Serenity

A Sunday sunset in Snowflake on a summer's day, while listening to Summer Again by The Afters.

If you don't feel serene while experiencing that combo, something is seriously wrong.

Kindergarten Celebrations

I think most schools call it kindergarten graduation. But it was labeled as a celebration for Kai's class, probably to make it sound different and exciting!!

I have loved Kai's teacher this year: Mrs. Dinet. Such a sweet lady and perfect for my middle child.

Kai was awarded the "All Around Boy" award and he couldn't be happier with his tittle.

Finally Four

Treyson had been asking for MONTHS now:

"Mom, how many minutes til my birthday?"

(I am not a calculator, so therefore I answer him in days)

" 48 more days Bud!"

" 32 days left now!"

" 19 more days to go!"

"8 days", "3 days",

"ONE MORE DAY!!"

Well it finally came.

Trey was the happiest little boy just having us sing to him and eat a donut for breakfast. 

Plans kinda fell through for all the other celebrating we wanted to do, so we ended up just having cousins over for pizza and swimming.

Treyson is the funnest!  He cracks us up every single day and we are lucky to have him.

All the boys are still borderline obsessed with Ben10, so of course that was the cake he chose.

My sister, Katie, came over to help the night before and we had a BLAST making it like we always do.

Needless to say there were lots of jokes about "balls" as we had to make so many of them.

Such a funny, late night.

Easter 2012

 Thanks to Jimmy, a best best cousin to the boys, we are now a Ben10 obsessed household.

Our table and family room floor most days look like this:

Printed Ben10 images from the computer, colored and cut out for playtime.  On the right is Griffin's list of the show's aliens.

So for Easter this year, I knew this obsession had to be part of the mix.

I searched high and low, in stores and online, for Ben10 shirts.

The only ones I found would ship from Great Britain and would have taken too long for my last minute shopping.

So I made them.

I found a heat transfer manufacturer that sold these images and ironed them on myself.

 The boys were so excited.

After a quick change, we went out back for the egg hunt.

 Kai was so funny.  Each time I called his name for a picture, he would stop mid-walk and pose like this:

Instead of candy in the eggs this year, we filled them with Chuck E Cheese tokens, with a promised trip to the favorite pizza place later in the week.

I was so sad to not capture the DeWitt Egg Bash on camera this year.

I had just enough battery life to get some photos of a few of the games my parents had set up for us to play.

This one was a duel visual battle.

You started at the items table side by side with your opponent.  When the word was given, you ran to the visual table, tried to memorize the 8 objects in their proper order, then ran back to grab the items and put them on the placement table correctly.

It was harder than you think.

This game was a simple bean bag toss game.

I say simple, but my parents made this entire structure with their bare hands!!

They're amazing!!  

Ever held a half-PVC pipe, side by side, with 3 other teammates, and try to roll a ball through them to the other side of the room?

We have.

Another use for PVC pipe games:

One player holds the "tower" while the other adds a new section of pipe to the bottom.

The goal was to keep the water container on top for as high as possible.

 A fun marble "Bowling for Bunnies" game for the boys:

This one had 8 players, each trying to stay on the game board for as long as possible.

With each new square you stepped on, you had to turn over the one you just left.

Last man standing wins.

And the end of this blog will reveal my sadness once again about not capturing the Egg Bash 2012.

It was such a rushed tournament this year because of the time we finally ended up starting it.

Allan won yet again.

Is this his third year taking home the coveted title?

He must be cheating somehow.

I can't believe I didn't even take a picture of our dyed eggs.

I also failed to document the annual Gardner Family Auction.

Jeff won the big prize again this year.

An air compressor.

It was a great Easter yet again, despite the missing photographic documentation.