Say Boo ... logah!

 Another year of the best people watching in the tri-state area has come and gone. Boologah has been a tradition for our family for quite a few years, and it's the one thing we've kind of hung on to as the kids have gotten older. They all enjoy being there to get candy and see all the craziness, but they also enjoy helping hand out tracts and invitations for Bible studies. 

This year, we had a good crew there to help pass out materials. 

Chris, Bren, Ross, G-Jo, and Dicie

We find it's a good way to connect with the community and give out personal invitations to church services. 

Bren is my kid who has never cared for dressing up, so he passes on that part of it. However, he's a great help at our "booth"!

Last year, there were several of us who dressed up as crayons, so Bri decided to just go with that again. Her friend, Jax, joined in on the fun, too!

Sadie invited Brooke and Brecklyn to join her in dressing as the "Clueless" girls from the '90s movie Clueless. I'm not sure how Sadie even knew who they were? My girls did not have any idea, but that didn't stop them from joining Sadie in the fun. They were a BIG hit with the Boologah crowd and received tons of compliments!

Sometimes, we're all a little Clueless!

Caroline was also there dressed as a minion, along with her friend, L. These girls loved collecting allllllll the candy!

💜

At the very end of the evening, we got word that Ms. Darla had been taken to the hospital in Owasso. Instead of going home after the event, I took Mom and Brianna, and we went to the hospital to see about Darla. Chris and the other kids helped get things cleaned up before heading home. Although the end of the evening wasn't what we had planned, we still had a great time at the event!

Take Me Out to the Ball Game!

The last few summers we've started a new tradition of catching a Tulsa Driller's baseball game with our friends, the S Family. While baseball isn't my favorite sport or my favorite way to spend my time, there's just something so summer about a baseball game. And we always have the sweat to prove it!

OneOK Field

Waiting for the game to begin

This year, the S family brought a couple other friends. The girls always enjoy each other!

Annabelle, Sadie, Brecklyn, and Brooke

Chris and I have been to a few games over the years, and somehow I like them better as I get older.

This night, the Driller's were playing the Catfish, so the Driller's changed their name to the Noodler's for the night, and Hornsby carried around a catfish. Maybe I should say Hornsby stirred up trouble with a catfish because that's definitely what happened!

Hornsby and his catfish, Brooke, Sadie, Annabelle, and Caroline

Hornsby kept hitting Brooke and Sadie in the face with the fish!

Haha

I'm not sure what this crew enjoyed more . . . the game, eating all the things, or the fireworks at the end. Probably all three!

My favorite part about the fireworks at the end of the game is watching the kids enjoy them.

It's definitely a great way to spend a warm summer's evening, and we are thankful for the experience . . . even if it included getting whacked with a catfish, lol!

A Rainy, Rainy Bunny Day

Happy Tuesday, Everyone! I hope you all had a good weekend and survived the crazy rain. I sure hope the Easter Bunny knows how to swim!

Our Easter tradition since Brianna was born has been to spend time with the S family eating good food, visiting, and having an egg hunt. When Tia and I were planning things this year, we actually debated about whether to even have a hunt or not now that the kids are getting older. I think Brianna and Brenson were around 10 years old when they stopped doing the egg hunt. However, we decided we weren't quite ready to quit it altogether, so we modified it a bit instead :-).

This year, Mom and Dad were out of town, so it was just us and the S family. They invited us to their house on Saturday for brunch and visiting. Brunch was delicious and really hit the spot! We had bacon, sausage, eggs, cinnamon rolls, french toast, biscuits and gravy, morning potatoes, fruit, and our icebox strawberry cheesecake for dessert. I wish I had gotten a photo of the food spread because it was amazing!

It poured rain most of the morning and afternoon, so Tia and I were very thankful we planned the "egg hunt" the way we did. We decided this year that I would put together four gift bags, and we would hide four eggs. Each girl could find one egg, and they would exchange their egg for the gift bag that matched the color of their egg. It worked out really well, and the girls enjoyed the change in routine! 

Caroline, Brecklyn, Brooke, and Sadie

BFF - SBBC!

The hunt for the eggs was chaotic, as was the tearing into the gift bags. But they loved it!

Each gift bag contained a diary set, a chocolate bunny, an egg of Skittles, a flower Lego set, and a plush Squishmallow (the Lego set and Squishmallow were different in each bag). It was definitely better than 50 eggs full of little trinkets for the age the girls are now!

For the rest of the afternoon, the adults visited, the younger girls played, and the big kids watched TV. It was so low-key and nice! We headed home around 4:00pm for a relaxing evening (Bri and Bren went to an indoor football game with friends that evening, so it was quiet at home with only two kiddos). 

The next morning (Sunday, April 20th), we slept in a little more than we should have and ended up running out of time for photos and Easter baskets before church services. After church services, we drove to our favorite Mexican restaurant in the craziest downpour that made me want to just go home and snuggle under a blanket and relax. Instead, we enjoyed our lunch out and went home to do photos and Easter baskets. 

Brecklyn 💓

Brooke 💜

Brenson 💙

Brianna 💜

Our family . . . no worse for the crazy weather!

So very blessed 💖

After photos, it's always time for Easter baskets!

Brooke and Brecklyn with their new dolls

Brenson and his fishing pliers

Brianna with new sunglasses and new bluelight glasses

All the kids got a t-shirt for an upcoming trip!

Love my babies so much!

