Nana and Papa's Easter Party

About the middle of February the kids got a letter in the mail from Nana and Papa inviting them to the annual Easter Party at their house the day before Easter.  The kids were so excited and couldn't wait - in fact they asked me daily if it was time for the Easter Party yet.  Finally the day arrived and we headed off to have a whole afternoon of fun!

We started out with coloring some easter eggs.  Nana was smart and set up some tables outside so all the fun coloring was out of her nice kitchen.  Hailey started with pink of course.

Zach moved so fast from color to color that he was done with 3 eggs before I even got over to take a picture of him.

Everyone was having a great time!

After that the boys started playing with the toys and girls added some stickers to their colored eggs.

Where is Tate you are asking right?  Well, he was up early and had a bit of a rough morning, so I passed him to his Dad to calm down while I helped outside.  I came in a bit later to find him passed out on Jeremiah's lap.  Although he missed out on some of the fun, it was good for him to get a nap because he was much happier the rest of the afternoon.

When the girls finished with their stickers, they did a couple of puzzles and then moved on to a relay race Nana had set up.  They had to do some fun things like run back and forth with a bunny mask on ...

... and do a spoon and egg portion.  Zach did great, I don't think he dropped his egg once!

Libby had a great time with her egg and spoon too and ran back and forth after all the kids.

Not long after that it was time to decorate some cupcakes - Nana had quite the spread of candy for them to put on!

Zach didn't want anything on his - unlike his brother and sister he's not into sugar.

Tate had finally woken up at this point, but he didn't want anything to do with the cupcakes (which is probably a good thing, because that would have been a huge mess) - all he wanted to do was run around and play with the balls Nana and Papa had.  If you were there, you'll get a chuckle when I say that he also wanted to tell Nana he had a ball about every 5 seconds - he's crazy and I guess he wanted Nana to know that he had one of the balls and really loved it!

A little bit later it was time to do the egg hunt.  All of the kids had made easter sacks earlier and were all sitting and waiting for the Dads and Uncles to hide them in the backyard.

When the were done, we unleashed the kids on the backyard and off they went finding eggs.  Hailey was so cute and counted each egg and she carefully put it in her sack.

Zach was just tossing them in left and right and had to pause once or twice to count how many he had.

Tate was interested in the whole "egg hunt" idea since he was so young last year.  But once he realized there was candy inside each of the eggs, it was all over!  He was more than content to just open the few eggs he had instead of trying to find any others.  We did eventually get him to pick up his share of the eggs.

Libby was darling finding eggs as well.  She was finding eggs left and right and took time to look at them all before handing them over to her mom to put in her sack.

She's really into purse and bags lately, so she was more than thrilled to have a bag full of easter eggs all to herself - darling!

Here's our silly little one cheesing it up for the camera - had to include this picture because after a rough morning, it was good to see him in such a happy mood.

And here are my three angels - I can't believe how big they are all getting - time sure is going by fast and they are growing faster than I would like them to!

Thanks Nana and Papa for such a fun Easter Party!  We all look forward to it every year.  We love all the fun activities and can't wait for Easter to come around next year - WE LOVE YOU!

Want Me To Comb Your Hair?

Uncle Taylor came down to spend a few nights with us and the first thing Hailey asked when he got there was:  "Do you want me to comb your hair?"  Taylor being the wonderful uncle that he is readily agreed - little did he know what he was in for!

She absolutely loves doing hair and will take time to do it for anyone who will let her.

She is quite good with the comb.  This of course isn't the funny part, although these pictures will probably embarass Taylor enough.  When I looked over there a few minutes later I saw ...

She had decided that he just didn't have enough hair on his head, so she moved to combing the hair elsewhere.  On his arms ...

... And on his legs.

Poor Taylor, he was such a good sport.  She had a blast combing it all and told me that it was really fun to comb all his hair!  Taylor, you have had a full body make-over now!

Tate of course saw me taking pictures and wanted me to take a picture of him too!

Silly boy - LOVE THAT SMILE!

Sometimes I wonder about this girl - combing arm and leg hair, what will she think of next???  Thanks Uncle Taylor for being such a good sport - we love to have you down to stay with us!

Our Little Dancer!

We have been rotating through a few different activities with Hailey and have just now circled back around to dance.  This is probably one of my favorite activities and I just love watching her learn all of the moves and have so much fun.  We were lucky enough to get the same dance teacher as last time and we really love her!

I am constantly proud of Hailey as she follows and does exactly what the teacher tells her to.

She is so cute to watch interact with the other girls in her class - she is definitely our little social butterfly.

They have been working really hard on their end of the session dance for the recital and it's really going to be darling!  She is of course in the back row again - it's the curse of being tall - you're always in the back!

They have really been working hard on their dance number - there is some tricky positioning and they are getting better and better at it.

She tries so hard - bless her little heart!

Although the dance class is really close to the end of school and it's a whirlwind to get her there, I love that she has such a great time and is learning so much!  Tate and I love to go and watch her.  We can't wait for the big dance recital next month!  Way to go Sis, you are wonderful dancer - we love you!

Zach's Birthday - 9 Years Old!

I swear the time is just flying by, before we knew it - it was March and that means birthday month for Zach!  He decided that this year he wanted a small family party and to take some friends to the Kangaroo Zoo.  Unfortunately, I forgot to grab the camera on our way out to pick up the friends, so I don't have any pictures of the fun they had there, but needless to say they all had a GREAT time - especially Tate who had his first Kangaroo Zoo experience!

On Zach's actual birth day, Nana, Papa, and Taylor came down for dinner and ice cream.  We had a nice dinner of roast,  potatoes, and gravy (Zach's favorite meal) and then sat down to open presents.  He was so excited, I could hardly get him to hold still long enough for a quick picture.

