May 6-12

 Lauren turned 7 on May 6!  She wanted to go to Chuck E Cheese for her birthday.  So we did, after church.  First we had to stop at a few places so Julia could collect soil samples for her science project.  Once that was done, it was time to celebrate.

Presents! 

Notice the zebra throw at least on the couch.  Not on the loveseat where it goes, but close.  ;)

All three younger kids bought these rainbow slinkies with their Chuck E Cheese tickets.  Julia had Caroline's here.

Lauren requested a Veggie Tale Bible; that was one of her gifts.

Seven years old!!

I also made her headband, when I made all those bows for Caroline.

Lauren requested a Tinkerbell cake.  I was sooooo busy in May and didn't have a clue how to make a Tinkerbell cake.  So we bought it from Vons.  Lauren chose chocolate with custard filling, just like two years ago.

We ate cake and ice cream that night.  Yummy!

Lauren getting snacks for herself and Caroline.  It is so nice all the older kids can reach the snacks for themselves!  And help out with Caroline.

I made this turquoise flower headband too.

Lauren requested a new bike for her birthday.  She did need one!  The other bike is Caroline's size.

We stopped at Toys R Us after Chuck E Cheese, and Lauren chose this bike.  It has a furry seat cover she liked.  :) 

Austin outgrew his bike as well, so he also ended up with one.  Both were on sale, so that made it even better.

Caroline set these desserts out for us.

 Cute little Cubbies!  This was the last club night of Awana.  All the kids with summer birthdays got their birthday buttons this night.

They are singing, "Happy Birthday, Cha cha cha!" here.

Caroline and her sweet little friend.  The Cubbies had ice cream sundaes to finish off their year.

Playing Mrs. Potato Head

 I made Lauren pick up the princess tent, and she made a new reading spot.  She set up all her birthday presents around her spot.  Oh my...

Brian came home with these flowers for me May 9--to celebrate 15 years since we were engaged.

Lauren's (and Julia's before her) old bike is the perfect size for Caroline.  C was so excited about her new bike!  She could hardly contain herself, and was jumping up and down all over!

 Brian helped both little girls on their bikes.  Lauren still isn't too sure about no training wheels.  Caroline took right to riding her bike, of course, with its training wheels.





 Playing early in the morning before school; no one else was even up!

For Mother's Day, Brian asked what I wanted.  I chose to have him install irrigation to our front porch flower bed.  I had bought plants to plant there, but there were no sprinklers or drip lines.

The Saturday before Mother's Day, Brian tunneled under our porch sidewalk, to attach the porch bed to the watering zone in the flowerbed zone in front of the house.  Austin helped him.

They both had to go to the Awana T&T book finishers party that night, so I planted our new hydrangeas and some other plants.  I also moved a couple plants that were in the bed.  Lots of work!  I weeded and pruned the whole time the boys worked on the irrigation.  It was a busy day in the yard for all of us.  Julia and Lauren had to help weed, which they were not happy about!  ;)