Allie's famous-ish.

Will just sent me a picture of Allie on the Biggby poster.....

He said I sold my daughter to Biggby. I don't remember getting paid for it, so I'm pretty sure that doesn't count.

Ben the Bear. Round 2.

The cutest part of Scott and Amanda's Wedding (in my opinion).....

Breakdancing Bender.

Kevin's cousin got married last night.

Bender was the ring-bear.

Here he is bustin' a move...with no shirt on...just a vest.

What can I say...it was a Carson City wedding.

Sport. E. Mayes.

This is one of the funniest things that Sport does......

....sticks his tongue out....and just leaves it that way.

Other then that, he doesn't do much......

...except lay around ALOT.....

....and follow me every where I go.

Crazy Dog Lady.

So I'm kind of afraid that I am becoming that crazy dog person.....you know the one who can only talk about their dog and nothing else? Well apparently all I do is take pictures of him now too (at least my kids are in them also.)

Oh well.....

Gabe asked if he could read a book while Sport laid his head on his lap. I told him that since Sport is kind of like a cat (he only does what he wants, when he wants) that I wasn't sure if he would really do it. Well after reading for a while, Gabe fell asleep....

...but instead of his head on his lap, Sport put his feet on his stomach and his elbows on Gabe's elbows. (Close enough)

One of the bonuses of having this dog is that whenever Ben wakes up from his nap, he is always in a pleasant mood because Sport is always there to greet him. (1/2 the time Ben wakes up he is AWFUL!!! The other 1/2 of the time, he is tolerable.)

Ben, post nap.
Happy as a clam to have the dogs face on his lap.
(Shh, don't tell Gabe)

My favorite part of this picture is Gabe in the background....sound asleep on the ground...all in hopes that the dog will cuddle with him, but instead Ben intercepted the cuddling!

Kindergarten Celebration.

Thursday was Allie's Kindergarten Celebration. (It seems like it was just yesterday that we were at Gabe's.) All the kids had written stories and read them to the parents.

Allie's story was about the MSU Championship game she went to, with Kevin, Gabe and Mike.

Papa Kurt came along too!!
Even though it looks like he was sleeping, he managed to stay awake for most of it.

After the kids read to the parents, we went into the gym where Allie's teacher and principal presented the kids with their 'award.' While they pass out the award, they also announced what each child wanted to be when they grow up.

Much to my relief, Allie did not say pet shop owner (like her brother), but rather a teacher!! (I would have to give credit to Kevin, my mother-n-law, Aaron and Elicia for being her inspiration, but a large part of her wanting to be that, would have to because of her awesome teacher, Ms. Robbins!)

Allie and Ms. Robbins!!

Allie had a great first year of school! She loved learning and was excited to go to school every single day! I'm sure her teacher laughed quietly to her self on days when Allie came looking like she just rolled out of bed or with completely mis-matched clothes (see picture above!) Oh well, that's Allie!

Well now, I'm officially old. I have a 1st grader and a 3rd grader! Aye de mi!

Ben's new best friend.

I'm afraid Allie might have been replaced.....

...or at least until she gets home from school.

Sport.

So to make a really long story short....WE GOT A DOG!!

Technically we "adopted" a retired greyhound. Surprisingly, he is not grey. He is in fact a red fawn greyhound.

He's really cute......

.....and he runs really really really fast.
(apparently not fast enough though....thats why he is retired)

I didn't want to crop this picture because I wanted to show his 'speed'

Oh yeah....and we named him SPORT!

Opening Day of Pool Season.

Last weekend we went over to Grandma Bushnell's to do a little cleaning. One of the major jobs was to open the pool. (The kids have been asking for about a month if we can go swimming yet.)

Gabe always likes to be the first one in, so he can have bragging rights for the rest of the summer. Well this year, the pool was quite a bit dirtier then it usually is. The previous years, after lunch time, the pool is pretty clean (at least clean enough to see through) so the kids go for a quick dip.

This year, Gabe definitely gets bragging rights. He jumped in the most disgusting, smelly, dirty water EVER........

Here's a better view of the water......

Yeah. Gross.

Don't worry, after a few hours it starting turning to a normal color. We're hoping the next time we come over it will be less 'tea' colored and more clear-ish.

So the worst part about cleaning was this creepy thing.....

....this baby bird was on the window sill, right by the pool. Not a big deal normally, except the mama bird wanted to feed him, so she kept swooping down to either attack me or try to feed her baby. It was awful.

I was video taping it and Gabe was in the background pretending to be the bird singing. It was pretty stinkin' funny I have to say.

Oh yeah....some ducks decided it would be fun to make this dirty 'pond' their home....

.....Ben made them feel right at home.
He fed them bread. So now they are guaranteed to come back every time we are there.
Great. Thanks Ben.

Ben can jump.

