i have been feeling sort of bummed to not make it to a beach (any beach) this year. but then a friend of manning's invited us to join us at her grandparents' lake house about an hour away. yay!
it was such a relaxing way to spend the day. the kids all had a blast and the moms were able to chat and sun.
maddux and his best pre-school buddy who will go to a different school this year.
it's not anything close to the ocean but the wake from the boats made little 'waves' and i got to burry my toes in the sand. love.
tonight the kids have their last night of vbs at the church where they have attended preschool. matt and i have enjoyed a dinner date every night this week as a result! heaven. but my "date" tonight is nana! she and papa got here this afternoon for a visit and, of course, papa and daddy are golfing.
we snapped a few pictures of the kids in their shirts they made during vbs before heading off for their last night. they were feeling a little silly...
manning spent the week with his buddy graham so we had to get some pictures. they are both quite the little hams.
we are so fortunate to have so many opportunities to have God's word reinforced with our kids. the time with matt was such a blessing too. love.
while we were at the library, i got a text from a friend asking if we wanted to meet her and her kids at the grand opening of a local hungry howies. apparently there was going to be free pizza. um, yes.
a little back and forth and we worked out our meet up. we were expecting there to be a pretty large crowd.
but we were wrong! there were maybe 10 families and we were the largest group by a lot (there were 10 of us). we watched the ceremony to open the new location.
and then we ate! we were thinking that we might get a slice of pizza. boy were we wrong! there was chicken caesar salad, chicken wings, boneless wings, several different types of pizza, bread sticks, two types of brownies and drinks!
we could not believe our good fortune - and full tummies. it was pretty hot but we lined up in the shade to eat. the employees even came out and waited on us offering more food and more drinks.
oh, and did i mention that they gave each kid a backpack with coupons, coloring book, crayons, cups, etc. huge score!
the kids weren't done hanging out with each other so we took all of the big kids home with us so that my friend could nap with her youngest (having a rough start to the day and had a headache). the kids were more than happy to play a little mariokart together.
the kids (and i) were super surprised (and delighted) when our friends came to visit for dinner tonight - all of the way from florida! i knew that they were coming but chose not to tell the kids. they are just in town for the weekend and came to our house straight from the airport.
madelyn and ella
while amanda and i were visiting/catching-up, mason built his army! he set them up so that they could race cars into them to knock them down. his focus and patience always amaze me.
manning refused to be in the group picture - again.
he also finished one of his birthday lego sets.
i actually remembered to get a picture of me with amanda! loved getting to see this super special lady in person. we can't wait to visit them in florida when we head down that way. love.
we earned a few zoo tickets from the library and have a family zoo pass so we invited some friends to join us for a free playdate at the zoo! i had thought that there were going to be activities for "world oceans day" (there have been in past years), but this year was all about the snow leopard triplets on exhibit. there was a long line to get in when we arrived (they are only on exhibit for one hour when the zoo opens right now). thankfully, not many were members so we were able to scoot right past and head straight to the snow leopards.
it was a cool day and they were very active.
a lot of kiddos for just two families, right? we all had a great time.
the bears were digging holes to lay in which was sort of neat to watch.
the kids were having so much fun that they didn't want to stop. madelyn went home with our friends and their oldest son came home with us. the boys had a lot of fun playing baseball in the yard together.
we are excited to grow our friendship with this family. love.
the boys and i were heading to the zoo and i had the idea to see if any of their friends from preschool wanted to join us. to my surprise, every single friend was available and we had a decent sized group!
it was a beautiful day and the kids were pretty excited to be there together. love.
last week there was a knock at the door and one of the neighborhood boys was asking if madelyn could come out to play - with his little sister! he was playing with a friend and his sister, who is madelyn's age, was too shy to ask herself.
we don't let the kids play outside by themselves and had not yet talked about madelyn (or any of the kids) walking to a neighbor's house to play. so a quick audible play - we would walk her over to the neighbor's and plan for a time to come back and get her.
