Wake Boarding.... or at least trying to

Our dear friends invited us to go boating on Sept 18th.  It was a beautiful day and not too hot, so we jumped on the chance.  We didn't get on the lake until about 4:00pm, so a lot of people had already left and we enjoyed the deserted lake until the sun went down.  

 Aubrey is awesome at Wake Boarding.  She makes it look easy. How hard can it be if an 8 year old can do it, right?

 Well, I will tell you.... HARD!  Good thing Drew didn't take photos of my many failed attempts.  Maybe next time.

Cole did a great job waterskiing.  He'll be a pro soon.  I was so proud of him for being so courageous.

 Mia was much more nervous than Cole, but she did a wonderful job, and tried her best to be brave.  I was proud of her.

Luke just loved playing on the boat with his buddy Brock.

 And our biggest mistake of the night was not letting Sam show his stuff when the sun was still high in the sky.  We could have gotten some awesome pics of his wake boarding tricks, but the light was so low, I couldn't get a good crisp shot.  Sam, you'll just have to invite us again so I can get better photos. ;)

It was so much fun.  We love our friends. 

End of Summer Fun

Summer has come to an end.  Well,... almost.  School has been in session for over a month, but the temperature is still sitting in the triple digits.  So we're enjoying the heat before it's gone.  

Geneva took these awesome pics of my kids at her pool a few weeks ago. 

Cole's 6th Birthday Party

Cole decided he wanted a Super Mario Birthday party, only because he's totally obsessed.  So we did our best to deliver.  Here's the invite. 

There was a lot of prep work.  Drew decided to take on the task of making the pinata.  None of my kids have ever had a pinata at their birthday party, so this was a big deal.  And who doesn't like beating things with a stick?  Especially when you get a candy reward.  

Drew wanted to make a memorable one, and boy did he.  He decided to make it into a mushroom.  

For the top, he used my salad bowl.

And the bottom is a tin can. 

It took about 4 days of work to get it just right.  I think it turned out awesome.  And Cole loved it.

We invited 8 boys, and 7 of them showed up, so it was kind of a mad house.  

Mia colored a bunch of Super Mario characters and hung them around the front room.

And I made the cake.  My first attempt at fondant.  It was actually really easy, and lots of fun.  This is just two round cakes.  One layer chocolate, and one white cake. 

As the boys arrived they colored their pinata bags.  

For our first game, they played marshmallow launcher (like we played at Mia's birthday party), but this time they had to get the marshmallow into "Boo's" mouth.  

It was so funny to watch them.

Then we played "Pin the Mustache on the Mario" (Thank you Dixie for drawing the poster)

After those two games, the boys were ready for a break.  So we had some pizza and watched a Super Mario episode.  The boys LOVED that part. 

Then for our last game, we tied a balloon to their ankle that had "Boo's" face drawn on it.  Then they had to run around the back yard and pop other people's balloon by stepping on it.  It was a lot of fun.

And then it was Pinata time!

Cole got the first swing.

Each boy got a turn to hit it once, really hard.

It didn't break so they went for round two.  This time each boy got to hit it two times, really hard.

I still wouldn't break.

Drew felt sorry for Mia sitting on the side lines so he told her she could have JUST ONE swing at it.  Sure enough it broke!  Not much else to say but... GIRL POWER!

And who cares who broke it.  What matters is how much candy you get.

Mr. Jake is always the jokester!

We stayed outside to open the presents.  We always play "heavy heavy hang over" and the kids get bonked pretty good.

He loved all his presents.

By the end he was getting a bit of a headache from all the "bonks on the head".

Cole loved the cake!

It was a fun party.  Anything for our Coleman!