Wii Sports

Our Thursday Night dinner group met at the White's house last week for burgers on the grill! Sawyer and his little friend Jack were enthralled with the Wii. They loved swinging the controllers around and having it do what they wanted to do maybe half the time!

Their favorite game was the jockey race.....the point of the game is to get your horse to run around the track and not basically not hit anything.....but Sawyer and Jack just kept ramming their horses into the fence over and over and over!! They would take a running start and just collide right into the fence and would wonder why they had to start over :) It was just so funny!

Up till that evening, Sawyer had shown zero interest in the Wii that we have at home.....but since then it's been getting some pretty good use!

Side note: we were at The Amazing Pizza Machine last year for Sawyer's Birthday with Bill's family playing all those different arcade/steal all your money games, when Bill goes, "Hey come here, I'm going to play this game and win that Wii." We're all thinking, "Suuuure Bill......" It was one of those electronic games that has all the really cool expensive prizes hanging in the glass case that you have to push the button as the digital cubes fly by and build up a perfect stack as the pace increases each time.....normally one of the biggest rip off games ever....but no, not this time. Bill sits down, plays one time and wins! The manager was pretty surprised that he actually beat the game and told him, "Pick your prize!" Meanwhile his parents and I are just standing there like, "What in the world just happened?!?"

Lemons to Lemons!

Last week at our Whole Foods cooking class, the Half Pints had a day of lemon themed treats! They started out making some lemon blueberry muffins and watermelon lemonade!

Samantha, Kai and Sawyer tasting their DELICIOUS lemonade!!

I of course, had the three loudest kids in class.....not that they were being naughty, but the three of them jut had quite a bit to say! It was non-stop, "Oooooohhhh.....Yummy! My mommy has that at home!......That's so funny!.....Can I lick the batter?....My mommy let's me!" There was no stifling them :)

The little chefs with Ms. Cheera

Toodles Noodles

I absolutely love all of the kiddos that come into my home for day care, whether they are sweet little angels or a little rascals.....but then there are always a few that you really start to feel like they are your own. Ali was one of those....she and her little brother Ryan have been with me a little over a year now and she has been just the best little helper and such a sweetheart! I always said that if I ever collapsed from a random stroke during day care, Ali wouldn't even skip a beat and take care of the kids for the rest of the day until parents came in the evening! But every good thing has to come to an end at some time and our end was the looming of Kindergarten. She and I were both excited about it but it still was horrible on her last day last week. When her Daddy came to pick her up on Friday, of course I was bawling, but I said "Good bye Ali!" and she turns around and goes, "This isn't good bye Ms. Carrie, it's just Toodles Noodles!" (that's what I say to the kids every afternoon when they go home). I just thought that was such a cute thing to say! I will miss her terribly*

The kids celebrating Ryan's 1st birthday here at Day Care.

Dinner with an old Friend

One of my best friends from high School in Brazil was Becca Moody and recently we have gotten back in contact with each other. It just so happened that she and her mom were going to be driving through Omaha and we were able to have them over for dinner! It was SO fun and almost surreal to meet up like eight years later after both of us have gotten married and have kids the same age!
It was bizarre chatting with an old high school girlfriend about whether or not to home school and how we discipline...just every different conversations than we used to have back at PACA! Seeing her made me feel nostalgic for the care free days of high school....sleepovers, high school crushes, soccer practice, lunch outside on the green benches, the musicals and sports tournaments.

Bare Bottom

Our friends, Brandon & Laney have a boat and on Sunday we went out for an afternoon of fun on the lake! The weather was just perfect-nice a hot and a little breezy. We went tubing and attempted water boarding (key word ATTEMPTED!)

Sawyer had a blast jumping in the water and he especially loved when Bill & I took him for a little ride on the tube! The three of us laid down on the tube and got pulled around pretty slowly but it was a blast none-the-less! At first he was scared to death but then really got into it and even did some 'ticks'. Sawyer's tricks were letting go of the tube's handles for about two seconds and then waving at the video camera with one hand :)

Highlight of the day: Ashton (far left) and I decided to take a spin on the tube together and the boys were bound and determined to get us knocked off! We had a VERY turbulent ride and I'm pretty proud to say that we made it a good four or five minutes of violent tubing. I had it in my mind that nothing was going to get me to let go of that tube even if a shark latched onto my ankle.....until I felt the bottom of my swim suit fly off!!!!! I left my skirt and my tankini bottom far behind as I went zooming off! When I realized that my bare bootie was flapping around for the world to see I regretfully let go of the handle......we recovered my tankini bottom but my skirt is somewhere on the floor of Lake Manawa.

It was such a GREAT afternoon to just hang out with friends and have some fun! Thanks so much Brandon & Laney for taking us all out on the boat-it was a blast!*

The Bear

We went to Nolan's 1st Birthday Party this weekend! I was in Brandon & Laney's wedding and we've been super close ever since! They are such a fun couple to hang out with and when Nolan came into their lives one year ago, we were SO excited for them! This year has certainly flown by and I can't believe our little guy turned one!
Happy Birthday Buddy!

Nolan's Grandma got out the old school toys and Sawyer and Nolan just LOVED them!

Before the party we were trying to figure out something to buy Nolan for his birthday and we had decided on a fun book.....until we saw the GIANT bear! We saw it and just knew that Nolan had to have it! His mom Laney is probably going to kill me since she's got to find a spot for this obnoxiously large stuffed animal and she'll probably get me back by giving Sawyer a drum set or a hamster for his upcoming birthday.....

T-Ball Finals

Saturday was Sawyer's last T-Ball game....sad sad....he had really looked forward to the season and enjoyed it most of the time. I have to admit, it was hotter than blazes out there most days and I wouldn't want to be running around chasing tennis balls either.....but towards the end of the season I think he really improved and started to better understand how the game is actually played!

Coach Jeff, Sawyer and Miles

Good Job Sawyer!
We're proud of you-this is the start of your professional athletic career!