Turning 2 years old

Mason age 2 weeks

Mason turned 2 years old yesterday! I'm a little sad that my "baby" is no longer a baby. But it's fun to see his personality take form. Mason loves the book Dinosaur Roar so I decided to make him a dinosaur cake. It was a big hit! The kids all had a hard time keeping their hands off.

Mason's dinosaur cake

The birthday boy gets the first taste

Yum, it's as good as it looks

I videotaped the kids all playing with some of Mason's presents. His favorite was the roll-around ball pound. After he opened that he didn't want to do anything else.

Empty Bed

A few nights ago I went to check on the boys before I went to bed around 10:30 pm. When I glanced in the room I realized Tucker's bed was empty and started to panic a little. We had put them to bed 2 hours earlier after which Gabe and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. I was about to start ransacking the house but stopped when the thought popped into my head to look under his bed. And there he was sound asleep.

Bowling

My parents were in town last week for a visit so we decided to escape the heat and go to the bowling alley. The kids had a blast! The bumpers only came up on their turns (which I was a little jealous of) so their balls usually made it all they way down to the end. On a few occasions we had to have a "professional" come retrieve a ball that somehow managed to get wedged between the gutter and the bumper or lose momentum half way down the lane. Everyone had a fun time and Grandma (Claudette) bowled both of the high scores!

Eating snacks with Grandpa

Tucker

Hayden in mid throw

Brianna

Swimming Lessons

The kids took a 2 week swimming lesson course in June at an outdoor pool. The last day of class they got a free day and were able to use the diving board and slide. Unfortunately it was 60 degrees and raining, but they were determined to stick it out so they wouldn't miss out on all the free play. Brianna missed the last day of class because she was on a plane flying to Washington.

Tucker jumping off diving board

Water slide!

Hayden with his class

Just Playing Around

We have had weeks upon weeks of rain, so the kids have been cooped inside the house for the most part. Lately they have been interested in playing cowboys, especially Mason. Most of the hats are too big, but that doesn't deter him.

The cutest cowboy ever

Howdy partner!

Even Brianna enjoys playing cowgirl

Last week Devon and Sarah came to one of Hayden's T-ball games. I guess Spencer was really excited to watch a game. There were some really cool trees by the field, perfect for climbing. It took some coaxing to get Hayden to come down and participate with his team.

Spencer

Mason

Hayden

Family photos

We had Kelsey take our family picture this weekend and I wanted to post the top three so you can all see how comical, err, I mean how lovely our family is.

One year older

Brianna turned 9 years old on Friday. We gave her the option of having a friend party or going to see a movie with the whole family. She chose to go see the movie UP in 3-d, which was a wonderful movie. I would recommend it to everyone ages 3-99 : ) The 3-d was neat, but most of the movie was in 2-d, so personally I don't think it was worth the extra $3 a ticket, but it was still cool.

After the movie we went to Kelsey and Ben's, where Mason was being babysat, and had a BBQ and of course cake and presents. I decided to try to make a balloon cake to go along with the movie UP. I thought it turned out really cute, but we had to tell Brianna what it was because her vision didn't extend past the "pile of cupcakes".

Balloon Cake

Singing Happy Birthday

Mason and Hayden enjoying their cupcakes

Opening present from Grandma Gosney

Brianna's biggest present from Gabe and I came last, a plane ticket voucher to fly to Washington to visit her grandparents.

Kindergarten graduation

Hayden has officially graduated from kindergarten! He has been so excited all week to become a first grader, and now it's official.

Hayden and his teacher Mrs. Barnett

All the kindergarten classes combined to do a really cute program at school. I video taped one of the songs they did, at first Hayden isn't really putting much effort into it, but then he picks up some energy when they sing "X, Y, Z"!

Alphabet song


Hayden receiving his diploma

Before school this morning the boys wanted to get pictures taken of their slick hair-do's. The summer hair cuts are growing out and now require some gel. I think I'll be getting the trimmers out again next week so we can shave them down once more.

Hayden's tee-ball game

Hayden had his first tee ball game last night, and he did great! He got to bat 4 or 5 times and hit the ball each time. The first time he was at bat, the assistant coach didn't know he was left handed, so he kept trying to position Hayden in the right handed position until he was lined up enough to swing at the ball. Hayden swung and hit the ball which went all of 3 feet, but he ran like the wind and made it all the way home. After that we told the coach he was a lefty and he had a much easier time.

Swing batter, batter swing...

Hayden's homerun

The other kids also had a lot of fun running around and playing with extra baseballs they had out in the grass. I was fortunate enough to be sitting a few yards away from 3rd base and had the ball land in my lap while I was video taping...

Ball lands in Anna's lap

Tucker's Dog Restaurant

This morning I found Tucker in his room feeding all the stuffed dog animals he could find. It was pretty cute so I had to video tape it.