Sister Amanda came to visit!

So, my sister Amanda came out to visit us the first part of July. . . we had a lot of fun!!  She brought her three kids with her and it was a fun time with all the kids.  The first day she was here we decided to take her on a waterfall tour around Ithaca.

Had to start with this cute girl. . . she had to bring a puppy along.

Here are all the kids. . .   The waterfalls was more of a trickle. . . it hasn't rained here very much this summer.  Not the best waterfalls to see right then, but fun hike.  The kids got to walk in the water on the way back and really enjoyed that.

 So, our next stop was an actual waterfalls worth seeing!

NIAGARA FALLS!!!

We love Niagara Falls.  

This is actually one of the best pictures of Brayden.  He's hard to get a picture of since he moves around so much!!

Here is a picture of the whole crew (minus me!!)  We toured the American side during the day and then went to the Canadian side at night to sleep. . . the hotel views from the Canadian side are so much better and worth crossing the border for.  We enjoy the activities on the American side more though.  

My sister and me on the Maid of the Mist. . . so fun!!!

These are from our hotel room!

And yes, it did happen to be the 4th of July!!  So we watched the fireworks, actually watched them from above them!!  It was great to finally see 4th of July fireworks. . . it's been about four years for us.  Ithaca doesn't do them on the 4th.  We thought it ironic that we were in Canada watching them though!!  It was cool.

This video is actually of Rainbow falls from the American side.  It was the first time I have actually been down to this particular overlook.  It was nice view.

The one thing we were never able to do until this trip was go to the butterfly place on the Canadian side.  SO FUN!!  The kids LOVED having all the butterfly's land on them and flutter around them.

Andrew

 Evan

 Cute Addison.

 Cousin Brackin.

 Cute cousin Harlie.

Brayden.

I'm missing one of my cute niece Raven, but most of these pictures are the ones she took!!  She is in the photo's of NYC though, so no worries!!!

After Niagara we came back to my house and the next morning we left the six youngest kids there with Josh, and me, my sister Amanda, and my niece Raven went to NYC!!!  It was SO fun!!!  

Here is Amanda and Raven in Time Square.  

Here's Amanda and me in Times Square.

We walked and walked, and shopped and shopped, and shopped!!!  It was amazing to walk into a narrow doorway off of Times Square and walk into these massive stores. . . four floors up or down, back and around. It was crazy!

Here we are at the Hard Rock Cafe.  It was so big inside and so small outside. . . really crazy!

We saw this guy on the street and thought "what a crazy guy".  then we found out he was promoting the show "Zarkana".  We thought that was fun as we were headed there that evening!

So, to prove a point, the stores on the inside are HUGE!!  Toys-r-us fits a ferris wheel inside!!  Would love to take the kids, but convincing Josh would take a lot of work!! :)

They also had this SO COOL dinosaur inside.  It was in a corner of one of the many floors.  It was so fun to watch!

So, after walking ALL day and shopping ALL day we were tired!!!  Just before the show we just took a moment to sit and breathe.  It was nice to sit for a few minutes.

My cute niece Raven. . . she's 13 now.  Can't believe she is so old!!! :)

Here is our view for the show Zarkana.  It was perfect as so much of it was done flying through the air. The trapeez artists are SO spectacular!!  I have never seen anyone fly around like that.  It was great.

On our way back to the hotel we took another route to see central park and another street with tons of lights!!  We saw the Ed Sullivan Theater. . . more effective to see at night I think.  He wasn't taping while we were in town, so we didn't even attempt going to that show.

Over all it was such a fantastic week!!  We loved having Amanda and Raven, Harlie, and Brackin to visit.

Oh, and in case you worried about Josh with all those kids. . . they had so much fun they forgot we were gone!!!  Josh let them play with sparklers, have a camp fire, roast s'mores and that's what we actually heard about!!  Who knows what else they did, but they had fun all around!!!

Evan's 8th Birthday

Well, I know it's been a week or so. . . but here are the pictures for Evan's birthday week!!!

For his school class we made planet cake pops.  It was a science themed birthday week!

Then, he came home and got to open presents!

I was able to find these great video recording spy glasses on clearance (YEAH!!) and Evan LOVED them!!  He likes to take hidden video of people. . . I've learned from first hand experience to be careful if he has those glasses on!

He made out pretty good on his actual birthday.  Can you see Addison behind the balloon kit?  She had to help open the presents.

Since I made his cake later on in the week for his party, he chose to have banana splits for his Birthday desert.  They were pretty good.  Love banana splits with brownies and strawberries!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Dance came into town on Thursday.  On Friday they took Evan and Brayden out on the town shopping and lunch.  They had a lot of fun!  I got to finish my cake and party prepping with less kids in the house, so it was nice.

