Big Party

A big party to me used to be in an almost empty house with plastic cups and a keg you had to fight your way too. These days it means a party with 7 families and a total of 18 kids. Yes I said 18. The kids way outnumbered the adults. It was a blast though. We had everyone over yesterday for an impromptu cookout. The kids ran, swam, swung and bounced. We are so lucky to have so many great friends. The party included our new neighbors and our old neighbors. It also included some guys that J has been friends with since middle school and their wives who have become some of my dearest friends. Sadly we didn't take any pictures. I wanted to get one of all the kids but there was no getting them all together long enough for that.

"i playing basketball"

When I came outside last night that is what I heard and this is what I saw. heheheh Av can really hit the ball though. We need to get her in tball pronto!

the pot

C is like a man. She loves to sit on the pot. She goes in there and is in there forever. When you try to come in she says, "I want you to leave." hheheheh So I gave her a magazine the other day.

E found the paper

look what i can do

ignore the snotty nose

yummy coffee table

I was reading an old blog post and saw one about C chewing on the coffee table. Made me laugh bc 2 days earlier E was chewing on the coffee table and I snapped these pics. I didn't remember C doing it. Soooo glad I have blogged so much!!

nice morning

Avery is at school and it's raining outside so we are playing inside. C and E are on the floor playing together. It is so cute!!! They are going to be good friends I hope. Everyone thinks the middle child gets the short end of the stick but I'm not so sure. What's so bad about always having a playmate? Or getting to be a younger sibling and an older one at the same time? So far I am not seeing the downside. Plus she is way more demanding than other 2 combined so she is not going to get overlooked. They are laughing and being silly together and then E crawled up to me, pulled up to standing and just smiled at me. He's so proud! Now they are crawling around together and laughing. Music to my ears. E is trying to stand up to this toy bins we have and after I laughed at him C of course had to do it too.

"I a woman!"

Camille has a student profile at school about stuff they work on. Every couple of months it comes home with everything she knows checked off. Almost everything is checked off other than knowing her full name. So every so often I ask her. Instead of saying "Camille Anne Hoekstra" she always says, "I a woman!!" hehheh I have no idea what she is talking about or where she got that but it is too funny! She does know her name, that's the other funny part.

Camille is totally potty trained

Potty trained at 2.5 years. Not bad at all. So proud of her. She is finally pooping in the potty too. No accidents for about a week now (knock on wood). I was hoping if I waited her out it would happen and it did!!! Poop accident after poop accident I cleaned up but in the end it was all worth it!!

Texas

We went to a very good friend's wedding this past weekend. We had such a BLAST!!! Getting a 3 day break with my hubby is just what we needed. Thanks so much Opa and Shellie and Grandma!!!! You all are the best. We got to Texas early on friday and went straight to the hotel pool. We smuggled in some beer and slowly but surely friends starting joining us. A kidless pool party, just what I needed. That night was the rehearsal dinner. Everything about the night was great. Nice location, great friends, great food, open bar, beautiful bride to be, and some very touching speeches. The party carried on to the hotel bar that night. The next day we had breakfast taco's and Starbucks, a walk by the ocean, a seafood lunch, beers, a nap, second pool party and finally the wedding. It was one of the best weddings I have ever been too. Sooooooo many great friends we had not seen in way too long, a beautiful bride, elegant wedding location, good food including a mac and cheese buffet, a photo booth and lots and lots and lots of dancing. We had such a blast. Wish I could do it all over again. On Sunday we slept in till 10 (!!! central time. I would have slept longer but woke to construction being done in the hotel on the room above us), lunch on a pier and then off to the airport. Trip was way too short in many ways but I was very glad to get home and see ACE. Missed those little nuggets way too much. Thank you Matt and Andrea!!! Congratulations and what a beautiful couple you are. We love you guys!

