Watch Out . . .

for the new members of the Justice League!

Impressive muscles, no?

Kinser Family Update

And baby makes 6!

(coming Jan 2012)

July 4th, 2011!

I love the 4th of July!  It's become one of my favorite holidays.  This year we spent it with Russell's extended family.  We went to Aunt Vickie's for swimming and a potluck dinner.

Madylin relaxing in the pool

Morgan enjoying the sun

Nathan aka "The Fish"  He loooves to swim and isn't afraid at all!

After dinner we headed to Aunt Lynne and Uncle Max's house for homemade ice cream and fireworks.

Here is our patriotic brood. . .

(Great thing about girls- some cute leggings and last year's dresses can be used again!)

Madylin is staring at her pretty toes that cousin Crystina had just painted for her.  It took several shots to get one where she'd look up!

2 years ago this was me and 3 cousins on the 4th of July

Here are 3 of the 4 little patriotic boys from those bellies  . . . (Cody Bogh had not arrived with his parents yet unfortunately, and we didn't get another one once he had)

Braden Fisher, Luke Fisher, Nathan

We watched the fireworks from lawn chairs near the street so we could see the show at the University of Redlands.  During the show Nathan kept saying "cooool" and "spockly" (sparkly). He loved it.

My ALL-TIME favorite picture from the 4th is this from the ride home after fireworks:

He would not put this flag down.  He kept calling it his "own flag," as in when it dropped he'd say "uh-oh! Drop own flag! Drop own flag!"

Here is my favorite with some editing:

We Graduate!

Besides enjoying the sun, the month of June was also about Commencement ceremonies in this house.  Russell and I both finished requirements for our bachelor's degrees in March and we both got to "walk" in June.

Russell graduated from the University of Phoenix on June 4th with a BS in Business Administration.

There were a TON of graduates, but the UoP officiators really knew what they were doing (although they started like 40 min late).  They were very efficient and very fast and the whole ceremony only lasted about 2 hours once it started even though there were over 1,000 graduates.  Russell's parents and I were in attendance.

I graduated (with honors! - just like to throw that in to bug Russell) from California State University, San Bernardino on June 19th with a BA in Human Development

There were less graduates, but it was soooo long because the University president, Dr. Karnig likes to talk to each of the graduates for a second as he shakes their hand.  Here he is shaking my hand and he asked me what I was going to do with a degree in Human Development.  I told him that for now I would be at home taking care of 3 little ones and he said, very sincerely, "Well, that is a great thing to be able to do."  President Karnig used to be at all the volleyball games and he even had the volleyball team to his house once for a dinner.  Such a great man and I was happy he was the one to shake my hand.

It was also really great to be in the beautiful arena where I spent some of the best days of my life playing volleyball.  I love that place and as I sat and listened to speeches I got to look around at all the volleyball banners for conference and regional championships that I was a part of earning and just reflect on memories and think about what a  great college experience I was able to have.

My parents, Russell, and my brother Steven were all in attendance at my ceremony.

 Thanks to our families for supporting us and thanks to our kids for putting up with Dad's busy nights doing homework on the computer and Mom's dropping them off with babysitters multiple times each week from November to March.  Thanks to our families for helping watch the kids while I finished school this Winter (especially Jessica and Mitch!)  We couldn't have done it without help and we are so excited to be finished!

Enjoying June

Russell has been home for most of June and we have been having some fun in the sun:

In our little pool in the backyard

Enjoying some post-swimming fruit snacks

Nathan just being adorable while swimming at Aunt Kami and Uncle Mark's

We went to the beach in Carlsbad and although the air was a little chilly- the kids loved it this year!

Sporting their new sunglasses while snacking at the beach

First Haircut!

We decided to cut Morgan and Madylin's hair for Summer.  It was beautiful long, but they hated when I had to brush it out and they hated having me wash their hair.  Shorter hair has been soooo nice for all 3 of us!  The girls love it.

Madylin before and after her first haircut

Morgan before and after first haircut.

I do miss their long hair a bit- I won't keep it this short, but it is nice for Summer when we are swimming a lot and sweating in the heat!

The Twins' Rainbow Birthday Party

The girls and I decided to have a rainbow-theme birthday party this year.  Now, I love throwing parties and  showers with themes that I can incorporate into everything and I went crazy and thoroughly enjoyed doing every last detail of this party.  My good friend Jessica took some amazing photos of those details so here are a TON of pictures!

First of all here is the invitation:

And here is the view when you walked into the party

I sewed strips of colored paper together to make the hanging garlands and made tons of paper pinwheels to put everywhere.  My mom did most the work sewing together that AMAZING tablecloth using plastic tablecloths from the dollar store and sewing them to an old sheet.

I used paint samples and favorite pictures of the girls to add some more color and personal touches to the decor.

Sweets Table

Instead of doing a meal I really wanted to have a sweet/dessert table and make everything really bright and colorful and fun.  On this table we had:

Rainbow layered jell-o

I covered oreos in white chocolate and then used colored glace icing and colored sprinkles to pretty them up. They were sooo good.

Sour rainbow-striped airheads rolled and stuck with a toothpick for easy grabbing

One of my favorite treats- jell-o coated popcorn. I made 6 different flavors

Easy chocolate and sprinkle- covered pretzel rods

Twizzlers with their label on a colored popsicle stick easel

Chocolate cupcakes with vanilla frosting and fun toppers

The kids stayed outside mostly, playing on the swingset, making rainbow crafts, playing in the mini bounce-house, or playing with the bean-bag toss.

Madylin, Morgan & Nathan. My parents made this for a bean bag toss game and for photo ops.

Morgan colors her rainbow with markers

Madylin gluing dyed pasta to her rainbow template.  I dyed flower shaped pasta in 6 colors and they turned out sooo pretty and bright!

The cake had 6 layers- one of each color of the rainbow we were using.  I made a simple pennant bunting by gluing colored felt to twine and lined the bottom of the cake with chewy lemonheads in rainbow order.

Blowing out the candles on their six-tier cake

I wish I could plan a party like this every year for each of  my kids- but I don't think my husband would allow that!  This was so much fun!