Garret is SIX!

Garret turned 6 on saturday! hard to believe he is growing up so fast. dave and i were going down memory lane the other night and thinking about the events leading up to his arrival. he was such an amazingly beautiful baby. perfect in every way. (i know im his mom so of course i thought he was the most beautiful) anyway, he came quick into this world and has been quick to go ever since then. he is such a strong kid. he amazes me what he can do. he is also a very sensitive guy and cares about others feelings.

when we asked him what kind of party he wanted he said he wanted a sleep over. i told him that he might need to wait and be a little older before he can have a sleep over with a bunch of friends. then he said he wanted a turkey hunting party like last year. so together we came up with the idea for a base ball party! we have been playing ball in the back yard as a family and he is REALLY good at hitting and throwing a base ball.

we set up the yard to look like a baseball field, with lines on the field and signs along the fence. we tired to make a sign to represent each family that was at the party. dave also worked on finishing the second story to the tree fort.
here are some of the details...
i made the baseball cake, we gave the kids a water bottle with their names on it to fill up with gatorade, we had all the baseball themed snacks and then the kids got a goodie bag filled with bubble gum and cracker jacks.
i LOVE seeing our backyard full of families. god has really blessed us with some great friends.
this is garrets buddy from school. they were in kindergarten together and are now together in first grade. i was so glad they were. he is a great kid.
home run!
tee-ball time.... we played a quick game of tee-ball with all the parents and kids.
sweet brenna holding a ball
snack time! this little guy was asking his daddy, "dad, dont you love birthday parties?" how sweet is that.
present time.... transformers, water guns, books, art supplies... all his favorite things.
thanks amy for taking the pics with me in them. i really do exist.
silly faces before cake time. garret had a blast and i think dave and i had just as much fun. we love having parties and coming up with fun ways to make it creative. he is just as creative as i am so sometimes we have to pull eachother back to reality. :)

Love you garret. you sure are an awesome kid. we love you and are so proud of you. keep up the good work.

practicing with back lighting

the other night we were all outside having a picnic dinner and playing around. the lighting was so great and i wanted to practice with back lighting. it is really hard to get just right. these are by far from "just right", but i just love raelyns little personality coming through in these photos.
they remind of peter pan and tinker bell. those little glittery things were tiny little bugs flying around, the sun was catching them just right and made it look like pixie dust, plus raelyn is running around with a sword :) i so wish the shed wasnt in the back round.

sweet face, different from the pirate face from yesterdays post :)
love this girl! she always keeps us smiling.

wordless wednesday

first grader

well yesterday was garrets first day of FIRST grade! so hard to believe. we got to meet his teacher last week and see his classroom. in the couple minutes i had with his teacher i really liked her. i loved his classroom. so grown up! clean, real desks (last year they all say at the same table) it just looks so much more grown up than a kindergarten classroom. garret was excited to go so it was not sad for me at all to take him. i know it would be tough if he didnt want to go. he found out there where 4 of his buds from last year in his class this year and they were all really good kids so i was happy about that as well.
we started a tradition last year that the night before school starts the backpack fairy comes and fills up your backpack with all your new school supplies, a new outfit, and lunch box. this has been great for me, b/c the school supply shopping can be done by only me and i dont have to take all the kids to go pick stuff out. last year was terrible trying to do that. stores were crowded, garret couldnt make up his mind, everything i put in the cart the girls took back out.... anyways, he got to pick what kind of back pack he wanted and i (the backpack fairy) did the rest. he was super excited to see all that was in there and was happy with all of it. eating breakfast before heading off to school. i joked with him and told him i was going to take 500 pictures before he left for school yesterday.
those blue eyes... love them :) i love his freckles too. he already doesnt like them. i had to get out a picture of me when i was a kid to show him how many freckles i had.
this year he picked a transformers backpack. in the past he has just had plain ones. he was super excited about this one. he got it for an early birthday present from our friends.
giving dad a hug before jumping in the van. garret actually wanted ME to take him to school. i was shocked. he never picks me over daddy. it was s good ride there, just me and him. i love this kid so much. he is growing up way to fast. his 6th birthday is on the 15th. wow.

lil chicks open house

i designed this invite for moms lil chicks open house in a few weeks. i am excited for her debut and praying that she has lots of people come look at her stuff and buy lots of dresses :) i am excited also because i will be able to come down for it and help her set it all up. if any of you readers live in south florida, you need to stop by and see us.
you can check out her blog here.

wordless wednesday-park

Dill-licious

a few weeks ago our neighbor brought us over a bunch of pickling cucumbers. i LOVE dill pickles and thought it would be a fun project for garret and i to do together while camp was going on. kay makes sweet pickles and had a recipe i could use but dill are my favorite so i searched the internet and found this one that garret and i tried out. we tweeked it a little bit. i did not use horse radish, i did not use fresh dill ( i couldnt find any at the store) so i used dried dill, and i cut up some onions that i through in the jars with the pickles. they were pretty easy to make and OH SO YUMMY! we have almost eaten all the jars we made that day. the kids love them too.


let me know if you try them out for yourselves.