All the Half Birthdays

Though we always have recognized half birthdays, the past few years I have been more intentional with them.

We continued the tradition this year of me going on a one on one date with each kiddo on their half birthday.  Because we have one birthday a month from October to January then April to July is when the half b-days hit.

In the past, we have done some fun Carowinds dates but this year, since we moved from the Charlotte area and no longer have season passes, we came up with other ideas.

Ashton was up first.  We went to Dave and Busters (I had never been before).  I thought it was quite overrated but Ashton just soaks up one on one time.  We ate at D&B's and he flew threw his points for the games.  We then went to a couple stores looking around at things he liked and got a frappe while looking around at things in Barnes and Noble.

The big 9.5.  Enjoying our walk in Greenville.

Eating his big ol' hamburger... My cheese steak was pretty good too.

My gamer

Shepherd was next.  He also chose.... Dave and Busters.  We ate their and he also finished up with his points rather quickly.  Shep and I stopped in at Kohls and looked around at some toys on our way home.

So happy after his date!

Oh, this kid... His favorite thing- a whoopie cushion

In the zone.

Hunter, thankfully, did not Dave and Busters.  His half birthday kind of snuck up on us.  Add to the fact that he was indecisive about what he wanted to do and it became a last minute plan.  We both really wanted to hike but needed a bit more time to plan.  So, we took off to downtown Greenville.  We walked the main downtown strip and talked, had a very nice grown up dinner, did Falls Park, and went to Coffee Underground.  It was truly a date and I loved it!

Getting ready for our date

Falls Park- So pretty

Just a pretty shot.

Stylin and profilin'

Bennett was the last date for the year.  Bennett was quite gracious in sharing his date with his brothers.  Normally I would leave the older ones for a couple hours while Bennett and I went on our date, but with workers coming and going from the house due to the renovations; I didnt think that was a good idea.  In addition, Chad was out of town and it is too far to ask my dad to come and sit with them for a couple hours.  So, Bennett invited them all along.  I warned the older three that it was Bennett's time and their opinion did not matter. haha.

Bennett chose the zoo and playground.  He then wanted Panera for lunch.  As a surprise, I took them all to Chuck E Cheeses as well.  And because I am a sucker, we ran into Barnes and Noble and as well with each of them picking out a book.  Speaking of books, I need to get a book post put together too...

Mr Giraffe, Bennett and me!

He loves those reptiles.

4 little men with an iguana (I think) in the background

Bennett shooting some dinosaurs at The Dairy Rat

Some "friendly" brotherly competition

I seriously love going out with each kid.  They talk my ears off and they so look forward to their date time.

And, I never gave an end of the school year update on the kids.  I guess the combination of me working plus the kids only being at this school for a few months left me little motivation.

However, I am so proud of these fellas. They didnt miss a beat with changing schools mid-year.  All of their grades/ test scores were fantastic!  They all exceeded their goals set at the beginning of the year.

When You Are Coverd in It...

We have all had them... a string of days that are just laden with sickness.

Well, we had our string of days... where, in short, we were covered in crap.... and vomit.

Let's back up to Thursday when on our way home from school I hear the dreaded noise of throw up.  Turn around and Shepherd has soaked his clothes, his carseat, and the car mats.  Get him home, clean him up, and he falls asleep.

We had plans to meet up with friends at the zoo on Friday.  By Friday morning, he was back to normal so I let Jodi know and I yanked the boys out of school at 10 for a half day hookie day. 

Here are just a few pics from our fun day with our buddies.

What a group!  :)

4 of the 6... this was the first time Bennett really enjoyed the animals... and Karson was all in mommy  mode (look at the hip stuck out!)

Bennett enjoying himself and Karson ride there with him

I chuckled over this picture... Hunter and Karson look so grown up here.

No one got sick, everything was great... or so we thought. (Jodi, I sooo hope we did not give this to you guys!)

4 am Saturday morning- Hunter goes down.... throw up and diarrhea.  This continues all day.  His final count was 14 times throwing up with the last time being at 11 pm Saturday.  Chad was gone to a strength meet and gets sick with the same symptoms as Hunter.  He gets home Saturday afternoon and crashes with Hunter.  Bennett throws up once around dinner time on Saturday... and like Shepherd, he is one and done.

