Eli's 6th Birthday

Eli turned 6 today! 

All the boys looked the same today. :) Dave did not know the boys had planned red shorts/blue tops and it just happened to turn out this way.  They thought that was pretty fun.

Eli chose a delicious breakfast of breakfast sandwiches, cinnamon rolls, and bacon.  Everyone enjoyed that!

One of the most enjoyed toys was this pair of bumper cars.  If one car bumps into the other in just the right places, it ejects the rider off and the kids get such a joy out of knocking the little rider off and taking turns battling one another.

They did this with the bumper cars until they ran out of battery strength and needed recharging.

Mac 'n cheese and carrots for lunch!

Calvin gifted Eli with a new watergun.

Eli's choice for supper was McDonalds, and on our way out the door, Eli asked if there was a McDonald's with a playplace.  We said yes, and drove a few extra miles to make that happen. 

 His desired dessert was s'mores! 

 "I'm spiderman!" oozing the marshmallow goo.  "I'm full and all done with sugar for the day" he said.

We wrapped up the night playing some yard games - frisbee, bat/ball, treehouse, swings 'n stuff.

Vanessa (8) and Eli (6) combined family birthday party

In order to make it easier for family to help us celebrate Vanessa and Eli's birthdays, we had one party for them both right in the middle, on June 3rd.  Turns out this day was Sunday and worked out well.  They chose the cake and their birthday meal....which was unanimously decided as buttered noodles with parmesan cheese and a huge oreo cake.  I went with that and added meatballs and sauce, and Mama Row brought a spinach strawberry salad. 
Jay came up for an hour before the party so hang out and help decorate, but had to leave early at 4:45 in order to get back to another previously arranged activity.
We spent a lot of time setting up yard games Rachel brought over (badminton and the game where you toss balls attached to strings on multi-height bars (I don't know the name's game!).
After dinner we had cake/ice cream/presents...pics will show the story.  Mom, dad, Mama Row, and Rachel stayed and played games til about 8:30. 

Vanessa got baptized

As I was explaining to Vanessa and Eli how their birthdays were going to work this year, I was telling them about "the day in the middle" of their birthdays, how we were going to go to Bethany and it would be a special day because they were having a baptism.  Vanessa perked up and said "I want to get baptized!!!" She had a desire to this for some time now and we hadn't remembered.  She wrote up her testimony over the next couple days and Dennis and Becky Anderson came over on Friday evening to chat with her about it.  She was so confident with her testimony and really had a strong desire to do it.
This is what she wrote: 
"Hello, my name is Vanessa. My birthday was yesterday, and I turned eight! When I was five my Dad was reading the kids a Bible story at night and shared the gospel with us. I understood I was a sinner, I had to get saved.  So I decided to ask Jesus to save me because He is the only One who can. I was so excited I wanted all my brothers and sisters to get saved too. These are the verses that helped me get saved: John 3:16  For God so loved the world that he gave his ONLY begotten Son, that whoever BELIEVES in HIM should NOT perish but have EVERLASTING life. 1 john 4:14 and we have seen and testify that the father has sent as Savior of the world. Getting saved is important so you don’t go to hell when you die. Listen to these two verses.    

The reason I am getting baptised is: because I want to show everyone that I am saved, that I want to live my life for Jesus Christ and that I believe in Him. "

Vanessa's 8th birthday

The night before she turned 8 she was enthusiastic about putting up her own door streamers.  She chose orange and green.  She also slept in "the castle" in her room.

The morning of her birthday (a Saturday this year) Calvin and Violet surprised her with the toys they chose for her - a big bouncy ball and sidewalk chalk.

She wanted "Violet bread" which is toast/butter/seasoning with italian seasoning or garlic or something like that...apparently Violet makes good bread.

More choices were scrambled eggs and bacon. :)

Mama Row called us during breakfast and informed us that the new indoor pool at Western Home was open for residents to invite friends/family so she offered up a time slot of 9-11 am for our family to go swim.  Of course!  Vanessa had hoped to swim at Byrnes Pool but it was a rainy, overcast day, so this offer to swim was perfect!  The pool was fun!  It had a big circle with a current to swim with or against, and a few lanes to swim in.  I'm surprised I didn't get any pics of the pool.

At 11 am we stopped swimming and made a quick trip to the garden to help Mama Row pull up as many weeds as possible.  We made quick work of it and had fun noticing how much the plants have grown since planting them.

Vanessa also chose to watch Beauty and the Beast.

Sidewalk chalk was a fun activity and while the kids played, Dave and I worked on cleaning up the garage.  With in the whole weekend, we got rid of 7 bags of kid clothes, random toys, tools we didn't use, baby stuff, shoes, etc.... majorly unloaded.  All the goodwill donations will hopefully benefit others!

Vanessa chose "make your own pizzas" so we had a lot of fun making and baking those.  The weather was nice enough to eat on the deck.

Since we were planning a big party for both Vanessa and Eli to celebrate both their birthdays with family on June 3rd, that would be "the day for birthday cake" so she picked out some Oreo Klondike ice cream bars for dessert.  I think the theme of the birthdays this year was OREOS!