grant's birthday party

it was a very full birthday celebration-starting on the 18th with blue pancakes...

that night we had a full moon cookout-first one since last fall. the kids had hotdogs and sticky marshmellows and anticipated the party day to come

on saturday morning -after grant's basketball game we took a tour of kansas city in our drive over to the  college basketball experience at the sprint center. luckily we were not in a hurry and the caravan of 6 cars all made it downtown.

ashley made 4 delicious kinds of cupcakes-she is starting her own business because she is crazy talented in just about everything she does-including making scrumptious cupcakes :)

 

the kids had fun playing on the kid size court, playing pop a shot and climbing on the oversize goal-thanks ashley for taking my picture-

upstairs they have some interactive exhibits to compare yourself to real college basketball players

then we walked across the street to the pizza bar-

the party continued at beth's house-brett decided to take a nap and grant opened a few presents

we were trying to take the emphasis off presents this year-but i do love his smiles when he is excited :)

brandon-you will be happy to know that he got a pair of leather work gloves-so no more blue and white polka dots when he is using his hatchet :) 

thanks to everyone who was able to come-one of the reasons we were trying to deemphasize gifts is we want the kids to value people's time-it takes a big time commitment to come to a full day birthday party and spending time together with friends and family should be the most highly valued present :) 

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the birthday weekend continues...today is another beautiful day-roy and dale got to play this morning before having to head back to OK

anneliese said "we are playing mommies watching the game"

happy 7th birthday to my little boy who is growing up so fast :)

i love this place

bobby sent me flowers on valentine's day-it was very unexpected and i loved it

the weather is finally warming and with that comes the thaw-it has happened remarkably fast-first big puddles but then today the wind came along with 70 degrees. It has been a magical day of discovering the farm that was under snow for so long. we dug up mole hills, climbed on stumps, made wings out of brome grass, made cookies for grant's birthday, and emily has a new use for the felt mask.

tomorrow grant turns 7-
it's been 7 years since we became parents
i love him so much it hurts a little-
and i love that we are here on the farm and getting to experience all the wonder that each day brings

happy valentine's day

a snow man sort of morning

grant was sick on thursday and friday :( he is fully recovered now and is better about remembering to take his medicine than i am.  the girls had dentist appointments-they had been looking forward to this for weeks. dr. kellie henderson in lawrence is worth the drive. we also discovered we could access netflix through the wii-so after several days of no snow play it was time to get back out there...
and the snow had changed so much-it was hard and crunchy and stuck together. so it was time for another snowman. but not until grant and emily played several rounds of king/queen of the snow mountain.

an assortment

the garage is turning into the wrestling zone, the indoor trampoline area and has provided some needed space during this cold cold winter

when the girls and i went to the pool party last saturday, bobby and park made a large ramp in the meadow for the boys to fly over. i was sad i didn't get to photograph that crazy event, but grant replayed it for me on sunday.

i don't think i will ever get tired of the those walking up the hill pulling a sled pictures...

red faced and ready for hot chocolate

 emily worked and worked on this picture-and dutifully gave me the descriptions of each part-her creativity continues to expand as she is finally holding her writing utensils appropriately :) you have to watch out for those grumpy red sheep :)

anneliese had her see to learn vision appointment today-i highly recommend Dr. Julie Anderson-she was so thorough, patient, and had a tea set in the lobby :)

third day magic

bobby and i have always had a theory about having 3 days in a row at home. the first two you spend decompressing, doing laundry, dishes and all that other stuff that piles up. then on the third day you finally have energy to make some changes that won't be undone in a couple of hours. one MLK weekend we tackled the attic at 1813 and over the 3 snow days we finally got the garage somewhat hospitable. I say we-but it was mostly bobby doing all that work-i was trying to entertain kids and making food. feeding the family 3 meals a day is hard work! so i call the garage daddy's wonderland because it is mostly gym mats on the floor and a makeshift basketball goal-this has been his idea for a playroom for some time now.

for weekend fun-
grant had another basketball game-this time at 9am-it was a really fun game. grant is getting more aggressive and is taking more shots-i love watching him play. he really seems to enjoy it and bobby does a little too :)

i was able to take more pictures this game-thanks to a sister of one of our players-she is wonderful with the girls and entertained them the whole time!

emily was invited to a pool party and they were nice enough to let anneliese come along-

and we still have one more day left in the weekend :)