Goings on

Alright I'll try to catch you up to speed since the last time I posted.  Ready, GO!

May 18th was Shane's 29th birthday! 

(P.S. Just a head's up for next year-we'll be doing a BIG surprise party, so plan on coming if you're reading this right now...and Shane doesn't read the blog, so, no, I'm not worried about him seeing this.)

We ditched the kids and went out to dinner at Texas Roadhouse.  I chose this place only because three years ago, Shane and our friends took me there for my birthday, and they ALL made me sit on the freaking saddle.  Payback time, baby.  ;)

Shane loves, and I mean LOVES, getting his picture taken.

On the saddle!  WOO!  mwahahaha

 After dinner, I gave Shane all of these options that we could do without the kids (ice skating, roller blading, makeout session, etc.), but of all things he chose to go shopping.  Yup - that's right.  HE chose that.  He had just been told that day that he was finally getting his gym time at work (3 hours a week PAID gym time during his normal working hours), and he hasn't owned tennis shoes in the seven and a half years I've known him.  So we shopped around and got him all of the gym gear he could possibly want.  While we were at Wal-Mart, we passed this on one aisle and I couldn't stop laughing:

What the what?!

I can't decide if I like the picture or the name of the stuff better.  :)

Random picture of Ari dancing because she's just oh so cute.

A week after that, on May 25th, we went to Shane's mom's semi-surprise 50th birthday party at Ben Lomond Lanes.

I made that!

 I saw this idea on Pinterest and sent it to Shane's dad who said, "Looks great!  I'll bring you lots of pictures so you can put it together!"  Ummm...okay?  Cause I really have time for that.  Luckily, it didn't take too long and it still turned out pretty great.

I had a last minute idea to have all of the guests write a short message to Karen in the blank space around the pictures with a silver marker.  Luckily Shane's little sister was at Wal-Mart grabbing ice cream or something, so she picked up some markers for me.

Ari and her cousin, Ryley, who is exactly 3 months younger than Ari.

All the girl grandkids!

HUGS!!

Some crepe place catered and it was SO, SO good.  They did this crepe spinach/chicken thing for dinner and OH MY GOSH it was amazing!

My brother-in-in-law, Bryan, testing out the toys. (My SIL's hubby)

The cake

 

SURPRISE!  (Sort of)

Shane was like, "USE THE WALKER!"  He was thoroughly enjoying his mom turning 50.  ;)

More hugs!  I swear my kids are just like, "Let me love you!!"

 We had the entire bowling alley to ourselves from 6-10, and Kaden took full advantage of that.

Waiting....

"Did you see me, Mom?"

He actually wasn't too bad.

Everything's a fashion show for Lexi.  The smallest shoe size they had was 10 (toddler), and Lexi is a 7 1/2, but she didn't care one bit.

Lexi would NOT let anyone help her.

Wanna guess what she did next?  Yep - dropped it.  And I cringed every. time.

If someone gave it a little push when Lexi wasn't looking, the ball would eventually get down the lane.  :)

 It was a really fun night and the kids LOVED bowling for so long.

Later that night (just before midnight), our friend Stephanie (she moved to Wisconsin last August) came to stay with us for a week!  :)  The next morning, she and her hubby, Danny, got to come to Kaden's last soccer game.  He was so excited that they could see him play.  The team took pics a couple of weeks before (the coaches wife took them and then email each of us a copy - SO much nicer than paying an arm and a leg!).

The FireDragons!  Coach Mike was awesome!

They took these pics after the game, so all of the boys were sweaty with red cheeks, but oh so happy to have played.  :)

Coach Mike told each of the boys what they had earned their medal for.  I loved that he did that rather than just give it to them for participating.  Kaden got his because "he's the quickest."  He now walks around telling EVERYONE that he runs the quickest and no one can beat him.  :)  How's that for a great self-esteem booster for his soccer career (however long or short it may be)?

Later that day, we went to the Real game in Salt Lake, which was such a great way to end Kaden's soccer season.  I'm pretty sure we'll make that a tradition every year he plays.

It was SO cold and rainy, so when they turned the sprinklers on before the game, everyone on our side felt the cold mist and was like, "NOOO!!!"  haha

Steph's brother-in-law, Cory.  His whole family was there, too.  It was a big group.

Go Real!

Kaden and Danny (Kaden really was having fun, just super cold)

 

All bundled up.

Where's my cotton candy??

Steph and Lexi (who did, indeed, get cotton candy)  :)

 Right before halftime, a couple of small soccer balls were thrown into the stadium.  Ari was sitting in my lap and a ball literally landed in Ari's lap.  It was awesome and kept her and Kaden occupied during halftime.

Kaden checking out the new soccer ball.  (That little girl next to him was such a sweetheart.  She kept sharing her hand warmer things with him.)

The first half of the game, Ari was miserable.  Between the cold and pure boredom, she just wanted to leave.  At the beginning of the second half, however, she discovered there was a HUGE TV behind us, and figured she was watching some totally awesome show while the rest of us watched a boring game.  ;)  She quickly realized, too, that there was a cute 18 year old boy sitting right behind her.  She flirted like I've never seen her flirt before.  Micah (the kid) was loving it and his girlfriend was like, "Ohh let's take her home."  haha  Micah told Ari to come find him in 17 years. ;)  haha  (He really was cute, though, complete with dimples, so I have full faith in Ari's choice of men.)

We did a lot more with Steph, but that's all I have time for today.  More updates soon (hopefully)!