May 2012

May 1- school, field trip to the new Science museum wing with klick's, lots of playtime, picked morgan girls up from school and went to ice cream for a treat, kiddos played, and met klick's at CFA for dinner.

May 2- testing for the big kids while the youngest two spent the morning playing in water at the klick's, picked them up and stayed for lunch/playtime, played all afternoon with the kiddos, lots of piano practice from cailey, and a fun family night together.

May 3- kinsey's gotcha day!!, EOYS (end of year school aka math review/flashmaster/phonics for K), ran errands, got e's haircut, celebrated K all day, met kelly at Bojangles since kinsey wanted it for her gotcha day, found out in BoJ's that they were def moving to TX:(, picked up morgan's from school and got them slushies in celebration of both gracie's bday and kinsey's gd, went to IHOP with morgans for more celebrating, then to their house to watch gracie open gifts.

May 4- watched alex, baked and decorated gracie's beach ball cake, met kelly at Jumpin Beans so the the kids could play, loved our 'talk time', traded kids for playdates and caroline came home to play with us for the afternoon while braden went to their house, baked fish cupcakes while visiting with cheryl all afternoon, leslie came over with winston and we finished the party prep while the kiddos were at choir rehearsal, and went to kohl's with Les so the boys could pick out a toy:).

May 5- soccer games, choir rehearsal all day, jackson's party at north hills park, toy store to get ephram's first super hero toy with brian!, kiddos played after choir, helped leslie with gracie's party (which cailey went to:)..and got some chat time in, and crashed after a busy few days.

May 6- church, lazy day, sleepy cailey, and the bayleaf choir program where the kiddos did awesome!

May 7- EOYS, walked at the Y with kelly then they came over for lunch, watched carter during gymnastics, kinsey went to their house for a playdate all day, poor cailey came home from the Y with a fever and spent her day in bed with a tummy ache, shrimp and linguini:), scouts for braden, and lots of playtime with my littlest guy.

May 8- EOYS, cailey still had a tummy ache all day:(, spent hours cleaning out my closet and it looks AWESOME!!, cleaned the kiddos closets too, read and played in between, and caught up with adele on the phone.

May 9- at home day, laundry (EVERY piece of laundry in the house!), got a SURPRISE call from chelsea:)!, snuggled with my still tummy ache cailey girl, read lots of dr. seuss to ephram, played games with kinsey and braden, EOYS, had to cancel a playdate b/c of cailey's tummy ache:(, and did lots of praying with my girl.

May 10- EOYS, cailey didn't feel well still, ran errands, youngest three played outside most of the day, picked the morgan girls up from school and cailey started feeling better so she played, made chicken parmesan:), had the klick's over for dinner and a fun night of freeze tag/laughing/blogging/remembering/and hanging out together....plus brownie make your own sundaes with the klicks and morgan girls.

May 11- came downstairs to kiddos playing games, brandon brought cfa for breakfast, watched the klick's and alex, lots of playing outside on the nice cool day, tons of laughing, went to cfa for free receipt day with kelly, went to AHG for the mother/daughter tea while the boys were at Kel's, played with the girls...and they played together nicely:), went to molly's shower at simply crepes and crashed!

May 12- kinsey and cailey's soccer games and award ceremony's, kinsey played in for cailey's team who was low on players and did great!:), impromptu play date with abby and lily after soccer...first to McD's then home for playing, spelling bee where C and B WON for their grade levels, kiddos played more with the girls (making hair things and playing outside) until dinner then we watched home videos as a fam. LOVE.

May 13- woke up to all four kiddos singing "Happy Mother's Day" to me and bagels, church, went to target together so the kiddos could use their gift cards from the spelling bee, cleaned the garage with the kiddos/then b, relaxed, went to the mall w/ the fam, and got lots of hugs and snuggles.

May 14- piano lessons, EOYS, LOTS of free time to play:), cailey spent the day making hair wraps, and took the girls to CFA for a mommy/daughter dinner date.

