We Like to Rock!

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Abbie

Occasionally, we’ll turn on some good Christian praise music and have at it. And this is what the kids do:

He’s four ya’ll. I’m no guitar expert but at four, I didn’t know how to hold a guitar…and he even plays chords on it and strums up and down. Do they make guitars small enough for a four year old?

Ceili Rain getting down!

And Bryant just thinks we all flipped our lid.

This rockin’ out session was provided by NeedtoBreathe who’s music we’ve been enjoying on their website (and they didn’t pay me to say that and I have no idea why NeedtoBreathe is all one word but it is. I’m goingtostartrightinglikethat Okayit’slate.). I will also say that our favorite songs are “Slumber” and “The Outsiders.”

Speaking of Rockin’ Out. Mark caught Josiah on tape doing Just Dance Kids! Let’s just say it’s fun-ny!

Happy Birthday Ace!

Posted on August 12, 2011 by Abbie

Ace got to celebrate his birthday a week early when his cousins came to visit with Ge and Granddaddy. Granddaddy and Ge totally knocked the birthday gift out of the park. They got Ace a pair of real walkie talkies. They were in heaven for over a week.

Now, Ace’s birthday party was the same day as Bryant’s birthday. That may seem cruel but Bryant didn’t seem to mind (or even realize). Ace’s birthday is three days after Bryant’s thus the thought to double up for a little while. I was not pregnant when we planned his party but it just so happened that I was. Several months before his birthday, our local daily deal site ran a deal with Putt-Putt. It was much like Liam’s bowling party in that it included stuff for up to six people. So, we grabbed two of them. For as long as they could stand it Ace, his siblings, his daddy, and his friends had a blast in the game area (20 tokens for each kid), putt putt (in 100+ degree weather), bumper boats, and laser tag. It was awesome! And cheap! I was happy about the cheap part. Basically, we spent about an 1/8th of the cost of actually renting a party room and doing it through Putt-Putt. I know that is cheap but it so worked! After not finding some friends for an hour, everyone gathered together and had a good time. They even outlasted the parents and we ran the Crimson Caravan Commuter after the kids were all pooped out.

Ace requested a carrot cake. I found these cute laser tag printouts for cheap on etsy. Yeah, I could have made them, but the baby in my growing belly said to just buy them. So I did. And luckily for us, none of the kids liked the “spicy” birthday cake…so it was all ours…and yummy!

The laser tag teams. Papa’s team lost but all the kids could talk about for a long time was Papa playing laser tag with them. They thought that was pretty awesome!

He had such a good time! And that was our goal.

I have no idea what it was but it was worth catching flies over!

Thanks Papa and Grandmere! Our new car trip family favorite (and rest time too)…Jonathan Park! We love it!

Mark’s Buddy! Just ignore the food in Mark’s mouth. He was chowing down.

Bumper Boats! They shot water which was perfect for finishing up Extreme Heat Putt Putt.

Bryant got to watch from the sidelines. Upside down. (Not really…sorry about that).

Any guesses how old Ace is now?

On Ace’s actual birthday, he got to skip school, open gifts from family, have pj day, and watch a movie. I didn’t get a picture of what we actually gave him but I will at some point.

Happy Birthday my sweet Ace-Man. Our gift from God!

The Rest of July

Posted on July 29, 2011 by Abbie

We preformed plays in the hallway…

Decorated Josiah’s trains.

Had a brief visit with cousins.

Isn’t my niece is just beautiful!? She bribed her cousin with cookies and it worked.

Celebrated Daddy’s birthday (that’s 32…three candles, two in the next row). And it’s peach cobbler.

And Josiah enjoyed riding his birthday gift. A bike.

Free Food!

Posted on July 28, 2011 by Abbie

Of course we didn’t pass up the free food from Chick-fil-a this year! No way would we do that. I’ve just been delayed in getting this up.

Our Carr Friends did it right this year with reuseable shirts! We’re so doing that next year. Our spots wouldn’t stay on this year and our ears were a bit floppy…see???

But we still had some cute cows this year.

The Invasion

Posted on July 27, 2011 by Abbie

The Transue Summer Invasion happened at the beginning of July. They got here in time for a quick cook out and rainy fireworks on the 4th and then the week was full of lots of fun activities…

like blueberry picking!

Isn’t he the cutest three year old?!

We also enjoyed a get together with “friends of the Transues.” The girls helped get ready by decorating two flag cakes. They were super yummy too!

Shortly after this picture Miss Maggie left Mr. John a present. It was not pretty.

We kept the kids so busy they just couldn’t stay awake to finish supper.

Reunited…

Posted on July 16, 2011 by Abbie

This year we were able to make it to the first of family reunions. We’re hoping to attend at least one more, possibly two if my side does it again. This is a great opportunity for me to meet relatives and hear stories about “the good ole days,” which I love!

So, here’s a photo dump of our day at a reunion we attended in June.

Before the reunion, we were reunited with the oldest two as Grandparent Camp came to an end. I was so excited to have my oldest two “babies” back. They celebrated by calling us Grandmere and Papa the whole weekend…and we still took them back home with us.

