big buddy has a party

Along with the party at the bus stop on the last day of school, we decided to have Williams Birthday party that afternoon.

He invited 6 of his friends over to play water games and celebrate his Birthday with him.

It was quite the party!!!

We did a water balloon toss contest, we did the balloon stomp game, we had a massive water gun/water balloon war, and the kids went bonkers!!!

 Mary, and her friend Lexi were a huge help, and pumped up and tied water balloons for two solid hours.  They saved me!

 

After the water games, we pulled out the piniata.

This piniata was no joke!  It would not break!  These poor kids whacked it and smacked it, and pounded it.  The hanger broke off, so we tied it by the arm.  The arm broke off, so we used the other arm.  That arm broke off, so we used a leg....and so on.

By the end, we had a quadriplegic minion lying on the sand, still full of candy.  Unbelievable!!!

We finally grabbed a heavy baseball bat, and let the kids just go to town while it was on the ground.  By this point, I was feeling kind of evil, teaching these boys to pound the crap out of this thing.
In the end, they finally broke through to the candy.
This is one Walmart purchase that I think was actually made well...just a little too well.
Amazing.

After the piniata, it was cookies and ice cream and presents, and finally, the party was over.

William had a blast!  Luke and Molly cried the whole time.  Mary was a huge help.  Ben was at work. Sam was just one of the party goes, and I was brain dead, drained, and my ears didn't stop ringing for about an hour.

But hey, William had fun, felt special, and made a great Birthday memory.
I call that a win.

We hurried and cleaned up, I gave myself a few minutes of quiet time to regroup when Ben got home, I made a salad, we gathered our blankets and pillows, and headed over to party number 3 for the day.  The neighborhood pot luck, outside movie, last day of school, first day of summer celebration.  Mary also had a party at Eden's house, so we dropped her off there first.  Technically, I guess it was a 4 party day.

We ate, talked with tons of friends and neighbors, and we ended the night watching a movie under the stars.

Have I mentioned that our neighborhood rocks?!

I am pretty sure William thought the whole day of parties was all for him. 
At least, I hope that's what he thought.

Happy Birthday Big Boy!

last day!

The day after William's graduation, the other kids had their last day of school.
Mary: 5th grade, Mr. Robison   Sam: 3rd Grade Mr. Joe and Mrs. Probst    William: Kindergarten  Mrs. Vallero   Luke: preschool- Mrs. Carrie and Mrs. Brenda

I am so proud of all of them, and everything they have learned this year.  Both Mary and Sam came home with awesome report cards, (William did too) and Luke came home with a backpack full of worksheets, art projects and cute papers.

Our neighborhood totally rocks in the party department, and a bunch of us moms decided to go to the bus stop at the end of the school day, and blast music, hand out popsicles, bring balloons, spray kids with silly string, and have sprinklers going, when the kids got off the bus.

It was a huge hit! 

There are about 30 kids at the bus stop, so it was one giant party.  The kids loved it, and it was such a fun way to welcome in summer!

I love where we live!

last day of school

he graduates!

The day after we got back from Idaho, and Memorial Weekend festivities, William graduated from Kindergarten!

This was a big deal for him.

He had quite the year!!

He started out testing way behind everyone else. (because it was a verbal test, and he was shy)

He went to all day kindergarten, and also was in Spanish dual-immersion.

He had some serious bullying problems, that were a huge obstacle for him to overcome.

He ended up testing out at a 1st grade level, and was asked to be in the 200 club!  (a club where you are invited if you have top grades and behavior in your class)

He ended the year in a half day class, in a different class than what he started in, and he blew his test scores out of the water!

He had a huge year, and I am so proud of him and everything he had to overcome.  He did not give up when things were very hard, and he learned to hang on and finish what he started. 

I never would have thought that Kindergarten could be quite like this for a child, and I don't know if I would have put William through a year like this, had I known what was in store, but I can honestly say that he is stronger, smarter, and better because of it.

He is one amazing kid!

The program was adorable!  They sang tons of songs in Spanish and English.  William had a small part, and he did it well.


I went up to William's room the other day, and he had his graduation picture and diploma on a shelf, where he can see them every day.  I think it really represents something to him.  It shows him every day that he can do hard things, and that he has the whole world ahead of him.

a memorable memorial

 
Ryan and his family flew down from Alaska during Memorial weekend, so we all decided to drive to Idaho and hang out for a while with them at my parents house.  Devin was able to come too, so it was like a mini-family reunion.

