Renaissance Festival

Sunday Kendall and I had a girls day together at the Renaissance Festival with Girl Scouts

 Love this sign

 Princess Kendall

Huge rocking horse ride and the girls in our group(others were there too with different parents from the troop)

 Kid area-with a petting zoo and a few rides

For the longest time I thought this was a real horse and knight-I wondered why it was walking so close to others. I stand back when a horse's back legs are close to me.

 Parade

 Jesture

 Twig the fairy

The day went by so fast, we left at 9:00 a.m. and got home at 7:00 p.m. The boys practiced baseball with dad and went to Berryblendz for lunch. The rest of the weekend was quite, Devin slept over at Evans, then Kendall and Devin had Faith & Michael over Sat. while Andon went to get a hair cut with dad.
This week is the last week for baseball & tee-ball games!! The kids and I are heading to KS Friday :)

American Girl Birthday Party

Kendall turns 6:

She got her 1st American Girl Doll from papa and Grandma

Birthday Girls:

 My American Girl cake I made, I did not want to buy more frosting for just that little section so I added a #6 candle.

{not finished}

{finished cake}

 I bought this wooden frame at the thrift store, painted it with chalkboard paint and Grandma Shirley wrote on it for me!

{Fun Photo Shoot}

Kendall and Cheyanne

 William and Andrew

Party Planning:

Streamers for outside- tied cut fabric using a "tutu" tie around twine

 The girls crafting out back in the tent-It was a "stay late" party. The girls brought PJ's and changed into them at 5:30, played dolls, did crafts, served doll sized food on doll sized plates, and tried to Keep the Boys OUT (notice the boys in background)!!

Doll sized smores to go with the movie-The American Girl McKenna movie was aired on TV the same night as the party! I bought the movie just in case we missed the movie.

My crafts planned for the girls: We made star wands with American Girl stickers, popcicle stickes and cardboard stars; Stencils and notebooks(I made the star note books with red foam and white paper; I sent home paper dolls-we were going to make envelopes to store them in but I ran out of time and I got those Cootie Catchers that we did not have time for either.

Kendall's farovite part of the party was crafts in the tent and presents-her least favorite was the boys bothering her and her friends in the tent.
We also did not have time for the movie and smores :(  I over planned for the party and it was a 4 hour party!

Each girl got a pillow case dress and badanna for their dolls

 After presents the boys and Lauren went swimming with grandpa and grandma and we did cake time and more doll/tent playing. The tent really kept 5 girls busy all evening!
When all the guests left, Deon, Kendall and I watched the movie and slept out in the tent!
Sunday Kendall got Holly the hamster(real hamster) from her brothers for her Birthday! Turning 6 was Awesome! Happy Birthday Kendall-ina!

Sneek peek...

I am not sure why, But I love pictures of my kids asleep with an open book! Reading Bone an series that both boys love right now.

 Ok now the Sneak Peek Birthday Preview:

I made a doll size Table with a table cloth. While making this, 1st, I tried to get the boys to make it for me They said "NO". Instead they watched me make it and teased me about my BAD carpentry skills. Second try, I screwed the bottom legs on and it works much better. The one side kept bending and even breaking off completely :(

 More of my speciality: sewing! I made 4 pillow cases for the tent is weekend and cut strips of fabric for streamers out back.

 I am making doll dresses since it is an American doll party, the girls are bringing a doll to celebrate with. I went with the simple pillow case pattern and eyeballed the pattern, and matching bandannas!

This doll is mine from the 80's. It is a Fisher Price My Friend Mandy and Jenny dolls. Kendall calls her my American Girl doll..hehehe..love it!
I am preparing mentally to make the cake(I am afraid the cake will stick to the star shaped pan...then there is the decorating part-gasp!
My parents, niece and mother-in-law are all coming out Thursday to celebrate with us!!
I will post pictures after the party on Saturday!!

4th of July

Passing out flags in the town Parade

The crew: Keller Williams and our cub scout Pack passed out flags

Kendall with her red, white, and blue braid

Vintage uniform from the 80's-I don't consider myself vintage but ...this was the same uniform I wore when I was in Brownies.

Wagon ride to the park after the parade

No fireworks in FTC and Wellington out of respect for the firefighters. It was a quite evening (but fun)at the neighbors with only poppers being thrown at the ground.

Mountain bike Trails

Fort Collins has a mountain bike 'park' call Trails. It is a course like the BMX trail here except it has boulders, tree stumps, hills, narrow paths. It is a great place to practice skills and techniques for the real mountain biking trails

The boys loved it...sweaty helmets and all!

Devin got a 'new' mountain bike from craigslist and loved the trail riding!

Kendall...Not so much. She said "this is the worst day" she took her first run, and wiped out..then complained the rest of the time we were there.

the wipe-out

Deon uni-cycled the trail

I rode my bike(Andon likes to ride my bikes also because they almost fit him)

Afterwards Deon and I treated ourselves to a BerryBlendz smoothie with whey protien (the kids had a pinic lunch at the pool) and headed to the pool to use my rain pass from a few weeks ago to cool off. It was a fun Sunday!

2 weeks in review

My parents were passing though on their way to Oregon for a German Hertiage convention and vacation.  They stopped here for a visit and sleep over then headed on their way.
We have been bird watching out back, the boys made bird houses with grandpa Ivan when they were 3 and 4. This is one of the houses that hangs on the back fence.  Wasps used to reside in this house for the past 4 years or so. Deon cleaned it out, repainted and re-roofed the house, we also have a blue bird house that does not get birds... YET... :(

 Skipper and Rock Hopper (named by Andon) built this nest, had babies, and now their babies are learning to fly. I could watch them all day.

This is as close as we can get to take their picture...I guess we are just too loud!

On the way home from Oregon, my parents stopped here for a sleepover again.  This time they arrived just in time for dinner, we ate veggies and brots then we headed to the boys baseball game.

Devin was catcher

Andon was second base

BBF's (best bros forever)

Ice cream at the park

Afterwards we got to see their pictures and videos of their trip-BEAUTIFUL up there!

The next morning Grandpa took Devin to Horse camp and took some pictures for me(and lots of video-he is known for taking videos of our vacations; scenery and narrating )

In the back ground is the smokey haze that became part of our daily view. As of today, the fire is 100% contained (not out) and no smoke around!!

Grandpa took Kendall and Colin to Bead Camp and Andon got to go out for lunch with just grandpa and him. Grandma and I worked on uploading her pictures to FB and then showing my dad how to get his pictures off his Ipad.

Friday was the end of Horse camp and parents were invited to a horse show!

  

Horse Camp riding show for parents: Horses walked over jumps, through a maze, trotted, cantor, checked mail and walked through a flower path(sounds strange, I guess it is not for horses?)

{target shooting with a water gun}

Better picture of the targets

Canter

Rosco the barn cat likes to ride horses as well...however it was too hot for him this day. This was when Trisha put Rosco on with Devin but he jumped off before I could take a picture.

Tacking the horse

English riding saddle-much lighter then a western

Grooming Phoenix

And Rosco the barn cat

Horse camp was a great experience for Devin, and he is even more excited to become a horse jockey then ever before!

In between the busy-ness...

slip n sliding

We joined the Kids Bowl Free.com and only pay for shoe rental

and nightly reading x's 3
{I got back form my walk and Deon was reading with Kendall & I <3 it }