The younger kids enjoyed picking veggies from Papa’s garden.

And these next series of pictures I just have to comment on. They are too funny not to!

Bryant: Hey Papa, what’s so surprising???

Bryant: Oh, I see the bright light…that’s just mom, she does that all the time. What’s up mom?!

Bryant: Okay, mom, we’re done posing you can stop…any. time. now.

Bryant: Alright…just one more!

Sweet cuddle love ! (Note: This was the weekend before we found out #7 was on the way. This was also the weekend, I had massive heartburn that woke me up and had me up for a little while. And, I kept trying to figure out, this same weekend, why I just felt a little blah…the answer came the following Monday! You’d think I would know the symptoms by now…it was the heartburn that threw me for a loop)

Sweet Sibling Love! (aka Partners in Crime)

Bryant was very interested in another little girl there. She’s a cousin.

Ceili Rain thought she was adorable too.

Dirt. A girl’s best friend. Okay, a girl with three older brothers.

Swings can be pretend fliers

Sticks are pretty cool too.

This is his model stance.

And his sweet smile, Model pose.

Bryant standing. By himself. Pay no attention to his beautiful black eye. It’s healed nicely and he now knows how to climb down the two steps in our home.

First Annual Grandparent Camp

Posted on July 15, 2011 by Abbie

On Father’s Day weekend, we packed up the two oldest (aka the Helpers) and sent them off with Papa and Grandmere for the first ever Grandparent Camp. They were super excited and Grandmere and Papa made the week extra special. Meanwhile, back at our camp there was a countdown to when we could get the siblings back. They were missed by their brothers, sister, and the parental figures as well.

They got very cold in a cold creek.

Visited a falls…

Rode a train.

Visited cousins (which I think was the highlight of the trip).

Cousin J showed Zoe the ropes of the farm…

And his garden.

And vineyard (muscadines, I’ve been told).

And pretended to ride some kind of large construction vehicle.

And Ace swung on a tire swing (a big highlight).

They also helped Papa in the garden and enjoyed the fruit (or rather veggies) of their labors.

A big thanks to Papa for taking all these fine pictures with his phone and emailing them to us throughout the week!

Father’s Day Weekend

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Abbie

So, Father’s Day weekend we had planned for Mark’s parents to come up so that Papa could help finish up the deck. That was the plan.

That’s not what happened. Mark, who was not on call. Got a call from work (which never happens) and had to go to work on Saturday. I was committed to volunteer at a home school used book sale so that left his parents to watch the kids.

Fortunately, Mark only had to work in the morning and was able to get home and get to the wood store and back home to get up some railing before it started pouring rain!

Before the rain, the men were checking the radar on their “smart” phones.

And Sunday dawned beautiful and bright (and hot) and everyone actually looked at the camera for pictures!

And Ceili Rain posed with Papa.

Happy Independence Day!

Posted on July 2, 2011 by Abbie

Yes, I know I’m two days early but I didn’t want to forget as we have friends who will be here all week! And I’m one happy camper.

So, for the 4th we will be joyfully busy.

And my daughters will be decked out in the most adorable outfits. At least I think they are:

Yeah, it’s still keeping the pictures turned. I’ll show how I made this skirt in a sec…but first, the youngest from the Bunch…

This was my second attempt at a pillowcase dress and, I must say, it succeeded!

So, here’s how I made Zoe’s skirt. After making the pillowcase dress, I didn’t have enough material to make a twirl skirt for Zoe. So, I brainstormed. And remembered that I was holding on to two blue jean legs that I had cut off last year to make shorts for Zoe. I knew they would make a cute skirt but wasn’t sure how to use them. And then this project came up:

I cut the legs apart and then folded them in half.

I placed the denim on the fabric on the fold and cut out two more panels to match the pants panels. I also made sure they had a bit of a triangle shape to add to some twirl (which is a requirement from Zoe).

Then I just sewed (actually serged…woohoo…I have a serger now) the panels together, made casing for elastic and then sewed the ribbon on the bottom. Tada!

And my wonderful “critic” and “advisor” loved it!

Pickin…

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Abbie

Our pastor’s wife planned a trip to a local blueberry patch and when the owners said the more kids the merrier, we signed up! Some of the local u-pick places do not like having children running through their land (understandably). But these people didn’t mind. And they didn’t seem to mind after we finished picking and eating blueberries and making multiple trips to their toilet and drinking up all their water.

I apologize, in advance for all these sideways photos. I’m not sure what is up with blogger. I have checked, and double checked, and I have rotated the pictures and saved them but some how they flip when I upload them. So, just turn your head.

A beautiful pond, and because they have 16 grandchildren, there is a nice big fence all the way around the pond! Woohoo for grandparents!

She actually did pick more than that…but she was amazed at how well she did at the start!

Yes, I made them wear the yellow shirts…even though our group was the only ones there. I never had trouble spotting them.

All their hard work earned great rewards though. We got one large bucket of blueberries and about half a bucket of blackberries. And they were all yummy too! And still are. I froze most of the blueberries and we take out as needed!

Just a Bunch of Characters

Musings of everyday life in a house full of Characters.

Tag Archives: Ace