Park, Pizza, P...uh... Movie

Today was a full day! We played at the splash pad and the park and then drove to Austin and Liz's house for pizza and a movie. The kids have been looking forward to seeing Zootopia and tonight is the night! It's so much fun having all the cousins together and they had a great time taking up the ENTIRE couch. All the adults ended up sprawled on the floor or corners of the giant love sac.

Constant motion

Bryce and Emeri off on a whirlwind adventure

Levitation!

Derek really loves these water jets

Running, running, running

Derek's favorite things - moving his body and playing in water

Clara and Sierra were a little less enthusiastic about getting wet

Preston found an itty bitty toad

See?

Isaac, Preston and Logan were fascinated with that toad and took turns holding it

Logan was actually happy to hold the toad

Love these sisters of mine! :D

Derek and Andrew apparently weigh as much as Bryce and Preston

Sweet Savvy!

Sweet Sierra!

Windblown

Later in the day, Clara fell asleep in the car and Derek was struck by a tender, big brotherly kindness to hold her hand and be so very sweet and gentle with her

 Caught him stroking and kissing her little fingers

...and then she shifted in her sleep and the funny-boy face was priceless

Movie Time! That couch is getting full!

The Rainforest Cafe

Voila! Part two of Grandma's surprise - the Rainforest Cafe! I had never been to one, but I always thought the decorations were really cool. The food was a little overpriced of course, but it was the experience that will stay with us for a lifetime. The kids were thrilled with the elephants, dancing gorillas, tigers and HUGE butterflies on the trees. It was so cool! Thank you for a great memory, Grandma! :D

 Everybody thought the life-size crocodile was pretty cool...

...but the kids were especially enthralled

Look at all the tree frogs!

Bryce was pretty chill the whole time. I think he was worn out from running around the aquarium

Grandma and Oakley

 The three October birthdays had to do a silly dance while the waiters sang a birthday song

Grandma and Emeri

Arts and Crafts

Aunt Lizzy pulled out a fun arts-and-crafts idea for the kids to get them revved up for Halloween. She gave each kid a picture of a ghost or a bat plus a handful of marshmallows and some glue and they went to work. The kids glued the marshmallows around the outline of their picture while sneaking bites of marshmallow when they thought we weren't looking. Silly kids. Mommies see EVERYTHING! Lol. 

"You call this cuddling, Aunt Kadi?"

Isaac is showing Derek how to make Oakley smile while they wait for Aunt Lizzy to set up the craft

These boys know the drill

Aunt Lanae helped supervise all the kids. She and Bryce are so cute!

Savvie was very particular about where and how she placed her marshmallows

Arrrr! Pirate Derek be makin' art, Mom!

Logan feigned interest so he could keep getting marshmallows, haha! Sneaky!

Family "Camp Out"

OK, OK, so it wasn't technically a camp out since we didn't spend the night, but the kids refused to let us call it anything but a camp out, so I guess majority rules, lol. We did however make a campfire to roast hot dogs, sausages and smores. Yum! Liz brought some bikes for kids to ride, but they mostly wanted to run around and play tag around the trees. It was so fun to watch them laugh and scream and run against a background of beautiful greenery. The guys took turns splitting firewood and we taught Isaac and Derek how to roast their own hot dogs. Derek wasn't too interested in waiting for his hot dog to be ready, but Isaac turned out to be a pro! Andrew kept tipping his plate and dropping his hot dog on the ground, poor kid. Savanna kept trying to get into the fire but luckily Lanae and David were extra vigilant and nobody got hurt. Bryce almost fell in once and I swear it took me a few minutes to remember to breathe. Uncle Colton brought some awesome sausages that I quickly became addicted to. I'm pretty sure they're going to become a staple in this house. We all made it back to the house smelling wonderfully of smoke that night with bellies full of chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker goodness.

 So it begins... her fascination with flames

Austin went all Boy Scouts to make a fire. Cool.

 We're so glad they're here to visit!

  Jenna is a rock star. She very serenely passed out treats to the horde of screeching children who mobbed her. You can see Bryce is walking as fast as he can to claim his share.

 This picture makes me tear up. I'm going to bet this picture will look a lot like teen-age Derek.

 Roasting weenies

Mitchell was hungry but that's MY sausage there on the end, buddy!

Derek was too impatient to meat roasted hot dogs, so he helped himself to a few cold ones.

 Andrew's poor hot dog is doomed to be covered in dirt

 Bryce wanted to add some wood to the fire

Isaac is a true child prodigy when it comes to roasting hot dogs

 Hanging in the hoodie

These two were so cute huddled together on a log!

Uncle Jared's Birthday Celebration and Brother/Sister Gifts



Uncle Jared's Birthday isn't for another couple weeks, but we needed some excuse for cake and candles. :) I loved this little memory with Emeri, heehee. She claimed Derek's hat and insisted on wearing it during lunch but Preston kept trying to "borrow" it. She let him know that wasn't going to happen by kicking and screaming at him til the poor kid walked away with a bewildered look.

 



She sure looked cute in that hat. Love the photo-bombing Savanna in the back, haha!

 

 Preston thought it was a game at first, but he didn't have fun for long, poor kid.

 

Happy birthday, Uncle Jared!

 

 

Andrew had his eye on the candles (we don't call him the Candle Bomber for nothing) but Aunt Lizzie has her eye on him! Haha!

 



 Andrew photo-bombed all of Jared's present-opening pictures, silly kid!

 

 We made hot chocolate to chase the cake down. I like mine with cinnamon, whipped cream and chocolate shavings. Yum!

Later, after the kids had been put to bed, we all sat down to open Brother/Sister gifts. The way this usually works is that all the siblings divide into two groups. Each group goes shopping and one person from each group buys a gift for one person in the other group (that other person can't be their spouse). My group got gifts for everybody in the other group except for Mitchell because every time we tried to get the Warhammer 40K gift we wanted to get him, the store was closed. So, at the last minute, I went to Walmart with Liz to get the video game Mitchell had been waiting so patiently to be released (Diablo 3). I bought the game and then Liz and I decided to do a gag gift. We found a Barbie movie to give to Mitchell first and then surprise him with Diablo 3. So, I wrapped the Barbie gift in a masculine plaid bag and Diablo 3 in a flowery, frilly pink bag. It worked out that Mitchell opened his presents last of all which brought all his expectations to a head, haha! It was awesome. Tammy found a pair of beautiful peridot earrings for me from Kohls that match my eyes perfectly. I never thought to wear peridot before but I have to confess I'm a little obsessed now. :) We all had fun hearing about the different thoughts behind the different gifts and I'm glad we didn't just mail the presents to each other. 

 We displayed all the wrapped presents on the mantle

 

 Mom scored a pair of awesome sunglasses and the game, Headbandz

 

Colton got a pair of resistance bands (same as Austin), Jared got an ab roller and a book and Sereen got a couple of cute shirts (same style as Lanae).

 

 Liz got these sweet sunglasses, some plum colored suede flats and that pretty golden necklace.

We also got a great gift from her a couple days ago... she's pregnant! YAY! Can't wait for July 4th this next year. We joke that she sets the pattern for what gender my kids are (we both had two boys and then a girl) so I'm kind of excited to see what she has next (and secretly hoping it's a girl!).

 

 Love the decorations for Jared's birthday. Notice the little plaid bag in Mitchell's lap? :)

 

He hasn't seen what's in the wrapping yet...

 

 ...commence confusion!

 

 He only gets the real gift if he can open it, haha! 

 

He was very pleased with both the joke and the real gift. I love it when I get it right. ;)