Totally Random June

Just another morning in my house, nothing to see here:

Testing out the equipment for his baby brother:

Awww, brotherly bonding:

I think Bryson is really feeling it that he's going to be gone in a few months!

Is he getting ready to shave or eating yogurt??

Diggin':

Bryson and some friends at Silverwood:

Soooo much fun with balloons from graduation:

I  just.... 

Ugh....

No.

Nathan changed the shocks and struts on the Mazda at my brother Perry's shop.  I was there for moral support and Tyler was there to play:

Loving my new peonies this year!

Pretty sure he was doing some business:

Too cute with his hands in his pockets:

Eli thought it was about the coolest thing when I let him stand up out of the sunroof after we passed our gate one afternoon:

Trying to catch bugs?

Love this boy:

Rockford Baseball

I was a little surprised when Hailee said she wanted to play baseball again this year, but glad she was willing to give it another try.  She and Jace were able to be on the same "Rockford Raiders" team which meant a lot less craziness for me!

 We didn't get a team picture because pictures were on Jace's birthday and they both wanted to skip the game to go out on Dan's boat, so... 

Double Digits!

Since Bryson and Dallin were leaving for Chicago the night before Jace's actual birthday, I let him decide if he wanted to celebrate early or not.  In the past, he's willingly put off celebrating his birthday for a few days so every one could be there, so I wasn't really surprised that he wanted to celebrate early this year.  I think he's caught on that it means he basically gets special treatment for extra days... 😊

So Sunday night we had cake!

On his actual birthday he requested pancakes w/ heavenly syrup, bacon and scrambled eggs:

We went out to run some errands so we stopped by Wendy's for lunch:

Jace has been asking for a new bike for his birthday- he jumped at the chance to go to the store to pick out which bike he wanted!

Later that afternoon, Uncle Dan took us all out on his boat:

I don't think Tyler remembered anything about boats from last summer (that was like, half a lifetime ago!) and he was in heaven!

Jace got up on the surf board with Kyla!

Ty Ty tried driving every chance he got:

Nathan surfed a little too:

It was a fun filled jam packed birthday for Jace 💗

Day Camp

I got to hang out with Jace and like eleventy thousand 10 and 11 year olds at day camp this week.  It was actually really fun to see the kids trying new activities and just being silly kids.  Archery, bb guns, a water obstacle course, and dancing half naked?  Jace loved it!

 

Summer Fun!

HOORY FOR SUMMER VACAY!!

We've been living for this for the last several weeks months!  The weather is perfect, there's very little on the calendar, we can sleep in late and play all day *sigh*

It's always so poetic when late August rolls around and we're all so excited for school 😂 

We're staying busy playing in the sprinklers:

Riding bikes at the track:

And swimming in the pool:

Happy Summer!

Numero Uno

Proud day here in the Cotton Family.  

You're looking at the first place finisher (out of two) in the Bona Classic Golf Tournament.

 

8th Grade Graduation

It was a gorgeous day for 8th grade graduation!  Freeman has such a cool little ceremony for the 8th graders, this year it was a Hawaiian theme, so the kids dressed accordingly.

Unfortunately at the moment Eli walked up to get his promotion certificate, the sun did something wonky so his picture turned out so dark!

I can hardly believe this kid is moving into high school:

After the ceremony, there was a party for the kids with a photo booth, games, prizes, music and dancing.  I helped plan and set it up and hung out for a little bit- Eli was just fine with me leaving though.

Since his graduation was the night before the last day of school, he doesn't have to go to school the last day as all the other kids, well, all the other kids except Bryson... he's been out of school all week! 💕

6th Grade Rockets

It's so fun how much each of my 'younger' kids (ie: not Bryson) sees the things their older siblings do and then eagerly anticipate their turn.  Especially since at Freeman, there are so many traditions of what each grade 'does': from kindergarten 'leprechaun traps' to 8th grade promotion... for Hailee this year, it was 6th grade rockets!

She painted it gold, named it nuclear bomb (complete with the word "KABOOM" written on the side of it) and was excited to let it fly:

After a few aborted attempts and some troubleshooting, there was finally liftoff!  Mostly a sideways liftoff, but it's a learning process!  She didn't even care that it went more over than up, she was just excited that it launched (after so many countdowns to nothing) AND that she was able to retrieve it!