Liam's Early Bouncing Birthday

Liam's birthday falls in early August it is sometimes hard to get school friends to come to his summer birthday celebration as families are busy with summer vacations and getting ready for back to school. This year we decided to have his party early so we could invite his friends from school. He decided he wanted to have his party at Bounce Planet and indoor inflatable bouncing wonderland and they have a Chuck E Cheese kind of game area (on a smaller scale) that allows you to win tickets. He thought this was perfect jumping and bouncing and games life couldn't get better so we set plans in motion for his party. Me being room mom for his class thought it would be fun to have it on the last day of school and invite his class. I hoped that some of the kids would be able to attend before vacations got started.

He wound up with 19 kids at his party (of course 5 of them were from our house) and they had a blast bouncing themselves silly. The party includes 70 minutes of bounce time and before the end of the time I had kids coming up to me saying they were so tired could they be done now and go sit down. I couldn't believe that 7&8 year olds were whooped in 70 minutes but I who was I to argue with a bunch of tired kids so we head to the party room. Where it seemed a few sips of cool beverages revived them and they were suddenly full of energy and loud as all get out. Luckily food quickly arrived in the form of yummy pizzas. They consumed their pizza and then we moved on to cake. Jason was able to get a great night sky cake for our space themed party adventure. After ingesting sugar laddened cake it was getting close to the end of party time and they had to decide if they wanted to watch him open presents or play games. They picked playing the games and off they went. Kids were every where collecting tickets and picking prizes and they all looked happy, tired and busy. Soon parents started to arrive to collect their children and our party came to an end with lots happy tired kids. To wrap up our space themed event we had each kid sign Liam's big inflatable alien and gave them a good bag containing an inflatable space ship, a sticky alien, a squishy earth and of course some candy and what goes better in a space gift bag then Starbursts and Milk Ways. We came home with 5 tired, happy kids and lots of fun memories.

Welcoming in Summer and saying goodbye to Kindergarten and 2nd grade

It's officially the last day of school and the beginning of summer when you get off the bus and break the banner. Here is this year's Welcome Summer Banner. I read about this last year in Family Fun magazine and thought it was a great idea. Because I am a bargain nut I of course had a huge roll of yellow paper that i got really cheap all ready to go last year so we just used that again.

The last day of school was a busy day in our household. We start out the day with a picture marking the last day of school. Once the kids were on the bus and the little kids were safely stowed at school I head out for my last day of volunteering. I went and helped Liam's teacher last year ( I love this teacher and have been helping this school year) for a little while.

Liam's Last day of 2nd grade


Then I head off to help in Lexi's class. Her teacher got engaged during the school year and is getting married over the summer. The class was throwing her a surprise bridal shower so I went to help with that. A few of the parents came in and decorated the class in red, white and blue because she is getting married over the 4th of July. We have cake and ice cream for the kids and had some gifts for the teacher. While the class was out experiencing the thrill of the big kid playground for the first time we snuck in and set up the surprise. I think she was really surprised and very happy. The kids loved having cake and ice cream but didn't really understand the point of the party.

Lexi with her teacher at the party

After the party I decided to surprise Liam in the cafeteria during lunch time. I don't plan enough in advance to actually eat with him but I enjoy sitting with him and his friends while he eats. However those kids are a loud bunch in the cafeteria but they have a good time. They love it when people come to visit, however it kind of feels like feeding time at the monkey exhibit at the zoo. Even though I can't carry on a conversation with him it's still fun to spend time with him and he even though he acts like he doesn't love it that I am there he often asks if I will come in for lunch again sometime. Now if I could just get DaDee to go in for feeding time, that would really surprise him.

Liam and his lunch room pals

After lunch with Liam I headed home to get the banner ready for the official break through to summer. Last year DaDee had the pleasure of hanging the banner but this time the pressure was on me. I made it work it wasn't beautiful but it worked. After getting off the bus the kids got to bust through the banner in to their summer vacation. Liam went first and surprisingly paper banners stretched tight from porch post to porch post are hard to bust through. After Liam went DaDee held up the broken side and Lexi put her head to the banner and made it through. Hard or not they busted through and summer began officially in our land.

Liam busting in to summer

Lexi busts through to summer

Storming the dentist office with all 5 kiddos

For spring break excitement at our house Mom had the pleasure of taking all 5 kids by herself to the dentist office so the older 4 could see the dentist. I was suprisingly not worried about this endeavor as my kids LOVE the dentist office. They get excited when they find out we are going and when we get there they go running in. Now I have to admit if I was a kid and this was my dentist office I might be a tad excited to go too. The waiting room looks like an island. It is wonderful. They have 3 tv's with video games set up on them to keep the kids happy and busy. Then for routine cleanings they have 6 boat shaped chairs in a beach decorated room and they kids get to pick a boat to sit on. All 4 of them are in the same room so I just wander from child to child or boat to boat. The kids love it so much that I never hear a peep from them and to my surprise Brenna even went with the technician to get her first set of xrays with out me. I was talking about one of the kids to the Dr and she just went with them. It is just off the main room so after I was done talking I walked over to watch her and she was sitting in the chair like she was hot stuff. I was able to grab a few picks with my phone to share of our amazing dentist. I just wish they would take adults so I would be more happy about going to the dentist.













Thanks for joining us on this trip to the dentist. Hope you had as much as they do when they go visit.

It's official, the Wubba will be officially joining the Family

Just wanted to let you know some very exciting news in the French Household today. Today I went down to DCS (Department of Children Services) to meet the caseworker and the kids' birth mother. She agreed to sign consents for us to adopt the Wubba man. The birth father signed previously so we now just have to find an attorney complete the paperwork and wait for an official court date. Stayed tuned for that information. For all of those that are anxiously awaiting the big announcement of what his name will be after the adoption is final. Wait no longer. With out further ado we are proud to announce the impending adoption of Rogan Wayland Charles French. Rogan is just a name Jason and I both liked. Wayland was Jason's grandfather's (on his Dad's side) middle name. Charles is my father's middle name, my great grandfather's first name (Isn't that right dad?) and Jason's uncle's first name. Thank you all for your love and support even when you thought we were crazy.