Ethan's Birthday party

We had Ethan's 5th Birthday party this past weekend at Beach Bounders gymnastics and the kids had a blast! The kids were lead through a series of structured activities around the gym and got quite a good work out! I think their favorite was the foam pit. I didn't think we'd get them out of there. Thanks to all of our friends who came and celebrated my baby boy's 5th Birthday. It was a very special day!

Vacation Bible School

Ethan and Jillian participated in our church's Vacation Bible School a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. The theme for the week was "Shake it up Cafe, where kids carry out God's Recipe". Mick was the leader for games and recreation and I helped teach a class for 6&7 year olds. It was such a fun week for all of us and I loved seeing all of the smiles on all the kids faces. Here are a few pictures from our week...



Ethan loved one of songs called "Shake it up"! We have the music for it at home and Ethan still wants to listen to it and do all of the dance moves. You can see from this picture that he's really into it!

This was the class I helped teach. We had a really good group of kids and I really enjoyed teaching them. Such great kids!

Jillian having a good time during game time with her Daddy!

Dana taught Ethan's class. He was in a class with all of his good friends.

Jillian lovin' snack time!

Ethan loved snack time too!

Mick playing with the kids for game time.

Ethan singing and dancing during the opening assembly

Mick being his silly self goofing off with the kids. I think one of the kids actually stepped on him by accident in the picture and they are all laughing!

Ethan's still "Shakin' it up"

It was finally time to take the plunge and expand Ethan's little toddler bed into a full-sized bed. He had the same matress that we got him for his crib when he was a baby and it was getting very worn and uncomfortable. We thought long and hard if we should just get another crib mattress for his toddler bed or go ahead and convert his bed to a full-sized and with much debate here it is! Ethan is so excited and feels like such a big boy! He went with us to the mattress store to pick it out and couldn't wait last night to get in his new bed. He couldn't stop smiling when he got in it last night. I snuck in his room and took these pictures of him sleeping. He's so cozy!

Dutch Wonderland in PA!

We just got back from our trip to Lancaster, Pa and we had a great time. The highlight of the trip was when we went to Dutch Wonderland. This theme park was perfect for small kids since they were able to ride pretty much all of the rides. They couldn't stop talking about their favorite rides and they enjoyed every minute of it! We loved this park because was not crowded at all and there were never any lines for any of the rides, so the kids could ride over and over as much as they wanted. We will definately be going back here again!

It was very hard to get this picture right. They could not figure out that they needed to look straight ahead and smile. Too funny!

Anxiously waiting to get on the ride. They would knock on the door and yell "open the door"!!! They don't quite know how to be patient yet.

I could not get on this ride a second time. It made me really dizzy, but they loved it!

One of their favorite rides...the "froggies" as they called it.

I thougth this one was a lot of fun too!

Jillian was star struck at the sight of the princess! She listened very intently to her telling the story.

Ethan was not as enthused to meet the princess and prince.

Another favorite...the Panda bear ride.

Kids could try to milk the cow! Not a real cow of course.

This is so sweet...Ethan was hugging her and then put his arm around her. He loves his sister :)

Ethan had to try milking the cow too.

Wheeeee!!!!!

At the end of a very hot day when we're all very tired a shot like this in front is hard to get! They would not be still, but we managed to get them in the same picture.

They had a show with some amazing divers. This diver was diving from 80 feet in the air! Amazing. The picture doesn't do it justice of how high up he was.

Ethan trying to pull the wagon. He didn't make it very far before he said "all done"

Wheeeee!!!!

Our absolute favorite ride in the park! It looks a lot scarier then it really was. You mainly just float around on a little river bend until finally getting to a big hill that carries you up to the top then you go flying to the bottom and splash in the water. The water felt very good on a hot day!

Ethan wanted to go sit on the Amish man's lap

At the water park! I don't have any pictures of Ethan at the water park because he and Mick were off playing on the water slides. She didn't like all of that at all, so I took her over to the little toddler area that was more her speed.