Poser

When my parents were visiting earlier this month we took them down to Brenham one morning to tour the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. 

It was fun and interesting and YUMMY! We couldn't take any pictures during the tour, so these are all from inside the ice cream parlor area (and one outside). 

If I would have created this post right after we went on the tour I would have been better at remembering all the facts and figures. I didn't. But I want to say they make something like 65 different flavors in a year (my favorite so far is Banana Pudding - I could eat it every day). 

And I think for one day of ice cream production they use the milk from 600,000 cows (there's a chance I'm way off on that number, it was definitely a lot though). WOW!

 Can you tell which one of my children most enjoys posing for pictures?

These are Brenna's glasses

and these are Brenna's glasses after Ashlyn attacked them

hooray for warranties

I hope Ashlyn and I both survive her childhood

Birthday Girl #2

Miss Kaylee turned 8 on June 7th. We celebrated as a family that night and she had a "Wet 'n Wild" party with her friends the following day.

Kaylee with a few of her family gifts.

She requested lemon cookies for dessert.

Here are all the party girls.

We played a game called "water in the face" - one of my childhood favorites.

The we did a bunch of outdoor activities - water freeze tag, water balloon toss, sponge relay, slip 'n slide, baby pool, trampoline, etc.

Brenna was in heaven in the little swimming pool.

 And once I put McKell in she was surrounded by several adoring "mothers". 

Somehow I didn't get a picture of Kaylee with her birthday cake. We knew for sure she was growing up when she asked for a cake that tastes REALLY good (it's called Chocolate Yum-Yum cake and it's soooo delicious), rather than a something fun or decorated.  

It was a great party, and afterward I commented to Russ about how nice it is to have a HOUSE and a YARD and the ability to throw fun parties for our kids. :)

Birthday Girl #1

Ashlyn's 6th birthday was on June 6th, and she had Rock Star party with a few of her friends the Saturday before.

Here are the rock stars!

One of Ashlyn's best friends from her kindergarten class was Reily.

She requested a Barbie Rock Star cake.

The girls rocked out to "Just Dance 4" on our Kinect.

It was a super fun party that Ashlyn loved!

Here's our group of girls on Ashlyn's real birthday.

Even though we sang at her party, we couldn't let the evening pass without singing again 

(but the cake was all gone by then).

Our friend John stopped by with some surprise birthday crowns for the birthday girls.

After dinner we went on a family outing to Sam's Club to pick up our new TRAMPOLINE 

(the main birthday gift for both Kaylee and Ashlyn).

We've all been loving it!

The girls had fun playing with the balloons from Ashlyn's party. Here they are pretending to fly kites. :)

Kindergarten Graduation

Adorable Ashlyn had her kindergarten graduation program last week. She was assigned a fairly lengthy speaking part and did very well (Russ saw the part and wasn't sure she could memorize it all, but Ashlyn is awesome).

The kids marched in, said some stuff, sang some songs (ending with "You've Got a Friend in Me", which, for some reason, made me all teary), got diplomas, and ate cookies. I wish all you grandparents, etc. could have come, because these little videos don't quite do it justice, but you get what you get when we live so far away. :(

Here she is marching in:

Here's her speaking part:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tcUKeTBwqY&feature=youtu.be

And here's one of the songs her class sang:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VNg5W25BGk&feature=youtu.be

Here she is with her teacher, Mrs. Owens:

And with the school nurse, who adores her and whom she visited frequently for "headaches" and such (she only ended up coming home early a couple of times, a little rest or an ice pack or some lunch usually took care of her troubles):

We LOVE this kiddo and can't wait for all her 1st Grade Adventures!!!

Nerd Alert!

Tuesday afternoon Kaylee came home from school with a 3rd grade math workbook (she is just finishing up 2nd grade). I guess the teacher told the kids they could look it over during the summer or something.

Without even stopping for a snack, Kaylee found a pencil and some scratch paper and sat right down to get to work. She closed the book like an hour later. Seriously?! Who is this kid?

By the way, she finished out the year with all A's (what a surprise!) AND perfect attendance for the entire year. Way to go, Kaylee!!!

Nine Months

Darling baby passed 9 months last week. Weighed in at 18 lbs 3 oz and measured 28 in (I think, I didn't write things down until I got home from the appointment, but whatever, none of you care too much about her exact size anyway).

Here are some odds and ends about her:

hates all vegetables
likes vanilla yogurt, baby puffs, yogurt melts, Cheerios, and most fruits (especially bananas)
loves to laugh
crawls all over the place
really wants to pull up on things, but still figuring it out and getting the whole balance thing mastered
adores her sisters
not the most easy-going baby, but we still love her :)
when she's mad her eyebrows turn red (it's really funny)

And here she is . . .

Here are the other girls at the same age, if you'd like to compare . . . 

(she seriously had amazing hair)