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! 

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. 

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.

Christmas Day

After spending the morning in Church Praising God for his wonderful Son's birth we went to Grandpa Hartzler's for lunch and to spend time with family.  We love all the family traditions we have with all of our families that we get to look forward to each year.  We are truly thankful for the birth of Jesus Christ and the Blood he shed for our sins.  We enjoy Christmas as a time to sit down and truly reflect on the amazing things God has provided for by sending His Son.  We leave Christmas each year with hopes and faith that we can reflect on His Son and Love each and every day of our lives.  We hope all of you had a Merry & Blessed Christmas - 

Cousins :o)

More Cousins and Nephew 

Family 

Green Bean

Pa-Pa and some of his wonderful Grand-kids 

My Sister, her hubby and handsome little boy. 

Free Keurig Vue Brewer Machine

We did it again!  We got picked to host another FREE house party from houseparty.com  - We signed up for the Keurig House Party and they sent us a FREE Keurig Vue Brewer Maching with samples to hand out to all who came.  One of the things they asked us to do was to take mug shots of everyone... so enjoy all the MUG shots below!

 Heidi & Samantha 

 JP - Full of Froth!

 Ariel & Sherry 

 Liz

 Uncle Dale

 Wanda & Rock

 A Marilyn & U Dale

 Kaden

 Emily

 OUR KIDS wired after the Coffee party...

you would have thought someone gave them coffee...

Happy 4th of July

Even though it was the HOTTEST day of the year - we were thankful to get together for a picnic to celebrate our country and the freedom we have!

Cray lovin the grass...

Never fails - we always have to add water when the weather is this HOT!

Uncle Doug doing the dance trying to escape all the water from the kids who were quickly tagging up on him. 

 Pa-pa even got some loving from the Grand kids with cups of COLD water as well.

 Then the kids had to run from pa-pa...

 Grady decided it was Nap time on the lawn chair.

 Trace, Kora & Ryder

These three sure can giggle and have a great time...

 Adam, Reese, Maddie, Tori, Molly, Megan, Emily, Tagen & Cooper

 Making a big splash!!!

Hope everyone had a great and 

Happy 4th!

God bless America!!!!