Birthday Preparations

This year for her birthday Makenna wanted to make everything. Invitations and cake included. Being that she selected the theme "Jewels and Glitter" (how girly can you get?!?) I figured I could handle that.

First we made a trip to Michael's and purchased all the supplies for invitations. It was a fun experience but expensive. It probably cost seven times more than a package of regular invitations and that doesn't include the time it takes to make them. But we had fun making them so it was worth it!




I couldn't really figure out a cake and was worried about transporting it to the bowling alley for her party so we settled on cupcakes.... cupcakes with a big sparkly jewel in the middle (ie. Ring Pop) and edible glitter all around the sides!

Water Balloons

One of our favorite activities this summer has been water balloons. It's an easy way to cool off in the back yard after a long day! The girls think it's an absolute blast :)

Patiently waiting for Daddy to fill more water balloons






Maya likes "baby balloons"!


Makenna, Maryn and the neighbor girl Faith up by the playhouse... they take shelter there when Daddy is pelting them with water balloons :)

Big Girl Bed

Maya made the big switch to a big girl bed a few weeks ago! She's been potty trained for almost 6 months now and has been trying to climb out so we figured it was past time. Not to mention that she will be sleeping in a big bed on vacation this summer so we wanted to practice beforehand! She was very excited about the process but then when we showed her the bed after it was all set up all she would do is say "I don't like! I don't like! Daddy I don't like!" Over and over and over. She even shed a few tears over it. Luckily that all passed very quickly and now she wants to show off her big girl bed to anyone that comes to our house. I always dread this transition with kids, mostly because Makenna and Maryn made it difficult for me, but Maya was a piece of cake. She transitioned very easily and has only left her bed on a handful of times.

I asked her to lay down in her new bed in the midst of her "I don't like" rant and it didn't go very well. Notice how stinking long she is though!

Makenna - 7 Years Old

All about Makenna at 7 years old!!!





Nicknames: Kenna, Nenny, Nenna, Nenner, Nenner Benner, Nen, Buddy
Weight & Height: She weighs 57 lbs and is 52.5 inches tall. Her height is off the charts and her weight puts her at the 76%. She's tall and lean... her BMI puts her in the 29%.
Hair: Long blond hair. She wanted to grow it as long as Rapunzel's but I think I've finally got her talked into a haircut before school starts.
Favorite foods: Sushi, Hamburgers, Meatloaf
Favorite Drink: blue Gatorade
Favorite toys: her new iPod, Magic Fabric, anything that involves using her imagination
Favorite stuffed animal: Duckie
Favorite Books: Her goal for the summer was to be one of the top readers at our library so she could earn herself a special t-shirt :) She is doing really well and you can find her with her nose stuck in a book quite often. She loves to read non-fiction as well as Magic Tree House, BabySitter's Club Little Sister, Katie Kazoo series, and any of the Ramona books.

How I found her reading one morning...


Bedtime: It's summer and once again we've been slack about this. We try to have Makenna in bed by 8:30 and we let her read until 9:00.
Wake-up time: Her body clock typically wakes her up between 8:30 and 9:00. She is so our child :)
Best Friends: Makenna is a very social little girl and loves having friends to play with. She has unfortunately come to the age where friends are much cooler than mom and dad :( She has had some bad friend experiences lately though which has made her leary of friends and not as trustworthy. She would tell you that her best friends are Ana and Grace. She also loves her big cousin Josie!

Makenna and Josie



Latest Accomplishment: This summer she started riding her big bike... and I mean the new bike she got for Christmas. She's been riding without training wheels for a few years now but she made the jump up to an even bigger bike quite effortlessly. She has also made huge gains in her swimming and can swim across the pool by herself.
Likes: playing with friends outside, listening to music, reading, writing in her journal (she's currently writing a play!), getting to stay up a 1/2 hour later than Maryn, anything girly
Dislikes: when her friends fight, when she doesn't get to socialize as much as she would like (which is a LOT!)

