Sprinkler Fun

On Memorial Day weekend (for more than the last 10 years), Stacy & Donny host a party for the family. After a parade downtown, everyone comes over for a cook-out. When it's a warm day, the sprinkler comes out. The kids look forward to this by knowing to bring along their swim suits! Here is a group of them lined up and ready to go :)

Brielle is wearing Alexia's bikini (making it about 20 years old!). She likes telling people that it is her Aunt Alexia's 'akini.

Carter did a great job helping John with his first couple of sprinkler runs. (Look in the background to see how far away the line moved back. They somehow ended up as far away as the tree line... making it about a 50 yard dash to the water!

BIG SMILE :)

Later on, Willa & John enjoyed a snack of grapes. I wonder what they were talking about :)

First time water skiing!!

We had an awesome evening tonight as both John & Brielle did some things they have never done before on the water at Grandpa Ted's & Grandma Carol's house.

Tim took them for a jet-ski ride where they hit a top speed of 40 mph! This year they have gotten braver about the fast speeds and they asked Tim to go faster. They arrived back at the dock all smiles :)

Then for the first time, we used this water ski trainer. Here John was learning how to use it on the dock. Both John & Brielle saw it sitting on the dock all day and were asking when they would get to water ski :). It rained a little in the afternoon, but the skies cleared up after dinner. John asked if he could go first.

Here's John! He went for about a 10-minute ride. He turned around several times to check out his wake. He would go back and forth between sitting and standing, and gave us lots of smiles.

Next Brielle was all ready to go for her turn. She also did about a 10-minute ride. She stood up for most of the time and even yelled for Grandpa to go faster :).

When we got back to the dock, John wanted to jump in and swim.

It was an awesome night for the kids... and the parents & grandparents were definitely very proud :).

Introducing...

POPEYE! :)

May Birthday Party at Willa's house

It was another fun family birthday party... this time at cousin Willa's house.

Grandpa & Grandma B brought the lambs over. Josie & Brielle enjoyed walking the lambs around.

Some of the little kids had fun chasing Tim. You can see Grandma & Grandpa's farm in the background:

Willa standing by one of the new trees planted in her yard:

Kids on a GATOR ride:

The birthday kids: Max, Connor & Willa:

Our friend Heather made awesome cakes again! It was a "campout/sleepover" theme. Max's cake was a giant s'mores, Connor's was a campsite scene, and Willa's was a 4 girl-sleepover.

Alladin Jr.

We had a family "date" night in mid May when we went out to dinner with Grandma & Grandpa B. We had a great dinner together and good conversation.

Afterwards, we all went to watch the middle school's production, Alladin Jr. Our niece Dorothy Jo played the role of Iago, the parrot. She had a pretty big family fan club that night... taking up 2 long rows across the theater! She did an awesome job as she was very funny & animated. The kids both enjoyed the play & sat very well in the audience. Since they are familiar with the movie Alladin, they recognized the songs and characters. I brought my telephoto lens, turned off my flash, and got some great photos of Dorothy in action:

A day with Aloysius

Tim, Brielle & John got to spend a day with Aloysius & Willa while Natalie was taking a class. Here are a couple cute pics of Aloysius from their day together :)

Aloysius is 7 months old :)

Can you watch my kids?

The nice thing about living near family is when you need to go somewhere, usually you can ask a family member, "Can you watch my kids?" This system has worked well for all family members, I believe. Last Monday, my sister Becky asked if I could watch her 4 youngest kids while she and her husband went out for the night. I agreed and the night went well. Becky and Bob got back late and her boys fell asleep one-by-one in John's bed as they played. John saw all of his cousins asleep so he pretended to sleep also. This was the scene at about 10:30 pm:

New hats from Nepal

A couple of weeks ago Brielle and John received a package in the mail from their aunt Jenny and uncle Jef. The kids opened the package, while Jef and Jenny watched through iChat. They found these wool hats that Jenny and Jef bought while they were in Nepal hiking to the base camp of Mt. Everest. John loves putting on his bear hat with sun glasses while Brielle calls her bunny hat a cat with long ears. Thanks, Jenny and Jef!!

Pumpkin the Cat

When Brielle and John go to Grandma and Grandpa Berning's farm there are many animals they enjoy playing with such as ponies, chickens, lambs, calves and kittens. The tamest kitty right now is Pumpkin, which makes her the most popular. The cats on the farm are not really domesticated or used to human touch. So when a litter is born the grandkids love to play with the baby kittens but as the kittens grow and they become more mobile it is harder for the kids to catch them. When three or four of the kids go in the barn to catch a kitten they act more like a swat team trying to corral a felon. Pumpkin has been caught the most, explaining why she is a favorite.

Our most recent family photo, by Brielle

It has been so neat to watch Brielle's drawing skills develop in the last several months. She likes to draw people, hearts, and our house. Here she was drawing our family:

Tim is in the middle, John is the top left, and I forget which one is Brielle and which one is me. Maybe I'll have to ask Brielle :).

Those lambs sure are cute :)

Fishing 101

Grandpa Ted picked up a couple new fishing poles for the kids... he even found a pole with PINK on it for Brielle :).

Inside Grandpa's tackle box, Tim helped as John & Brielle picked out what color rubber worm they wanted to use. They both picked sparkly green ones. We didn't have any live bait, but it was a good day to practice casting and reeling. Tim didn't put any hooks on the line, he just tied the worms on.

Brielle has figured out how to cast and reel. John does a good job reeling, but needs a little more practice casting.

Paintbrushes & Water & Wood === great idea

These photos are from early May.

Grandma Carol & Grandpa Ted had a great idea when they bought some big paintbrushes for John & Brielle. This has kept them busy for hours as they...

paint the boat dock...

paint the picnic table...

and paint the dock box!

Sandal photo for Jenny & Alexia

Grandma Carol said to Brielle, "Oh, let me take a picture of your pretty sandals to show Jenny and Alexia... they will LOVE your shoes." :)

Brielle LOVES these fancy sandals and wears them often. Something kind of funny... Grandma Carol probably would NOT have picked out these sandals for a kid because she thinks that a strap between the toes is not very comfortable... but she does think they are pretty cute :)