Memorial Day Weekend

We had a productive and fun Memorial Day Weekend. For awhile now Mark has wanted to redo the playset in the backyard. We built the original one before Ty was born and felt we needed to reconfigure it to better fit the needs of the kids.

This time around we had more help.

We had 1 cubic yard of sand delivered to add to the sandbox. The kids and I moved all of it from this pile to the sandbox. Let me tell you that is very hard work.

(Kathi-I thought it was cool when I saw that you had sand delivered too.)

Here is our finished product. You can't see the swing side very well, but we have one long beam with 3 spots for swings. We may add a roof of some sort to the top, but haven't decided yet.

For Memorial Day we had the family over. It was Randy's birthday too, so Taylin brought a cake. It was a hot day, so we also set up the slip n slide.

Katie loves the yellow slide. She climbs up, slides down all the time.

I wish I had a picture of Logan and Ty to add, but they were too busy playing to pose for me.

Tonight was the last night of King's Kids until September. We will miss working with the kids every week. I think the adults have as much fun as the kids sometimes.

I took a group shot tonight. This pictures makes me laugh. Ty is rather rambunctios and as you can see he has a partner in crime. I do have a better one with their hands down, but this one makes me laugh.

a nice treat

Another food gift post!

Tonight at church a friend told me that I had a yummy gift on the Secret Pal table. I'm not doing secret pal this year, so I was surprised to find something for me.

Loretta Lopez is a wonderful lady of our church. When her and her husband lived up north she had a baking business. I'm not sure what all she did, but I know she made many, many wedding cakes. I have sampled many of her creations and everything has been wonderful.

A few weeks back I saw that she had made cinnamon rolls for someone. The person didn't pick them up right away and I made sure Loretta knew that I could take them off her hands if need be.

Tonight she gave us a tray of delicious cinnamon rolls with a very nice card. This was an unexpected and very appreciated gift.

Now...off to indulge in a delicious snack!

Thanks, Aunt Keela!

A few weeks ago, Keela had the ladies over for brunch. She made a yummy Noodle/Sausage Casserole. I knew my family would like it. I asked her for the recipe and viola!...she gave me the recipe and a bag of ingredients to make it. Wow! That is nice.
(Makes me think...hmmm... William keeps complimenting my Sweet Potato Casserole....hmmm.)


As you can see it was a big hit. Thank you, Keela! You are a wonderful sister!

Mark (with the help of the rest of us) is rebuilidng/remodeling the kids fort out back. Ty is enjoying working with Daddy. This is his new pose. What gang is he in??

We had a great time at William and Keela's pool on Sunday. Thanks for having us over!

Stuff

Mark blogged again, so it got be in the mood. Over Easter we had a nice visit with Kathi, Michael and kids. We rented the bikes at Lakes Park. Mark is a brave man escorting 11 kids around the park. They all had a great time.

Katie looks like such a big girl sitting up front by herself.

We spent a lot of time swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Katie and Ty are both doing great with arm swimmies. Katie loves to jump in and seems to be working on her diving form.

I bet the neighbors thought it was loud! :) Lots of laughter and fun times.

We seem to have fallen into a routine of Donuts and the newspaper on Sunday morning. Emily and Sarah love to read the comics.

We took Brenna with us to a "Cooks in the Kitchen" program sponsored by the Junior League.

They had all kinds of things for the kids to try. Emily and Sarah loved the Yoga Class. A couple of ladies asked me if I had the kids enrolled in yoga somewhere. Ummm, no. :)

Mark spent a few days in DC for the National Math Conference. Before he left, he took the kids out for a daddy day. They went to lunch and Chuck E. Cheese.

Ty likes to plan his own outfits now. Many days that means PJs, but now he is exploring other things.

Here Sarah is preparing for the King's Kids Jamboree. The girls worked very hard this year.

When Mark packed for DC he took a bunch of tracts to pass out. I thought that was a great idea.

My mom planned a Tea Party for the cousins and their dolls.
Ty and Katie got to come by default. I knew Katie would get messy so she went topless!

The King's Kids Jamboree is always a fun time for our family. Mark and I work with the kids on Wednesday nights to get them ready for the big day. We also have practice the night before.

Here are Mark and another worker, Scott.

Emily and Sarah were 2 of the 5 people on the quiz team. They won 2nd place! We were very proud of all 5 of them. The team that beat them have 3 6th graders that are amazing. Our team only lost by 2 questions.

Grandma, Grandma, Grandpa and Abby all came to watch. Tay, Logan and Chloe were there too. Tay was a huge help because she volunteered to watch Ty and Katie during part of the time where Mark and I both had to be in the sanctuary. Thanks Tay!

This is the lineup for the Memory Verse Contest. Sarah worked so hard this year and got 3rd place! She was beat out by 2 of the 6th graders I mentioned earlier. She had over 50 verses prepared word perfect. This was a very stressful moment, but so rewarding to see the hard work that was put in to memorizing Bible Verses.

Part of our Winning Team.
This is the Great Missionaries Relay Team. I love practicing the relays with the kids. They are so fast! I would have loved this as a child.

Ty isn't part of the team yet, but he ran up to get in the picture. Such a poser!

I love to see Kiara in there. This was the twins first year and they both did a good job.

Sarah came away with many ribbons and 1 book. She and Emily both memorized Psalms 75 and were awarded a book. She also got first prize in Story Telling. Great job, Sarah!

Emily also won several ribbons. She won 1st place in Bible Storytelling. She told the story of the 10 plagues. I was so impressed with her stage presence and how she interacted with the audience. She is going to be an awesome Sunday School Teacher or Teacher one day.

Afterwards we took Alison and Baileigh with us to the beach and to Dairy Queen. The Huxley Family is heading back to Michigan for several months. I think we are all sad to see them go.

Matching Batman(Batman?)

Ty has a thing for PJs.

Mark and I spent 3 days in New York. We love the city and found loads of new places to enjoy. We saw 4 shows and ate way too much pizza. There are so many place in New York to get pizza, so we sampled many.
This is a restroom in the middle of the road. Hmm.

This was for Emily. There is a HUGE billboard advertising Sims 3 in the middle of Times Square.

I love the hustle and bustle of Times Square.

Spring was starting to ...spring in the city. Tulips are my favorite so I had to get a picture of this in Battery Park.

We traded picture duties with another couple.

We also toured the Tenentment House Musuem. It was the best historical tour I have been on. I highly recommend it.

We went on the boat to see the Statue of Libery and Ellis Island. We go there early and were able to get a Pass to tour the pedestal of the Statue of Libery.

Here is the inside with the spiral stairs that lead up to the crown. They are closed right now, but that would be very exhausting!

At the M & M store we found out that Mark was in a pink mood.

We bought the kids a few souvineirs. We went to a comic book store and were able to buy a bunch of cheap Archie comics. The girls love Archie Comics! They spent most of the day reading them. I wish I would have thought to pick up some Richie Rich for them. They don't know him ... yet.

We went to the Mother Daughter Banquet with Grandma June, Mom, Keela, Kiara, Kaylie, Tay, Chloe, Grandma and Abby. The girls sang 2 songs with the girls choir.

I was the lucky receipent of a delicious Mother's Day breakfast.

Ty is in the 'giving up nap' phase. Yuck! The other night it was about 10:30. I thought he was asleep and I look down the hallway and see the picture below. He had changed into different pajamas and was now sporting a Batman mask.

Emily and Sarah enjoyed playing in the rain recently. We are so glad to have at least a little rain. We need it so badly here.