Yup. Pretty sure Ben is definitely going to be the first of our kids to break a bone.

It's pretty amazing to me that less then a year ago Ben was just learning to ride without training wheels. He just turned 4 last week and I think he rides and jumps better then most 10 year olds. Not only does he ride over his plastic jump, he has discovered that he can either jump over a 2 by 4 or he can ride on it like a balance beam (I'm sure they have a more technical term for it, but I don't know it. Yet.)

He definitely has been working on his starting ankle.

Ben's look-a-likes.

I was looking through some of Kevin's moms pictures and came across some of Kevin and his brother Greg. I couldn't believe how much Ben looked like Greg.

And then I found some of Kevin and couldn't believe how much he looked like Ben.


Hm. I can't seem to find any of my pictures of Ben that look like Kevin, so I guess you are just going to have to take my word for it.

Ben's 4!!

Ben turned 4 on Sunday!!

Happy Birthday Bender!!

Ben's Birthday!

We spent part of the weekend at Kevin's parents. Since Sunday was Ben's birthday, we had to be prepared to decorate appropriately.....so we brought along all the balloons, streamers and the banner. The first thing Ben said when he woke up was, "Hm...lets go check to see if the balloons are here!!" Guess this whole decorating thing is no longer a surprise for the kids. (Maybe next year we will surprise them by not decorating....)

Ben is 4!!!!

Ben was excited to open more of his Star Wars Galactic Heroes. I think he ended up getting about 20 different figurines for his birthday!

After church, the rest of the Mayes family came up to celebrate Allie, Trever, Ashley and Ben's birthdays. Aunt Julie made the most illegal cake in the world...one that could probably kill Gabe in about 14 seconds......

...a peanut butter frosting cake.
But, boy, was it good!!!

Allie got a new swimsuit!

Trever got his first webkinz!!!

So did Ashley!!

Bender wasn't sure what he was most excited about....the chainsaw from Aunt Julie and Co. or the gun he has wanted his whole life from Uncle Greggie, Aunt Aaron and Annie.

When he fell asleep on the way home, he had a tight grip on both of them. So I'm pretty sure he loves them both equally!!!

Allie. Ashley. Annie.

Mother's Day.

This is probably the first Mother's Day that I can say that I didn't sleep in (well, besides the one 6 years ago, when Allie was born...I was still in the hospital and the nurse came in really early in the morning to tell us that Allie was in the NICU....what a great way to start Mother's Day that year!!) Good thing Allie's birthday doesn't always fall on Mother's Day, I would hate to have to change her birthday so I could continue the tradition of sleeping in.


Anyways....after we celebrated Allie's birthday and went to church, we headed over to Kevin's Grandma's. I was pleasantly surprised to receive my Mother's Day (and birthday and Arbor Day and Easter and Flag Day and Memorial Day and Thanksgiving and Christmas and Labor Day and St. Patrick's Day) gift from Kevin and the kids.......

....a NEW CAMERA!!!!
(Mind you, I was thrilled with the fact that the kids had made me homemade cards and each one of them had given me a candy bar and a rose!!)
So this camera was a bit of a shock. All I could do was smile.....ALOT!!

Here are some of the first pictures taken with it.....

Grandma B and Mom Mayes

The matriarch and her girls

The matriarch and her girls again (oops...and one little boy...Aiden!)
Elicia and Aiden, Julie and Ashley, Mom, Me and Allie, Aaron and Annie

Mother's Day is not my favorite holiday. I technically wouldn't mind deleting it, but I don't think that is possible (too many people to try and convince.) I try to remember the blessings of all the mom's I have in my life, that are so important to me, but its still hard because I don't have the best mom in the whole world with me anymore. So I guess I will just deal with it. I just don't like it. At all. Ever.

Allie's 72nd month Birthday.

Allie turned 6 on Sunday!

.....which meant I had to share Mother's Day with her. Which was fine-ish.... (the real issue was that I wasn't able to sleep in...instead I got up at 7:22am like a good mom should on her daughter's birthday....which just about killed me)

Anyways....Allie has been counting down the days until her birthday since she turned 5. Seriously. You could have asked her any day how many days left until her birthday and she could have given you the exact right number. Crazy!!!

Within 67 seconds of being awake, she was opening her presents. She probably doesn't care that we got her soccer stuff....the most important thing was she got another Webkinz. A creepy bird to be exact. I'm not sure how I allowed that thing to come into my house, but I did. (I'm sure I will regret it when it comes alive and pecks my head into a nub.)

After presents, we headed to church and then over to Grandma Bushnell's to celebrate Mother's Day and Allie, Trever, Ashley and Bender's Birthday's!

Allie (6) Trever (5) Ashley (5)
All 3 of them have the same birthday!!!

Ben turns 4 next Sunday!!

Soccer. In the rain.

