**Smore Summer Fun**

August....sigh.  Where has our summer gone?  With school starting on the 20th, we aren't about to let these last few weeks of summer pass us by without a TON of FUN!!

First weekend in August a Boys State buddy of Josh's got married in Fargo--so Addy spent the weekend with Gma Alyce and Gpa Ralph here in Bismarck, Zach is having his very own week with Gma RuthAnn to himself in Powers Lake, and Anna is at Camp Metigoshi!  So with all of our family all over the state--we all had a wonderful weekend!!

Addy got to go swimming, go to eat at Bonanza(a real treat), and make smores in Grandma's backyard!!

Zach has been busy at Grandma RuthAnn's, he and Grandma made a quilt together!  He is so proud and looks like he worked very hard on it!

No word from Anna yet, but we can't wait to hear all about her trip to Metagoshi when she comes home on Saturday!!!


With Anna and Zach gone this week, and me being done with daycare--I've got to enjoy some much needed one on one time with Addyson.  Weird saying, 'much needed' when she has been the one who was home with me while I did daycare out of the house, but even though we were together everyday, we really didn't do A LOT together while at home.  She had to share with me with everyone else--and I know at times it really got to her.  So this week has been so much fun--here is a little recap :)

Monday:  We slept in :) until about 8:30 and then after breakfast headed to the YMCA(I was just a little excited to get to take in a morning class).  After the YMCA we came home and Addy hopped on her bike and she rode next to me while I ran!  We even had the kitty cheering us on!

After our bike ride we had some lunch and met Michelle and Abby at Gma Alyce's swimming pool for a quick dip in the pool and some much needed sun bathing :)

Sure you can dress up like a cat this afternoon.....

Monday night we walked from our house down to the YMCA and did the family run/walk--we still have a stroller from when Addy was a baby, so she did some walking, running, and a little riding(mainly on the big hills--which served as an extra good workout for Mom and Dad)  when the race was over all the kids got a medal!

Tuesday:  We slept in again(shhhhh.....) and after breakfast we took our final sheet of info needed for Addy's kindergarten registration down to the office!

After that, I had a sweatshirt to show Officer Wanner(who happens to be my cousin) down at the PD!  Little did we know that we were going to be given the best tour ever!!  I don't know who had more fun, Addy or Mom!!  Addy said her favorite was where they shoot the guns-and when she got to see inside the cop car!  Thanks again Lynn!!!  Here she is putting her reflectors on her bike:

Tuesday afternoon we relaxed and surprised Dad with lunch from Addy's favorite--Taco Tuesday(taco johns) and relaxed at home for the most part.  Addyson colored and watched a movie and Mom caught up on a couple DVR shows :)

Wednesday: I had a busier day then Addyson today, I had two interviews scheduled for Wednesday and by Wednesday night, I had recieved an offer!!  Thank goodness for Gma Alyce again as she was so great to watch Addy while I had both interviews!! 

Wednesday Addy and I also ventured out to Target to get some school shopping done!!  We try every year to take the kiddos individually shopping and usually out to lunch before or after--we had a fun time checking everything off her list and picking out a new backpack of course :)

Thursday:  First thing that happened Thursday morning is that I called to accept the position offered to me by Mid Dakota Clinic!  I will be working as a full time receptionist at the Center for Women clinic and couldn't be more excited!!!  I wanted a change and I hope this will be an exciting new adventure!

After Addy woke up she had breakfast and I told her to get in the van and that I had a surprise for her!  We went to see Chimpanzee in the movie theater!  The Carmike does $4 movies every Thursday all summer, it's an awesome deal and we took advantage of it and had a blast!!

Later that afternoon we went and picked up Gma Alyce and headed down for our first time to Urban Harvest, the only purchase was a .50 tattoo for Addy, but it was still neat to see!

And none of us had been to Sweet Treats, so we went and said CHEERS with our cupcakes to my new job--it was a lot of fun!  Addy picked out a choc cupcake, with choc frosting, and m&ms as a topping---YUMMMM!

Friday:  I had to go fill out HR paper work, so Addy headed back over to visit Gma and Gpa for a couple hours in the morning, we grabbed McDonalds on our way home and then got busy organizing school supplies in her backpack and building a countdown to kindergarten chain!  We were excited when we got the email this morning that Addyson will have Mrs. Towne as her teacher--the same teacher Anna had when she went to the big K!

It has been a wonderfully exciting week!!  Full of new changes for our family :)  We are looking forward to Zach and Anna coming home tonight and getting setteled into our new fall routines!  Hard to believe that summer is almost over and we will have a 6th grader, 4th grader, and one in kindergarten!!!  

Happy 5th of July?

I love love love the 4th of July!  Ever since I can remember we would spend the long holiday weekend camping with friends and family, usually camping in the Black Hills, watching a parade of some sort, and of course the big fire works display!
Even after moving to Bismarck we would have a back yard BBQ with friends or family and then the last couple of years we have went to the HUGE Mandan parade and then back over to watch the fire works show---until this year.
Josh's Mom retired from teaching this fall and to say our kids have spent a little time at the farm this summer is an understatement!!!  Anna more then the other two, but after vbs and her week at camp Metigoshi, our little touriest will have been gone a total of 7 weeks this summer!!!  WOW--they have had so much fun!  She has made cakes, went to cousins houses, had cousins over there, been to the lake, and much much more!  I love the memories they are making and RuthAnn is always the first to say, it won't be many more years before she/they will be too old and will no longer want to come to Grandma's house....