Ryan's family has the most kids that are my kid's ages, and they had an absolute blast together!!  It was so fun to see the cousins living the dream.

The weather was pretty warm, so we were able to play outside in my parents dream land backyard.

the boys pulled out the bow and arrows, and made a HUGE cardboard target, complete with pictures they drew of bad guys to aim at.

 

cousins

trying to make a basket from the fort

We took flowers to the graves of my Aunt Annette, and my grandpa and grandma Hanks

Molly jumped, and jumped, and jumped, and jumped.  Every second she could, she was out on the trampoline.  She cracks me up!

I had a horrible case of TMJ pop up out of nowhere, so my cousin Jeff, the Orthodontist looked at my mouth, Devin, the dental school dude, did an impression of my teeth, and my dad, the lab guy, made a mouth guard for me.  I have serious hook ups!  The TMJ has taken weeks to resolve, but it is almost all the way better.

My children were taught the very intense and serious ways of playing Hero Quest. They loved it, I just rolled my eyes and remembered the days of my brothers playing this game day after day after day.

We had late night campfire's and s'mores, we had lots of laughter, a few spats, I got in my canal runs, and even a long run, the kids got in some serious boating and tube wars, the cousins laughed, talked and giggled into the wee hours of the night, and we all came home happy, exhausted and grateful to be part of such an awesome family.

lukie turns 4!

Our little Lukie turned 4 yesterday.  We decided that since his cousins were here on Saturday, that we would have his party, and celebrate his Birthday on that day instead.  Luke didn't seem to mind.

He has been asking when his Birthday is for almost a month now, so when I told him the night before that the next morning would be his Birthday, he almost didn't believe me!  The poor kid has waited for an eternity in kid time.

He woke up to balloons and streamers, and knew it was the real deal!  He was very, very excited.  We let him open presents throughout the day, to try to spread it out, and he went nuts over each one.  He is VERY in police stuff right now, and he got a full police outfit, complete with a hat.  He was beyond happy.  He hasn't taken it off since, aside from church, and even then, we almost had to call in a hostage negotiator to help us convince him to take the thing off!

Luke played hard all morning, up until his party.  He invited 4 friends from the neighborhood.

I am not sure what on earth happened, but the second his friends walked in, Luke transformed into a complete monster.  He started screaming, freaking out, yelling at people, and throwing fits.  It is not like Luke at all, and it was terrible.

We tried to play a few games...like get the dog food (whoppers candy) from one dish to the other..

 

and "I have a little doggy and he won't bite you,"

Luke calmed down a little for the games, but both games ended in disaster with Luke freaking out.
It was pretty weird.
I think he had already just had so much chaos the past few days, and it was finally catching up to him.

We gave the kids their cupcakes

Beckham, Evelyn, Luke Phillips, Eli, Luke and Boston (not in picture)

and their paw patrol masks

and we were about to attempt another game, but Luke grabbed a blanket and a pillow, laid down in the middle of everyone, turned on Paw Patrol, and demanded that everyone "be quiet and stop talking."

Luke fell asleep within 5 minutes.

His friends just hung out, played with Luke's new toys, and ate cupcakes, until the party was over.

Geesh!  This is a party for the books!

Once Luke woke up, and everyone was gone, he was much happier, and he got to open the much anticipated police helicopter!

He played police the rest of the day.

Eli, Luke Phillips, and Lukie

On Sunday, his actual Birthday, we did his Birthday cake, and sang to him.  We also went around the family and told Luke what we love about him.

Paw Patrol Cake and Police officer Luke

 Luke is ALL boy. He has loads of energy, and loves to dress up as a police officer, ninja, cowboy, construction worker, and fireman, and play all day.  He is a happy kid, and is hilarious.  He asks loads of questions every day, and is very curious.  He has the cutest little blue eyes, adorable smattering of freckles across his nose, white blonde hair, and the tiniest little body.  He is fun-loving, happy, cute and brings so much life to our home.

We love Luke so much! 

Happy 4th Birthday Lukie!

it's coming together

And the yard work continues....

