Happy 7th Birthday Esther!

How did this little 4-year-old...



Grow up to be this 7-year-old?

Yes, this is the same shirt and crown.  It was quite big on her at age 4, and now it just fits, but she was determined to wear it one more year!

We had a great day celebrating Esther's 7th birthday.  We started the day with chocolate chip and sprinkle pancakes before heading to VBS at Brookside Church.  Esther and Peter are going all week and are having a lot of fun there!

We told Esther that she could invite one friend to do something special with us today.  She thought about it and decided to choose her friend Julia, whose family used to go to our church.  She explained that she gets to see her friends from church and school all the time, but she doesn't get to see Julia very often, so she thought it would be fun to invite her.  Since Julia is also at VBS this week, we all left together from there and headed straight for lunch at McDonald's, where Casey was able to meet us. 

Esther had originally wanted to go swimming at the pool this afternoon, but the weather looked somewhat unpredictable, so she chose going to For the Kidz for open gym instead.  Since there was a torrential downpour of rain along with thunder while we were there, that ended up being a good choice!  Esther, Julia, Peter and Miriam all had a great time at open gym and worked up quite a sweat. 

Of course they needed ice cream to cool off, so we went to Steak 'n Shake for shakes afterward.

We took Julia home, played outside for a bit and watched a video.  Then when Casey got home we went out for dinner to Esther's restaurant of choice, Olga's Kitchen (yum!).

When we got home, she opened her gifts. Miriam picked out craft foam stickers and a coloring craft for Esther, and from Peter she received water balloons and glow bracelets. Esther had already received her bike from us a while back. We also gave her a couple little games, a Bible, and a certificate to get her ears pierced and pick out some earrings. We're hoping to do that this week, so stay tuned for a post on that!

We ended our wonderful day by eating the yummy chocolate cupcakes filled with white cream that Casey had made.  Then we put 3 tired kiddos to bed!

Happy birthday to our sweet, special girl!

Popsicles!

We love Popsicles!

Happy Father's Day

We had a nice Father's Day today.  We made Casey breakfast in bed, went to church, and had both sets of parents at our house for dinner.  The rest of the day was spent relaxing and playing outside.  It was great to celebrate today with 3 amazing fathers!  I'm so thankful that Casey is such a great dad to our kids, and that I've been blessed with my wonderful dad and father-in-law.

After dinner, Esther did an art show for all of us.  She showed us all the artwork that she had done during the school year and had brought home the last week of school.  She was very proud of her masterpieces!

Chicago and Crazy Fun with Daddy!

I was able to go to Chicago from Friday to Saturday with my mom to attend a shower for Karen which was thrown by her friends.  We had some great girl time together and enjoyed spending time with her friends at the shower. 

The kids got to spend Friday afternoon hanging out with Grandpa until Daddy got home from work.  Casey promised them a "crazy fun" weekend, and they had a great time on Saturday.  They went to the zoo, watched a movie, and had dinner at our neighbors Tony and Linda's house.

Last Day of School

Today is Esther's last day of school for the year!  It always flies by so fast... wasn't it just yesterday that it was the first day of school for Esther and the first day of preschool for Peter!?

I forgot to do the porch pictures of Peter on his last day of preschool, so we did them this morning when we did Esther's.  It's fun to see how they've grown and changed since the first day!

Neither of them have the same backpack they had at the start of the year, because they both broke.  Esther went back to using her kindergarten one, and we picked up a cheap one for Peter to get him through the last couple months.  I think we need to find better quality backpacks for next year!

Why yes, he does have hair under that hat!



Camp Roger

Today I was able to go to Camp Roger with Esther and all the 1st graders from her school.  It was a great day of exploring God's creation and learning some fantastic things about nature.  It was a really fun year-end field trip!

Stopping to explore while hiking around the lake with Mr. Phil

Learning about shrinking animal habitats while pretending to be giraffes

Getting instructions on how to play "camouflage"

Finding salamanders under rotting logs

Sizzling Soccer!

Well, so far this spring Peter has played in rain, really cold weather, mild weather, and today he got really hot weather!  It was toasty out there and 1 player was missing, so the other 3 played the whole game without sitting out a quarter.  They did great, but played a tough team that just kept scoring.  Fortunately, they stayed positive and still had fun! 

Peter's coach was great this spring, and when he gave the kids their medals he told them that he was very proud of them and how hard they had worked this season. Here is Peter with the 2 teammates who were there today, Alex and Taryn:

Last day of Preschool

Today Peter had his last day of preschool.  We are so thankful for what a great year he has had!  Today the morning group (there are only about 6 kids there in the morning, and the rest come for just the afternoon) went on a fun field trip.  They walked to his teacher's house which is a couple blocks away from school.  Peter thought it was pretty cool to go to her house, and they got to have popsicles there.

At the end of the day Peter of course hugged everyone several times and said his goodbyes.  Unfortunately, the adorable pictures I got of him with his friend Anna and also his teachers somehow were lost because something went wrong with our memory card.  So, here are a couple of him with his buddies:

Getting crazy with Simon!

Peter and some of his friends.

Such a fun group of boys!



Peter was a little sad about it being the last day, but he's also excited for kindergarten.  His teacher told him when he said goodbye, that when people ask him about school now, he's supposed to say that he's a kindergartner!