So I'm discovering a few reasons why I think I like basketball more than soccer. Last Saturday was one of those reasons.....it was raining....ALOT.

But apparently rain doesn't stop 5 and 6 year olds from playing soccer. Or moms, dads and kids from sitting in the rain watching their kids play. It was really quite miserable (for us on the sidelines) but not so much for those in the middle of the action. Kevin kept asking the kids if they wanted to keep playing and they all said they did. By the end, we all looked like drowned rats (even those of us with umbrellas....for some reason those lovely spiderman/hulk/superman umbrellas don't really keep you dry.)

Allie is still my favorite player on the team....therefore, I still think that she is the best one!! She still amazes me at how fast she is and how not scared of the ball she is (she definitely does not get that from me.) It is so much fun to watch her play!!!

Ben pretty much sums up how we were feeling by the end of the game.....

I realized once we got in the van that the poor kid only had a little basketball jersey on and this rain coat...so pretty much he was a frozen ice cube by the time it was over. Whoops....

Run Matthew!!

Matthew ran in a cross country race meet here in the Lansing-ish area. (Why they drove 1 hour 45 minutes to run for 10 minutes, I don't know.)

Anyways, we were excited to be able to watch him run and cheer him on!!

If you are interested in seeing more pics...they are right here.

Party at the Mayes's.

Last Sunday we celebrated Dave, Andrew, Emily, Allie and Bender's birthdays. It wasn't planned until Thursday evening, but some how, everyone was able to make it on Sunday!!

It was a BEAUTIFUL day!! Warm...sunny....perfect!! We all had a great time sitting around chatting while the kids ran a muck. We were so excited that Wilaca and Bill and Sherry were able to make it too!!

Allie was so confused as to who this creepy guy was that kept picking her up and saying, "Wh-uts my name?" (We kept telling her it was her Uncle Dave...but she apparently didn't believe us.)

Bender loved his new storm trooper helmet from Uncle Dan and Aunt Kris. This was probably the only helmet that was actually too big for Ben (and Kevin's) head!

Uncle Jon and Aunt Bethie got him a storm trooper gun to go with this helmet. That night when he was praying with Kevin, he said, "I have a prayer request...its thank you for Uncle Jon getting me that storm trooper gun." So I'm not sure if that is his way of saying he likes the gun the best or what.

This was one of my highlights of the get together......

It may look like Reggie is just sitting in the grass calmly looking at the bugs. BUT, she's not.....

....she is screaming her lungs off (as Gabe used to say)

Sherry and Bill TOTALLY made Ben's year by bringing a pinata to the party!!! He has been BEGGING me to get one for his birthday for almost an entire year! When Sherry and Bill showed up with this, they firmly placed themselves in his little heart forever.

Another highlight for Ben was this odd looking dog, Lola. He loved holding her on his lap. So much so that he was firmly holding on to her collar the entire time, just in case she tried to get away. (He was also so excited that she brought some of her dog treats to share with him...."I like these, they're cheesey!!)

Vet-a-Visit.

This was the first year in many years that we did not go to Small Animal Day at MSU. Allie's soccer game kind of threw us off...it was right smack dab in the middle of SAD. So instead we went to Vet-A-Visit at MSU.

My dad, Judy, Nate, Maddie, Emily (Dave and Cathie are in Key West), my kids and I all headed out to MSU (after a great brunch at my dad and Judy's.) It was nice not to have to keep hopping on the bus to go from one place to the other, like you have to with Small Animal Day (however, that IS my kids favorite part.)

There were some different things to see and do here. Milking a cow is one of the highlights....

All of the kids jumped right in to do it (except Nate.) While Ben was just about to milk the cow, she started to pee. ALOT. Ben had to jump out of the way so he wouldn't get splashed. That, of course, was the highlight of the trip for him. He would randomly say, "Remember when the cow pooped?" Then I would have to correct him and remind him it was just pee. And then two seconds later he would say, "Remember when the cow pooped on me?" Then I would remind him that #1, it was pee and #2, it wasn't ON him, it was NEAR him.

One of the most disgusting things I have ever seen in my life was this.......

YUP! My dad and Maddie have their arms inside of a cow!!! A real live cow!!! I almost couldn't take the picture because I wanted to throw up so badly! All the kids did it (except Gabe and Nate.) My dad just loved telling me over and over again how it felt and all the treasures he felt inside (the ribs, etc.) GROSS!!!!!!!!!!!!

As you would probably guess, Emily was in heaven with all these animals!! Everything they would let you hold or pet, Emily held or pet. Every time we would pass a dog (a DOG, for crying out loud!! Hello!! She has two living in her own home!!!) she would have to stop and pet it!


Even though Gabe and Nate complained through pretty much the entire thing, I know they at least thought parts of it were cool. They definitely liked the snakes!!! (and the dog at the agility thing that kept sniffing the horses poop and then pooped right next to it in the middle of its performance and then got caught in the tunnel thing!)