May 15- EOYS, lunch/playdate with Keel's all afternoon, date with Marsie and all the boys to the mall playplace and dinner, while brian hung out with the girls and took them on a walk/dinner at home/and played soccer with them.

May 16- EOYS, Y with Kelly, playdate with the Schoenlings, tons of playtime, triples at HT three times, cailey had soccer tryouts, outside play together, one on one time and stories with e, and games with the oldest two while K crashed.

May 17- EOYS, Y with beth for a HARD workout:), tons of playtime, picked up the morgan girls from school and got slushies before an afternoon of playing, soccer tryouts canceled because of storms, Cailey and Braden's piano recital, and triples with the whole fam AND the daddy cart:).

May 18- watched alex, went to the mall with kelly so the kiddos could play, cleaned, eve and cameron came for lunch!! along with kelly and her kiddos, left for the beach while brian came home early to watch the kids, went out to eat Italian for dinner, hung out at Joe's parents before being SURPRISED by Anne who joined Eve and I!

at home: kiddos played the rest of the day and then had a Star Wars movie night with brian.

May 19- took our time getting up then headed out for some shopping at the outlets, went to the condo, walked on the beach, ate at Benjamin's (YUM), walked around broadway for a little while, laughed, played games, and went to bed at midnight

at home: kiddos had a yard sale with brian and played in the tent, kinsey went to caroline's birthday party, and they went out to a Korean restaurant for dinner!

May 20- woke up to Krispy Kreme doughnuts, went out on the beach briefly before eating at Chili's, spent the rest of the day on the beach in the GORGEOUS sunshine, said goodbye to anne, went to Mellow Mushroom with Eve (yum), went to broadway for fun shopping and ben and jerry's for ice cream, then played some more games with eve.

at home: brian took kiddos to the Got to Be NC festival from 10-4!! where they had a blast riding rides all day and eating, then they went to their Awana meeting and awards night..where the girls got American Girl Dolls and braden got an Ipod Touch.

May 21- packed up to go home, left the beautiful beach, picked up Cameron then came home to my family for tons of hugs!!, made dessert, unpacked, more hugs, surprised eve and the kiddos with a visit from Laura and her kiddos, lots of fun hanging out, ate together, watched Rebecca open the American Girl Doll from Cailey, went on a walk together while Braden had his scout awards night, and stayed up chatting.

May 22- went walking with laura while eve watched all nine kiddos!, hung out with the girls until laura took eve to the airport...kiddos played together, braden and i made a coffee cake together, surprised the girls with a TWO night sleepover!!, went to CFA together, everyone had a great time hanging out and playing together, 31 party was canceled but leslie/cheryl/and laura and i hung out and had a great time talking while the kiddos had a movie night....and got a call from kelly saying that maybe tonight was the night to meet Charlotte!!

May 23- kelly called to say Charlotte was def coming today!, watched the klick kids for the day:), went on a walk with all 11 kids before lunch (which included a WHOLE loaf of bread), said goodbye to the welch's after a fun morning, played games with the all the kids, power outage fun, pizza for dinner, Charlotte was born at 5:20, took the kids back, read tons to the kids, and crashed only to have a little visitor in my bed:).

May 24- EOYS, played with the kiddos, laundry, cleaned, addison came to play for the day, went to see Kelly and Charlotte with Cailey, and ate Arby's with her before playing outside with the kids.

May 25- EOYS, watched Alex, Janet came over so the kids could play and she could help me with curriculum picks for next year, read on my IPAD:)!!, lots of reading for the kiddos, played games with all the kiddos (age appropriate for each), took Braden out for his birthday date with Brian for Chinese/bookstore/chocolate store while the morgan's watched the kids, and kids played outside until DARK...aka 8:45!

May 26- visit from granny!, kiddos played outside ALL day in the pool and with friends, brian (and me a little) started redoing the deck by taking all the old wood off, worked with the kids to bring all the new wood to the back yard, and movie night.

May 27- worked on the deck with brian all day while the kiddos played outside in the pool again...ephram spent the day at the morgan's getting lots of treats and attention:).

May 28- another deck day, all the kiddos played in the pool for the day and LOVED it!:).

