SWEET SIXTEEN

If you can believe it, Kya is now 16!!  

We started the day off with a yummy breakfast...

...then headed to the lake (with her new unicorn floaty)

It was such a beautiful day!

 A few days later she did a combined party with Kenzie in our backyard

We rented a bouncy waterslide 

(the guys who set up the slide volunteered to rescue the #6 balloon 

when in floated up super high in the tree--our hero!)

Somehow, everyone survived the waterslide!  

There were definitely some bumps and bruises though.

Kya and Kenzie had such a great turn out!

(I think when everyone was there, we counted 20 guests)

We got a cake from Costco...to feed all the teenagers!

They had a crazy water balloon fight!  

Kids were even fleeing to the park across the street so they wouldn't get hit!

The night ended with a bonfire and smores (at midnight!!)  

Kya had such a great time at her party!!  

Happy Birthday beautiful girl--you deserve all the happiness in the world:)

Grad 2019

I can't believe it's finally here--Jordan's High School Graduation!

She's been waiting a long time for this:)

The Day before graduation (which happened to be Father's Day) we had a grad party for Jordan.  Lots of friends and family came to celebrate the big day.  I was so grateful to my sisters, parents and the Tambres for traveling down from Canada to celebrate with us.  It meant a lot!!  

Jordan and her girlfriends did a photoshoot in there caps and gowns before the big day! 

  

Her actual graduation!!  

Congratulations Jordan, can't wait to see what the world has in store for you!

Our very first PROM!!

Let me start by saying...prom dress shopping wasn't very fun, it was hard!  In fact, there was a time when both Jordan and I were pretty certain she wouldn't find a dress:(  When we were in Canada, we went shopping with Becca and she found her dress right away...it took Jordan another 4-5months to find hers!!  There weren't even very many that she "kind of" liked!!  She just HATED all of them...Jordan is one picky girl!

Here's Becca with her dress...Jordan's in one of the rejects

Another reject...

Another reject...

When we finally went back to Samila & Co (a place Jordan had already been) we went through the entire store and she only found 2 dresses she was even willing to try on.  We were both SHOCKED when she liked the first one, and even more SHOCKED when she liked the second one even more!!!  

 The night before Prom, Jordan and her friends got spray tans, got their nails done then slept over at our place.  They did a Starbucks run and I made them waffles for breakfast.  

Once they were all ready...we headed to pictures at Bellevue Botanical Gardens.

Jordan's date Jacob was very sweet...she picked a good one:)

We took pictures for over TWO HOURS!!  The whole time I kept thinking about how lucky Jordan was to have so many good friends to travel through High School with!  Such a great group of girls!!  I will miss having them at our house when they are all off to college.

 

Summer made it into quite a few pictures!  

I think she got individuals with most of Jordan's friends, but then she was also in the background of a lot of other pictures...wandering around in the gardens--hahaha!

The actual Prom was at the Seattle Aquarium.  

I think everyone had a great time...except for Jordan's feet!!

Summer turns 5 and a snake comes to her party!

Summer's 5th birthday party turned out absolutely perfect.  She was on cloud 9 the ENTIRE time and just had so much fun!  When I put her to bed that night, she said she wished she could have her birthday again tomorrow because it was the best day ever.  

Before it happened though, I wasn't sure the party would turn out so well....here's why:

-Summer's birthday was on a Sunday...the Sunday right after activity day camp that I was in charge of !!  So I did basically nothing to prepare for the party but pick up a cake and buy hot dogs (and barely enough buns)

-it was such a busy weekend yet somehow everyone she invited was able to attend

-Mike was scrambling to finish assembling her new play structure we had bought just a few days before (he got all but the twisty slide done for the party)

-Our tractor broke right before the party and we had to cut the entire lawn with the push mower

-there was rain in the forecast but it turned out to be a beautiful day

-since we couldn't have family stay with us (since I was busy with AD camp), I thought Eric wouldn't be able to come, but Lisa and her family drove down all in one day just for the party!!!  

-one of the kids brought a SNAKE!!  Who knew everyone at the party would be fine with that....yikes.

Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures.  There were SO MANY people there...even the older kids' friends came to celebrate.  I don't think we've ever gone through so much of a Costco cake at a party before--hahaha.  This is one loved little girl.  Happy Birthday, Summer!!!

 

Activity Day Camp

If there's one calling in the church that I've secretly wished for, it would be Activity Day Leader.  They get to plan activities (only twice a month) for girls ages 8-11.  I just love this age of girls...so excited to be there and learn new things...not yet at the stage where everything is boring or lame.  Well, early in the spring I got an Activity Day calling, just not the one I wanted.  I got called to be the STAKE Activity Day Leader, which meant instead of planning an activity twice a month and hanging out with these sweet girls, I had to plan ACTIVITY DAY CAMP for the entire stake!!!!  And boy was it a TON of work!  The good thing is...everything went great, the kids had fun, and now it's over:)

We started off making shirts

Then we had a variety show

Saturday was filled with archery, outdoor cooking, canoeing, outdoor education, yoga, bracelet making, and making blankets for Seattle Children's Hospital.

How are we going to top that next year?!