3rd Annual Backyard Campout

Saturday night we had our 3rd annual backyard campout. We followed in the tradition of dads and kids sleeping out in tents and Moms and little ones in the houses. It poured down rain right at 3:00 when we were planning on starting the party, but the rain moved out quickly and the rest of the night was perfect weather. It was a race to see who could get their tents up first.

Brendan working on his tent.

Brett and Maddi working on their tent.

The Heimbuch's joined in the camping this year too. They've always come over but never stayed the night.

The little kids weren't much help, so they stayed out of the way and enjoyed the swings.

The McDonald's making some progress on their tent...

...the Ball's with not much progress yet.

The Heimbuch's are the winners. Dave just bought the tent and the sales guy said it was one minute set up and I'm not sure that it was a minute, but it was really fast. Guess they've made some improvements in tents over the years. We got our tent 13 years ago for our wedding.

Time to eat our traditional campout dinner of pizza! Ellie and Emma thought they were so big sitting at the bar. Those girls are so adorable together!

The bigger kids eating their pizza.

Someone was very tired after dinner. We have been so incredibly busy the last few weeks and baby girl was worn out.

We managed to get a smile out of her! She went to bed pretty much right after this picture.

Little Dawson is 10 months old. It was his first campout! He is such a cutie and so happy. Ellie was loving all over Dawson.

Cocoa and her best friend/worst enemy "Molly".

Dawson found his way into the toy box.

Brendan and Dave...

...Anne and Rebecca.

Time for a talent show.

Cade was first with some yo-yo tricks.

Then he got silly with the "creepy" boy baby doll.

He got a little crazy with the baby and found himself in time out :(

Maddi finishing a front handspring.

Grace doing a back handspring.

Grace and Maddi enjoying their ice cream. Maddi has been having a hard time with the fact that the Balls are moving at the end of the month. She has been working on writing a song for them. It's a very catchy song and so very sweet.

The whole crew minus sleeping Emalyn enjoying ice cream. Cade had already inhaled his ice cream and tried to get some more just for the picture. Nice try anyway.

We also had our traditional microwaved smores and burned off some sugar jumping on the trampoline.

Time for glow sticks. We ended up moving the party in the house because the bugs were getting pretty bad. I think everyone was in the tents by 11:00pm. Rebecca and Dawson stayed in our house with Emalyn and I and Anne was at home with Ellie and Andrew. Everyone stayed the night out in the tents. Jack woke up at 5:45 a.m. and started jumping on the trampoline. Everyone else in the tents woke up shortly after that except Maddi girl. She slept until after 7:30 a.m. We were all eating breakfast (donuts and breakfast casserole) at that time and we all saw her wake up and come out of the tent. It was soooo cute and funny. She popped out of the tent and looked around like "Hey guys. I'm up. Guys. Where is everyone?" She saw us all sitting at the kitchen table watching her and she joined us with donuts.

Emalyn and Ellie joined in the fun and even had a juice box of their own. It was a very successful campout! The Heimbuch's went home after 9:00 a.m. and then we all showered up.

We had tickets from Brett's work to the 1:00 p.m. White Sox game. This is our only picture from Brett's phone from the game. It was kids day and they gave away free jerseys. We had a great time at the game even though they lost. It was an early bedtime for everyone to rest up from the busy weekend and to prepare for our busy week ahead!

Last Day of School

Friday was Maddi's last day of 4th grade and Cade's last day of 3rd grade! I seriously feel like the school year just started. They look so big and grown up and lately several people have mistaken Cade for the older child. The boys a giant and I think the braces make him look older too.

Miss Maddi is growing up but is still the sweetest little girl with a very tender heart.

It wasn't her favorite year, but she made it through. She had some struggles academically, emotionally and socially, but she is one strong little girl and she tried so hard and really made a lot of gains in every area. We are so proud of her for always trying her best and for always treating others with a kind and gentle heart. The odd school years (1st and 3rd) have been her best, so we are really hoping 5th grade follows that trend and she has some good friends in her class and has a wonderful year.

I know a little girl who is going to be very happy to have her "sissy" around for the summer...

...she will be very happy to have "bubba" home too.

Cade had a wonderful school year and had the most fabulous teacher. It was the first teacher who has really pushed him to the next level and he loved that and certainly needed that.

