I Wanna Be a Rock Star...

Jason's way of justifying a morning of Guitar Hero is letting the kids be his back-up singers and letting them "play" for a minute or so....

Just Hangin' Around

Jason decided that we should venture over to Danville park so the kids could explore and he could show them and tell them stories about all of his and Uncle Kevin's many adventures...
Gracie and Ben could not go high or fast enough...

As anyone would guess Ben is all about anykind of race car....

GREENSPAN GONE!!!!!!

enough said :-)

ALL ABOARD!!

This past weekend my friend Kelli and I took the kids to " A Day Out With Thomas 2008" in Connersville, Indiana. It stormed a better part of the afternoon..luckily the kids still got to partake in all the fun activities that included....Pony rides, temporary tatoos, mazes, jumpy houses, tiny tractor rides, coloring/stamping, train sets for playing everywhere and lets not forget the 30 minute Thomas Train Ride..(they also have caboose rides!)http://dowt.whitewatervalleyrr.org/faq.php.

Thomas coming to pick us up!

Danielle, William, Ben, Gracie and Nicholas..Taylor had a softball tourney!

Thomas the Train The "mini" tractor ride that the kids LOVED! It doesn't take much to make these kiddos happy!

Kelli and Nicholas
Danielle and Gracie~~ playing in the puddles one of the days activities! Danielle and William Engineer Ben Kelli, Nick, Gracie and Danielle aboard Thomas

Ben loved feeling the breeze and watching all the sites go by as we rode the train.

Rain didn't halter these smiles :-)

Ben and Nick with some seriously soggy heads and feet....

The River behind the park....

Ben and Nolan being assisted on the teeter/totter by grandma Sandy...
So, the kids discovered this little creek that runs behind our park and to them it's "The River"..That's what they want to do all the time now...jump on their bikes and dig for treasure at the river...Tay, Ben, Nolan (nephew) and Gracie..

Did you know that Fried Chicken Grows in the Garden?!

This is Paps' garden....The kids love going over to check on it and to see what has bloomed. They also like digging for treasure where the plants aren't planted. Ben's favorite food is Grandma Shirley's fried chicken..So, Paps told him along with tomatos, peppers, corn and green beans they could try and grow some fried chicken...we haven't seen any yet..but, Ben is anxiously waiting...

Gracie and The "Almost" Rock Legend

Happy Father's Day to Jason....I thought Guitar Hero (for the Wii) would be a great idea...and in theory it was....Jason loves it....the kids love watching Dad rock out and try to make it to Rock Legend...what they love even more is seeing him get "booed" off the stage or wait is that me? HA! I can harldy wait for the day that all the grown men get together and try to "win" this kids game.

Gracie says when she was a "little" kid her favorite color was dark pink and now that she is "big" it is Purple!

Momma's doin' the potty dance!

Well, as most of you know I have been struggling to get this little man potty trained...And FINALLY (the girls were both trained b/f they were two) we are there!! It started last week as we looked through the ads in the newspaper...he saw a watch that he wanted and I told him he could have it if we got rid of the diapers....we haven't looked back since. He doesn't even like the pull-up at night...Now we just have to get him to understand that we can't go to the corner of the street and pee on the stop sign anytime we feel the urge. So, Angie (jason's cousin told me 3yrs and 3 months and that's where we are!) Hooray!

IS IT TUESDAY YET?

This picture was from last week..compliments of Melanie!

Gracie (4) started her first dance class with Hailey (3) last week. They do part ballet and part tap. These two girls can't get enough...Mel can barely get Hailey to take the dance outfit off and i can't get Gracie to quit asking if it's Tuesday (dance day)! It seems like just yesterday Taylor (my ten year old, was starting this class and what's fun is that Gracie is wearing her shoes and outfits ;-)

8 adults, 10 children, 2 dogs and 1 Tiny Tot Mansion=Saturday Night Live!!

Kate Modeling her "barely there" pigtails!
We got William a Spiderman playhouse for his b-day...not realizing it stood 5 ft. tall and would fit all the kids in the neighborhood but, that wasn't big enough for these ambitious kids...they added Thomas, a gymnastics mat, the kitchen and the Dora pirate ship to make the nicest tiny tot mansion imaginable!
No pictures please....
surfer dude, the princess, the mommy, spiderman and the basketball star....

Nicholas, Kelli and Dan's Abercrombie and Fitch poster Tot is for hire...How cute are these curls!

"You Wanna Get Something to Eat?"..Yeah.

Saturday just brought more rain...so we decided it would be a good time for some KUNG FU PANDA! The McKinzie Family, The Heiner Family, Aunt Marcia and Maggie and us loaded up our snacks and headed to the Movies!

After all 16 of us had found seats, went to the restroom and got some snacks it made for an enjoyable couple of hours...much better than "Mom, i'm bored!"

Tay, Danielle and Maggie
Gracie, Hailey and Kate
We had mixed reviews from the critics...some got bored, some loved it and one.. poor Ben just went to sleep :-) Here Gracie, Hailey, Maggie, Kate and Tay saying "Ok, What's next!"

Rain, Rain Go AWAY!

Well, as most of you know Indiana has been pounded by rain.... While so many of our friends and family are trying to pump the water out of their basements..this is the one fleeting moment when we are thankful to not have one. Hopefully, for Grandma Becky and Papa Jeff and everyone else with water troubles Insurance Companies will make the rounds quickly and ease the burden of these difficult clean-ups! Just before the second storm on Friday night we walked out our front door to see this....

A Double Rainbow...

John Deere Green

Taylor and Gracie putting up Grandpa "Jeffy's" (gracie's pet name) new toy a John Deere Gator...
Benjamin getting to help Papa Jeff put the Farmall away after the Highway 40 Sale...Ben just went from the Farmall, to the John Deere to the Gator all day long...

Delaney's party....

Delaney, (Jason's Cousin, Angie's Daughter) turned 3 and (Angie's mom)Aunt Jan hosted a Princess party for her...With a twister jumpolene, race cars, a swing, princess dresses, Fried chicken and all the fixens' and a Tornado scare to cap off the night..it was quite the evening!
Delaney got a beautiful princess dress for her birthday and Aunt Jan just happened to have another one for Gracie to wear..they stayed for a few photos and then strolled thru the yard....

Here is a Puuurfect picture of Aunt Jill correcting Jason(Delaney's Dad reading cards and assisting with gifts) when he was reading a card in French but, really it was spanish :-)

The Birthday girl winning the race down the hill and just bumping the wall a little....
Harrison ..Being the attentive/well-behaved Big brother...

Delaney and Layne....The Princess and the Golfer (maybe)...

Benjamin's smiling down the hill but, he isn't for long when he realizes he's lost to Delaney!
Gracie 4, Ben 3, Delaney 3, Taylor 10!