Bowling Birthday Party

Last Saturday, the 20th, the kids were invited to a friends birthday bowling party.  We have been bowling as a family a few times and they always love it.  They especially enjoyed it this time with friends, pizza and cupcakes!

Abbie posing with her bowling ball.

She has quite the form!

I love the reaction.  She missed all the pins, yes even with the gutter gates up you can still do that?!

Graham would start all the way back at the seats and run with the ball.  He won on his team.  He was very proud of himself!

Showing Marty how strong he is!  (I still can't get used to the missing teeth.)

Even Marty got to bowl, here Molly was giving him a hand.

Daddy and daughter bowling.

Molly got to bowl some herself also.  Here another Marty is helping her bowl.  Molly did insist on carrying the ball to the lane by herself every time though!

A group shot, and yes I have still given up on getting a good one with all them in it:)

Can you see the bowling ball?  It is hard to see because it is in the air!  It was the funniest moment, C threw the ball and it went flying and then bounced really hard and would have gone in the other lane if the gutter gates weren't there.  We all laughed so hard, but not to hard because we didn't want sweet C to think we were laughing at him:)

Second Tooth

Graham lost his second tooth on the 16th (yes almost two weeks ago).  I was so surprised that he lost another one so soon.  And he has another one (on top) that is really loose also!  His second tooth was just as loose and almost falling out like the first one.

Just barely hanging on.  Don't you love the mouth?

This was how he sat watching a show in case his tooth fell out. 

He was so funny again because the tooth was just barely hanging on when it was time to go to bed.  I called Marty and asked what he thought, should I just leave it or pull it because I could feel that it was definitely still attached by one little piece.  I was really afraid it would come out while he was sleeping and swallow it.  Marty offered to pull it out when he got home, while Graham was sleeping!  So I said I'll just tell him why I have to pull it and he will agree.  He especially agreed when I explained if I pulled it now he would get his money from the tooth fairy tonight instead of tomorrow night:)  Pretty smart 6 year old boy!

He did great and I really didn't have to pull to hard.  I was a little nervous though. But now after this being the second tooth I feel like I get it and I won't be so cautious to pull the next one:)

Missing both bottom front teeth.

The second tooth on his box for the "tooth fairy." 

8 out of 13 grandkids

As you all know my brother, Brent and his family came to visit last week. We had a fun filled week and got to go to lots of great places around Orlando.  We did take lots of pictures throughout the week but not of the whole group.  So Wednesday morning before they left we took a group picture of the kids.  Marty took the picture and we were both shocked that all 8 kids are looking at the camera and smiling. Yeah!!

It was great to get to spend time with family!  We really enjoyed it. Thanks for making the long drive Brent and Susanna!  We love you all. 

Monday

We went to the Central Florida Zoo in Sanford in Monday with my brother and his family.  I had never been and was excited about it because my kids love animals.  Molly especially loves pretty much ever animal.  On our drive over I asked the kids in my car what one animal they really wanted to see.  Graham said a giraffe, it is his favorite animal.  Rachel (one of my brother's daughters) said a giraffe and a lion.  Abbie said a pig, I'm pretty sure that's her favorite animal and only because it is her favorite color, pink.  Molly wanted to see birds, which she loves to point out to us all the time while we are driving. She also points out squirrels and pretty much any other animal she can find. Erin (one of my brother's other daughters) said she wanted to see snakes, which was surprising since usually girls are afraid of snakes:)

The zoo was interesting but not near as good as the zoo in Oklahoma where we are all from. Graham was really disappointed there were not giraffes. He got excited at the cheetahs though, since his school mascot is a Cheetah.

You could get really close to the cheetah's through a "secret" path in the butterfly garden.  (I really need to learn to use my camera better, I could only focus the plants not the cheetah)

We found a cute little elephant also:)

This elephant was so funny because it kept standing with it's back legs crossed.  I know this was the girl elephant also.  You can see it a little in the picture.

The kids were getting so hot and tired by this time. I'm honestly not even sure what they are posing in front of since I can't see it.

We went through the "nature walk" and got bitten like crazy from mosquitoes but also saw a dinosaur.  Molly looks like she is pretending to be scared or something with her mouth open.

The kids were so ready to cool off at the zoo's splash pad.  It was pretty cool.  They had different animals that shot water out of them and fake palm trees with water coming out.  It was a great end to a very hot day. 