Here he is opening a Battleship game and soccer ball from Nana and Papa ...

as well as a box of corndogs all for himself!  In case you might not already know, this kid LOVES corndogs and I think this was one of his favorite presents!  Way to go Papa, you are very good at choosing presents!

 

And he got an Oklahoma University sweatshirt from Uncle Taylor along with a big bag of licorice.

He got a remote control helicoptor,

Some new scout stuff for moving up to the Bears group,

And his own set of binoculars!

He also got a nerf gun, Wii game, and a new football.  He sure loved all of his presents!  So did Tate, he thought the soccer ball was the neatest and played with it over and over and over.

Tate and Hailey loved sitting with Nana and Papa.

But Hailey spent most of her time on Uncle Taylor's lap - her favorite place ever!

For a dessert, Zach decided he didn't want cake, he chose these little chocolate ice cream bowls to have ice cream in instead.  They turned out pretty cute, but were such a PAIN to make!  Glad he enjoyed them because I'm not sure I'll be making these again any time soon. 

We also found some fun sports ball candles for him to blow out - perfect for our sports fanactic birthday boy!

I think everyone enjoyed the ice cream - Hailey of course had more whipped cream that ice cream - man that girl loves sugar!

And Tate decided that Nana's ice cream looked pretty good, so he got up on her lap, but ended up eating mostly whipped cream instead.  Taylor was being crazy and we happened to get this shot of him being silly!

Zach was all smiles, he loved everything about his birthday. 

Happy Birthday Bud - we sure love you!

Silly Bubba!

Our little Bubba definitely had his own personality.  It didn't take long for it to show and now that he's almost 2, it's really coming out (yes, the terrible two's have arrived early!).  But even though it's a little trying at times, he really is the sweetest and does some things that just make me chuckle. 

Lately, he's been really into getting up on the big rocking chair and watching some cartoons with the kids.  He's a bit into Mickey Mouse as you can tell - he has his Mickey Mouse stuffed animal, using his Mickey Mouse blanket, usually he has on his Mickey Mouse jammies - he just didn't happen to have them on this morning, and he watches - you guessed it! - Mickey Mouse cartoons.

All snug and happy with a sippy cup of milk to drink - what a tough life!

Good thing he's so cute!  Tate - you crack me up!

Our Kindergartener "Star Of The Week!"

One of the most exciting things for a kindergartener is to be the "Star of the Week" for the class.  Hailey has been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting ... for this week ever since school started.  Finally, this last week it was her turn and she was so excited! 

As the Star of the Week, she gets to do a bunch of fun things like being the line leader, the paper passer, and even going out to recess first.  She was even able to bring her favorite snack to share one day and a bag of things that represent her another.  But one of the most exciting things is they get to decorate a poster all about themselves to share with the class and have hung up all week long. 

Hailey came home with instruction about it on Thursday and didn't rest until we had it all put together the next morning (yes, I held out for a whopping 18 hours before I gave in and just did it).  I admit it was mostly so she would just be satisfied - she was relentless in asking me every 5 minutes when we would do it!  And I was glad to have it done because I don't think I could have went the whole weekend with her bothering me about it every few minutes (she wasn't supposed to bring it until Tuesday).  But it was fun to put together and have her tell me all about her favorite things.  We had nearly everything in the house to use so it went together fairly quickly.

Tate and I went to school with her on her special day and helped her present her poster to the class.  She was so cute explaining all of her favorite things and loved having the chance to call on each member of the class to have them ask her a question or tell her something that they liked that was the same as hers.

She was all smiles and even paused for a quick second for me to snap a picture of her actually looking at me.

Here's a close up of the finished product so that you can see all of her fun favorite things.

Her time as the "Star of the Week" went by very fast, but she enjoyed every minute of it.  She still wears her Star of the Week crown and necklace that she got and contiunally talks about all the fun things she was able to do.  Way to go Hailey - you are always a star to us!

Zach Basketball 2012

January and February tend to be a little long and boring, unless you have someone who plays basketball.  Then those months are full of practices and very exciting games!  We absolutely LOVE watching Zach play basketball - it's so fun to watch him enjoy it so much and do so well at it.  It seems like from year to year he just picks back up where the previous season left off and he just gets better and learns more.

Here's his team finishing up practice before one of the games.

He looks so great with a ball in his hands - he gets that from his Dad.  

An action shot - see him heading in right there for the rebound?

Ready for another rebound.  I swear he had more rebounds that anyone on his team and more than any of his baskets - he really is good at anticipating where the ball is going to come down and he's there 90% of the time to get it.

I know he's 9 and I shouldn't say it, but I just can't help myself - isn't he so CUTE?

Of course we can't forget about the cheerleaders on the sidelines - Tate was so cute.  He would always be yelling - go Zach or go Brother!  It was darling and he loved watching his brother play.

Hailey was a good little cheerleader too!  She was funny this year, her big thing was sitting two or three rows in front of us - funny girl!

I got some pretty good video this season, so thought I'd include a couple of those as well - just to show off what a great player he is (I'm his mom so I can brag a little bit right?).

He's really doing well with defense - there were several times when the player he was guarding just couldn't get the ball because Zach was doing such a terrific job at it.

He's gotten phenomenally better at dribbling as well.  This isn't the best video but the best one I had of him dribbling down the court.  He's been doing great at switching hands and even going around people while dribbling.

And of course I had to include one of him making a basket!  He's gotten better at this as well - he still takes a few from a bit back on the court, but he improved on that during the season and got a lot closer before putting up a shot.

We had a blast watching him play this year and although we're sad the season is over, we're excited for the next time it rolls around.  And we have spring soccer to look forward to in just another little bit, so that will be fun!