Summer 2010

I really can't believe that summer is over already.  Well not officially for another 10 days but I still can't believe it :)  We've had an interesting summer, I am really looking forward to fall/Autumn with all it has to offer and a glorious Winter season. 

Campbell celebrated his 9th birthday on the 20th of August.  It's so hard to believe that 9 years have passed since his birth.  He was my only baby not born in the water.  He was also my biggest/heaviest (actually Soleil tied him) baby at 8lbs 2oz.  We've come a long way since his birth, he was born in a birthing center in Connecticut, when he was two we moved to California and then when he was 5 we moved to Texas.  We gave him some science kits and a microscope for his birthday, along with some Gormiti and Bakugan toys, he appreciated every single gift and couldn't wait to try it all out.  For his birthday dinner Campbell wanted to eat at Texas Roadhouse.  We had a really fun time.  Campbell chose to get on the saddle and have the staff at the restaurant sing to him.  No one in our family ever really wants to partake in things like that so it was a fun change to have him willing to get up there!

Campbell opening gifts in the morning

At the restaurant

On the saddle!

Using one of his new science kits

Campbell requested a chocolate layer cake with vanilla buttercream in the layers and chocolate frosting on top!

Our 9 year old!

One pesky candle didn't want to go out!

Deliciousness!

Soleil had a lemon cupcake with lemon cream cheese frosting

4th of July 2010

It's become a bit of a tradition for us to spend 4th of July with some good friends of ours, only this year their city did the fourth of July fireworks on the 3rd?  So we still spent the day hanging out and cooking out, eating good food, having a few drinks and enjoying each others company.  The younger kids wanted to see fireworks, it's an American tradition to watch fireworks ON the 4th of July ;) so when it started to get dark we headed out back to McKinney to watch our local fireworks display.  They have the celebrations not too far from our home so we just drove into the next neighbourhood and found a spot near an empty lot of land that looked out toward where the fireworks would be.  We were the first ones to get there, so we had plenty of room to get our chairs out and hang out while we waited.  Some of the people who lived on that street where setting off fireworks on the road so this kept the kids entertained while we waited.  The June Bugs were in full swing and kept running into us but other than them it was a nice relaxing wait.

Soleil and I waiting for the fireworks, it was late (almost 10pm) and she was tired.

The big kids, Madeleine looks pissed off because she was.  She didn't really want to leave her friends to see the fireworks and the june bugs were annoying her!  The boys were watching the fireworks in the street.

Soleil liked the fireworks

Finn really enjoyed them!

We have lift off!

Soleil is walking, ok well not fully, but she has taken her first few steps a couple of times over the last two days.  She will be 10 months old in 7 days from now.  My sweet baby is growing up way too fast!

Finn's 4th birthday!

WOW Finn turned 4!!  I can't believe it has been four years since we welcomed him into the world.  He was my first baby born at home and wow his birth was difficult but I felt such accomplishment after he arrived.  I did it!  He was so perfect, my only blonde baby out of 5.  His hair turned this lovely strawberry blonde colour.  I never thought I would have two blue eyed kids but he was our second blessed with those gorgeous baby blues! 

Here is Finn, Jeremy and I moments after his birth

The kids waiting for 4th of July fireworks

Finn's 1st birthday.  Check out his strawberry blonde hair, so cute!

Finn's second birthday

Eating icecream on his third birthday at Macaroni Grill

Here he is opening gifts on his fourth birthday, lots of Toy Story 3 stuff, he LOVES toy story!

Soleil loved the wrapping paper!

Finn wanted burgers for lunch, so we did our research and found Chips in Dallas.  The burgers were good but it wasn't set up for a family of 7 so we sat at two separate tables.  They claimed on their site to have an In-N-Out style burger which hooked us, but they guy there claimed they couldn't make it.  I think they were too busy.  That's ok, In-N-Out is coming to Dallas....yeah!

