Dinglehop-her she's 6!

Ali turned six!

and we invited her friends to dingle-hop on over for a swimmingly good time shell-ebrating!

Every sea worthy party needs some good eats!

so we had peanut butter and jelly fish sandwiches,

"seaweed"

 sea cucumbers

 & sand dollar cookies,

as well as clam shells

  

and pearls.

the little mermaids were each given a sand pale to hold their treasures and a flower lei to tropically accessorize.

after a land locked lunch, 

it was time to get fishy

(with sebastion says)

and bust out the water works!!!

which quickly turned into a gymnastics meet.

then the drenched party goers came in for some cake

and candles.

The mermaid of honor was showered with enough gifts to fill her trove with treasures.

by these fabulously wonderful water worthy friends!

Ali makes us smile from ear to ear!

She is gorgeous inside and out and we are absolutely obsessed with her cute little six year old self!

2-da-loo!

Alright, no judging...this cake is a little less than our normal all-out-go-at-things...

but she's two and it was just us hooligans, so we opted for simple.

So a popsicle for the pipe-sicle it was!

she didn't mind my ghetto cake one bit!

such dainty little two year old manners

she loved her some chocolate!

wouldn't you say?!

and what did her 2 year old heart desire?

a red radio flyer wagon.

which she rode around the neighborhood in style.

Piper is the most hilariously entertaining addition to our family that we could ever ask for. 

She keeps us smiling and we are completely obsessed with her!

Happy second kid, you make our world a fabulous place!!!

Calling all soldiers...Captain America here.

Cole tuned 8!

and a Captain America Party was in order.

Complete with  party favors. 

That had to be personalized of course!

Party goers were summoned by an urgent message from Captain America, requesting their presence at head quarters, where they were greeted by truly patriotic decor.

Justin worked his cake magic again this year.

he is awefully handy!

the recruits decorated Shields of the frisbee variety,

and immediately put them into action.

Ali adorned her self America style for the festivities, 

as did piper, who put herself to use stealing everyones shoes.

Next up was some cadet cookie decorating.

and eating...

Sgt. Cole was then bestowed with a bounty of gifts from his comrades. 

and finally the cake was devoured.

Cole asked for a sea food feast for his family birthday dinner..I would say daddy delivered!

Over all it was a fabulous day for a fabulous kid!

We sure love you Cole!

the J clan

The week school got out we headed down to St. George!!!!

Justin was in Vegas for a conference and his brothers (Jordan and Jeff) met up with him there. Then they all drove to St. George.

I drove down with the kids to meet them. 

yes you heard that right, I drove, by myself, with 3 children to St. George from Idaho Falls.

Luckily we were able to stop off at Diana (my friend from birth) and her families home close to Salt Lake and break up the trip with a social event and sleep over!

We had lot's of fun with Justin's brothers...and of course didn't want to leave St. George.

We would move back in a heart beat.

Fish

So how many kids do you know who want to have their picture taken with their bus driver?

This is no ordinary bus driver people!

This is FISH.

Fish honks so the kids know he is coming and don't miss the bus.

Fish knows their names.

Fish buys them treats.

Fish let's them stay on the warm bus until the bell rings.

Fish can be heard greeting the kids energetically as they step on the bus every morning ... heard from inside the house!

Fish loves his job.

and it shows.

Fish had piles of cards and gifts at the end of the year from every parent on our route.

and somehow we lucked out and got his again for this new school year!

All good things must come to an end...darn it!

Cole's class finished the year out with an ADORABLE readers theatre and a patriotic program that brought parents to tears! Mom even got to help out with the music for the program! Cole did an awesome job and was the final narrator for the program.

His teacher...oh his teacher. Would that I could clone her and have her every year for everyone of my children. She was that good people. Mrs. Cousin will forever be special to our family. She made an imprint that will forever be present in Cole's life. 

Then it was time for Ali's Kinder graduation!

mom got to help out with the music in the program too!

Ali had a hard time saying goodbye to Mrs. Hale.

She treated ali like her own daughter and Ali knew she was so loved.

She even came to Ali's Tee Ball game!

Ali loved Kindergarten...especially all the social fun there is to be had there!

Here she is with cute Hailee.

What a FABULOUS year!!!!