Our fine feather friends!

We have a new pet! Ok, maybe they aren't really our pet, but they have been hanging around our yard for the past several days.  Yesterday we attempted to feed them some bread. They kept they distance but they did eat it.  Not sure what the story is on these guys, but the kids have loved seeing them each day!

Holiday World time!

It's that time of year again!! Summertime! Which means many trips to Holiday World!! It is so fun this year because Ben grew just enough to ride a lot of the rides! And he loves them!! 

Seeing Santa as soon as we walked in!

Surprise! Then Holidog came walking out! :)

waiting for their favorite ride, the bumper boats!

Nate and Olivia getting splashed by the geyser

Ben decided after watching them and realizing they were on a "really big bumper boat" that he wanted to ride it! 

Driving the old cars :)

                           

Hanging out with Santa! There wasn't a crowd at all today and we were the only ones here to meet him.  This is the way to do it! Forget about those long lines before Christmas! :)

Family picture. Why not?

Thankfully the kids can ride this ride alone.  Mommy didn't make a good choice by going on it with them last time. 

Strawberry pickin' and jelly makin'

I am so thankful for my friend, Alison, who lets me know about cool things, such as when you can go pick fresh strawberries :)  We took the kids on friday morning to Mayse Farm in Evansville and picked (to many) strawberries! 16 pounds to be exact!  That afternoon we go together and made strawberry jelly.  It was very delicious and I'm so excited to have frozen jelly to use this year! The kids had a great time, we were the only ones there, and the weather was very cool and comfortable!

One of Olivia's strawberries

Ben showing off his red strawberry

A heart shaped strawberry!

The kiddos posing with our stash! They were so cute!

The disaster of a mess we made when we decided to mix the 4 batches together so the first two wouldn't be so runny. It worked out perfectly!

All of the jelly and all of the remaining strawberries!

YUM!!

Family pictures!

We got our family pictures taken last Monday.  It was past due since Ben wasn't even 2 during our last pictures.  I happened to come across this lady because she had posted pictures of our neighbors little boy on Facebook. Good ole Facebook, what did we do before it existed.  Portraits by Holly did and AMAZING job!! She was so great with the kids (Ben wasn't sure about it at the beginning).  The whole session only took about 35 minutes and the location she used was beautiful!! So happy with all of the pictures, but these were some of my favorites!

Camp out!

The kids have been begging to sleep in the same room lately. So I told them when Olivia was done with school they could have a camp out, meaning sometime this summer.  I suppose they took that as the day she was officially done! So tonight they are having they first campout! I'm sure there will be many more in the future! 

Preschool Graduation!

Tonight was Olivia's Preschool graduation! How can she be done with preschool and ready for Kindergarten you ask? Well, I do not have an answer for that question.  I know everyone says it, and before kids it probably annoyed me to hear it, but it's so very true! They grow up WAY TO QUICKLY! We are so proud of our sweet Olivia! I couldn't have imagined a better little girl to be part of our family.  We are so proud of you Olivia!!

Kinder Haus class of 2013 :)

Olivia's sweet friend, Mallory! So thankful for this family, which are also our neighbors, (and fellow Disney Lovers!). 

Olivia's friend, Kynlee. She came home talking about her early on.  And after talking  to her mom I realized how much these two girls are alike! I see them being great friends in school!

Miss Lucy! Such an incredible lady and teacher! She, and the other teachers made Olivia's first year of school such an amazing experience! And because of that, she is thrilled to go onto Kindergarten! Sending Ben to preschool won't be so scary knowing these are the women that will be caring for him and teaching him!

Olivia's preschool graduation gift. One of her favorites! Doc McStuffins

Her poor excuse for a cake. I did not get my mother's cake decorating talents. Although Olivia did tell me that this was the best cake I ever made! 

The story of a beautiful spring day!

On a beautiful warm day in May, we decided to fill up out little pool. I told him we had to wait until after lunch to swim... and that just wasn't going to fly with him.

So he did what any little boy would do...

over and over again...

And if he stuck his tongue out far enough, he could catch some water!

Ahhh... that was refreshing on this warm day!

Finally got to get in!

YAHOO!!!

oh wait, something made Ben mad :( Pretty sure as he was walking away he was saying "Livie is not nice!"

But that didn't put a damper on Olivia's joy!