Giveaway on my mom's stamping blog

Bounce on over to The Village Stamper for a Thanksgiving card giveaway and to see my mom's latest service project.

Party like a Rock Star

We had quite the birthday party today. Samuel invited ALL his friends!! Here are the kiddos:

We also hosted 7 moms and 6 dads - what a crew!

Here is the birthday boy with his birthday cake:

Posing with friends and presents:

Excited about something:

We had a fun time with all of our friends. But I think this may have been our last big birthday blowout...the house was packed to the gills! We are thankful for so many great friends that the Lord has provided. And we're super thankful for this sweet, spunky, smart 5 year old Samuel!!!

Birthday Morning

Samuel requested a rock star birthday party this year. Here he is this morning at the breakfast table with all his decorations:

Joel was so excited to join him:

Here's the boys itching to open Sam's present from Mom, Dad & Joel:

Samuel was a little excited about it:

A Disney Cars 2 set!!! Yippee!!!

Happy 5th Birthday to Samuel!

Here's the birthday boy in all his cuteness:

Ed's Favorite Part of the Vacation

Ed's favorite part of the vacation was the Rooftop Rodeo in Estes Park. He did NOT want to go when we first mentioned it. He "offered" to stay home with Joel, etc to get out of going, but we all talked him into it. He LOVED it - He says it's his favorite part! I wanted to go all in with our rodeo adventure, so I spent naptime visiting thrifts stores in town to pull together some cowboy hats and boots for us. I was able to find hats for everyone, and boots for myself and Sophia. The drive from Fort Collins up into Estes Park was A-Mazing! There were all of these cabins and campgrounds along the way too that I kept saying I wanted to stay at. Someday maybe. Here are picks from the drive to Estes Park:


And here are the best shots from the rodeo:

Poudre Canyon

We spent the rest of our vacation with our friends The Castelluccios in Fort Collins, CO. They are on staff with Athletes in Action at Northwestern U and are spending their summer on an AIA project at Colorado State. Our time with them was action packed! We tried to do a fun activity each morning and each evening. On our first day we spent the morning at the Rec Center at CSU. Then we had a picnic dinner at Poudre Canyon. It was beautiful! The kids loved it as well. Check out all our fun:

The Last of the Denver Photos

Here are a few more photos of our time in Denver with our seminary friends.

We visited Evergreen, CO one evening for dinner. It was a beautiful drive into the mountains. We had planned to walk around a bit when we got there, but it was starting to rain. That didn't stop the kids from doing some exploring of their own outside of the restaurant:



We also went to the splashpad in their town. The boys weren't too into it at first because they don't really like to be splashed in the face. But then good ol' mom remembered that I had brought the bath toys along. They were a big hit! All the kids loved putting them on the spray and launching them:



After Denver we were on our way north to Fort Collins to spend the rest of the week with our friends, The Castelluccios. More photos to come!

The Trip Out

We had a pretty good drive on the way out to Colorado. We got up early on Saturday morning and drove all day to Kearney, Nebraska. I drove the first three hours and then Ed took over for the rest of the trip. I packed things for the boys to open every hour or so. Here is my collection of things before I pack them up:

And here are the boys and their stuff sprawled out in the van:


I bought these trays at Dollar Tree and they were SO helpful. The boys could play on them, eat on them, color on them, etc:

We of course stopped at a Starbucks or two (okay, or three) on the way out:

We spent the night at a hotel I got off of Hotwire. I am thankful we booked ahead of time because once we arrived the lady at the front desk said there weren't any more rooms available in town!

When we drove into Denver the next day, there was this crazy storm brewing to the North of us. I got some cool photos/video of it:

New Friends

We just returned from vacation. We left last Saturday morning and drove out to Denver, CO. We first stayed with some old neighbors from our seminary days who now live out in Denver. They have three kids with one more on the way. All of the kids made instant friends.
Our friends (with kids #2 & #3):

All of us enjoying dinner at Beaujo's:

Ed attracting a crowd:

Church Cuddle

We're back from vacation! I have a whole bunch of photos to share with you all. I'll start with one from church on Sunday. Here are the boys in the pew in front of me during closing worship:

Serious About Painting

I decided to be a cool mom and let my kids fingerpaint. Samuel did pretty good - although he was definitely cleaner than this guy:

Toys+Power Tools=Fun with Dad

The boys wanted holes in their cars so that they could put Cootie Bug pieces on them. Naturally, Ed said sure and went and got the drill!?!

For the Paynes

Ed's dad came to visit a little while ago. This is what I saw on my kitchen counter for a few days:

Berry Cream Cheese?

I decided to surprise the boys and I bought Berry flavored (and colored) cream cheese instead of plain. Here's Joel's reaction:

Aaand, here's Samuel's:

On Vacation

Hi all. We are on vacation this week in Colorado. I scheduled blog posts to run through Wednesday. But then I ran out of time. I'm three minutes behind schedule already!! :)

We will return with lots of funny stories and pictures, I'm sure.

Much love to you all!

Leah

We all Scream for Milkshakes

Poor Baby Joel

Joel had a doozy of a spring. He had three different rounds of antibiotics for ear infections and a sinus infection. I found this picture of him from one of his bouts with an ear infection. He insisted on wearing an ice pack on his ear. Doesn't he look miserable? And completely dopey?

 

Learning to Read

Samuel has been working on reading skills. Here he is just the other day:


And here he is in action: