad, and namesake, in California, spreading his ashes at sea with his family.  It was such a memorable and wonderful way to celebrate his life knowing he would have loved nothing more than to have had his entire family gather and set sail in his honor.

Grandmother Jean with her three children, Bruce, Ann and Susan

Everyone released beautiful rose petals

I AM 4, then 5, then 6, then 7

Grant has been soooo excited to turn 4!  He is very quick to tell us that he will then be 5, then 6, then 7, then 8 and so on and so forth!  I would much prefer that he stay this age for more than a year but I'm just the Mom and I don't get to make ALL of the rules :)


Grant had a delightful day beginning with a few fun presents to open at home, a bunch of wonderful Happy Birthday wishes over the computer and phone, a trip to Krispy Kreme for breakfast and that was all before 9AM!  It was so much fun to celebrate Grant and what a wonderful little boy he has become in just 4 short years.


Grant, we love you little Bud and even though you can't wait to grow big and strong like Daddy (in your own words) we would love it if you'd stay little for just a while longer!  You are a delight to be around, full of words and ideas and funny facial expressions!  You wake up with a smile on your face, most mornings, and are often singing songs before your feet hit the floor coming out of bed.  Dog-dog and music (drums and guitar are instruments of choice right now) are among your favorites as well as your little bro, Parker, and your best buddy, and neighbor, Jack!  


You love having friends over to play, swinging in the back yard or at the park, riding your balance bike and pedal bike, playing any sport involving a ball, watching shows when we permit (Word World and Cars is your favorite movie), playing the card game Garbage, doing FaceTime, playing outside, learning to write, playing FIRE!, color/sticker/glue/glitter/stamp about anything, painting on your art easel to name just a few.


You are pure sunshine my son and we love you and can't imagine life without you, you are one of God's perfect gifts and we thank Him each day for giving you to us!


We love you little bud, happy, happy birthday!


Mom, Dad and little bro 

**For Mommy's memory in the years to come: you are 25% for weight at 30 lbs and 35% for height at 40 inches according to Dr. McCloskey, at your well child check, as well as being a happy and healthy little boy!

ENGAGE

Each year, in the Spring, our church family leaves the church building to serve in our community.  The ENGAGE event is a highlight for us each year and a way for us to be the hands and feet of Jesus to many.  This year our family volunteered, with many from our Care Group, at a local high school and we specifically worked on landscaping.  The kiddos loved it...well, Grant did and Parker didn't seem to mind so, all in all a "win" in our book!

Parker enjoyed blowing bubbles most of the morning and dug in the dirt a bit too!

Spiders had been found here, captivating!

Grant working alongside one of his favorite friends, Grace

Parker also enjoyed hanging out with his friends, Juliet and Evelyn

There was a bit of a wait in line for the hot dogs at lunch so, the boys eventually took a seat in the shade

kc

My wonderful husband gave me the priceless gift of a weekend away at the completion of tax season, woohoo!  I was soooo blessed to make the trip to KC to visit my bff's, Carla and Sarah and their dear families!  We did a lot of dinking around which means doing a little of this and a little of that and a whole lot of catching up!  We were able to run the Trolley Run on Sunday and ended up being the only photo (and a phone photo at that!) I have of the three of us from the entire weekend, and the rest of our time was spent chasing and playing with four adorable blue eyed boys, oh, and a little shopping too!

Jonathan, the fearless leader, with his little bro, Caleb

Jacob and his little bro, Josh

I must also thank Jamie and Nate for sharing their wives for the weekend!  It is very rare to have some girl only time since we have six little boys between the three of us!

Josh looking adorable as always....just before getting himself quite dirty for the afternoon!

Jake was pretty patient but finally stuck the football in my face and was ready for me to put the camera down and play already!  (Note how beautiful and perfect those blue eyes are in this photo...)

Caleb quickly taught me how to always carry a minimum of two toys everywhere you go while eating a snack at the same time :)

Jonathan always had his own ideas and made me some very creative kites and drawings to bring home to my boys!

And here it is, eye almost swollen shut from a collision with the frisbee.  Thankfully he bounced back quickly and still asked to play a game of tackle football ;)

I love you all, thanks for such a wonderfully relaxing trip.  I treasure our time together!

xoxo

another year over

Grant had his end-of-year program at our Community Bible Study on Thursday, you can see him in the green shirt in the middle.  He LOVES music and singing!

Parker was too young this year to participate in the program but he did make me a special craft which I adore!

tulip festival

We made a fun Saturday trip to a tulip farm not too far from us to enjoy a morning of their Tulip Festival.  It was soooo beautiful!  There was plenty to do and see but the boys seemed to be most impressed with the John Deere tractor they could sit on as well as all of the mud to walk in. 

I couldn't pass this up, don't you like the bulging biceps? Ha!

Grant wanted to know why there were wooden shoes all over the place and was most interested in climbing atop this one!