I was out walking around the yard a while ago, wishing that the deep trench, filled with rocks and weeds, would just finally be turned into the beautiful dry river I had imagined in my head.

Then it hit me....what was I waiting for!!!  Forget paying someone hundreds of dollars, I could just do it myself.

So, I got on google, figured out how to do it, and went to work.

And I worked, and worked and worked.

I hauled rock for about 5 days, before it was finally completed.

It was HARD work, but I loved it.  Working outside is so refreshing for the soul.

starting out the dry river

weed barrier is down, and border is done...now have to fill in the rocks

The rocks are finally all in place, and the flowers are planted around it.  The big, big boulders should be here today, or tomorrow, and the bridge should be here by the end of the week!!!  I can't wait to post the finished product!!!

In other yard news...I chizzled rock for almost 3 hours, in order to plant these 3 bushes.  Seriously, we have no dirt...just rock.  Lots and lots of rock.  At one point, after hitting my 100th rock and jamming my finger again,  I got so frustrated, that I screamed and threw the shovel.  My neighbor came out to see what was going on.  I felt really cool.

I have some very fun finishing touches to do in this flower bed as well.  Hopefully by the end of this week, I will have some pictures of this finished product as well.

Along with this...I began planting our row of lilac bushes.  Once I planted these, the yard officially felt like "my yard."  Lilac bushes are my all time favorite!!  The smell of them throws me back to my childhood summers.  I am so excited about these!  The picture is bad, but so far, I have about half of them planted.  I smile every time I look out the window and see these.

Last, but not least, we are FINALLY putting in our parking strip.

Because we live on a corner, we have 120 yards of parking strip to put in.  Most people have about 10-20 yards.  Go us.

We decided to lay down weed barrier, and cover it with gravel type rock. Planting grass in it would be an absolute mowing nightmare.  We do plan to eventually plant trees in it, but that will probably be next year.

Ben rented a skid steer, and had the rock delivered on Friday.  Ummm yea, we spent two summers removing rock, in order to get our grass in, I spent the last two weeks, hauling that rock back into the yard to make a dry river, and now, we are PAYING for rock to cover the parking strip.  I didn't know if I wanted to cheer or cry when I saw the giant truck pouring rock in front of our yard.  The boys loved it!

The truck brining in rock...oh, and you can see the dry river completely filled in too.

The irony with the rock kills me.  Seriously.

Ben spent Saturday lying down the weed barrier and dumping rock into the parking strip. 
What a man!!!

 The next two days will be spent evening out the rock in the parking strip...and then, aside from the trees, it will be done!!

 

I am so excited for this weekend, to have so many completed projects. 

 

The last project for this year will be re doing the rock wall around our house, and planting bushes on top of it.

 

Next year will be trees, flowers, shrubs and cement where we need it.

 

It is finally all coming together!!!

goal!!!

Sammy boy had his last Soccer game on Saturday.

I am blown away with how far he has come with the sport since the beginning of the season.

He has learned so much, and is a lot more aggressive and confident.  He was on the perfect team for him, and his coaches have been wonderful.  I feel like he was very blessed to be on such a great team with good kids and coaches.

Sam plays defense, so he hasn't been able to score any goals this season.  He has had a lot of great saves and blocks, but every little boy wants to be able to score a goal.

During their last game, Sam's team was way ahead, so the coach decided to let the boys play different positions, for fun.

She let Sam play forward. 

As soon as I saw what was going on, I said a prayer in my heart for Sam to be able to score a goal.  Just one goal.  I knew how much it would mean to him to be able to score a goal this season, and how much it would boost his self confidence with soccer.  I prayed and prayed.

I knew Sam had the ability and the speed to do it, it was just a matter of him believing in himself.

Within minutes of ending my prayer, Sam stole the ball and began dribbling down the field.  He passed to his team mate, who dribbled a little further, then passed back to Sam. Sam did a corner shot into the goal and scored!!!!  The grin and elation on his little face, made me cry.  I was so happy for him, and for this chance he was given.

Not only did he score, but it was an awesome play and an awesome shot!

What a way to end the season!

Sam was beaming the rest of the game, and was thrilled to finally get the king size candybar that is handed out at the end of the game for those who scored goals.

Tryouts for next year are today and tomorrow, and Sam is going into them with great confidence and a lot more skill than last year.

Go Sammy!

U9 STORM -white