Summer's 6th Birthday Party

Summer has kind of gotten the short end of the stick when it comes to celebrating her birthday. This year we let her pick what she wanted to do. It was between heading to Uptown Dance for a ballet party with her girlfriends or the bowling alley and inviting her boy and girl friends. It was a tough choice for her because she's pretty close to some of the boys in her class, especially after playing t-ball with them all summer.

So which party won out?! Ballet party at Uptown Dance!!! Our friend runs the place and she is just completely amazing with the girls. We had so much fun! The best party was all I had to do was send invites, provide cupcakes or cake and just show up. Very stress free!

Jennifer had the place all set up for Summer's special day!

I was asked Summer's favorite colors and if she had a certain theme she wanted to go with. Summer chose purple, pink and blue for her colors and fairies for her theme. The morning was filled with ballet dancing, snack, craft time, more dancing, birthday cupcakes, free dance and opening of gifts. So much fun!

I love these types of pics.

My princess fairy!

The group (we were sad that one girl couldn't
make it and one had gotten sick)

Summer loves to pose like this :)

Taking a break and peeking out at the street. The tutu she's
wearing was in the first picture as party of the decorations
and was made especially for her to keep!

The girls and our favorite ballet teacher!

The party was a success and Summer can't wait to start up classes this fall! If anyone wants to check it out, take a look at Jennifer's website at Uptown Dance. You won't be disappointed!

Hinners Reunion Weekend

Fourth of July weekend the Hinners clan had their extended family get together. It was so nice to get back for it again since we missed the year before. My goal is to make it to this at least every other year as I know it makes my dad happy when his family is there for it if they can be, too :) And I love catching up with family that I don't see very often at all. Makes me sad with our distance that it's not easier to get back for more, especially since dad's been in a nursing home for quite awhile and you just never know what the future will hold.

The first night we made it back late afternoon/early evening so we were able to just relax out on the farm. It was a nice evening so I grabbed my camera and roamed around outside with the kiddos!

Click on collage if you want to see it bigger.

The next morning we headed to Breda and ran in their 5K they had for 4th of July weekend. We had 4 adults and 4 kids running. Noah wanted me to run with him which was painful, yet a relief. By that I mean it was hard to run slower, but also nice to not feel the pain of running hard to get a PR and not get beat by my niece, Cassie :) Noah and Cassie both won their age groups!

Noah & Cassie w/their winnings of Breda Bucks!

Our group of runners minus Lizzy.

Then we rushed home to get ready for the Hinners gathering. Unfortunately, I was too lazy to grab my camera out while we were there and time slipped away from us so I have no pictures from the party. It was held at the Manning Park and the kids LOVED playing on all their playground equipment while most of us adults relaxed by the shelter house.

That evening we went to mass in Manning, made a quick visit to Sean's grandparents while waiting for our pizza order and then headed out to Jackie and Kurt's house (sister & brother-in-law). The kids had fun in their pool and trampoline and later Kurt started up a fire for us to sit by.

Cousins!

Kurt and Sean look like they're having a pretty
serious conversation here :)

Drinks by the fire.

The next morning we took off on our 6 1/2 hour trek back to Normal, IL. We headed out a little earlier than normal so Madison could get to softball practice.

Will wants to drive the van back to IL!

Our IOWA picture with the kids!

It was a great weekend! As a bonus, we took my mom back with us and kept her for the week!

Hinners family: I took so many pictures that if you want to look at more, I've uploaded them to snapfish here: Hinners Weekend - July 2013. 

Clark Family Reunion

I'm a bit behind on blog posts, but I'm working on catching up. The Clarks (Sean's grandparents) hold a family reunion every summer. We try to make it when we can, but sometimes when you have to drive over 6 hours, have three kids in ball and have other summer obligations, it doesn't always work out. This year we made it work. Unfortunately, it rained most of the weekend and was a little chilly, but fortunately we still had a good time.

We decided to break the trip up on the drive home and stopped at the Herbert Hoover Museum.

