Colin's 6th birthday party

We had a great time celebrating Colin's 6th birthday.

We started the birthday weekend with a party on Saturday and then more fun on Sunday (his actual birthday).

This year, I decided to go somewhat "easy" on myself and just did a birthday party at a karate studio.  It was so much fun and the kids had a blast.  We picked up some balloons prior to the party, made some cupcakes, and off we went!

I wanted to get a good picture of Colin before the party - this is what I got...

The instructor kept the kids busy while more of Colin's friends were arriving

Colin got to be an honorary black belt on his birthday.  

He wore it proudly the whole party

The kids worked on their moves and practices some self-defense

After the karate practice, they had some cupcakes and ice cream

The owner even let Colin cut his cupcake with a real samurai sword - very cool!

I grabbed a quick picture of all the kids at the party, followed immediately by a ...

Silly picture (plus Maggie being upset because she was certain someone took her juice box)

Colin got to break 2 boards, since it was his birthday

And Maggie even did one, too!

I got this cute picture of Colin on his birthday morning, looking all handsome and grown-up.

We opened up some presents (Colin got a hidden pictures book, the Spot It game, a fun toy called Squigs, and tons of other great gifts from the family and friends at his party)

Happy Birthday, Colin!

You are a such a funny, smart, kind boy that always keeps us on our toes.  

We are so excited for you to start Kindergarten in a couple weeks, you're going to do great!

Love you buddy!

the past couple weeks in July

We've been doing our time running from baseball to t-ball to swimming.

The kids are really showing improvement in all of their activities, which is fun to see.

Colin is doing awesome at machine pitch baseball.  I think he's really enjoying himself.

Maggie is FINALLY in her last week of t-ball.  We started this season early in May and it was supposed to last 6 weeks.  We had a rough start with a TON of rain and didn't get many practices in.  Maggie is having a lot of fun with all the girls from school on her team.

We took the kids to the eye doctor before school starts here shortly - 

Colin's eyes are pretty bad, but since he hasn't had any symptoms of needing glasses (squinting, headaches, etc), we are going to hold off on prescription glasses.  We'll see once Kindergarten starts in a few weeks...

Of course we had to do silly face picture! :)

We hit up Parkville mini golf a couple weeks ago.  We all seem to have so much fun - even when it's 100 degrees outside.

Of course, another silly face picture! :)

Maggie golfed for about 3 holes (not worth the $5 we spent), and then entertained herself dancing to music and finding all of the statues and such hidden about on the course.

Shake your bootie, Mags!

Colin found this Mark Twain sculpture after golfing and decided to do this...

What a crazy kid!

Meemaw got the kids some sweet new sunglasses.  She is in Michigan for a high school reunion so I sent her this picture of them "modeling" their new shades.

Oh, and my first born turned 6 today.  Don't even get me started on how time flies around this place.

Colin and Brian picked up a bunch of balloons for his Karate party (more on this later), and they looked so cute!

Colin requested to see the new Minions movie for his birthday.  It was such a cute movie.

And...I actually got to watch it all because Maggie didn't need to use the restroom AT ALL!

And...a silly face picture.

If you haven't noticed a theme here, I get one "good" picture and then a silly one (per my kids requests).

Summer days are so much fun!

4th of July fun

We had a wonderful 4th of July weekend.  It was filled with family and friends, and just a few fireworks.

The Hopkins' family stopped by on Friday to visit for a while.  They only live in St. Louis, but we haven't seen them for over a year.  The kids had fun (and I'm including Brian and Caleb in this), and it was a great way to start our weekend.

Watching a movie during rest time

Doing a little bouncing downstairs

We also went to the Parkville Carnival on Friday night.  We love going to this every year.  This year they didn't seem to have quite as many little kid rides, but we still managed to have some fun!

Maggie just LOVED the carousel!

And we all rode the ferris wheel together 

It was Maggie's first time on the ferris wheel - she was hilarious!

Near the top, she was afraid she was going to "choke" and near the bottom she felt like she had to "go poop".  I'm assuming that was her stomach going up and down on the ride.  I was laughing so hard cause she kept saying that every time the ferris wheel made a round.

Brian got her distracted and she ended up LOVING the ferris wheel.  We rode on it 2 more times.

A little family selfie

The slide ride was a bit disappointing - Colin couldn't make it over a single hump without stopping.  So much for going fast, it was super slow!

The boys also decided to ride the tilt a whirl.  Such a fun ride!

On Saturday morning the kids wanted their faces painted.  I bought a really great face painting set on Amazon a few months ago and the kids have been dying to get it done.  The 4th of July seemed like a great reason to use it!

Maggie wanted a rainbow with stars design

Colin wanted to be a wolf.  

Not really 4th of July themed, but whatever...

The finished product on Colin

We then headed over to Grammie and Granddad's house for some more fireworks fun!

Oh my goodness, they smoked a brisked and some pulled pork - it was DELICIOUS!

The kids played in the sprinklers for a bit, which was a great time for the face paint to wash off before church! :)

The cousins

Maggie being super brave and holding a sparkler.  

Colin did, too, but you could tell he was pretty nervous about it.

We came back home after church and did some more fireworks in our driveway.

The big hits were smoke bombs, snakes, snappers, and the bumble bees.  All very low key (and cheap to buy!)

We had a wonderful 4th of July!!

Family pics 2015

I got our family pictures back last week.  I always hope for just one good one of all of us, and a couple good ones of the kids (maybe even one of the two of them together).  This year was our "we're on it" year, and we got so many great ones!

Mary did a fabulous job of capturing our family.  We did them at the Crossroads area in downtown KC.  We had plans originally to do them at the West Bottoms, but there was a huge beer festival going on that weekend, which interrupted our plans.

The kids did great (with some bribing of cotton candy!), and it wasn't too hot out yet at 9 am.  

Now I have a huge task of picking which ones I want printed - any advice is welcome!

 Silly face picture - we had so much fun!

 Probably my favorite family pic - very natural posing and everyone with great smiles!

 Love this one of the 2 of them

The graffiti background actually turned out pretty cool

Another year of pictures in the books - I was thinking of getting some printed off for Christmas cards, then I realized we'd have an almost 3 month old little boy at that point.  

Crazy how time flies!!