Service Project for the summer

Seth and I belong to a small group through our church and absolutely LOVE it!!  All of us have become like family and we have a blast whenever we all get together.  For the summer, our fearless leader Ryan volunteered us to maintain four of the flower beds on the church property.  Last night was the first go-round of prettification (is that a word?) Between the 4 couples we have 7 little ones so it's always an adventure to keep everyone entertained and happy but we're getting pretty good at it:

Josiah and Norah all ready for the fun to begin!

What is a kiddie get together without bubbles??  Sophia was delighted that no
blowing was necessary, just hold the bubble wand up and.....

...VOILA!!  Bubbles galore!

Josiah didn't pick up on that so quickly....

...trying to blow the bubbles...not as successful:-)

No climbing toys available?  No problem
 for Miss Ashlyn, she makes her own in the car:-)

Giant fields = running kids and happy parents 

We did actually do a little work too...and by "we" I mean everyone else as I mainly stuck to my forte of wrangling kids:-)

After all the hard work, we of course had to have nourishment:

If you're counting kids and thinking we lost one, don't fret,
Miss Raegan is only 5 months old so she was hanging out in the car out of the wind

Here we all are relaxing and eating while Matt
is still working hard....thanks Matt!!

And we wrapped up the evening with a yummy treat:

Root beer floats all around!  I think they were a hit:-)

Yep, bath needed after this evening but totally worth it!!

Like Father, Like Son 3rd edition

I have to admit that Josiah has been a bit of a "momma's boy" so far but lately he has been taking quite a bit of interest into what his daddy is up to.  His favorite question has been "Hey Daddy, what you doin'?"  It's pretty cute:-)  As you may remember from previous posts, we got an awesome playset in our backyard about a year ago and it includes a sandbox.  As you may also recall from this post, Seth spent a LOT of time in his sandbox growing up and we wondered if Josiah would follow in those footsteps.  I think we have our answer:

Learning the ropes from Daddy

Everyone needs the proper tools for the job

Starting the big job of transferring sand into his bucket

"Whew, this is hard work!"

Concentration

Like father, like son

Bubbles!

Josiah and Addie got bubble guns from Uncle Josh for Easter and had a blast with them!!  Josiah was a little slow to pick up on the concept but after a few tries, he got it down and then wanted more, more, MORE!  Thankfully Uncle Josh was nice enough to spend a good portion of the day "dipping" the guns into bubble solution so the fun could continue:-)  Check it out!

Easter 2011

We had such a nice, relaxing Easter weekend this year filled with family and fun and of course, Easter Egg Hunts!  You read that right, I said hunts...as in multiple...2 to be exact.  Last year Josiah was way more interested in the plastic grass in his basket than he was in the eggs themselves much less the contents of the eggs. Not so this year.  It took him about 4 seconds to realize that the eggs were free for the taking and contained "tandee" (candy).  He just walked around saying "nother one" "I get nother one egg"  He had a blast:-)  We are so thankful once again that our families are so close and we get to celebrate with all of them.  We thank God not only for that but for Jesus and His ultimate sacrifice.

As is tradition, we had the Becker Easter gathering on Saturday and gathered at my mom and dad's.  My cousin Jerry made the trek from Milwaukee and this year we were extra excited that my cousin Bill and his two cuties Maddie and Cooper could make it too!  Later in the day a good number of the Greseth side of the family joined us for more festivities and game playing.  We were also excited to have Josh and Tressa join us with the newest member of the family, Blayne Jerome who was a mere 4 days old!  We all got extra baby snuggle time too since along with big sister Cambelle, Ben and Brie brought their newest itty bitty, Paige, for us all to love up!

All dressed up.  I LOVE Henry's face in this one....can you hear him
thinking "Who's brilliant idea was it to take pictures
before the candy??  Let's get this hunt on people"

Froggie Easter basket.  Very appropriate for Josiah, no?

Maddie and Miles waiting for the hunt to begin!

"I fine nother one egg Mommy"

Cooper showing off his find:-)

I guess he's pleased with the contents of that egg, huh?  Cheeseball:-)

Precious father son moment caught on camera...love this!

