Our Birthday toys!

Marcie gave the kids a slip n slide, we have never had one before, and of course they LOVED it. I couldn't talk Cane into trying it, however, after watching the twins sail down it a few times I thought I better give it a try. It was just as fun as I remember them 20 years ago! We had a blast! I don't remember the ground feeling so hard though all those years ago? Sorry, there are no pictures of me being swallowed by the shark.

5 Years Old!

Well, we had quite a weekend! On Friday, Cole and Claire turned 5! It was a jam packed day! This year I started preparing much earlier, it was actually a jam-packed week! Nick ended up having to work late Wednesday night, so I had to take all three kids to Open House for Claire's Dance class. Thank goodness Leasha was their with her little girl, Charleigh, to help me control my three kids! Charleigh and Claire will be in the same dance class, partly due to their friendship, but mainly for Leasha and I so we have someone to pass the time with. We will both have other children to be chasing around while the girls are in dance! When we got home from the Open House, we quickly baked the two birthday cakes and birthday cupcakes (for Jane's house). I spent all Thursday evening frosting cakes, cupcakes, packing bags, wrapping presents, organizing ourselves to be gone from 7:00AM-10:00PM which would be filled with birthday activities the next day!

Here is how the day looked!

6:30 Wake up kids
7:00 Open their first bday presents
7:30 Leave for School
8:00 drop off the birthday kids with their birthday treats in their classrooms
8-11 Teach
11:00 Greet my kids and see how their school day was before they walk to daycare
11-3:30 Teach
3:30 pick kids up from daycare and bring them to my school to go swimming
5:30-6:30 Shower and go to dinner
6:30-8 Bday/Anniversary Dinner (Nick's parents) at Huhot with Nick's family
8-9:30 Chuckee Cheese with Nick's family
10:00 Return home!

Whew! While it sounds crazy, it was so much fun! They had a wonderful day!

Can you see what he is thinking here? Can I reach for just one lick?

Claire's first gift she opened.

Claire and her teacher, Mrs. Bromwich.

We weren't going to dinner until 6, but I didn't want to drive home and have to turn around and come back to Cedar Falls, so we decided to go swimming! We typically go to the park, but it was really hot outside on their birthday, and they LOVE to swim. Plus Cane has been sad knowing that every morning I leave him at Jane's house and he knows that Cole and Claire come to school with me. Of course, he thinks we are just going to play in the gym or the pool since that is what he does when he gets to come with me!



We went to HuHot for dinner to celebrate a bunch of things: Deb's Birthday (Aug 25), the kids birhtday (27th) and Deb and Dan's Anniversary (27th). 5 years ago we had to call them back from Dubuque on their anniversary get-a-way to tell them I was in labor, so they will now never get to celebrate their anniversary on the exact day again, at least not alone!

We went to Chuckee Cheese for presents, cake, and a lot of games!

This is the first year we could get close to Chuckee without any of them screaming! Although I am surprised Cane is looking, 95% of the time he had his eyes on Chuckee making sure he wasn't getting too close!

Tim showing the kids how to dance on the screen!

Friday night we got home at 10:00 PM and we were on the road Saturday morning to Grandma McQuinn's. Matt and Sarah were home this weekend so it made their birthday extra special since we hadn't seen them since Christmas!



Matt and Sarah were at a wedding on Saturday, we we spent Saturday evening playing outside! We had a great time playing every sport you can think of, hide and seek, and riding bikes.

I love this! Marcie at 34 weeks.

Sunday was the party! We did cake and opened presents!

Cole and Claire were so lucky! Grandpa has spent the last few months working on very special presents per the request of the kids! Claire asked for a barbie house and Cole asked for a toy box for his room for ONLY boy toys!



We miss Matt and Sarah so much, and I was afraid when they moved to Texas that my kids woudn't remember them from one visit to the next. But that is certainly not the case! They love them! And each time we see them, it is like they just saw them a couple of weeks before! Even Cane did well with them. He of course gravitates to Matt more than Sarah because of his fond relationships with men, Grandpa's are still his favorites though!


It was a great day afternoon, followed by a party at Great Grandma McCumbers which I didn't have my camera for. However, they of course were showered with gifts once again as we celebrated their birthday, along with Pat's birthday! By Sunday night, we were exhausted!

1st Day of School!

I am finally caught up, sorry for those of you who check this occassionally and it never changes! But I finally have updated it to as current as possible! Yesterday was my twins first day of Preschool at my school! They were so excited, and had a great day!




Of course when I was taking pictures of Cole and Claire, Cane felt he needed his picture too! He also felt the need to pose, so he got down on the floor for his picture! Unfortunately, he was not all that excited for me to go back to work and leave him at daycare! Jane says he is fine 30 secs after I walk out the door though! And she is a miracle worker, yesterday, on the 3rd day of him sitting on the potty at her house, he went potty for her! She is amazing!

Baby Shower!

