memorial day weekend with friends!

we spent memorial day weekend with our college friends and their kids.  we stayed in a great house right on the umpqus river.  the kids had a blast playing together.  the boys did a little salmon fishing, but the story goes that there is lots of fish in the river they just are biting anything! :)  

the kids!

knox-17 months, evelyn 4, amelia-20 months, caleb-almost 4, baby eli-7 months

miss e and dad doing a little fishing with the dora pole!

 mr. knox!

 these two play so well together, i loved listening to them talk to each other

 miss a tipping an izzy soda back! :)

 oh my!  so much cuteness in this picture!!!

 lisa, knox and tj...is was their year to plan the trip and i must say it was awesome!

 we had a picinic lunch at this great little waterwall creek...it was super pretty!

 evelyn, knox, and caleb...

 after lunch we hiked up to watson falls...so gorgeous!  

 the top of the falls had this super green moss all over the rocks where the water fell.  it also put off a really nice mist which felt great after a hike up the hill.

 the carter family!

ada, eli, pat and caleb

 these two were rock star hikers.  they both hiked almost the whole way up and back down!  i was super impressed with them!

 watson falls...

 brian and tj with some extra weight on their backs! :)

 the fishing crew!

 dad with his littlest lady...

 look what the dora pole caught!  the tiniest fish ever, and miss e loved it!

 caleb caught one too!

 mama lisa has all the great ideas, she filled this little swimming pool up with hot water and made a hot tub for the kids!  of course they loved it!

 love eli's face is this picture!  he wanted to be right in the middle of all the big kid fun!

 amelia and knox couldn't stop flirting with each other in the kiddie pool...

 we also had lots of cabin fun too!

the kids made a fort with the couch and also used all the cushions to make a pillow pit to jump in!

 as i said earlier the kids played so well with each other...here is knox getting horsey rides on amelia's back!

 she seems to like it!

 ok, i think i'm done! :)

 and who could resist a game of candy land with the kids?  pat played this game forever with these three.  this guy loves being a dad!

thanks everyone for the awesome weekend!  we couldn't have asked for a better time and here's to next year...with maybe a few more kids in tow!???  :)

yellow butterfly birthday fun!!!

i'm four!!!!

what a super fun yellow buterfly birthday we had!   i think miss evelyn had just as much fun as i did working on craft projects to make her party full of yellow butterfly's! :)

butterfly birthday masks...

miss lauren...

birthday girl and caleb...

amelia and sweet caleb...i just love this little guy!

this next series of pics is hilarious!  this was my attempt at getting a picture of all the kids in there butterfly masks...i think caleb was jumping on the trampoline and notice payton trying to hold on to amelia! :)

and she escaped!

4 out of the 6 kids is as good as were going to get! 

 i'll take it!

yellow butterfly birthday girl!  

she requested a birthday hat this year, i love that she has an opinion about her birthdays, it makes my decision making a lot easier! :)

me and my girl!

i love how my silly girl has her leg kicked up in this pic...she is just too silly these days...i don't know who she gets that from?! :)

miss e was a little shy this year for her birthday song, but i love that sweet expression she has!

making a wish!

happy girl with her butterfly cupcakes and butterfly ice cream sandwich...yum yum!!!

ripping and tearing through the presents!

this little lady put on quite the performance for present opening!

the box became her stage..hey, look at me!

she did manage to still the crowds attention with her performance! :)

these two are double trouble together! :)

aunt sas...miss e has been talking about aunt sas wearing a yellow dress to her yellow butterfly party for weeks!  she always tells me that sas's favorite color is yellow and that's her favorite color too!

there is just something about this pic that i love...my girls think cousin makenzie is sooo cool!!!

miss e gave her party guests butterfly nets and yellow shovels..

butterfly cupcakes...we also had lemon bars and butterfly ice cream sandwiches.  the ice cream sandwiches were butterfly shaped gingerbread cookies with vanilla ice cream, they were a hit! the birthday girl really wanted lemon ice cream to go with the yellow theme but we were unsuccessful in finding some.

i love to see how much she has changed each year...

this was one of the craft projects evelyn worked on for her party, she painted clothes pins yellow and then put eyes and glitter on them, her party guest filled them with yellow treats and then put antennas on them to make a yellow butterfly! :)

i decorated these white lanterns with yellow butterflys and hung them over the kids table...i loved how they turned out!

after the party we hung them up inside to enjoy them a bit more!

notice something new in the backyard?  

the girls got a trampoline for their birthdays and they are crazy about it!!!

miss e showing off her new baby car seat, it pretty much goes everywhere with us these days! :)

monday was her actual birthday and it was a gorgeous sunny day, so she got to try out lots of her new outdoor toys before the rain came.

bubble camera...

makenzie this picture is for you...i think you taught miss e how to take those cute mug shots of herself!  :)

we also surprised our little birthday girl with a new bike...

she rode it forever the first night we gave it to her...

and this little lady just wanted to squat down and watch...

silly girl!

as i sit her and listen to it rain outside i think to myself how did we get so lucky to have a sunny day for the party and and an even sunnier day for miss e's birthday?  i'm not sure, but i'll take it.  we had such a great time celebrating our little lady, thanks to everyone who came and made miss evelyn's day so special!

ps-as we were sitting at the table today having a tea party with her her new tea set, evely told me that she thinks she just wants to be five and then she doesn't want to get any bigger!  not sure why five is the magic number, but it sounds good to me! :)