cheers to 40 years!

On March 12 my handsome hubby turned 40!  

The months leading up to this, I knew I wanted to do something special for him because he works so hard and does so much for us!

So I planned a big "Bobcat/Sports" themed surprise party!  I dug through all his old photos and had them blown up, made a banner and lots of Bobcats to decorate with!  I made posters out of his old football and basketball pictures!  I thought this was very appropriate for the Athletic Director of the school!  Ha!

 This all was no easy task, as my mom (aka main source of help!) was out of town and I couldn't tell the kids (I knew they would spoil it!)  Not to mention two weeks before is the week the stomach flu hit us, so I had to figure out how to get all this done amongst taking care of sick kids, myself, and a sick hubby!

Thankfully, I had the help of friends and a great neighbor who let me keep all my craft projects at her house!  We pulled it off and he was totally surprised!  

I hosted it at the Roundhouse, which is the high school gym.  We put this garbage can out so he would walk into the gym to pick it up!  Otherwise I knew he would go to his office first.  This is everyone hiding behind the bleachers waiting to surprise him.  The kids could not wait- they were so excited!

Craig had a large part in the multi-million dollar renovation that took place there last year.  He loves giving tours and telling people about it, so I knew he would enjoy doing this for his family and friends he hadn't seen in a long time.  All his coaches and administrators were also invited.  To get him there I had a friend on the Roundhouse committee set up a "fake" tour with some potential donors!  He totally fell for it.  And it was the only way to get him there and have him not be sitting around in his pajama pants!  Ha ha.

This man is the announcer of all the games and activities for the town and thinks the world of Craig.  He announced Craig when he walked in!  Craig's mom and dad are on the right and our friends little girls are in front, looking like they are part of our family (which they practically are!)  Ha!

I love his smile here.  His siblings, parents, high school friends and many local friends came to join us!

I had some of Craig's favorite foods catered.  He loves to eat, so I knew he would enjoy this!  Ha!

I wish I had taken a picture of all the food but we had stuffed mushrooms, pickle wraps, pizza pinwheels, sandwiches and more... and cake, of course!

Craig's parents and most of his siblings- (minus one brother) it meant so much to him that they all came!

Our families and kids!  It was fun to surprise my kids too- we left the house and they thought we were going to a movie!  Instead we went to our neighbor's house to change clothes and go to the high school to meet all their cousins!  They were thrilled!

Our family

The kids were so excited to surprise daddy and they had so much fun all day!

These are my people.  Couldn't have done this day without them!

Me and my bobcat! Ha!

This is two of Craig's very best high school friends, Tim and Jeremy.  Jeremy drove all the way from Missouri to be here.  They all enjoyed reconnecting!  Both these guys were in our wedding and I don't think we've seen them since.  It was so special that they came.

Andrew and his only 2 boy cousins.  He loves them more than anything!

The kids all had fun playing in the gym!

Kerigan with our friend Emily and cousin Evelyn

My sweeties

This girl adores her Grandma!  In case you couldn't tell!

Here is Craig doing his thing... giving a tour!

The Roundhouse is just gorgeous!

After the party I planned an "after" party at a local restaurant and had our close friends and family join us.  This is Kerigan with two of my sweet friends Heidi and Mandy (Kerigan loves them both!)

Cousin Brooke!

We had such a great day celebrating Craig!  Thanks to everyone who came to the party and helped make his day special!

CHEERS TO 40 YEARS!!!!!

life lately

Attempting to catch up with things over the past month!  We've been having lots of fun with friends and cousins!

At the last minute I decided to throw together a party for the Superbowl.  We had lots of yummy snacks and I threw a pork roast in the crock pot and it was a perfect evening!

Then it was funny because the next 2 Sundays after that I had friends over for soup!  We joked that it was becoming a regular Sunday night thing!  I've never looked at having friends over as "company."  I love entertaining and being with friends.  It's not work to me.  It's just fun!

Our local theater performed the play Mr. Popper's Penguins so we went with our friends!  One of the penguins let us take a picture with him!  It was a great show!

After the play we all went to our house for dinner again!

It seems like the weekend is never complete without a trip to Hobby Lobby!  Kerigan and Payton had fun finding all the Easter things to play with!

Kerigan was invited to her friend Olivia's birthday party.  She had so much fun- all her little preschool friends were there.

