Boys go to Gma's for a visit

So last week my boys went on their annual summer visit to Grandma's (Marty's parents). My boys are the only cousins that live far away, so it's nice that they get to see all their cousins when they visit. It's also nice that Marty's older sister, Amy, is a teacher so she's off in the summer to help with taking care of B and b and doing fun things with them.....like shooting cousin Garrett's bb gun......see below. I believe they were shooting frogs in the lagoon.
I love this pic as it would be great to know what they were talking about or strategizing.

Blake gets his turn with a little help from Garrett.

Again Blake gets a little help from Brett.

This is another good pic...would love to know what the discussion is.

Another fav....my boys.....

Brett taking his shot.

More discussion.

The boys also got to spend sometime with Marty's brothers girls...Karlie and Emily....here is my beautiful niece Karlie Ann.

Brett went boating with Amy and family the first day he got there and learned how to knee board. (Guess what Marty and Brett bought today to have at our lakehouse....yep a knee board).

Here is my other beautiful niece, Erica, she's the oldest of the Albright 6-pack.

Brett and Garrett...these two have been hooked at the hips since Brett was born (they are about 18 months apart).

My other beautiful niece, Emily.

Here's all four of them on the tube....Garrett, Brett, Emily, and Erica.

The week also included a little pool time at Aunt Amy's.

And you can't go to Grandma's and not have a weenie roast.

Emily and Brett bringing the drinks for lunch.

Again I would love to know the conversation around this campfire.

The boys also got to go frog hunting with Trent (sister in law Kays beau) which is something Brett always looks forward to and Blake got to go to this year. It's definately one of the highlights. Thanks Trent for taking the boys. Also thanks to the rest of the Albright clan for having the boys. They love their time on the farm as much as I love my time home. My week without the boys was quiet and productive. I made sure I got a pedicure (the best one I've had in a long time), went on two dates with Marty (dinner out twice and a movie....a chic flick even) and did a little shopping kid free.

Birthday's and Father's day at the Lake

As I said in an earlier post tonight we celebrated my nephew's bday along with my brother's GF, Jenn's bday and of course Father's day this weekend at the lake. It was great weather and we all had a good time, especially 3 little boys. They enjoyed swimming, playing whiffle ball, kick ball, running around burning energy that we all wish we had just a 1/4 of.

Does this not scream summer or what? Shirtless boys eating corn on the cob!!
My mom also found some party poppers for them to do. These pics of Blake doing them are so funny...his facial expressions are great. No he is not crying, he's just anticipating the "pop".

Love this face....

My mom also brought a large inflatable ball that the boys could crawl inside of and roll around the yard in....kind of like what hamsters do in their plastic ball. Unfortunately when you by anything inflatable the chance that a hole with occur is great....this is what happened to their ball so they preceeded to flatten it by jumping on it. I love this action shot of Steel.

This is Jenn and I with her birthday gift I made for her. Check out the previous blog to see all the detail of it.

Scott, Steel and Jenn. Great Smiles by all, even the croc cake!!

My brother, Scott and his son, Steel.

The 3 boys!!

Steel and his "croc cake". Jenn has made Steel's bday cake for the lake the last 3 years, so far she's made a spider cake, a snake cake and this year he asked for a crocodile cake. She does an amazing job and they are always a hit. However she did tell Steel he needs to tone down his cake request for next year.

Such a cool cake!!

Steel and his presants!!

As I said before we all had a great time at the lake but then we usually do when you have great family and friends to share it with.

Andover Sluggers end their 2011 Season

Brett ended his baseball season last Thursday. My mom was able to come down and see him play which was great for him. I don't know their game record or Brett's batting average but I know it was a pretty good year in both and even if it wasn't playing this year was the funnest season yet. We had a great couple of coaches and a great group of boys. So fun to watch. Next year might be a whole different story as it will be the first year for 'kid pitch'. Any of us that played as kids remember how long this season lasted. We hope to play with the same group of kids as it's nice to keep those friendships.

Brett at bat.
2011 Andover Sluggers. (The little guy in red was younger brother to one of our players and served as bat boy).

