2017

During Bradley’s and Kyle’s spring break we celebrated their birthdays.

To celebrate Kyle’s 16th birthday, Georgia and her mom, Sue, created a competition for us. We pulled colored hair ties out of a bag to determine the teams of two. They were Bradley and Kasey, Megan and Kyle, Abby and Evan, Chris and Nick, and Hope and I.

The competition started with games similar to the “Minute to win it” show. From shaking ping pong balls out of a box on your butt, creating a spaghetti and marshmallow tower, blowing a ping pong ball to hop it from one cup of water to another and finally the cut a watermelon in two by putting rubber bands around it, all the games where a ton of fun.

The highlight of them was definitely the watermelon. Each team would roll two dice until they got doubles then they would go and place 5 rubber bands around the watermelon. The team that put the last rubber bands around it prior to it exploding would win. It had been raining all day so the ground was very wet and muddle. Abby and Evan ran to put their rubber bands around the watermelon when Abby fell backward on her butt. A muddy splash kicked up. In the end, the watermelon never exploded. We ran out of rubber bands and Abby needed a change of clothes!

We then headed to the mall where the teams had to do certain challenges like getting strangers to do the YMCA sign with them. Another activity was to “twin” a mannequin. At the end, points were added up and the winners were……Hope and I. Everyone had a blast.

The next day we celebrated Brad’s 18th birthday. We sent him on his clue hunt. He did pretty good and only got hung up on one clue where he needed a little help. I am very proud of the young men and Brad and Kyle are both becoming.

Kristin, Bradley, and Kyle joined Hope and I at Kasey’s gymnastic meet. Kasey did pretty good while placing in two events, but my favorite picture of the day is the one with her and the umbrella.

Finally, Hope and the kids sent me on a clue hunt for my birthday gift. The kids came up with all the clues and they were a little easier than last time. (Last time they had clues in binary.) It was all too much excitement for Kristin who fell asleep sitting up on the couch. In fairness, she was fighting a sinus infection.

Nicole and Jimmy visited during their spring break. Near the end of their visit, Nicole, Jimmy and I visited the Mark Twain house. The tour was actually pretty good. We are planning on going back for their night tour. The house is supposed to be haunted.

Kristin had plenty of help shopping for a prom dress. Georgia, Hope, Nicole, Kasey and yes, Jimmy and I were all her personal shoppers choosing dresses for her to try on. Finally after many hours of looking she found “THE DRESS”! (You’ll see the dress in her prom pictures.)

We celebrated Kristin’s 18th birthday. She has grown into a wonderful young lady.

March ended with a huge snow storm leaving over 20 inches of snow. I cannot wait for spring to get here and stay!

Kasey performed in her first silver level AAU gymnastics competition. She did really well, taking first on your floor exercise and placing in all events.

Megan’s team performed very well in their first cheer competition of the year. They took third place.

Corey, Bradley, Kyle, Kasey and I had a snowball fight in the backyard. Corey and Brad on one team and Kyle, Kasey and I on the other team. After building bases and properly building ammo the fight began with an attack launched by Corey and Bradley. It was quickly repelled and a counter attack launched. Three of us were too much for the team of two but we all had a good time.

For Christmas, Aunt GA got the children the LOLZ game. It is an easy concept, take a mid-evil device for holding your month open and then get your team members to guess the phrase that you are saying. It is a blast to watch, except for the excessive drooling that happens when people talk and can’t close their lips. On a side note, we got to see what our orthodontic money paid for.

January is one of our big birthday months, Uncle Ralph, Aunt GA and Nicole all celebrate. Aunt GA’s cake almost set the house on fire but luckily we have a fireman in the family.

The picture of GA is of her taking selfies of herself on someone’s phone. Leaving your phone unattended in our house typically results in a lot of funny pictures of people on your phone.