Going to visit Baby Anna!

As soon as Baby Anna was born back on the 26th, I sprung into action trying to figure out some days that I could get down to see her!  Mom was able to go the first week of April and then we made plans to drive down after she had to leave.  I decided to go during the week when my older kids would be in school to make it easier for David.  He was gracious and went in to work early and came home early when the kids got home on the bus.  I took Caleb and Judah with me, planning that they would keep Sam and Joe entertained :).  And my job would be to keep Kelli and Anna happy!  We left EARLY that morning (4 am early!) and the kids slept for the first few hours.  It makes such a long trip seem a little easier if you can get there early enough in the afternoon!  We got there a little after 2 pm and the boys went RIGHT to playing in the playroom!  :)

After naptime was over, we walked down to their park and I got to look at Anna some more - she is so precious!

Judah became quickly obsessed with Baby Anna

There she is!

Baby stretches are my favorite!

She looks SO different than the boys - she was a few pounds bigger than them and has dark skin and dark HAIR (they were both so fair and light from the very beginning!!)

Gentle Sammy :)

Callie's Sous Chef

Callie got a new outfit for Marie Grace at her party - it's the cutest little outfit with pot holders and an apron!  :)  Aren't they the cutest little chefs ever!!

THE party!!!

Callie has been waiting for this day for her WHOLE LIFE!!  :)  We always say that she is lone extrovert trapped in a family of introverts!  This girl wanted a REAL party this year (we don't generally do BIG parties) and she wanted to be able to invite EVERYBODY!  We decided to have a FROZEN party because the DVD was going to be released that week and thought it would be a super fun theme to do.  And she was allowed to invite ALL of her little girl friends from school and church - she was beyond excited!  :)

We started off by making dresses for "anna" and "elsa" out of toilet paper and streamers...

We did a "falling snow" game outside with balloons too, but no pictures of that.  It was a little...busy...trying to keep track of 17 girls!  Easier than boys in that they aren't wrestling on the floor, but there was drama and crying and lots and lots of high pitched laughter and squeals!  :)

Getting some food

Watching Callie open her presents - they oohed and aahed over everything :)

Then we settled in to watch the movie!  Even the boys (who were told they had to stay upstairs for the party) were allowed to come down to watch with us :)

Does this look like a room full of fun or what!!!

It was a really fun theme to do - all blue and white and silver!  Blue finger jello was "Kristoff's Ice Cubes"

Donut holes were "snowballs" - you can also see the giant marshmallows that were dipped in white chocolate and silver or blue sprinkles...and i even found pretzels dipped in blue yogurt!  If it was blue, I grabbed it!

Frozen grapes and pretzel sticks that were "Snowman Arms"

Here's some "snowman noses" (carrots) and "melted snow" (ranch)

We ate pizza while watching/singing along with the movie

Did a little "pin the nose on Olaf" game...they were pretty darn good at this one!  (Thanks to Josiah for drawing Olaf for us!)

We made some SNOW for each of the girls to take home (homemade play dough with glitter in it)

the cake!

Watching everyone sing to her

Wait!  Gotta make a wish!

I did a jello poke cake so that it could be blue and white too!  :)

We had a GREAT time celebrating Callie!!  Lots of exuberant, squealy, high-pitched fun!  :)  Totally different than any party I'd ever thrown for the boys!!

Callie's soccer season

Another soccer season has come and gone.  Callie didn't have the smoothest of season - her coach had to step out after the first week and then the next few weeks were kind of a juggling game between parents before another assistant coach took over.  She was a trooper though and had fun in spite of the chaos!  :)

Judah's First Egg Hunt

Every year, the town of Lexington puts on a HUGE Easter Egg hunt for the families and it keeps getting bigger and better!  This year I think they scattered 100,000 eggs!  WOW!!  They had lots of carnival games all over the fields with prizes - our jackpot was the game run by Bojangles - they were giving away coupons for free BoFreezes and BoBerry Biscuits when you played!!  We cleaned up on that one!

Anways, this was Judah's first egg hunt - I didn't know if he would know what to do but he LOVED it!  They had a hunt just for those two and under, and he just kept pointing around saying "EGG!! EGG!"  It was hilarious to watch him!

Waiting for the official start...he was losing patience fast :)

GO!  He hardly even had to move before he got his basket all filled up!

And THEN he discovered there were TREATS inside!  Talk about jackpot!

The older kids had flashlight hunts once it was dark.  No pictures of the big boys - they were over on a different field and I stayed with the younger two.  We had a BLAST!  :)

Babysitters in Training

We got to watch my friend's little boy, Walker, for a few hours today.  My boys LOVED having him!  Walker had fun with them too...except he did NOT like when Judah would scream or squeal!!  Walker has one older sister who is 8...so he doesn't have to listen to much squealing or screaming!  He's kind of used to things nice and quiet during the day...which is not usually what my house is like!  We LOVED having a baby for the morning!

Best Buds

Caleb's best bud, Max lives just a few houses down, but is getting ready to move to another neighborhood down the street.  To say we are going to MISS them is an understatement!!!  Good thing they aren't far away!!

Happy Birthday Callie!

 This sweet little girl came into our family 7 years ago...and it hasn't been the same since!!  She is such a fun girl to celebrate!!

We started the day with some birthday donuts of course!

Her birthday fell on a Wednesday (not ideal for this family), so we let her open her presents in the morning before school when Daddy was still there.  And of course, she wanted to wear her new outfit to school!

Was going to bring her Firehouse Subs for lunch (her free birthday sub), but then realized they aren't open at 10:30 am when I needed to pick it up!  Had to change plans at the last minute and grab Chick-fil-A...which made me a few minutes late for her lunch.  She KNEW I was coming, and I called my friend who works in the office to let her know.  I didn't want them to make her buy school lunch when I was ON my way!  They held her off and I finally got there!  Phew!

 We brought cupcakes for her class - blue cotton candy frosting with little "ice crystals" on top....the Frozen theme, remember?

I LOVE this little Callie girl.  She brings so much life and excitement to our family.  She is growing up right before my eyes.  I have been reminded lately that she is smack in the middle of all these boys and needs a little extra TLC...

 She also got the movie "Frozen"...which I informed Josiah we were going to sit and watch together after school.  Judah didn't get a nap because of all the lunch drama, but he sat down with Josiah to watch the movie and fell right to sleep :).  Even stayed asleep while I took him up to his bed - yay!  And we LOVED the movie!!  :)