If nothing else, the kids had fun hanging out with each other! They all get along so great!! (Even when Gabe is being a touch annoying, Nate does a great job dealing with him! Thanks Nate!!) After this we headed to the park to play and then over to the MSU Union to do a little bowling!!

Madeline (10.5) Allie (5.5) Emily (7.5)

Gabe (8.5) Nate (12) Ben (3.5)

Soccer. Game 1.

Allie had her first soccer game today. It was an absolutely beautiful day to sit and watch a game!

I wasn't sure how Allie was going to do. She has never officially played soccer before (besides in the backyard with her dad and brothers.) I was pleasantly surprised to see that my daughter is quite the little scrapper.

Every chance she got, she was kicking the ball. She "almost" scored about 11 goals (no exaggeration). The problem was, when she would get close enough to the net, she would back off and not give the ball its final boot to actually get it in the net, so the goalie would just catch it and throw it back in...then Allie would get it and lightly kick it again....and then the goalie would catch it....(you get it.)

FINALLY after her 100th try (or so it seemed)....Allie scored! The first goal for either team!!!

It was so much fun to watch her play!! I guess it really pays off to be sandwiched in between an older brother and a younger brother because Allie was by far the toughest kid on the team. It was so funny to hear the other parents on our team and the other team talk about her. "That girl is going to be the next Mia Hamm." "What is that little girls name? She is so good!!!" "See that girl with the short bobbed hair? Look at her!!" I have to say, I was quite proud!!!!

High Heels.

Ben: "Mom, will you put my high heels on me?"

I look at him for a second. "What?"

Ben: "Um. I mean my basketball high heels." (As if saying the word "basketball" would make the words "high heels" oh so much more masculine.)

Me: "Um, they are called high tops (well, they used to be, at least) and your dad is definitely not going to like you calling them high heels."

Ben: "Oh."

Does he not remember this conversation? Apparently not.

Playing at the Park.

1st Soccer Practice.

Allie had her first soccer practice this week. She's never played before. So it should be interesting!

I'm pretty sure she is the cutest kid on her team.

And I'm pretty sure she has the cutest coach!!! (I heard he's pretty hot!!! and bald!!)

Oh how they grow!

I was looking back at the pictures of my kids from the previous Easters. It's amazing how much the change.....

2007
Gabe (5.5) Allie (3.5) Ben (1.5)

2008
Gabe (7.5) Allie (4.5) Ben (2.5)

2009
Gabe (8.5) Allie (5.5) Ben (3.5)

Allie and her cousin, Ashley.....
(they are exactly one year apart....born on the exact same day!!!)

2007
Ashley (2.5) Allie (3.5)

2008
Allie (4.5) Ashley (3.5)

2009

Allie (5.5) Ashley (4.5)

Easter.

We spent the weekend at Kevin's parents. Easter weekend means lots of egg hunts for our kids. 3 to be exact.

The first one was at Kevin's parent's church. Even though the church is fairly small, I am always amazed at the amount of kids involved, how well organized it always is, all the hard work that is put into pulling something like this off and all the awesome prizes that the kids get after their work of "hunting" eggs is done!

Egg Hunt #2 is at the park in Carson City.....

This one is a huge free for all. They throw hundreds of eggs on the ground and the kids just run and run and run. Last year there was a couple inches of snow on the ground, which made it kind of tricky to pick up the eggs. This year, half the kids (ok, well only mine) didn't wear coats. It was sunny and beautiful (and chilly!)

Two years ago, they had a drawing for bikes....Ben won a Radio Flyer Tricycle and my nephew, Alex, won a brand new mountain bike. Well, this year, Ben found the lucky shiny egg and won this squirt gun (which is just as good as a tricycle to him)!

Ben was so excited to see that the bunny and lion that he "loved" from last year were back again!

Mom Mayes, Kevin Julie and Bender (trying to rip into the squirt gun)

The guys, checking out Gabe's loot!

Egg Hunt #3....

Ashley, Trever, Ben
Justin, Allie
Gabe and Alex
getting ready to find the eggs!

Since it was so nice out, we did the final egg hunt outside at Kevin's parents house. It was much more fun (and challenging) hiding them outside. Aunt Julie was much nicer then I was...she hid them in plain sight...on the grass and the porch. I hid them in trees, prickly bushes and in small un-known animal holes.

All the kids got goggles in their baskets!
Ben couldn't wait to put them on! He loved his camo hat too!! (and all the candy that is evident on his face too!!)

After 3 egg hunts, hours and hours riding the quads, and playing baseball, the kids were sort of tired and ready to come in to color eggs.

Apparently the older the kids get, the less exciting coloring eggs becomes. Towards the end, the kids started fizzling out, so I took over and finished coloring the eggs that were left.