Here Naomi is sitting on the frog squirting Graham in the head while Molly watches:)

Hannah, Abbie, Naomi, Rachel and some other girl.  (I felt so bad for the other girl.  Immediately after I took this picture she fell of the rhino and bumped her head)

This was by far Molly's favorite thing at the splash pad.  When she first sat on the frog and the water stopped squirting she starting to get really upset.  Once she realized it would come back on in a minute she was OK.  She sat just like this for quite a while and would put her finger over the stream to make the water go everywhere.

Molly must have been inspired by all the animals at the zoo.  She was pretending to be a lion that night roaring at all her cousins.

Beach Sunday

We planned with my brother and his family to go to New Smyrna Beach on Sunday.  We knew that there was a chance of rain but were fine with that.  Well, we ended up leaving later than we had planned.  We were on the beach for about 30 minutes to 1 hour before we saw it storming in the distance.  The lifeguards made everyone get out of the water and then about 10 minutes later made everyone leave the beach.  So we sat in our cars and ate our lunches.  We were concerned about the storms, but only about 30 minutes after we left the beach we were able to go back on the beach.

It was still overcast and you could see lightning way out in the ocean.  But the beach was not crowded anymore:)  I enjoyed that it was sort of cloudy and not so hot because I don't like salt water so I don't get in the water very much.   The kids were a little cool when they would get out of the water though.   But they all (all 8 of them) loved the beach!

I was trying to take a picture of my girls and Abbie decided to show me her booty instead, so Molly decided to do the same. They can be so silly:)

Graham posing next to some seaweed.

Daddy with his girls and their (well really his) sand castle.

Abbie, Molly, David, Naomi and Graham playing in the sand.

They were building up walls to keep some water in it. They said they were making their own town.

Molly helping fill the bucket, while David worked on the walls.

Abbie was then dancing in the water of their "town."

After a fun drizzly day at the beach, we ate at a local Mexican restaurant and headed home to bathe the kids and get them to bed.  (And have the men go vacuum out all the sand in our cars!)

Friday afternoon

Friday afternoon we hung out with my brother and his family.  They are vacationing here in Orlando and we are excited to finally have some family visitors!  I mean we do live in one of the best tourist destinations of the world!

The kids had fun playing the Wii.

Molly had fun wearing her daddy's shoes:)

Friday was also "Donut Day." So of course we had to celebrate with a free Krispy Kreme donut. So yummy! And even better, they were hot & fresh when we got there.

Some of the kids watching donuts being made.

There were 8 kids and 4 adults. We took up most of Krispy Kremes.

One of the yummy hot & fresh (and free) Krispy Kremes, Marty took this picture:)

Graham being silly with his donut.

Later that night after our kids finally came off their sugar highs and were sleeping, us adults played some card games and had a blast.  We played "swap" and I think there may still be some scratches and/or bruises from the slap cards:)

Last Day of Kindergarten

Friday was Graham's last day of Kindergarten.  He wasn't excited about school ending since he won't get to see his friends every day but he was excited for their kindergarten program.

Graham has absolutely loved this school year.  His teacher, Ms. Sumrall, has been wonderful.  The other week she sent home a note because Graham had gotten a yellow warning star (instead of a green which means you had a great day) and even though it was about him getting in trouble she was incredibly sweet and supportive.  Her words were something like "Graham, what is going on?  I guess everyone has a few bad days every once in a while.  Graham is such a joy to have in my class."  I don't usually cry but it brought tears to my eyes because it was just so sweet and sincere.  She has definitely made a positive and great impact on Graham.

At school the Kindergarten classes put on a show for us for their last day.  Graham did a great job and actually sang all of the songs AND did all the hand motions.  He has been excited about singing and has even practiced some of his songs.  The other day he told me that he was going to go in his room and practice his songs and asked me not to come listen so it would be a surprise. 

Molly loved looking through the hymnals while we were waiting for the program to start:)

Abbie was having a snack while she waited.

Graham is on the top right.

Doing some hand motions during a song. (I'll have to see if Marty can fix the eyes, they just looked even weirder when I tried.)

Then after they sang songs they had a slide show of the school year.  It was fun to see all of his classmates and Graham was excited to point out who everyone was. 

Abbie, Graham and Daddy during the slideshow.

Then after the show Graham wanted to take pictures with his friends.

Graham and his friend Dathan

Graham, Ava and Faith

Graham and the best Kindergarten teacher, Ms. Sumrall

Reese, Faith, Graham and James

Abby H. and Graham

Graham and Sheridan

I love the face his teacher has here.  She was making a wow face to something Graham said:)
What a great school year it was!!