Pinstack Bowling with Aunt Mary

We were so excited to hear Aunt Mary is in town this weekend! She wanted to spend an evening bowling and playing games at Pinstack Bowling and the kids were thrilled to be included. I had previous plans with Liz, Jenna, Sereen and Lanae to meet for dinner at Cheesecake Factory and the movie Me Before You. Thankfully I was able to meet them for a delicious dinner and then head over to catch up with the rest of my family. Derek, Bryce and Clara were having a blast running from game to game and all over the arcade portion of the building. Mitchell, Tyler, Andrew and I dominated a couple games of Lasertag. At one point, Bryce snuck off with Aunt Amy and Danny to get some food and he was in heaven having a whole plate of chicken strips and fries to himself, as well as the undivided attention of Aunt "Mamie" and Danny. ;) It was great to see Aunt Mary; Val; Aunt Veronica and Andrew; Aunt Jenn, Uncle Tim, Dillon, Tyler and Ally; Beth, Declan and Jilli; and Gamm and Papa. I think I just missed my mom, but we had a lot of fun hanging out with family and playing games together. Clara turned out to be kind of a good luck charm for Gamm and Aunt Mary at one of the games, Derek scored 500 tickets in a single round of a game, and Bryce was obsessed with the Transformers game. At the end of the night, Aunt Mary took all the kids, (Derek, Bryce, Clara, Declan, Jilli, Ally, Tyler and Andrew) into the prize room to pick out prizes. Altogether, I think we scored over 13,000 tickets! It was a super fun (super late!) night with my family. :)

 Derek loved playing this giant Connect 4 game

 Clara's great-grandma and great-great aunt ADORE her. 

 My lovely sister, Val and my lovely Aunt Jenn!!

 Derek, Ally and Dillon had fun playing this game together

 Mitchell was Phaser 22, I was Phaser 28, Andrew was Phaser 26 and Tyler was Phaser 33. Blue team for the win!

 Bryce loves Danny, Aunt "Mamie" and food. Triple score!! :D

 Who knew fishing was such intense work?!

 Derek's face when he got the biggest fish, haha!

 Mitchell helped the kids with another fishing game

 Aunt Mary, Gamm and I!

 Derek and Bryce loooooved playing this Ghostbusters game. They shot ping pong balls at ghosts.

 Bryce, Aunt Mary, Clara and Derek! :D

 Clara and Bryce took out the Decepticons on the Transformers Game. Mitchell eventually jumped in to help them out.

 Papa kept his eye on Bryce while he perched on the rotating entrance wheel

 Papa, Bryce and Danny

Bryce loves Hulk

Walking the Square

We met up with the cousins to get cupcakes from Tammy's shop and walk around McKinney Square. I didn't take many pictures (my stroller is a tank!), but the kids were cute and happy to be out and about. Derek was pushing Asher in his stroller and Lanae and I were both a little on-edge. "Derek! slow down!" "Derek, watch out!" "Derek!" "DEREK!!!" :S Asher was alive and well at the end of the walk and Derek was happy to have helped out. Savvie got tired toward the end of the walk but the strollers were full, so we let her sit on Bryce's lap/squish in with him. These kids were so cute!

Clara, Savvie and Bryce being sooooo cute!

 Driving back home, they fell asleep!!! Boom.

 Derek's hat still creeps me out, haha!

Playdate with the Healy's

My camera phone didn't do so well taking pictures of fast-moving, giggling kids, but Bryce and Clara had a blast playing with Ethan and Cassie. The kids took turns throwing stuffed animals into the pop-up tent, gathering them up to take them out and throw them right back in again, haha! They spent quite a bit of time tumbling and wrestling and jumping on the stuffed animal piles. Sharlene and I were able to snatch a few bits of conversation and had a good time watching the kids. :) 

 Rushing in and out of the tent!

 Tickling Cassie

 Clara and Bryce pretending to drive cars, lol

 Cassie is too cute! 

 Striking poses and being silly, haha!

Buddy boys!

Randoms from May

02 May - Bama sent a couple cupcakes home for the kids one day. Bryce really loves them!

02 May - Clara loves Bama's cake too! Derek ate his before I could take a picture.

05 May - Thank you for reminding me why I avoid shopping with children...at..all..cost!

06 May - We tried potty-training for a grand total of 20 minutes. She peed through 4 pairs of underwear and had a hysterical meltdown every time it ran down her legs. Oi.

 07 May - One of these eggs is not like the other!

09 May - How would you rate your dinner on a scale of 1 to meltdown? Hamburger gravy is usually a favorite.

 09 May - Date night to see Captain America: Civil War. Team Cap all the way!

11 May - Captured a sweet, tender moment between Bryce and Clara.

11 May - Morning silliness

 13 May - Bryce, Bauer and Clara were investigating a bug

14 May - I made my first wedding cake delivery!! The bride didn't have the flowers that she wanted to put on her cake, so I improvised with burlap twine wrapped around the base of the layers. Boom.

14 May - Derek sure loves his sister!

14 May - These two are so funny and feed off each others' silliness

16 May - Bryce is defending his sister while she stuffs crayons down the throat of a plastic dragon. Goooood morning!

18 May - Busted! Clara ate 10 chocolates before I found her crouched in the pantry. The Pantry Troll strikes again!

 20 May - Bryce put a bag on his head and charged full-speed into Aunt Amy. Surprise!

25 May - Heading out to visit Nana!

25 May - Crazy faces!

Fun at Kroger

Bryce, Clara and I had to make a quick stop at Kroger to get some supplies to make Mango Sprite for a party later (mango nectar, lemon-lime soda and pineapple/passion fruit soda, in equal parts). As we were walking in, a nice lady offered us the coolest cart Bryce has ever seen. He almost got into the seat by himself, he scrambled up so quickly! Clara was equally entertained and it was one of the easiest quick-stops I've ever made with kids in tow. The kids noticed the mechanical horse ride while we were in the checkout line and I asked the cashier to make change for a dollar so the kids could ride. She laughed and said the ride only cost a penny! Awesome!! Now we have a tradition of riding the horse every time we go to Kroger. :)

They're ready to drive through Kroger

"Beep beep! Vroom vroom!"

"Wait, what is THAT?!?!"

Hi-ho Silver!

This is her happy face

I, Bryce, take you to be my faithful steed ;)

Pure joy