......Correction, Trever and I colored the eggs that were left.

I guess Ben still thinks its exciting!!!

Our beautiful 4 dozen eggs!!! It was amazing....the kids could pick out exactly which ones were theirs. I thought they all looked the same...apparently not.

The next morning we got up bright and early for the sunrise service and had a great breakfast afterwards. Then we headed back to church for the real service. Thankfully, we only sang this song one time, therefore I only had to sob my eyeballs out once.

Our little stud muffins, all ready for church!!!
Gabe, Alex, Justin
Trever and Bender.

The princesses....Allie and Ashley.

Gabe, Allie and Ben Ben

The egg hunts, dressing up and yummy food are all fun, but the true meaning of Easter is the foundation of my faith. I'm constantly blown away that God loves me so much that He did the unthinkable to have me with Him forever. He allowed His Son to take my place...Jesus died for me and all the stupid things I do. And not only that....(anyone can die).....but Jesus did the unbelievable....He rose again!!!

He has risen!!!

HE HAS RISEN, INDEED!!

NCAA Championship Game.

As if 4 hours in the van wasn't enough for my kids, as soon as we pulled in the drive way, Kevin, Gabe and Allie were heading back out for another hour-ish drive.....down to Ford Field for the NCAA Championship game!!

After spending hours and hours on the phone, calling everyone he knew and everyone he didn't know, Kevin still did not have any tickets for the game, when he left our house. Thanks to a nice man selling tickets in front of the stadium, Kevin, Gabe, Allie and Mike (Kevin's cousin) managed to get some pretty sweet seats!!

Kevin bought this 'sweet' MSU shirt from a homeless man for $8!

Allie and Gabe were just as excited as Kevin!!!

Allie, Mike and Gabe!!

Go State!!!

Allie...just before she dozes off for the most expensive nap she has ever had! She fell asleep just before the 1st half was over and woke up half way through the 2nd half!

And....she's OUT!

Gabe's expression after the game pretty much sums it up!!

Although the game didn't turn out the way we had hoped, Kevin said he wouldn't have traded this experience for anything!

Spring Break....Chicago Style

For the first time in 3 or 4 years, we didn't head to Memphis to visit Jon and Bethie for Spring Break. Even though we had so many great memories of going down to visit, we were so grateful that they decided to move up here so we didn't have to take a 12 hour trip to see them. (Because you know, they were NEVER un-eventful.)


So this year we decided to head over to Chicago. Kevin and I went a couple years ago sans kids. So we thought it would be fun to take them now. (Apparently I forgot about all the walking that takes place in Chicago...which makes it very tricky for a 3.5 and 5.5 year old.) The main reason we wanted to go, however, was to visit Sarah and Mike. (You know, Mike Koch.)

We headed out Friday afternoon (note: there was NO snow on the ground when we left.) Minimal traffic....kids were great....yeah for DVD players....and snacks...quick trip over there. No problems! Got there in a little over 4 hours.

After checking into our hotel we called our tour guides (Mike and Sarah) to find out the best pizza place in the area. Apparently this place is it!! Giorando's is the BEST pizza I have ever had in my life. EVER. Ever!

After stuffing our face we went over to Sarah's former place of employment....Sur La Table. What a fun place! However, not good for 3.5 years old...too many things to touch....too many things to break!

Saturday morning we headed over to Sarah and Mike's house to take the train into downtown Chicago.

This was one of the highlights of the trip for the kids....riding on the train!

One of the highlights for me was when Mike put this nictoine patch, I mean bandaid over his shaving wound....nearly nicked his carotid artery.
(Can you even see it? It blends in so well....its hardly noticeable Mike, I swear.)

We weren't really prepared for what 50 degrees meant in the Windy City. Kevin had a sweatshirt on and Mike had a long sleeve flannel...clearly not enough to keep a human being warm. Shoot, I had a long sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt and a coat on and I was still FREEZING!!! We some how managed to stay alive the entire day. We ducked into a few stores here and there and took cabs when we really needed to.

Our first stop was to Millennium Park. We saw the Cloud Gate (known to my kids as the big Bean) and also the spitting face fountain things (known to my kids as the spitting face fountain things.) It was so fun to show the kids all the things that Kevin and I had seen when we were there last time. I'm pretty sure, however, that the kids (and Mike and Sarah) were soooo tired of hearing Kevin and I say, "Last time we were here....."

Ben discovered that Mike has really nice shoulders, made especially for carrying him around on, ALL DAY LONG! From the time we walked around Millennium Park, headed to Navy Pier, went to lunch, shopped a little, I'm pretty sure Mike's shoulders were going to fall off.

Mike bought each of the kids a flat penny at one of the stores at Navy Pier.

Ring around the Rosie
(not sure which one Rosie is....)

