Sydney's "official" 5th B-day

Looking back, Chris and I realized that Sydney got totally spoiled for her 5th Birthday! haha  We did an early party for her in Indiana, then the weekend of her actual birthday became "Sydney weekend" ;)
We went to our good friends, the Hardy's, to swim and took an ice cream cake.

Allie, Cooper (their youngest), Sawyer (their oldest), a cousin-Sophia and

 Chloe is their middle child sitting with Syd

But wait! there's more. On her REAL birthday, Sunday we got to open More presents :)

but wait, we have to do something on her birthday! SO, we took her to Kimball Farms :)  She finally got her request of riding the bumper boats and then after golf, we all shared a banana split! It was a lot of fun!!!

 

Camp Kidsway 2011

We flew back from Indiana just in time for Camp Kidsway at our church!

(kinda like a VBS on steroids :) I didn't take pics during the week because I was so busy :(. 

But these are from the final program.

Sydney got to be part of the actual camp this year since she's starting Kindergarten in the fall. This is her with her leader, Mrs. Ruch, whom she is in LOVE with now :)

Here is Allie with her leader, Ms. Lisa. Allie has always been attached to Ms. Lisa

since she taught her sunday school class a couple yrs ago. 

I lead a group of 4 amazing kids!

This is Nolan, Madison, and Amy. I had one more, Aidan that isn't in the pic

I got really attached to all of them. It's such a blessing to see them at church each Sunday!

Here is Allie and one of her best friends Ellie Butler :)

Sydney totally surprised me. She refused to go on the stage with her group for their song. Then in the end, the entire group of kids from camp went up and danced/sang. I asked her Why she went up so happily with the group at the end...."because I wanted to sing Jesus Your my Superstar"!  So I guess she was waiting for her favorite song to perform!

Sydney's 5th Birthday

We had a blast celebrating Sydney's birthday in Indiana with family! We had the party at MiMi and PopPops (Chris' parents).

She decided she wanted an Ice cream Birthday Party.

 It was a lot of fun. The kids got to add toppings of their choice!

This was a hit!

the girls hanging out upstairs  (cousins)

below: Syd & Aunt GiGi (Chris' sister)

Syd with MiMi

Sydney requested a pinata! it was a lot of fun! (Uncle Greg held it up for us)

Gavin is thinking "really? I get to HIT it!" 

everyone made it through a couple times, then the big girls busted it! :)

Syd and my adorable nieces, Ella & Payton. My sister couldn't make it :( she is pregnant and was feeling really sick that day. We were so thankful she had a few good days and we got to visit with her!

 These next pics remind me of how EASY this kid is to please. Of course the day was all about her, but seriously she could go without presents, cake, etc and be this happy :)

She got some really nice presents, but this one stuck out...a bride dress. She was on cloud nine!

She loves to play pretend weddings and marry daddy. Allie plays the bridal march and I'm the preacher :) I tell Chris to enjoy it, it will only last about one more year and it's over. We know from Allie that these stages fly by so fast :'(

 we ended our party with some cartwheel races...

 concerts...

and...super-spies!

Our new friends

I couldn't wait to post about our new friends, the High's, today I finally got some pictures! They are our neighbors and are in their 80s. We are so amazed with their lifestyle. Mrs. High was a nurse at Harvard and Mr. High was an ER doctor and is still practicing. They travel so much we can't keep track of them! They have been to Texas, California, South Carolina, and Japan just this year! Mrs. High asked us if we'd like to come over for a tea and see things she bought in Japan. I knew the girls would LOVE it! They colored pictures for them and made them some brownies to take over :)

 Mrs. High came to the door in her Kimono and told the girls that this was a summer Kimono that the women are wearing in Japan. Then she took them back to see her Japanese dishes. She made Japanese cookies for them in their bowls and poured fruit juice into their cups. They were so giddy! Syd couldn't stop giggling and told her all about her tea set at home.

Then Mrs. High gave them a brush she got in a hotel in Japan. Sydney was so excited that it was small and would fit in her purse! She asked if she could comb her hair. She was so sweet to let her ;)  Syd then realized and said "hey, we have the same hair!"  because it is the same length :)

Allie quickly discovered that she had a piano and an organ!

Allie was so excited to play some songs she's learned this year in lessons.

I had to take a close up of her dishes. They were gorgeous!

The girls couldn't resist exploring her house of antiques and had LOTS of questions for her. Mr. High came home from work right before we left. He is so sweet and always listens to the girls too :)   Here Mrs. High is showing Allie her mother's pearls in a box from Japan.



On our way out, Mrs. High showed us pictures of all of her kids and grandkids on the wall. They had 6 children!  Allie and Sydney had such a blast and are eager to have them over when we get back from our trip to Indiana ;)

Strawberry picking

We went strawberry picking last week and had a lot of fun ;)

 

Only problem was we passed a tractor on the way to the field,

and Gavin was obsessed with it the rest of the time we were there! 

It took us awhile to get him to the field. haha 

 

Proud girls :)  We made strawberry shortcakes that night!

Of course we had to see the tractor one last time ;) He's just a little happy!

"See ta-tor?"  yes, we ALL see it Gavin. :)

Poor thing was aching to get up on it. He kept asking "momma, dit, pease?!"  (sit please).  I think I have a theme for his 2nd birthday!

Uncle JB and Aunt Debbie's visit!

We were so blessed last week to have Chris' aunt and uncle visit us all the way from Princeton, Indiana!  They were taking a trip to New England and stopped by to spend a whole day with us. It's  a neat story b/c they had their honeymoon here years ago and wanted to come back. The kids had such a blast showing off their rooms and all their new tricks. ;) 

 It was so great for Chris to be home for half the day.

He and JB had a lot of catching up to do ;)

Gavin's first time to slide down by himself!

guess he felt like he had to impress them ;)



Allie quickly got attached to Aunt Debbie. She ate up her attention and kept wanting her to come up to her room to hang out! ;)

They were so sweet to bring us all gifts! Here are the kids with their bug catchers. Syd isn't in many pictures b/c she was determined 
to catch a chipmunk ;) 

We ended our visit with dinner at Filho's, our favorite restaurant in Groton. Then walked around main street and said goodbye :(  as they headed on to Maine. This visit will always be a special memory for our family!