Family Reunion

Last weekend we had a family reunion in Rich’s home town.  Although his parents have been gone for several years, all his siblings made it home for this event.  My husband is the baby of his family with most of his siblings being 20 years older than him!  With his brothers and sister and their children and grandchildren, there were over 70 people…all from Palmer and Anne!

 

We had tee shirts made up for each of the 6 siblings and their families.  Each family had a different color.  The design on the shirts was pretty special…representing this family and where they came from.

 

Our children loved getting reaquainted with cousins and meeting new ones. We even had a golf tournament played on his brother’s farm in a cow pasture!!!

 

Next week we are off on an exciting, exotic vacation…stay tuned….

Blog Hopping

Welcome to my blog! This week's theme for the blog hop is "Favorite Children's Photo". With 5 children, it's hard to pick just one!! I recently had my kids photos taken professionally because it's been a long time since we got all five together and also because I was way behind getting Peter's 2-year-old pictures taken. The studio did a great job and once I receive them, I will be sure to post them here! This picture was taken that day before we went to the studio. The three youngest were in matching Ralph Lauren outfits for some of the pictures.

!-- Begin Blog Hop -->

Meeting our new “Blogging Buddies”

On Friday, we met Rebekah and her beautiful children for lunch at Chuck E Cheese.  It was so fun to meet in person after following her blog for a while now!!  Greta and Jaden are the same age but it took them a  while to warm up to each other.  By the time we had to leave, they were good buddies and promised to keep in touch with one another on email! 

When we got home, Greta put a picture that was taken at Chuck E Cheese of her and Jaden up in her bedroom.  She wrote on it “Greta and Jaden…BFF!!” How sweet is that!

Rebekah, thank you for taking the time to get together.  I could just hold your little sweetie all day long…I wished I could take Charlotte home with me!

Give away

My blogging buddy, Lora Leigh, is celebrating her 100th blog post by giving away 2 great prizes from Pampered Chef to some lucky readers.  Please stop by her blog to enter by clicking  HERE.  She has two beautiful children.  Her daughter has Down Syndrome and we think she is so adorable!!  She also has a new baby boy.  I love following her blog and I know she is hoping to attract new readers.

 

Life is flying by and so is the summer!  We are keeping busy enjoying the nice weather and our lake home.  We are also planning a few fun vacations for August…more on that later!!

Taylor and Hannah along with my niece, Ari, decided they were bored at our lake home and wanted to spice things up.  They dug up some dress-up clothes and did a fashion show for us.  (they are going to kill me when they see that I posted these!!)

Hannah knelt down and put shoes in her knees to make herself look little!

Aren’t they so patriotic!

FFF-Lil’ Firefighters

For the past few months, every time we drive past a fire station Ricky insists on going in and seeing the fire fighters.  Finally this week, his daddy decided to take him along with Peter to a local fire station.  They just showed up and were lucky enough to have a nice fireman who was willing to let them come in and look around.  Ricky was able to try on the clothing and we got some cute photos of the boys.  They were in their glory seeing all the equipment and climbing on a real fire engine.  This fireman really made the day for two little boys who really were impressed with it all!!!!  Neither boy can stop talking about it.  What an awesome field trip this was for them.

To see more FFF, click here!

My Little Superheroes

Here is a photo of two of my little super heroes…I have a few more too!  My sweet girls and my wonderful husband are my heroes as well!  These two little buddies do everything together including dressing up as Buzz Lightyear and having a great time driving the rest of us crazy with their silliness and noise!!

To see more Superheroes, go to my friend, Jill’s blog.  While there sign up to win her drawing this week…3 pairs of Sox That Rock!!!

Tuesday Blog Hop

I know I've posted this picture of Pizza Peter before but isn't he just the cutest pizza man you've ever seen??!! He has a great imagination and loves to play with Greta's play kitchen and food. I wonder if it's because he LOVES eating so much that pretending to eat is the next best thing! ***I forgot to mention...if you are interested in winning THREE pairs of my socks, go to Jill's blog...Blessed Mother of 8. Enter her weekly giveaway which, this week, is 3 pairs of SOX THAT ROCK!!

***I forgot to mention...if you are interested in winning THREE pairs of my socks, go to Jill's blog...Blessed Mother of 8. Enter her weekly giveaway which, this week, is 3 pairs of SOX THAT ROCK!!

Busy Weekend

We spent the past 4 days at our lake home enjoying spending time with my parents.  We had absolutely perfect weather and some great visits with other family members who stopped by.  Here’s a brief photo tour of our weekend…

Greta caught the “big one”!!!

Peter enjoying a game of mini golf.

A stop at the drive-in for ice cream after mini golf.

Boating in our pontoon.

Our boat’s captain, Grandpa and first mate, Ricky.

Picnic buddies!

Parade fun!

Hope you had a great 4th of July too!  It was a day to remember that our Independence and FREEdom were not so FREE for many that have served our country and died for it.  We have so much to be thankful for and the freedom we enjoy in this country is one of the things we should not take for granted!! 

MckLinky Blog Hop

***Welcome to the first monthly Blog Hop! In my family blog I write about raising my five children and the joys and challenges that come with it! Whether it's talking about raising a child with Down Syndrome who also happens to be a twin, to the joys of adopting a baby from Guatemala, to raising a teenager and soon-to-be teenage girl, to highlighting our many travels to fun places in the U.S. and abroad, there is never a dull moment at our house!! In my free time I love making adorable socks for little girls. You can check out my other blog at Sox That Rock! Happy 4th of July and thanks for stopping by!!***

SpongeBob

We enjoyed a fun day at Nickelodeon Universe at Mall of America with my sister and her 3 daughters.  Previously we had received a bunch of Mystery Passes for rides at the park while at Rich’s company party.  It turns out we had over $400 in free ride passes once we turned in all the mystery passes!!!  Our kids went on so many rides that day!!  I was amazed at Ricky especially.  He usually doesn’t like rides but he went on even the scariest of rides with his daddy that day!!  Peter and Ricky adore Sponge bob and watch him on TV all the time so they loved seeing him!  You can see a little apprehension in Peter’s eyes as he had to hold SB hand for the picture! 

You can always tell my sister’s children apart from mine.  Hers are the brunettes and mine are the blondes.  Growing up, she had dark hair and mine was blonde.  Now mine is dark (with a few gray hairs in there too)!!

By the way, I will give a free pair of Ruffle Socks to the first person who can tell me who this character is in the above photo with our girls.