Nate's 6th Birthday Part 2

Nate has waited his whole life for a big birthday blowout. He has always had small family birthdays with Steve's and my friends in attendance. That was always what he asked for, but not this year. He didn't know what he wanted, he just knew he wanted it to be awesome.

We set up the obstacle course early for our own personal entertainment.

 There's Kathryn... in her bathing suit. That's all she wears these days.

 Crazy kids.

 Then more friends started arriving.

Paw-Paw and Lady worked hard keeping a bunch of six year olds in order on the slide. They definitely earned their cupcakes.

Then we set up our little bouncy castle for the little brothers and sisters who tagged along to keep them safe. Sure enough though, as soon as they big kids saw this one, they rushed it.

 Man, that bouncy castle is tough. It survived a kindergarten rush.

 Nate surrounded by his friends.

 Cupcake time!

 Nate surrounded by hungry friends.

 Nate with his friends Adler and Conner.

Taking a much needed break after the party guests went home.

It was the adults turn after the kids left. Mommy vs. Nate

Steve vs. Megan

Paw-Paw vs. Nate

Paw-Paw vs. Nate again. He does pretty good at keeping up with Nate considering there is a 56 year age difference!

This one is the absolute best video ever. I think Paw-Paw and Lady enjoyed the party just as much as the kindergarteners!

Resting. We were all exhausted after the party, so I don't know how Nate survived. He started the day off with soccer practice at 9 a.m., after that he had a quick picnic lunch in the back of the truck before his baseball game started at 11 a.m. After that he came home for a little while before his friends showed up for the party. We even extended the party because no one was ready to go home. Nate didn't want his friends to leave any more than they wanted to leave. Then we continued playing throughout the night because Steve and I had had more people over to hang out. 

I definitely hope Nate enjoyed his birthday party as much as we did. We ranked it #2 in family birthday parties, which is exceptional considering Paw-Paw's 60th birthday party will most likely never be topped.

Nate's 6th Birthday Part 1

Nate has been talking about his 6th birthday since he turned five years old. He decided he wanted a big birthday celebration for the big 6. The problem was he changed his mind every couple of days about where he wanted to have the party. I finally made plans for a birthday party at home (am I brave or what?) with a giant bouncy obstacle course. Unfortunately, we didn't get to have the big party until April 20 because the really big inflatables were booked closer to his birthday. He did get to take cupcakes to school on the Friday before his birthday though.

This is what Nate the five year old looked like on the night of April 6, 2013.

 This is what Nate the newly six year old looked like when he woke up the morning of April 7, 2013.

Here he is on his actual birthday just having a small celebration with family.

 Checking out his new iPod Touch.

Even more exciting, we walked down to the marina to buy cans of pop because we didn't have any at our house and I promised him he could drink pop on his birthday.

 Kathryn too.

Then we Skyped with Uncle Joe and Paw-Paw and Lady because they all wanted to wish the birthday boy a happy birthday.

 Looks like this alone would have been a pretty good birthday, but there's more!

Spring Break with Paw-Paw and Lady 2013

The kids and I handed our beautiful beaches over to the college kids for spring break and left town. We get to enjoy them all the time so we went to Paw-Paw and Lady's house for spring break. While we were there Paw-Paw and Lady took the kids out for some fun.

They went to a trampoline park.

Nate hit the jackpot at Chuck E. Cheese's. He and Kathryn walked in the house with giant lollipops, a bunch of cheap junk and best of all, Kathryn walked in all blinged out with plastic jewelry her brother got for her. So sweet.

We visited Great Grandma Gerken.

Unfortunately, Grandma doesn't have many toys in her room, but Kathryn made do with what she did have. She entertained herself by climbing on the shower chair.

Lady bought the kids glow sticks to play with at bedtime.

 These pictures were taken in the dark. They were waving them all around.

 Kathryn is hilarious.

Nate was quite the artist during this visit. He drew pictures of everything from Paw-Paw watching TV to Mace at the vet about to be put to sleep. Very interesting artwork.

 Probably stole Brother's DS from him.

After all these years Nate is still playing with this old fan. This time he was spinning it around really fast and throwing polished stones in it to watch them go flying. And this game was okay with Paw-Paw and Lady even with their glass fireplace right there. No wonder kids love going to their grandparents' house.

 Some backyard fun.

 Cute little runner.

 Lady loving on her puppy.

 Paw-Paw took a break to show Mace some love before going back out to play with Nate and Kate.

 They played backyard football.

 Nate shows no mercy when playing with Paw-Paw.

 Sharing some crackers with Mace during his final days.

 Family picture.

 Building with blocks.

What sweet siblings.

We always have fun at Paw-Paw and Lady's house.

Happy Easter

We missed all the excitement of having family at our house this Easter, but we managed to have a fun, low key day anyway.

 Loving each other directly after church. Unfortunately, the love didn't last longer than the parking lot.

 Getting ready for the egg hunt.

And they're off...

 Racing around the yard for eggs.

 Little Mack followed them around.

 It's a major competition.

Last year all the kids sat in this same spot and started cracking open their eggs and eating the candy. Same thing happened again this year. I guess this is the official Easter candy eating spot in the yard.

 After Nate saw Kathryn holding Mack, he wanted his picture taken with him too.

 Then I wanted my picture with him too.

 Then Steve decided he wanted his picture with Mack, as well. Popular dog these days.

 Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!