Birthday fun --- luau-style

Hailey is FIVE!!!! And, she had the day of all days ... luau-style!! Hold onto your seats...lots of pictures are coming and this is such a small sample of them too!!

Here is a preview right away. The photo-op was mostly put together by Doran and Kari. Isn't it great!!?

Even Hunter got a lei...

Now the fun little details of the parties. These are what I LIVE for! :) I made bags for all the girls that came to Hailey's party. They had their names on the outside, and a flower for their hair too. Inside was : their flip-flops, wrist/ankle lei, ring, stampers, tattoos, gum coins, a kit for their project, and stickers. They were all so excited!!!

We had to have the palm tree cooler, and of course a pig roast!!!!!!! Hailey was so worried that we were really going to burn her little piggy!! :)

Onto Hailey's party with her friends.... after arriving and playing in the backyard and showing them her room, we started by decorating the flip-flops. They also got tattoos too during this fun time! Then we worked on our little marshmallow hula guys. How cute are they!!? The girls love them!! Here is Kari helping the girls with their shoes and the finished product.

Then it was time for lunch. Doesn't the table look good?!?! :) For lunch they had : SHELLS and cheese, blue jello with fish inside the jello, Swedish fish, fruit with flower picks and little umbrellas, goldfish crackers, Hawaiian punch to drink, and of course cupcakes and ice cream.

Finally Hailey was BEYOND ready for the presents. She did so good opening the cards, and saying thank you to the person right away (without being told to!!!). She did fantastic. Proud moment for us!!

Here are all the girls together before it was time to go home...

And one of Ryan too...he was there most of the time...but out of the way :)

AHHH...kid party over. One of the moms took Hailey to Bo's birthday party at Chuck-E-Cheese when her party was over to give me a chance to clean up. She was there from 1-3PM. Then we had about 1.5 hours of quiet time with a movie before things got going again for the family party!

Another food spread...this time with BBQ pork sandwiches, chips, and the same things as for lunch too! Oh...the adults had slushies too! Pure yummy goodness!!!!!! =D

Take a look at Hailey's cakes. Doran made these for her. Hailey was very worried when she saw me take her Barbie from her room and wanted it back right away. After she saw the cake she was okay with things! :) Doran did a FANTASTIC job (THANK YOU so much!!). How many five year olds have a 2-tiered cake, and another small one, and cupcakes!?!?! We have TONS left over too!!!

After supper it was time for more presents...

Then it was time for the BIG ONE!! Chris was asking her about cornfields. And she said "I am going pheasant hunting in the cornfields with my Daddy." Chris asked her what she needed, and she said "A pink gun." Chris pulled out the pink .22 he had for her. Here is her look when she saw it. She didn't sit there too long!!! :) And her first look at it!!

Here is the proud owner of a new pink rifle!! Clay said it perfect.... "I am outta here. They are giving 5 year olds guns!!" She carried it VERY SAFE and knows she only points it at animals she is hunting. She wants to go to the ranch now to get gophers, and of course in the cornfields for pheasants too!! She needs to go to SD with Daddy, Papa B, and Uncle Brad!! When can kids start hunting?!?!

It was a great day...and I think Hailey enjoyed the day and we all slept good last night!!! Thank you to everyone that came and helped with the party. Not sure how we will top this next year. She is talking about having another luau again ... and I love that idea! :)

MontanaFair

**WARNING ** WARNING ** WARNING** Long post with 15 (yes...FIFTEEN) pictures to follow. Grab a cup of coffee, pop, and/or snack and ENJOY!
Going to the fair with Hailey is a BLAST!!!!!! She is just like her daddy....LOVES the fast-moving, spinning, thrill-seeking rides. And, will go on them over and over and over again if we would let her. Hailey, Ryan, Chris, Doug, Doran and I went to the fair today at 12:00 and didn't leave until 4:30. As you can tell by the times, that means the kids didn't get a nap. Of course Ryan wouldn't give in and go to sleep in the stroller, but he did catch about 15 minutes on the way home (and I got great video of him smiling and laughing but his eyes won't open as he is half asleep at the time!!). Hailey had so much fun going on all the rides. She probably went on 12 rides (give or take a few!!). She would have went on more, but we said no. :) She also ate her body weight in SUGAR too!! Between the straight sugar tube of candy, almost a whole bag of cotton candy, milkshake, and a few bites of everything else...she should be up for DAYS! :) Thankfully, with no nap, she is finally in bed and should be asleep within minutes! Here is a pictorial of our day at the fair (and this is only a small sample of the pictures...we (well...mostly me of course) took over 225 pictures at the fair alone!!).

Ryan's first time on a roller coaster. It was NOT a pleasant experience for him! :( Hailey loved it!! First picture is Hailey and I before the ride. Second picture is all four of us. You can see Ryan's little hand up (probably trying to get OUT!) and then behind Chris and Ryan is Hailey and I ... both of us with our arms up. (Helpful trick...click any picture to enlarge it!!)

Hailey went down the "Fun Slide" at least 3 times. I got one of them on video too. I wish I could include that, but instead here is a picture of Chris and Ryan on the purple slide, and Hailey on the blue slide.

Next we thought a nice, slow right might help Ryan so we took him on the kiddie train ride. He LOVED it (as you can tell by the picture!!).

