Happy 3rd Birthday Anna!

For Anna's Birthday we had everyone over for dinner. Since we were also celebrating Kristy and Wes's birthdays we had to share the love. Kristy chose dinner- green chile enchiladas-delicious! Wes chose desert- angel food cake with strawberries and whipped cream. Anna chose the theme -PINK! When I asked what she wanted for her birthday she said "pink!" so we had a pink tablecloth, pink decorations, pink cake, pink whipped cream... she even wore pink.

Anna is growing up so fast. She can say her ABC's -only missing a few letters. She loves to read books, both on her own and being read to. She loves to help- with dinner, or laundry, or dishes... I just hope that lasts a while. Anna calls her brother and sisters her "best friends", "When are my best friends coming home?" She loves princesses and has lots of princess clothes to wear. She still loves to wear skirts. I have a hard time getting her to wear pants. She has learned how to pedal a bike and has a new princess bike but still likes to use her old falling apart tricycle. Anna also loves her Grandma Larsen. We stopped by the other day and she asked if she could stay "forever and ever". I had to tell her no. We would miss her too much!

Riding!

Kara's first riding lesson. She couldn't stop smiling!

P.S. the horse's name is Booger!

SOD!!

We finally have grass! It sure was a stressful couple of days, though. Once it was warm enough we turned on the sprinklers and water came out all the pipes (there were no actual sprinklers yet) so we thought we were good to go. We ordered the sod and put sprinklers on and turned them on... and they didn't work. Sprinklers that were supposed to spray 15 ft sprayed 3 ft. And the sod was coming the next day. Wes spent most of the afternoon and evening troubleshooting with a sprinkler guy and still nothing worked. We tried to cancel the sod order but it was already cut. Then it poured rain so the backyard was a big mucky mess. We had to add two valves to our sprinkler system but we did get it to work. Meanwhile the crew (kind and loving family members) layed sod.

 You can see what a mess the sod truck made.

 We provided pizza and doughnuts for the weary workers. We layed about 6800 sq ft of sod.

Thank you to Stan, Brenda, Adam, Steve, Mom, Dad, Jenny, Kelly, Kristy, and Chris! It looks great!

Kite Flying

The kids made their own kites from paper and straws and string and flew them one windy day. Eventually they got out their real kites but these worked fairly well, considering.

Kara Is 8!

For Kara's birthday party we had a Secret Agent Training Academy. The first activity was "Disguise Training", otherwise known as a photo booth. So cute!

 Then they recieved a message sending them to "Investigative Skills Training" (treasure hunt). They had to decipher clues to find spy gear. It took them all over the back yard and up the hill.

 Then while Kristy went to get pizza the girls participated in a relay race. Pizza, cake and ice cream. Yum!

 On Kara's birthday the Rogers came over for dinner, etc. Kara's favorite present was horse riding lessons, followed closely by the Poo Poo Paper from Kristy.

Happy Birtrhday Kara!