PRINCESS BIRTHDAY

Brooklyn requested a Princess theme (go figure) for her birthday party. The girls received a princess outfit and the boys became official knights. What a fun 4th birthday party!

All dressed and ready to go.
Alex, Brad (friend), Brooklyn, Ally (friend) and little Anderson (cousin) The newest little "princess" Abby. Grace was a trooper and brought the 2 week old Abigail Claire to the party with Ally & Brad.
"Mom, can I be done being a princess"? "Where is my baseball hat"? Poor Alex!

CAKE AND PRESENTS

"Its time for cake and opening presents". Brooklyn has been waiting for that to be said for months! We found the idea for this birthday cake in a magazine and Brooklyn sooo anxious for me to make it.

Crown Birthday Cake....fitting for our little princess

Blowing out candles Opening presents with friends Ally & Brad
Princess game...oh, the hours of fun!

ALL PRINCESSES NEED A CASTLE

Building Castles....using wafer cookies, sugar cubes, gum drops and icing. Getting a little help from Daddy
The finished product...

BALLOON POPPING RACE

Balloon popping race....one at a time, a person from each team grabs a balloon out of the bag, races to the "princess popping area", sits on the balloon to pop it and run back and tag the next person. Brooklyn demonstrates....

All the Dads taking notes...
Got to say...the kids had better form!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BROOKLYN

Blowing out candles
Alex looking for trouble even while eating a cupcake

Well, its official...Brooklyn turned 4 on the 12th! Princess Brooklyn requested tacos for her birthday dinner and then pizza for her Princess birthday party this weekend. She is taking this "getting older" stuff pretty seriously. She insists now that she is 4, she should be able to call me Mandy...and has asked what work she can help me with in order to get money. WHAT???

RIDES FOR "ALL" KIDS

Three little kids can fit, or......
two bigger kids can fit....or
one really large kid can try to squeeze in!

And, in case you are wondering , Why the "parking" space?....the LARGE kids set up a race track and were timing each other to see who would win. Fun was had by all...and to my suprise, no one was hurt :)

TIME WITH GREAT-GMA & GPA YODER

Coloring with Great-Grandma Yoder
Counting fingers in German...I think??? Whatever language was used hypnotized Alex.
Magic....can not believe she just fell asleep. Amazing!

TOO BIG

Brooklyn and Alex were not interested in trying to saddle up Uncle Doyle's Draft horses....

TOO big, Brooklyn says.

DAISY RIDES

Alex gets help riding Daisy from Scott's cousin Heidi & Uncle Doyle.
Hang on, Brooklyn! The little pony following behind is Daisy's baby....Dang-It. The little kids had fun chasing Dang-It all around the farm...poor baby!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, AUNT TAMMY

Orange Beach birthday celebration

Boat Ride

UncleAndrew teaching Alex about what he knows best.....fishing.

Sisters & their short hair.

Four Generations....missing Great-Great-GrandmaSwirn.

BLUE ANGELS - PENSACOLA BEACH

That is us....with one of the Blue Angels making a pass by the shoreline.
The Blue Angels practicing for a weekend airshow at Pensacola Beach. VERY COOL!
Unbelievable!

Aric looks like he is in the middle of a "fly-zone"

OMIE CIRCLE POOL AND PENSACOLA BEACH

Alex "swimming" by herself.

Brooklyn & Alex making sand castles with Aunt Tammy.
Jumping to Daddy....soooo brave!
More sand castles at Pensacola Beach.
Hanging out with Grandma.

NAVAL AVIATION MUSEUM

All of us in front of the A6 fighter jet that Dad flew while in the Marine Corps.
Mom & Dad showing Pop his name on the wall of listed "Silver Eagles"... enlisted Navy Pilots.
Scott and the girls in front of a ship's anchor.

Mom & Archer with Pop K...telling about his experiences with this plane.

TIME IN FLORIDA

We were able to spend a little over a week in Florida visiting the Kouns side of the family. There was much time spent in the pool at Omie Circle, boating at Orange Beach, watching a practice run of the Blue Angel show at Pensacola Beach, games with lots of snacks at night, sister-in-law bonding time at the hair salon, a training run with the goal of not getting struck by lightening, stories told by Pop K at the Naval Aviation museum, party at Kimo & Tammy's and of course...just plain old fun and laugher with the family. What a great time!