Messy Party

A few weeks ago Elizabeth and Ben spent the night and I decided to have a Messy Party! I'm kind of embarassed to admit this, but I got the idea from Kate Plus Eight. I don't really even watch the show but happened to catch an episode where her babysitter did it with her kids and I thought it looked so fun! So, this is what we did...

All of the cousins are waiting to see what they are going to do!
We started with mummy wrapping contests.

The best part was unwrapping!

They also thought it was so fun just to throw the paper around.

Then we headed outside. Here is the before photo!

We first did pudding painting. Jackson quickly learned the best thing to do with pudding was eat it!

Jackson just kept eating it.

Then they really started to have fun with it!

Poor Jackson was forced to play!

Messy Ben

Messy Elizabeth

Messy Cooper

Messy Jackson

The after!

Then we made human sundaes. I think this was my favorite.

First the chocolate!

Then whipped cream!

Finally a cherry on top!

The sundaes...

This sundae is still working on his pudding!

We washed it all off with waterballoons and the sprinkler.

After this we headed in for a bath. We're definitely going to have to do this again!

Our Kansas Visit

The second half of our trip was spent in KS visited Ryan's side of the family. When we arrived we took Cooper to the dr. and sure enough, he had strep. So we ended up changing our plans and got a hotel room for the night. I took Jackson to my friend Linsey's house for dinner with a few college friends. (Megan, Gretchen, me, and Linsey with our kids). It was so nice to see everyone and I was glad it worked out with Cooper being sick.

The next day Cooper was feeling much better so we went to Ryan's grandparent's 60th anniversary lunch. It was so much fun, and ALL of the family members attended which hadn't happened in a very long time.

Here are G& G with all of their grandchildren, their spouses, and great-grandchildren.

Our immediate family photo.

This is how we were able to get Jackson to pay attention, he was getting really tired since he hadn't had a nap.

Then we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We spent the rest of the week there, spending time with family and having a great time on the fourth of july! The morning of the 4th there was a little parade in their neighborhood so we went down to check it out.

They even had a firetruck which the boys thought was so cool!

We were able to see a few other friends while we were at G & G's house. Here is Ryan's good friend Justin wrestling with the boys.

Here are the kids: Will, Eleanor, Cooper, and Jackson

Jackson's playing a little hard to get! He'll regret this in a few years! :)

Now he's getting smart!

We also got the pool out a few times while we were there. Cooper is still obsessed with guns!

Looks like Jackson is following in his footsteps!

Ryan's birthday was also celebrated!

Another favorite activity was putt-putting. This was Jackson's first time to putt-putt and he loved it!

Cooper actually got a hole-in-one!!!

Jackson's "hole-in-one!"

I'd say the favorite activity by far was the new Discovery Center.

There were so many fun things to do there. This is a series of tubes with air flowing through them. You could put big puff balls in it and they'd zip around and then fly out from different places.

Cooper also learned about the human body!

There was a building section where Cooper made friends with a few other kids.

My favorite activity there was a mock farm.

Cooper really liked the car.

We had such a fun time in KS but it's also nice to now be home!