Group shot of 5 kids all hopped up on sugar...this is as good as we got:-) 

Grandma with her latest Great-grandchild (#7)
Blayne Jerome....Grandpa would have been so proud! 

The new parents with their little bundle:-)

Little Lady Paige

No gathering would be complete without the FOOD

Little Miss Cambelle

New Easter markers from the Kroenings were a BIG hit!
He's VERY concerned about the tiny bit of marker on his fingers.....

...but completely oblivious to the marks all over his face.
Luckily they are washable:-)

Sunday we were blessed to spend the day with the Friedt side of the family and had a blast as usual!  Addison and Josiah were treated to an Easter Egg hunt outside in the beautiful sunshine and were SO excited!  They ran around giggling and collecting eggs for quite a while and loved every second.  As luck would have it, I got my baby fix in for a second day in a row with baby Bennett snuggle time:-)  Is there anything in the world that smells better than a baby?  I think not!  We rounded out the day with a birthday celebration for Grammie Cindy.  She got a lot of help blowing out the candles from the kids who were excited to sing and sing again!

A little pre-egg hunt Elmo viewing party

Uncle Seth with baby Bennett

And they're off......

"Nother one?  Nother one egg?"

What to do if candy falls out of egg and onto the ground?
 Eat it off the ground of course!  A little dirt never hurt, right?:-)

Celebrating Grammie Cindy's birthday

We hope you all had a blessed and happy Easter also!  God Bless!

Hot Potato

As most of you know, Josiah is a "fever kid" and has had more than his fair share of temperature spikes this winter.  The latest round of virus fighting included a night time fever of 105.  Now, I'm used to picking him up and feeling heat come off of him but even I was quite alarmed that night...105 is a VERY high fever and we seriously could have heat the whole room with his little body:-(  I resisted the urge to call 911 and gave him Tylenol instead and sat up with him until the fever came down.  Here are a few pictures to help you visualize what a 105 fever does to a little guy...

Fever is finally coming down so he can sleep, I know he shouldn't have a blanket on him but when he's that sick and asks "Banket peese" how can a mommy say no?...and yes, a graham cracker is a MUST when controlling fevers:-)

"Yikes Mommy, that was a rough night!"

Grandma Sissy's big day!

Last week we were lucky enough to get to attend an award ceremony for Grandma Sissy at The Homestead of Rochester.  She received "Volunteer of the Year" and was recognized for the many areas of volunteering she serves in now as well as the many, MANY, M.A.N.Y other volunteer services she has provided over the years. Needless to say, the list is too long to put here but for those of you who know her, you know that she never turns away the opportunity to serve her fellow man and community when she can.  When she moved to The Homestead, she said "I don't know what I'll do with all my time".  We secretly laughed to ourselves because we knew that it wouldn't be long at all before the administrators and fellow residents there recognized her unlimited skills and tapped into those skills.  Lo and behold, we were right!  We now have to call ahead to schedule time on her VERY busy schedule as she serves on 4 different Homestead committees along with escorting a memory care patient to Mass, calling Bingo, opening her apartment each month for the open house, and the list goes on!  The award was a surprise for her so we were especially excited that the Volunteer Coordinator called us ahead of time to have us plan to be there to be a part of the surprise.  Mission accomplished, she was shocked....in a good way:-)  We are SO proud of her and happy to have been a small part of the festivities...and I have to add that the ice cream sundae bar we were all treated to didn't hurt either:-)

Think she was surprised??

"Here Hennybug, have some of my ice cream!"

UPDATE on: "I make duuurt"

You may remember a post a few weeks ago about the 3 little seed starters I got for Josiah and how he thought we were "making dirt".  Along with the rest of you I really didn't expect much out of these little $1 spot items but to my great surprise the little buggers are growing like crazy!  I had put them on top of the fridge to keep them safe from a certain toddler's curious fingers and when I checked them a few days later, they were all sprouted and growing!  This past weekend we transplanted them to a bigger pot that sits on the deck as an interim step to actually putting them in the ground.  Josiah get a big kick out of watering them:-)