Now that is a lot of candles - after a whole book of matches there were 27 flames on top of my pink cake. We celebrated in Ohio the weekend before my birthday.
My three little jammie-clad kids
Amanda loaded up her clan and drove down to visit us in our new town. We had so much fun and a very full house. Her mom, Lornagail and sister, Katryne came along for the ride. It was nice to have more adults with our 6 kids. Madison is 3 months younger than Marina. Anna is 5 weeks younger than Paige. And Carter is 3 months younger than Hudson. We're all amazed that we managed to have the same lineup of kids. It's so much fun when we get together.
I loved this pic of Marina...looking so fondly at dessert. My kids always have room left for something sweet after a meal.
Snuggling after hours of playing...whew what a hard day!
Lornagail came up with the Kool-Aid stand idea and picked up all the supplies. It was a blast! We had several customers and plenty of tips. And of course a lot of friendly smiles and waves for our little employees.
Marina was terrified of the balloons flying away so she gaurded them most of the time. If any of you know Marina this will not come as a surprise. :)
A VERY satisfied customer...who kept asking for free refills.
Chillicothe (our town) has a brand new splash park that is awesome for toddlers. We spent a couple hours there and came home very soggy! Anna stuck pretty close to Aunt Katryne.
4 kids on my latest and definetly greatest stroller -- I just had to get a running start to push this heavy load!
Enjoying the swings or the "weeeee" as Paige would say!
Hudson really trying to figure out Nana Lornagail -- Paige sure enjoyed the entertainment.
Marina started swimming lessons the beginning of the month. She is very confident in the water and we're glad that they let her into the class. It's a 4-6 year old class and she turns 4 in August. That's her friend, Frankie -- they are doing the wall chase...one of her favorites.
Don had to work late the Tuesday of her first class...so I had all my sidekicks. It was fun watching the class....except Paige really really really wanted to join them. She just kept sneaking closer and closer to the pool and you can see her little foot sliding towards the pool in this picture. It's hard to be the little sis and the concept of "you can do this when you are 4" is completely lost on her. Since that class we've been taking turns taking just Marina...ahhhh...nice to go without 2 year old craziness Check out the Stickel Shack Blog. This is where we will be blogging the latest progress on our home building adventure. http://stickelshack.blogspot.com
After WAY too long, we finally made it back out to Mills Nebraska to visit my Aunt Judy and Uncle Steve. We were SO fortunate that when we got there on Sunday, ALL of their girls were home. We had so much fun. The girls (kinda) helped Aunt Judy feed the calves in the morning and evening. They also got to pick eggs! Steve and I got to pick the guitar and Fiddle (Boiling the Cabbage). Eric and I explored the family farm on our mountain bikes. The landscape is so Amazing for cycling - just look out for goathead sand burrs. They are tire poppers - as we both found out - fortunately at the very end of two days of riding. It is hard to pick a highlight, but it had to be the lunch outing at the cabin on the stream. Talk about serene!
Eric and I playing cowboy roundup on the 4-wheelers
We all went down to see where the storm had washed out the bridge. To our privelage it had created a little "beach area" We played for hours. Better than the Carribean!!
Leann was a little hesitant to go outside after we saw a native prairie resident in the driveway.
Uncle Eric made sure Hudson got the full experience.
Sherry was running the milk parlor on Monday night to give Anna time with us! Paige got a thrill out of the whole operation.
Picking Eggs was a MAJOR highlight. Every morning we enjoyed eggs! There is no comparison in flavor to these tasty orbs.
The cabin by the stream was AMAZING!
Anna was just reeling them IN! All of the kids got a chance to fel a largemouth bass on the end of their line.
