Weekend full of fun!

This was a great weekend packed full of fun.  We had a blast at Owen's Nerf Wars birthday party on Saturday and that evening we went to the park to enjoy the nice weather.  (And run off some of the sugar from all the cake and ice cream)

My kids all love the swings and really love to swing when Joe pushes them.  

He will run and push them nearly upside down and run underneath them.  

That is NOT how I push, lol.  

Emmie had a few turns but prefered to swing with her feet pointed down, not her head!

Josie can't get enough of it.  Here Joe was teaching her the art of swinging so that you put yourself upside down by leaning back. 

I think she figured it out!

Josie loved it...and the fact that it scared me to death cracked her up even more!

After church on Sunday we continued Owen's birthday weekend.  We went to Cheesecake Factory for lunch and to get his iphone screen fixed for his birthday. (it was my old iphone that was cracked that I had given to him)

They enjoyed their meals pretty good... 

But this is what they were really waiting for! 

Owen got Oreo cheesecake and the girls got Reese cup. 

Emmie shared my chocolate cake and Joe's strawberry cheesecake.  This was her face when I told her she didn't get her own like the other kids and she had to share with me and Joe!

Josie enjoying the chocolate crust!

This is my life....

exactly as I had prayed for. 

I couldn't have had a more perfect family for me!

After we were stuffed we went to the mall and shopped a little.  We found one of those photo booths and Joe decided we should all get in it., although it is made for just 2 ppl!  I am sure we were quite a sight to see with 12 feet hanging out but we managed to get some fun pictures with everyone's heads in the pic!

These kind of days are my favorite.  Doing nothing special with the 5 people I love most!

Picking Blackberries!

My kids LOVE berries.  I mean they really love them!  Strawberries, blue berries, raspberries and blackberries.  I cannot keep them stocked in the house for more than a day or two.  

Josie's favorite are blackberries.  So since we went strawberry picking earlier in the summer she has been asking to pick blackberries.  I finally found a place near us that had a place to pick.  It was quite a drive there but we finally found it.  

It was a family that had a huge blackberry farm on their land and it was gorgeous out there.  

The kids all got their own buckets to collect in and they went to town.  

There were berries everywhere and the lady had explained to them to only pick/eat the dark ones, the red ones were still ripening.  

I wasn't sure how well Emmie Jayne would follow this rule but she did, she kept saying, "Not the red ones!" 

Owen wasn't nearly as picky about how ripe his berries were!  He was picking all different shades!

Emmie Jayne was the first to try them out while they were picking.  

And than the others joined in...

Maggie was my pickiest of them all.  She only picked the ripest, darkest, and prettiest blackberries.  

It was so hot out but they all seemed to enjoy themselves and didn't mind the heat.  

Emmie Jayne got bored of picking berries after awhile and decided it was more fun to run up and down the rows!  I am pretty sure she lost all her blackberries she had picked. 

They took a quick break to let me take a picture

and to sample the berriest!

The little girls got done before Maggie and Owen and Josie had the job of combining their berries together in one big basket.  

The the older two added theirs.  

You can't tell from the picture but Josie's hands were covered in berry juice.  I told her no denying she had eaten them!

I caught Maggie strolling down the rows when she thought nobody was watching.  

As the day went on Emmie got more and more sleepy...

not sure how we cheered her up for a quick smile...

but it didn't last long!!

This was our cue that it was time to leave!

So we headed up to the house to pay and cool down with some water.  

When we got up there the lady and her grandkids had made blackberry ice cream and let us sample some.  It was delicious!

Emmie had her ice cream and found a place to rest on the porch

And then I looked over and found Josie with her water, just relaxing on their porch swing!!

We came home with  a ton of blackberries that I am sure won't last more than a week!  The kids had so much fun doing this so I am thinking we will add this to our list of things to do in the summers!!

Happy 3rd Birthday Emmie Jayne!!

