First Day of Summer Vacation

Claire is officially out of school for the summer! She has been planning for a while now a big trip to Disney with her girls when she got out of school. This, of course, is all in make believe land. She has for months been researching the Disney Parks and what it takes to plan an actual trip. If we ever decide to take a 'real' trip there, we should be all set. This included everything from the airport, airplane, hotel rooms, different Disney rides, etc. To be honest she has more fun planning the event than actually doing it. Partially this is because in her head she has planned her siblings to be part of her play, but in reality they never do what she wants them to do. Here are just a few of the pictures that I thought were too funny from her 'trip to Disney'. This is a couple pictures of her girls (Carly, Sonali, and Kaylee) with CinderellaHere is the progression of Tigger and the girls. It goes from Happy to be Tigger, to take the picture quick, to get these kids off of me!

It's so fun to see your kids playing together and getting along so well!

Boys vs. Girls

We're officially in 4-H now!! Claire got her first steer for the fair yesterday and couldn't be happier. She was able to get in with him (Oreo) and love on him a lot. However, he didn't want to walk much since it was the first time he had a halter on. He's going to be staying at Grandma & Papa Schuh's for now, which means lots of trips to their house. Claire's friends, Megan and Kelsie, also have starter steers at Grandma and Papa's so it should be a fun adventure for the three of them.

Another funny story of boys vs. girls today. Brock and Hope wanted to go outside to play this morning, so I got them all ready. They were down playing at the play set when I looked out to check on them. I saw them standing side by side with their pants down. Brock was trying to teach Hope the fine art of going potty outside. Needless to say it didn't work quite as well for Hope, and some clean up and explanations were in order.

Easter Fun!

We had a great Easter weekend! It's so much fun when the weather starts to show signs of spring and the kids are able to run free again.

We were able to get outside on Saturday afternoon and do some much needed yard work. Claire decided at some point to go in and make supper all by herself without telling us. She came out to say supper was ready, which was a surprise to us. She had made an original recipe which included hard boiled eggs (Easter eggs) cut into small pieces, small pieces of sugar snap peas, lettuce, and sour cream all rolled into tortilla wraps. Not bad with a little ranch to dip it in!

Easter Sunday was a long, fun, sugar filled day. Breakfast at church followed by a great Easter Drama!! Lunch was at Shelly's uncle and aunt's house complete with lots of kids, playing, and egg hunting. The evening meal was at Mark's parents with another group of great people, food, and more egg hunting. By the time we got home, the kids were so wound up from lack of naps and extreme amounts of sugar and activities, that bedtime was anything but normal. Hope was still up at 10:30 not ready to settle down. However, this morning Claire said to me "thanks for such a fun Easter, Mom." Makes it all worth while!!

Fun with Curls!

I tried curling Hope's hair this morning for the first time. I remember doing it on Claire about the same age. I was surprised at how she didn't mind the curlers in her hair. When she's relaxing she likes to suck her right thumb and play with the back of her hair, so we had to make sure we left some back there without a curler. She was pretty happy with the results. Kind of reminds me of Bozo the Clown, only cuter!

Hope's Birthday!

Our little girl is growing up. Hope turned 2 on the 29th and had a ball at her party. We had quite a full house for her party, 35 total people with about half of them being kids. She's really not "into" anything right now except NOT wearing skirts and dresses. She always insists on wearing pants so I decided to make her a jeans cake. Learning how to hold up two fingers!!

Growing into Mommy's old formal.

Claire

Mark and I were in the middle of a home improvement project in our basement the other day when all of a sudden we heard a man's voice upstairs calling our names. The next thing we saw was a girl dressed like a crazy Colt's Fan and her bus driver Russ. Russ, a huge Colts fan had decked himself out on Friday to hype up the game. I guess he decided that he'd have fun with the last two kids on the bus. So he dressed them up in his wardrobe and brought them in the house to show the parents. Needless to say, we were quite surprised! Claire has loved Russ from the start, she even asked to invite him to her b-day party a few years back. We reminded her how blessed she is to have Russ as her bus driver and friend. We all have memories of our bus drivers, but mostly Mark and I's aren't this fond. What great memories she'll have to tell her kids about Russ and his Big Old Bus (what we like to call it around our house). And now to the part where we like to be proud parents. Claire got a letter a couple weeks ago saying that she had artwork that was chosen to be part of an art expo at Saint Joseph's College. Yesterday there was a ceremony to recognize all the artists (grades 1-4 with 8 area schools participating). We were so impressed with the professionalism that was given to the kids and their art work. We were also very proud when we arrived to her schools section and her art teacher greeted us and said that Claire actually had two pieces chosen. Her "jungle" themed one is pretty hard to make out in the photo but the the "repetition design" shows up well. Thanks Mr. Geleott for being a great art teacher and inspiration to Claire. Isn't it fun to see the talents that the Lord has blessed your kids with?

Merry Christmas!

I know this post is a bit picture heavy, but hey it's Christmas and I don't get the opportunity to post often. This is a picture of Grandpa and Grandma Hurley with all the grandkids. We had a wonderful day last Saturday celebrating Jesus' birthday with the whole Hurley gangHere's a picture that hasn't been taken in quite a while. Mark's immediate family. Back: Janet, Steve, Kyle - Front: Mark, Rita, Craig

The eldest two of the Hurley Crew. Brock and Hope ready for snow play. Yes I know Brock looks like a girl! It was a hand-me-down when Claire was three or four. He doesn't even realize purple is a color for girls, so let's not tell him until he outgrows this. It only took twice as long to get everyone bundled up and unbundled as it did to actually play outside. That's an improvement from last year!!

SANTA WAS HERE!!

Lightening McQueen Race Track

Claire with two new outfits for her A.G. dolls. We now have softball and soccer stars in the house.

Hope got a grocery cart and obviously Santa thought she needed real groceries instead of that silly play stuff. It took some work to convince her otherwise.

Opening the stockings is always a fun highlight for the kids.