Taya's 1st Grade Program

Taya just had her 1st grade program a few nights ago & it was ADORABLE.

All the 1st graders did a musical patriotic program where they sang patriotic songs.  It was great because a good majority of the kids in their school are military kids.  The whole thing brought tears to my eyes.

And of course Miss Taya was the cutest little thing up there.

I love my little first grader so much.  She brings so much joy & laughter into my life.

Love you Misses!

My Crazy Boys

Boy oh boy are boys different than girls.  SO different.  I can't believe some of the mischief these little turkeys get into, but I sure do love them.

Bladen colored his hair blue with chalk for crazy hair day.  He thought that was pretty funny.

And then he took a picture of Canyon with my camera just because he could.

Canyon never ceases to amaze me with his lightning fast speed & knack for destruction.  He can empty every card game in our entire game bench in a matter of seconds.

We had a couple of van issues this week & had to go get it fixed.  My boys literally take over the kid room by laying down spread eagle & sleeping because of boredom.

And then do the same thing at the girls' school when we pick up Cadence from band practice.

But I sure do love them.  One of our favorite things to do is go to downtown Smithfield & walk up & down the streets.  We always wind up at the ice cream parlor which is Craiger's favorite place on earth.  I love these boys so much.

Being these kiddo's mom can be exhausting at times, but I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.

Mother's Day

I had an amazing Mother's Day.  Trek built me my garden boxes which are beautiful & then he rallied the kiddos together to make my day special.

For breakfast, my girls made me a beautiful breakfast with a menu & everything.

I had french toast, bacon, strawberries & cream, & milk.

I got to open 2 presents from my friend Nancy (a pair of heart shaped blue diamond earrings & a Mother's origami owl necklace with all 6 kids' birthstones inside.)  And then I got to read cards from all my kiddos.  SO SWEET.

The kids did all the cooking & cleaning all day long & I even got to take a nap.  It was WONDERFUL.

For dinner Trek had searched pintrest for a perfect recipe.  He worked with the girls to make it perfect.  When I saw it I couldn't help but start laughing.

"Is this Loaded Baked Potato Chicken Casserole?" I asked.

"Wait, how did you know that?"

"Because I made this for dinner on Tuesday!"

He literally picked a recipe on pintrest that I had made a few days earlier without realizing it.  I was laughing SO hard.  It was amazingly delicious though.  It was nice to not have to cook.

It was a nice relaxing Mother's Day.  Thank you to my sweetheart of a husband & 6 wonderful children for giving me the opportunity to be a mother.  It's the best job in the world & I wouldn't trade my experiences with them for anything.

Picking Strawberries

It's that time of year again.  

STRAWBERRY SEASON.

We have SO many adorable farms out here in VA that allow you to pick strawberries.  I couldn't wait when I heard the first one was open & ready for customers.  The boys were THRILLED.

Canyon really got into it this year.  And once he realized how yummy the berries were, he enjoyed it even more.

We picked a gallon & a half together.  It was super hot & humid, but we had a blast.

Vegetable Garden

So over Spring Break one of our bucket list items was plant a vegetable garden.  We bought several starter plants & transplanted them into bigger pots.  The kids were thrilled to be growing something new.

Well, the plants got so big that they couldn't be in the pots anymore.  I begged Trek to build me a garden box.  And because I married the best guy EVER, he built me TWO.  They are my mother's day gift this year & I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE them.

They are built out of super sturdy wood & then he put barriers on the bottom so that pests & weeds can't get through.  Then we added 2 tons of soil to the boxes.  He built them 2 feet tall so that I wouldn't have to bend over to do my garden.  They are right there at my waist's length.  But it did require a TON of soil.

Once the soil was in, I was able to transplant all my growing veggies into their new home.  They are already growing like crazy.

The rectangle box is my salsa box.  It has:

4 cherry tomatoes, 2 large tomatoes, 10 white onions, 4 purple onions, 3 jalapeños, 3 banana peppers, chives, 2 cilantro plants, basil, & 3 cantaloupes.

