Babysitting one month. date night the next month!

Those of you that have kids know that date night takes a lot of preparation: find a sitter, clean house, make dinner for sitter and kids, pay sitter (not always but sometimes) and you usually end up feeling rushed during your date night.

These are only few of the reasons why Brett and I decided to have date-night swaps with our good friends Benji and Abby Leverentz. This means that one month we have their kids overnight and they have the whole afternoon, night and morning to themselves and the next month they have our kids overnight and we have date night.

We love this deal because there's minimal preparation to take kids over to their house, we don't feel rushed during our date, it's free and the kids have a blast!!!

Last month we had the Leverentz kids over to our house and Benji and Abby had date night!

It just so happened that the night we had sleepover at our house, there was also a tornado watch and we ended up on the couch downstairs until it was safe to go back upstairs and finish watching Shrek 3.

Brayden is so silly! :)
Hmmm....
The kids slept in sleeping bags in the living room. Benson wanted to sleep on the couch like Brett.

Brett and Benson are buds!

Brett made pancakes for everyone the next morning! Thank you honey!

Aunt Kate was visiting us for the weekend and she was here during sleepover night!

Good buddies!

Colton, Brayden, Jackson and Benson

Playtime outside the morning after sleepover.

I think this is a brilliant plan and this month is our turn to drop off the kids and have a night all to ourselves! Wootwoot!!! ;)

Carley and Dakota's visit!

Dakota and Carley came to visit us this weekend and we had a lot of fun!!!

*Friday night we had a fondue/cooking potting night at our house for dinner. We invited our friends Benji and Abby to join us and we took our little gang of kiddies (all 7 of them) to church for babysitting night (our church's youth group has a free babysitting night every other month and we try to take advantage of it every time we can!) I forgot to take pictures of our fondue night and for that I deeply apologize :D

* Saturday morning we headed out to the Farmers' Market NOT so bright and early...

* After we were done walking around the farmer's market, we drove a few blocks down to "The 4th street elevator" which is the world's steepest, shortest scenic railway.

* When we got back home we had lunch and it was nap time for most of us!

* Brett took Kylie to Annalea Leverentz's birthday party while Dakota, Carley and I waited until the boys woke up from their nap and we joined daddy and Kylie at the bday party.

Slip and sliiiiiiiiide!!!

* We got back home from the party and we enjoyed dinner on the patio

(BLTs and sweet corn-yum!)

Thank you Carley and Dakota for loving on our kiddies, they lOvEd having you here!

After church on Sunday, we had lunch and our last chocolate fondue dessert(for now) and Carley and Dakota headed back to Ames.

It was so fun to have you both here!!!

The question is....

All children have an inquisitive mind and my daughter is no exception.

She is spending the week at Grandma and Grandpa's to attend "day camp" and here are a few of the random questions she asked grandma over the course of one day:

1. When did my daddy grow up?

2. What is a relative?
3. Do Chris and Kate live together?

4.When Dakota and Carley have kids, will you be their grandma too?

5. Why doesn't Bryce like the sound of a sewing machine?

6. If mommy mails my swim suit today in Dubuque why won't it come till tomorrow? It's going to take them all night? It only takes us couple of hours to get here.

Barnyard Blooms fun in the sun...

Last week we were at Grandma and Grandpa's for the week(as you know from the last post) and on one of the days we decided to head out to visit Aunt Nicole and Uncle Bryce at The Barnyard Blooms (check it out here- http://www.barnyardbloomsonline.com/)

The kids wanted to help aunt Nicole water the plants, but we got there a little too late for that. However aunt Nicole never disappoints so she set up the sprinkler and got out an antique aluminum tub that the kids and Brynn enjoyed to the fullest.

Thanks aunt Nicole and uncle Bryce, that was fun!

Colton and his obsession with wheels...

Aunt Nicole filling up the tub for us
My supermodel and surfer dude...
Kylie is changing the settings on the sprinkler

"Kylie, I don't think Colton likes this new setting"

"Don't worry mommy, I"ll get him out.... "

Oh...and of course I have to mention one of my recent favorites from Barnyard Blooms-- Nicole, you are one creative lady!

Blue Ribbons!!!

Kylie and Brayden had the opportunity to enter a few art projects at the Louisa County Fair.

The kids and I went to visit Grandma and Grandpa for the week, since Brett had to work at the Oshkosh Airshow. Our week at Gma and Gpa's coincided with Louisa County Fair and Grandma thought it would be fun for the kids to enter a couple of their art projects, and what fun it was indeed!!!!

Kylie entered 3 paintings for the Children's Expressive Arts expose

She won "Judge's choice" "Best of class" and a Blue ribbon for this absolutely beautiful picture that she actually painted when she was 31/2 years old!!!
The judge was impressed with Kylie's choice of multiple bright colors.

This is a painting that Kylie made for Grandma and Grandpa-- Christmas 2009.
She won a blue ribbon for it!!!
Kylie used glitter pens to draw this picture and it is one of my favorites!
She also won a blue ribbon for this picture and let's not forget about the cash....Yes, there was some cash to be made at the fair and from all the awards she received, Kylie earned a grand total of $9, which I am sure she will love spending on our next mother-daughter shopping spree!
Brayden had entered a project as well!!
His was a snow man picture he made this winter.
The judges liked that he used a multitude of cut-out shapes to create the picture and the use of markers and crayons to color it in.

Brayden won a Blue ribbon for his picture and a cash price of $2. :)
We are so PROUD of our little darlings!!! Good work pumpkins!!!!