Henriches

Some of our best friends moved. Boo! We are sad that the Henriches are going, but happy for them and their new adventure too. These are just a few pictures we took with them the last few times we hung out before they left for Oklahoma.

Good Buddies

Best of luck Henrich family! You'll be missed.

It was a crazy bash! Splash?!

Christian chose to have a "beach party" for his 4th b-day. It was his first birthday with a "friend's party" and was a wild and exciting day.

Christian was excited when he woke up and saw his beach cake!

In our family, the birthday person picks the meals. But, he couldn't eat the cake. Besides, he had already chosen Fruit Loops for breakfast. He had them from a necklace he made one time and wanted the cereal with the"parrot" on the box. Apparently, he enjoyed them thoroughly.

We went to a free family movie, Horton Hears a Hoo, in the morning, then came back, ate a quick pizza lunch, and turned our little yard into a beach!

He had a splash at his party- that is he had a great time playing in the water, having cake and ice cream, and opening presents with his friends and family!

Christian, Sam, and Josh in the mini pools

Hailey, Sydney, V, and Belle in the slightly larger pool(funny how even at their age they divide by gender).

Make a wish, 4 year old! I bet he wished for a mustache, but that is a whole "nother" post!

Love this one! Isn't he adorable? He enjoyed the big gummy shark from on top of his cake!

Thank you grandma for helping with Grant and for giving Christian the cool jungle set! He loves it!

Christian got lots of other cool pool, superhero, big boy type toys from his cousins and friends! THANKS! He has loved them!

It was a fun, but wild party. So, afterwards, I would love to say that we just had an easy evening, but we actually had a house showing, so we had a ton of party mess(the pools, props, food stuff, etc) to clean up in 2 hours! We got it done though and took Christian out to Popeye's while some people checked out our house. It was a good day!

Dogwood Dell

After the river we headed back home. We stayed long enough to unload the car, start the laundry from the day before, reload a cooler, replenish the diaper bag, gather a picnic blanket, and chairs into the car again and then we were off for Dogwood Dell! See what I mean about how we are always crazy? You might think that it is just for holidays, but unfortunately (and fortunately) it is almost every day. We just like being busy.

We picked up fried chicken on the way- a tradition for the Fourth of July for Danny's family.

We found out kinda last minute that Danny's parents decided that they wanted a break from all of the running around that they had been doing lately, so they stayed home. Danny's aunt Sharon and most of her family came though. When I say most I mean, she and Tom, Candice, Bryan, and Maddie, Dave, Ioana, Ana, Lexie, Zach, Kelly, Shawn, and Jonathan. It was fun to see the out-of-towners from that side of the family!

Johnathan and his flag

The kids had fun playing on the playground and getting reacquainted with their second cousins. Danny and I had fun talking with his cousins and their spouses. We also enjoyed the traditional, Fourth of July cake. Danny was going to make one, but didn't this year and we were sort of sad about it, but Sharon made two! So, that was perfect. And delicious. I think Ioana took a picture.

"Tia Sharon" and sleeping Grant. It was nice that although she had so many of her own grand kids there she still gave our kids attention and made them feel loved.

V, Ana, and Lexie waving their flags to the music

Christian and Zach. Zach looks so cute, but Christian looks so grumpy. He looks that way from time to time. This time it was because he "hates fireworks!" and doesn't want ash in his eye again this year. He insisted on wearing sunglasses and still covered his eyes even though I held him and tried to assure him that it would be okay. He finally watched a bit of the end when Danny let him wear his special sunglasses. Good thinking, Dad. Afterward he liked fireworks again!

Grant wonders what the heck is going on!

After a while he just enjoyed it though. I enjoy this picture. Grant is so cute, you can see some cousins in the background, and check out Danny's smile.

I love fireworks! It was a great show, especially the finale.

We are so thankful for our country and really enjoyed celebrating it!

Independence Day in Deltaville

Another river house weekend, but the pics will look different this time. We had a fun day on the 3rd with my parents, Scott's family, and Craig's family. We played outside all afternoon and had a cookout dinner that evening. That night Craig and Lorel and Danny and I had fun playing Scrabble. I thought I was going to win, but then Craig had some major pointage on his last turn and won. It was fun. Then, on Independence day we went to Deltaville for some fun!

