Family Focused: Good Times!

We enjoyed our fun-filled weekend with two birthday parties and an early Easter dinner.

10:25 am, Saturday

Gee, wasn’t Saturday morning just beautiful? We made it to our first birthday party in Medford okay; the roads weren’t too terrible, just a little slick in some spots. Morgan Lavin, a daycare buddy of Carter’s, was having her birthday party at the Sports Page. We met everyone by the bowling alley first. It didn’t take very long and the three musketeers (Carter, Talan & Dawson – our August boys) were all over each other wrestling, pushing, smacking…..all for fun, of course! All the girls were sitting opposite of these monsters on the bench seat across from them, sitting all prim and proper and, get this….they were “t a l k i n g”; and they weren’t calling each other butthead or telling each other that they stink either. Quite a difference! No matter how many times Liz and I told the boys to calm down, it just didn’t register. It’s been a while since all three boys have been together at the same time, so this was a nice treat for them. The whole time, Jay just kept telling me, “Just let them be….” Yet I didn’t want to let him be disrespectful to others. I guess even though I budded in a little here and there, he still had a great time! I still wonder how Linda Nuernberger watched all three of these boys at the same time, from infants on, plus had her other daycare children also. Kudos to her for surviving that! Happy 5^th Birthday, Morgan! You’re still a cutie!

Trouble....Talan, Carter & Dawson

Birthday girl, Morgan

Dawson & Carter

Carter getting some bowling tips from Dad

Talan

Dawson & Carter

Carter & Morgan

Talan, Dawson & Carter
Love this one!

Morgan getting ready to blow out her candles

Grandma Linda trying to calm Talan :-)

Carlee enjoying the cake

Morgan and Carter eating birthday cake

Morgan and Kayla in the arcade

Carter & Jay having fun at the arcade

Couldn't leave without a picture of Grandma Linda and Carter

Carlee and me

2:00ish pm, Saturday

Onto our next birthday party in Brantwood….the roads were just wet by then, so the trip went smoothly. I called my sister to tell her we could meet at the Prentice truck stop at 2:30 so I could hand over Wilbur (our Easter ham) because we were going to be spending the night at the Heikkinen’s. At 2:28, Jay and I are laughing because we see a Ford mini-van coming around the corner on two wheels. Seriously, she was going pretty fast….lol She’s already stressing over how much time everything is taking. (She’s really funny!) Back on the road again and we are finally arriving to our destination of the day. Thankfully, we made it up the driveway without getting stuck or going in the ditch (sorry, Beep). Of course, the joke is always about Jay giving Jer a hard time about the driveway, so when we arrive and seen the buckets, we had a good laugh. (I think this trip all around gave Jay and me some good memories because we sure laughed a lot. J) Thirty minutes later J, we were finally visiting with some great friends! Ty and Carter went their way, Trent was showing me all sorts of things, Beeper and I had some nice conversations, and the big boys left to milk cows at Bob’s. Jay was oddly excited about going to another barn. Guess he doesn’t get enough of it here and he doesn’t see enough barns at work! CHUCK got STUCK in the MUCK! Poor Chuck…felt bad because I told Juli to text him to make sure he came to the party. I haven’t seen Juli & Chuck in quite a while, so it was nice visiting with them a bit as well as everyone else too. 10:00 – kids are still awake! Trying to put Carlee down to sleep somewhere she hasn’t slept before was rough….so we all ended up going to bed at the same time. Didn’t really find anything that would soothe her, but she finally tired herself so much, she was finally out. (Through all of her crying, my wonderful sleeper Carter slept through the whole shebang). I felt so bad knowing Piper was in the room right next to us….poor girl. Unfortunately, it didn’t end there…, she woke crying 3 more times – yay! Are we having fun yet?

So I wish Ty a happy birthday one more time before we left on Sunday morning, and I thank him for letting us sleep in his room. His reply, “Yeah, I had to.” Too funny!

Just havin' fun on the way to the next birthday party. I got yelled at for
taking off my seatbelt from the little boy in the back. (He's too much like me.)

Trent, Piper, Jay & Jer

Carlee singing something.

Barn boys, Jer & Jay

Juli & me

Piper

Flying Carlee

Kids playing

me and Beeper

Ty opening up presents

Kids playing

She's not crying Aunt Juli

6:00ish, Sunday morning:

Just decided to get up because Carlee just wasn’t going to lie back down. L Our fantastic host made us breakfast, the kids played for a while, the barn boys were playing with tractors and trailers outside, and by 9:30 we were on our way to the next household. While we were headed to Angie’s in Phillips, she was on her way to church. Really?? I know it’s something she does every Sunday, but she’s doing dinner and she’s already stressed out. Boy oh boy, I know what’s coming… Jay, the kids and I get all settled in, and in walks Angie and her clan of kids with my Dad and Nadine. They all went to church and had a great service. Probably within 5 minutes, Angie was running in all directions and in her words, she “didn’t know where to start”. Yep….here it is….this is what I expected… So my dad and I had to jump in to help and calm her little hind end down. She did just fine! Wilbur and the rest of the food was excellent. Great job, Ang! Carter, Carlee, Hanna and Emma trashed the room with toys galore, but they had a lot of fun. We shared stories of past events like Angie and Erin Koch pickin’ on poor Bobby when he was very little or when Jesse Barnes would walk in Prentice with a big ‘ole boom box packed up on his shoulders listening to the Beastie Boys.

I sure got my share of laughs this weekend!