Friday night was his party.  Here he is in his wonderful "lab" coat and glasses.

Brayden sporting the same style.

Addison doing one of the best jobs showing us how cute this outfit really could be!!! :)

Here is the party area.

Here are the party goers in the party area painting their party volcano's!!

Didn't they do such a great job!!

Addison had fun painting hers.

Brayden showing his off.

Evan showing us his.

Andrew eating.  He didn't want a lab coat, or to paint a volcano, he was just hungry and wanted dinner!  He ate really well that night!  He was a pure cutie pie!!!

After dinner we pulled out the volcano cake.  It doesn't look 100% cool, but hopefully the video will show you that it's actually made for action, not beauty!!

Here is the video of the volcano "exploding".  We had some technical issues, but overall it was pretty fun!

Here is Evan opening gifts at his party.  Brayden was funny during this part as he kept saying "cool" and "that's awesome" the whole time.  Thanks for all the gifts everyone.  He loves them all!

This was the last fun for the day. . . they got to explode their volcano's!  Just a little bit of vinegar and baking soda and bubble over they all did.  The kids had fun doing it.

I had them all go out on the lawn.  Good for the table, not so good for those spots of lawn.  I have dots of brown all over my lawn!!!

Andrew again, eating.  He was eating from his treat box, and filling it up with grass at the same time.  They are rocket ships, way cool.  Didn't actually take a better picture of them!

Addison is now sporting the medals that were handed out once the volcano's all "exploded".

Over all it was a great party.  I somehow failed to include a picture of Josh doing his science experiments for the kids.  They got to see his frozen flowers, and elephant toothpaste, and all other sorts of fun things.  We got to hang out with friends and have all sorts of fun.  

The next morning, Saturday, was Evan's baptism.  Here he is with his Grandpa, Evan.  Don't they both look great in their suits?  So handsome!  Evan got his suit for his birthday!

Three silly kids before we left.

Four silly kids.  They all looked so cute!  What great kids they are!

Here's the kids with Grandma and Grandpa Dance.  So glad they were able to come!

Evan with his Dad before the baptism.

One of Evan with his parents!!  How we love him!  

Here is a wonderful family picture after the baptism.  Everyone is ALMOST looking.

Here is Evan with his baptism presents. . . I know, he got a lot of presents!!!  Addison wasn't happy about it!!

Happy Birthday Evan!!  I can't believe you are eight!!!  You have grown up so fast!  We are so proud of you!!!  Love you!!

Easter 2012

So, I guess it's about time I put in my Easter blog!!  It'll be a quick rundown, but it was a great day and the kids had a ton of fun!!

A few days before Easter we actually decorated eggs!!  Now I always meant to get after shots, but I don't think that I did seeing as I don't have any!!  Evan and Brayden each had a themed "egg holder".  Evan had pirates and Brayden had outer space.  It was a lot of fun for them to decorate there egg characters for their themed holders.  They had fun. . . and just to proof what a smart Mom I am, the babies were in bed when this all went down!!!  SO MUCH BETTER!!! :)

We had a wonderful easter egg hunt the day before Easter.  The kids got to look around the yard for the eggs.  There were PLENTY to go around.  Here is Addison finding one.

 Here is Andrew finding one, or two, or three!!

Here is Brayden all done finding some. . . the older kids were so quick I didn't even get pictures of them looking!!!

Here's them all at the table with the friends we had over, going though their eggs.

I finally got a picture of Evan. . . he was at the table before I even found him!!

Isn't Andrew cute.  He found the perfect use for that basket of his!!

Of course I had to make a carrot cake!!  and yes, it is ACTUALLY carrot cake inside!!  It turned out cute.

This is Easter morning when the kids found their hidden baskets.  Addison PROMPTLY emptied hers all out, separated the grass from the candy and put the candy back in her basket.  She was the only one to get rid of the grass.  I guess she understands its true value!! Oh, and Addison had my old purple hugga bunch (that I had as a kid) in her basket.  You can barely see it in the picture.  She loves it!

Andrew looking at his Mater Truck that was in his basket.

Brayden got another pirate (Jack Sparrow) for his pirate ship from his birthday!

Evan got a human skeleton to put together.  He loves it!!

I made these YUMMY orange rolls. . . just made them a bit TOO big.  They fell all over the place and my oven was full of smoke because of it!  They were good though.

This is my cute Addison in her Easter dress.  Yes, I made it. . . it turned out ok.  I learned a lot, and she was SUPER cute so overall it worked out.

I never get tired of taking pictures of her cuteness!!  All my kids have such super cute moments.  I'll show you a few in my next blog post!  

Well, that was Easter at the Cobb household this year.  So fun.