Sunday, March 17, 2024

Lucy and Ellory's 7th birthday- friend/Schut celebration.

Happy birthday to our sweet 7 year olds! It's so fun to remember their birth every year and look back on old pictures and videos. Sometimes it's still hard to believe they were both inside me at once! Lucy and Ellory, celebrating you is a joy because you bring so much joy to our family! We are SO thankful you are our daughters and we love you very much! 

Lucy and Ellory had a friend party at Kinderzone (a local indoor play place) with crafts, play time, DQ ice cream cake, and Pizza Ranch pizza. What fun! We pray you have good friends and are good friends!








Lucy had a superhero theme and Ellory had a rainbow theme. So fun to see what they want to choose each year!


Unfortunately, their birthday didn't turn out as exciting as we had hoped because of sickness. All the family on my side was supposed to come stay with us for the weekend, but Kley and I both got influenza. It was terribly sad- all the cousins were super disappointed to not be able to be together. I felt it coming the day before but tried to act fine, but by Friday morning (their actual birthday) I felt terrible. My parents had come up the night before, so they were there and stayed to help with the party so they could at least still have that, which I'm so thankful for! Kley felt it coming a little bit too, but didn't get it bad until after the party that night. So, I missed their birthday party and had to stay home alone- so sad! I'm so sad they couldn't have the original weekend of fun that was planned, but I'm so glad they still got to have their party, and they also got to sleepover at their grandparents' that live close to us Saturday night, so they still got to do something fun over the weekend too! (All three of the girls ended up getting it at the end of the weekend too, so at least we all got it at once!)


Happy birthday, our sweet Ellory!


I'm sad Kley and I both got sick when my parents were here, but it was so nice that they could help with the party and that they could still see the girls for a little bit! (They went home that night after the party, understandably so since we were sick, but so nice they stayed to help!)


Happy birthday, our sweet Lucy!



Sunday, March 10, 2024

Lucy and Ellory's 7th birthday- De Jong celebration.

We celebrated Lucy and Ellory's 7th birthday with the De Jong side at the bowling alley! It was a fun night and special to do something different. We've never bowled with his family before and it was the cousin's first time bowling. We are not regular bowlers, so it was nice to give it another whirl. We also ate supper there. I didn't even know the bowling alley served food, but they do! As the girls were sipping on a slushie, picking out their bowling ball, I said isn't this peak childhood right here? Family, bowling, and a slushie- a great birthday!


My four forever favorites. :)




I think this picture is cute with the three girls together and me trying to convince Gerrit to not carry a bowling ball by himself in the background. Such a sweetie. :)



Giving it our best shot!




Kley was the highest scoring adult by far. I got two strikes but also a fair amount of gutter balls, so you never knew what was coming, ha. 


Sometimes it's still crazy to me that I carried and birthed TWO babies! How are they seven already?


Fun to bowl with Will for his first time!






Kley's parents, grandma, and sister were there too- so great! Our group shots weren't top of the line, but we tried! Thankful for family and especially for Lucy and Ellory, two of the sweetest girls around. Happy 7th birthday, our babies. You are so loved! :)


 

Friday, March 1, 2024

Lucy and Ellory's 7th birthday- family celebration.

We started off Lucy and Ellory's birthday celebrations a little early with our family celebration! The following two weekends will have family in town, so we did ours a couple weeks before the actual day. We let the girls pick an activity and where to eat for their birthdays and I love this tradition! They quickly picked Sky Zone in a neighboring big town (they had won a free pass there from our local library's summer reading program) and wanted to come back home to a new pasta restaurant in our town. (As they age, if they have differing opinions, we will let them pick their own activity/restaurant, but so far that have quickly/easily agreed together on what to pick. So cute!)

Thankful for a special day together and love our sweet almost 7-year-olds! What a joy to be their mom!





The rock climbing wall above the foam pit was a favorite!



Lucy's bravery and drive for sports is amazing to me. Big teenage boys also shooting hoops? No problem, I'll join right in, thank you very much. :) 




Some days it's still amazing to me that I'm a mom and have three kids, let alone three girls this big. What a beautiful journey! Lucy and Ellory, happy 7th birthday! We sure love celebrating you. 


Sunday, February 25, 2024

Saturday night pizza and pool fun.

We had a free Saturday night and spent it at Pizza Ranch and the indoor pool! It's a family favorite to try to do a time or two during the winter on a free weekend night. It was also a bonus that my good friend, Heidi, was in town working for the weekend, so she met us at the pool and we got to talk! Thankful for a wonderful night and a slow Saturday!




Saturday, February 17, 2024

Great Wolf Lodge 2024.

We went to Great Wolf Lodge two years ago, and the girls have been begging to go back ever since. So, for their big Christmas present this year, we headed back! It was a fun weekend and I'm so thankful we could go. The number one thing they talked about doing again was the huge tube slide in the waterpark (along with all the other water slides), and we enjoyed them for hours!

Love these three beauties! So glad for family time together.


They were all so brave and tried the surfing, and they all did so well!


Even Kley did it! He's not much of a rides guy, but he did it!




Fun at the water park.



We enjoyed some arcade games. It was such a nostalgic, peak childhood, moment watching them in the prize room figuring out what prize they wanted to get with their tickets. So fun!


Climbing the rock wall.




We got to see some family too, which made it even better! My sister and her family live in Minneapolis, so they came down for a few hours. Also, it lined up that my parents were there watching her kids for a couple days prior while she worked, so we got to see my parents too. And, my sister from Des Moines ended up coming with them too and she stayed in our room with us. So great!


Bowling.



Cousin Averie bowling.




Opening Valentines from Grandma and waiting for our pizza.


Here's a beautiful photo of me on the ropes course, coming on to appease the girl's fears and help them, and then being gripped with fear myself on the highest spinning bar, ha. But, I crossed it!


The girls did amazing! Lucy was a beast and seemed amazingly confident up there, and Norah and Ellory were very brave and did quite well too!




What a gift to be able to go and we treasured our time together! Of course every moment wasn't full of picture perfect treasuring times, but overall it was pretty great and so happy we could do it!