What's going on with the Nuno's

A couple weeks before this dude turned 5 we moved into a cute, old farmhouse with the most beautiful view around. It was kind of chilly one night so we found the mugs and hot chocolate amongst the boxes.

....and got our big old couch along with everything else out of storage (it was like Christmas for the kids getting all their toys out of storage that they haven't seen in 1 1/2 years - I should lock their toys away more often so they appreciate them more).

Here is a shot of the view from the back deck. I always catch the kids just jumping and looking off into the sunset:). Oh, and I am in love with the cute, red barn.

CD is my baker/chef boy. He insists on helping me make dinner every night and was excited when we unpacked this kids baking stuff. He whipped up some cheddar and olive biscuits.

For his 5th birthday party I reverted to my inner chemistry nerd and turned into a mad scientist.

We made lava lamps (oil, water, food coloring - then drop broken up pieces of alka seltzer into the bottle - very cool!), elephant toothpaste (peroxide, food coloring, dish soap, yeast in a bottle - toothpaste looking stuff starts pouring out of the top), Flubber for everyone to take home, swirling colors of milk (whole milk on a plate with drops of food coloring, touch it with a q-tip with dish soap on it and the colors dart all over the milk), we put ivory soap in the microwave (just try it - got the best kid reaction from that one), tornado bottles, and the only dud experiment was the exploding sandwich bags (I should have used stronger ziploc bags instead of the cheap brand). Sent kids home with flubber, composition notebooks, pencils, and compass' and our new 5 year old was happy.

As far as Carlos is concerned, a party isn't a party without a pinata either, so CD picked out a kickin' Monster Truck one (which he's very into these days) and we went through the line at least 3 times before it finally broke.

I made a karate cake as requested

My cute Dwight likes his long locks to be combed a certain way and likes to make them completely smooth.

Have I mentioned I love our backyard view?

Diana, Whitney and I had another successful season of coaching the Timberhill Harrier youth track and field team and this year our group swelled from 14 kids to 38! Here are most of them before our practice meet.

Cousins in the exchange zone

Lookin smooth

One night we went out in the tall grass in the little orchard (2 apple trees) and had fun until way after dark.

After Rivers' style review fashion show

Reagan is such a shopper already (which I am not). This is arguably the best toy store ever and Reagan was loading up her cart.

And there's always lots of playing in the ditches and fields of flowers.

I got CD some work gloves his size and it was the best purchase I ever made because now he wants to help with all the outside work so he can use his gloves.

Something I've been very excited about lately is my new mountain bike from my Mom. Whitney and I initiated it in the mud of Decker Rd. (should have taken a picture on the wild trails) and it has been so much fun. Whitney and I agreed that we're glad no one can see our faces as we fly down the trails because we have huge, crazy smiles on our faces.

Here are Amber and Whit at the top of Dimple Hill. This was a super duper ride too and we want to start a girls mountain biking group.

Summer life is good buzzing around the farm in this (Cassidy's new toy).

Cozied up and ready to watch Dora

I could hear Dreyton playing next to this tree in a little fort while I was in the garden so I wasn't worried, until I went to check on him and he had climbed so far up this tree that I could barely see him. Can you spot him? I freaked and tried to climb up to get him, but there were so many branches I couldn't make it to him, so I climbed half way up and had to watch him make his way down, hoping he wouldn't fall. Even when he got to me he wouldn't let me help him one bit.

For Carlos and I's 12th Anniversary I went golfing with him. I'm not really into the sport but figured that would be a nice thing to do since he loves it. It was fun just hanging out with him and driving the cart around.

Then we went to the best place in the world (no joke) for dinner and it is just a couple miles down the road from us. It's called Gathering Together Farms and they organically grow everything they serve and you can seriously taste the freshness. Mmmm, Mmmmm good.

Just another day in paradise

Here's my cute baker boy again.

Rivers did a kids triathlon in May. Here she is being tough in the pool....

...on the bike (smiling)

....and running it in.

Whitney and I accidentally dress alike about 75% of the time when we meet to go running. People already get us confused and think we're twins, so it's kind of embarrassing and funny that we show up matching so much.

When Amber asked what she should get CD for his birthday, I asked him what he's into right now and his response was "Monster Trucks......and dinosaurs". So, she pulled out her old monster truck cut-off she wore to a white trash party and gave it to him and he rocked it. Love that handsome face!

We celebrated Rivers' 10th birthday a little bit early with her friends since we were going to be gone on her real birthday. Like usual she planned her party and wanted to hike to the top of Bald Hill, have a picnic and then go to her Oma's house to play night games. Here is the whole crew at the top. Carlos had to force the boys to get in the picture with the girls. Such a funny age.

Cute cousins looking sharp at church

In the midst of all this birthday planning, moving, end of the school year stuff, I also had to submit my thesis and study for my 3 hour oral exam to finally finish up graduate school. I was up many, many late nights and early mornings to get things done while the kids were asleep and this was the day after I took my exams. I felt like I was running on adrenaline for a couple of weeks and finally crashed.

Oh yeah....T-ball. As a fielder CD would sprint to wherever the ball was hit and tackle his own teammates to get the ball. He was proud of himself for "stealing" the ball. We had to go over the rules with him.

Since we sold our dining table last time we moved and haven't gotten a new one yet, the kids like to eat dinner on the trampoline. Makes clean up easy.