Sunday Dinner

A few years ago as our kids started getting older, we realized that having all 7 of us at the dinner table every night wasn't always possible. Between sports practices, jobs, PREP, our week nights are crazy. It was then we decided to to have Mandatory Sunday Family Dinner. It is now something that we all look forward to. We eat in the dining room, and I make a nice dinner. Sometime we even have dessert. Last Sunday, Madison and Avery asked me if I was planning on making a dessert for family dinner. I told them I wasn't going to. They found a brownie box mix in the pantry and decided to take it upon themselves to make dessert for our family. They had a blast, and were so proud of their finished product.

Kindergarten Kamryn

Yesterday was Kamryn's kindergarten orientation that Chris and I took her to. She was only there for about 20 minutes. Today was her first real day of kindergarten. Above is a pic of her with her school bag getting ready to walk to the bus stop. Below is my baby walking to the bus stop.
Here she is getting on the bus for the first time. I told myself that I would not cry. I must not have been very firm with myself because as soon as the bus doors closed I couldn't hold back the tears. I can't believe my baby is in kindergarten.

She came home on the bus with Avery.
She told us that she had a great day and can't wait to go back tomorrow. About an hour after she got home, she climbed on the chair, laid down her head and fell asleep. I tried to wake her up for dinner, but she was just too tired to get up. She ended up sleeping through the night. Guess my girlie was tired!

1st day of school

Today marked a new first for us. All 5 of our kids are in the same district. Only year this will happen since CJ is a senior. Here are their first day pics. CJ, 12th grade, Kylie, 11th grade.

Avery heading to 5th grade.

Kamryn has Kindergarten orientation today. We took her to meet her teacher and to visit the classroom. She was sooo nervous.

Her classroom door.

Madi and her men. I have a pic of these three on their first day of middle day, here they are walking home from the bus stop in the rain after their day as 9th graders.

Madison on her first day of 9th grade.

Kamryn's 6th Birthday

How fast did those 6 years go? Our baby girl is 6 years old.....and totally obsessed with Justin Bieber. All she wanted for her birthday was a 'Bieber Birthday.' Here she is with her Bieber balloon, birthday shirt and birthday tiara.

Yes, I actually caught her kissing her Bieber balloon.

Waiting to open her presents.

All Kamryn wanted to do on her birthday was go to Kids Castle, so that's exactly what we did!

Finally, we got home, and it was time for our birthday girl to open her gifts.

Justin Bieber cup!

Justin Bieber microphone.

Bieber shirt.

I was doing so great with my pictures being in order until now. After we sang happy birthday, Kamryn wanted to shove her face in her cake.

Yummo!!!!

This is Justin, Kamryn's big bear.

Avery and Kamryn with Justin Bear.

Kamryn's birthday dinner choice, wings and ribs.

Her dessert choice, strawberry short cake.

Chris and Justin Bear.

After a fun filled birthday, our little girl ended up falling asleep on her big, giant teddy bear.

Our Cheerleader

Today was Avery's first day cheering for the NP Squires. She was also chosen to be captain for this game. A very exciting day for a girlie!!!!


CJ was at work, and Kylie and Madi were both at parties, so it was just Chris, Kamryn, and I cheering on our favorite cheerleader.

I love having a candy dish in our house. Let me rephrase that, I love having a full candy dish in the house. I like to keep holiday colored M&M's in it. But with 5 kids, I am constantly refilling it. Last year, I filled it with candy corn in the Fall instead of M&M's thinking my kids wouldn't eat it. WRONG! So, I went back to M&M's. Every once in awhile, I will try a different candy that I think no one will like, so my dish will actually stay filled. NOPE. Well, a few weeks ago I tried another candy that I thought for sure my kids wouldn't like that much, so my candy dish would not empty out every 14 hours. Spiced Dots. My kids grumbled, but my dish looked so pretty sitting on the table, full. One day, Kamyrn was so 'needing' a piece of candy, she tried a red one. She then informed everyone that the spiced dots really weren't that bad. They ended up eating most of them. I replenished the dish with more spiced dots. The good news is, they do seem to last longer than the M&M's. Don't feel to sorry for my children, I will soon fill it with Autumn colored M&M's......when Autumn arrives.

The Birthday Chain

For the past few days Kamryn has been asking anyone in the house who will listen, "How many days till my birthday?" After the 15th time today she asked me, I decided to make a birthday chain with her. We always make them at Christmas time, and the big kids used to make them for their birthdays too. She is so excited, I had to make an extra link for her to rip off as soon as we were done!