Thanks for a great season Sluggers and we hope to see you all next year.

Blog posting overload...

Just so you know this is one of many posts to my blog. And it's not because I haven't posted forever it's just that the last week or so we have had so much going on that there's so much to talk about. This post is mostly of projects that I've finished that are gifts and have finally been given and it's safe to post the pics.

This tile was ordered by my mom for some good friends of theirs, daughter, Nicole, who is getting married in October. Nicole has said she will have the tile on the guest book table at the wedding. My parents had Nicole, fiance James and our friends Randy and Cindy out for supper a couple weeks ago to celebrate Randy and Cindy's 35th wedding anniversary. Mom gave each of them a tile. Congrats to both of them!!

On Sunday I attended a baby shower for Marty's cousin and gave them a Tub Time bucket full of bath goodies/necessities. Baby Danenberg will be joining our family in August. Today happens to be the actual birthday for my brother's GF, Jenn. She turned the Big 3-0! and did it in fine fashion. We actually celebrated with her this weekend at the lake along with my nephew, Steel, whose 7th bday was June 7th!! The next several pics are what I put together for Jenn's gift. When I asked her what she wanted she said she wanted sweet corn (which we had with our meal on Saturday night) and diamonds...(hint hint...lil' brother!!) So this what I came up with.
A zebra printed charger plate with a hot pink "J".
A zebra printed bottle koozie with a hot pink "J" and some pink boa and a diamond charm on the zipper on the back...see below.I also asked my friend Summer who makes these wine glasses for Pink Boa if she had any catchy phrases for turning 30 and I decided on 30 and Flirty along with a "J", bling on the glass and filled with pink and white "diamonds". I was also able to put a large diamond ring on the stem as a wine glass charm along with "Happy Birthday Jenn" on the stem.

And the finished product.....chocolate covered strawberries are her fav!!.

Not only did we celebrate Jenn and Steel's birthday this weekend but of course Father's day. This year for dad's day I made Marty a frosted powercat mirror. He hasn't decided where he's going to put it yet, but I will probably mention that there's a spot in the wet bar downstairs.

I think that is all the projects I've finished lately. I hope to update my tabs (at the top of the blog) soon with pics since it's been quite sometime since I did that.

Bill Snyder Football Camp 2011

Friday was KSU Football Camp for Brett and my nephew Steel. The boys thought it was really fun and awesome to run on the field. Blake even got to run on the field as he was getting bored watching and waiting for the older boys to get done so I took him down to the field and had him run.... and run and run. The camp lasted 4 hours with the first 45 min. to run around on the turf, kick, throw footballs to each other etc. Then Coach Snyder gave a little speech and from there they broke out into groups and about did 8 different stations with KSU assistant coaches and players. Here are a few pics from the day.....

Blake was excited to see Willie and got a picture with him.
Coach Snyder came down and hung out at the north end zone to watch the kids play. He was also very gracious in signing autographs, talking to the kids and taking pics. Definately a highlight for Brett and Steel.

The new turf was pretty cool...the colors were so vibrant!!

Here is Brett at one of his stations.....he's on the left side of the pic with grey shorts and shoes.

Brett at the quarterback station, throwing the ball to Samuel Lamur.

At the end of camp Coach Snyder came out again and gave one of his famous motivational speeches to 'young people'.

Former player, Joe Gordon, also got the kids rallied with his antics. This guy has got more energy than 4 toddlers I think. It was fun to see him get the boys excited about football.

Once the boys were dismissed they were given the option to tour the locker rooms and have pics taken. Brett sat in several lockers for pics but I posted these because we are excited to see what Bryce and Arthur Brown (Wichita natives) can bring to our Cats.

And as usual I can't leave the stadium without a few photo ops with the boys.

Nephew Steel has learned to humor his Aunt Steph and her picture taking.

All in all it was a good day. After camp we went to So Long Saloon in Aggieville for lunch and saw Coach Martin having lunch also. It's always great to visit Manhappiness and seems like we or I, never have enough time to really see/shop all the new business. Someday soon I hope to go back without a schedule and kids.