About 8 pm Saturday our septic tank starts acting up... again.  I don't think I have mentioned it but we have had some major issues with the drain field/ tank in this house. Like, it has been pumped 4 times since the beginning of December.  Basically, it just continues to fill up with water from the ground.  It is quite a mess.  Thankfully, the sickness was basically over by the time we could no longer flush toilets, do laundry, give baths, etc.  We got it pumped again this morning and finally have someone coming out to add additional drain fields or a pit to the system.

Can you even imagine how absolutely horrid it would have been if the septic tank would have messed up even 6 hours earlier.  I cant even think about it!

Bless Chad's heart, he thought he could give us a bit more time on the tank by getting a bucket and hauling poop/ pee water from the overflowing septic tank to the ditch.  He spent about 2 hours (remember he was still getting over the stomach bug from the day before) hauling.  Just a side note, I told him what he was doing was not working an hour and a half earlier.

But, here we are.  All healthy... hopefully.  Ashton and I escaped it... hopefully.  We can flush our toilets... thankfully!  I did 4 loads of laundry, two loads in the dishwasher and scrubbed toilets and showers. 

Morale to the story.... thank God when you flush... that you can flush!

EDIT:  Spoke too soon.  At this point, I have it too (so far not as bad as Hunt and Chad). Again, I will say... thank God for flushing toilets! :-/

The Month of May

Lets just pretend that it has not been over a month since I did a real post.  Geez, I really need to buy a new computer or have the energy to post after the boys go to bed!

I probably dont have to warn but this will pic heavy... unfortunately not as picture heavy as it should be as it feels like I dont take nearly enough pictures!

So sweet!

One of the bloopers

Is anybody even still reading this?  Probably not but thats ok as this blog is really just for me to remember this fleeting time.

Anyway, a lot has happened since the last time I blogged.  We closed on our Easley house on May 6 and the boys and I are living with my parents.  We are under contract to buy a house in our new city in a few weeks.  Living with my parents has been a lot of fun.  I have been doing everything on my own, by myself for 3+ months and just having adults around has been wonderful.  The boys really like with "keenie" (Ashton and Shep still cant say Queenie well) and Mantis.

Got mom laughing... she didnt want her picture taken

haha...

Ashton helping Mantis plant in the garden

We have also been having a lot of playdates.  We are so going to miss some of our wonderful friends.  However, I fully intend to meet up with a few of these wonderful people when we come back through.
Some of our outings...
Last soccer game

Soccer

Zoo with Jodi and her kids... we have also done a couple park trips as well.

boys and girl taken a break on the bear

Shep running down the hill

Bennett at the zoo in his giraffe onesie

Some of our precious friends

Mother's Day program at Ashton's school

Ice Dream with Queenie at CFA

Childrens Musuem with my family

Ashton and Owen race car driving

My sweet nephew... he was just swaying back and forth

They loved the cas this time

 

 

Bennett and me

 

The huge water table... look at Anna's sweet belly- less than 3 months

To date... the best picture of Bennett.  Mom had the idea to let him play at the water table and he LOVED it!

Schooling is going so much better.  We had a hard time getting in a good groove once Bennett was born and then with having to pack a house up to move but since moving in with the parents we are on a good pace again and have 14 days left... we should finish the week before we move!  So great timing! Once we finish I will do a final post of our homeschooling adventure. 

 

Shep holds his pencil so well

Ash and Shep doing "school work"

 

 

The boys are doing great.  Besides homeschooling, Hunter loves to "pace the pit"... which includes walking around the firepit in pretend world.  Ashton has been busy with preschool 3 days a week and he graduates this Thursday.  He is quite "the man" at school and loves to tell me all about his day.  Mom has been such a huge help with taking or picking him so I dont have to make the 30 minute trip, twice a day. Shepherd is in the hard 3 year old age.  Threes are tough especially in the evening when he is just wiped out.  Despite that he still loves to be loved on and cuddled.  He is loud and funny.  Bennett is such a good baby.  He is smiling and interacting a lot more.  He loves to watch his brothers and is getting really good at using his hands.  All of them are growing so fast.

