A Saturday night at the park...

 Saturday evening was PERFECT. 

The weather was cool, clear, and just plain gorgeous. 

 We spent the entire night at a local park in our little town.

 

Every Saturday night during the summer months this park hosts a different band, and then, beginning at dusk, they show a family friendly movie on the BIG outdoor screen.

 Because it was Memorial Day weekend though, they didn't show a movie, but had an extra special concert instead.

We met my parents, and Grandparents (who are here visiting from Michigan) at the park and enjoyed a fun evening together.

 Between the music, bouncy house, playground, balloon animals, clowns, and ice cream cones-- my kids were in heaven!!!

 

Sophie and Hudson couldn't get enough of the bounce house. 

 

Time after time, they would jump, climb, and slide.


And after all that bouncin'...


a yummy ice cream cone hit the spot!!!

 Curly the clown was on hand and impressed everyone with his unique balloon creations!

Riley shows off his cool balloon sword!

Hudson and my mom enjoyed sitting and listening to the music,

while others had fun dancin' along;)

It was indeed a perfect SUMMER night...

with LOTS of fun memories made!!!!

Mommy and Me--dress and matching skirt

 I LOVE making clothes for the kids, especially dresses for my Sophie girl. 

  This girl has more dresses than she could ever possibly wear, but unfortunately that doesn't stop me from buying more fabric and making more dresses;) 

I've never made anything for myself before, but this weekend I had some leftover fabric from some dresses I made for Soph, so I thought I would give it a try! 

  I decided on a skirt. I mean how hard could a skirt be-right!?!? I didn't want to buy a pattern, so I searched the Internet for a free pattern. Then I came across this tutorial. It was PERFECT!!! She says it will only take about twenty minutes, and to be honest, I didn't believe it. 

 Well, I got TWO skirts made in just under a hour. The first one took me a little longer because I was just trying for figure it all out, but the second was MUCH easier and faster. ANYONE can make one of these skirts. Even if you don't sew, you CAN DO THIS!!! It's super easy and her instructions are fool proof!
I can't wait to make more!!!

The Amazing Grace Race

Sunday night Corban participated in, The Amazing Grace Race, a musical put on by the children's choir at our church. The kids put a TON of hours into preparing and rehearsing for this much anticipated performance. All their hard work definitely paid off because they did a phenomenal job!! 

Corban surprised us all when he said he wanted to try out for a part in this musical. He is not at all a like-to-be-in-the-limelight-kind-of kid, but we encouraged him to try out if he really wanted too. 

He did, and he was given two little solo parts in two different songs. 

Needless to say, we were very proud of him! 

After the musical was over, we headed over to Y@foria to celebrate a job-well-done!!

Our sweet friends, the Howard's met us there too! 

Corban and his buddy Jack-- both did a super job in the play!

Riley and precious Darcy!

Nothing like a good cup of yogurt-right Hud?!?!?

Yup, good to the last bite!!!

Our little graduate;)

Today was a BIG day for our little family! 

Today my sweet Riley graduated from preschool!

 I seriously cannot believe that we are just one summer away from kindergarten!!!

Just that thought makes me teary eyed!

This morning we headed to Riley's school for his end of the year program.Oh.my.goodness was it PRECIOUS!!! Each class preformed an adorable song.

(There's my little giraffe on the end.)

Riley had such a sweet class this year and I know he is going to miss all his friends.

My sweet boy proudly shows off his much anticipated preschool diploma!

Yup...there's the diploma again. Ready for the camera.

After the program we headed over to P@nera with my sisters to celebrate our new rising kindergartner! 

And YES, Riley enjoyed every bite of that big ole' cinnamon role!

When we got home that afternoon, Riley and I got busy in the kitchen. I had found the most adorable flip-flop cake recipe, and I though it would be the PERFECT way to celebrate our little graduate!

. I just added the decorated flip-flops and sand (crushed vanilla wafers) to the top of a iced vanilla cake.

So simple!!

And since we were celebrating our sweet RiRi today, I told him that he could choose the dinner menu for the evening. I had to run to the store anyway,so I told him to pick ANYTHING he wanted. 

You know what he said...CEREAL! 

I was a little disappointed by his first choice, so I asked him to give me a second favorite dinner.

SPAGHETTI and garlic bread was choice number two. 

PERFECT.

And Ri's spaghetti was served on the "special" Celebrate plate. In our house, if someone is celebrating an accomplishment that day (no matter how big or small) they get to eat on the "Celebrate" plate!

 

After dinner, everyone was super excited to finally dig into that cake!

Congratulations to my precious rising kindergartner! 

We are SO VERY PROUD of you!!!

Strawberry pickin' time!

Over spring break, we had the privilege of providing respite care for another foster family. They were headed  out of the country and needed care for their six year old foster son while they were gone. 

Of course, we said YES! When I told my kids that we would be having a little boy come stay with us for about ten days, you would have thought it was Christmas morning. They were super excited and couldn't wait to meet our new friend. 

Mr. J was just as sweet as he could be!!!  He did have a few health concerns that were a little overwhelming for me at times, but thanks to some very sweet and knowledgeable friends, we made it through;) If anything, it reminded me to be on my knees thanking the Lord for the health of my children, and not to take their well being for granted!!! 

While Mr. J was here, we tried to fill each day with fun and excitement. 

That isn't too hard to do around here since there really is NEVER a dull moment anyway!;)

Mr. J had never been strawberry picking before, so the kids and I thought it would be fun to take him.  

Everyone got a bucket and off we went to the fields in hopes of finding some juicy red strawberries.

I wasn't sure how the babies would do, but to my surprise and delight, they did GREAT. 

All five kids filled their bucket to the top! 

Needless to say, we had A LOT of strawberries!

After our little strawberry picking adventure, we headed to the park for a picnic. 

The kids ate, and then had fun playing on the playground.

 Mr. J was only with us for about ten days, but it was still so... hard to say goodbye. 

We enjoyed his sweet personality and precious grin. 

He was a super kid and we were grateful for the little bit of time we got to know him!

Summer is coming...

Although summer isn't officially here yet, the weather is definitely telling us otherwise! 

Our neighborhood pool is open, but I have yet to take the kids for a swim there. I heard the water is still a bit on the chilly side, so we are going to wait a few more days and hope it warms up a little before we jump in! 

Yesterday we hit near 90 degree's though, so it was definitely time for some water fun to cool us off! I pulled the kiddie pool out of the garage, set up the sand and water table, and then turned on the sprinkler. 

Oh my goodness were my kids in water heaven! 

They played and had fun in the backyard for nearly two hours!

Yes, summer is just around the corner and soon our days will be filled with fun in the sun!

CANNOT WAIT!!!!!