May 29- last day working on the deck, kiddos helped with clean up and did GREAT team work (proud mama moment), had a hilarious time with the family trying to catch a baby bunny together...chasing it all around...and we succeeded and loved on it for a while before letting it go...kiddos continued trying to get it afterwards unsuccessfully, saw tons of "runaway the turtle" during the deck rebuild, got rained on/therefore couldn't stain it, and was SUPER proud of Brian for the great job he did!

May 30- pool date with cheryl rained out:(, played games and read books with the kids all day long:)!, lots of pente with the oldest three:), was silly together, menu planned with cailey, found out both cailey and braden got main parts AND solos for choir camp, and read TONS more with ephram.

from e who built a big lego 'ship'- "this is the ship where the Jedi's live...dark Vader can't get in."

May 31- first pool day of the season!! tons of fun swimming, chasing, splashing, catching, snuggling, racing, got the morgan girls from school and kiddos played, and went to CFA block party night with the lawleys for rock climbing (kinsey did AWESOME!! her first time making it to the top!) and she inspired her siblings to join her at the top:), bounce house, face paint...fun family night!

Airport Date with Daddy

While I was at Laura's with the oldest three (and Ephram wasn't feeling great) he stayed home with Brian. After working at home for the afternoon, Brian took him to see the planes at the airport and boy did he have a GREAT time!! He talked and talked about it both before and after they went! Then they went out to dinner together. I love that he got such special one on one time with daddy:)!

only one?

We had a fun playdate with the Schoenling's but I only took one picture the whole time because the big kids spent their time outside on the trampoline while Cheryl and I chit chatted inside with Lucy....but I still wanted to document this sweet time I had with them! So fun!

random April/May

this boy LOVES capes!! he always asks me to tie on scarfs or blankets
so he can be a super hero!

free frozen lemonade day!!

going to nonny and poppy's and see saw with sissy

and learning extra awana verses

ipad time and a random rash that appeared on ephram all over his body that FREAKED us out...then left an hour after it came.

jammie road trip and always reading:)

first ring pop (and thrilled) and another silly clementine girl

box head, another ring pop, and harrison's birthday party. these two get along great but their height difference always makes me smile:).

park party

We went to a new to us park to celebrate Jackson's birthday but the oldest three were at choir rehearsal so it was just Brian and I with Ephram! He spent his time turning sticks into light sabers with Carter while Kelly and I (and Brian and Brandon) got some good talk time in.

Jackson was having so much fun with his same age friends that I never did get a picture of Ephram with the birthday boy! I love this picture of these two...they were just sitting together chatting and drinking juice boxes like big kids when I tried to sneak a picture of them but they caught me coming:).

canceled party...or not??

I was having a 31 party while Laura was here because she loves it but the person throwing it got sick so we decided to still get together with a few of the people coming and hang out. These three ladies are all SO sweet and love me...and are the best at encouraging me:). I am so glad we were all able to hang out together!! Love yall!

Jumpin' Beans!

We officially finished school at the end of April but have continued to do Math (Horizons grade 5 for the oldest two and grade 1 for Kinsey) as a review. Right Start math puts them so far ahead that I was hoping they'd be able to handle 5th grade...and sure enough it's been a breeze for them. Since we have so much time on our hands we've been able to meet for playdates, go to parks, go to the Y, and have all day game marathons!

We met the Klick's at Jumpin' Beans for the morning then traded kids for the afternoon so they could keep playing together.

SO thankful that when we finish our school year up (EARLY) we can do things like this!! Just one of the awesome perks of homeschooling!

Keel Playdate!

After the soccer games (and before the spelling bee) we invited Abby and Lily over to play for the day. I surprised the girls by taking them to McDonald's for lunch (their choice) then they played there for a while before coming home for more fun. They are both in co op, soccer, and AHG together...in the same age group. The girls had so much fun playing together!

Cailey's Last Soccer game...and Kinsey's??

The soccer season lasted a week longer this spring because of RAIN so all of Cailey's teammates weren't able to be at the last game or the awards ceremony. Her coach had them meet at Chick Fil A to hand out the medals before their game.

