The Biggest Smile I've seen on Sr, yet!

Well, at the last minute, we decided Sr. should have a surprise party.  I wasn't feeling like there'd be much of a crowd, but since the old fella is 70!, I figured we should give it a try.  Everyone joined together to get e-mails, facebook posts, etc. out and we set the date.  Almost everyone could make it!  It was great - we had a huge BBQ and I've never seen such a great smile on Senior's face.
It's pretty priceless.

I heard a rumor he may have shed a tear or two when he pulled up and saw the surprise...but, that could just be a rumor.

I'm OLD!

Macy is a 6-year-old

Macy, my sweetie pie salaroonie...You are 6!  How the heck did that happen?  You're my kind-hearted and considerate little lady and I've thoroughly enjoyed all of the first 6 years.  I love you very much.  You do a great job at helping take care of your little brother and sister, as well as help Mom & Dad with other stuff.
Hope you had a splendid time at your bowling birthday party!

Kath Family Fun Weekend

Oh, man...did we have to pack our entire house into our mini-van for this trip!  This year, adding one kiddo, we had more with us than we left at home - how crazy.  We went up to Breezy Point again and had great weather for a change.  Last year, it rained all year.  This year - mostly great.
The kiddos had a great time.  The girls love playing with their cousins and Grady was a chill little buddy.
A couple most memorables...The girls got to get their picture taken with ELVIS!  And, Jorey got a high-five while Macy was hangin' with Hanna and Chase on the boat.  And, Jorey told Macy she got a high-five approximately 32 times.  :)

We had lots of fun in a pool with a curly slide - guess who the biggest kid was?  -Yep, Ken.  He'd come down 90 mph and splash everyone...he was having such a good time :)

All the kiddos loved the slide.  In lower left, it appears Kate will perish, but we fished her out of there safe and sound.  Nobody was harmed in the making of this photo page!

The first time down the slide for Jorey took about 5 minutes...we were all crying, we were laughing so hard.  She didn't really want to go, but I may have forced it upon her a little.  She doesn't know what she likes, but I do, so she's going to have fun whether she likes it or not!  ;)  She got to the top, said she wouldn't go, and got pushed down...once she started, she did the crab walk the rest of the way.  But, once she went down, she realized it was awesome and went about 50 more times.  Macy was all about it, as long as her face wouldn't go in the water...these girls need more swimming lessons!  phew.

Mom, this is embarrassing

"Mom - this is embarrassing, but I have to tell you something"
(oh, no!)
"What is it, Macy?"
"The other day, I told Zak that I have a crush on him."
"You did?  Well, what did he say?"
"He said, I don't have a crush on you. And then I said, No, I have a crush on you!"
"Well, what did he have to say about that?"
"He said, Well, then you have to kiss me and give me smooches."
"You didn't smooch him, did you?"
"No!  We can't smooch or hug.  We can't even touch."
"Just a high-five?"
"Yep, just a high-five."

good night. 
I love this stuff.  I hope she'll always tell me these tales.

Baby Buzz-Cut

Something that some of you may not know about me...I love gramma crafts.  I mean, I love everything that seems like I should be 60 to be embracing it.  Sewing, knitting, and scrapbooking.  If I could spend my days being crafty and trying to come up with new ideas to make cute things, I'd be in hog heaven.  But, I can't afford to do that - you know - paying $102398437 for daycare...so, I try to get away and do my crafty stuff every few months, with some of my favorite ladies.  We scrapbook.  I'm making books for all my kids with little notes to them about how much I love them and enjoyed them growing up.  I plan to talk about these days a lot when they're teenagers and think I'm worthless.  It's bound to happen, so I'm preparing.  And, some day I'll be gone and I like the idea of having something I made for them, with my feelings toward them so they'll always have a little piece of me.  Yes, I'm a sap and these books will likely make it into a box in the attic, but maybe get read and looked at every few years.  Anyways, I'm doing it.  I went this particular weekend and received a call from my husband.  He needed to know how to download videos "because I had to see the videos he just took" - 40 minutes later, we had them downloaded.  I pulled them up and saw these videos:
one
two, &
three.
There were mixed emotions at Nerdfest (the name Ken has given our little adventures)
I'm not sure how I felt about it.  Half in disbelief.  A small part of annoyance that he would do that because I'm working on scheduling his 6 month pics and our family pics.  And, a bit happy.  For 6 years, I've been doing all this stuff - taking care of all the "care items" for our kids...and it was kindof cool that he finally got involved.  I'm not sure that this was the way to do it, but I like that he thought he needed a haircut, so he did it.  He also took the ladies to get their hair cut last week.  He made an appointment, took them there, and surprised me.  (we had actually discussed this, but I put the ban on it, due to Amy & Nick's wedding.)  They were going to have flowers in their hair and we were keeping it long!  But, that very next Monday, it was cut.  Usually, we have conversations that are like this.  "We should get the girls' hair cut."
 "Ya?"
"ya."
"Does that mean I should?"
"ya."
But this time, he did it.  It was awesome and awful all at the same time. :)
Here are the ladies before.

And, After...

OK - I'm totally kidding.  These after pics are of them in a wig that Macy found in the basement with the Halloween stuff.  They have cute little bob haircuts and I don't even have a pic of them, but we'll get some on here.  Jorey wasn't such a fan of having this on.
Check out Grady, courtesy of Auntie Kara.

Grady before Buzzing - He wants to be a cowboy!  This outfit courtesy of Kork & Mitz - so awesome.  Uncle Kyle had named him "Spike", due to his hair sticking straight up.


fuzzy-wuzzy was a bear...

 Here's Grady after his buzz-cut.  I think this expression shows how we all feel about it!  Dad now calls him "Butch".  Nope. 




We got another brother. Amy made a good, solid choice.

With two such attractive people, it's hard to not have a beautiful wedding.  So, it was.  We welcomed Nick into the family and made Amy a Hall.  It was a great day, lots of fun, and turned out wonderful.
Here are many pics - we took lots and somehow forgot to get a family photo before we sent the kiddos home with Orange Papa and Gramma.  Dang-it.  The goyles were flower-girls in the wedding and Ken and I were both in it, so we ended up calling on my parents and sister Natalie to help with Grady, Hunter & Payne.  Thanks so much to you all for doing that.  A fun tid-bit.  After the wedding, My parents were driving my minivan with Payne, Macy, Jorey, Grady and Hunter to the reception.  Wow - talk about overwhelming them just a little.  When we got to the reception, my dad was sitting in the tent with Grady on his lap, looking like he smelled a bad fart.  I think it was really that he'd earned a few beers already, but had to drive home, so he was forbidden that beautiful cocktail.  I found my mom chasing the girls around, looking frazzled.  She said, "You didn't tell me we were coming to a lake, with a pool, and a park (the girls' name for a swingset) that they can't play on!"  I owe them a few favors after that day. :)
Congrats to Amy and Nick!

4th of July Fun

Dad and Auntie Kara enjoy the slide, too!

 We took it easy this 4th of July. We decided to stay close to home and have a fire in the neighborhood and then just go to the Eagan Carnival instead of driving all the way to Blooming Prairie and Owatonna as we have in years past. The Eagan carnival was fun, but hot and expensive, but we did get to go on a few rides and it was pretty fun. Then, we went to Auntie Amy's pool after that. How refreshing that was.

Grady and Dad @ the pool

Sisters having fun, together on the Dragon Rollercoaster

Jorey's working on being brave - getting way better.

Macy's lovin' the water.

Hunter enjoys the water with Mom.

Dad won you another stuffed animal, throwing balls SO hard.