The kids were in a parade! (Hard to see from this picture because the kid parade was actually just going around a basketball court with a crowd cheering for you around the perimeter.) Some of the floats were pretty cute though. Next year we will know what is expected and actually try! We just still had the wagon in the car from our Thursday's playgroup and thought that the kids would like it. They seemed too.

This picture shows some of the other floats.

Crab races!

Refreshing lemon-limeade on a hot morning

The kids played a duck game and had fun with that but had just as much fun on a nearby playground.

We love some of the old school playground equipment. It may be more dangerous, but it is sweet!

"Look mom, we're up high and no hands!"

One of the booths was a raffle for a train set. The man there also let us know that their railroad club was having an open house. We went over to check it out. It was pretty cool!

After the morning out, we went back for lunch and playing inside for a bit. Then my mom, Victoria, and I took the canoe out. It was a good time.

Home Improvements

Our pink carpet that I have wanted out for 6 years is finally gone! Yea! It is a brownish tan now and the walls are a greenish tan. It looks so much more current, just better. We moved a few things around too. Thanks to the advice of a stager, Molly Schultz, who our realtor, Glenda Holloway, arranged to come to our house.

Molly gave us some great easy tips that made a big difference. Not that the house looks perfect, but honestly some of the rooms look much better!

For example, there is color in the living room. Thank you Jen Mccoin for the pillows!

The foyer is a new welcoming color too.

The kitchen stayed pretty much the same, but I took down a few things and borrowed a few yellow things from my mom's house to stage it. Thank you, mom! It really is a nice big kitchen.

The family room looks really different to me -I miss all of the photos, but the personal things were supposed to come down . Any tips about what to put on these shelves for now until we sell the house? I don't have a clue. We might need to take them down too.

Our bedroom. Looks pretty much the same, but minus a bookcase and a dresser and a breakfast tray added.

A dark picture(oops) of the master bath with some new fluffy white towels.

This picture shows a new faucet in the kids bathroom. Danny installed 4 new faucets and got to be pretty efficient with it.

So, our house is looking pretty good these days and we are enjoying it. We are hoping that we will sell it pretty soon. We are excited to buy a new house and have learned that we need to fix it and make it ours sooner next time so we can enjoy it and feel good about our home environment.

Playgroup Parade

Fun Fourth of July celebration for playgroup. We had a bike, trike, wagon, etc. parade in the church parking lot on Thursday. It was fun for the kids.

Christian rode his tricycle.

V pulled Grant and Cooper in the wagon.

Christian made me laugh when he "pulled over for gas".

And our attempt at a group shot. We love this group!

New Nephew!

Orion Hunter Soderholm is here! Danny and I got to visit him and his parents when he was 1 day old.

He is a cute little guy and we had fun seeing him and holding him.

Congrats TJ, Whitney, and Teagan!

Ferry Ride

We go to Williamsburg a lot since Danny's parents live there, but we usually take I- 64 (if that is backed up Rt. 60). It had been a really long time since we had taken Route 10 and the ferry, so we thought we would mix things up and make it fun for the kids. It was quite enjoyable for all of us. Thank you Drea for reminding me about it.

V strikes a pose on the ferry boat

Christian thought it was cool to go up the stairs and look out the windows too.

We all liked standing at the back and watching the seagulls follow us. We threw them some broken animal crackers which they seemed to enjoy. I was glad that there was this safety gate up. I think it was just the chains last time we rode it. It didn't take much longer than normal and it is free, so I think we might do it again sometime.

Softball Mondays

Our Monday nights still look like this. It's probably the highlight of Danny's week and we like to go too! This year we haven't gone to an many as other years because of school the next day, but we have been to a few so far this summer and probably will go from here on out.

Danny as short stop

Danny at bat!

Christian and Zane contemplating the tiger underneath them.

Laurie and V such cute fans of their dads!

Grant and I are big fans too! Too bad I so frequently forget to watch the game.

V and C looking like the best of pals watching their dad.