I'm a Pro...

...well, not really, but I'll pretend!

I had my first paying paint job this week. 

I transformed Katie's room in 3 days... I'm 99% sure I had some happy "customers" by the end of that 3rd day. ;)

Riley turned 11!!

Riley is another year older... "sniff, sniff"

We started out with presents... More Star Wars Legos from Reece, and a new Mario Wii game from mom and dad. I think he was pretty happy...

We had a 3 hour realtor tour, so we needed to get out of the house. Jake took the boys fishing... Riley got lucky and caught a tiny one! Yay!!

Later, Jackson came over and we went to see Man of Steel in 3D... they all loved it!

 Afterwards they all played Riley's new Wii game for hours!!! I could barely get them to stop to eat!

We didn't light the candles until 9:30... they were having too much fun!
I made a cookies and cream cake. I made it once a couple months ago, and Riley LOVED it!
Look at all of those candles!! They had an extra glow to them.

Love that happy grin!! 

Happy Birthday, Riley! Hope this is a wonderful year! We love you!

***
Favorite dinner: Macaroni and Cheese
Favorite dessert: Cookies and Cream Cake
Favorite restaurant: Olive Garden
Best Friend: Terry
Favorite TV show: Spongebob (since 18 months)
Favorite clothes: ???
Favorite book:Percy Jackson and the Last Olympian
Favorite movie: Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief
Favorite thing to do outside: Basketball
Favorite sport: Basketball
Favorite food: Macaroni & Cheese
Favorite animal: Dog
Favorite game: Super Mario Sports Mix (Wii) Stratigo (Board)
What do you want to be when you grow up? Video game designer

Father's Day

Sadly, Jake had to work on 'his' day. I did my best to cater to him the rest of the day...

We are about to go through a time with Jake in CO and the boys and I still here in KS. I got Jake a couple pictures from our rafting trip framed to take with him. His new position will give him his very own office, so he can have a picture or two of us... this will be new to him!

The boys babysat the couch, while dad was off working hard... so we sent him an "I love you" text.

His big gift will be a mini shopping spree... Jake just wrapped up his second round of Insanity (well, almost. He was just days away from completing it, but we got our house on the market and returned the DVDs to the owner.) Six months of Insanity means his clothes don't exactly fit him anymore. I had no idea what sizes to get, so we are going to go off together and get some "skinny Jake" clothes.

To end his day, we got him a Dairy Queen cupcake ice cream cake... just an individual size ice cream cake. He felt pretty special. Happy Father's Day, Hun! Thanks for all you do for us!!

Baby Boy Baby Shower

Last Saturday, we made a whirlwind trip up to Prairie Village for my sister in law, Kait's, baby shower. She is expecting her first boy, making me an aunt for the 19TH TIME! I can't wait... although, with my pending move, I need that baby to come oh..... 7 weeks early??? Unlikely. I'm a bit bummed.

So I snapped some pictures at the shower... 4 to be exact. And not a single human made it an any of them.... oops!!! Well, just to note, Kait is looking SUPER CUTE!! She is measuring 3 weeks big and they were worried about her having gestational diabetes, that was a 'no'... both mom and dad were large babies, so you do the math. Good luck with that, sis!!! I'm going to have a chubby nephew to love from afar!

These I loved! Party favor cookies. They are baby pictures of both mom and dad.

Looking at these, I believe my nephew will have some chunky cheeks to love on!
Come on baby boy!!!

Under Contract

 So our house went on the market Monday, we had 2 showings on Tuesday. With the first showing we got an offer! It has a contingency... They need to get their house sold, but they are going to do everything they need to do to make sure they don't lose our house. 

I really felt confident that our house would sell, but not after just one showing. We even got full asking price. I just hope this continues to go smoothly as well as the rest of the relocation process. 

The buyer is Riley's fourth grade teacher...it makes me feel so good that, that one person walked in and loved my house the way I love it. At the end of the day, it is still 106 years old and flawed, but to have someone see past the flaws just like Jake and I obviously did when we bought it, feels amazing!!!

End of Year Report

I got the boy's end of year report cards. Everything is about the same as usual...no surprises!

The boys get graded on a scale 1-5. 3 is meets grade level expectations...

Riley is at a 4 in reading.
Mrs. Viola left a nice note: "Riley has been a joy to work with. He has a lot on the ball and I have faith and certainty he will do well in middle school. I will miss him, yes, I will."

Writing: 3
Spelling: 97% which was averaged from his 95% core words and 100% priority words.
Math: 3
Science: 3
Social Studies: 3
Art: 4
     Mrs. Kibler wrote: "Riley is a teacher's dream student- friendly, attentive, and hardworking! I will miss him next year!"

Music: 4
PE: 3 and 5
     Mrs. Stockman: "Riley is a wonderful kid! Great leader and hard worker!"