So Josh and I spent the 4th of July in Bismarck alone, he had to work on Friday, so we did go up to Powers Lake Friday after work!  We did take in the parade--on TV :)  We made it over to the art in the park in Mandan and had a late lunch, stopped by a friend of Josh's new home, and then just hung out here at home and watched the fire works go off  from the capitol in our front lawn....it was just weird! 

Friday when Josh got off work, we stopped and bought some fireworks and off to Powers Lake we went!  So here are some pictures of us celebrating our 5th of July this year....we got to Powers Lake around 8 on Friday night and we did light off some fireworks--side note, I'm terrified of even the little ones...so I watched...from a safe distance and did do a sparkler or two :)


Josh and the kiddos :)




Grandma RuthAnn and the kids!



Anna loved the smoke bombs and would light a couple at a time so the colors would mix!



Addy loved the tanks and airplanes




Zach's favorite has always been the tanks, so Josh got a whole BOX of them!  He was so excited and had a great time!!

 Most of Saturday was spent out at the lake--we were out there for tacos in a bag at noon and didn't get back to the farm until after six!  The kids have so much fun with their cousins swimming in the lake up there!  It was a beautiful day, minus the wind and a good time was had by all!

Sunday we had to leave a little early as Addy had her first drop off birthday party!  It was one of her preschool classmates and down at Fun on the Run :)

Sloooowwww Down Summer!!!

We started out summer with a GRAND camping adventure with our supper club friends!  We borrowed my parents RV and a couple other couples set up tents and we spent the weekend out at Sibley.  When we all get together, there are usually twice as many kids as adults, but they all play so wonderful together that we bearly know they are there!  I have WAYYYYY too many pics to post for this great event--but here are a few of my favorites!  The weather was perfect--besides Saturday night in which we found out that the RV can sleep 11 people!!  HA

We also celebrated our 12th year anniversary out there that weekend--thanks Katherine for the wonderful cake :)  And Jaxon's 2nd birthday!



The Ross' made the most AMAZING cabobs!



The girls soaking up some sun...



And the men :)



Anna and Kendall :)




Happiest Birthday Jaxon!!!



Thank you Katherine!!  It was soooo yummy!




The girls all snuggled in...



It was pretty warm out, so the water table was a MUST!



Summer Projects!

Thought I would do a quick summer recap since I've been a slacker on the blogging again lately--summer has once proved itself to go as fast as it showed up, we've been busy making memories :)

My Mom and I have been wanting to redo a kitchen table for sometime now--they are the managers of Parkwood Appartments and when tenents move out, they are the lucky ones to get to clean out the appartment for the new renters!  It is UNBELIEVEABLE what people just leave behind--enter Jenn's new kitchen table project!

Before....



And After!!



Our plain jane kitchen before, this table is older then I am! 




And kitchen after our project!  We found the print at Hobby Lobby for $18--we had a lot of fun and made a lot of memories :)  Those chairs were a pain in the $#$% to spray paint--but we sure laughed a lot doing them!!

I'm sure I've talked about our craft club on previous blogs--sometimes we craft--sometimes we just sit around and chit chat--but these ladies are grand!  Here is one craft night project that I actually did, loved, and it added a lot to our bedroom which I just had black and white until I added the yellow!


It's just fabric stapled onto canvas!  Super easy and cheap too :) 

Then I searched out pinterest and wanted something else for my bedroom....so I decided to try my best at a little painting!  Again all under $20 from the Hobby Lobby and this one was fun to do too! 

This was my 'pinspiration'



And this is how my turned out...sorry pic is sideways :/

 I'm also in the process of redoing my basement--more pics and hopefully a before and after post on that later :)

First Ever Color Splash Fun Dash!!!

We have seen 'color runs' all over face book--the funnest 5k on the planet is their slogan, so we were all beyond pumped to hear that we were gonna have our very own color run here in Bismarck!!  We had perfect weather and a great time!!!  The event was held up at BSC and we had quite the crew ready to get messy!!!

Before the race began-RuthAnn took Addy and Zach and they got situated next to color stations 1,3,&5, they had great seats!  Mom and Dad had the van pulled up(so Dad wouldn't have to get out and walk) and it was fun to see them as we ran by as well!

Anyway---pre-race they offered face painting, inflatables, hot dogs, and each runner was to line up for a group photo where we all 'smashed' a color packet in the air while a guy snapped a picture at the top of a truck lift :)

Pre-race craziness!!  This is right before we all popped our packets open for the camera man!



Our crew-Anna, Lacee, Rick, Tara, Michelle, and Me
Ana, Tara, and Melissa



Us after the first lap around, we stopped by Mom and Dad's van and she snapped a quick picture of us :)



The two orange girls in the front of the picture are Anna and Ana--we told them to stick toegether and we would meet them at the finish line!  They had a BLAST!!!

