40th Wedding Anniversary

For months now I have been planning a surprise 40th wedding anniversary party for my parents.  I asked Erin and Brian if they wanted to help and they were more than willing.  We had a shabby sheek theme with chalkboard as the base.  We had the event at Chad's work, Firespring.  They have an awesome venue to use.  It has a large kitchen a lot of seating and games like pool, shuffle board and ping pong.  Erin and I made all the food and and decorations.  Erin got some cute ideas off pinterest for centerpieces where we incorporated old pictures of my parents.  Judy and Randy were nice enough to invite them to a pretend birthday party to get them to the party without them knowing.  It worked very well and they were totally surprised.  We spent the evening with old friends and family eating, drinking and having a good time.  I made a video for my parents and we got to watch it on a big screen.  We all had a great time honoring my parents and thanking them for showing us what a great marriage is all about...love, hard work and forgiveness.  Some pictures of our good time.  (sorry for the million pictures)

the invite

wild grandkids waiting for them to arrive

well wishers waiting for their arrival 

SURPRISE!

Tom and Sherrie Manning

some of the food

cupcake stand

Lacey, Pat and Lucy

picture tree centerpieces

watching the video

Gay and Harold Sutter and Linda Sears

The Baileys

The Brinkmanns

playing shuffle board

ping pong

more ping pong

going down the slide

more slide

Oma and Dale

my mom with her parents and her sister Lucy

more of the food counter

Preschool Graduation

On Wednesday evening Camden officially graduated from preschool. They had a quick program where they sang songs and then they walked across the stage and got their diplomas. He did such a good job and was so excited to graduate. Here it is, my middle child as a preschool graduate...

with Carson and Andrew

Camden and Nyla

ready for the program to begin

Mrs. Brown - One of the best!

all of the graduates

with grandma ellen and grandpa dale

with grandma karen and grandpa al

my 3 hooligans

family picture time

Last day of Preschool

Camden had his last day of preschool on Monday. It was somewhat of a bittersweet day because I am so happy that he gets to move on to Kindergarten (because he is SO excited) but a little sad that my kids are growing up so fast.  It felt like just yesterday I was dreaming of the day I would have two in school and it will be my reality so soon!  On the last day of school they always have a field day where they play games and eat ice cream.  Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate with the day and they had to have the field day inside.  I was happy I was able to go and help a little but mainly to take pictures.  Another milestone down.

scooter races

sack races

walking to the next station

run the obstacle course

all the monday, wednesday, friday classes

getting his metal

Mrs. Brown showing him the book she made

boys from the class

Carson and Camden with Mrs. Brown

Camden with his end of the year book

Mother's Day

This year Mother's day kind of crept up on us.  May is such a busy month.  But my family was good to me and treated me to a fun day. The kids had a few things they made in school for me and they all made me cards using my first name instead of mom.  They made flowers out of red tootsie pops and cupcake liners and Chad got me a buntlet from "nothing bunt cakes".  On Saturday night Chad wanted to take me out to dinner with the kids but I opted for last minutes plans of asking some friends to come over, order Chinese food and let the kids play.  We had a super fun, relaxing evening to start off Mother's day great.  On Sunday we went to Vandorn Villa where my grandma lives to eat a lunch with her, my mom and my mother in law. That afternoon we stopped at goodrich to get free ice cream for me before we headed over to Camden's soccer game that got canceled halfway through due to weather.  About an hour after they canceled the game north west Lincoln and Lancaster county got hit with a decent tornado.  All in all it was a pretty great day.

me with the boys

a quick picture with my mom

the grandkids

chad with his mom and grandma

Mayors Run

Carter has been begging us to do a run ever since we did the half marathon.  We really wanted him to do one but they tend to be pretty expensive.  But the mayors run isn't too bad and Chad could run with him for free.  We didn't know what to expect from Carter since he had never done a race before but he did great.  Chad tried to explain a pace to him and also tried to encourage to him to run fast.  He ended up completing the 1 mile race in 10.08.  Not too bad for his first race.  He really enjoyed himself and he even picked up his pace in the end to try and beat out some people.  He spent the rest of the day outside running around so he was one tired kid that night.

his gym teacher gave him some paw tatoos since their mascot is a cub

running around the state capitol building

ready to race

he found his cousin there

and his friend Harrison

a group of kids from his school

red and hot after the race

the big 3-6!

On May 2 we celebrated Chad's 36th birthday.  The kids made him cards and I made him a cake (white cake, with buttercream frosting) and we even went out to dinner.  He chose to go to Texas Road House and then we came home for dessert.  The next night, my parents offered to watch the kids so we could go out and we enjoyed a nice dinner and a walk around Holmes lake.  Since we couldn't sleep in past 8 we got up and laid 40 bags of mulch and did yard work kid free.  Sounds like a 36th birthday do me. :)

chad's birthday collage

the cake

eating at Texas Road House

with his mini me

chad and carter

trying to reenact the photo second down from the top all the way to the left.(in his birthday collage)

Piano Recital

Several weeks ago Carter had his spring piano recital (April 27th).  The recital was nice and Carter did a great job.  However the week or two leading up to the recital were not the best at our house.  Carter was having difficulty, or maybe I should say inconsistency, with practicing.  Some days were good others were awful!  We had several rough days where we were all in tears.  But I think after talking with Carter about the importance of him working hard and always doing his best, and hours of extra practice I think we got there. He was able to memorize two songs and his last song was tough.  He had to use his left hand to play treble clef notes for half of the song.  He really has come a long way, and we hope he sticks with it for a few more years to give him a good foundation of music.  Here are some pictures of the recital.

Playing his songs

ready for the recital to start

some cousin love. these four all played in the recital

some audience members

all the cousins