Swingin'

Bike-o-rama

We went biking this weekend up on the rail trail. It was quite a production, but fun! I forgot my camera, but E took these pictures with his phone on the trail.

TW biked on his own for a while, and did great, making it down a huge hill safely by the grace of God (unfortunately, TJ wiped out, but was okay except for a few scrapes--next time I will pray for both of them). We do think TW has a need for speed. When he got tired after a few miles, he hooked on to the back of E's bike....

...which meant I had to turn into a mule and haul both J on the back of my bike and the bike trailer with Miss A inside. I'm sore! It was fun to get to chat with J all along the trail, though.

Our caravan got lots of second looks along the trail.

Fishing at Miss Sally's

One of our neighbors has a great little pond next to her house and has been telling us for several summers to come over and fish, so we finally took her up on the offer a few weeks ago, and have been a couple of times now. It's the perfect place for the boys to fish because they can catch little perch almost as fast as we can bait their hooks. At least TJ can now bait his own and takes the fish off for the other boys. Here are a few pictures from our first fishing adventure at Miss Sally's and the dessert party afterward at my friend, Holly's, house (we were late).

J's first fish! (I think)

He didn't really want to touch it.

Success!

Miss A hung out on the blanket out of the way of the fishhooks and got to play with Sally when she walked over to visit.

TW wasn't having much luck...waiting for him to catch one was why we were late to our next social engagement. We think maybe it was his red hook--yes, they're down there, TW.

Woohoo! Finally! E told them they had to be 10 inches to keep them that night--needless to say, we didn't have to clean any fish.

Kid line-up.

I love this picture! Such great smiles! (Plus, I thought I should include a picture of one of my future daughters-in-law (on the right)--Miss M's mom has PROMISED she may marry one of my sons--I don't know how her dad feels about that, though...)

I love my boy.

This isn't the clearest picture, but I love the expression on TJ's face in this one (you might have to click it to enlarge it). This was at his school awards ceremony. He got two awards--one for being on the principal's honor roll and the citizenship award for his class ("I knew I would get the one for good behavior--no checks all year, Mama!"). He was very proud, but very embarrassed to go up on the stage (he almost ran across). I love my boy.

No wonder I'm tired...

...all my kids still fit in one bath...

Weed 'n Feed?

Our yard in Spring. Who would want to destroy this beautiful field of flowers? Besides, if we did, we wouldn't have any yard left.

Soccer Mom

We put it off for a long time, but we have now officially entered the world of children's sports. TJ is playing soccer on an AYSO under 8 team and is loving it. Unfortunately, he kind of takes after his mother in both the coordination and aggressiveness areas, but he has improved a lot already this season and is having so much fun. He grins almost the whole time he's on the field and is always excited about their next game. I guess I'm now a soccer mom--E volunteered us to be team parents, too, so I even have a real soccer bumper sticker....now if I only had the mini-van to go with it...(the scary thing is, with 4 kids, I find myself longing for one--oh, the convenience....sliding doors, pass through second row, low clearance so they can climb in themselves, headphone jacks...scary!)

Practice

Waiting for the game to start.

They tend to clump...

They have super hot refs in this league!

Party Time

I'm finally getting some birthday party pictures up. The party started at the park, but then after forgetting the hotdogs, the rain starting, and looking at the severe weather warnings and dark clouds, we decided to move it back to the house. In the future I will NOT hand out party blowers to 15 kids INSIDE the house. I think a fun time was had by all, though. Thank you to all who came!

Thanks, Jen, for the "Incredible" cake!

Waiting to hit the pinata.

Candy mayhem.

How many kids does it take to beat Jeremy?

Happy Birthday!