Happy 10th Birthday Rease!

Rease turned 10!  What?! She decided she wanted to take a group of friends to the movie to see the new Beauty and the Beast movie.  So we loaded up the van and off we went!  She had a really cute group of girls (and JT)!

 After getting drinks, popcorn and treats for everyone we were set!

 Our group took up one whole row in the theater.  And the kids loved the movie!

 After the movie we came back to our house for presents and cake and ice cream.  

It's always so fun to open gifts from friends - she got some really fun toys and books.  

 And all she has been asking for from us is a new bike.  Dad delivered on that and she was so excited!!

Rease is THE BEST.  Seriously she is.  I couldn't ask for a better oldest child!  Happy birthday dear girl!

 My favorite things about Rease at age 10:

1) Like I said, Rease is the best oldest sister.  She is so very helpful to me and WANTS to help.  That's the difference from other kids - she truly wants to be helpful and do what is asked of her.  She does get privileges because she's the oldest but definitely earns those.  She always tells me "I'll clean up the kitchen while you put the boys to bed" knowing that she will get to stay up late with mom and dad if she does that!  I love her!

2) Rease has grown up so much this year.  She has physically grown and has passed up Grammie and Aunt Hayley and is getting close to looking me straight in the eye.  But she is also growing up so much as a person.  I can have a serious conversation with this girl and it feels like I'm talking to someone my age.  I love having chats with her after school or when she's getting ready for bed and just whenever.  She is my friend.

3) Rease has a positivity and love for life that not many others have.  She thinks that everything and everyone is good and rarely has a bad thing to say about others.  She is naive, sweet and caring and I don't want them to ever change.  

10 year old stats from Dr. Erickson:

Height: 5'1" - 99%

Weight: 111 lbs. 5 oz. - 96%

Happy Birthday sweet Rease!

Ice Cream Date

Josh took the girls out on a late ice cream run tonight to celebrate Rease's birthday.  They ended up at Leatherby's and got a HUGE ice cream sundae.  Somehow they managed to finish it all!  

Sleeping Out

We had Izzy and JT this weekend with us and since school is out and it's officially summertime, we got out the hammocks and let them sleep outside!  I love how they strung them all up right next to each other!  

Amazing Race 2017

 We love putting on the Amazing Race for our neighborhood!  This year Hayley and I decided that we would each do one for our neighborhoods but use the same clues for both of them.  So we worked together coming up with the clues and I helped her with her neighborhood and she came and helped me with ours!  It worked out awesome and we had tons of fun.  We decided this year that we wanted to be able to track the teams while they were out racing around.  So I had one person from each team join "Find My Friends" for the night so that I could track them.  Then I made their picture the color of their team so it made it awesome to track everyone and see how far ahead or behind each team was.  It was the best trick!  We also decided we wanted to watch all the teams at one of the stops, so after all the teams left the house we went over to the Old Farm Park stop and watched each team come and go.  It was so fun to see it all in action!  This is one of our favorite neighborhood things and everyone seems like they have a blast!

This was the sheet that Hayley and I used to track all the teams.  When we knew they were at a certain spot according to Find My Friends, we would mark it so we could keep track of where everyone was at and how close a team was to being done.  We also marked who made their free phone call and if anyone used extra calls and got a 5 minute penalty.  It turned out that the team that got home first had a 10 minute penalty and ended up taking 3rd place instead!  It was a crazy ending but so awesome too!  The yellow team took home the grand prize tonight!

This is our fun crazy group!  Until next year...

At the Gym

The kids love going to the gym with us.  They've all gone since they were tiny babies so they're totally used to it even as babies.  Desh loves that his brothers take care of him and that he gets to sit and watch tv!

Black Eye

I'm surprised Keen hasn't had more black eyes in his life.  He is always messing around and rough housing with his brothers.  Anyway, he got a toy thrown at him and hit him squarely in the eye.  Black eye.  Sorry dude.  

Keen year end

Keen graduated from preschool!  We have loved Kinder Cottage and the things that Keen has learned this year.  And we're so proud of him and all his hard work!  I love seeing the progress on his writing from the beginning of the year to the end.

Rhen year end

Rhen had a great 2nd grade year!  She loved her teacher Mrs. Ricks and is overall a great student!  She made lots of cute art projects this year and also came home with a "yearbook" from her class.  

Rease year end

Rease has had a great year this year and has loved her teacher Mrs. Willson!  She has been so awesome for the kids in her class.  One of the things that they really focus on in 4th grade is writing.  Mrs. Willson made a portfolio of all the narrative writing papers that Rease has written.  So fun to read and see her progress throughout the year!

They also had a semester all about rocks and the rock cycle.  I love this diagram she made about what she learned.

Liev end of year

Liev had two cute end of the year programs.  One was an award ceremony in his classroom where each of the kids was recognized for their hard work.  Liev has done a fantastic job this year in kindergarten and has made so much good progress.  He worked hard and got the brilliant bobcat award, was on the honor roll and became a math fact ninja!  All hard things that take a lot of work!  So proud of this boy.  

They also had a year end program and sang lots of cute songs and showed us everything they learned as kindergartners.  

 Miss Buker has been such a fun teacher for him.  She made this book for each of the kids and compiled all their best work of the year.  I wanted to keep as many as I could because I think they are so fun to see and also shows all his progress!

Grocery Shopping

I love when I get to go to Costco with just one of my children.  It makes it all so much easier and quicker.  And especially when one is as cute as this baby.  I love that toothy grin!

Stairs

You know what this means...I have to teach Desh how to go down the stairs now!  He has discovered how to go up them and thinks he is the funniest boy!

If you give a mom a muffin...

Rease made this darling book for me at school and it is so cute and clever!  And it's spot on!  I'm amazed at how observant she is and how well she knows me.  Sweet girl.  

Field Day

You know school is winding down when Field Day rolls around!  I got to help with Rhen and Liev's classes today and had such a fun time!  The kids are full of energy and ready for summer to be here!

Flower beds

For my birthday this year Josh took me to pick out plants to put in our flower beds in the front yard!  We picked out our favorite ones then spent the weekend planting, laying down mulch and getting drip lines hooked up to each plant.  It was a lot of work but we had a great time together and love how it turned out!  I'm so excited to have flowers in our yard!