I haven't really decided yet, but this may be our last year to do Easter baskets. Each of the kids have a hunting basket and a basket they get full of goodies on Easter, and this year the hunting baskets didn't even come out of the attic. While it makes me sad if I think about it too hard, we are moving into a new season as the kids get older. I loved having littles, but the season we are moving in to is really, really good, too. Regardless of if this is our last year for baskets or not, I'm just over here trying to soak up all the blessing of this season of life. People say it all the time, but time really does go fast, and I find myself missing these moments before they're even gone. Sigh. What a blessing this beautiful life is!

What a Par-Tay!

Happy Tuesday, Everyone! We are right in the middle of birthday season around here, and it has been a busy and wonderful time! Yesterday, we officially added another teenager to the family, and I'll post about that soon. First though, I'd like to share with you about the *Birthday Party* we had for the kids this past Saturday. It was a lively and LOUD time, but I'm so glad we were able to do it!

We abandoned the idea of big birthday parties several years ago because it just got to be A LOT. Part of that is because I was allowing it to be bigger than necessary, but it was also because we have four kiddos who all have birthdays within 15 days of each other. At the party the other night, one mom (who doesn't know our family well) commented about how brave I was to throw a party for four kids at once. I told her that it's either throw three separate parties or one big party, and I decided one big party would be easier than three separate ones! 

Anyway, we haven't thrown a big birthday party in eight years, so why this year? The simple answer is that I wanted to do something special this year because it was Brenson's 13th. However, when I started thinking of kids we could invite, so many of them are mutual friends of both Bren and Bri. I didn't like the idea of inviting some of Bri's friends and not others, so I thought maybe we could just do a teen party. But then, I completely lost my head and decided we should do a big party for all the kids!

I talked to Chris and the kids individually about my idea, and they were all on board with it. We basically planned the whole thing in about 10 days because last Saturday was the date that worked with our schedule. I also called Tia and asked her to help me chaperone. Overall, though, my goal was to keep things simple and fun for everyone!

We quickly got a guest list together, and I sent out this invite to parents:

The week before the party was packed with something every day and each evening. We were thrilled that Lisa and Chloe came into town and were able to attend the youth devo with us the Friday before. The day of the party, Brenson had a basketball game that the girls and I didn't attend. We stayed home to get the house ready for our guests and met up with Mom, Lisa, and Chloe for lunch. 

Just before 5:00pm, our guests began to arrive, and our house quickly filled up and got LOUD. I knew the weather wouldn't likely be conducive to being outdoors (and it wasn't), so we had set up tables in the living room for the teens. Most of the younger kids ate in the dining room, and many of the adults just had to stand. We served pizza, veggies, lemonade, and water . . . I tried really hard to keep things simple, and it worked out great!

Blake, Zach, Harvey, Oliver, Jaxen, Brianna, Easton, Gavon, Allen, Brenson, and Jordan

Deon, Julia, Koda, Caroline, Brecklyn, Sadie, and Brooke

Several adults joined us, including Grampy, G-Jo, Lisa, Ross, Tia, Jen, and Jenny. Like I've already mentioned a few times, it didn't take long for the house to be just roaring with noise. I think this wore Grampy out a bit as he asked me to go ahead and cut the cake so he a G-Jo could leave 😂.

Before we cut the cake, though, we had to sing!

The kids were not thrilled to have all their friends singing to them, haha. 

We got the cake from Costco, and it was delicious!

After eating cake, it was time for some games! I had told the kids that I wanted the youngers upstairs playing (with Tia supervising). They started with a game of Catchphrase.

Sadie, Julia, Brooke, Jordan, Deon, Blake, Caroline, Brecklyn, and Koda

Meanwhile, downstairs I had told the teens that I wanted a group pic before starting games. It wasn't an easy task, but we got it done!

Reese, Allen, Brenson, Gavon, Jaxen, Oliver, Chloe, Zach, Easton, Harvey, Bri, and Adelyn

The teens started with a good old fashioned game of Spoons! I had them take down the tables and sit in a circle on the floor because I wasn't trying to have broken tables, chairs, or otherwise in my house!

Once the games got started, the volume in the house somehow got even louder, and Grampy and G-Jo decided it was a good time to make their exit. We are grateful they were able to come!

G-Jo and Brecklyn

Other games the upstairs crew played included Mastermind, Scrabble, and Headbandz. At one point, we had a group upstairs, a group in the twins' bedrooms, and a group playing in my bedroom. The younger kids were definitely here, there, and everywhere.

Jordan, Blake, Deon, Koda, Julia, Caroline, Sadie, Brooke, and Brecklyn

So silly!

Meanwhile, as teens were eliminated from the Spoons game, they migrated into the dining room to join the Apples to Apples game going on in there. The teens were much more focused on their games than the younger kids, and they had a blast! So much laughing and chaos!

You may notice in the photos that the teen girls were outnumbered by the teen boys. We had invited several other girls, but they couldn't make it for one reason or another. We were thankful for each person that came!

Brianna, Chloe, and Adelyn

Bri and Chloe

Right about 8:00pm, parents started arriving to pick up their kiddos. Even though we asked for no gifts, several brought cards or small gifts for the kids which we opened once everyone (other than Lisa and Chloe) left. While the party was certainly crazy, several of the teens helped pick up trash and clean up the kitchen before they left. And then Bri and Chloe started cleaning once the other guests had gone! Of course, I stopped them, but I thought it was so nice of the guests to help with the mess. They were all polite and a pleasure to have in our home!

Lisa and Chloe stayed for a good bit after everyone else left so we could visit. Brianna and Brenson brought us this stack of cards from Apples to Apples that they (along with their friends) had deemed inappropriate for one reason or another. Lisa and I laughed so hard looking through these cards! 

It was such a fun night, even if it was crazy and a little deafening. We were very pleased with the turnout and just grateful to be able to host friends. 

Now, I don't have to do this for another eight years, right?!?