Sweet Snugglers and Birthday Texts

This is pretty sweet to wake up to...these boys!

 And Grace took pics of her gifts and sent birthday thank-you texts this year.  Cute kid.

Calliope or Rufus?

 

I had a fun time trying to decide what breed of hummingbird was frequenting our feeder...thanks to Aunt Diane and the Audubon App (yes, these are the helpful apps that thirty-somethings have on their phones, thank you very much!) I think we have a teeny tiny Calliope.  So that was her name.

Memorable Memorial Day

On our Monday off of work and school we tried out Grace's new bike on the Centennial Trail, starting at Seven Mile.  The kids biked on the paved and dirt trails, their favorite place being the JUMPS that we found after our picnic lunch.  Micah is getting old enough to take the Strider, but it worked well to take the bike trailer as well--this way, whenever Micah got tired, we stuffed him and his bike in and kept going.  It was a great afternoon of adventure, squeals, and togetherness.

And then we topped off an already fun day with a BBQ/Pool Party at G'ma and Papa's!  Icing on the cake, for sure.  After this, we knew we could DIVE right into June, no problem.

NINE TIMES...

She turned NINE...the birthday bike was waiting for her, and brothers poured their gifts at her feet, too.  Stuffed animal hammock, Lego set...and G'ma and Papa got her a hammock and a sweet apron.

The party was magical, of course.

And the night was sealed with an overnight in the camper, driveway style.  Welcome to your last year in single digits, Grace Face.  We love you.

Her Birthday Eve

"Take a last picture of me as EIGHT!" -oh, this girl  :)

 ...and the Mother Turkey...

 

Secretly keeping caterpillars for Grace's butterfly habitat--a fun science-y gift!  They started hanging upside down before her birthday, so she got to open them early.  I kept torturing her all week, asking if she wanted to open ONE present early...she thought something was up, because I NEVER offer to have an early unwrapping!

Mom and Dad came the night before and Mom helped me assemble the felt ties that Linnea and Colin bought material for AND THEN LEFT.  Ha!  Up until late!

Worn Out

Micah and I tore off Granny's icky carpet from her deck out back.  She was unhappy with how dirty it got so I talked her into letting me peel it back to see what was underneath.  Little did I know what a beast-of-a-project I was volunteering for!  We ripped carpet off one day and then the next week we scraped glue from her cement...finally G'ma found out that the office would pay to recover it in BETTER carpet, so we relented and welcomed the carpet professionals to fix the patio.

 Shopping for Gracie's party supplies!

 And completely worn out, too tired to put himself (back) to bed.