Thomas’ hair cut

Thomas let the kids cut his hair. Man did they have a good time:

Thomas’ iPhone pictures from vacation

 

Here are a few good ones from Thomas’ iPhone from our vacation.  I think he took more pictures than I did!

Vacation 2012

This year we went back to the lake we visited last year and it was super fun!  I’m going back with the kids at the end of the summer as a last celebration before school starts.  I didn’t take as many pictures this year, but we swam a lot, chased ducks, hiked, rode the new golf cart our friends had bought since last year, read, and played a lot of cards.  It was super relaxing and such a great time. 

We went this amazing beach lake and roasted in the sun.  There’s not a lot of shade at this place, but it sure was fun.  It had a ton of fish that would swim all around you.  I think Tyler and Sammie’s favorite part of this day trip was watching the fish with their goggles on.

The kids and I played a lot of catch.  That’s Spencer in the turtle.  He wore that hat almost all week. 

The weather was beautiful while we were down there, but if anything a little chilly for swimming.  We still did our fair share though!  It only rained one day that I remember.

We went on a hike around the lake one day and let the kids pick up fun rocks along the way for their sand buckets.  It is just beautiful there.

We found this little guy. 

I love this picture- how the clouds are reflected in the lake.  So pretty.

Sammie’s 11th Birthday

 

Sammie had a great 11th birthday last Monday- May 7th.  First we had arranged for Thomas and I to take her and her friend Madolyn to lunch during the school day.  Madolyn knew about it, but it was such a surprise for Sammie.  To say they had fun is a bit of an understatement.

They stuffed themselves with pizza and tacos from the local Taco Bell/Pizza Hut that Sammie adores.  Her 2 favorite places in one!  Then that night we had a lasagna dinner with Meghan, Brian, Laura and our kids plus Madolyn.

Sammie wanted root beer floats instead of cake so we put candles in her watermelon.

We got her a few little things, but she wanted an iPod touch so we put most of her gift money toward that.  She loves it! 

If you’ve ever seen cake boss- you know the tradition of getting a cool whip pie in the face on your birthday.  I decided to make it happen for Sammie this year.  Unfortunately for me I think revenge is coming my way.  She’s already planning mine and my next birthday isn’t until March! 

By far the highlight of the evening started with Tyler doing this:

We tricked her by saying we had one more gift on the deck and she had to close her eyes.  She was sitting on the bench of the deck and then whammo!  Tyler smashed the pie in her face.  He was positively giddy at the idea of getting to do it.  So much so that he chased Sammie (who was trying to eat her pie) and smashed his own face in it!  It has to be the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.

We are equal opportunity smashers and Madolyn wanted in on the action:

These were all action shots taken with Thomas’ IPhone so they are not that great of quality, but still so funny.

Here’s one of all three silly kids.  Spencer thought they were all nuts.

Lets just say it was a birthday to remember. 

Hail Storm 2012

We got hit pretty hard with the hail storm that came through St. Louis at the end of April.  Both of our cars are totaled and we had some significant damage to our roof, gutters, siding, and other property around the house. 

Here’s some of the pictures we took that night.  I’ve never seen hail that big.  The kids still have some in the freezer.  Not sure what they plan to do with it. 

Our front yard.

Back yard

Hail collection currently in the freezer.

We are still making decisions about the cars, but we’ve hired a company to oversee the house repairs and that’s coming along nicely.  We just got a new roof and gutters last year from the tornado!  All well. 

The many faces of Tyler

I was looking through pictures on Thomas’ iPhone and thought this bunch was pretty funny.  What a ham.  It’d make a great flip book!

 

 

 

I think they were probably waiting for something fun to happen.  I think it’s a great way to pass the time. 

Spencer’s Special Olympics

 

In April Spencer participated in a Special Olympics track event at the high school.  They have high school students as assistants for the kids with disability.  They did it inside the gym because it was storming that day.  I was on a field trip with Tyler so Thomas went over and caught a few of his events on his lunch hour.  It looks like he had a great time!  He was on one of his “up swings” as we like to call them- walking on his own, eating, and being more animated.  Just in time to get some ribbons at Special Olympics!  (literally the week before this he was in his wheel chair almost all week)  He’s number 3561 toward the right of the picture.

 

They all take this very seriously. 

Spencer and his high school buddy for the day.