Soleil thought the fries were good!

Finn wanted to go bowling, we went to strikz in Frisco and waited a really long time but he was so excited that he was willing to wait 2 hours just to bowl!!

Here is the cake that Finn requested.  Many tears were shed over this cake, by me, not Finn.  Thankfully he loved it.

Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

June 2010

June has been an eventful yet relaxing month here in our house.  We saw Madeleine off to horse camp at camp tonkawa in early June.  She had a really great time, four straight days of riding horses, a horse lovers dream! 

Here is Madeleine in the TeePee when we were dropping her off at camp

Finn gives some interesting poses

Here Madeleine is riding Eclipse, they choose their horse on day one and ride and care for that horse for the week.  Madeleine went in hoping to have Eclipse as her horse, she was very happy that she got to ride him.

Today is the summer solstice, my favourite time of year but also sad because now the days will start to get shorter.  I love summer and want to enjoy every moment of it while it is here!   Our veggie garden is flourishing, we have tomatoes growing, cucumber plants, zucchini, radish and corn, as well as basil, parsley, rosemary, chives, thyme, mint and oregano.  I would love to live off the grid but since we are in suburbia we are making the most of it with our small raised beds.  

Last week we went to six flags with friends and then to humperdinks for dinner with some friends.  We had a great time at Six Flags and this year I was able to go on some rides.  Last year I was 8 months pregnant and waddled through the day very slowly, it took about three days to fully recover :) 

Unfortunately dinner wasn't so fun.  The service was slow, just to come and take our orders took probably 25 mins, then when the food was delivered two of our kids didn't have meals.  When questioning the server about the whereabouts of their meals she matter of factly said she didn't order their food because they didn't give her an order.   The kids said they ordered, I asked her to rush their order out because they had been waiting SO LONG at this point and were starving after a full day at the park.   Then the server decided to confront us and tell us it wasn't her responsibility to take my children's food orders.  What?  Isn't that the definition of a servers job??  She offered up a table visit from her manager, we accepted then she proceeded to give her opinion while her manager was visiting us.  It literally seemed like she might have short circuted, thankfully she was removed as our server.  OMG what an experience!  One I won't be repeating at their establishment, especially since the food made me sick too! YUCK!

We celebrated Father's Day on June 20th, we had friends over for a bbq.  Jeremy cooked steak and corn on the bbq, it was delicious!   We combined the cookout with a small birthday celebration for Finn and his buddy Izzy.  They are 8 days apart in age and both 4 this month.  They were so cute.

Here are the cupcakes for Finn and Izzy

Blowing out the candles

Still to come this month is a play, a birthday, six flags for the two biggest kids again, a girl scout camping trip.  I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Last day of staycation -- Old McKinney

So on our last day we decided to go and check out our own hometown.  McKinney TX.  We don't go down there much because it just isn't very kid friendly, especially not 5 kid friendly :)

Mothers Day

On mothers day we decided to go to Old Red Museum it was Sunday (obviously) and the museum was EMPTY.  Perfect.  We had time to go through all of the displays in the museum without being in the way.  I really enjoyed this museum, lots of interesting TX history and artifacts.

Watching the first movie in the museum, each time period had a movie to watch

The kids were doing them some lerning, they were!

JR Ewings hat.....had to have a picture with it!

nuther movie

We went to BJ's for food after the museum, mainly because there was no wait for a table.  Mother's day is impossible to go out to eat on but this location being fairly new didn't get hit so hard I guess.

I had a really nice Mothers day, the kids were nice to me this year ;)  Madeleine even bought me a gift with her own money, three gorgeous pairs of earrings.  I was so surprised, that girl just blows me away with how thoughtful she is.  **Love**

Day 5

This day was spent doing what we usually do on Saturday's in spring, watching kids play soccer.

Soleil cheering for Madeleine

Ack?!

Owen

Actually using the necklace instead of pinching me!!!