It has been a busy week, but that is the norm around here!  What has helped is that the weather has become warmer and the kids are getting more time to spend outdoors, which makes the house seem just a little bit quieter.  This week some of the kids went out onto the trampoline and gave Leah her initiation.

You can see here that she IS smiling!  She was enjoying herself!

Brittany was just chilling on the swings.

This week we also had the family birthday party with Kelly’s sisters and brother.  All of the kids who have a birthday in a certain period of time celebrate at once.  The older boys had a little fun playing basketball.

Jake tries to stop Zach on a shot, but the height and size difference makes that a little challenging.   Zach STILL is the big brother!  It has been very nice having him home for spring break, especially since he will not be home much this summer.

Jake sporting his new “summer” haircut.  Not sure how much more Kelly can take off!

Caleb’s birthday was celebrated and he started things off!

Kelly’s brother and his wife were here…

Along with Kelly’s mom and dad. Kelly’s mom had just had shoulder surgery, so she was a trooper to make an appearance when she probably was not feeling that great.

Luke was NOT in this round of birthdays, so he had to just sit and watch!

And then there is Max, who is starting to look less like a boy and more like a young man.

And Britt.  *sigh*  They are all getting so old!

It was pretty hard for Riley and Leah to accept the presents that they received.  It seems a combination of not wanting to be the center of attention and not wanting money “wasted” on them.  So, it was a painful process to get the two of them through the present opening process!

They did, however, enjoy their presents once everyone went home and they had some time to look at them by themselves!

After dinner, we all went to LeapFrogs to enjoy some time on the inflatables!

It was nice to see Leah wanting to participate in all the excitement.  Big brother Zachary had to help her up the slide a few times!

And then Kelly went down with her….

She also had to take Riley down, as she wasn’t willing to go by herself.

Riley came off saying that her heart was pounding!

Jessie was willing to go it alone!!

Max took a fair number of runs down the slide himself!

Mia went down with a group of girls, while Caleb went solo!

You HAVE to love this girls hair!

At least everyone had an audience!

In the first room we were in there was also an area that you could shoot plastic balls at each other with air guns.  Caleb took careful aim!

Leah and Kelly had to work as a team to defeat him!

Brittany had to defend herself against Caleb’s onslaught also…

After a hard fought battle, sometimes all you need to do is jump.

We then moved to a second room that had two obstacle courses and another large single-person slide.  I’m going to throw in a couple pictures of Nick here because I just don’t get many pictures of him.  He is so illusive!

And I will add this picture of Leah because, well, she just looks some darn pretty!

The one obstacle course was a big hit because you enter from two different sides and it allowed you to race your cousins!  It was pretty much complete bedlam.  Zach works at this place, and so has lots of time to practice during work hours and holds the record of being able to complete the course in 8.5 seconds or something like that.  It isn’t Tough Mudder, but he is pretty proud of his accomplishment.

The kids would run through the course, exit off the slide …

… and then run over and start the entire process again!

Jessie and Leah were a little apprehensive about going the the course by themselves so they had a little help.

Zach again came to the rescue, giving his little sisters a hand up the climbing wall.

Out of this adventure and on to a new one!

Leah decided on her own that she was going to go through the other obstacle course.

And she joined Kelly at the top for another ride down a slide.

I thought this was a nice shot of Jacob and Riley sitting together.

And then they noticed me …

Whatever.  I can be sneaky!

For those of you who have not seen Ali’s face lately, here is a picture.  It seems to have become lighter since the last surgery, even if she is a little sweaty!

Here is a great shot of Kelly and her little shadow, Jessie!!

As our time drew to a close, we took one last picture of the group!

Another birthday party in the books!  And it was only Friday night with an entire weekend to go!

Cameron