Happy Birthday Landon!!!!

1st Birthday!



6th Birthday!

Where did the time go?

It seems like only yesterday that Kyle and I even found out that we were expecting this "little wonder"!

We had a really good birthday. Landon, at the last minute, changed his mind about the cakes that he wanted. He had told me that he wanted a Football cake and a Baseball cake, but on Wednesday night, he decided that he wanted a Soccer cake and a Baseball cake. Luckily, it was easy to do. We invited the boys from his class to the swimming pool for the party! If you can try to imagine how crazy it got with Ten wild 6 yr-old little boys and LAUREL....Thank goodness they were 3 lifeguards on duty and KYLE! Landon had a really good time at his party. When we were leaving he said that this was the "best birthday party he had ever had!"...except that he wished Emory would have been there. But when we got home, there was a special birthday card from Emory in the mail...and boy was he excited! Thank you Emory and Kellie!

MeMe, BigPop, and Grandmother will be here on Monday to celebrate the 4th of July with us. The kids are excited about sleeping in the camper and "camping out". Although, I think Laurel told Ms. Glenda the other day that basically she is taking our whole house out to the camp site. She has already said she is taking her bike, scooter, all princess movies, and the slip-n-slide! So the camper might not feel quite so "spacious" after Laurel arrives...what can I say, she takes after her DAD!

Hope everyone has a great and safe 4th of July!

June 18th, 2007

Beautiful Princess!


Two Beautiful Princesses!



My Soon-to-be 6 Yr. Old!

The third beautiful Princess enjoying her day at the Water park!


We hope everyone had a great Father's Day! We celebrated Father's day on Friday because Kyle was in Omaha watching the College World Series. MSU played Friday and Sunday. Kyle and Lance went to watch since we only live about 4 hrs from Omaha, but unfortunately the Bulldogs didn't make a very good showing. I still think that the boys had a good time.
The kids and I went to Cedar Falls to see Jennifer, Norah, and Farrah. They took us to their water park. They had tons of fun. Laurel and Norah needed a little separation at times....two bosses is one too many! Anyway, we had tons of fun and were very glad to get to visit with them.
I am in the process of planning a birthday party for my soon-to-be 6 yr old son! He has opted for a sports themed party. (that should be easy since I already have practice making a football and baseball cake from a previous birthday). It just blows my mind how fast he is growing. And he is reading.... Actual books! He still needs some help, but generally he can read well. It blows my mind! I don't think I could do that at the end of Kindergarten. (I will probably be hearing from my mom right about now telling me what a genius I was, and that I COULD read...but I don't remember being taught to read this early.)
Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics from our visit with Jennifer and the girls. Have a good week.

Confession

Okay, I have to confess....It may not actually be cooler here in Iowa. It has been in the 90's the past two days, and the extended forecast says 'more of the same'. But, the invitation is still open!
Hope everyone is having a good summer!

Summer of Sports!

We have our summer cut out for us. Landon and Laurel are both taking tennis lessons at Crow Valley 3 mornings a week! They both think it is so much fun! And they think it is COOL that they have "real" racquet's! It is a class that lasts 45 min, and when it is over they want to go to the next court and practice some more! Actually, the class is very good...I was thinking that I could benefit from it.

Also, this summer Landon is playing coach-pitch baseball. He had his first game last Monday night. They still don't keep score in this league, and everyone gets a turn to bat each inning. Landon has 4 other boys that were in his class at school so he is really enjoying it. He had 2 really, really good hits as well.

Also, we just started another round of swim lessons. Crow Valley offers swim lessons for 2 weeks...5 days a week. So everyday, starting today, we go for swim lessons.

So today is kind of busy because we had tennis this morning at 8:30am-9:15am, then Swim lessons from 10:00am-10:30am, then home for lunch, nap, etc....then Landon has a baseball at 5:00pm!!!! Busy Day!

We hope everyone is having a great summer! The weather is a little cooler up here than down in MS...so if anyone wants to come up and escape the heat, we would love the visitors!

Last Day of School

About to leave for the Last Day of Kindergarten

One Slice of Swiss Cheese!

Must have been a good Root Beer Float.

Landon and Mrs. Gaspelin

Ok...So today is a sad day! Landon had his last day of Kindergarten...and he informed me this morning that his 6th Birthday is this month! When you say you have a five year old in Kindergarten it still sounds small, but when you say you have a six year old in First Grade....I don't like it! He is growing up way tooooo fast! They both are...I just want to stop the clock.

Anyway...last day of school! We went to watch his program at school. They performed the 'Very Hungry Caterpillar'. (Landon's line was "A slice of Swiss Cheese") Then they sang, got a Kindergarten Completion Certificate, and made Root Beer Floats. He was very excited, but hated to leave his friends. Fortunately, we start baseball on Monday...and 4 other boys from his class are on the team! (We got lucky!)

Field Trip

Laurel and the Elephants

Laurel, Jack, and the Monkey

Wallabies (small kangaroos)

What a group! Looking at the fish below....

Feeding the Lorikeet! ....

Touching an Iguana...

....and a Snake!

Monkeying around!

Landon's class went to the zoo on Wednesday for a field trip. I couldn't take Laurel with me so I took her with a neighbor and another friend the week before. The zoo here is about the size of the Jackson zoo...only SAFE and CLEAN! And all of the cages actually have animals! Amazing! Anyway, it is the perfect size for children this age...not so big and overwhelming like the New Orleans Zoo. They have a little petting zoo area where you can feed the sheep, goats, and ponys, an african walk-about (you just wind through a maze of Wallabies and Ostriches), and a Lorikeet House where you can buy cups of nectar to feed them. We had tons of fun! Hope you enjoy the pics.