It was birthday time again here....Emmie Jayne turned 3!  I love love love my kids birthdays.  I love planning their parties and seeing their little faces when they see all the ideas in my head come to life!  This party has been planing in my head for awhile.  Several months ago I saw some cute party items that were rainbow colored.  They were  on clearance so I bought all they had not yet sure what I would do with them.  As Emmie's birthday got closer...I decided that unless she really disagreed we would have a rainbow party.  And when I brought it up to her she happily agreed....in true Emmie fashion!  (She is pretty agreeable and happy)

From the weeks before when I began getting things together Emmie realized it was all for her party. And each day I think she thought was going to be the day.  So when the day finally arrived she was sooo excited!  

Her cake was a last minute idea.  I had several different ideas I thought about doing for her cake...but none of them were "it."  So I finally came up with this....the night before as I sat in the kitchen making 6 cakes to stack.  

And the more I looked at it I still wasn't totally happy with it.  Something was missing and I decided to add gumballs!  I loved how it turned out!!

We had a rainbow of fruit...

and these juice jugs in all the rainbow colors were a perfect addition to the party!!

These little rainbow jellos were a hit.  

Although they took nearly 6 hours to make since you had to make each layer at a time!

And here was the final spread of rainbows!

And this little cutie was all dolled up in her rainow shirt and tutu.  A girl I went to college with now has a business where she makes all these cute shirts/tutus/etc. She has been a wonderful asset to my kids birthdays!!

I always get a picture of the kids with their cake and am pretty good about keeping their hands off them....she was a little faster than me though!  But what a cute shot it turned out to be.  And it is her cake anyways~!

She was so cute to photo that day....

(this was her cracking up at Owen singing happy birthday to her)

Emmie Jayne was so excited to celebrate her birthday with her friends.. these are 2 of her 3 friends she has!

She refers to them as "Gen" and used to call him "Ianie". (she now calls him Ian..I think she just wanted him to end in an ie like her)

Emmie loved drinking her "rainbow drink"....she had asked for them all day!

And Owen loved the rainbow jellos.  I am not sure how many of these he had!

After eating all the rainbow snacks it was cake time! 

Emmie loved being sung happy birthday to.  She apparently was so excited about blowing her candles out that she blew them out right in the middle of us singing it though!  So of course I didn't get a picture so I had to have Joe relight her candles and we had to sing a second time so that I could get her "making her wish!"

As cute and colorful as the cake was on the outside...I had an even bigger surprise on the inside that I knew would be a hit!.....

It was a rainbow cake inside and out!

And the birthday girl loved it!

After everyone was stuffed full of cake and ice cream we moved on to Emmie Jayne opening her gifts.  This is always fun with a roomful of kids!  

She loved opening the gifts and was so cute when she opened up this one...she yelled, "yes, a dress!!" I have trained her up well I guess.  lol

She loved her Dora Microphone too.  If you know Emmie Jayne at all, you know she loves to sing!

She didn't wait long to try it out!

Owen loves Emmie and so he didnt' mind reading all of her cards to her. 

We gave her the big present last....a pink barbie car.

This gift was quite deal I got a few months ago.  I was at Kroger one night in January or February.  They had 2 of these at the front on clearance.  They had been 149.99 and were marked down to 19.99!  

I had set up a party favor table for all the kids to fill up a rainbow box full of rainbow colored candy at the end of the party.  

All the kids had fun filling up their boxes...

  

Even Emmie got in on the fun..

Maggie and Owen have recently learned how to play the "cup game" ...where you play a tune with the cup and pass to the next person...Joe also relearned it so they have been doing lots of that latley.  As the party ended they began playing and more joined in...

A few more pictures of the cute 3 year old birthday girl!

She still loves her thumb!

Another fun look at her cake!

All of Emmie Jayne's friends who came to celebrate her!!

Happy 3rd birthday to the most fun loving, carefree, smiling, laughing, blue eyed, singing girl I know!  

We love you!!