Hailey went on the Tilt-a-whirl TWICE and the Dizzy Dinosaurs once (same concept of rides!!). One time she managed to talk Grandma Pilcher into going along too. BIG MISTAKE for Doran!! With Chris on the ride, he went CRAZY on making the thing spin! The second picture is them in the middle of a spin. Enlarge it and look at all three of their faces! It should make ANYONE smile/laugh!! :)

Hailey also saw the bungy-jumping that was going on and wanted to try it. She didn't get as high as others because she was so small, but did quite well and went high enough for me!! I also got a nice video of this too! :) She was so exhausted too at this point of the day she didn't have the strength to really jump high either. :)

The HIGHLIGHT of Ryan's day...........seeing a small, BLUE BIKE!! He was SO EXCITED and wanted to get on it and go for a ride. This is his PERFECT BIKE! Just look at his smile and you know he LOVED it!!! Too bad you had to play a video game to try to win it. I wanted Shane to be here to win it for him!!!

Ryan also got to "Build Your Own Car" and thought that was neat. Too bad when he was done, he wanted to exchange his new car for the nice BLUE one on the table!!! :)

Who knew playing with CORN would be so much fun?!?!

And of course there were animals as well. Here are both kids trying to feed some!!

And, finally, Ryan.

Going....

Going....

Gone......

Sports Camp -- Week 5

Last night was the last night of Sports Camp for Hailey. The nights focus was on the Olympics. Look at the cute little girl we have....

Here is Hailey holding the "torch"....

Then they used water balloons to kick....

And then she tried, and tried, and tried to break it...

And, at the end of the night, everyone got a metal. Hailey was first and got the award for "Most enthusiastic". She was very excited!!

Ryan even got one too!!! Most Athletic!! :)

Cinderella

Totally UNplanned! This is from Saturday when they were washing toys. All of a sudden I hear Hailey singing a song "sing sweet nightingale....sing sweet nightingale....ah ah ah ah ahhh".....can you say CINDERELLA!?!?! =D This girl IS a PRINCESS!!!!!!

Also...posted pictures of the kids washing the toys on Saturday too!!

Five?!?!?!

Okay...how on earth can Hailey be turning FIVE on Sunday?!?!?! This isn't possible, is it??? Well, it is going to happen whether I want it to or not, so might as well document how ADORABLE she is right now. ;) I took her into Sears for her 5 year pictures this morning. Aren't they cute?!?! She did FANTASTIC!

Watch out Barry Bonds....

Here comes RYAN PILCHER!!!! Last night we did A LOT of playing outside!! There was softball, soccer, Frisbee, bike riding, and just goofing off too!!! But the highlight of the night was Ryan hit the softball THREE times. Now, not a big deal if he was using a tee, but the boy hit it when Chris THREW it to him. And, Chris said he hit it really good! Ryan was proud "me hit ball HARD. run fast!" And, the boy also has a good arm on him already. Watch out if he has a baseball. He isn't accurate when throwing, but he does throw it good. Come on Ryan...mommy wants a new house! :)

Weekend Recap

Well...the weekend was another busy one! I took the kids to the Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. Then we went to a carnival put on by a local church. The kids loved it....games, prizes, blow-up jump thing, free backpack with school supplies, and lunch...with pop and cotton candy too! :) It was a fun morning for us. After nap, they helped clean a little outside. I was working on the inside of my car, and they washed a lot of their toys (I will post pictures of this later :)). It was fun! BUT...the best part about Saturday was at about 8:45 PM the door opened...and in walked...DADDY!!! They were both so excited to have their daddy home! :)

Sunday we were all ready to leave to go on a boat ride, and Chris checked the battery only to find out it was dead. Good thing he checked before we drove all the way there!! So, instead we had a picnic in the backyard by the swing set and played around the house. Then we went over to Grandma and Papa's for supper and more playing.

FUN WEEKEND!!!

Pictures of the kids....I think they get this from Papa Buckhouse and his love of a clean car!! :)

Teamwork!!!

And of course...you have to pay attention to the details, and get every piece clean, and take this job SERIOUSLY! :)

Sports Camp -- Week 4

First, I think Ryan is better. He stayed all day at daycare yesterday and was himself last night (as you will see soon). So...hopefully he is over that bug! Now onto sports camp....

Last nights session was on kickball. It sure looked like Hailey was having fun! She had a few good kicks, ran the bases, and even had some good "saves"!!! :) Ryan was fun to watch too. He was in a goofy mood! (well...they both were)

Here is Hailey sitting on the ball...taking a break I guess. And one of her trying to stop the ball!

Look at Ms. Exerciser!! She stopped to do a few push-ups without being told!! :)

While Hailey was playing, Ryan was making his own fun. He was running around and then would "fall" down...not dramatic at all!!

Last, to give everyone a good smile, Hailey came back making a funny face, so Ryan had to do the same thing. SILLY KIDS! Gotta love 'em!!!

Sick little guy

Poor little man...Ryan is sick. :( Monday when I picked him up from daycare, he had a temp, but Tylenol brought it right now. Tuesday morning he woke up fine so I brought him to daycare. Tuesday afternoon I got a call that Ryan had a 102 temp and that I needed to get him. Off I went! I got there and he was all clingy. Poor little guy! We came home, got some medicine and he was FINE! He was singing, dancing, playing baseball ("I hit it hard Mommy"), and anything else I didn't want him to do so I could work!! He really was fine....just one messy diaper and he was playing all night. He did get mad at me once when I was leaving a message for Chris and then hung up my phone. Ryan, who was in the backseat, said "Mommy, I talk to Daddy. NOT NICE!" He woke up this morning fine again...but I am waiting for the call from daycare that I need to get him early again.

On a side note...Hailey did AWESOME at daycare yesterday. She was of course all excited when I was there at 3pm to get her sick brother and she thought she was coming home. I let her pick...did she want to go home with Ryan and I, or stay and play with her friends. She picked to stay (I would have too!!). And she was helping as much as she could with Ryan. And overall in a GREAT mood! Gosh I love it when she is like that! :)