Fun with our 4 year old!

Anna's birthday began with our usual (we are once again bound by tradition!) birthday donuts. It continued with a VERY windy field day with friends, a meeting in Denver and a trip to visit our favorite librarians (and the library too!). We finished off the night with a family celebration at Chuck-E-Cheese.

Kevin is so good about remembering to take the annual 'birthday bear' photo. Anna seems to enjoy using her bear (Ulysses) for a pillow these days! This year's photos are followed up by a quick trip down memory lane, ending with Anna's very first picture with her birthday bear when she was just 24 hours old (the bear was so much bigger then, he must be shrinking!)

Field Day Fun

Our homeschool enrichment program holds an annual field day to celebrate the end of the school year. With the exception of the 30 mile an hour winds that were yanking everyone's plates out of their hands (while we attempted a potluck lunch), it was a lot of fun. The kids look forward to it each year . . . this year it was particularly fun because it was scheduled on Anna's birthday!

Tri the Rock

Today the kids competed in their second kids' triathlon (their cousin, Tommy, competed again also). It is held (conveniently) at the park right across the street from our house! It was a beautiful day for it, sunny and pleasant. Everyone moved up an age group and seemed to be among the youngest in the group they were competing in. None of them placed in the top three, but they did a fabulous job and had a great time. Samuel and Anna did an incredible job being patient cheerleaders, too! We're proud of them all! Once I locate my notes from last year, they can see if their personal times improved or not. There was great rejoicing from Daniel over the hot dog and gatorade that came with the event and great silliness from everyone on the playground afterward!

Anna's birthday party

Anna decided a few months ago that she wanted a "kitty cat air hockey" birthday party and she wanted me to make an air hockey cake with kitty cats sitting on the hockey pucks . . . we had a fun little party, complete with her requested cake, kitty cat ears and faces and some kitty cat games.

Catching up and wrapping up . . .

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of culminating events. AWANAs wrapped up for the year (and Daniel was very excited to be the only "Sparkie" to earn a 3rd book award--a fun little plaque). Anna and Samuel were both excited to earn their Cubbies award (Emily was given an award which she didn't actually earn yet, so she gave it back!) We had our very last cinnamon rolls (we hope!) of the season . . . the very "late in the season snow" took us by surprise and I had to make cinnamon rolls from scratch ~ I didn't try them, but they got lots of thumbs up votes from the kids!

We got to see several drama presentations (which friends were in) & Emily's drama class performed their end of season production. We held a (very windy!) 25 cent yard sale and met some more people in our neighborhood. We've enjoyed some leisurely evenings in the park across the street and even got to have an impromptu playdate at the park with Grandpa (the kids enjoyed the huge "sombrero hat slide" and the tire swing). Anna went on her first official "non-relative" sleepover (all 5 kids spent the night with friends . . . and we got to enjoy a bonus date night!) Kelsey has arrived in Denver for her summer internship and we got to spend some time with her. We also checked out Castle Rock's annual Ducky Derby (a fundraiser/street festival). Emily was most fascinated with the cotton candy making process, the boys loved the firetrucks. The kids are excited for Field Day (which happens to fall on Anna's birthday ~ so she is SUPER excited!).

We aren't quite done with school at home for the year, but Emily is officially considered a "middle schooler" at our enrichment program (deep breath, silence the scream! . . . ) and Samuel is moving into Kindergarten in the fall. Swim team has started for Emily and the other four kids begin track and field next week.