First fish of the year

Today was a busy day. We woke up cleaned the house, had lunch and decide to finally take the boat out. The weather was finally nice enough, so we headed off to Mississippi lake. ( It's a 5 min drive). We got the boat in, and in the first 5 minutes of Riley putting his lure in , he caught a fish. he is the luckiest fisherboy I've ever seen. We threw the fish back in and Riley caught another and Kiera caught one, (with the help of mommy). Once Kiera caught her fish, she was pretty much done. She was only interested in eating. The minute we step on the boat and take off, the first thing she wants to do is eat. Thank goodness I come prepared. I was able to catch a few fish, bigger than usual. Maybe it was with the help of using Kieras princess rod. No matter, I caught a fish bigger than a minow. Then Kiera wanted to try fishing again but with a different lure. She threw it in, and caught a small perch. Lucky girl. Ron wanted to try his hand at Bass fishing. So he threw his lure to try. And sure enough, not oly did he catch one he caught 2. So all in all it was a good day for fishing. Around 3pm we headed in, went for ice cream, went for a swim and had supper. A very productive day. Now if we could only get the patio finished!

Sandbanks

Last weekend was our first camping trip of the year. We were asked by our friends Chris and Beth if we wanted to join them to camp at the Sandbanks. How could we resist. The night before we left said the weekend was calling for rain so Ron, I and the kids headed out to buy a bigger tent. There was no way I was going to stay all weekend in our small dome tent. Anyway, we left friday afternoon when it was nice and sunny. We drove the almost 3 hours to the Sandbanks. It's very much like Grand Beach. Sand, Sand dunes and all. We arrived around 4pm. The kids dug in the sandy dirt on our site while Ron and I set up the tents. Chris and Beth arrived later and once they finished setting up we all headed down to the beach. The kids were so cute walking there. They played follow the leader the whole way. As soon as we hit the sand the kids ran to the water, but it was a tad cold. They played in the sand and started to make a moat out of someone elses sandcastle. After being there for awhile the kids wanted to swim. We didn't bring there bathing suits thinking we weren't going to stay so the kids stripped down(except Kiera) and ran into the water. Our little skinny dippers. Once the y finished swimming we headed back to camp, got changed and had a nice campfire. The kids got to stay up late and eat lots of treats. We put them to bed sometime after 10pm. The next day we woke up to rain. Rain all day. After breakfast we headed over to the beach where the sand dunes are.(about 10min drive) We walked the dunes for a bit then headed back as Kiera complained she was hungry and too tired to walk. We walked back to the car and met up with chris, beth and the Kids. Then drove back to the camp sites for lunch and a nap. Later the kids played, we enjoyed a nice meal, and a camp fire, the headed off to put the kids to bed. The next morning was better. No rain yet. but not alot of sunshine. So after breakfast we went to the big beach where the kids and the dads made a huge moat, went in the water. And of course just before were going to leave Zach and Riley wanted to be buried in the sand. So once they did that we headed back to camp to pack up and head home. A good weekend in all even with the rain

Our baby turns 5!

It's hard to believe my baby has turned 5. The time has gone too fast and now we have this beautiful little girl. Well actually a 5 year old going on 15. ( It's all in the attitude.) Kiera was lucky this year as she celebrated her birthday 3 times. The first was at school. Since she it was a school day on her birthday I made cupcakes for the class.


They sang happy birthday and evern went outside for games and a picnic. While Kiera was at school Ron, Grandpa and I set up Kieras birthday gift - a trampoline. We picked her up from school, riley hide her eyes and we got her out of the car to surprise her. She was happy but not really surprised.




The kids jumped around for a while then came in for Kiera to open presents. For her birthday supper Kiera decide to have pizza. So after eating crystal, lee and katie came over for cupcakes and more presents.




Then on Saturday we had Kieras birthday party. For her birthday Kiera wanted a lot of friends from school so we agreed to 8 friends. We also decided to have a butterfly/fairy party. Kiera was thrilled. I had her party outside since the weather was finally cooperating. We set the patio tables/umbrellas up and hung butterflys and balloons from them. Then I decorated the deck with streamers. I decided not have a party where luch was served so instead we had it at 1:30 and served snacks, cake and ice cream. I find the kids never eat their food anyway. As the girls arrived I painted butterflies on their faces.

Next the girls (and Riley) were given flower pots to paint and later to plant pansies. When they were done Ron watched the kids on the trampoline. Then it was time to do our scavenger hunt. Ron and I hide foam flowers with the girls names on them so it was their job to collect 4 flowers each. But before they could begin, I gave each girl a set of butterfly wings, and a butterfly net to collect their flowers. Once they finished we headed back up to have cake, and ice cream. I made Kiera a butterfly cake just the way she wanted it.

After cake we went down on the grass to open presents, and then back to the playstructure to do the pinata.

The pinata was a hit. Actually they didn't need to hit it as it was a pull string. And luckily everyone had a chance to pull a string and it was the last one pulled that opened it. Before we knew it the parents were here to pick up their kids. The time flew bye, and everyone had a great time.