Birthday girl!

Nora turned 7 in August! And let me tell you - this girl LOVES her birthday!

The morning started off with her favorite breakfast - dinosaur oatmeal!

After breakfast she opened up her first gift - roller blades! She loves to skate and has been cramming her feet in to a pair of size 10 skates we got at the thrift store over a year ago (she wears a size 12/13). We all roller bladed down to a park near our house, the girls even talked Brian in to wearing his and a great time was had by all (especially by me when I beat Brian in a roller-blade race.... once he was more used to his roller-blades he beat me soundly, but at least I won once!)

After lunch she opened the present she wanted most of all. Kit's reporter set from American Girl. It is adorable with lots of small pieces, I'm really hoping my messy, disorganized sweetie can keep track of them all!

Brian was on Wesley duty during the party:

Sophie planned a few games for when the friends came over. I felt kind of  bad because so many of Nora's friends were on vacation this weekend. But I was happy with having 3 out of 7 come! :)

Yummy cupcakes!
 

Silly friends!

 We played a balloon/fly swatter game and searched for "rocks" and broke them open to find treasures:

and we made bracelets/necklaces and decorated bags:

After dinner we had strawberry shortcake

Happy Birthday Nora Gracie Girl!

At bedtime we surprised her with one more present - Kit's dog "Grace". She was pretty excited about it! It was a great day celebrating our energetic, spunky, quirky, sweet Nora Grace.

Here are some facts about Nora at age 7:

She climbs on everything and anything remotely climb-able

She loves to craft

She needs lots of physical attention - hugs, snuggles, kisses

She is a happy, silly girl with the cutest laugh

You absolutely cannot tell Nora that you are going to do something (like go to the park, library, watch a movie, etc.) because if you don't do what you say - there will be serious DRAMA.
Nora likes to read, but would usually rather sit with paper, stickers, scissors and glue than with a book
Nora has a pretty good "Wisconsin accent" If you know how that sounds imagine her saying this sentence, "I only have half a sandwich in my bag" and it's pretty funny. If you don't know how that sounds then you are missing out. I should record her saying it!
She still sleeps with Teddy every night and when she is sad or scared she needs to hold Teddy.
We love this girl so much and are proud of her! Happy Birthday!

T-Ball

 

Miles was part of a t-ball team here from May to July. He mostly had a great time. It was at a park just a block from our home so that was awesome. (That smile is one of my most favorite things ever).

Wesley and the girls loved playing on the playground while Miles played t-ball. (Okay, that smile is also one of my most favorite things ever.)

Run, run, run!!

Nora has to play on all the playground equipment in completely the wrong ways. I've had to get after her a few times because little kids will try to copy her and their parents will get upset. So the rule is if other people are at the playground she has to play "normally". If we are the only ones there she can play on it however she likes! Sophie came with us every time as well, but was off with her friends so I don't think I got any pictures of her. 

This was the first (and only) time he actually got the ball when someone hit it. He was so excited he just kept showing it to us instead of throwing it to first base. But hey, it's t-ball, right?

Cute t-ball boy! His hair is longer than it has ever been and every day it's torturing me not to buzz it. But I'm trying to see how it looks a little longer. I doubt it will last too long because the back pokes straight up still, just like it did when he was a baby. Sweet, funny boy. It was fun watching Miles play his first organized sport. Here is the whole team (Miles is in the front row, bottom left):

9 great years

Sophie turned 9 in July. Wow! The day started off with an early morning walk down to the lake with me. It was fun to chat with her and enjoy a beautiful morning together. Then we came home and made a strawberry danish for breakfast. Later that day we had a few friends over to do a craft, play some games and have cupcakes and ice cream. It was nice and relaxing. I didn't stay up late decorating an elaborate cake or making fancy shmancy decorations for the party or anything. And guess what? She had a fabulous day! I thought it was awesome that the girls all did the games themselves and then they found a toad in the backyard that they played with for half the time. For her gift from us she got the Marie-Grace American Girl doll. I am a big fan of only having one special doll and just getting stuff to go with that one doll, but Sophie really wanted Marie-Grace and she had the money to pay for half of it. So..... she got her. And she was thrilled. It was a fun day celebrating the sweet, fun, caring, dramatic, silly, stubborn, loveable, one-of-a-kind girl she is! 

We are so lucky to have her. 

 

 

A few Sophie facts at age 9:

She still loves to read, read, read.

She loves Calvin & Hobbes and I can hear her in bed at night laughing really hard when she is reading it and it makes me smile. 

She is an amazing helper!

She loves to write stories and is pretty good at it, very detailed and funny.

She wants to be an author when she grows up (and a mom).

She loves her 2 American Girl dolls and often sleeps with both of them.

