Frozen Birthday

Like most other kids in the US, our kids all LOVE Frozen.  It wasn't surprising really that Layla chose Frozen as the theme for her party.  Our patio got poured two days before her party, so it was great to be able to use that, but we obviously then didn't have time to do any landscaping around it, so it looks pretty terrible :-).  The weather was perfect for her party which was great too.

We had a garage sale the day before her party, so all week I was busy getting ready for that.  On the day of her party, I had some things I needed to get for the party so I figured I'd get her balloons too.  That was not the best idea as I ended up rushing getting things ready for the party at the last minute and missed out on doing some details I had hoped to do, but she still loved it.  And she really loved her balloons :-).

If I look at this blog in many years to come, I should remind myself that with the popularity of Frozen, there has been a shortage of Frozen merchandise including the Elsa dress.  Layla knew about the shortage, so she was quite surprised when she got that as a gift.  She has wanted the Elsa dress since she saw the movie around Christmas.  The Disney Stores do get some in, but sell out right away--probably mainly from people buying them and selling them for a large profit on Ebay.  I got lucky, and when Em and Mike went to Chicago for work right before her birthday, one of the stores I called got a truck in that morning with some Elsa dresses.  I had called the day before and no stores in the area had them.  And Em said that when they got it, the DS would hardly let them touch them or anything and had to get them out of the backroom.  Seriously crazy how crazy people are going for that dress!  So needless to say, she's lucky to have gotten one for her birthday. 

Without thinking, I  set something on top of the cake box in the fridge,

so it took off party of the "Happy"--oops! 

I love how this pic turned out!

They loved the Frozen themed scavenger hunt.

Memorial Day Fun

Gibs rode on the Threeschool float in the Memorial Day parade.  Somehow him and his buddy, Crew, switched spots with each other by the end of the parade--not sure what they were doing :-).

I walked with Layla and some of the kids from her class.

At night we went to Joe's parents with is cousins' kids.

Grets with cousin (or 2nd or 3rd or whatever) Isaac.

Gibs had fun getting plants for our yard with us.  It's always nice (and somewhat rare) to get one on one time with the kids. Em watched Greta and Layla was still in school.  It was fun just having Gibs with us.

The kids like umbrellas :-)

Work Picnic

In the middle of our camping weekend in June, was Joe's work picnic.  The kids of course had a great time.  It was perfect weather for it!

Sunday Funday

I can't believe it's almost the end of July already!  Ah, where is this summer going??  We had a cooler week earlier this week, so it been nice having warmer temps again this weekend. Although I actually enjoy the "cooler" (meaning 65-70 degrees) days too.  As an end to our busy day today, we had dinner and dessert over the fire.  

We've been working on our landscape, but it's taking a lot longer than we thought!  Other projects and summer activities interfere, plus the work of the landscape and just take awhile!  Our patio was poured in June and so we've got some landscape done around the patio, but definitely still have some left to go!  Eventually, we'll get to all of it :-).  We also finally got the kids swing set over here which they've loved having again.  It needs some work, but again, we'll get there :-).

Saturday late afternoon we headed to the beach.  The kids of course loved it. 

Friday was Gavin's birthday party.  The kids all loved the Monsters Inc/University theme.  Greta especially LOVED her Mike tee.  It came in the mail on Thursday (I forget she didn't have a Monsters shirt until Tuesday--thank goodness for Amazon Prime :-) ) and she was upset she couldn't wear it then.

We did a few poses in hopes of getting a good group shot :-).

I painted little Mike Wazowski's on the kids' nails (yes, even the boys' :-) ) which they thought was pretty fun :-).

Tulip Time

This isn't a Tulip Time pic (obviously), but it was right during it.  The kids decorated the table for Joe's birthday with whatever fun party décor they could find :-).

It started to rain and then thunder and lightening shortly before the parade when we were at the park.  We took shelter under a picnic pavilion and it then thankfully cleared up shortly before the parade began.

End of the School Year

Better late than never, right?  These are from the end of school.  Gibs had a fun last day at the park.  He will miss his buddies Crew and Luke next year.  He will be in a different preschool class than them and in elementary school, they'll all be at different schools :-(.