Strawberry Pickin'

We had a fun adventure last week on President's Day when Kendall was out of school. Randy switched his day off and we all went to Alvin to Froberg Farms and picked strawberries! I have been wanting to do this for several years now, but always seem to miss the picking time. Who would have thought that February was a great time to pick strawberries?? Not me obviously. But, we had a free day and realized it was a good time to go, so we went! And it was so much fun! We started the day by going to get breakfast at our favorite breakfast spot - Asiels - then drove the thirty minute drive to Alvin.

They had so many strawberries ready to be picked! We bought a pail for each girl and set out to find a good row to pick. Kendall started out getting a little scared of the bees, which then made Cooper worry about them too. Randy and Kendall had a little "come to Jesus" and then we were all good. ;) He said, "Once a bee stings you, then you can cry. Until then - no fussing about bees!"

 

I think Cooper is doing this with her arm in every picture we took. She's very sensitive to the sun. :)

 

You weren't supposed to wash all your strawberries there, but Randy went and washed one for each girl so they could try them. They loved them! I buy probably two cartons a week of strawberries and the girls eat them in their lunches, so they were excited to get to pick their own!

We came home and washed them and they were gone in just a few days!  

It was such a fun family day and a great new experience for the girls. They keep saying, "We went to a REAL farm and picked our very own strawberries!" We will definitely be going back to Froberg's! 

Happy Valentine's Day!!

The girls were very excited to celebrate Valentine's Day this year - both at school and at home! We worked on their Valentines that they took to their friends and they were so ready for their parties! Cooper and Calli had theirs on Thursday, and then Kendall's was on Friday. We are on candy overload here at the Dane house.

Calli was so sweet when I walked in her class. She said, "Mama!!" It was fun to see her with her new friends.

This girl was SO beyond excited about getting a bag full of candy.

 Cooper was pretty proud to have her mama in her class, too. She was sitting next to her buddy, Eli.

I can't even say how much I love this sweet face. She's adorable.

Kendall took Valentines to her class on Friday, and then when she got home, we let the girls open their presents from their grandparents. So fun!  

Look at this adorable Valentine from Calli! We love those little hands!

Friday night, Randy had been smoking some meat, and he planned a special surprise for the girls. We invited Michelle, Meredith and Abigail over to eat with us and the girls loved playing with Abigail. After dinner, the surprise was that Randy made chocolate fondue for the girls! They loved getting to pick what he dipped in the chocolate for them. Check out their eyes in these pictures. Meredith had to hold Abigail back! Love it!  

It was a pretty fun Valentines! 

A Fun Family Weekend!

Like I mentioned before, we had all our extended family, minus Papas, here for the weekend to celebrate Kendall's birthday. It was a busy weekend, but we loved having everyone here, sharing meals together, and just watching the girls play with their grandparents, cousins, and Great Granny.

Great Granny made Kendall this binder with a spiral and lots of unicorn pictures in it for her to do artwork. It was one of Kendall's most favorite presents, and she loved looking through it with Granny.

Mom and me! She drove down after teaching school all day on Friday, got here around 9 and stayed until after lunch on Saturday. So thankful she was here!!

One of my favorite pictures from the weekend. We just honestly have the best and most coolest family ever. All of them. Three sets of parents, all hanging out with us in our tiny house, eating, talking, playing, passing grandkids around, and even working puzzles together. I just couldn't ask for anything more and I don't at all take for granted how blessed we are.

Sunday before church, I had to take a picture of the girls. Kendall was very excited to wear some of her new clothes from Granny, and her new scarf from Alden. Already looking so big!

 

Gracie's birthday is this coming weekend, and we aren't going to be able to go up to Ft. Worth for the party, so we had a little surprise party for her after church on Sunday. After church we all went to Fuddruckers, and Val took Kendall and Gracie to the back to play games for a little bit. We set up a table with presents and cupcakes, and then Val brought them up and we all said, "Surprise Gracie!" She was definitely surprised, and very excited. Val said she had asked for a surprise party at one point, so this was a big deal to her! We gave her presents, Val gave her some presents, and Kiki, Pops, and Great Granny even had presents for her! One of her favorite gifts was this hat that she let Kendall try on. :)

 

Oliver's birthday was the day after Kendall's, so we had a present for him - a McDonald's gift card. Val says he loves going there, and this picture cracks me up of him hugging his card. :)

A BFF necklace for Kendall and Gracie! It was a very fun surprise party.

