Bees Game

The girls earned their marbles a few weeks ago and rather than do the old stand-by Troy gave them the option to go to a Bee's game as a family. It took them all of TWO seconds to agree and they were SOOOOOO excited! I had to laugh because I was pretty sure Hope and Caymbree had NO clue what a Bee's game even was.

I think they lasted all of twenty minutes before a little bit of boredom started to kick in.
And that's when we had to start pulling out all the tricks. You know.... spending a small fortune on treats...

Making a stop by the balloon lady...

And eventually moving out of our seats to the general admission grassy area to stretch and run around a bit.


Don't get me wrong. We all had a blast! We just had to modify it "girl-style". And BTW - for those close by looking for a great Family Fun night you can stop by Harmons and pick up a coupon for $3.00 tickets to Monday night games. It's a fun and inexpensive evening (as long as you by-pass the concession stands :).

Recovering

Sad to say but Yes I am still recovering after pulling an all nighter with these wonderful women whom I've known for over 15 years!!! Our yearly reunion always comes and goes way too fast but never disappoints in the laughter department. I'd tell you all the details but you know how it is... What goes on in the hotel room stays in the hotel room :). Till next year...

MISS CAYMBREE at age 3

I thought it would be fun to do a little photo shoot with Caymbree to document her 3rd birthday. Quickly ran into a little problem. THIS is what you get when you ask Caymbree to smile...Hilarious right? So after about 15 of these kind of pictures I started asking her to smile "softer". So I got this...

And this... I couldn't help but bust a gut. She was trying SOOOO hard but could just not seem to get that smile to cooperate. I actually love it. It's SO Caymbee!

Just a few things about our little miss Caymbree...

1) Currently OBSESSED with sticking out her tongue. Does not seem to be hindered by my continual threats. She is mastering the manipulation. Doesn't stick it out all the way just a little and then says "but mom! I's just tending! (Pretending).

2) Loves to mimic her sisters. Results in her using phrases like "boo-ya!" and "Use not the boss of me!" and "dat's annoying!".

3) Can play the DSi like it's nobody's business. NOT joking. It's a little scary actually.

4) My best helper yet. If there is a job to be done she is the FIRST one to volunteer and the last one to call it quits.

5) She has taken over the prayers around here. No one else is allowed to say it before meals unless SHE decides so.

6) Still knows just how to melt my heart with her frequent requests to "cuddle me" and "weed me a tory" and our bedtime routine of blowing kisses towards each other and her reaching out and yelling "caught it!"

7) Mastered tattle telling. Often times reports on insignificant events just to keep her skills in check such as "MOM, Hallee's walking around da house!". Good to know Caymbree. Good to know.

8) Still a sucker for her blanket and her fingers. Can't live without them.

9) Slowly easing up on her fear of swings and dogs/animals. Things getting better every day.

10) And last but not least, still has the ENTIRE family wrapped around her little finger!!!

We love you Caymbree Rose!

Happy Birthday Caymbree Rose!!!

You're invited to a BEACH PARTY for Miss Caymbree Rose!

Thanks JL for the great party idea complete with everything a 3 year old needs for pure BLISS!

BALLOONS

SPRINKLERS AND A POOL

SAND

(Note to self: Hiding gift bags in the sand and sending the kids equipped with buckets and shovels to search SOUNDS like the perfect party plan. Five minutes into the search when five kids STILL haven't found their prizes and the panic starts to set in it's starting to look like NOT the best idea. )

A COOLER FULL OF OTTER POPS and KOOL AID SQUEEZE ITS!

WATER BALLOONS

AND CUPCAKES!

I mean seriously. Who could ask for more? We invited families to come because to Caymbree Hope and Hallee's friends are just as much HER friends. 18 kids and 3 hours later and she was still smiling ear to ear. And on a side note can I just say WHOO-WHOO for summer birthdays! Made my job SOOOOOOOOOOO much easier!

BIRTHDAY BASH #2

After making the cupcakes for Caymbree's friend birthday I caught the cupcake craze and made a few more flavors for our family party. Some looked better than they tasted, other tasted better than they looked but it was fun to experiment with a few new flavors nonetheless.

{Banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting and chocolate swirls}

{Top: Chocolate cupcakes with burnt butter and marshmallow creme frosting

Bottom: Chocolate cupcakes filled with Bavarian cream topped with caramel and whipped cream Not pictured: Fun Fetti cupcakes with butter cream frosting and red velvet cupcakes made by my cousin Lorren}

My dad's birthday is a day before Caymbree's so it was a joint birthday bash!

Apparently all that frosting was just too tempting for my nephew Jayden and he gave my dad a little "present"...

Which resulted in this...
And then Hope joined in by shoving an entire cupcake into the BACK of my dad's head! Which resulted in this...
And this...

And of course Hallee and Troy had to get in on the fun as well!

Of course the cupcakes of choice were the ones with the best frosting. Good to know that the best tasting frosting DOUBLES as the best smothering frosting as well.

Cabin 2010

Same Place. Same Time. Another Year...

Same dirty faces...Same Amazing People...

{Yes, that's 19 kiddos ya got there :)}

And a few new friends too...

And always limitless fun...

{Rocket Launcher made by Uncle Brent}

A Minute to Win It!

My sister did all the prep work for our family to play "A Minute to Win it." It was the highlight of the vacation!

CHALLENGE: Start with an Oreo on your forehead. Using ONLY your face muscles move the oreo down your face and into your mouth in 60 seconds. {HI-LAR-I-OUS}

CHALLENGE: Suck an M&M up with a straw, run across the path and blow it into a bowl. {EXTREMELY DIFFICULT! This was actually the winning game because only ONE person pulled it off. }
CHALLENGE: Dip your nose into a place of vaseline and then a plate of cotton balls. Run across the path and then shake cotton ball off onto plate. NO HANDS CAN BE USED. {I think this was the one of the challenges I actually passed. Pathetic I know.}

CHALLENGE: Put a stocking over your head with a baseball in the foot. Using only your body sway the balls side to side and knock over all water bottles lined up on sides. {Looks easy doesn't it. Ya it was for must. Not sure what my problem was. Although getting my hosiery twisted up with my cousins did NOT help the matter and lost me valuable time!}

CHALLENGE: Using ONLY your mouth pick up various cut sizes of paper bags off the ground and put them up on a table. {Had a few pulled muscles on this one}
Troy did pretty darn good till he got to the tiny bag on the end. The result...

All I'm gonna say is that I gotta start stretching more. Yoga anyone?

It was so much fun and I have a entire file full of pictures of my cousins to use as blackmail someday. Let's just say the oreo challenge created some pretty great pictures.

FIREWORKS!!!!

If we are going to get all decked out in our RED WHITE AND BLUE then there sure as heck better be a photo shoot right?

The fireworks posed an interesting dilemma this year, one that we hadn't faced before. For as long as I can remember we have always had a front row seat to the fireworks from my parents backyard. With their impending move we turned in our seats.

With so many toddlers in the family going into the stadium with the heat and the crowds and HOURS to wait we decided against that option and created our own. Jim and Amanie offered their home for our own personal firework display.

The kids LOVED it!

We then ran to the cars drove up the hill and sat on top of our cars to watch the Stadium fireworks in the distance.