Mount Rushmore Mini Vay! Day 1

Several months ago, London watched the movie, National Treasure 2. The ending is in Mt. Rushmore, and since then she's been asking to "go to the place with those big faces." I've always wanted to go there too, so we decided to make a little trip out of it with my mom and Dave! We left bright and early (4:45 am) the day after the kids' birthday carnival and headed east! We stopped to see Independence Rock, a pioneer memorial spot, and then headed to the South Dakota! I'm a bit of an archaeology nerd, so I was super excited to see the Mammoth Dig in Hot Springs, SD. It's about 50 miles south of Rapid City, and on the way. I had no idea that it was an active Mammoth dig! It's indoors because of the crazy Dakota seasons. There are hundreds of mammoths buried on top of one another in this spot. It was so amazing to see the excavation happening before our eyes! We went on a tour and then just wandered around the facility. The kids loved it too! After a local dinner, we headed up to our hotel in Rapid City! Next stop, Mount Rushmore!!! Note: it's no short drive to South Dakota. I was so impressed with my kids both ways! They did amazing! Thank heavens for car DVD players!!!

Pippi and Grandma Jilly!


Pippi and Daddy listening to the tour

Londy Bug!

Some excavation of a full mammoth skeleton

Pretty sure she wasn't supposed to be on this...

The fam in front of the dig site

The crazies in the visitors center in a bone teepee home

Beck thinks he's big enough to help swing the babe. It worked out ok, but not great!

The Becksta in the visitors center digging for dinosaur bones and doing petroglyphs!

Well Child Checks

The one, and probably only, good thing about having 3 kids with July birthdays is knocking out well child checks every year in one fail swoop. Other than Piper and her freakish amount of illnesses (better now that she's on antibiotics prophylactically for the next year) we rarely see the pediatrician. Yay! The kids adore our pediatrician and look foreward to yearly checkups! Here's this years stats...

Londy:
Height: 47 3/4 inches (48%)
Weight: 51.2 lbs (54%)
summary: just right!

Beck:
Height: 42 inches (31%)
Weight: (51%)
aka: stocky little guy, but darn cute!

Piper:
Height: 32.75 inches (19%)
Weight: 23 lbs fully clothed (12%)
OFC: 19 inches (69%)
aka: the runt with plenty of brain room!

The dr. said we can discontinue whole milk and just switch her to regular milk, but to supplement with Pediasure on occasion. She's just a tiny thing, but she eats like a horse! Everything looked good with the kids. Still watching several enlarged lymph nodes in Pippi's groin. There's a handful of them that get as large as quarter sized. We'll follow up with the pediatric urologist in the spring, and hopefully be able to get some more answers on her kidney reflux. Pip had one vaccination and is set until kindergarten, and the Becksta had his kindergarten shots. He tried to be so brave, but 4 shots is a lot! Hopefully we're done until next July!!!

Happy Birthday Beck!

Today, my little guy turned 5. He chose crepes for breakfast, followed by a bike ride (biking for him, running and pushing a stroller for mom and dad). Then onto the HAFB Air Force Museum because he has a fascination with the Air Force. He chose Iceberg for lunch, then Matt took he and Londy to see the new Harry Potter movie. Lots of playing with friends tonight. Busy day!

What a character he is! He's hilarious! He gets in trouble and more often than not, ends up making me laugh while I'm trying to punish him. He still sucks his thumb, loves his ladybugs (his blanket) and is obsessed with riding his bike. He just taught himself how to ride without training wheels 2 or so weeks ago, and is now hell on wheels! He's also obsessed with everything Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, and Star Wars... I completely understand the Indiana obsession, the the other ones baffle me! He constantly is holding one of about a thousand light "savers". He loves to read and is doing great in preparing for kindergarten in the fall. He's super athletic! He'll go out with his daddy all the time and play 9 holes of golf, and he's getting pretty good! He also loves soccer and baseball. He's started running with us and ran 3 miles with us a couple of weeks ago! His well child check is in the morning, and I'm really curious to see where our little midget boy falls on the charts! He really is one in a million! We love you Beck!

The Birthday Carnival!

As stated previously, we decided to do a joint bday party for the kids this year. Last year, we just rented out the local aquatic center for the kiddos party and it was great! We tried to do it again this year, and it was booked. So, on to plan B! I thought a carnival would be fun! We had 6 game stations, face painting, food, and an amazing balloon animal guy. We had almost 50 kids plus some parents come, and it was crazy fun! I felt like a chicken running around with my head cut off for most of the party, but everything turned out great! Thanks to all the friends and family who helped out! We are so blessed to have such incredible people to share these memories with! I think the most chaotic part was the opening of presents. First of all, there were SO many! I was trying to take pictures of both kids opening, but it was impossible! They were both thrilled with everything they got, but it was a total blur for me! The balloon guy did a fun demonstration while the kids ate hot dogs, chips, and popcorn. He also made animals for each child. He really was so good! Overall, I think it was a success! Happy birthday kiddos!
Maggie manning the soda ring toss booth!

Beckett playing the "tee time" game!

Part of the food booth!

Grandma Payne surrounded by the crazy 3; Pippi, Paige, and Tess!

Piper making her way around the carnival with her sippy and her pink balloon horsie!

London and some friends watching the balloon demonstration!

Mike, the balloon guy

Malea transforming Beck in to "Black Spida Man" from Spiderman 3?

The best part was after he was done, he ran out screaming, "Don't laugh at me just because I'm black!!!" Kind of funny!

BFF's, cousins, and lookalikes, Londy and Cammers

Beck and Kennadee

Londybug opening presents

Cammers and her balloon lizard!

London's 7!

Our Londybug is 7! Her birthday was on July 20th, and she had a great day! She opened her presents from us first thing and was super cute about everything she received! She was dying to ride bikes to her favorite donut place for breakfast, so ride we did! It was about 12 miles round trip, and not an easy ride! At least we got in our cardio for the day! Then, we had to get ready for the carnival!!! We decided to celebrate the kids' birthdays together this year, and carnival was the theme! More to come on the big bash!!!

London's first theatre performance!

London and I saw the play, Annie, several months ago. She LOVED it, and has been begging to be in a play ever since. We signed her up for a summer theatre program with Up With Kids and she LOVED it! It was a week long program from 9-3 every day with a performance. Her play was "The Pirates of the Caribbean meet the Little Mermaid." She was one of the mermaids and had several speaking lines. She wasn't nervous at all and had an amazing time! We are so proud of her trying out new things and doing her best! She did this all on her own, without knowing anyone!

Part of the cast picture. She's the one in red in the front row, left side

All ready in her mermaid costume!

Beck and Pippi wishing Londy luck before the big performance!

A classic pippi look! I love it!

Beck waiting for the show to start!

Cuteness!

The whole cast!

Good Bye, Fish Kate...

A sobbing, but smiling London ready for the burial.

London got a fish about a year and a half ago. She died the next day, as most goldfish do. Well, we replaced "Ariel" with another fish which London named Kate. She names most things after herself... While we were on our cruise/Disneyworld vacay last fall, Kate died. Our neighbor, Maggie, who was fish sitting for us, replaced her with a new fish and Londy never knew. New Kate died last week, and Londy was devastated. She had had her for 8 months, (Londy thought it was closer to a year and a half...) and she had died. I gave the whole, "we should send Kate back to the ocean where she belongs" speech to no avail. London wanted a proper burial for her Kate, so bury her we did. We're hoping that the tree she's now under will grow a little greener this year!


Pippi dressed up for the occasion... Matt doing the honors...