Skate Birthday Party...

It was fun to be able to celebrate 6 birthday parties with a fun skate night theme.  The kids were able to burn off a little of that winter energy with hours of skating in the basement.   We attempted to buy black lights and have everything glowing in the dark, however the bulbs were an epic fail.  I think between the disco ball, music player and 200 glow sticks it was a success for the kids. 

 The adults even came in glowing colors for the fun :o)

I forgot to take a picture of the yummy food table with Coney dogs, Loaded nachos and sloppy joes! 

Sledding....

Sam and I sled riding with my nieces and nephews in January 2009 - 9 months pregnant with Pink Bean. Sadly it did not put me into labor, but we had a wonderful time. 

Also we get to celebrate our first snow today of the winter season. 

Easter Hop Along

Long lost update from Easter Good Friday hop along day with the Hartzler cousins. Last year we did a hop along event day for the kids at Easter time.    So again on Good Friday we planned a hop along day for the kids. The theme this year was "JESUS".  Each stop we did a letter and had a game or activity for the kids.

You can click on this link to view last years...

http://sjgardner.blogspot.com/2012/04/good-friday-040611.html

First stop was "J" at Grandma Hartzler house.  This was J for Jesus. Grandma served the kids a bag of gold fish, had the kids sing songs about Fishers of men, then she had a pool full of fish for the kids to go fishing in. 

Here is the Hartzler Cousins at the First stop...

Being Fishers of Men....

Lil Green Bean just wanted to sit in the pool... he wasn't sure about all the fishing...

Next Stop was the Steiners.  Julie had the letter "E" for teaching the kids about Easter.  Julie hid the resurrections eggs in her basement.  The kids had to find the eggs and then pieces from inside the egg in order of the how the story went.  This was a great game for ALL the ages of kids.  Julie served the kids fresh squeezed GRAPE juice.  It was amazing! 

The kids putting the story in order...

Green Bean had a little tea party with Grandma H. while the kids play the game. 

Next stop was at Grandma Bonnie house.  We provided an Easter Lunch pale and have the letter "S" for stone and we talked about the stone being rolled away and Jesus resurrection. 

Here are all the girl cousins...

Here were all the boy cousins...

had to share of us always trying to take pictures of everything :"o)

Grandma Bonnie made ham and cheese sandwiches made out of tie die Easter bread, then we filled plastic eggs with food.  One with Grapes, One with Pretzels and One with M&M's, Yogurt Stick and a water bottle.  Grandma Bonnie even made cute little chicks with everyone names on them for each seat. 

Here is another picture of the group..

Then we had the kids roll a stone across the floor and have a race to who could roll the stone away the fastest.  This was funny to watch... but the kids did great.

Next stop was Aunt Joanna's.  Here the letter was "U" for U can teach others about Jesus.  Joanna had the kids play "Jesus" just like Bingo.  She had lots of facts to teach the kids about Jesus and how they can share with other.  The playing pieces were M&M's and the kids enjoyed EATING and playing. 

Another picture of the game and group...

Last stop was at the Baltic's.  The letter here was "S" for know your Scriptures.  Here Aunt Amy taught us a song to help us memorize a verse.  The kids did a great job at singing and learning along. 

Then we finished up with Yummy ICE-CREAM sundaes...

and... the kids got to go outside and walk around the baby sheep.  Which is always a hit with the kids.

Here is lil Walter.  He didn't play to many games... but he did get to come along the Hop Along.  His mommy said he wasn't rolling over and when we looked up.. he had rolled over on the table.  Always a first for everything! 

Here are some of the kids with the baby ba-ba. 

We had a great day with the kids and hope that each year they will at least remember one thing about Jesus and how important he is in all of our lives. 

Family Pictures...

Dad & Mom with all the Grandkids. - 17 kids with 1 more on the way....

My Brother and his family...

 My sisters kids...

 The Beans.... with Craby Green Bean!!!

 My sister and her family...



Happenings in February...

Sadly the months are slipping away fast here at our house.  Thank you to all who still follow along our blog.  I know are our updates have been few and far between. So we will try to catch things up here over the next couple of days.  

We were so excited to surprise Grandma H. for her 80th birthday for a dinner.  Molly, Emily & Tori were our servers. 

 Singing to Grandma

 We also had Pink Bean's birthday party along with 2 other of her cousins in February. 

 Since Pink Bean is not a fan of cake on her actual birthday we put candles in her favorite kind of cookie.  It's hard to believe our little girl is already 4 years old. 

 We had a girls sleep over night & (Green Bean)... sometime in February.  We always enjoy a house full of kids

Pink Bean is in love with animals.  For her birthday we gave her a horse and it was priceless to watch how excited she was.   

 Another Birthday picture with Pink Bean, Daddy & Green Bean.

January Birthday Party....

We love Birthday Parties in our family...  each month we enjoy watching the kids grow and celebrating each ones birthdays.  This January theme was a circus theme.  We had loaded Hot-Dogs, Uncle Dales Fresh French Fries, Chips and Cheese Yummy Cheese Dip...

 Cotton Candy, Circus Peanuts, Popcorn 

and tons of yummy candy..

 We met under the circus tent....

 and Sang happy birthday to Ryder, Harper & Cooper...

 ... a couple clowns showed up....

 well maybe lots of clowns were there...

we just didn't have costumes on... :o) 

 the Butler Girls... even got to stick around and enjoy

a fun birthday party...

It was a very creative and fun idea for a birthday 

party...  we all enjoyed the food and evening together. 

Its a......

........ BOY.......

 We will be having a baby boy in June 

and we decided to tell thru some

cupcakes filled with blue frosting.

 Pink Bean was a little sad that it wasn't filled with PINK

But she is still excited to get a new baby in the house...

Nana cutting into her cupcake...

 Gpa & Gma H. cutting into the cupcake..

The Ingolds put there guess on a paper and then they had to wait until

daddy came home from work to cut into the cupcake... 

such a great idea!!!!

We are very excited that everything is going ok with this baby that will be here in June.  It always makes our hearts skip a beat when we go to our appointment - But we are beyond thankful that everything is going well and there are no problems with the baby or pregnancy.