Taylor and Callie's Birthday Fun

For Callie's Birthday this year she got a bag of art supplies, which she loves. This summer Brandon made a weekly art camp for Callie only. They had their first class at a park and worked on shading...Callie loved it. Another one of her presents was certificate to pick any game for the ipad  she wanted to download...she probably had the most excited reaction over this gift than any of the others! Since it was her birthday, we gave her extra computer time...a perk of it being your birthday. We also went to Chic-fil-a for lunch (using the free kids meals they earned in the summer reading program). Callie told me this was the best birthday ever...I think it was all the computer/ipad time she had :)

We decided not to have a big friend birthday party this year, but we let the girls invite one friend over for a late night, with pizza, cupcake decorating, and movie watching. Everyone had a great time.

The next day, we had big family party with the Hunt side and and Goss side (21 kids, 17 adults!) We had  a water party and BBQ, unfortunately the weather wasn't cooperating, so we only played in the water for a little while and ate lunch before it started raining. But the party continued inside...

Opening lots of great gifts from the family.

Happy Birthday girls!

Brandon's Mom brought over the Chicken Limbo game...30 solid minutes of fun :)

On Sunday Morning, Taylor's actual birthday, she opened her presents (wearing the cute birthday dress Nana1 made for her). We got her a bunch of girlie things (lip gloss, nail-polish, press on nails, earrings,  etc) to go in a little makeup bag.

Nana, gave Taylor all kinds of fun stuff to convert the clubhouse into a school, including a table and chairs, abc posters, and individual white boards.  Brandon  refinished the white board in her school house so it looks a lot nicer. Taylor has loved using all her new stuff to be a teacher.

Since Taylor turned 7 this year, Brandon  made a book for Taylor called "Steps that Lead to the Waters if Baptism and Reception of the Holy Ghost." It has 54 steps or activities that will help her get ready for baptism when she turns 8 next year. Some of the activities include reading letters from Me, Brandon, and her Grandparents on both sides, reading scriptures, memorizing articles of faith, and teaching family home evening, learning and singing a song about baptism and lots of other great activities. There are enough steps for her to complete one per week for the next year with a few steps after her actual baptism. It's a really nice book, Taylor is sure lucky to have such an amazing Dad who would take the time to put this together.

Grandma gave the girls gift certificates for Build a Bears...which the girls have been begging to do for a while now. So since I knew there would be major tantrums from Beckett if he didn't one, I just decided he could get one too. I asked Nana to come join in the fun with us since Brandon was out of town for Aaron's camp.

Here is Taylor putting in the heart in Honey Bunny...

Here is Callie filling up Fudge Puppy with fluff...love that look on her face!

Here is Beckett, giving Bronco Bear a good washing before they got dressed.

The kids have been bringing their new friends everywhere....I'm glad it something to keep us busy while Dad was gone all week long!

Summer has begun!

 Our garden has been doing pretty well...even survived a 1and 1/4 hour hail storm...we've been eating lots of spinach and snap peas...hopefully it will continue to do well.

 We went for a short hike up the river in Cheyenne Mountain. Although, when we showed up Callie said she had to go potty...I angrily reminded her that I had asked her to go before we left, to which she repsonded she didn't need to go. Although, since our recent camping trip had no bathrooms she knew what to do...the next part is too gross to share but needless to say it left Brandon and I laughing for a while :) After that we just walked through the river and collected treasures...great family times!

 Beckett insisted on bringing his sword. Hadley loved the river as she just crawled right in when we got there.

 Enjoying the pool in the backyard!

Camping at Rampart Reservior

 For last day of school, we celebrated by going camping with our wonderful neighbors, the Gutierrez's.  We had a pretty good time but it was very windy that night. Although, the kids didn't seem to mind....here they are after rubbing dirt all over their faces.

Our neighbors brought their laser tag game, which was a lot of fun

 The next day we went fishing and had a picnic at the lake...beautiful, but very windy again.

Hadley, spitting out some rocks she ate :)