They did face paint!  She just loved this and never wanted to take it off!  Why does she look 13??

One weekend our cousins came over to play!  The weather was just gorgeous and they had a blast roller blading and riding bikes around the pond and playing at the park!

I think she's ready for a bigger bike this year!

Kerigan and cousin Evi realized they had the same shirt!  Ha!

Then my little tumbler had pictures so I attempted to make her hair look like tumbling hair!  Yes I googled hair style ideas!  Ha!

For my first attempt I think it turned out pretty good!

Kerigan with some of her sweet tumbling friends Brooklyn and Avery.

And here's her sweet picture.

Our school had Family Reading Night and I took the kids since Craig was busy with a game.  They love to play in my classroom. 

This is one of our fun Kindergarten teachers!  Kerigan was so excited to stand by Cat in the Hat!  And she thinks she's going to Kindergarten next year... we still haven't decided!  Ugh!

I can just imagine my baby sitting here listening to stories and learning so much next year!  She's growing up way too fast.

So then the stomach flu of 2016 hit our house.  And it was not fun.  Kerigan was first to get hit with it mid-week and woke up about 11pm saying her tummy hurt.  She wanted daddy so he slept with her and stayed home with her the next day.  Then 2 days later, poor daddy got it.

Kerigan was so, so sad because she missed Wacky Wednesday at her preschool.  Andrew felt so bad for her so he made a school and had Wacky Wednesday for her in the basement!  It was the sweetest.thing.ever.  I love this kid!

She had to have the next day home also because she had a fever so I stayed home with her and aired out the house and bleached everything.  Belle went nuts when I opened the windows in Kerigan's room!  Ha!  Those birds chirping wouldn't have a chance if this cat got out!

To top things off, it was our conference week at school.  I still had a couple of conferences on Friday morning when daddy was sick so after they ended I went home and picked the kids up.  I dropped Andrew off at the Y to go swimming with the day care kids and took Kerigan to school with me so Daddy could rest.

Luckily no kids had school that day so she just played in my room while I worked... until the Y called that Andrew was sick!

At that point I almost lost it!  Luckily his was short lived and he was better the next day.  After the weekend I thought we were all in the clear until I got it that Monday afternoon!  It was just awful and had me down for 2 days.  I am hoping we got it out of the way and can kiss sickness goodbye for a while!  I'm ready for spring!  (P.S. yes our cat really is almost as big as our kid! Ha!)

After missing all that school my little man had already had a couple of appointments scheduled in Des Moines so we took a day off and had a great "non-sick" day together!  We stopped at Jethros yummy BBQ for dinner on our way home!  I loved having a date with my sweet little guy!

The next week we had a Wacky Wednesday "do over" since Kerigan had missed the week before.  Her teacher let her wear her wacky outfit to school and had brought the book over while she was sick so we could read it together.

We had dinner on the patio for the first time this season.  We were all celebrating being healthy and nice weather!

Bring on Spring!

sweet hearts

I realize Valentine's Day was last month, but here's my attempt at catching up!

We love Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizzas!  We always have to get them in February!

Daddy made this girl's day and surprised her at school for lunch.  Daddy is most definitely her Valentine.  She pretty much thinks he hung the moon.  And he feels the same about her.

So.  These robots seemed like a good idea at the time.

(This is what trying to take their picture is really like!  Ha!)

I can confidently say I will never be making anything this elaborate again.  Ever.  #thanksalotpinterest.  Ha!

The kids picked out the candy for them and I assumed they would be able to help me with them.  They weren't.  Hot glue and kids just don't mix.  And these wouldn't stay together any other way.  It was quite an undertaking.  While adorable, definitely not worth the effort!  But the kids all loved them!

Then we had treats to bring for her day care too.  So we made cupcakes together and decorated them and then put them in little baggies.

She is getting so good at writing her name.  She was very proud of these.

They helped me with their boxes this year.  Kerigan got really into making hers.  She wanted a tumbling box this year.  We cut out little pictures of her doing tumbling and put them on the box and she just loved that!

Andrew chose a robot.  I guess this was a robot year!

It was nice having Valentine's Day on a weekend this year.  Kerigan helped me make heart shaped pancakes and daddy brought home Dunkin Donuts.  I call that a win!

My kids surprised me with sweet cards and notes. 

I just adore my sweet little family!