August Happenings

I am SO FAR behind on posting.  I considered just skipping all of the stuff that happened and just going forward, but I'm way too sentimental to leave anything out.  Here's a look at the second half of August.

 Kate and I had quite a few water balloon battles.

My cousin Sandra visited from Florida.  Collin, Reagan, Kate and I had a great time with her.  The kids swam in the pool at her hotel and we went to Panera for lunch.

We went blueberry picking on a super hot day.  It was the end of blueberry season and the bushes were pretty bare.

I purchased two of these huge containers to fill, and we didn't even fill one.  It was just too hot and the pickings were too slim.  We did get enough to make our favorite blueberry muffins and blueberry pie!

Reagan had a great summer of gymnastics with this group of girls.  I think they are all still together for this season.  Reagan is competing at the Xcel Silver level this year and this means that she is now competing sanctioned.  I don't know enough about gymnastics to know what this really means, but my explanation is that her scores are more meaningful and will be used to determine eligibility in meets.  (FYI:  the two girls in the front middle are half of a set of quadruplets!)

 Tyler met his favorite country singer, Brantley Gilbert.

 We could not let summer slip away without tie dyeing.

Kate had her very first soccer game.  She is having fun being part of a team.  Kate runs back and forth with her team, but she isn't really interested in getting too close to the ball yet.  She is happy to go in whenever her coach calls her though!

We ended August with a bang.  Ha ha!

We had an end of summer party and I guess I was too busy having fun to take many pictures, but I have a couple of some of the kids watching Tom's fireworks display.

Now I have to catch up on September before this month is over!

A Minecraft Party

Collin's tenth birthday party had a Minecraft theme.  We had perfect weather - sunny and warm, but with just enough clouds and a slight breeze; we couldn't have asked for a nicer day in August!

The Minecraft theme was very well received by all of the kids.

I found free, printable Minecraft labels that I laminated.

I also used the grass, blue gems, and Minecraft critters for decoration.

I wasn't sure about the bouncy house this year.  I thought the kids might be too old for it, but I was wrong.  The bouncy we have been getting the past few years is not your average bouncy though; it is an obstacle course with a huge slide.  The kids like to pile up at the top of the slide and just hang out.  This means that at least a few times during the party, the bouncy gets top heavy and starts to collapse.  We had to be careful about when we sent the little kids through, and we tried to send them with two older kids (one in front and one behind) to keep them safe in there!

The hammock was a big attraction again this year.

Miranda, Reagan, Madison, Sydney, and Jillian

Emma, Kate, Isabel (in the back), Sydney, Miranda, Reagan, Madison, and Jillian

The boys in front with Collin are (left to right) Owen, Matthew, and Landon; they are Collin's neighborhood crew, and he has had a lot of fun with them this summer.  Logan and Drew are in the back, and they are also good buddies of Collin's.

There were a few arm wrestling competitions.

Emma is our future babysitter.  She was so good with Kate, taking her in the bouncy house, watching her closely while I attended to party stuff, and just being there whenever Kate needed anything.  Kate adored her!

We ordered Collin's Minecraft Creeper cake from Pattie Cake.  The kids thought it was very cool, and it was delicious too!

After cake, the kids continued to play!

How cute are Mason and Kate in that wagon?  ADORABLE!!!

When it finally got dark, everyone got ready for Tom's hugely popular, greatly anticipated fireworks display!

He had a lot of fireworks; the show went on for quite a while.  Almost all of the kids love it; I won't go into details about those that wish it would not occur.

We had glow bracelets and necklaces for all of the kids.  They were very popular!

Caroline and Sophia 

Kate with Emma again

Jack and Olivia worked hard on this huge glowing loop!

I published this post and then remembered that Julie took this picture of Kate and me at the end of the night, so I'm editing to add it in to the post!  I'm always so grateful when people take my picture with my kids. As the photographer (using that term loosely!  I should say "picture taker"), I never think to ask anyone to take the camera.  

Wow, what a party!  It was a huge success!  All of the kids (and the adults) had a lot of fun!