Camille had to get in on the paper destroying too

7.5 months

I'm a little late with this but I guess better late than never. He is EVERYWHERE. He has mastered crawling and getting to sitting. I find him sitting in his crib a lot. Which is no different from finding him sitting on the floor but there is something sooooo cute about finding a baby sitting in their crib for the first time. He is everywhere so much that he is learning to push/pull himself up. On the girl's stools, on toys, on the window seals, on his bouncy, anything he can find to get himself to the standing position. Once there his little legs are SO wobbly and he stands mostly on his toes (a PT's nightmare hope it starts to correct itself). He's doing it so young he's reckless. Just a matter of time before he hurts himself. He's just too cute though. Almost always happy with a smile on his face. He went on his first wagon ride recently. He seemed to love it. He eats everything we give him including baby food turkey dinner (ick). He has discovered himself "dowm there" and it's his favorite toy (typical male). John and I left for the weekend for a friends wedding and he pretty much refused the bottle all weekend. Drank about a 1/3 of what he usually does. Strong willed little stinker. Guess he doesn't need to eat twice a night like he insists. He loves loves loves paper. Whenever he sees it or hears it he does whatever he can do to get to it. He knows patty cake and little piggy and gets a huge smile on his face when you start them. He is my sweet baby boy who is growing up WAY too fast!!!

chunk

John found Camille on the couch the other day eating pepperoni from a bag. heheh Camille is the only 2 year old I think that would eat plain pepperoni. I was making pizzas for dinner and she snatched the bag right off the counter. She is going to be our little chunk.

Oaks

We went to oaks again this year and once again had a BLAST. Since Marci and I are both bfeeding we brought a pump so we would not be uncomfortable all day. We also brought a hooter hider knowing there really would not be a good place to do it. So we did it right there in our seats. heheheh J did not approve but you could not see anything, everyone was too busy to notice and why should I have to leave the fun??? We were only two rows away from the dirt track so guess where our bmilk went? It's super healthy for babies so it has to be great for the dirt too, right? Uncle Alex had the kids all day long and did a GREAT job. So sad the day I was looking forward to forever is over!

crawling

Everett is 3 days away from being 7 months. How is that possible? What is worse is that he has finally figured out how to crawl and is officially everywhere. For about a month now he has had the strength but could not get his body to move the way he wanted it to. His brain was not developed enough. The last week he has been crawling 2 crawls and then lunging forward, falling and then getting up only do it more. Tonight he got across the room!! Then when I sat down he crawled over to me. He didn't look proud or surprise just relieved to be able to do it. After that I went into the kitchen to get milk for the girls and I came back to find E sitting up under the coffee table. So not only can he crawl but he can get himself to sitting!!!! I ran to grab the camera to get a pic of him sitting under the coffee table but he took off crawling. He could not get out though. His head was against the top of the table and when he put his arms out to crawl he didn't go anywhere. I could tell he was like "what the heck not this again, why can't I go now?"

Wilder

Well we found out this week that Avery got into the school we were hoping for. She will officially be a kindergardener at Wilder. It is not our home school but it is in our cluster so we are lucky we got it. I burst into tears when I got the letter and not happy tears. I can't believe it is really happening. How is she that old?

The Hoekstra Clan

It was Molly's 21st bday this past week. Sunday we all gathered at their house for a party. It was really fun. Rachelle is such a fun mom. She has this special touch and goes out of her way to make bdays special. She had gotten happy bday tiaras for all the girls to wear and plastic top hats for the guys. She also had beads and buttons made with Molly's picture. It was really cute. She had a special drink made with fresh fruit in it. It was yummy. The girls of course had a blast with all the attention. It was a good day!!!

John and Everett had a mid day nap and Molly had to help Everett look cool by "popping his collar."

3 kids + 1 tub = big mess!!!

Everett took his first bath in the big tub. Not only did he love the big tub but he loved joining in on the fun his sisters have!!!

Balloon glow

We went to a hot air balloon glow on Friday. It is part of the Derby Festival. The weeks leading up to the Derby we have a lot of fun events to go to. It stopped raining finally on Friday and was beautiful!!! We went with our friends Heater and Terry and their kids Abby and Emori. We all had a good time but I think Avery, Camille and Abby had the best time. It was just a glow we were going to meaning the balloons just filled up and stayed on the ground but the light from the fires is the "glow" once it gets dark. All day Av and C kept saying they were going to a balloon race. We were not sure where they got that idea from. After explaining what we were actually going to see we were finally informed that on Mickey Mouse they went to a "balloon race." heheheh

Everett sitting

He's so proud!