The rest of the afternoon was spent eating at the Grand Lux, going to the LEGO store, American Girl Doll Store and a few other random stores here and there. We were really on a time crunch due to the MSU Basketball game, so we (read: I) didn't get to see everything we [I] wanted to.

Lunch at the Grand Lux!!

Allie spent only about 15 minutes looking around the American Girl Doll Store. (I was quite surprised.) After finding her little bag to carry Lizzy around in, she was done.

Ironically enough, I only took Ben and Allie's pictures at the Lego Store. Gabe was too busy racing around the store checking everything out. I think he was a bit overwhelmed!!

We got back to Sarah and Mike's a little late. The game had already started (*gasp*) but no worries, we were able to get right into and figure out exactly what was happening.

I have to say, the best part about Sarah and Mike's house is the toilet in their basement. (You read that right, I said toilet....not bathroom.)

Ben loooved this toilet....it was his own personal throne. Any chance he got, he used it. At one point when he was p**ping, he yelled over to us, "Hey, I can still see the TV!!" The only downside (besides the complete lack of privacy) is the smell kind of floats around the entire basement.

After watching the Spartans victory, we headed back to the hotel (it was only about 15 minutes from Sarah and Mike's...depending on if we went the right way or not)

The next morning, we drove into downtown Chicago to go to the Shedd Aquarium. Learning a lesson from the day before, I made sure I had mittens and hats for the kids. After questioning Kevin about not wearing a sweatshirt or coat (his reply being, "I don't want to carry it around inside") we walked about 1/3rd of a mile in the FREEZING cold. When we got there, we discovered a line. I mean a L-I-N-E wrapped around the outside of the building. After questioning a lot of people we determined that this indeed was the line for the stupid aquarium. We waited outside in the bitter cold and awful wind for over an hour. Did I mention that Kevin only had a t-shirt on?

On the way to the aquarium we found a Chicago hotdog stand! YUM! I have never had a Chicago Style Hotdog! YUMMY!!!

Ben loved it!!!

After we walked around the aquarium for a few hours we headed to a mystery spot. I really REALLY really wanted to take Gabe to the LegoLand Discovery Center in Schaumberg. I wanted it to be a surprise so we didn't tell any of them where we were going.

Post-Aquarium
Pre-LegoLand

Gabe was pleasantly surprised when he woke up and found himself here.....

This mini Chicago replica was so cool! The kids loved seeing where they had just been the day before. I was completely fascinated by it too!!

Sarah and her friends.

This dragon ride brought back a lot of memories of "It's a small world" in Disneyworld.
Very slow....and a little (read: ALOT) boring.

LegoLand was interesting....the kids liked it. I thought it was kind of cool, but I couldn't get over how much they charge to get in. They normally charge $19.99 per adult and $15.99 per kid. Thank goodness I had a coupon to get the kids in for free. DEFINITELY not worth it!! But I was glad that the kids were able to experience it...especially since Gabe is such a Lego Freak!!

They had a "tour" of a Lego factory (can you say CHEESY!!!??)....
And each kid got to take a block home. (For what we paid we should have been able to take anything we wanted)

They also had a discovery area where the kids could build just about anything. They could make cars and race them down the ramp.

The kids got their picture taken with the President
(or Javon Ringer, as Allie likes to call him sometimes)

This was the highlight of LegoLand for me.....

...the signs outside the bathroom doors.
(this is the one for the family bathroom)

After we left LegoLand we ate at Big Bowl (YUMMY) and then headed back to Sarah and Mike's to find tickets for Kevin for the MSU game on Monday. We finally left poor Sarah and Mike alone and headed back to our hotel. We didn't realize that a snow storm was heading towards us, or shall I say, already hit us!! We drove back to the hotel in awful conditions.

By the time we woke up there was at least 2.5 inches of snow on the ground! We let the kids swim in the pool while Kevin continued to look for the tickets for the MSU game. On our way out of town we stopped at Trader Joe's (another highlight for me!!)

We had a great time in Chicago! It was a blast hanging out with Sarah and Mike....they were the best tour guides!!

We were back in Lansing by late afternoon on Monday. Now we still have the rest of the week to enjoy our Spring Break at home!!

Oh yeah, here are a few other pictures that I loved.....

Every where we went, we had our MSU apparel on.
Everyone knew who we were cheering for!!
GO STATE!

Poor Allie. She was not feeling well on this trip. She had a fever the entire time, along with a stuffy nose and a runny nose and an AWFUL cough.

Apparently the runny nose was quite annoying....she shoved toilet paper in her nose at night to keep the snot from running out!!

Oh the things you see in a big city.....

....don't worry.....

You can see more pictures here.

Dodgeball!

Yesterday Kevin competed in his first ever dodgeball tournament! Bath Middle School was doing a fundraiser to send their 7th and 8th graders to Disney for a week (nice field trip!)

