Happy Birthday, Mammie!

For Mammie's birthday this year we decided to surprise her and have a cookout! What's more fun that family and a bonfire!

Felicity got her first experience with hot dogs. I don't know that she's a fan. The bun appealed to her much more than the meat.

The boys really liked the fire. What is it about boys and watching things burn? Thankfully, only the hot dogs were smoked this time!

I used Madisyn's craft cutter to make a stencil for the top of mom's cake. The recipe for Hershey's chocolate cake and frosting is amazing!

It's a good thing a group of little girls knew how to open gifts. They saved Mammie all the labor of doing it herself.

Her gifts all received "little girl" approval!

Cupid's Cuties

This year, I decided to host a little Valentine's Day party with some of our friends. Since Valentine's Day was on a Friday we got to enjoy our party on the actual day. We invited the Tims and Mashburns over for a homeschool Valentine's Day  party.

Miss Jess brought an extra visitor so we had 20 students total. The kids decorated boxes (the Mashburn kiddos get bonus points for the best boxes) and selected valentines. I talked to my kids and all the boys wanted to give out food related valentines. LOL

I was a bit of a lazy mom and didn't fill out the "to" portion of the cards. Since I have more non-readers that readers, I thought that would make things simpler for them. It proved to be a real time saver, and I'll continue to be lazy in the future.

The younger kids didn't really grasp the concept of giving out cards. In fact, a few tears were shed at the thought of giving away their sack of goodies. However, when the delivery of cards was complete there were lots of happy campers! I heard several discussions of having a party next year and schemers trying to develop a plan to pass out cards for lots of holidays. LOL

Candyce made handmade valentines that were super cute. Even though she gave my 8 children whistles, we're still friends. Haha! This little girl couldn't quite figure out what she was doing wrong. Unfortunately for me, her older siblings helped her out.

We're Having a Party

My wonderful children were so excited about having a new sibling that they wanted to throw a party. So at 38 and a half weeks, we had a baby party.

The kids got some help from Nana and planned the whole thing. Madisyn made a pink cake all on her own and shopped for decorations.

Since it was for our 8th child, they invited family and Mr. Mark and Mrs. Janet. We had a great time eating the wonderful stew that Nana made and Madisyn's cake was fantastic.

Baby Felicity even received diapers and a few new outfits. I love how excited our children have always been to welcome a new family member.

Tie Dye Take 2

One of our absolute favorite things to do is have friends over, especially the Mashburn and Tims families. Back in the late summer the kids and I tie dyed shirts. It was so much fun that we wanted to do it again. After looking at our blog pictures about our experience, our friends thought it sounded like fun as well so we decided to have a tie dye party and decorate shirts together! I was hoping to make our dying experience into a great Christmas party but I found myself greatly lacking in the energy department and 37 weeks pregnant. We had a great time and there's always next year for a party!

Getting the tables out was a much better plan than dying shirts while sitting on the ground (not to mention that I've grown quite a bit since then and would have found myself stuck there!).

I also recommend that mom put on gloves before mixing colors or touching anything in the box! I *might* have had blue fingers for a week after a lid wasn't properly secured. The mommas helped the kids get the shirts folded and wrapped with rubber bands. Then we let them squirt dye, mostly as they pleased.

Mary Claire got in on the action this time and her shirt turned out great! She might be the next Picasso of the tie dying world!

We used the same kit that I purchased from Amazon previously. I won't be doing any tie dying without it! I do recommend enough gloves for each person that will be touching the shirts or dye and lots and lots of rubber bands. It comes with a fair amount and if you were only dying 5 or 6 shirts it would probably be plenty. The rubber bands could also be dried and reused but I decided to throw them away. Dye covered rubber bands waiting to dry would result in dye covered children in my home. The disposable pans are nice because they help contain the mess and can then be dropped in a large outdoor garbage can.

Madisyn enjoyed the tie dying and visiting with friends but holding baby Stella was her favorite part of the day. Candyce had quite an exciting birth story and I can't wait to "hear" all about it again on her blog. Candyce also amazed us all with how well she was getting around just a little over a week after Stella was born. I'm in the hermit camp and tend to stick close to home after a new little one joins our family. I'm hoping for a little of Candyce's energy this time. ;-)

Our finished product! I purchased two kits and so far we have been able to do 9 short sleeve shirts, 8 long sleeved shirts, and two baby one piece short outfits. We still have 1/2 bottle of all three colors of dye.

Happy 4th Birthday, Izzy!

 We can't believe it's been four years since we got our first girl cousin!

Four years later, you are a beautiful outgoing little girl.

Izzy's party was last weekend and we were lucky enough to attend. Henry and Mary Claire had a great time in the bounce house and slide.

Each one of them would get to the top, slide down and then yell, "See how fast I went!" They had a fantastic time!

Kristen always plans the best parties and has a large turnout. She and Justin are blessed with lots of wonderful friends.

Big sister Madisyn came to the party because she wanted to see Izzy on her big day. Madisyn was such a great sport and played with Henry and Mary Claire. They are very blessed to have a great big sister!

A highlight of the party for Mary Claire was the Cinderella cut-out.

 Cinderella Mary Claire

 Cinderella Izzy



 

The Lord has sure blessed my brother with a lovely family. Isaac favors his Daddy and Granddaddy very much.

 

 

Before we left the kids were able to decorate Cinderella carriages (pumpkins). Henry took the job of covering his carriage with boy stickers very seriously.

 

Happy Birthday, Izzy and thanks for inviting us to your awesome party!

Slippin and a Slidin

What says summer more than water! We bought an above ground pool a few years ago on clearance and we have thoroughly enjoyed it.

Last year we rented an inflatable water slide for Ben's 5th Birthday Party. It was also lots of fun so we decided to rent it again this year.

The only thing that could make a pool and a slide more fun is to share it with friends! We wanted to enjoy it all day so we had a 4th of July party on the 6th of July {Saturday}.

We were really excited that the Mashburn and Tims families were able to join us. The adults wasted no time and got right to visiting and the kids got wet as soon as possible!

It was almost as much fun to splash friends as it was to actually go down the slide! The ground all around the pool at the base of the slide was soaked!

We were blessed with weather warm enough for playing but enough clouds to keep everyone from looking like lobsters.

The younger kids didn't seem to enjoy the thrill of going down the slide but they found plenty of popsicles, cookies, doughnuts and chips to keep them happy all day.

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They even managed to calm the fun enough to pose for a picture at the top.

 When the thrill seeking died down a bit the pool offered a nice, calm place to have some fun.

As evening neared our visitors dried off and we found a few other ways to have fun.

 

Griffin shared his tablet.

 

The menfolk  checked out the chickens.

 

The the horsey gave a few rides.



BBQ and Guns

 

On the Fourth of July we were invited to our friends, The Tims, home for a BBQ celebration.

Don did a great job on the BBQ and Ribs and we all had a great time fellowshipping. The Mashburns also joined us so there was plenty of fellowshipping to go around.

The kids found the water guns and had a great time soaking one another.

 

It didn't take long before the power of the water hose was discovered and true soaking began.

Meanwhile the adults and littlest stayed safely under the carport where all forms of water shooting devices were banned. :-)

The men can complain all they want about the women gabbing a little too much but it was the males of the families that kept going and going and . .  .

Addy and Ava were such good little girls. They stayed far away from the water and played on the driveway with sidewalk chalk and bubbles.

Madisyn grew tired of the shooting games and joined us on the carport.

Mary Claire still hasn't realized that she is not a big kid. LOL She got a little more than she bargained for when she left the safety of the carport for the backyard.