A fun weekend!

We had a very nice Memorial Day weekend. We grilled almost every night and ate outside in the back patio. We relaxed (as you can see in this picture) and played and just enjoyed ourselves. We even went to a little train museum nearby but I didn't bring the camera along for that - opps! We also made ice cream and the kids watched some more Duck Tales which they love! It's a wonderful thing to bribe them with to get their toys picked up.



The kids played in the water alot. There was a lot of swimming and water gun fights. (In the first picture, you see Sophia getting Alex in the butt, if you look close Max is getting Sophia's butt in the same picture.)

Henry had corn on the cob for the first time - he liked it!


Alex's cub scout troop, along with another troop, built two picnic tables and a well cover for a small historic area. So we all took a little drive out to see them.




Randy ended the weekend by building a picnic table for our back patio. The kids all had fun taking turn helping, a little. Henry wanted to help, but couldn't of course. Then we (minus Henry, he was in bed) had ice cream before bed to break in the new table!

Before and After

Henry has needed a hair cut for quite some time now. So today was the day. Here he is before and after. You see he has a lollipop in the after. He had that for about 2 min. I wasn't convinced he could eat it and not choke, so Sophia got it ( and dropped it on the ground outside and picked it up and ate it anyway), and Henry got a few M&Ms. Everyone was happy




After a day of playing legos, watching Duck Tails (the old after school cartoon), and Panera after church, when asked what he wanted to do for his birthday he said go to the park. So we did.







Enjoy your long weekend!

A big day!

Aunt Kathy and Uncle Dale stopped over with donuts and Max's gifts for him today. (His 6th birthday is tomrrow) It was a great way to start the day!



Max invited about 5 boys over for his birthday party, only one could make it. But they had a lot of fun anyway. Max wanted a ice cream cake, so I didn't make one for him this year. Sophia got Max some foam paper and stickers, so all the kids (minus Henry) finished the party by making some art projects.

Sophia, who is now always dressed up, doing art with foam stickers during Max's party.

Henry stood all by himself for the first time today!! Once he got the hang of it he couldn't stop doing it all day!



Alex finished the day, shooting his bow and arrow (at a box) in the back yard. Then doing a little reading.

Around the House

We had a nice weekend. We went to Michelle (Stiles) graduation party, Saturday. Who by the way graduated Summa Cum Laude. And our priest's 40th Anniversary party at our church today. We also went out for supper at a restaurant, where we could eat outside. The kids really liked that! Here's some pictures I took this week around the house.



Henry's new favorite spot to play - under the table.



Every morning Sophia brings down a stuffed animal/doll for herself, one for Henry and a blanket to share. This morning after showing Henry what she brought down for him, it looked as though the two of them were having a heart to heart, but of course when I tried to sneak a picture they both looked up and saw the camera. Even as I tried to pose them, they couldn't help but look at the camera.



The picture I should have gotten of Max was him in his spiderman mask earlier in the day when he was picking up sticks(so Randy could mow in the yard with Alex and Sophia. I looked out to see how they were doing and was surprised to see Spiderman out there.

Hello

I had every intention of getting a picture of me and the kids, but somehow it never happened. I had a great day and was thoroughly spoiled. We also had our friend Holly and her daughter, Clari over for a good share of the day. It was fun to visit, eat good food and watch our kids play. I'll get some pictures up in the next few days. Happy late Mother's Day to everyone!

Catching you up

Here are a few of Alex's actual birthday. Even though it was a whole month ago I like the one of him and Max eating birthday cupcakes for breakfast and opening his presents in the car. He probably won't do that again for a long time. And since we drove to Iowa on his birthday (because we went home for Easter), it lasted 25 hours.



Both boys had their moving up ceremony for cub scouts. Max got an additional surprise. At the end of the night an adult cubscout gave Max a used boyscout shirt. He told Max the shirt had belonged to an active boyscout that had done a lot in scouting. He said he wanted it to go to the youngest scout that night and that was Max.

Yesterday the kids got out of school early, so we made manna. It tasted and looked alot like sugar cookies, the Israelites (sp?) probably would be jealous. But the kids had a lot of fun and so hopefully the lesson that went with it about God providing for us will stick.


Sophia doing her karate moves (she's not taking lessons).


Max won 3 months of free karate from a birthday party. Here he is showing you his moves.

Easter

For Easter this year we were able to go back to Iowa. It was wonderful, we wish we could make it an annual tradition. I was going to show pics. of Alex's birthday (which was the day we left for IA), the pinewood derby and our church Easter egg hunt and Easter in IA, but I realized that's a lot of pictures, so I'll catch you up slowly. Here's all our Easter celebrations in Iowa.




Easter at my dad's with all 9 cousins. We had a great time together and the kids loved hiding and finding eggs for each other.


The Steffen Easter was a lot of fun,and very relaxing. There were about 300 eggs that these 7 kids on the swing found!





The Easter Bunny and Easter Frog came to Grandma Steffen's. Everyone was pretty excited to dig through their baskets, and so Henry was the first to find a hidden Easter egg.



We celebrated at Great Grandma and Grandpa Wood's with Uncle Nick, Aunt Joni and Kale and Brady.