we took a walk as a family and then circled back to get her. they had a great time (except for madelyn stepping on her friend's glasses as we were leaving. oops.)
today they made plans on the bus ride home and a quick text from her mom said that she was on her way over. the girls wanted to do a "thanksgiving craft" so a quick google image search for ideas resulted in plastic cup turkeys. madelyn made hers an "angel." love.
several summer we have signed up for "kids bowl free," but we have NEVER gone! i was determined to make this summer different. the kids always want to bowl.
we finally made it! we met mason's bestie, his brother and mom for some bowling this morning. the bowling alley was packed! we were so surprised. it looked like a group field trip took about half the lanes. we did end up with two lanes though. and the kids meant business! they threw a few strikes and spares without the help of the bumpers.
we had another ball get stuck right in the center of the lane.
mason and nolan tied for the win on their lane!
the happy bowlers - manning was not happy
i am so glad that we made it out. but can we get there again? love.
getting ready for the wedding was a little challenging because i needed to have various family members at various destinations at different times. and i needed to get ready too! the best news was that the temperature was only forecast to get up to 82 instead of the 96 degrees forecast earlier in the week - and the rain was done for the day.
so i dropped madelyn off at the bride's cabin to get ready with the girls (she was given a monogrammed robe to wear too) and then went home to fix my hair (i was pretty proud of it, i must say, and amazed that it held all night) and get dressed. then back to pick up madelyn. we loaded up all of the boys' gear (you do not dress little boys in white pressed shirts any earlier than absolutely necessary) and got ready to head over to the farm for pictures. matt and papa showed up - from golfing - just as we were leaving so we waited for daddy to take a quick shower and ride with us.
and then we waited. things were a little behind schedule and the kids weren't really needed until just before the service. oh well. i brought things for them to do. we knew that the house was full of antiques (which is part of why we had not stayed there), but we learned that kids aren't allowed to stay there. we were on high alert kid duty for a few hours during the wait.
look at these cuties!
mason was pretty excited to be carrying the ring box. he did not actually carry the rings for the wedding, daddy had them in his pocket.
and then things started to get a little rowdy...
maddux played with the camera for a while
... so mommy broke out the big guns - doc mcstuffins on my phone.
go time! i left the kids with daddy and the wedding planning before going to take my seat. manning lost it when it was time for matt to walk nana down the aisle to her seat. matt had to carry him to me. the wedding planner even apologized to me because she had to try and pry manning off of matt with no success.
mason and maddux held hands to walk down the aisle. so sweet. the girls had no trouble getting down the aisle. madelyn helped savannah to her side of the aisle and then came to sit with us. the service was lovely.
now for a few more waiting and pictures with the photographer.
now it was time to party! they had a food truck drive up for appetizers during the cocktail reception - very yummy. the kids were so excited to have a soda from a glass bottle. i thought that they could use the sugar/caffeine kick to make it to the end of the reception. they thought that it was a good idea too!
they posed for this picture without being prompted for all of the family friends gathered around. the cutest part was that they had their arms around each other too. i just didn't have my camera yet.
the bride and groom were introduced from the hay loft and then danced their first dance up there .
madelyn quickly found a friend - allie
finally a picture of shannon!
papa and his brothers, dennis and kent.
flowers from my little man, manning.
matt was nervous, but his best man speech was fantastic!
i think that at least half of the photo booth pictures are of our kids, with and without the awesome shannon, but matt and i got in there too. (the ones with just manning's head might be my favorite.)
the kids were a hit on the dance floor too.
double-fisting some cupcakes
some of the bridal party taught mason how to dip allie. they were so cute.
papa and nana hit the dance floor too!
after the bride and groom made their exit, we snapped a few last minute pictures before calling it a night.
mr. earl wrestling some g boys.
finally realized that we hadn't taken a picture together yet!
mason asked for a picture with me.
it was a fantastic wedding! many happy years to derek and ashley! love.