Lastly, a nice note from his teacher, Mrs. Smith: "Riley, I am so proud of you and all your hard work this year! Your future is so bright and I am looking forward to watching you SHINE! Keep up the hard work in middle school and you will go far!

I also received his state assessment scores...
Reading: 86%, exceeds standards
Math: 93%, exemplary. (That makes 3 years in a row! woohoo!)
****
Next up, Reece...

Reading: 4
Writing: 3
Spelling: 97% test average, 100% priority word spelling
Math: 3, 95% test average
Science: 3
Social Studies: 3
Art: 4
Music: 3 and 4
PE: 4 and 5
      "Had a great semester in physical education! Reece is a good leader!" ~ Mrs. Kibler
Lifeskills: All 4's

This wraps up their 2nd and 5th grade year! Now on to 3rd and 6th in a new school and new town!

For Sale

Look what finally bloomed, just in time to put the house on the market.

It's official... sign and all!

Random Leftovers

Leftover pictures from our time in Colorado.

Air Reece at the hotel pool.

As a kid, I was always referred to as a "fish." Well, Reece has taken over that title...he couldn't get enough. This picture was taken at about 10pm, when mom forced him out of the pool.

Jake's new work.

A shot from the Lowe's parking lot... I personally love the Target cart.  Yep! I'll be living close to a Target again! Yay!

I could live in a town called No Name... but I'll pass.

We hit the windmills late Saturday night... and it was stormy!

My fun illustration for a vacation!
***
Thursday, right after we got off the roller coaster, we got off  another roller coaster, so to speak. Jake was offered an HR manager position in Colorado. He had applied for it a couple months ago, and the process had been up in the air until then. Now we are on a new roller coaster... it's called selling a house, finding a place to live, and relocating 625 miles away. The boys took it well! They are a little sad, but very excited. It will be quite a lifestyle change, but we will make the best of this newest adventure.

Day 3: Glenwood Cavern Adventure Park

Day 3, we took a tram all the way up the mountain to a small amusement park. It was so much fun! They had plenty of indoor and outdoor features, so you could get outside to warm up and inside to cool down. The views were amazing! There was even a roller coaster called "The Cliffhanger" that went over the edge of the mountain a couple times. We were in the very back, so you never realized you went over the edge at all! This was Reece's very first roller coaster. He was brave, but not brave enough to go a second time.

Tram entrance this way!

Riley didn't care for the Tram at first... but it got easier. You move quickly, then it comes to a shaky halt for a bit, then it moves up again. Fastest way to get to the top!

A nervous Riley... but I'm so proud of him for keeping his composure!

Going up, uP and UP!

The view as we got higher.

Cave tours were included. The caves stay the same temperatures all year long... I found that strange. 55* is what the coolest part of the cave was. I found it refreshing! 

The look out point, halfway through our cave tour... Reece was annoyed with mom and the sun here.

I forced dad to do this swing. It was amazing!! I'd do it over and over... Jake got his breath taken away. Maybe it was because we were looking straight down at rugged sandstone rock? The swing went a hair more than 180* and we were told it runs off hydraulics, so the hotter the day, the faster it swings. The boys sat this one out and Riley took this awesome photo of us.

I had to force and drag Riley onto the zipline... it was a scary walk up lots of stairs,  and I held his hand the entire time, and we survived!! It was much slower than it looked, and Riley will do it again!

A couple fun 4D movies! They are so realistic, you'd think we were actually on a roller coaster.

Team McMillan!
These were our all day passes to the park... you could even leave and come back. How can you NOT be happy wearing these???

Our favorite ride. The Flyer. You controlled how fast and slow you went... although if you go too slow, people behind you get annoyed. I started off easy with Riley, but by the end of the day we were zooming down the mountain! 

Lunch with a view! It was amazing!

Part of our cave tour... my pictures are out of order again!

The tram... again. It was located right outside of our hotel. How perfect!

Day 2: Whitewater Rafting

I've always wanted to whitewater raft... and Jake made it happen! 

The water was FREEZING, but it was so worth it. 

They say this is the best time to go, because the spring run off causes the water levels to be higher and the rapids to be more fun. Both boys (especially Riley) were a little nervous, but it didn't take long for that to go away, and everyone to relax and enjoy the scenery. You can take so much more in floating down the river, than you can driving through the mountains. Our morning guide was Lucas and he had us laughing... you have to be entertaining to make it in these kinds of jobs I suppose. Then we had Jared in the afternoon, after they fed us a yummy BBQ lunch. He was great too, but he informed us that he had only done the 2nd part of the trip one other time, so he didn't know much about that portion, and he needed to concentrate a bit more to see what was coming ahead. Before we stopped for lunch, we had the chance to sit in a natural hot spring... Reece dove on in and loved it. Jake, Riley and I couldn't bring ourselves to get in. The sulfur smell and the algae just didn't look appealing. Maybe next time... Enjoy the pictures we purchased from the company! They turned out great! I wish Riley would have taken his turn up front so he would have been more visible.