Reece Is One Year Old!

Reece, that sweet little Cupcake, turned one year old! She had a very fun cupcake party with all her friends and family.

How lucky... it was a really sunny and warm day. We got to enjoy a picnic lunch outdoors. Yes, that's a Cheeto Reece is munching on.

Reece loves her daddy!
All the kids were excited about making cupcake crafts. And Dani was excited about the glitter being outside so she didn't have to clean it off the floor for the next 6 weeks!

Mmmmmm.... picnic lunch! (Don't you just hate it when people take your picture while you're eating?!)

Time to open presents! Reece got lots and lots of fun new toys and summer clothes!

Rae gives Kota a big hug.

More presents for Reece!

Hey! I like this pretty bow best of all!

We got Reecey a new "car" swing. She was outgrowing her old "baby swing" and didn't like how it made her lay back... she wanted to sit up tall like a big girl!

Wheee! Grandmas are so good at pushing swings!

I LOVE this new swing, her face clearly says!

The kids enjoyed playing in the ball pit too.

Pinata time! Look at little Reece reaching for the ribbons... she had no idea what to expect, but she was so excited.

All the kids held a ribbon and pulled all together until...

...tons of candy and toys fell out!

Cake time!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday, dear Reece!

Happy Birthday to you!

And many more...

Memorial Day Weekend Camping

We spent Memorial Day Weekend down at the property in Shelton. I believe this is about our tenth year of this tradition. And the nicest weather we've even had! The kids spent lots of time in the boats and swimming in the lake. It hasn't been very warm so far this spring so the water was still cold but it didn't stop the girls from doing plenty of swimming! This year we enjoyed having Aaron & Dani and the girls join us for the very first time. They came down Friday night and stayed through Saturday but couldn't stay for the whole weekend. Rae seemed to have a really good time on the boat and splashing in the water.

Also joining us this year were Bryan & Porsche Appleman with Mircea and Casper, Troy & Beth Burgess with Joe and Danny, Connor Modin came along to play with Dakota and Missy Walker & Megan Ward joined us to keep Marina company.
It is so fun to see how much the kids have grown and changed year-to-year. When we first started the tradition it was just Marina!
I couldn't get one of my camera cards to download the pictures to the computer so I'll have to work on it some more tomorrow & will update the blog with lots more pictures from the weekend. There are lots of pictures of "breakfast-in-a-bag", the Memorial Day Egg Hunt, catching a snake and just relaxing with friends. For now, I'm heading to bed early tonight!

Volleyball Game

Marina had another Volleyball game Wednesday after school. They played at Olympic which was kind of nice. Not only is Olympic nice and close to our house but some of Marina's old friends from Terminal Park Elementary days were there. She played against her old buddy Katelynn and old friends Kennedy and Alissa too. Her team won all three games of the match but Marina's serving was better during the last match. Still, she did really well!

And it's official. I need a new camera.

Campfire Night

After work and school on Friday Aaron and Dani invited us to come enjoy a campfire with them. We roasted hotdogs and marshmallows and had s'mores and talked and laughed around the campfire. It was a really fun way to relax after a challenging week. We had a great time.
Mmmmmmmm.... hotdogs!

Rae-Rae cooked her own hotdog!

Look at all the yummy stuff!

Ah... here's the smart girl. She found all the S'Mores stuff!

Raeden cooks her first marshmallow. It looked somewhat like an Oreo... black on the outside and white on the inside! But once you stick it in between two chocolate graham crackers and add a big hunk of chocolate it tastes just right!

Nice and warm around the fire. It was a beautiful sunny day!

More marshmallows ended up in the fire than in the tummies, but half the fun is the roasting anyway.

Look at my first S'More that I made all by myself!

Kota cooking another one.

Time to run off some of that sugar energy! Kota and Rae played and played, running around chasing each other, playing pirates, playing house and here they were driving their ship. Driving it fairly crazily you can be sure!

Look out for the sharks!

Those two play together so well. They both like to make up very creative make-believe-type games and they tell elaborate stories as they go. They are fun to watch. Rae just looks up to Dakota like he is the perfect playmate... which he is!

Getting dark... time for another S'More! As it got dusk we watched the bats swooping around overhead, catching mosquitoes.Remember, when it catches on fire you blow it out, you don't swing it around. Nobody wants a flaming marshmallow on their forehead!

It got a little cooler as it got dark. Ultimately it was time to go home. Hard to drag ourselves away from the warm fire and fun chatting & laughing. But Uncle Aaron has to get up at 3:00 in the morning to go meet Grandpa to go turkey hunting... he's not going to get much sleep!

So we had a wonderful evening. Thank you, Aaron & Dani, for the invite!