This boy...

…tugs at my heart strings.  This year Joshy was the first in our family to get to SUMMER VACATION, and he celebrated with shades.  This was on our way to G'ma Dianne's on one of my work days--note the bed-head, jams, and cozy blankie.  OH, he's edible!

Goofballs.

Enough said.

Gracie Turns SIX

Our eldest turned SIX this year.  Gracie was excited to celebrate with a Frozen party on Memorial Day--while Mom kept thinking that six was the beginning of big-kid days.  Fun six-year-old days ahead, people!

We were so blessed to have so many family members and friends come over--and we had wonderful weather to party outside.  The cake was a fun experiment with rock candy…G'ma Colleen brought Gracie her traditional purple lilacs…we had icicles, frozen grapes, frozen "hearts", and snowballs…and we had a delicious bbq afterward!

What a sweet girl.  We love her to the moon and back--52 times.

Old Enough...

…to ride to Aunt Annie and Uncle Drew's house!  Gracie is loving her new bike and Josh is quite the encourager for Daddy in the bike trailer.  This trip happened the morning of Gracie's birthday party while Mom was getting the house ready.

As Good As a Carnival Ride

The Van Sickles have the coolest amusement park--complete with a riding lawn mower.

Our Last Flower Bed

We've been in the house on Cooper Lane for five years.  We've tarped and barked the front beds one year, the back beds another year, and have re-barked the front.  There was one bed in the back, however, that we hadn't gotten to.  This was the year!  We usually wait until June to tackle a yard project, but we found out that some Rogers girls were trying to raise money for YL camp, so we asked them to come help us clean up the last flower bed, and the flower bed in the center of our yard.

BEFORE…

DURING...

AFTER...

Ahhh.  A long and productive day!

Exhausted.

I came downstairs to this sight after tucking in the "biggers."  Jeff calls me the Paparazzi--whenever he falls asleep I am sneaking around taking pictures.  Someday I'm going to make a collage of all the pictures I've taken of Jeff in his most relaxed position--sleeping.  Some people collect matchbooks, some collect shot glasses...I collect pictures of my husband checking out the insides of his eyelids.

Little Brother Tormenting

And so it begins.  Josh FLIPPED out when he caught Micah "getting drool all over Buzz!"  I tried to tell him that Micah was helping him out--Buzz needed a good bath, anyway.  I don't think Joshy was convinced.

Turning SIX in Kindergarten

Gracie got to celebrate her birthday early in her classroom.  Turns out several of her classmates had birthdays in the same week, so she got to go first.  The boys and I got to take a bag of goodies in for each of her friends--ring pops, as per Gracie's request, along with pencils and erasers.

 Here she is, getting to move her clothespin from the "5" strip to the "6" strip.

And I had to get a picture of her with her good friend, Kiya.  :)

Sweetness.

Sleeping in the car seat.  Always on the go.  I guess that's the way we roll!