Nolan's Party at Gramma Cruise's

On Sunday, we celebrated Nolan's birthday with Grandma Cruise

There are always a lot of helpers when it comes time to open gifts...

He got a ball and bat that were just his size.

He also got a new bike!!! He LOVED it!!! What a big boy.

The kids played outside the whole time, it was a beautiful day!

There's a lot of fun things to play outside at Grandma Judy's house


We even saw a toad, he was really cool


After a lot of fun and playing, we headed in for some dinner before church. Grandma got Nolan his favorite: McDonald's. At church, the whole congregation sang Nolan "Happy Birthday", it was a really special day for everyone!

Nolan's 3rd Birthday

On Friday, Nolan turned 3 years old!!! We can hardly believe it, he is growing up so fast. When Nolan woke up, Mommy had the Living Room filled with his favorite thing...balloons!!!

Nolan wanted to tape the balloons to the wall, so I decided to teach him about the power of static electricity. We rubbed the balloons on our heads until we had every last one of them stuck on the wall. Nolan thought it was hilarious.

Look Mom, no tape!

Here we are with our balloon hair!

After our fun inside with balloons, we decided to take them outside. Nolan's best friend Maddy came over and played with him. They have a mostly love/sometimes hate relationship (hugging above, fighting below).

When the girls came home from school, they had each made Nolan a birthday gift. This one is from Natalie.

This one is from Kendall.

He was a happy boy!

For dinner, Mom made all of Nolan's favorite: steak, pasta, corn and rolls.

Cheers to 3 years!

We finished up with birthday cupcakes.

Nolan is a professional when it comes to blowing out birthday candles...he blows out everyone else's candles on their birthdays!

Kristen and Shauna came over for cupcakes, it was nice to see them.

Happy Birthday my big boy!!!

Our Garden

We were late as usual, but we started our garden for the year. We chose Oriental Poppies, Zinnias, and Four O'Clocks (all high sun) for our flowers this year. Last year we grew Hollyhocks and 2 foot tall Marigolds (they were mosterous)...we are hoping for another successful garden this year!

Every year, we start our seeds in an egg carton. The girls did all of the work.

They kids were very careful with our soil and seeds.

Do you see green on their thumbs?

These are the seeds the kids planted for me on Mother's day. They are Mini Sunflowers and Pansies.

Mom and Dad planted a couple of seeds in our garden. Daddy planted a couple of flowers that Mom got from Grandma Cruise on Mother's Day. We saved plenty of room for our little seedlings to move into when they are ready!

Kendall got a little gardening practice at school, too! This is "Mr. G (Green Grass)...Kendall planted and grew him at Kindergarten. Isn't he adorable??? Natalie also grew Mom a bean plant for Mother's day. It is currently growing in Grandma Cruise's garden (she has all of the equiptment).

Stay tuned for more oh so exciting garden updates!!!

May 31st was Grandma Cruise's birthday. She doesn't like having her picture taken, and because it was her birthday we didn't make her. We had a nice day over at her house. We had hamburgers and hotdogs on the grill and the played in the yard.

Nolan rode just about everything that Grandma had at her house.

a car...

a little bike...

and a bigger bike...he is ready for a bike of his own!

Natalie played on the slide...

and fell down the slide (she was okay)

We had a great day, Happy Birthday Grandma Cruise!!!!

Memorial Day

This Memorial Day, we had a blast! It was a very busy day for us. Unfortunately, Daddy and Nolan were home sick. The girls still went out and had a really fun day!

We started our day out with a softball game. The Cruise family has enough people for two full teams. The game was really close the whole time, but our team ended up losing by 1 point (after 4 hours!). Mom and Natalie hit very well...and Mom was actually sore in the morning.

After the game, everyone was very hot. It was time for the kids to swim! Natalie and Kendall were so excited to swim.

After a long swim, the kids decided to dry off and dance on the picnic table...this went on for a lot of the evening.

All the softball, swimming, and dancing sure made us work up an appetite. We feasted on chicken and beef speedies, salt potatoes, salad, and fruit! It was really yummy!

After dinner, we had some live entertainment and games! It was a very exhausting and fun day!

Happy Memorial Day!