 

We all started off at different paces, so we looked at the two little girls and said--stay together, we'll meet up at the finish line and we had a BALL!!!  We were all covered in paint (cornstarch and coloring) and if that wasn't enough, you were able to actually roll in the paint when the race was over--Addy loved that feature--street clothes and all :)  She will definately have to attend the full race next year, she will probably lap us all!!

They aren't lying when they tell you it's the funnest 3 miles you will ever run....I couldn't agree more and can't wait until next year :)

Happiest 9th Birthday Zach!!!

Hard to believe that this once chubby, smiling baby was once that....a baby :)  Now 9 years old, it seems like just yesterday he was learning to crawl-always with this lovey in hand-and always looking for something new to try and get into :)

Nine years later and our Zachary is growing up into such a nice young guy--he has been in the accelerated learning program for reading at school for the last two years.  He is going to be a lot like his Dad and school will probably come easy for him without a lot of effort.  He LOVES video games and is so proud when he unlocks a level or clears a game.  He also is a great builder--he has a love of lego sets and can assemble them in the same night he brings them home!!

For his birthday this year, he picked just a few school buddies and they got to go bowling--what a fun time we had there--Grandma RuthAnn made him a Skylander cake and we had 2.5 hours of bowling alley fun!  

 We had a great time--for anyone who hasn't used Midway Lanes as a birthday party, I highly recommend it!  They provide everything from plates, to forks, to cups--each kid gets 5 tokens and an hour of bowling!  Josh and I used one lane and challenged the boys to a bowling match--I think they won :)

That evening we had friends and family over for round #2 birthday for Zach and also celebrated Josh's birthday as well :)  The boys had a Lego cake from Gma RuthAnn and we had a backyard full of our closest friends, kids, and family---when we get together and I can take a minute to look around at everyone visiting and all our kids on the trampoline together, I can honestly say we are truly blessed and this is where we are meant to be :)

When I asked Zach what he wants to be when he grows up he told me a Video Game Designer--and then he would have all his best buddies over to his house and they could try the game out before he sells it.  We are so proud of you buddy--

Tonight Rick and Tara are taking Mr. Cheese AKA Zach, to Iron Man 3--what a lucky guy!

We love you Zach and we wish you at least 100 plus more very happy birthdays--
Mom and Dad

Backwards in time...Oh well!?!!?

Prior to our weekend in Fargo...we had a pretty big week here in the Jeffers' household!!!  Last week Thursday was a BIG day in our house!

The first big event was Zachary's classroom Spring program--these kids are so cute!  We were invited into his classroom where a group of 2-3 students performed old school nursery rhymes (3 Billy Goats Gruff was Zach and his partners skit) but instead of the endings that we all know don't end so great---they resolve their differences and each skit ends with "I'll read to you and you read to me." They were very humorous--microphones, rhymes, and all :) 

After the skit, came the year end recap slide-show---if you haven't had to watch and wipe your tears through one of these yet--just wait, your time will come!!!  The music, the faces of all those cute kids (especially your own :) is just so overwhelming....we have been blessed with some of the best teachers Bismarck has to offer and when Mrs. Ward got up to give her end of the year speech and started crying...well I had to tear up too, I can't let anyone cry alone!  She is a super, great, amazing, wonderful, inspiring teacher who will be greatly missed at Northridge!!!  ...so all that happened at 11 am

Came home, cooked lunch, got everyone settled in with Sara and off of to Addy's preschool graduation we went at 1pm....enter emotional roller coaster #2 :)

Addy went to Merry Go Round preschool this last year and absolutely LOVED it!!  These teachers loved it just as much as the kids did each and every week and you could tell :)  The program had it all...from these little bodies walking into the church to Pomp and Circumstance, to the graduation caps and tassels, to the presentation of the graduates---there was not a dry eye in the house!  They sang at least 8+ songs that they learned throughout the year and these kids BEAMED!!!  They were so proud--as were we watching them :)  I just felt myself watching to mentally capture everything I could in those moments--kinda like Pam does (from The Office) :)  After the program we went back to the reception area where we snapped multiple pictures, gave some amazing women BIG BIG hugs, and Josh and I looked at each other, as we often do with Addyson our youngest, and say--we will never have a preschool graduate again :S



Addy's MGR teachers---these ladies are amazing!!!

Our babes...the big Graduate!!



Grandma and Grandpa also made it to the program and brought the graduate a flower---she was so proud!  It's so great to be able to share these events with our loved ones--we are truly so blessed!!!

 

Anna, does not have a special end of the year program, but stays busy non the less :)  They had a track meet on Thursday ( in the rain) and her team scored 2nd in the 800 relay, she also competed in the 400 relay and tried long jump and shot put!  

On Friday she completed and showed her science project at the Science Fair up at the BSC Careerr Acc in which they did an experiment to see if a banana with and without the peel would float or sink!?!  They both float--fun fact!  Way to go Anna---we are so very proud of you and can't believe you will be off to Horizon next year!?