Hudson's Ninja Turtle Birthday Party

On Saturday we celebrated Hudson's birthday with a few of his closest friends.  He had been talking about a Ninja Turtle party for months so a Ninja Turtle party is what he got.

I was able to score a ton of Ninja Turtle action figures from someone for super cheap, so they doubled as a gift for Hudson and decoration for the table.  The also turned into entertainment of the kids when they weren't eating.

We had his party at an indoor trampoline park and all of the kids loved it.  It was the perfect place for them to practice all of their ninja moves.

Pizza and cake were up next.  Hudson fist blew out the candles as soon as they set the cake in front of him so they had to re-light and let him blow them out again after we sang "Happy Birthday."

For party favors the kids got Ninja Turtle Pez and nunchucks that I made out of pool noodles. They were a big hit!

Happy Birthday Hudson

Yesterday we woke up with a 4 year old in our house!  I can hardly believe my baby is 4, but he was SO excited that it was finally his birthday and we spent the whole day making him feel special.

First up was his daily Pop-Tart only this time he had candles in it. :-)

We went on our daily walk with Walker and ran into a ton of neighbors.  Every time we stopped to say "hi" he whispered to me to tell them it was his birthday.  He was so excited.

Then we met up with our friends Tiara, Avery and Dylan for lunch.  We all had fun catching up and visiting.

Next we had to run a bunch of errands that I had been putting off, but he was a good sport about it the  whole time.

We waited for Robby to get home that night, ate a quick dinner, and then went back to Bahama Buck's, the shaved ice place, we were at the night before.  It was Hudson's pick!  He loves that place (and so do I).

When we got home later that evening Robby turned on the sprinklers for the grass and the kids kept inching closer and closer. I didn't even try to stop them and by the end of it they were all completely soaked!  It was so funny to watch and they had the best time.  Hudson declared it the best night ever. :-)

At 4 years old Hudson:

• Loves Ninja Turtles and pretends that almost anything is a weapon. 
• Is a very picky eater, but is very slowly starting to try new things. 
• Enjoys looking at books and having books read to him. 
• Wants to be outside every chance he gets. 
• Would watch TV all day long if I let him. 
• Is becoming more and more independent each day. 
• Is very opinionated and lets us know it. 
• Is the most stubborn of all of our kids. 
• Makes us laugh more than any of our other kids. 

Lake Fun with Friends

Our good friends from Florida come visit us every summer and we have been going to the lake since our oldest were just one.  Now we have 5 kids there with us and even more fun!  We love spending time with them and this year was no different.

The weather was perfect all week and we only had to sit out one little rain shower.  There was lots of time at beaches swimming, lots of sleepovers, some wake-boarding, surfing and paddle boarding, too!

 This year Walker even had a buddy. Their dog, Piper came along for the trip and those two played together from the second they woke up until the second they passed out at night. We're already looking forward to the next visit!

4th of July

As I mentioned in my last post, we spent the past 10 days the lake which meant we were there for the 4th of July this year.  Gigi and Papa joined us for the holiday weekend, but unfortunately the weather was not that great.  It rained most of the day on Friday and we ended up doing patriotic nails and then went to the movies to have something to do. 

The kids did get to go swimming later that evening though during a break from the rain.  

Saturday was more of the same, but after waiting out a few rain showers we finally were able to make it out on the boat for a little while.  Walker was super excited to be able to get outside and enjoy the lake!  

We came back just in time to grill out, get decked out in our red, white, and blue, and get ready for fireworks.  

We have had this lake house for 8 years and this was the first time I had seen fireworks on the lake.  Usually one of the kids has been too young to stay up that late, but this year we all loaded up with glow sticks in hand and made our way out on the boat.  

I was super impressed by the fireworks show.  It was really amazing and just kept going and going.  Then on our way back to the dock we saw other people who were setting them off so the show just kept going and going.  

It was a wonderful weekend with family and it was kind of nice to just have some downtime to relax.

Tennis Camp

Hello blog world! I've been gone for way too long.  Keeping up with our Magnolia Mama site has be busy and then we were out of town for 10 days at the lake so I just didn't have any computer time there. However, I want to be sure to keep up with what we've been up to these past a few weeks of summer.

The kids had all been asking to do tennis so I decided to find a camp for them to try out this summer.  A nearby park had a morning camp that all three kids could go to, so I signed them right up.  The girls went from 9-12 and Hudson was from 9-10.  They all seemed to have lots of fun!

Tennis is one of those sports I wish I could have leaned to play, but didn't, so I was hoping they would have a good time.

They stayed cool with water guns, had snow cones during breaks and learned a lot.  I don't know that either of the girls loved it enough to give up some of their other activities this fall, but hopefully it's something we can squeeze in and still keep up with when our busy school schedules start back.