In the midst of all the partying that was going on, Mike and Randy were working on continuing to remodel our bathrooms - both of them! Mike and Anita had been here two weeks ago and Randy and Mike tore out this extra shower we had in our master, put wainscoting and shelves up, and put tile down! This weekend they finished the wainscoting and then began tiling the front bathroom. Randy still has to grout the front bathroom, and then we will be ready to paint our master bathroom and bedroom. Such a process, but we have been so thankful for Mike and Anita and all their help!

(Those shelves are where the shower used to be!)

 

The front bathroom, ready for grout and then baseboards. We painted it this summer, as well as framed the mirror, got new hardware for the cabinets and painted those, and got a new shower curtain. We're the worst at taking before pictures, but I'll post some after pictures once we're all finished!

We had a wonderful weekend and are so very thankful for all our sweet family that came down for Kendall's birthday! 

Cookies and Milk Party!

Kendall's party was this past Saturday and it was so much fun! She told us this year that she wanted a chocolate chip cookie party! I loved the idea and was excited about planning it. This year was extra fun because Kendall was very involved with wanting to plan her party, talk about it, make things for it - she was all about it. Several weeks out, she would tell me, "Mom, we need to get started on my party!" So I would sit down with her with my notebook, asking her questions. "Who do you want to invite?" "What do you want to eat?" "What should we do?" "What kind of decorations do you want?" She had answers for all of it. She told me she wanted to have all girls, except for Daddy, her grandpas, and Oliver, her cousin. She said she wanted chocolate chip cookies, milk, and a chocolate cake with a cookie on the top. I threw out the idea of a cookie cake, but she was determined to have an actual cake that was decorated to look like a cookie. And no ice cream (I vetoed that one). We talked about what we would do, and I said something about baking cookies together. She thought that sounded fun, but I thought twice about it and decided I couldn't really figure out how to make that work with 10-15 girls. Then I came up with the idea for them to fill up their own jars with the dry cookie ingredients, give them the recipe, and send them home to make their own cookies at home! Kendall loved this idea, and when I told her, she said, "Yes, and then when they make them, they have to call me and have me over to eat them." Love it!

And yes - there were presents. Thank goodness. :)

We have chosen an author for each girl and each year on their birthday, we get them a new book by their author and have everyone that comes to the party sign it. Kendall's author is Dr. Seuss, and this year I chose Hop on Pop, because it's an easy reader and she has learned to read this year!

You can see the girls' cookie jars they made in this picture, too. They really turned out so cute and they had fun making them.

Kendall and I also came up with the idea to make aprons for each girl. I was going to cut their names out of fabric and sew them on, but then I talked to Amy and she gave me the great idea of ironing their initial on! So much easier and I was able to learn something new! I talked to Erin about it some, too, and had fun the week before personalizing these aprons I found at Hobby Lobby.

Me and my girls!

All the girls, minus Evy. We are so thankful for such sweet friends for our Kendall-girl!

 

All her grandparents came, except for Papas, who had to stay home because he was sick. Great Granny even came with Pops and Kiki and Kendall loved seeing her! Val also came with Gracie, Oliver, and Evy. It was a party all weekend!

Ms. Woodward even came to the party! She was like a rock star when she walked in the house - Kendall, the other three girls in her class, and Sarah, who had her last year, all came running and attacked her. She was so sweet to come by!

We had so much fun getting ready for her party and then the actual party was a blast! It was a good balance of having stuff to do and then just letting them hang out and play and even jump on the trampoline because the weather was pretty. I love that Kendall is already noticing how it is important to our family to celebrate big and little things, and love watching her with her friends and extended family. Happy 6th birthday, Kendall-Bendall!!