Katelyn's Picnic at the Pond (the big 11!)

Guest author post by Katelyn!!  (I love this girl so much. She is getting so old and responsible and she's almost as tall as me! Okay on to her post!)

Ooh! Presents!

A mystery...

and a new book by Rick Riordan!

My cake: chocolate with chocolate frosting and edible emojis on the top!:):)

Party guests (left to right).  Back: Liam, Brianna, Abby, me, Katie, Natalie, Owen.  Front: Mari and Ariel.

Three-legged races,

and sack races (I won!),

and tug-of-war!

Victory dance. Hooray for beating the only boy's team:)

Swimming!!!!

Owen wanted to take Jenna and Maris for a kayak ride-ADORABLE!!!!!!!!!:)

Aunt Raycelan went with them, just in case...

Canooing-so hard:()

but Uncle Derek had to swim out to help them anyway!

Derek and Raycelan and the super cute, amazingly adorable...EMMA!!!!

Swimming and more swimming!

I just love birthdays, don't you?

Mallory and Emma, checking each other out.  Aren't they SO cute?!?!:):)

Whitney Mae's 9 Year Old Sports Party (Olympics)

Whitney!!  Was so excited for her Sports-themed birthday party.  And for the books she got for her birthday!

I was super excited that Kristi came to visit me that day and helped me get ready for it!  It was so great to see her, I could have talked with her for about 10 more hours at least, but the time we had was fun and it was so nice to catch up.

And then it was time for the party!  We had athlete registration:

Then the parade of nations:

Then came the games!  We mixed around the teams for every game, so everyone got a chance to be on Whitney's team.  Which was a good thing because her team won every game!!  It makes sense I guess because she picked all her favorite sports so of course she would be good at them. :)

We had 4 teams of 3 for each sport, and then had a championship game from the winners of the 2 games.

We did soccer:

Basketball:

and volleyball with a giant ball!

We had a snack break with fruit and "gold medals" made from golden oreos and fruit by the foot:

And then we had a super fun track relay (laps around the house):

And the long jump.

Then of course we had a medals ceremony!  Everyone either got gold, silver or bronze, based on how many winning teams they were on.  Whitney, Morgan, and Joaquin were the gold medal winners.

We had Olympic brownies and gatorade. :)

And a photo booth where everyone got to take a polaroid home with them.

Whitney's friends were super cute, good sports, and fun to have over.

And lastly, here are all the adorable things the kids gave me for mother's day, and the flowers and chocolate Eric got me for mother's day!!!  I loved it!

Spring sports and Emma 3 months

Whitney's soccer was so fun to watch this spring.  She really grew in her knowledge of the game and ability to understand positions.

 She rocked defense, rarely did other teams score when she was on defense.

 Whitney had fun doing the Hershey track meet. She made it to semi-finals in the 50.

 Emma used to fall asleep so easily!  Until she was about 3 months old. So funny.

 Owen played T-ball for the first time!  Super cute.  He had fun.

Owen's cheerleaders!  We made a rule that you have to go to at least 2 of your siblings' games every season haha, since the girls are old enough to stay home by themselves sometimes!

 One Saturday Eric had cleaned the kitchen really well the night before and I didn't want to mess it up, and it was finally almost SUMMER, so I made everyone eat all our meals outside that day!  Here was Waffles in the morning lol.

 Memorial Day: we went to the Spanish Fork cemetery because we recently discovered Eric has ancestors buried there! It was so cool to learn about them.

 Emma sucked her thumb pretty regularly until she was 3 months old, got sick, and couldn't breathe through her nose well for a couple of weeks.  And now she no longer sucks her thumb, or sleeps through the night. Sad!!!

 Katelyn got her ears pierced for her 11th birthday!

 WHitney went to BYU soccer camp for her 9th birthday!

 All of us girls did a mile race back in may, it was a dream come true for me!! My favorite parts were Maris running the whole way with only 3 breaks to get water, Whitney's awesome kick, and Katelyn running through sprinklers off the course with 200 meters left haha!

Katelyn (3rd from left) and WHitney (second from right) in the race.

 More Owen t-ball!  Eric had fun helping him learn the basics.

 cutie face girl!!  She loves to smile at all her family members.