Cailey's friends, Kalia and Abby

Since there were so many girls missing the coach asked if Kinsey could play Goalie on the team to help them out! They aren't in the same age group...and I was a little worried about Kinsey getting trampled on but she stopped SIX goals!! She did awesome!


After the first quarter he wanted to let someone else play goalie (so they could rest) so Kinsey played alongside her sister on a field twice the size of her regular one and did great! It was so neat to see them playing together on the same team:). Both girls did an awesome job! Cailey's favorite position is defense and she's great at it!

Cailey really loves soccer and it's her favorite sport. She tried out for a competitive league for the next year but it turned out that there weren't enough girls her age to form a team. She can't wait for next season!

Kinsey's Last Soccer Game

Kinsey had a GREAT time playing soccer this year and did an awesome job! She's such a tough cookie and tends to fall a lot but she always just brushes herself off and keeps on playing. She had a sweet coach who was very vocal and encouraging to all the girls.

She was so excited to get a medal and her coach even gave all the girls pink leather bibles with their names on them. What a fun experience she had this spring!

Teacher...

I caught this sweet moment of Cailey playing teacher with the other kiddos. I have a ton of book sets with fabric characters that go on felt boards and they all just love taking turns using them! This one was Brown Bear, Brown Bear.

little bunny foo foo

While the kids were playing in the front yard braden discovered a baby bunny hiding under a bush and ran to tell us. Well it was the CUTEST thing..the pictures do NOT do it justice! Of course we decided that we would try and catch it which led to about 7 minutes of laughing and great family time! All six of us were chasing after this little thing and of course it's WAY faster that any of us but in the end Cailey was able to grab it when it hopped over to the air conditioning unit in the backyard. Apparently baby bunnies make a squeaking noise (which I didn't know) that is adorable.

We played with it for about 10 minutes and all the kids were petting the sweet bunny while planning how to keep it. I decided the poor thing should be set free (as I am aware that it won't always be a cute little bunny) so it hopped away to find peace. Cailey was devastated so she got Braden to help her chase it down for about an hour before it finally got under our fence and into the neighbors yard. It truly was a hilarious moment, though! GREAT family time!!

ifamily

We LOVE our iproducts around here and now that the kids are getting older they have joined in on the the love. Along with our imac I have an ipad that Brian got me last year (and of course I thought I would NEVER use it!) Cailey got an ipod touch for Christmas and Braden just earned one from the awana store!! Yes...our AWANA was THAT awesome!! We don't have much screen time around here (even though there are lots of screens:) but they do love playing both wordfeud and scramble with their friends. Oh..and most recently Brian got me an iphone to replace the droid I rarely used and I LOVE it!! I didn't think I'd use it much and was all for getting me a regular 'old style not smart' phone...but he thought I'd want it. Thanks to being used to an ipad I have really loved it and actually answer my calls and keep it charged now:). These were all lined up and Braden decided to take a picture of them:).

it's been a while...

It's so hard to get ephram to smile normal...as in not 'cheesy' with his eyes closed!! He tries SO hard that it's funny but Brian caught this picture of us and I just had to post it! I LOVE this picture of me and my littlest guy together!

Ephram and I love to dance together and it makes him laugh so much! We dance while the kids are practicing piano or even for no reason..I've done it (and still do:) with all the kiddos. Looking at this makes me realize how big he's getting and just how blessed I am that God chose him to be in our family!!

Mother/Daughter Night

Chick Fil A had a mother/daughter night (after the father/son campout) and the girls were so excited to go together! They both decided to dress up for the occasion:). There were yummy FREE desserts (both the girls picked ice cream and toppings), crafts, nail polish (they even put it on the girls!), someone from Mary Kay...the girls both tried some lip gloss:), and friends! We saw a ton of people we knew there and even got to sit beside our friends who we didn't know were coming until right before we left. I prepared a cute questionnaire for my girls just so we could have conversation starters...it was super fun!

i love that cailey still isn't too old to make and wear a crown:). and a picture with our sweet friends!!