VBS 2011

Tonight started our Vacation Bible School at church. The theme for the week is Hometown Nazareth-Where Jesus was a kid. The church parking lot is right next to the farmers market so we got permission from the town to use the market tonight to make it look like an authenic market square from Jesus' time.

Here is a glimpse of the market. At the market the kids could do crafts, have a snack, meet some animals, and make some really cool things.

Here is Suzanne as Mary, Jesus' mother! Kids visited her home where she taught them about raising Jesus. I love this theme so much!

Hope was in the preschool class!!! Here she is getting her headband for her tribe! I love that she went along with all the other preschoolers-too cute!!

David was in the green tribe and he had such fun!

Here is Kyle bottle feeding the baby calf. I was mesmerized by this little one month old calf and I had a blast feeding it! :) He was a popular stop for many kids!

Here is Kyle with the Preston clan-we took those four children with us tonight and Kyle really had fun! He is getting to the age where bible school is not as cool as it was just a few years ago. What shocked me to realize tonight is that in TWO short years he will be in the youth program at church instead of children's ministry. GASP!

I thought the food was so creative! The food was in the market and there was lamb, crackers, cheese, raisins, grapes, and bread.

Doing crafts in the market place!

There were a TON of preschoolers (which is so awesome) and here is Hope's class going to the playground. Ms. Brandi had her all night and she did so great going with the big preschoolers. She is growing up so fast.....

Hope was OBSESSED with the cow and the bottle. She kept getting the bottle for me to feed it! That is one well-fed cow tonight heading back to the barn. What an awesome bible school this week-I cannot wait to go back tomorrow night for more Hometown Nazareth fun.

Fun, Friends, and More Ball

Well, this weekend was once again full to the brim with fun, friends, baseball, and church.

On Saturday we spent many hours at the pool and we had fun with lots of friends that were also there. I love that about the pool-you never know who is going to be there and it is such a surprise when there are lots of friends to visit with.

Hope is still loving her puddle jumper float and gets braver each time we go.

My kids get to the pool and eat like crazy! Saturday we had planned a little food and fellowship with some friends-some brought drinks and some brought food. My girl laying out chowing on her corn dog!

David, Grace, and Hope!

On each trip to the pool David jumps off of the side 6 catrillion times and on this trip he talked several friends into joining him.

Sweet poolside kiss! They do truly love each other and mostly play so well together.

Here is our food and drink table!

The Robinson totem pole! They love to take pictures before church? David picked the spot and they all lined up! I tried to get a picture of just the boys but Hope insisted to be in each one! HA!

Hope's princess dress came from the Jonas family for her birthday! She was super proud of it and we had to pry it off of her at bedtime.

Sunday was Kids Sunday at church and all three of my children got to participate! I love this banner-super cute!

Here is Miss Hope and the preschool choir! She is Ms. Teresa's buddy so she stayed pretty close to her. I was just proud that she saw us and stayed with her friends:) My baby is certainly growing up!

Kyle did a reading and I thought he looked so cute in the pulpit! He was not nervous at all.

Then there was Mr. David who fully (and I mean fully) participated in the children's musical about the ten commandments. He added his own hand motions and took a bow after EVERY song they sang. This guy has music in his soul:) I also love that he is standing beside Micah and before the song was over, Micah gave him bunny ears!

After church we rushed off to the first game in Regional play for Kyle's All Star team. One of the coaches had put this on the back of his car:) The kids loved it!

Unfortunately the game did not go so well, and we lost the first round. That is okay because we are going back tonight ready for some revenge. Thankfully it is a double elimination tournament. Lots of parents and players went out to eat after the game and we had such fun laughing and having fun. Vacation Bible School also starts this week at church so once again we are looking ahead to a busy, busy week.

All Stars 2011

This week our life has been consumed with Kyle's All Star play. We got to host the district tournament here which was super fun to play locally. We were blessed with lots of fans and friends.

Kay Clawson took some amazing pictures of our All Star kids. For a reasonable fee she came to several games and got pictures of our kids in action! It was nice to just get to sit back and enjoy the game.

Our team is pretty good and we had two great wins on Monday and Tuesday against two tough teams. Kyle has played first, second, and outfield and tonight he hopes to get to pitch. Here he is on first!

The game on Wednesday night was not to pretty but we pulled out a win despite the rain, rain delay, lots of errors, and Kyle did not bat well at all.

This is truly an amazing shot Kay got because clearly Kyle is stretching up high to catch that ball on first base. He got this out!!!

My super competitive child takes this all so seriously and really gets down on himself when he makes mistakes.

In game #2 he made some great plays in the field playing second and here is a fly ball he caught.

Out number 3 in that same inning! Way to go Kyle!

Team picture-Kyle is the youngest on this team and the only rising fourth grader. This group of boys is really a sweet bunch and they are so much fun to watch. You get to know kids and families well when you hang out together at the field. I love the family atmosphere of sports.

Here is Kyle's individual picture-it takes my breath away how old he looks.

