Fun Times with a Birthday!

Last month the whole gang headed up to see (Aunt) Ashley graduate!  It was so exciting for so many reasons!  First, we got to celebrate a great moment with Ashley and because we got to spend some time with so much family!  All but 2 of Brynna and Jaden's cousins were in town, the kids got to spend some time with a few great aunts and uncles (Brynna absolutely LOVES her great uncle David).  We had a great beautiful day at a local Bloomington park the day before her graduation running around in the soft and lovely northern grass.  Grandpa Robling met us there and then we headed to lunch at my absolute favorite Bloomington spot...Dagwoods!  Ahhh, I love Dagwoods!  That night the kids got to spend some time with all of their cousins and Mommy and Daddy got to have a night out in B-town with everyone!  It was a lot of fun, but a really late night! :)  The next day, Ashley had the main IU graduation and then a separate one for the nursing program.  I have to admit, I got a little weepy thinking of my baby sister graduating.  After the graduation Mom had a nice party for Ashley and we spent the night recovering from a fun-filled weekend.  My friend Maigen came by Mom's for a bit so it was nice to visit and my friend Kara was so nice to drive to the airport to meet us for a quick visit on the way home.  All in all it was a great trip!

Now that it's summertime, our children have turned into fish!  The kids are in the pool EVERY day!  Jaden has gotten so much better since last year and will swim all the way across the pool coming up for breaths every now and then.  He loves to go deep and touch his feet to the bottom.  Brynna...whew she's hard to handle in the pool!  She wants to swim just like the big kids, but can't quite do it yet.  She still tries!  She says she's washing her hair and goes under the water and twirls in a circle.  She also loves to jump off in the shallow end and touches the bottom and pushes herself back up.  Brynna does try to swim like Jaden in the deep end, but she needs a little more practice.  Her absolute favorite thing to do is to yell "cannonball" Anchorman style and jump in the pool...I wonder where she got that one from???

Oh man, we are on the phone all the time now! Any time Brynna sees a phone she wants to call someone.  It's usually Grandma or Uncle Tommy, but every now and then she throws some new ones in to the mix!  She actually talks too!  Jaden used to (well and still does) just sit there on the phone, but Brynna will tell you what she's doing, where Jaden is, what's on tv...really anything!

It's crazy how different our children are.  Jaden is all boy.  He likes building, cars, trucks, smashing things and anything boy related.  Our little princess on the other hand is ALL girl.  She LOVES her babies so much.  As a matter of fact she's playing with a birthday present right now.  She's feeding her baby and changing her diaper.  We'll often catch her singing Twinkle Twinkle to a baby and putting it to bed.  She "changes" diapers too!   She also loves having tea parties!  She'll pour each person a little tea, ask them to drink it, and ask if they want more.

Jaden had his end of the year Spring Program.  Nana joined us to watch his program and it was great!  They sang two songs and recited one poem.  He did so good, and we were so proud of him.  It was a great way to wrap up his first school year.

Most recently my sisters, Ashley and Courtney, were in town for a week.  They were here for Brynna's birthday which was so much fun.  We went to Brynna's favorite place in the world (other than home), the beach!  We headed over to Honeymoon Island for a "relaxing" day of sun, sand and water!  Brynna just sat in the water taking it all in, she loves it.  After a few hours out there we came home for Pizza and a Princess and the Frog cake from Publix.  We had Ashley, Courtney, Jackson, Craig, Brad and Nana over.  Brynna loved opening all of her gifts (they ended up being mostly babies which she loves) and singing Happy Birthday to herself...it was so much fun.  The one thing I wasn't expecting from our very outgoing little girl is that she got a little shy while we were singing Happy Birthday to her!  She ducked down on her chair under the table.  I was able to get under there and snap a picture, but unfortunately it's blurry!  Brynna spent the whole evening playing with all of her babies and her new little stroller and pack 'n play and she certainly won't let anyone else touch them!

The following Friday we had another Birthday Party/Cookout with friends where Brynna got to play with a bunch of her girlfriends.  We set up a little kiddie pool in the backyard and a sprinkler and a few of them ran around in the pool and drove the tractor through the sprinkler.  We had some yummy food, some cupcakes and then everyone got to go swimming in the big pool.  I think all the kids had a great time and of course Brynna loves singing happy birthday!
Now, this is just a cute picture for fun!  This is my nephew Jackson (Courtney's boy) playing with Jaden in the tractor.  It's so funny because it totally looks like Jackson is pushing the tractor and Jaden