Summer Evening Fun!

We headed up to New Buffalo for a little dinner and some ice cream. The kids are so funny, since they've basically been traveling 16 hours in the car to Emme and Papa's since birth, and hour to go to dinner is no big deal. Carter even wanted to know if we could stay in the car longer, and go on another adventure! Hope they feel the same way when we leave in 2 weeks for that 16 hour drive again!

Anyway, we had a nice dinner, and some very rapidly melting ice cream. Everyone was good, and enjoyed their meal (well, who wouldn't be when you dangle the ice cream AFTER dinner!)

It was tons of fun, and we are planning another adventure for next week!!! Can't wait to see what we do!!!

Random Pictures...

Guess where we are going???

It's a little early to get too excited, but since we told the twins, it's been discussed almost everyday! We told the twins that we will be spending their 5th birthday at DISNEY WORLD!!! :)

Someone was asking me how exactly you "get over" all that the twins had been through when they arrived 13 weeks early. My answer? Well, you celebrate by taking them to DISNEY for their 5th birthday!!! I can remember when I was pregnant with them and lying there in the hospital for 7 weeks on bedrest, saying to Jason. "If these little girls come out of this o.k. they are SO getting a trip to Disney World when they turn 5!" I think at that point, and for many days after that, I had promised those 2 everything you can possibly think of just to get them to breathe on their own, or take a bottle, or make it through surgery o.k. Thank GOODNESS they can't remember that I promised them a pony if they could just make it through their NICU stay, ha ha!!

So, off to Disney we will go in January, to spend their actual birthday in the Magic Kingdom! We have persuaded Emme and Papa to drive down and meet us (can you imagine taking 5 kids under 5 without help?) The kids are all very excited, as are the adults. While we have been on plenty of trips to South Carolina to the beach, this is our first family trip, on a plane, and staying in a hotel (or a 3 bedroom villa as the case may be, hard to find a standard hotel room to fit 7 people!!!)

We just couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the faces of the kids at this age, when they still think the princesses are real, and it really is "Mickey Mouse's house!" It's just an age that we will never get back again, so matter how much trouble it may be for us, they all really deserve it!!! We can't wait!!!

New Bikes!!!!

The kids FINALLY got their real, big-kid bikes! They have all been riding big wheels since the beginning of time, so we thought we'd save up and buy them each a new bike! Cooper even got one (wasn't new, but thanks to our good friends, Cooper was none the wiser!) She even helped her Dad wash the bike up, and after a new basket (which she oddly called a purse) was put on and a new helmet, she was off! Carter took to his immediately, and the girls loved their colorful, very girls, unicorn bikes (not our first choice, but about all they had at the bike shop for girls!)

The funniest part was watching them get used to riding them, kids of that age are so easily distracted, they were running into things, and people and the house...too funny! I am glad that they are all wearing their helmets, which is MANDATORY, and are all riding with their training wheels. I get a bit nervous with them zipping around, and not really watching where they are going or who they are running into!!!

Here is Cooper getting her bike after is was cleaned!!!



Here are the kids on their bikes!!1

Just because...

Here are some pics of Finley, and of Carter, well, just because I had the camera, and they were being cute! Carter LOVES his baby sister...it's so fun to watch.

Summer Fun!

Here are some recent pics of the kids having fun outside, WE LOVE SUMMER!! :) Also, had to put up some pictures of the hydrangeas that we have growing, so colorful!!!

We are still having an awesome summer, lots of pool time, outside time, and fun. We are looking forward to our trip down to visit Papa and Emme in about a month, we are all looking forward to our beach vacation, with a weekend stop to visit Emme & Papa's new "city" house! We are also looking forward to visiting with some family there too, including "Cooke" the kids Great Grandmother. All of this before school starts! I can't believe how the summer is flying by!!!





More Finley!!

I still can't believe she is 3 weeks old! Here are some more pictures from this week! I LOVE the newborn stage, it's so fun to watch them change and grow right before your eyes! What a sweetie!!!

Holiday Fun!!!

Here are some pictures from our fun-filled 4th weekend! It was a blast, we had fun swimming on Friday at the club, and having lunch! On Saturday, despite the rain, we had fun with Aunt Ginger eating, hanging out and watching the fireworks from our own backyard! We had a perfect spot on the back deck and patio to see TONS of fireworks displays that were going on around town. Then on Sunday, the Kutckas and Cermaks came over to meet Finley!!

Finley is 3 weeks today! We celebrated by making a trip to the pool, just myself and the 5 kids! We had a great time swimming and had lunch (even Finley had her "lunch" at the pool!!") Finley is still such a great girl, she's sleeping well, and growing by the day!!! :)