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.