My L shaped box is my salad box.  He has:

16 different lettuces (spinach, romaine, butter leaf, leafy), 4 carrots, tons of sugar snap peas & regular pea pods, 

4 broccoli plants, 2 green peppers plants, & 3 cucumber plants.

Everything is growing beautifully right now.  I even have flowers/fruits on my tomatoes, green peppers, & jalapeño bushes.

I'm so excited to see how it all turns out.  Thank you to my amazing husband who is SO talented & can build anything.

Bladen's 6th Birthday Party - Super Hero Squad / Avengers

When Bladen said he wanted a Super Hero Squad party I got excited.  I have always been such a comic book lover & the Avengers are my favorite.

The first thing on his "must" list was an iron man cake.  He just wanted a cake in the shape of iron man's head.  That was easy enough.  I just baked two 9x13 cakes, stacked them on top of each other, & carved them into the shape of iron man's head.  Frosting it was easy peasy.  It was only 3 colors.

Bladen was SO happy with his cake.

The colors were red, blue, & yellow. . . basically the main colors of the Super Hero Squad.

Bladen has been waiting for his birthday since all our February birthday parties.  Sometimes it's hard when all your siblings have a bunch of birthdays right in a row & yours is a few months later.  But it was finally his turn & he was thrilled.

We had to have his party on a Friday night after school because of all the busy things we had on Saturday so because it was at night, we made it a pizza party.

We had pizza, Thor hammers (aka cheese sticks & pretzels), & Hulk punch.

The kids were super giggly & silly.  I love kids.

The first game we played was "pin the light on Iron Man."  Each kid got the chance to stick the little light on iron man's chest while blindfolded.

They all got pretty close too.

The 2nd game was the highlight of the party.  Everybody put on Bladen's new Hulk hands, & got the chance to HULK SMASH some ice cream cones.

I demonstrated for them.  And after the howling of giggles, the kids lined up ready to have a turn.

They all gave me their best Hulk faces & then smashed the tar out of those ice cream cones.  Let's just say my house literally looked like Hulk had hit it by the time we were done.

Even my girls got in on the fun.

Lorien insisted on dressing up like Scarlet Witch for the party so seeing her Hulk Smash as Scarlet Witch was pretty funny.

Cadence wanted to play SO bad too, but knew she was "too old/cool" for that. .  . but her childish side got the best of her & she smashed those cones to smithereens.

Notice Canyon's face in the background.  He was laughing so
hard he couldn't breathe.  He thought this was the funniest thing
he'd ever seen before.  It was HILARIOUS.

Even Canyon got in on the action.

After cone smashing, we tried our best at Hulk Smashing the piñata.

Eventually, all the candy fell out, 

and there was a mad dash to grab it all up first.

Canyon got his 2 smarties & was perfectly happy about it.

After the piñata, we went back to the dining room for cake & ice cream.

Everyone loved the cake.  It was fun hearing the requests:

"I want a piece of the eye!"

"I want an ear!"

"I want his mouth!"

After cake & ice cream, we let Bladen open his presents from his friends.

Grace was so sweet.  Her baby brother had hurt himself right
before the party & her mom had to take him to the ER.  She
dropped Grace off on her way, but left the gift in the car.  Grace
was SO upset about it.  She's such a doll.  On Monday she dressed
up in her prettiest dress & brought Bladen's gift to him at the bus stop.
It was the cutest thing ever.  He got some coloring books & a fun
knight & horse action figure.  These two are BFF's!

Reggie gave Bladen a whole set of awesome cars.

Liam gave him a dinosaur book, a tennis game,
& a captain america binoculars.

Grant gave him some dinosaur 3D puzzles & Pokeman cards.

And Nathan & Sarah gave him a batman jet.  SO COOL.

It was a really fun party.  Everyone had a blast.  Happy 6th Birthday Bladen Man.  We love you.