Marcie is adorable! She is due October 3rd (my birthday). We had a shower for her in August which was so much fun! She had a great turnout, several high school friends, her college roommate, several family friends, and even a few all the way from Missouri! It was so wonderful that everyone was able to make it, and the gifts were sooooo cute! I am counting down the days till I can go hold the precious baby boy in my arms! And even more, see Marcie as a mommy!







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Our last Summer outing!

In August, we took the kids for our annual trip to Adventureland! It a perfect day, it rained in the early morning so not many people came during the day! Hardly any lines, and the sun was not out. It was humid, so when we got wet it felt great! They now have a water park attached which the kids loved. Sorry, no pictures, I was having too much fun going down the slides and playing in the water to take pictures! Claire was her normal daredevil self! They both went on the adult rollercoasters, and loved going upside down on one of them! Claire was squeling the whole way in excitement! They have no fear there, Claire and I even went on the Silly Silo. It is a barrel that spins so fast you stick to the wall when the bottom drops out! She was crazy, so was Cole, but not like Claire!

This is the entrance to their first roller coaster! I don't think they knew what to expect!

This is my princess Claire, she feels the need to wear this when she sleeps, I laugh hysterically every time I go in see her like this!

The kids have loved helping me in the garden this year! Brings back memories of washing beans and peas with mom! Claire asks if we can pick tomatoes every day!

Summer Weddings!

In August, one of my very good friends from high school got married, Amber. It was great to get to spend some time with my friends and our husbands! Typically if we get together, it is a random lunch with the girls, and we eat really fast because are kids are either with us, or waiting for us at home! We had a blast getting to be carefree for the evening!

Kelsi and Jen

Amber was a beautiful bride!

In July one of my very good friends from school got married, Rachel. It was a beautiful wedding, he is army so there were lots of military traditions that made it very special. We definitely enjoyed ourselves at the party! This was definitely a big reunion for us! I am the only one in this picture who still teaches at my school, the rest have different jobs now and live all over in Iowa and farther! It was go great to see all my friends!

Bridgette, Rachel, Leasha, and I at her bachelorette party. These are my girls from NU where I teach, and two of them are leaving this year! I am so sad, but excited for them in their new adventures!

Family Vacation to Minnesota!

This summer we took a family vacation with Nick's family to Hackensack, Minnesota. It is about 3 hours north of the twin cities. It is a long trip, but so worth it! I was really worried they kids would get bored, or tired of swimming. However, I was soooo wrong! Our daily routine went as follows: fishing from 7-10 AM (Nick's mom and Cane stayed home while we fished on the boat), breakfast/clean fish (boys only) 10-11 AM, play/swim on the beach 12-3 PM, boating/skiing/tubing from 3-5PM (typically when Cane was napping so I could ski too), Dinner 5-6PM, beach time again 6-8PM, campfire at 8-9, baths and then bed after 9 PM. It was so wonderful, we did this for 7 days in a row, and not once did the kids complain about being bored or wanting to do something else! It only rained one day, so we had craft projects and movies inside that day. Here are some pictures and stories from the trip!






Claire loved the boat, especially the ladder to the boat. However, she was not a fan of trusting her life jacket completely out in the middle of the lake. Cole would jump right off the boat.

The twins loved the tube! Claire would giggle and yell faster, faster! I happen to think we were going pretty fast already, but she is a dare devil on rides at Adventureland, so I guess it shouldn't surprise me she loved the tube!

Cane was not a huge fan of his life jacket, nor deep water.

This was the first day, before he realized why you wear life jackets.

The highlight of the trip for Nick and I was watching Cole attempt skiing. Let me give you a little background. While I may be a swimmer myself, and a swimming teacher, until 2 months ago, my kids would not put their face in the water. Just this summer have my kids finally become more comfortable in the water. So, when my 4 year begged and begged to ski, I finally said yes. It was the only way to get him to stop asking, I never imagined he would have a shot at it! So this is really the only picture I have, I was always helping so I don't have many pictures of him trying. His first try was out in the deep water with me behind him helping him hold his skis up on top of the water. The boat pulled him right out and he skied for probably 10 secs sitting on his skis. The funny part is watching the video and seeing that his eyes were closed the whole time! He then attempted 2 more times from the big boat, both times great tries, but he didn't stay up. His final attempt you see in the picture. We used a smaller boat and our cabin neighbors helped me hold him up in the shallow water and just let the small boat pull him on top. He was actually skiing for about 2 secs before he tipped over. All in all, he did an amazing job! And more importantly he continued trying after he continued to drink lake water each time! However, there may have been a small toy gun as a bribe that helped?

Cane's favorite thing to do was drive the boat!

Watching daddy skiing. No great pictures of me skiing, as I said, I am usually the camera woman.

Our neighbors had this paddle boat that they let the kids use, they thought it was the greatest thing ever.

Showing off a little?

The kids actually wanted to go every morning, even after they realized we fish for a long time!