Sweet B patiently waiting on me

Unfortunately, the boys favorite thing to do is watch movies or play games on the iPad.

Heres to bloggins more frequently!

And one more makes 30

A birthday in our house is more like a birthweek. 

My big 3-0 is today... EEK! 

"Party" 1 - The celebrating began last Sunday up at Chad's parents house.  I LOVE Chad's dads ribs... they are seriously amazing!  So it was a no brainer that ribs is what I wanted to eat.  We all had a great time enjoying the creek and the weather. 

My ribs                                                                       Blowing out the candles

              Hunter and Ash talking to Grandma

   Love this Smash face                                               Brotherly love?


                    His hair is OUT OF CONTROL

"Party" 2 - Nolan took me and the younger two to lunch Tuesday.  He then picked Hunter up from school and took H and A birthday shopping for me.  (Nolan, thank you for taking them out, they were so worried about how they were going to get my gift).  Funny story- Hunter had to poop and tricked Nolan into believing that he could not wipe himself.  My poor 22 year old brother proceeded to help Hunter wipe his butt... man, Hunter is lazy and Nolan was fooled! 

"Party" 3 - Thursday after school, Jodi and her children met us at Par Tee Time in Easley (Jessica was able to join us after work).  The boys (and girls) jumped away and the adults got to sit and chat.  McDonalds followed.
  Again, CRAZY hair in mid-jump                            Jessica, Madi, and Jodi

Blurry picture of Ash playing putt putt

Shep and his buddy Connor

Head first

Hunter's buddy Karson with her cute little bob!


"Party" 4- Today- Again, Jodi and I teamed up and conquered the zoo with Ashton, Shep, and Connor.  Lunch followed at Jason Deli's.


Ash and Connor

The boys with the lions


"Party" 5 - Once Chad got home tonight, we headed to Cracker Barrell.  It was so good and the boys ate really good too.  We had a gift card that we had saved from Christmas so the out of pocket for my birthday dinner was a $5 tip and .39 cents not covered by the gift card.
Hunter, Ashton, and Shepherd gave me their sweet gifts which they picked out with Uncle Nolan.   They each picked out a pretty flower for the yard.
                                           The boys playing a game while waiting on food

 Love this face as he plays with Chad

Ashton being sweet!

My guzzler (spelling is wrong I do believe)

 Mom came over to watch the boys for about an hour while Chad took me "shopping."  Got to admit it is weird/ awkward going "shopping" with him and no children. When we got back home mom (and the kids) had "spooned" (it is supposed to be forked, but mom mistakingly bought spoons instead of forks- hahaha).  Anyway, we proceeded to eat a "Janet" birthday cake on Tangled plates.  (Thank you mom for taking a bit of time to make my entry into 30 extra special)

                         Singing Happy Birthday!

 

Olivia, I forgot about the candle until we had already started eating, so I quicly grabbed and lit it.  hahaha

 Beside my sign

The "spooning".  that just doesnt sound right : /

Queenie and the boys being silly.. Mom, are you a flamingo?!?!

     --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And here are my "gifts".  I got some really sweet things this year and I so appreciate the thought that went into each one.

The flowers from Nolan, Hunter, Ashton, and Shepherd. 

One of my best friends knows me well... Jodi gave me a gallon of Chick fil A sweet tea and a Panera gift card (my favorite cookie in the entire world comes from Panera... mmmmmm)

 My other best friend made, yes I typed MADE me this awesome tote.  It is reversable and washable.  Olivia has become quite the seamstress and does really good work.  I love this bag!

My mom bought me a scarf that was made by a friend of hers.  I can keep either the pink/ red one or the blue/ purple one.  Hmmmm, decisions decisions....  Mom has also insisted that she buy me some shoes, so we will go shopping soon.

 And another amazing gift is this bracelet.  It was purchased in 1941 by my grandfather (my dad's dad) whom I never met and given to my grandma.  It is made with coins and mother of pearl.  Mom and dad got the clasp repaired and handed it to down to me.  Besides the history of it, I flat out adore the actual piece.  I would buy this if I saw it in a store.

I come away from my 30th birthday with so much appreciation.  To say I am blessed is not adequate.  Thank you to my dear family and friends for making such an impact in my life.  I am anxious to see what these 30's have in store!