Preschool fun

I decided to do preschool at home with Ellie this year. Albion is too far away to really make it worth driving her to school twice a week. I decided that it would be better to have someone else in the class as well, so we invited Ellie's friend, Jettah, to join us once a week. When she got here on the first day, they were wearing almost the same outfit!

We are working on an different alphabet letter for two weeks at a time. We started with "A" for apples. The girls got to make necklaces out of Apple Jack cereal and they loved that!

We have also done some work on colors; sometimes even adventuring into finger painting! This time we painted with chocolate pudding...probably not something we will do again!

We've been practicing our cutting. It has taken awhile to get the hang of how to hold both the paper and the scissors, but the girls are both doing well.

When we studied the letter P, we had a princess playdate. The girls both ended up dressing up like Sleeping Besuty! They cut some princess papers, practiced writing like princesses and did a princess puzzle. We're having so much fun doing our letter activities...sometimes I can't even sleep at night because I'm dreaming up more stuff for them to do!

First day of school-Ellie

Ellie threw such a fit that the other kids were having their pictures done and not her, so I told her we would take some of her after she had a bath and got dressed She's so spoiled!

First day of school- Mikayla

Mikayla is starting her last year of high school. She has been participating in a tech program so she will have her CNA license by Christmas. She has been working all summer and will work at Pomerelle again also when they open. She has plans to keep working towards her R.N. degree after high school. Can't believe I'm old enough to have two kids out of high school already!

She tried to tell me she wasn't going to take first day of school pictures this year...NOT! I told her we have done pictures every single year since preschool and we were not about to quit now...hence the not so happy expression!

First day of school- Chelsey

Chelsey started the 10th grade this year. She has been taking drivers ed all summer and now has her permit. (AAAGGGHHH!) She is just dying to be old enough to have a car and a job and money of her own. She is going to be the president of the FCCLA club this year and she's really excited about that.

Miss Ellie can't stand to not be in pictures even though she was still in her pajamas! Good thing her Chelsey loves her so much!

First Day of School-Treven

Treven started the 4th grade this year. Unbelievable how fast the time has flown! He loves anything that goes fast- cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc and anything that has to do with hunting or fishing. He started scouts last year and really enjoys that, although he wishes they did campouts at this age!

Treven loves to make all kinds of crazy faces. He has an issue (most likely inherited from his mom) with closing his eyes when the flash goes off! We try really hard to keep his eyes open, but it requires some cleverness!

Treven's 9th birthday

Treven had a monster truck themed birthday party for his 9th birthday. I looked everywhere for a cake that went with our theme, but none of the stores around here had anything close. So, plan B: Chelsey turned a plain old store-bought cake into this awesome cake! We just bought the trucks and jump and she put it all together. It turned out really cool; glad she is so good at decorating!

We held the party at the Rupert swimming pool. We planned a two hour party; 1 1/2 hours for swimming, 1/2 hour for pizza, cake, and gifts. I think the boys would have swam all day and all night if I had let them!

This was the gift table. I found wrapping paper at the dollar store and we wrapped all of his gifts in it. One kid even brought his gift wrapped in the racing flag paper!

Gary went to pick something for Treven on his own. He came back with this race track set. The cars were supposed to go around super fast...can't remember exactly how fast, but over 100 miles per hour. They couldn't wait to come home and set it up. It's always so heart warming to see a father and his son build something together!

Treven got to blow out his candles after we sang Happy Birthday. Sometimes I wonder what he wished for and other times, I'm glad that I don't know!

so many fun new toys! I tried to make the rule that he couldn't take anything out of the box until we got home, but you know how that usually goes!

Even Ellie got into the birthday spirit!

Braquel's Family Shower

When I started planning Braquel's bridal shower, I realized that I had such a big family, it wouldn't be possible to invite everyone to such a small space. (Don't get me wrong, a big family is a good thing until you are tight quarters!) Anyway, my mom was gracious enough to host a second shower for the family at her house. She did an amazing job and it looked beautiful. She set up a candy bar on her kitchen table with lots of pretty glass jars and colorful candies. The guests were given little baggies that they could fill with whichever candies they chose.

In the alcove above the kitchen table, mom decorated with "LOVE" and she had little tin buckets with Braquel and Keven's initials on them. She even made the cute banner with their engagement pictures.

A lady from one of the scrapbook stores in Twin loaned mom this chandelier. It was awesome to set little plates of cupcakes and goodies on for the shower. Braquel got spoiled again by all of my cousins and aunts and grandmas. We are so blessed to have so many members of our family that come out and support us!

Stapelman Family Reunion

It was our turn to plan the family reunion this year. We picked Indian Hot Springs as our spot and went with a Minute to Win it theme. We played about 10 games, some played as teams and some played by individuals on the team. Points were awarded for each game and we gave prizes to the winning teams. In this game, one player threw balls at the bucket on the other players head. No hands, of course, could be used by the player with the bucket!

This game was called Apple Stacker. Each team picked one player to try to stack five apples on top of each other without them falling over. We had two teams going at the same time and timed both teams. Fastest team got the higher amount of points. It was a little trickier than it looked!

We divided the family into teams; we tried to mix up families and equalize the amount of adults and kids on each team. Then, each team got to make a team flag and we had a parade just like at the Olympics.

The first game we played was a Cheeto toss. All of the teams played at the same time and picked two players to represent their teams. One player wore a shower cap covered in shaving cream. The other player threw Cheetos at their heads for one minute. Each team was awarded one point per stuck Cheeto!

This was a game that I thought would be a little easier! I took the front of a cereal box and cut it into twelve even pieces. We timed how long it took one player from each team to piece it back together. The only thing I would have done differently was to have each team go at the same time. Those that watched the first few teams had an advantage!

This game was one of the really fun ones. Each team picked a player that had to try to get a cookie from their forehead to their mouth using only their faces; no hands! It turned out to be quite difficult, but it was fun for those of us watching!

This game was really fun for the little ones on the team. They had 60 seconds (some a little longer depending on how little they were) to separate the different colors of Skittles into the corresponding cups. They even got to keep the Skittles when they were done!

Another game that proved to be more difficult than we thought! Each team picked one player to "fan" a plastic Easter egg across the room with a box lid. Much harder than it looks or sounds!

We also played Shave the balloon. All of the teams played this one at the same time and had shaving cream covered balloons that needed shaved as quickly as possible without popping the balloon. We also played a few other games, but I was too busy laughing to get pictures of every game! It was a lot of fun, but also a lot of work! Glad we won't be in charge for another few years!

Keven & Braquel's Engagement Photos

We are so lucky to have such a talented photographer in our family! My sister-in-law, Robin Gibbons, took these beautiful photos of Braquel and Keven! There are several more, but these are some of my favorites.

water fun

Chelsey always says she isn't getting in the water, but Ellie always talks her into splashing around!

Ellie is still a little scared to ride the tube, but Mathew and Mikayla convinced her to get on with them. Of course, once she realized that they had a good hold on her and she wasn't going to fall off, she loved it!

Treven's a maniac on the water. He doesn't like to ride the tube much, but he gets out there and wants to fish and fish and fish! Some of our family want to tube, some want to swim, some want to fish, and then there is me...I just want to sit and relax and watch the kids have a good time!

The captain of the boat! Still as good lookin' as the day I met him!

More splashing and playing around shots. We have an old foam football on the boat, so we would throw it and they would have a swimming race to see who could get it first. Only problem was when they threw it back to me on the boat; it was so full of water I would get soaked!