Simply-Victorious

Last night was our last night of soccer. Marissa really enjoyed playing and especially having her daddy take time out of his busy schedule to coach her team! What a great dad! Here are a couple of her faithful fans who were there for every game to cheer their big sister on!

Just a few weeks ago we decided we had to buy a new swing set. Our old swing set that the girls got on Marissa's 2nd birthday finally just gave way to the rust and broke. We figured if we can get another 6 years out of our new swing set by that time Myah will be 10 and the other 2 even older and hopefully we will be done with having swing sets by then. The girls are loving their new swing set! One thing we wanted was 3 swings, our old swing set only had 2 and it was a constant fight over who got one. We have been working with Myah showing her how to swing herself....and yesterday I walked outside and she was all by herself just swinging. It was so cute!! She was out there for at least a half and hour all by herself just swinging. Even this morning she already wanted to go outside so she can swing. Who said we needed 3 swings for 3 kids...how about 3 swings for 1 kid. There they are all happy with their own swings!

Just wanted to let you know that I have added a new button in my sidebar that has a great list of websites for kids. Check back often and hopefully the list will be growing. Thanks to Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer for compiling the list! Leave me a comment and tell me what is your kids favorite website. My girls love starfall.com .

Okay....another post without pictures of the kids....now I know I am going to be in big trouble with the grandparents....I promise to post pictures of the girls soon! So while we were in Shipshewana a couple of weekends ago, we took a carriage ride. It was a beautiful sunny day for a ride out in the country side of amishland where we were able to get lots of pictures. Here are a few things that we saw. A horse and buggy pulling a boat, was pretty funny to see.... As we were coming back into town we saw this....seemed a little strange to us....notice the horse and buggy parked by the back garage, maybe they don't want anyone to know they are amish.... I don't know about you, but there is something peaceful about seeing the laundry hanging out to dry....some days I wish I had a place to hang my laundry out.

Let me just apologize now to the Grandparents.....this post is not about the kids. Sorry!! Since I have had my new camera I have been enjoying trying to take pictures in all different kinds of settings. One way I have enjoyed using my camera is by just sitting out on the patio and waiting for the birds to come and eat some bird food. Here are just a few of the birds that I caught one day. We do have a hummingbird feeder and I have seen a couple of hummingbirds, but those birds are really fast so I am hoping to be able to catch one with my camera one of these days. That will be my goal by the end of summer take a picture of a hummingbird. Makayla made the "bird feeder wreath" so she was so excited to see there was a bird on it Mama bird..... and her babies.....

Jeremy thought it would be fun to set our tent up in the backyard for him and the girls to sleep in on Sunday night. As we got to watching the weather we decided that maybe we should camp out in the family room instead. Good thing we did because sometime early this morning it was raining buckets outside. So after we got home last night from our last Graduation Open house..... we set up beds in the family room, popped some popcorn and watched Narnia. It was almost midnight before it was over and the 2 older girls were sleeping but not Myah she was still wide awake and she was the first one up this morning. I guess she doesn't need much sleep or at least she thinks she doesn't.

Whenever the kids are all together of course there has to be pictures.....so these pictures are just because! We took a few pictures while we waited for our buggy ride.... I have to admit I got this picture from my sister's blog ...but it was so cute! This was their good-bye picture, as you can see the kids didn't want to go. How sad....guess that means they had a good time though!

On Saturday we decided to take a horse and buggy ride through the country side of Shipshewana. Marissa was pretty excited since she loves horses! It was the perfect day to take a buggy ride. The sun was shining and we got lots of good pictures of the country but I will save those for another post! Here are a few pictures for now from our buggy ride. Marissa and Madi got to ride in front and then half way through we switched and Austin and Makayla got to ride up front! Steph and Brian Myah went with us, although I have no pictures to prove it, I guess that is because she was sitting right next to the photographers. We did have to stop the buggy ride to go back and pick up a flip flop that fell off Myah's foot. I'm sure that wasn't the first time that happened.

We had a great weekend at the water park! The kids had a blast spending all that time with their cousins! One thing that Steph and I always said is we wanted our kids to be close in age so that they could grow up together and be friends. Even though we don't live by each other, I am thankful for our times together like this weekend where the kids can build memories together. We just finished eating dinner and the kids were sitting here waiting patiently to get the okay that they could go out and play in the water! Madi and Makayla had fun going down the slide together.... The lazy river......how relaxing all we needed was the warm sun..... Myah had a blast going up and down this little slide all by herself..... Uncle Brian taking Myah to the Lazy River..... Way to go Austin you made it across the Lilly pads..... so did the girls.....good job! The girls wanted to take this picture for Nana.....

This past weekend we met my sister and her family at Splash Universe to celebrate a few birthdays. We had a great time, it was the perfect indoor water park for our kids ages. We even said maybe we should make this an annual event! Notice our cake is a water slide cake.....it was very yummy and very cute! Happy Birthday Austin - Can't believe you are going to be 10! Marissa loves her clothes and new purse from Nana & Papa! Just a couple days before her birthday we were in the store and Marissa said I really want this, she didn't know that her Aunt and Uncle and cousins had already gotten it for her, she was pretty excited! Here is where the kids slept, we had a bunk house suite. You may think, oh I bet they didn't sleep much, but by the end of the night they were so beat they all slept well including the adults!!