She wants to be more independent (like walk to school by herself and stay home alone, etc.) but that's a few more years away for me!

She can get very silly!

We are so proud of her and the good choices she is making and what a sweetheart she is.

We love having company!

The Huff family came to see us! We had a GREAT time having them here. It's fun having company because it gives you a reason to be a tourist in your own town :) We fit a lot of fun things in, as well as had some nice down time hanging out at home together.

Eating at the table together...

We went to our two favorite parks - this one is what we call the "Blue Park" (good name, right?) I believe Ava is having a sand issue in this picture! :) We also walked to the "Dream Park" on a super hot/humid day so the kids didn't have quite as much energy to play, but it was fun! Here is Wesley's red, sweaty face:

 
The kids playing at home:

 

Here's the girls eating some homemade ice cream. Yum!

Isaac really liked Brian, they started a secret handshake or something where they'd wave both of their hands up and down and say "da da da da" Pretty cute.

The kids playing in the family room.

When we got home from our outings Miles and Owen would make a bee-line to the cars and start playing again right where they left off (they didn't even bother to change out of their swimsuits this time!)

Playing in the backyard. Ava really liked Scooter and liked running with him and holding his leash.

The kids (minus the babies) all slept in the girls room and were up pretty late every night - but had a wonderful time!
Of course we had to go to Ella's Deli and order a giant sundae and ride the carousel!

Yummy!

That's a big spoon!

On the Carousel

This was an attempt at a family picture in front of Ella's Deli,  obviously no one else was too interested!
We went hiking at Devils Lake and then for a swim afterwards. It was SO humid this day we were so sweaty and gross the lake felt great - even though it was warm water - which was weird. I'm still wondering why it was so warm??

Crazy face Nora (look at Owen looking at her!)
 

Isaac fell asleep on the way down! Not pictured is the huge sweat mark on Matt from where Isaac was being carried. It was impressive!

There were lots of overlooks and fun rocks.

Here's the kids on elephant rock.

 

On our way to Devils Lake we take a ferry across a lake to get there. It is free and runs all the time.

 

I think the biggest drama we had from the kids was deciding who was riding where. It got pretty funny at times with us trying to keep everyone happy and moving car seats here and there.

 Emily and I took the kids to the Madison Children's Museum, which was pretty fun. Owen got lost once and that was a bit scary, but Emily found him pretty quickly.

We did some other fun things; Emily and I went to the American Girl Doll Sale and Matt and Brian went to a house concert at a place called, "Kiki's House of Righteous Music" featuring Matt the Electrician. They had low expectations but ended up having a great time!
We also went to our amazing free zoo in Madison:
 
 
We drove to Lake Ripley, which is about 20 minutes away, and had a great time playing in the lake and on the playground there.
 

We stayed up to watch the fireflies come out and the kids all caught one in a jar. It was fun to see Owen and Ava see them for the first time. They are so magical (I mean the fireflies, not Owen and Ava.... although they are magical too!) Unfortunately we didn't have too many out when they were here, I think because of the heat wave we had the week before. A few weeks before the visit I walked across the lawn and counted 30 fireflies. But it was still fun and I'm glad there were a few still out!

 

Excited kiddos!

We went to church twice and it was fun for the Huff's to come and meet some of the members of our ward and experience our.... unique and fun ward :)
We went to the Farmer's Market on the Capitol Square right downtown Madison. It was a lot of fun and then we took a little self tour of the Capitol. We went as far up as we could go and walked around outside the dome. The best part was when we were in the Capitol walking around Emily turns to me and says, "So is Madison the capitol of Wisconsin?" Haha! Why, yes it is! Awesome.

The kids had a blast doing this on the Capitol until some security guard told them to stop. Lame. I was just about to hop up there myself before he got there!

Nora and Ava planned a little program with skits, songs and dancing from all. Oh, and cupcakes for treats. It was fun stuff:

 The Huff's also went up to campus to check it out and sample the ice cream there. (We think MSU's was better!)

Now just some random pictures: 

painting nails...

One of my kids' favorite pasttimes..... sitting on the deck rail. I know someone is going to break something one of these days.

Sophie loved holding Isaac... well, who doesn't?

Owen Road is pretty close to our house so we get to think about Owen every time we drive on it!

The kids playing in the pool.... I believe this is Sophie pretending to sing in the shower.

Two cuties with their Care Bears and matching hair-do's.

 Aaaaaaahhhhh...... movie time! Peace and quiet for about 10 minutes.

Wow!! Writing down all we did makes me wonder how the heck we fit it all in - and with 7 kids! But I don't feel like we were rushing around all the time or anything, so I think it was the perfect mix. Thanks for coming Huff's! We look forward to next time!