Okay, here is where my pictures now start!!!

This little one has had fun at the field all week too! Most nights she has worn her "ballfield" dress made by Mary Jane! The girl can yell "whoo hoo" just like her momma!

Love these two in their red!!!

Love this group of boys!!!

Pops came down and cheered on David in his Tball game and Kyle in his All Star game. Poor Pops saw the not so great all star game:)

David and Hope had grabbed somebody's blackberries and were taking pictures! Thankfully there are lots and lots of kiddos for them to play with. We were so blessed that Ashley helped us by taking David home and letting him go to bed.

I love being a sports Mom and despite the craziness while you are in season, I know we are making wonderful memories as a family.

We Heart Mike

This weekend we have celebrated Father's Day just hanging out at home. That is what Mike loves to do after a crazy, busy week. So except for a few hours at the Little League field and church we have stayed at home.

Saturday night we grilled out just the five of us and got to eat outside. The weather this week has been super rainy and chilly so Saturday evening we snuggled up on the deck with beach towels and just chatted. It was really cool to just sit outside in the dark just talking. One of the positive things about having your kiddos grow up is that right before our eyes they are morphing into great conversationalist.

For a festive touch for the summer, we have hung some lights around our gazebo to light up our evenings on the deck. I love the view of the golf course from our deck and my hanging baskets are actually thriving for once.

We got Mike a few gifts for his big day and Kyle picked out a new Red Sox shirt for him. Mike has passed on his love of the Red Sox to the boys and now they all have Red Sox shirts!!

I love this picture of Mike and the kiddos. He really is a great hands-on father considering how crazy and time-consuming his job is. He coaches as much as his schedule allows and he is not afraid to play babies with his little girl. This weekend he even painted her toenails! He is truly a family man and we appreciate all his hard work to provide for our family.

Today we worked on breaking down Hope's crib to make it into a full size bed. I always thought that would be such an emotional thing when you finally get rid of the crib in the house. For goodness sakes, we have had a crib standing in our house for almost ten years! I really thought it would be this major moment as we say goodbye to a stage in our life. Yeah, not so! I never shed one tear and I am actually so excited to decorate her new big girl room. When we are finished I will post pictures!!

This week will be another busy one in our household. Kyle plays in an All Star tournament here locally and he is also participating in an enrichment camp at school this week. David is still doing summer school so for this week there will be no lazy mornings at our house. We will be out of the door before 8:00 each day. It is okay with me because I have so much to do this week. We are in cleaning mode here at home and we are getting ready for a birthday party this weekend.

Slower Pace

Finally it seems that life is slowing down a bit around here.

We have spent almost everyday at the pool this week and this little girl settled in for a nice, long Saturday afternoon nap. Some days she can go without a nap, but eventually it catches up with her and she crashes for a long nap. All three kiddos enjoy the pool so much and we have spent lots of hours out there already this summer.

Today while my youngest was napping, the boys got this creative idea to decorate jerseys and play an inside game of baseball with a soft bat and ball. When Kyle wants to, he can be an amazing big brother! Check out jersey that Kyle made!

Their game even had a homemade scoreboard!!! They pulled Webkinz out of their room for "fans" and each boy even had a special bleacher section. I was so impressed with their creativity but I was worried something would get broken.

Here is David's shirt!

Besides the creativity, I love watching my boys work together cooperatively on something. Afternoons like this would never happen during the school year due to the crazy schedules we keep, but today on a dreary afternoon during summer break, we actually had time for this kind of play. I love it.

This week Kyle will play in his District All Star tournament. He has a game each night of the week to see which teams will advance to Area. Kyle is super excited and ready to play! Mommy will of course be nervous!

Her Big Day

The birthday girl certainly had a big day! With cute crocs like these, how could she not?


Upon her request we spent the day at the pool and then we went to her favorite local restuarant "The Diner" for her meal! She was so excited to go but.....

she fell asleep on the way there and slept through half of dinner. Even sweet big brother kisses could not wake her up.

Daddy even tried to prop her up to wake her up when her mashed potatoes came to the table-still no luck:)

This place has wonderful home cooking and all Hope wanted for her birthday was a bowl of "tatoes" She finally did wake up and eat the whole bowl of yummies!

Here is the smiling birthday girl with both of her big brothers.

After eating out we headed back home for cookie cake and PRESENTS from family. Next week is her joint birthday party with David. David was super excited to help her open her presents:)

Her package of princesses!!!! She has admired this at Target for months now and she finally got it!!!!

She also got this huge doll house! My mom and Kyle were so cute putting it all together. It is a huge hit-especially the car that goes with it. In a few weeks when we put her big girl room together we will put it upstairs, but for now it is all over our living room!

David and Hope posing in front of the house!

Oh my goodness!! Birthdays are so cool! This little one had such a fun day being the birthday star. She can adamantly tell you that she is two and David is going to be seven. She can also belt out the happy birthday song to herself:)

We had such a fun day celebrating our big girl turning two. Time please slow down-I adore this stage so much and I want to savor every moment.