Fun with an Airplane

It is kind of nice living so close to campus. Especially in the summer when it's incredibly nice and we need a big space to fly one of Gabe's new birthday presents! Gabe got this airplane from his friend Colin for his birthday last week.

We decided that after flying it in our yard we would take it to central campus to have more space to really let her fly. The boys loved watching the plane do loops and had to duck and cover a few times:)

At first Callie was more interested in pushing the stroller around in the grass.

and climbing through the fence.

but after awhile she got in on the fun of chasing the plane once it landed too.

The airplane was somewhat unpredictable in its flight pattern however and every once and awhile you would have to watch out or it could hit you in the nose and cause it to bleed profusely...like this.

Thankfully Daddy had an extra shirt to use as kleenex since I didn't think to bring any! Here is the airplane in action. (nevermind blogger will not upload my videos lately for some reason...)


After awhile it was time to take 3 tired but excited kiddos home for bed. Ty decided to help Callie out and lead her to the sidewalk. So cute

The kids are already asking when we can go back to Central Campus and fly the plane again(this time I'm taking kleenex)

Super 6 Year Old

Gabe turned 6 on the 23rd!  How is that possible?  To me 6 sounds so much older then 5, I don't know why.  Maybe it's because he can no longer show us his age on one hand.  Maybe because it's beyond that 1-5 age group.  Maybe it's because he's my oldest baby and it will always seem as if he shouldn't be aging as fast as he is but at any rate he turned 6 and he was very excited about it!  On his birthday he awoke to Iron Man balloons and donuts(his requested birthday breakfast) 

We also had a gift for him to open after breakfast.

it was the Action Bible, our old Jesus Storybook Bible has seen it's better day and we had seen this one in the store before and really liked it and knew he would too.  It is done like a comic book, the illustrations are very comic booky and even the stories follow comic book style in that the characters have speech bubbles and so forth.  He was very excited to read some of his favorites in his new bible.

That morning was spent at our last swimming lesson session, which he passed with flying colors and then a short wait until we could finally go pick his friends up for a small party.  We were planning to go to aquatic center but for the first time in 6 years at least it was too cold to go to the pool.  We did have a back up plan and went to Perfect Games instead.  He and his friends had a good time bowling.

and they each got a game card with a little money on it to play some games in the arcade and after their cards were spent down to nothing they had a great time bouncing in the bounce house.  After Perfect Games we went and picked up some pizza and headed to the park.

I had made some cupcakes as well but the wind was not cooperating very well to get the candles lit so we sang happy birthday and Gabe attempted to blow out the one candle we could get to light.

after food he was finally able to open his presents.

and after that there was no more containing these kids to the picnic table they were off like a shot to the playground for a rousing game of Tag.  Gabe had so much fun and was sad when it was time to take his friends home for the evening.  His birthday celebration continued into the weekend though.  Saturday we had his party for our family.  Ty had his last Bam Bam game at 12 that day so we invited anyone who wanted to to come down to watch him play.  After his game we headed back to my mom and dads new place for his party.  Carl grilled some mean burgers and we had lunch.  After lunch we sang Happy Birthday and did cake.  Being inside he was able to actually blow out his candles this time.  Gabe requested a command module splashing down in the ocean for his cake this year(can you say Space Geek, big time!)  He is lucky Daddy is a good decorater.  I baked the cakes and then we assembled the cake and command module the night before.  I think it turned out pretty well(the picture in front is the actual Apollo 11 command module after splash down). 

after cake and ice cream he had yet more presents to open up.  He got so many neat things.  Lots of I can Read books which he really loves right now and some cool clothes and this Lego Space Shuttle.

He also got this bike from my parents.  He is not so sure about the whole no training wheels thing and doesn't want you to let go at all when you help him ride.  Although when he was riding at the park Carl let go and he went quite a ways before he realized no one was holding on.

After presents were opened we all walked down to the park that is just down the street from Mom and Dads.  Even Uncle Bone had fun on the swings.

Sunday we finally finished off the birthday celebration weekend with a trip to Hickory Park for the annual birthday sundae.

and the very last treat a trip to the theater to see Cars 2 with us and Grandpa Tim and Grandma Mel.  He loved it(so did the rest of us)  Thanks to Danielle for keeping Callie for us so we could all go!  Gabe had a great birthday!  Thanks so much to all our friends and family who sent cards and were able to come to celebrate with us.  We are very blessed!