Makenna is a TERRIFIC big sister and is a huge help with Maya.



Activities: This summer she took swimming lessons, played softball and went to church day camp. She will be participating in AYSO soccer once again this fall and probably gymnastics in the winter.
Fears: Storms and bad weather. Although I can't say I blame her. We had "tornadic activity" confirmed right behind our house this summer which caused quite a bit of damage. The kid has a reason to fear storms and she worries that every rain cloud will produce a tornado.
Favorite shows: She is so not a TV girl. Wish I could say that about Maryn as well, but it only holds true for Makenna. If Makenna watches TV, her preference would probably be Phineas and Ferb or Shake It Up. She still likes Barbie movies, Tangled and Ramona & Beezus for movies.
Health: She's been really healthy outside of an icky virus she had a few weeks ago. She has also now lost 6 teeth and has 4 permanent teeth that have come in... they are very crooked, but they are in :)

Picture after she lost her 6th tooth!

Fireflies & Fireworks

We had a very fun and busy 4th of July weekend. We spent Saturday at Lost Island Water Park in Waterloo. The girls had a blast! Maya enjoyed the kiddie areas and the Lazy River, while Maryn and Makenna preferred some of the bigger slides. Makenna got quite good at a rope you can climb across the water and Maryn went crazy on the littler slides in the kiddie areas. Everyone also enjoyed the wave pool.

Our fun continued that weekend.... we had dinner with Poppie and Peepie, visited Grandma Lu, I visited some friends, lunch and swimming in the pond with Budkes, neighborhood 4th of July parade, catching some fireflies and of course fireworks. The busy long weekend ended with the four of us (Maya was in bed) sitting on the counter eating popcorn after fireworks. Maryn said that was her favorite part of the weekend :) Silly kid!



Happy kids! Makenna and Maryn got to stay up late enough for it to get dark so they could catch lightning bugs. Our back yard and park look like a Christmas light display at night with all the lightning bugs!!!


She got one! My girls are so much nicer to the bugs than I was as a kid.... did anyone else dismember them to make glowing jewelry for themselves???


Maryn catching lightning bugs in the back yard


Makenna trying to get one... they were both pretty dramatic about it :) Imagine that!


Makenna and Maryn... Mommy made us stop running around in our jammies so she could take our picture :(


Sisters :)


Watching fireworks from the front porch!!! We live in a great location... every year we can see numerous fireworks displays from our front yard! It's not up close and personal, but at least we avoid the traffic this way :)

Summer Fun

I need to start learning how to shop better for summer attire for the kids... one swimsuit for every day of the week and just a handful of outfits. Seriously... my kids wear their swimsuits for a good majority of most days. I wish I had the total innocence and lack of self awareness that I could just parade around in my swimsuit when it's hot out! The joy of being a kid!


Makenna and Maryn with Ana one hot summer afternoon (they were taking a break in the shade on the front porch). I might as well consider Ana and her brother our 4th and 5th children as much as they are at our house.


Two peas in a pod - Ana and Makenna. These two are some of the best of friends I've ever seen. The NEVER fight or even disagree. They could spend hours upon hours together and never get sick of each other. They enjoy doing the exact same things and do a great job of sharing and compromising. AND neither of them complains when one of the little siblings tags along... how awesome is that?!


And as Makenna says "Maryn is my best at home friend!" :)


Makenna is blessed to have found such a dear sweet friend in Ana. I can't wait to watch their friendship grow.

Our First Harvest

Tonight we harvested the first vegetables of the season from our garden!! It is always a joyful occassion at our house... all of us get so excited :) I am so proud of our broccoli! We have never grown broccoli before and yielded a plentiful crop... we actually had twice as much as this but I gave some to our neighbors before taking pictures. We have tomatoes, beans and cauliflower coming as well! I think we're going to be in broccoli up to our ears. I planted a LOT of plants hoping that just one or two would take... well it seems that they all have taken and are producing multiple heads!! Whoo-Hoo! This is summer eating at its' finest!