Father's Day

Father's day was pretty standard around here, but this year I was able to recruit the kids to help out too.  We started by making Curtis' favorite breakfast; biscuits and gravy, eggs, bacon and OJ.  The kids had lots of fun "helping".

After they placed the biscuits on the cookie sheet, they took to stirring the eggs

and the gravy

I was so proud of them for taking turns, they patiently counted to 10 and then switched turns all on their own. (I apologize for Kaylee's appearance here...we are potty training, another post for another time)

Then they set the table.  Nathan insisted that Curtis have this plastic heart champagne flute as his cup.

After the food was ready the kids ran upstairs to wake up Daddy and give him the cards they had made.

After breakfast it was off to church, where Nathan did an outstanding job singing with the Primary children in sacrament meeting.  In church they, of course, made several more cards for Curtis and came home with lots of candy for "him", or according to Nathan, "for him to share".

Later that evening the kids helped me make dinner and dessert, and best of all, they helped clean up the kitchen.

Nathan was just so excited about the cheesecake he had made for his daddy that he couldn't contain himself any longer.  He insisted on getting it out of the fridge himself to show Curtis...

That's what the 5 second rule is for right?  (Or more like the 95 second rule because I had to get out my camera to capture this moment first)

Happy Father's Day to the best Daddy I could dream up for these kiddos.

The Yard

When we bought our house the backyard was nothing but dirt.  Lots and lots of red, hard, clay-like dirt.  When Kaylee was born my parents came down to visit and my dad installed a sprinkler system for us, and then we laid down some sod.  This was the end result:

Definitely not a finished product, but it was nice to have some grass for Nathan to play on for the last year.  However, there was still tons of dirt, so I didn't let him play outside too much because I didn't want him tracking in the nasty red dirt. 

Several months back Curtis' uncle extended our patio and added some cement curbing around the grass.  The in May my dad, being the AMAZING dad that he is, came down to help us finish the rest of the yard.  We planted blackberry and raspberry bushes:

  

3 peach trees:

2 cherry trees, a plum tree, and strawberries:

an apricot tree:

some pretty flowers, and along the very back we have several grape vines:

And my personal favorite, a gigantic 8ft x 8ft sandbox for the kiddos:

We now just have one area left to complete, this will eventually be my vegetable garden:

Scanning the yard from left to right:

We love our yard now and spend most evenings sitting outside while the kids play!  Thanks Dad!!

The Party

Nathan is a little Cars obsessed these days so choosing a theme for his birthday party was simple.  

Sarge's Surplus of sweets (stop light rice crispy treats, "dipsticks" aka chocolate dipped pretzels).  

Of course it turned out to be INSANELY hot so chocolate was not too appetizing and a bit messy.

 7 gallons of liquid wasn't nearly enough for this crew on such a hot day.  Oops.

Kaylee carried that cup around with her for about an hour begging for more water, she was so hot :(

I made a few games for the kiddos to play.  First was pin the headlight on Mater:

 Oh yes, you saw that right, his fingers went from nose to mouth.  Typical Nathan.

Here's Nathan showing the other kids how to play.

These two older girls were the only ones who didn't cheat.  

 Next was the bean bag toss:

And then the mail event...races!

Nathan and his two best friends stayed well after all the other kids were done racing to have some of their own races.

After that it was off to "Ramone's House of Body Art" (manned by my friends Tianna and John) for some Cars tattoos

 And then there was "Luigi's" Pizza

After all the games and food the kids ran around the park for a bit until it was time for...

playing in the water!

Then finally, we had cake and opened presents.  Randi made Nathan this awesome cake!

Nathan wanted to sing happy birthday to himself solo, it was pretty dang cute.

which he LOVED.

Kaylee was going CRAZY playing with the balloons, I wish I had a video of it, it was hilarious!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!