Start of Summer

With the start of summer comes lots of random happenings. A few weeks ago we used our family membership to go have a picnic in the garden after church. It was a nice day and even though it started to sprinkle while we were there the kids loved having a picnic in the garden. Even though I had taken pictures of them the last time we were there I tortured them again anyway and made them pose for a few pictures for me, like these...maybe someday it won't take many many shots to actually get one half was decent one:)The roses were more in bloom this time.They also changed the display in the conservatory instead of the big picnic basket they had these things.We also were able to go to the butterfly wing this time, Callie's first time through. She loved the butterflys. This one loved Carl:)On our way out the boys also liked to look at the butterflys who had just emerged from the chrysalis. The start of summer also brought the start of swimming lessons and t-ball for Gabe. I wasn't able to get very many good ones at the pool.and I haven't snapped any at t-ball yet that will have to be a post another time. This week we are gearing up for someones 6th birthday! More to come I'm sure...

Big Bugs

Groupon had a spectacular deal a few weeks ago, a year long Reiman Gardens Membership for 27$!  We have been members in the past but I didn't renew our membership last year but when I saw this deal I knew we had to do it.  This year their theme is Big Bugs.  This past week since Grandma had some time off(since they were moving) we headed to the garden to check them out.  Right out the doors we found this praying mantis.

he was small in comparison to this big guy though.

Next we went to check out the childrens garden area.  Much to the kiddos displeasure the frog water pumps were not working yet but they did discover some fun things in the alphabet garden.  Callie discovered water, she LOVES water.

The kiddos also love the bridge over the little stream and the board walk mazes.  They had the prettiest purple flowers out right now!

The boys love to climb the hill that goes way up to the fence area.  Here they are showing off just a little:)

Next we went to see the big ants.  Ty wasn't so sure he liked them but Gabe thought they were pretty cool.

after the ant we saw the big spider.  I would not want to come across a spider quite that big for sure!

and to go along with the spider theme next we saw a giant spider web.  Ty wasn't so sure he liked it either although he did seem to think it would make a good climbing toy once he did warm up to it.

Next we came across a giant ladybug.  Ty decided that the ladybug was not scary so he didn't cover his face and hide from this one:)  Gabe and Callie liked it too.

Next up was the giant mosquito which Ty did find scary so he would not get in the picture with his brother and sister:)

Next we made our way back down and around the lake where Gabe became photographer and took some pictures of the giant dragonfly.

We made our way to the back of the garden where we saw this.  It looks like a dragonfly but it has another name and my memory is failing me.  We learned that it can actually sting you which Gabe thought was cool and terrified him all at the same time.

and finally our last big bug outside in the garden, the grasshopper.  They had seen the grasshopper driving by from the street many times so the boys were very excited to actually get up close to it.

On our way out of the garden we stopped in the conservatory area and saw the giant picnic basket.  This was probably my favorite part.

It was a hot day at the garden but the kids has lots of fun discovering all the bugs.  I'm sure we will take advantage of our membership and go visit our favorites quite regularly.

A Birthday Train

Wow what a busy weekend and week this has been!  We started out this past weekend with a birthday party for our nephews 2nd and 4th birthdays.  We had lunch at their house and then we all went to Boone to take a ride on Scenic Valley Railroad.  Since the train ride started about the same time as Callie's normal nap she met Grandpa Tim and Grandma Mel in Boone and went back to their house to sleep instead.  When we arrived the boys couldn't wait to see the train.

after a short wait we were able to get on and find some seats all together.  It was nice the train wasn't full so we had plenty of room to spread out and kids were able to move around some.  Here they are with one of the birthday boys!

Aunt Andrea and Uncle Alan even had engineer hats for everyone to wear on the train.

and of course no birthday party is complete without cupcakes, which Ty liked very much, especially the frosting!

The window seats were especially popular on the ride and much maneuvering and shifting was being done to have the best view out the window.

The views were really pretty especially going over the bridges and near the river.

Aunt Em even came home for the weekend!(and bought Gabe the smashed railroad penny which Gabe later dropped when he was out checking out the open air area of the train, she was nice and got him another one:)

It was a fun ride and we all enjoyed ourselves!  Thanks for the fun party and train ride Andrea and Alan.

The rest of the weekend wasn't as exciting or relaxing as the train ride but it was busy.  Sunday we worked in Gabe's room at church and then met Carl's family for lunch at Hickory Park.  Sunday afternoon we went to my parents house and started to help them load trailers.  They are moving into a townhouse on the other side of town and started to get their things out of the their current house.  We loaded as much as we could Sunday and then Monday morning unloaded into the new house garage(they can't get into the house until Friday but could put their stuff in the garage) It was a busy few days and we still have more stuff to move and then actually put into the house this coming weekend.  I didn't take any pictures of the moving activities.  The kids are excited to finally see Grandma and Grandpas new house as they(especially Ty) were getting a little stressed out as to why we were taking everything out of their old house and putting it into trailers.  I think once he sees it all in an actual house and not a garage he will feel better about the whole thing.  It was definately a productive weekend!