Kevin's team consisted of.......

......Pat (Kevin's friend from work), Kevin, Greg (Kevin's brother), Ryan (Mike's friend), Mike (Kevin's cousin) and Matt (Kevin's other brother)

Kevin's outfit consisted of.......

....me wanting to throw up all over the place.

He is wearing a cut off beater, his short short short running shorts, hunting socks and a pink headband.

Oh, the comments people made!! At least 4 times I overheard people talking about him (which is just what Kevin wanted, of course.) At one point he was called, "That-old-guy-wearing-a-sports-bra-and-pink-sweatband." (I turned around and nicely explained to them that it was clearly not a sports bra, but rather a beater that was cut off. When they asked what the difference was, I told them that a sports bra keeps his b**bs from jiggling and this one doesn't....they bounce all over the place." They laughed.) I never admitted that I knew that "creepy old guy wearing a sports bra."

Someone else called him "gross" (oh wait, that was me!)

Praise the Lord!! He finally put his shirt back on!!!

The guys did really well. They placed 4th out of 35ish.

The tournament started at 5pm. We though for sure it would be done by 8:00 (plenty of time to get home for the State game)...nope. We didn't walk out of there until 10:30 (and it still wasn't over by then!) It was so much fun to watch! It didn't seem like we sat for over 5 1/2 hours (although my butt was a little sore by the time we left)

Oh yeah, by the way, the team name was TEAM AWESOME!!

Aiden was there to cheer his daddy on!!! He even got to wear his daddy's nasty sweaty sweat band!!

GO TEAM AWESOME!!!

Balloons!!

I'm easily amused.

EASILY!

Throw some googly eyes on anything and I will laugh forEVER!

Apparently I think balloon animals (or anything made with balloons for that matter) are the 2nd greatest things in the world.

My friend Coleen came over today and made hours of amusement for me! It all started with a balloon hat for Ben and slowly turned into 5 swords, a bouquet of flowers and then into a bunch of zoo animals!!

I was amazed (and a little nervous! Balloons kind of scare me...ALOT.) But it was so cool to watch her transform a regular looking balloon into something real(ish.)

An elephant, zebra, giraffe, tiger, ladybug and turtle!

my favorite...a monkey on a palm tree!

March Madness.

Last year, the kids and I had so much fun filling out the brackets, that we did it again this year. Kevin helped Gabe and Ben fill out theirs. Gabe picked his based on their ranking. Ben picked his based on the name he could remember after Kevin gave him his choices.



Allie and I worked together on hers. Since I didn't have a clue, I would just read the names off in order and whatever name she liked, she picked. I didn't realize Kevin was strategically helping the other two, so they had a chance of getting some right. Whoops.

Kevin had the day off today. This is what he's doing.....

.....it may look like he is watching basketball with Allie.
He's not.
He's sleeping.
So is she!!

They looked so comfy, that Ben decided to join them......

Looks very similar to 2 years ago.

Allie's Haircut.

Allie got her haircut!!

Thanks to her cousin, Annie, Allie decided that she wanted to get her haircut really short! I was so relieved!! Her long straggly hair was driving me crazy!

Basketball. Again.

Seems like lately, all I have updated about is basketball.

Hm. Maybe because basketball is our life right now. Or should I say, was our life. Kevin's season is officially over. His last game was last night! This was Kevin's best season yet (besides girls JV 7 years ago)!!

His final record was 15-4!!

We were reminiscing about previous years and cringed when we came across his first couple years. One year he was 4-15 (for those of you who are sports challenged...that means they only won 4 games and lost 15!!) The next year was a touch better....5-14.

When he has an awesome winning season, I always say that its because of the coach. When it's a losing season, its because of the players.

Here are a couple more of my favorite pictures from the season.....

Coach Mayes and Coach Mayes

Allie's favorite player from the girls Varsity team...Hannah

One of the privileges of being the coaches wife is washing the teams uniforms and warm-ups (gee! lucky me!!) This year we had some fun after they were washed. We played dress up. It was so funny to hear the kids say, "I wanna be Hayden!!" "Now I want to be Derion!" They knew exactly what numbers all of Kevin's players are.

Here they are dressed up as Derion, Spencer and Scott......

Ben singing to the dollhouse.

At least he makes up for playing with the dollhouse by having his football outfit on (and his helmet nearby.) FYI....He is combining whatever song he is singing with "Hi Ho the Derry-o"

Stapler.

Kevin and I have just (as in, the last 6 months or so) discovered the show, The Office. I have to admit, it took me about 3 months to actually find the show funny. Now I think its one of the funniest shows EVER.

We borrowed the first 4 seasons from Kevin's cousins, to catch up on things that we might have missed. We're into season 2 right now.

