Garden Boxes

We decided to try raised gardens this year. Marc built the boxes a few weeks ago and the weather was finally nice enough for us to actually plant today. Marc got a dump truck full of dirt (ironically at the same time Olivia and Marcus were filling their dump trucks this morning...maybe that's why they were doing that??).

We put newspaper down and Marc used Jack's tractor to fill the boxes with dirt. The girls had the job of filling their buckets and piling dirt on the next newspaper layers in the next boxes...it was windy so this helped keep the newspaper down while Marc got the next load of dirt.

It was very helpful and kept them quite busy too. They loved every minute.

Marcus was taking his nap during majority of this which was probably a good thing. The moment he woke up he was right in the middle of all that dirt!

Marcus got to help Daddy with the tractor. He's a great driver

Here is a sneak peek. We did plant them tonight too but they pretty much look like this. I'll take pictures as things start to grow.

Marc and Marcus took the tractor back to Jack's house.

The girls and I relaxed after a hard days work!

Hope everyone else had as productive of a Saturday as we did! I love that the weather is so nice! I wonder what we'll tackle tomorrow!

Memories

I cleaned my house this morning and was done by 10am. Then the kids and I decided to go outside and soak in the sun for once. I sat on our deck and just watched them play. I love to just watch them sometimes; especially when they all get along :-) They had the dump trucks out today and were going to work moving dirt.

Emma eventually switched over to some cooking.

Tucker was just being Tucker...it's so hard being a dog!

Olivia and Marcus really did move a lot of dirt. They filled their trucks and moved the dirt to the other side of the play gym.

Then they emptied them and went back for more.

This went on for quite a while this morning...what a perfect morning!

Crazy Kids

Just a regular Thursday night. This picture sort of captures their personalities. Marcus the mischievous one, Emma the innocent (so she wants us to believe) and Olivia the wild crazy one who is always laughing. We decided to make cookies tonight...it was just the kids and me. I had some music playing on my phone and it resulted in this...

My original intent was to capture the girls singing and dancing but to my surprise it ended up being all about Marcus. I couldn't resist sharing this one...I don't think he really knew I was videoing this. I think he just thought I was holding my camera. Too funny! He's got some moves! Do I dare say he got that from his Daddy??? :-)

Happy Father's Day

The kids woke up this morning and wished Marc, Poppi and Papa a Happy Father's Day. They each made a card and a coffee cup for Marc. They were all very proud.

We had a ton of cake left over so this morning so we decided to give some to the local Fire Department. Our neighbor, Scott, is an officer there so he brought over one of the trucks to say "thank you". It was a nice surprise...the kids thought it was pretty cool.

The kids even got fire hats. Marcus had just woken up from his nap so he really wasn't as into it...therefore I got to sport the cool hat for a picture :-) What a great weekend! Happy Father's Day to all the Daddy's out there!

Celebrating 5!

We had the girls' birthday party yesterday. Olivia requested Cinderella and Emma requested Ariel this year. We can't seem to get away from the princess theme...oh well...one day I'll probably be wishing for the princess theme to come back :-) Once again, Nana answered the requests with BEAUTIFUL cakes!

Look how big these two are getting!

It rained on us again this year so we were forced to have an indoor party. We kept the kids confined to the playroom which did help with the crowd control. Here are the girls eating their dinner.

We kept the smaller kids upstairs for dinner to contain the mess. Here's Marcus eating his dinner...hamburgers! YUMMY!

Cake time! Here are some of the kids. Everyone sang Happy Birthday and the girls blew out candles. Nice Job!

A few more pictures while Nana cuts the cake. This is Jonny, Deanna, Olivia, Emma, Makayla and Isabella.

This is Bella. She is the little sister to Makayla. She followed me around wanting her picture taken...she had this great little pose. Her parents said she never lets people take her picture...she did great for me :-)

The cake was approved by Marcus. He didn't leave one little bit on his plate...it was clean!

The girls got lots of great presents again this year. One of the Mom's made these cute headbands for them.

and another friend found their names in wood! So cute!

It was a great time had by all.

The party blowers were a hit with Poppi, Papa and Marcus.

Here are the daycare girls. They will all be entering kindergarten in the fall and unfortunately they are all going to different schools. Hopefully we can still maintain these friendships though; these girls have been inseparable the last 3 years!

After everyone left Olivia had all of her new toys around her. She LOVED everything!

Marcus did very well, we just gave him jobs to do and he didn't seem to mind that he wasn't celebrating a birthday too. At the end of the night it was really quite so I went searching for Marcus. I found him in the girls' room doing activity books...what a good boy! I think he just needed some alone time after the house full of chaos. I didn't really blame him :-) Thanks everyone for coming to celebrate yet another birthday! We always have a ton of fun and love having everyone there!

What a Day!

Today is my birthday! The kids were so sweet to me all day. They all wished me a happy birthday this morning and gave me lots of birthday hugs and kisses. These kids just love birthdays! Marc got me this awesome, yummy ice cream cake...it was my only request for today :-)

My boss took me to lunch and our "fun committee" at work gave me a $5 Starbucks card...gotta love that! And all the daycare kids made me cards today...so sweet! Once again, I was spoiled.

A little happy and sad news tonight...we finally sold the race car! I thought I'd post some past pictures in memory of the great times we had with that car. We bought it a couple of years before the twins were born and got hooked right away. What a fun sport!

Unfortunately once the kids arrived (Olivia on the left, Emma on the right); there really wasn't much time for racing. Marc tried but it really took a lot of time on the weekends and he couldn't stand being away from the kids. So, we posted it on craigslist and finally found someone who is just as excited about it as Marc was all those years ago. It was a biter sweet moment watching it drive away on someone else's trailer...but it belongs on the race track; not in our garage...it's a good thing! Plus, Marc traded it for something extra cool which I'm not allowed to say until we talk to Grami...I just want to know...why does Marc always get the cool stuff on MY birthday? One year he bought an iPod on MY birthday...this year he gets a _ _ _ _ _ _...I wonder what he'll get next year?

June 2nd Celebration

Emma and Olivia turned 5 on Thursday. The day started off by picking out their birthday outfits and bringing cupcakes (which they helped make) to daycare.

After daycare we had dinner and then it was time to celebrate with cupcakes at home. I forgot about candles but came up with a Math lesson; appropriate since the twins will be entering Kindergarten this fall. I had 2 two-year old candles from their second birthday and the three-year old candle from Marcus' last birthday. I pulled them out and asked "what does 2 + 3 = ? They both figured out it was 5! They each got a #2 to blow out and the 3 was just for fun.

Worked like a charm :-)

Don't forget about me Mom! Those were yummy cupcakes!

Olivia and Marcus got into their PJs. Emma wanted to stay in her birthday outfit for more pictures. Marcus handed out the presents...he was a great sport. He didn't seem to mind at all that it wasn't his birthday.

The girls got what they asked for...Barbie, Ken and new Barbie cars! YAY! They both said this was the 'BEST BIRTHDAY EVER'.