He has changed a lot this year and is becoming less interested in Legos and video games. He's all about sports, watching them and playing them. He has been quizzing Brett with stats about players during the basketball playoffs. He has had a great year academically and also with sports. He recently made the advanced swim team for the summer swim team. He is the only 8 year old to make that level. He'll be practicing from 7-9 every morning, so he's going to be worn out. We are so proud of Maddi and Cade and are looking forward to summer time!

Memorial Day Weekend

We have been insanely busy and I don't see it slowing down in the near future. Here are some random things to catch up on and some from Memorial Day weekend.

Emalyn and I got kids meals at Wendy's the other day for lunch. The prize was "Minute to Win It" games. It's this ball game and the cup stacking game. All 3 kids play with these games all the time, especially the cup game.

Emalyn loves to sit on our backs. If Maddi or Cade sit on our backs, she freaks out and says "no, no" and pushes them off. Jealous?

Emalyn loves Ellie and they are so cute when the play together. They are still playing side by side but starting to interact a little more.

Playing the shakers in their baby band.

Here they are in Ellie's police car.

Same thing on another day. Ellie is so good and shares so well. She's used to it, she has 2 brothers and a sister. Emma is working on the sharing thing.

Cade has been playing a lot of baseball. He's doing really well and hitting and pitching well. He also just started summer swim team.

The Friday before Memorial Day was Field Day at school. Maddi had to leave early because she had her solo for dance. Maddi and Emily were waiting out front for the theater to open.

So many times with dance, it's the hurry up and wait game...we were told to get there early to get hair and makeup done but it didn't open on time.

Luckily it was a nice day, so we enjoyed some sunshine while waiting.

We finally got inside and Emalyn was taking it all in in the dressing rooms.

Time to get the hair fixed!

One of the moms took pictures of their dances, so I took these pictures from her off of facebook. Blurry picture, but I love Maddi's leaps.

This was their last competition before Nationals in July.

Still not loving her costume...

...but I do love to see Maddi having fun and doing what she loves.

The petites after solo awards.

Her solo was her only dance that day.

We're back on Saturday for 3 small group dances. Here they are with Miss Lindy.

Pretty girls doing their lyrical dance.

Cookie Time. Girl Scout pledge.

This song/dance is all about girl scout cookies. Makes me crave those evil thin mints every time!

And here they are for their jazz dance to Cuban Pete.

Another great leap.

Cute little girls.

Jaden and Mads shaking it.

Little sister was worn out and took a good nap at the competition. Sweet baby. That was all for that day. Maddi didn't stay for awards because Brett and I had a hot date for our 13th anniversary that night.

Sunday we were back for the jazz line, Gorgeous. Maddi is on the far right. All of the older girl dances were this day too, so Maddi and I went early to watch them dance. They did very well and there were some other really good companies too, so it was pretty fun to watch.

That night, Maddi came home and showered. We went up to say good night and found her crashed out. The busy weekend caught up to her.

It was rainy and we were busy Saturday and Sunday, but Monday was sunny and we made our first trip of the season to the pool.

Emalyn was not enjoying the pool...

...at all!

The water was cold, I don't blame her!

She got out of the pool and ate lunch and eventually...

...she loved it!

She went on this ducky slide 100 million times!

I couldn't believe how many of the pictures we took that had Maddi or Emalyn with their tongue out.

LOVE this picture and the pure joy on her face!

Love this one too!

I am so glad she ended up enjoying the pool. She was sitting with me on the side of the pool and eventually started kicking her feet in the water and then put her hands in the splash. Next thing we know, she's sitting on the side and reaching in to splash and basically jumping in the water to Brett over and over. She did that for a long time and then we brought her over to the baby pool and the ducky slide.

The tongue thing is a Stanley trait. Only, I'm pretty sure I don't do that!?!

Yes, my baby wears a bow even at the pool. What of it?

I never realized when I was watching her climb up the slide over and over that her tongue was out the whole time. So funny!

I think cutie pie is going to have a fun summer at the swimming pool. Maddi and Cade had a blast too, but they didn't get 100 pictures taken of them. They ended up very sunburned and learned a lesson about how to properly put sunscreen on each other. We went over to a neighbors for a cookout later that day. It was a packed Memorial Day weekend, but a lot of fun!