Sunday, April 30, 2017

More April

Love celebrating Ben's birthday.  It is just 5 days after Kinley's but, I always want to make sure it's special too!
Ben and I had a birthday lunch date on his day.
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He got a green egg from the whole family as his birthday gift. We, of course, immediately made him grill burgers on his grill for us for a small family/friend dinner outside on his bday. I am excited about lots of delicious meals to come!
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We sure miss this girl while she is at school. We can't wait until summer!
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Ty learned to ride his bike without training wheels so this, coupled with the amazing April weather, meant countless evening rides. You will never hear me complain, I love our neighborhood this time of year.
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I also promised Ty after busy season was over that we would spend one of Dylan's naptime putting his T-Rex model together.
No worries.
Just 53 simple 3D pieces to put together.
Ah! But, we did it!
And he is so proud.
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Kinley's Brownie troop had a table at World Thinking Day.
Their country was Brazil and they had a lock-in meeting where they researched about Brazil, colored the flags, made their presentation trifold and made all their swaps to trade at World Thinking Day.
The actual event was pretty cool!
I loved going around with Kinley and learning about all the different countries throughout the world that the Girl Scouts had researched.
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Loved seeing a little Swiss Tatum with her Girl Scout troop too.
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This boy is such a joy and a trooper.
He just goes with the flow and tags along wherever the big kids go.
Kinley has tutoring a couple days a week for 30 minutes. There isn't really enough time to go home in between but there is a park right around the corner.
We spend lots of days there.
Luckily Dylan makes even tutoring time look like so much fun.
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He's always up to something though. If he is too quiet too long, he's probably into something. Like maybe a mud puddle outside right at naptime, dressed in his BSF best clothes.
He was so cute I took his picture.
Then he cried because he realized he was muddy.
Life as a two year old is hard.
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One week in April, Mendy and Alex were keeping their niece and nephew, Lucy and Jack, for a few days.
My kids LOVE Lucy and begged if she could stay with us for a night.
L'Nae agreed it was ok so Lucy came to stay.
We watched a movie, Kinley, Lucy and Ty all slept together in Kinley's bed, they all slept in our monogrammed pjs from Aunt Minnie, we hunted some resurrection eggs and she even helped me take Ty to school.
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It was our fourth year to go see Thomas the Train.
We went after church one Sunday, rode Thomas, ate carnival food, got face tattoos, did the petting zoo and played in the sandbox.
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Bye, Thomas! See you next year.
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April's weather made for some great outdoor days.
Breakfast outside on the patio.
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The zoo with Cannon, Austyn and Emory
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I had to document that the hippos were out of the water this day. The only time I have ever seen them up and out of the water.
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Dylan took Ryder on their first date.
He found a quarter on the floor at home and told me that he was going to use it to take Ryder to Chuck E Cheese and play the basketball game to buy her a lollipop. It was so detailed and so sweet, Ali and I just had to make it happen.
So we took the littles while the bigs were in school one day.
It truly was Ali's first time to ever take a child to Chuck E Cheese (What!?) She is amazing.
So, I took it upon myself to show her the ropes.
Coupons, the Skate Universe app, lunch buffet, etc. I know she is thanking me still for all she learned. But, really, these two had the best date and Ali and I said we hope that we get to chaperone all their dates in the future.
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Monday, April 24, 2017

Compass Kids Worship

Kinley got to be part of a Compass Kids Worship music video in April!
Ali did an AMAZING job with the vision of this video.
This is a Compass original song, written by our worship team and re-mastered as a kids version.
Ali spent countless hours on this music video and put her heart and soul into it.
It is incredible.
The kids practiced for a several Sundays, practiced choreography, spent and afternoon laying down the vocal track, and another Sunday afternoon actually filming the video.
This may sound like work, and it WAS for everyone involved, but it was nothing but FUN for the kids.
Like a dream come true project.
Video day was like the most.fun.day. ever!
The storyboard of this video included color powder, fire trucks, choreographed drumming, group shots, individual shots, scene changes, outfit changes, drone filming, dance choreography.
It was professional grade and a dream come true for the kids.
Here are a couple pics from the day.
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The album cover which Kinley got to be a part of too.
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Link to the video...definitely watch and share and look for Kinley in it!

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Pine Cove Mom Camp weekend

I spent the weekend after tax season at Pine Cove Mom Camp.
It was truly exactly what I needed after the work stress of April.
I took a slow weekend to rest, relax and recharge with some sweet friends.
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We listened to pretty good worship a pretty good speaker, ate really good food and just enjoyed being together. We also laughed, ALOT. Saturday was full of breakout activities and those were super fun too.
We ziplined
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It was clearly Donna's favorite.
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She physically had to be pulled from the pole at the top and pushed off the deck. But, in the end, she's glad she did it.
We rode horses
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We explored the camp and jumped on in the ground blobs, rode these cool motor-powered skateboard things, did skeet-shooting with the most patient college boy counselors.
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And the best thing of camp was the late night dance party. Seriously, it was really fun.
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It was my first Pine Cove experience, but it will definitely not be my last.
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Hashtags for the weekend:
#letmetellyouastory
 #walkatyourownrisk 
#mercypuppy 
#wheniletgojustpushme
#ayieldedwheel 
#athleticpants 
#michaelphelps 
#horseridesintherain 
#cheaperbythedouble 
#comeandstay 
#auburnbusdriver 
#zippycedar 
#prayaboutthebreakoutspeaker 
#thelanyardistoobig
#explodingdietcoke

While I was away at Mom Camp, Honey & Boss took Kinley and Ty to spend the night at the ranch.
It rained cats and dogs right when they got there but it never stopped them from any fun! I loved the pics I got throughout the weekend. I know they were having the time of their lives!
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Kinley says all the time she wants to live on a farm. 
I can't imagine why?