Happy Birthday Zak!

I can't believe it's been five years already! 

We sure made a lot of memories in that time.

You are such a sweet, handsome, smart boy. 

I love you to pieces!!!

(Just checking to see if y'all are paying attention :)  )

You are such a good big brother.

Sweet boy.

I hope you had a great birthday.

The Graduations Begin!

Zak graduated today from preschool.  Seems like it wasn't that long ago that we learned we would be grandparents for the first time.  Now there are five grandkids and this is the first of a long string of graduations.  With four more (for now) grandkids yet to attend preschool and graduate, I figure by the time Cooper's and Dexter's little sister* graduates from Kindergarten, Zak will follow soon after with a grammar school graduation.

It wasn't a good day for us to travel so we couldn't be there, but Dayna took lots of pictures and I "borrowed" a few.

 "Ready! Let's get this show on the road!"

 "I'm so stinking proud of me!"

 Class of 2011

Lynzee, Zak & Caycee

 Zak and the proud mommy.

It would appear the proud daddy is camera shy.

* There is no happy news.... little sis has yet to make it out of the twinkle in the eye stage.  I'm just being positive and hopeful.

Family At Easter

All the kids came done for Easter this year.  It was great to see them all together and listen to them talk.  Old stories had to come out again and be retold for the benefit of Adam's girlfriend as it was the first time she was at a family gathering. (Poor Nancy)  And we had our first official kid's table.... and they wanted to sit at it!  We'll see how long that lasts. 

But before dinner we had an Easter egg hunt . . .

 All the kids managed to find enough eggs to fill their baskets.  Except Dexter.  He got sidetracked when he realized there was candy inside. 

Then it was time to move on to our arts and crafts project. 

A large piece of MDF was left over from making a shelf for the living room.  I primered it before the kids got here.  An old bag of Scott's uniform shirts that I had never gotten around to throwing out made great smocks.

 All dressed and ready to paint!

 We had crayons and markers and colored pencils but everyone chose to use paint.

 I plan to cover it with polyurethane and add legs.  It'll make a great kids table for next time they are here.

The two youngest weren't quite as entertained by painting as the older ones.  They moved on.

 "Hop on Dexter! I'm going that way!"

"Fun!"

 "You're a little slow.  I think I'll walk."

 After Lynzee and Caycee got some scrapes and some bandaids, Caycee and Cooper decided the stone deer needed some first aid and bandaids.

Gramma wanted a group picture with all her grandkids.

It was a whole lot easier sitting down in this thing than it was to get out of it.... a tight squeeze!

 Dexter showing off... he can walk on the wall and drink at the same time.

Christmas Portraits

Christmas was noisy, chaotic, and lots of fun.  Just the way it's supposed to be.

This was the last time we were all together, which means it's been about 14 months. With the grandkids being so young, lots can change in that amount of time!   So we set up cameras - I think there were three digital cameras and one flip video camera - and hit the timer buttons and ran to sit down.  FUN!  I haven't seen what the kids got but two of my shots turned out.

After we ate and opened presents (not in that order!), the kids wanted to play picnic.  Go figure.

You Gotta Know How To Dress

A few weeks ago we had Zak, Caycee and Lynzee for a visit.  We'd been promising to take them for another picnic soon.  It would have been nice to find a place around here and do just that but it's been so hot and heat and MS don't get along at all. 

So we told them we'd have an indoor picnic.  After locking the dogs in the kitchen, we (Karen, don't read this part) spread out a quilt and covered it with plates and bowls of goodies.  Lynzee had apparently been looking forward to the event and dressed for the occasion...   (Karen, avert your eyes!)

You have to click on the picture to read it... it says "this is my little black dress".  Isn't it cute?!

I'm not sure what Scott was sampling but he was trying to convince Caycee that it tasted good.

Caycee wasn't buying it.

It wasn't the same as in the woods.  No green to look at, no breeze to feel, to birds to listen to, but also no bugs!  The kids loved it.

Kid Stuff - June Birthday Celebration

Zak's birthday is in June. Caycee and Lynzee were born in July. Justin will be out of town for two weeks of USMC training and will miss Caycee's and Lynzee's birthdays. So Justin and Dayna had one big celebration for all of them.

Oh look! It's someone just my size!

Checking each other out.  Do you see Zak just entering the scene on the right?  This was so cute... several adults said "look out for the babies Zak!"  Instead of veering around them to go where he had been headed he grinned and plopped right down between them and had a little visit.

Looks like Lynzee adores him.  She really does.  Dexter was pretty fascinated too.

Caycee - the rough and tough tomboy - is turning into quite the little princess. 

She asked me recently if I used to be a princess :)

 

I love the way Cooper treasures his treats before devouring them.

He was so good watching the birthday kids opening their presents... gotta be so hard at that age!

Kid Stuff - June Picnic

Early this month Scott and I picked up Zak and Caycee and we all went on a picnic at Gebhard Woods.  We're not quite ready to handle all three kids at once on an outing so Lynzee had some alone time with her mom.  Grandma left the directions and the Garmin at home so we wandered around aimlessly for a while until a phone call to Sarah saved us. 

Caycee and I walked to the bridge to look across the icky pond to a waterfall.

Meanwhile, Grandpa and Zak went to check out the baby geese with their parents.

Back to the bridge...

Caycee says "my turn, Grandpa"

We ended with chocolate pudding.... you can see it was a hit!