Happy Birthday Hayden!

I can't believe Hayden is 5 years old! Last night I went to the store to get cake mix and frosting so we could bring cupcakes with us to playgroup today. When I got home I realized that I forgot to buy cupcake liners. I searched all through the kitchen for any liners and all I could find were Tinkerbell ones from Kendall's birthday. I explained the situation to Hayden and asked if he wanted me to go to the store to get new liners but he just said, "That's okay mom, I like Tinkerbell." He has always been a really kind-hearted little boy. So in the end I made chocolate cupcakes in tinkerbell liners but you couldn't even tell it was tinkerbell. And yes, I realize that you can make cupcakes without the liners...just not in my world where it is a miracle if things come out of the oven edible.

Hayden decided after his party last year that he wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese's for his 5th birthday. So even though we didn't have a "friends" party, our little family ventured out to Chuck E Cheese's this evening for pizza and arcade games. The kids had a blast and that made the chaos (and bad pizza) all worth it!

Potty Trained!

By some standards Kendall has been potty-trained for awhile but my definition of potty-trained is going, wiping, flushing, and washing all by yourself AND no overnight accidents. She meets that criteria so I am making the declaration. Way to go Kendall. Hip-Hip-Hooray!!

High Adventure

We are happy to have Tadj back home after his week long "vacation" with 15 year old boys. He was hiking and canoeing at Ross Lake with the scouts. They hiked about 20 miles over 2 days (10 miles short of their goal because the boys feet were so blistered) , spent the following day recuperating and then canoed 3 days back. They survived a lightning storm...while in canoes on the water. So scary!

This is how Tadj found some of the young men after he rounded a corner in the trail. Don't they look exhausted?

Tadj with his fishing/canoe buddy, Josh.

As for the rest of us..we celebrated the 4th of July at Emerald Downs (well, actually it was the 3rd of July) with Abbie, Sean, Kylee, Marj, and John. A big thank you to Marj and John because I wouldn't have been able to go this year without their help, since Tadj was away. It seems this Emerald Downs independence day celebration is becoming a tradition for us. The 4th of July was spent at home recuperating from a long week. It turns out we have quite the neighborhood show. I am so glad our house didn't burn down this year, or in years past. We missed out on our traditional 4th of July visit to celebration park but maybe next year.

Primary Activity

We had a quarterly primary activity today and I was asked to be in charge of an old-time photo shoot. Here are a few shots of Hayden and Kendall. It was fun for the kids to dress-up and most WANTED their picture taken, even Hayden. They make me smile!