2014 Kiddo Birthday Bananza

Yesterday we decided to celebrate ALL three kids' next birthdays together.  Winter kid parties are kind of lame so we did their party on a sunny beautiful summer day instead.  We'll still celebrate their birthdays on their actual birthdays and maybe they'll have a friend over to spend the night or something but this was FUN!  We had a blast from 2-10:30 yesterday (different people at different times of course)!

 Our neighbor Stefanie brought a puzzle picture.  Each kid paints a piece and then you let it dry and put it in the frame.  It's GREAT and the kids loved it!  It is now hanging in the playroom!

Here it is, drying.  It's not in the frame yet in this picture.  We had all but 6 kids paint a piece, 2 were under a year old, one was too preoccupied and three were too old and cool to do it!

 Aileena and Jarrett

 Brileigh from down the street

 Brett

 Mirian and her boys Lucas, Diego and Max

 Chase

 Ryan

 Ethan was being shy

 Peyton

 Mackenzie

 Ruby

 Jessica and Olivia

Uncle Scott, Nathan, Aileena, Jarrett (the three kids that were too cool ;P), Aunt Anna, Ella and of course Kayda.

 Uncle Scott looking normal!

 Me and Mirian

 Daddy and I

 Stefanie and I

 Mikey

 Ruby, Jess and I

 Dog pile on Nathan!

 Jarrett was joking he was going to jump on Nathan too... it kind of looks like he's thinking about peeing on him.  

 We tried to light candles but the wind wouldn't cooperate so they had to pretend they were blowing out candles!

 Dallon, Trevor, Braden and Landon

 Laurel and I

 Evening campfire with Auntie Kina!

 Auntie Kina and I!

It was a fantastic day!  So glad people could make it!  The kids had a blast in the pools and on the trampoline.... and in the sandbox and on the swings...  kid-topia as Jess called it.  We've got a lot of pretty awesome people in our lives.  Grandma and Papa H and Aunt Sarah and Uncle Pat also came by but had to take off to go to a wedding!  There were people we missed and people I wish lived close enough to invite (Aunt Kirsten especially).  

Side note - I know there is a crazy number of pictures of me in here... I am officially down over 100 pounds since having surgery back in November and I feel fantastic.  I gotta make up for the many years I would hide from the camera.  So be prepared for a bit too much of me.... I'm sure it'll wear out eventually!

Rasar State Park

Last weekend we headed to Rasar State Park to camp with our friends Jennifer, Rene, Ryan and Ethan.  This is our third annual trip with them after spontaneously having them go to Lake Chelan with us after hanging out at t-ball practice with them.  Turns out they're high quality camping pals!  The campground was nice but the water access was poor so it's not one we'll be going back to.  

 This was the junior ranger activity Saturday morning.  They got to learn about the different types of salmon in the skagit river.  They colored fish and made fishing poles to string them up on.

 We made quite a few trips over to the playground area.  

 But no matter how many times we went the kids always ended up over at this tree!

 Saturday we decided to head up to Baker Lake.  There are multiple campgrounds along it and we were hoping for a good water play time.

 There were several logs floating in the water we had fun climbing all over!

 Saturday evening they did a ranger walk where they talked about the elk and such in the area.  This field is on the way to the river, they have fences built around their young trees to keep the elk from damaging them.  There is apparently an elk herd in the area with about 90 elk in it.  Daddy was kind enough to go without me because I wasn't feeling well.  Thanks Daddy!

 Luckily we saw a creek nearby (just off the road outside the campground) and we went there to play on Sunday.  The kids (and the Dads) had a great time throwing rocks and building up the "dam".

 Jennifer and I!

We had a great time!  Water time, bike rides, playground time, walks, fires, s'mores!  It was fantastic.