After watching one of the episodes (the one where Jim puts Dwight's stapler in the jello) Kevin says, "I am so doing that to Jeff!!"

Real quick....Jeff and Kevin work at the same school. Last year they were right down the hall from each other. Apparently they had too much fun, so they were separated to opposite ends of the building this year.

Jeff had been the subject of another one of Kevin's "funnies" last year. It was twin day so Kevin told Jeff that him and a bunch of the other guys were going to wear a white t-shirt and jeans. He told all the other guys to dress up wearing a white dress shirt, tie and khaki pants (what Jeff wears EVERY day of the week.)

So when Jeff got to school they all were dressed like this......

......and poor Jeff was wearing a t-shirt and jeans. He eventually found it funny.

So, its been about a year, so it was about time to pull another one on him.

Here's Jeff and his orange Jell-o stapler.

After a few choice words, Jeff found it funny!

I keep telling Kevin between these two things and this other one, he really has it comin' for him.

Such Odd Children.

Toothless.

Gabe lost his other top front tooth. Yippee!! No more crazy snaggle tooth!

Little Coach Mayes.

At the game Tuesday night, after they announced the starting line-up, they announced the coaches. Which, is nothing new. Except this time what we all heard was, ".....and the Trojans, coached by Kevin Mayes, Drew *******, Julius ******* and Gabriel Mayes!!!"

HILARIOUS!!! The guy who announces for the team, threw in Gabe's name! It was so cute to watch the reaction on Gabe's face!

Gabe takes his job very seriously. He has evolved from being an average water boy to actually being helpful. He takes care of all the warm-ups. Picks up the cups that are thrown under the chair and actually getting the guys their water in a timely (and not messy) manner.

Gabe having a little chat with one of the players.

(He is near the top of the picture)

Sitting with the rest of the coaches on the bench. Kevin doesn't count.
He NEVER sits during a game.
EVER.

After the game the kids always run on the court to slap hands with the other team. Ben is the only one who isn't allowed to. I'm afraid he will get so excited that he might miss the guys hands and accidentally swat them somewhere else.

I hate to say that Gabe is more stylish then Kevin. But I'm pretty sure he is!
One of the players dad's gave Gabe a bunch of his son's old ties. I think he thought Gabe looked a little silly with ties that only reach to his belly button.

Kevin's Game.

Last night at Kevin's game, when they asked us to stand to sing the National Anthem, Ben looks at me and says (rather loudly) "Are we going to PRAY??"

(Hm. I'm realizing this was a lot cuter and funnier in person. Oh well.)

Kevin's Basketball Team.

Check out Kevin's cute manager/water boy, who is holding the basketball.

Allie's 100th day of school.

HAPPY 100th Day of School!!!

A bit more refreshing.

Sorry...I had to put up another picture, because I didn't want to scare off anyone who might be new to reading my blog, with the picture from the previous entry.

So here's a cute picture of Kevin watching tv with Allie, while Bender is sleeping.

Enjoy......

Gabe's Thumbprint.

Gabe came home with a new sculpture today. They had an orthodontist come into his class. He told me he had made a thumb print. I guess I was expecting, more or less, something along the lines of this. When I unwrapped it this is what I found.....

....WHOA!

Not what I was expecting. AT ALL.

I started laughing because I thought after not seeing it for a while, he would look at it and realize what it really looked like. He laughed too, but just because I was smiling (read: laughing.)

When he went to bed he said, "Make sure you show dad when he gets home!" I thought, "No problem. I CANNOT wait to show him and the rest of the world!"

Reminds me of when he brought this home!

Junk Head.

Allie was drawing a picture of Ben. As she was drawing it, he said, "Allie, make 'shore' you make a big head cuz I have a junk head."

Junk head?

I have no idea what that is, but I feel like its a real good description of a big head.

B-ball Stats.

Kevin's basketball team plays on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Friday nights, he has to go to the Varsity game to do stats. Depending on how wiped out the kids are from the previous week, depends on if we go with him or not. Last night we all went.

At one point during the game, Kevin turned around and said, "Are you okay up there?" I didn't quite get the sarcasm until I realized that he had all 3 kids with him. One on his lap and the other two sitting next to him...while he was doing the stats.

It looked exactly like this......

Whoops. I guess I was paying more attention to the conversations I was having, then with the fact that my kids were no where near me.

My favorite part about this picture is the fact that there is a Stormtrooper Lego guy sitting on top of the laptop.

Ben is just learning to draw pictures of "people." I don't mean to hurt his feelings but I think they look more like potato zombies.

You can't really tell, but Gabe "styled" his hair last night. The very front is standing up straight. He wanted to be just like the Freshman coach....Ryan Hosler. I really hope this isn't the start of "pretty hair" for him.

(Also, check out Kevin, wrestling Ben on the floor behind Gabe. Ha. Funny.)