Lots of pictures to share...

 This one cracks me up...I think Henry is trying to bite off the monkey's ear.

 Here are five of the seven kids I was watching that day.

Part of the girls' birthday celebration with my side.

Leila got an easy bake oven, she said, "Just what I've been waiting for!"

All of the cousins lined up: Stella, Norah, Zoe, Paige, Leila, Greta, Reid, and Henry

The girls don't like cake, so we made death by chocolate instead.

Stella miraculously blew out the candles on her first try, but I am quite sure she could never do it again, she is not good at aiming when she blows :)

Here are the first cookies that Leila made in her new easy bake oven!!

Henry gets more and more adventurous every day...we have to always keep an eye out for him!

Leila graduated from preschool.  She says she is now a kindergartener.  How did that happen so fast?

She loved learning with Mrs. H and Mrs. B!

The weather is warming up and we are spending more and more time outside on the swingset.

I am so thankful we put one up, the kids just love it!

Especially the sand box.  It meets all of their needs. Stella and Henry love to get messy and Leila loves to pretend to make all kinds of cakes and food!

Jer was helping Leila in the bathroom and she yells MOM!
Jer: my name is dad, how may I help you?
Me: laughing
Leila: no, I was yelling for mom.

Here we are at the Memorial Day parade.

Our kids love parades and clapping and waving to the vets was a good time!

So was spending time with Jenna!

I think I see some resemblance between these two.

After the parade we went to see Lindsey and Ben while they were in town and to congratulate Drew on graduating from Calvin.

Ken was worried about Leila's modesty, her skirt kept blowing in the wind :) The girls had fun on the beach, Stella of course managed to get her shorts soaking wet!

Jer playing goldie blox with the kids.

Another successful birthday gift, a bubble machine!  It worked great for that first day, and not again.

But they really enjoyed it while it was working!

Riding in the car the other morning...
Stella: Mama, don't go fast, I might lose my shoes.

After seeing a dog...

Stella: I just saw it, and it wasn't barfing! (barking)

The kids all love to swing!

And slide.

We had a fun Memorial Day spending time together :)

The kids have been doing a lot of wrestling together lately, and really enjoying it.
Stella: We're walk-housing! (rough-housing)

Henry filled this basket with toys in the family room, pushed it into the kitchen, and got in all by himself!

Then the girls had to get in on it too.

It is warm enough to get out the water table!

The kids could hardly wait while I scrubbed the storage grime off from it before I let them play.

More Parades and Costumes

 Today was the Saturday parade.  I took the girls and met my parents and their friends at the spot we have watched the parade every year that I can remember.  We sat with Nana & Papa, Barb & Rich, Dona & Jerry, and Dona's daughter Lisa's family.

 After Henry woke up from his nap, Jer brought him down and met us there.

He loves anything loud, so he really enjoyed the parade.

We stood around for a bit afterward letting the crowd break up before we walked back to our van.
Stella, telling her great great aunt Duie about the parade:
I likeded Sparty the best. When I grow up I want to be Sparty.

After we got home from the parade we put the kids' costumes on and went to Centennial park to take pictures.

Both girls really wanted to hold Henry on their lap for the pictures.

He wanted to just sit on his own. And take off this funny hat.

Leila

Stella

Henry

And since we were right by the poster of Emily, we had to take a picture with her too :)

Time to Tiptoe Through The Tulips!!

 Leila had a field trip to Teusink Pony Farm.  I can hardly believe her first year of school is almost over.

 Jer got to go along this time.

 This is probably the closest she got to petting the animals.

 She did enjoy riding the horses though.  Her favorite part was when the horses had potty breaks - that was a lot of pee!

 We took the kids to Community Day at Dutch Village.

 It was busy but we got to do everything that we wanted to do.

 The girls love the carousel.

 We also did the swings this time.  They were finishing up building the Ferris wheel, but it was not running yet.

 Stella got to hold a bunny, she loved how soft it was.

 The girls went down the slide as many times as possible

 before it was time to go.

I managed to find a costume for Leila at a garage sale this past summer, they are a touch big on both girls, so they should fit great next year too.

Last Saturday I ran the Tulip Time 5k and Jer ran the 10k.  It rained a bit in between races, so grandpa was nice enough to sit with the kids at our house so that they weren't cold and wet and bored while Jer finished his race.

More fun quotes...

Stella: mama, shh! In the library you need to be quiet because there are monsters.

Stella: I didn't like Norah's breath and she didn't like mine.

I told the kids that critter barn was bringing some animals to church for the kids to see and pet.
Leila: will there be a bull?

Me: Henry needs adult supervision
Leila: Like you, dad, nana, or papa, but not a bad guy or a witch, right?

Playing I Spy at lunch, Stella's turn:
Stella: I spy something purple
Norah: What is it?
Stella: Paige's plate. Yep, you guessed it, good job Nor.
She might have some practicing to do

Leila: Mama, I'm your favorite, so you have to stop tickling me.

Grandma got a Dutch costume this year and asked if the girls would want to ride on the Ditto float with her, they of course were very excited!

We skipped Stella's nap to let her be in the parade, so we told grandma to pack candy just in case!  I think that the excitement of riding on the float was enough.

Leila was so excited to ride on the float, she was counting down the days.  As she reflected on it, she said, "So, I pretty much get to see all the kids in town" because they would be watching the parade.  

As we were getting close to downtown to start, Stella was getting nervous, she did not want to do it anymore.  She said, "I don't want to fly away with Leila and Grandma."  How do you explain to an almost 3 year old that just because it is called a float does not mean it actually floats?

After they were done on the float, the girls were able to come sit with us and watch the rest of the parade.  They love to watch the bands!