Spirit of Giving

Last week Vance went to VBS (vacation bible school). One of the classes each day was all about offerings and the way those offerings are used. They challenged the kids to earn their own offering to donate.  The donations would all go towards a donation to a charity the church had chosen.  Vance was excited about it. Chad and I decided to have him go to work with Daddy for a few hours to earn some money.

 He got all dressed up and everything. Chad and a few of his co-workers had a few random jobs that Vance could do.  He worked hard and earned some cash ;)

 The last day of VBS he proudly took in his offering.

I'm so proud of Vance. He has such a sweet spirit and is a great example of living his life for Christ. I have lots to learn from him!

Keller's Birthday Celebrations

Keller loves birthdays and was SO excited for it to finally be his birthday. He decided he wanted a Hot Wheels party with car sugar cookies with a #4 instead of a cake. Done!

We celebrated with the Waldrons. I kept everything simple because let's face it...kids don't really care that much. We started off coloring some Hot Wheels coloring pages-

We have a Hot Wheels racing track that Keller loves. Chad had everyone pick out their racer and we had a tournament to see who had the fastest car. I love Keller's little face looking through the crowd in this picture.

The next activity was a tire bean bag toss.  Three chances to see how many bean bags you could throw in the tire.

Keller gave himself what we'll call the "birthday handicap." Not surprisingly he made all three bean bags in the tire ;)

For the last game we headed outside to play red light, green light.

After all the games we sang happy birthday and had our cookies. I bought him a single cupcake to put the candle in and he enjoyed eating the frosting off.

Finally it was time for Keller to open his presents. Every little kid's favorite part!

He got Hot Wheels, Playskool dinosaurs, and ninja turtles (Playskool makes the best little boy toys!). Look at his big smile in this picture below. I would say the presents were a hit!

The next day we had the Sutton monthly dinner where we celebrate everyone's birthdays.  Some of his presents were pirate themed so my mom had bought some Jake and the Neverland Pirates party stuff.  It was cute.

Keller got a Jake treasure chest filled with Jake-hair (he immediately put it on and wore it the rest of the day), swords, treasure, a compass, etc. Everything you need to be a pirate. 

He also got a huge pirate ship and more Playskool ninja turtles and dinosaurs.

 He took a quick break from opening presents to play swords with Aunt Amy.

Aunt Leslie and Keller always make cookies together. She gave him the cutest wooden cookie set. It came with cookies, frosting, a cookie sheet, spatula, and knife.  

 Keller immediately started "baking" and then shared the first cookie with Aunt Leslie ;)

I think he loved every minute of it and I'm so glad. You are only little for such a short time. I just want him to love it. I think this last picture sums up his birthday celebrations: 

Happy boy = Happy mom

Happy 4th Birthday Keller!!!

Waldron Weekend

Chad had a few siblings visiting from out of town so we had a busy week fitting in as much family time as we could.  It started with a triple date at DW Bistro with Josh/Trish, Jon/Carleen, and Chad/me. The food was yummy and the company was even better.

Chad's parents stayed a few nights at a time share and invited us to go swimming.  We were the only ones who were able to make it but the kids had a blast with some one-on-one time.

 Vance was thoroughly impressed with my George Washington hair ;)

We made happy hour visit to Sonic ;)

Chad's parent's graciously used their time share to allow everyone to be together for a few nights. It was SO nice! All of the couples with kids had our own unit and then everyone else stayed in a larger unit. It was the perfect balance of togetherness and still having a little space to yourself.

 Chad and Sutton had some quality bonding time -

 We watched some old home videos. It was so cute to see Chad as a little boy. Man does Keller remind me of Chad!!! I no longer wonder where Keller gets his silliness, good looks, and high activity level from ;)

We headed to the park for some fun one day. We snapped a group picture of almost everyone (missing Georganne, Trisha, and Preslie).

Here's Rand and Georganne with all the kids who were able to make it. We were just missing Zach ;(

Vance and Ty-

 Chad and Emmy-

 Keller and Mariah-

 Sutton and Macie-

 Carleen organized a kickball game. It was so much fun!  Here are the picture of the two different teams -

I think everyone had a great time and we ended the game with a tie.

  After playing at the park everyone was ready to cool off. We headed back to the timeshare to go swimming.

 We celebrated Keller's 4th birthday (more on that in a separate post).

 Here is a picture of all the older cousins. We are just missing the three little babies (Silvia, Sutton and Preslie) who were all born within 6 months of each other! Lots of kids when we get together with the Waldrons!

  The next activity was the live version of Hungry, Hungry Hippos. Georganne did a great job planning and I think everyone had a blast.  How it works is there is a big pile of balloons in the middle of the gym. A team sets up in each corner of the room. One person lays on a piano dolly (or something with wheels) with a basket in their arms. The team mates push them out towards the balloons. They use the basket to capture balloons. The team pulls them back to their corner using a top that is tied to the dolly. You continue until all of the balloons are gone. The team with the balloons wins.

 Keller had fun and was giggling the entire time. After his turn he packed up his new toys and played in the corner ;)

 After the kids had plenty of turns it was time for the adults to have some fun!

 A lot of Chad's family member (including us) played volleyball. We always try to squeeze at least a little volleyball into family events. I love it!

 Ty had a sleepover with us one night. Keller was arguing about whose friend and cousin it was. He just couldn't accept that he could be everyone's friend and cousin.  Haha!

 After the kids went to sleep, Chad and I played some pool. Man I am seriously AWFUL at pool but it was fun!

 Chad's family are big game players so we spent lots of time playing games and we even learned a few new, fun ones!

 Brent and Janessa were in charge of some minute to win it games. They were all so fun and the kids had a blast!

 The first one was trying to empty a box of tissue one at a time in 1 minute.

 The second game was the cup stack game -

 
 Third was trying to wiggle ping pong balls out of a tissue box tied around your belly with the box right above your bum.

 Fourth was trying to bounce a ping pong ball on the ground and get it to stick on a piece of bread with peanut butter on it. Everyone had a really hard time with this one and Vance was pretty excited to be the first one to be able to do it!

 Lastly was using a nylon with a baseball in it to knock down water bottles.  This one was pretty funny to watch ;)

It was a busy week but we had so much fun together. Now that Josh and Trisha live in PA, Brent and Janessa moved to FL, and Zach is in the military we don't get to see each other that often. I'm so glad that almost everyone (except Zach who is currently deployed) was able to get together. Thanks Rand & Georganne for a fun weekend!