We finished up there and hit a huge delay on I-80, which added at least another hour or so to our trip :( And, of course, when that happens then everyone who never has to go to the bathroom, now has to go to the bathroom.

After getting to my mom's and eating dinner, Madison and I headed into Halbur to watch my niece Lexi play softball. It was fun since we never get to see any relatives play. The next morning our family headed back into Halbur so Madison could get her pitching practice time in and we had Noah work on batting.

Then it was back to my mom's for all of us to clean up and hit the Clark Reunion. It was nice being able to visit with the relatives we rarely see. I've posted a few pictures below of the day. I wish I would've had my camera out more, but I was too busy chit chatting :)

I see someone sneaking in the shot here :) Must be
who Sean learned it from!

Sean w/his cousins

Noah relaxing a little in between the rain showers

Sean & John Luke

Madison likes to climb on dad

Summer likes to be silly and copy her sister

Noah found a sling shot

Our family w/Sean's dad

Clark family: I do have a few more pics from the day that I loaded to Snapfish here. I wish I had more, but I wasn't good about taking shots that day. If anyone else has any, please feel free to share!

We were missing some I would've really loved to catch up with, but maybe one of these next times.

We ended our weekend by going to mass at the nursing home with my dad and ate lunch with him. As usual, we took pictures with him before heading out.

SUMMER FUN!!!

Every summer the kids and I are motivated to do all sorts of things and then we fall into a pattern and do a lot of the same things and feel like we haven't done much over the summer. This summer we did a little something different. We have always sat down together (the kids and I) to make a list of things we think might be fun to do, but thanks to Pinterest (once again), we went a step further.

We placed all our fun items on a poster board with squares next to them so we can check them off as we do them. We've already done quite a few and the kids are having fun checking them off as we go. A few we had already done before making this, but figured we'd just do them again :)

This is hanging in our kitchen so we see it all the time. And we add to it as we think of new things. It's been fun so far.

Below I have a few pictures to share from "The Magical Mind of Billy Shakespeare" that was a free show for young audiences put on by The Illinois Shakespeare Festival and held at Ewing Manor. It was on our list and we all enjoyed it.

They gave us props for parts of the play.

Fighting scene

Only Summer stuck around to get a picture with the cast.

Father's Day 2013

Father's Day started out with 9am mass and then we came back to the house so the kids and I could make brunch for Sean. They presented them with a Father's Day poster they made the night before while Madison babysat them for a few hours while Sean and I went out.

We were able to eat brunch on our new patio set, which we love! Kids always want to eat outside during the summer and we finally have somewhere to sit besides a kids picnic table and a few folding chairs.

After eating, Sean headed out to the golf store to buy his gift of a new driver and a couple new wedges. I think he's excited to use them in a tournament he's in with my brother this coming weekend and so he's been to the driving range a few times since to practice :)

While he was out, we finished creating a fun collage picture for him. We found the idea on Pinterest, but we couldn't decide on just one picture so we made a collage.

The kids had to include Sean's teddy bear from when he was little in one of the pictures. Thoughtful of them, right?

To finish off the day, Sean worked on the kids' sandbox/fort while Madison and I covered adoration and practiced pitching. He keeps getting a little more done all the time. The kids are loving it!

Thanks for being such an awesome father to our kiddos! Happy Father's Day/Week!

Summer's Spring Gala

A good friend has a ballet studio called Uptown Dance and we had Summer take classes there this past spring. She had so much fun! The Spring Gala was held at Ewing Manor a couple weeks ago and it was such a perfect day for it.

Summer's Class

Summer in action :)

Miss Jenn made these cute little hairpieces for the girls!

Miss Jenn & Summer

Couldn't have a recital w/out having some flowers ready for my girl! She loved getting them. 

Thank you for everything, Jenn! You are so amazing with those young girls and you make everything so fun for them. Summer can't wait until the Tutu themed ballet camp we signed her up for this summer. See you then!