Michael's 10th birthday continued...

Tonight we continued Michael's 10th birthday celebration with friends. We were supposed to have a sleepover, but Em got sick Wednesday night and had a fever last night, so I was afraid to have 9 boys stay overnight in our germ pit. The good news is that the party is over for the night. The bad news is that I have to reschedule the sleepover.



Michael's party was at this animation studio. They have a party room and basically do it all. The boys played video games in the party room and they pull them out a few at a time to film a short movie in a big blue room. They then put it on a DVD and the kids get to take it home. Michael got to make his own space movie. They served the pizza, the cake and cleaned up. It was awesome for Kevin and I. After our week, I'm not sure I could have done it on my own. Michael and the boys seemed to have a good time. To quote Michael...his party was "cool". Until 10th birthday part 3!

Michael's 10th birthday!

I cannot believe that my baby is 10 years old! It's just not right. His birthday celebration started this weekend in Kentucky. We visited Gram and Gramps, Karen, Matt, Tori and Luke, Uncle Charles, Grandmother and Grandonnie, Aunt Julie, Uncle Jeremy, Haley, Dillon and Jacob, Uncle Aaron, Aunt Katie, Evan, Ann Marie, Conor, Riley and Stella, AND Grandaddy and Nana. Whew! Hopefully, I didn't leave anyone out!

Today was all about him. After I walked, I headed to Kroger at 6:30 am to get a special (quick) breakfast. I brought home cinnamon rolls from the bakery and bacon. He ended up not liking the cinnamon rolls, so he ate cereal. Oh well, I tried!

He spent the morning at VBS and ate lunch with friends. He played all afternoon with a friend and then we headed out to a really bad Mexican restaurant topped off by Marble Slab.

After the pigfest we headed home to open gifts and then we watched his baby video. It was so sweet and made me miss the baby phase! Now he and Kevin are playing one of his gifts - Super Smash Mario Brothers.

His official party is Friday night. Of course, it appears that everyone invited is going to be able to be there. I'll be pulling my hair out about 10:00 Friday night wondering "Why?". I guess you only hit the double digits once in your life!

Really, what can be said?

Crazy face day and night!

Today was not extremely eventful. We went to church and then Michael went over to Kyle's house to play. Kevin, Emily and I went to lunch and then to the mall. We did have a big time in the MacAuthority store. We found a laptop with software that "dented" your face. I was laughing so hard that I cried. I thought they were going to throw us out of the store.

We eventually picked Michael up and then headed home to a beautiful evening on the back porch. We've had a lot of those lately. Tomorrow, Kevin is back at work and we are back at keeping busy (and happy) during the day!

They are still so sweet when they sleep!

Yesterday was a full day. We worked out at the "Y". Em swam laps, we went to the grocery store and then set up the water slide in that back yard. Sophie came over and played on the slide and then Abbi and Hannah Grace came over and left about 10:00. I think they played on it for 3 hours! At the end of the night, I found Michael sound asleep on the sofa! Mission accomplished!

Summer is in Full Swing!

I am not doing a great job of keeping up with our Blog. It seems like since we got back from DC there just hasn't been any "down time". So far it feels like all we are doing is packing, unpacking or doing laundry.

After our camping trip, we were home for a few days and then Em was off with the Middle School church group on a retreat. After she got back we had a week and then we were packing again for Michael's camp. I chaperoned and Emily tagged along and was picked up by Gram and Gramps for a few days there.

After we got back, I slept and took naps and took naps and slept! It hit me harder than I thought! However, I believe a good time was had by all. We had no illnesses this time!

Since we've been back we've been working out at the "Y" and swimming and doing music lessons. Emily is still continuing her voice lessons. Her teacher came out yesterday and said that "Emily had a breakthrough". She said that sometimes it takes people 2-3 years to do it, but Emily did it in 2 weeks! I'm still not sure what the "breakthrough" was, and Emily couldn't really explain it either. It has something to do with using your head and chest voice. She's not sure how she did it, so that have to figure that out next week...

Michael started guitar lessons today. He said that his instructor is "awesome". I'm guessing he's referring to how he plays, although, he did have really cool long hair. I was Googling him and he's written several guitar books and has played in a couple of bands.

I guess that's all for now. I'll try to be better about blogging. Don't give up on us. Hope everyone who reads this is having a great summer! We'll be in touch!

Weekend at Dale Hollow

Back in November, we tried to go camping. Michael got sick, so he and I stayed at home. Em and Kevin braved the cold only to come home on Sunday morning about 3:00 AM with her wheezing. So, we promised them that we would try again when it warmed up. This past weekend, we fulfilled that promise and boy was it warm!

We headed to Dale Hollow on Friday with 2 other families and set up camp in 95 degree weather. We were up on a hill and there were some trees on the site. It was a beautiful setting. The playground was across the street, so the kids were able to go play while we sat! It was great!

Saturday we got up and headed to the marina to pick up our pontoon boat with a slide. We spent the whole day on the lake. The kids pretty much played on the slide all day. It was a hot day, but the lake felt great and there was a nice breeze. Other than a totally creepy guy sitting in his boat near us for a while, we had the cove to ourselves.

When the meltdowns started, we headed back to camp and the kiddos and adults had water balloon battles for the rest of the afternoon and then after dinner it was Smores' time.

We packed up Saturday and headed home. I think it was one of our more successful camping trips - no rain, no sewage issues... We did have to leave our faithful tent of 12 years behind. The zipper on the front door split out. We were so glad to get home to our air conditioning, beds and our sweet puppy Pepper.