Happy 7th Birthday Nicole!

Wow...it's hard for this mama to believe that Nicole is already 7! Where did the time go? She had a wonderfully spread out birthday celebration. It started with dinner with the family on Monday night. Dad and the boys are on a service project to the cape until Saturday. So we celebrated with a carefully selected meal of sloppy joes, and fiddlehead ferns, sweet potato chips, and triple oreos for dessert! Wow! Nicole opened her gifts from us that night, too.

Then...two days later on her real birthday...she had a special breakfast and went to school, and then had Grampa Dave and Grammie Linda and our friend Andrea over for another special birthday meal at supper time.  On the menu for breakfast was:  chocolate chip oatmeal pancakes (great Grammie's recipe), and bacon and apple juice. For supper was:  corn chowder, corn bread, and a special graham cracker dessert (sugar free). She had a great celebration!

 Happy Birthday Beautiful Nicole! We Love You!!

What do you get when you put together the Winslow family, the Lowman family, and the Bennett family??---25 kids and 3 grown ups all having a great day!

 That's right...and it was a great day!

Once a month we try and get together with two of our favorite families--the Bennetts and the Lowmans. In December we did gingerbread houses at the Bennett's home in Raymond. That was awesome! In January we got together for a day of winter fun at the Lowman's home, also in Raymond. In February and March we  all went to the New Bible Conference Homeschool Snow Days in Rumney. That was wonderful! So...April was my turn to host here in Barnstead! We had a wonderful day!

We started the day with a long walk to a little beach and playground. The kids all had a blast! Back at home we had a make your own taco lunch! That was yummy! Cindy made homemade tortillas and everyone thought those were great! We had icecream cones and cake and Cindy's now famous whoopie pies for dessert!

The kids enjoyed some trampoline time and tractor rides by Edward after lunch! The Bennetts stayed for supper, which was really nice, too! We had a great game of All in the Family after supper! Benjamin Bennett won with the name "Jack"...no one remembered his name. 

A great day was had by all! Next get together is at the Bennett's in May!! These dear friends that we have had for the past 14 years or so. Such sweet Christian fellowship! It's so amazing to stay in touch and love on one another!

The girls had so much fun together....left to right...Naomi, Grace, Chelsea, and Maddie

What do you get when you have pails and shovels water, and a sunny day?? Great fun!

There was a wonderful playground, and the tire swing as you will see was a BIG hit!

Rosie had a great time, too!

Some were tired on the 1.5 mile walk home!

Just had to put a photo of the 3 big vans in my driveway!

A braiding party--Grace, then Madelyn, then Lilly.

Thank you Edward for the tractor rides!! They were great!

Everyone had fun on the trampoline and playground, too!

The Bennetts joined us for dinner. Such wonderful fellowship!

We ended the day with a rousing game of All in the Family--With names like Aunt Ida, Vay, Bay, Joshua 24:15, I love Nicole, Reebok, Luke Lego, Batman, Superman, and Callie to name a few!

We love you Bennett and Lowman families!

A Mommy in the Making!

The other day Nicole wanted to be just like me and have her baby in a "sling". And so...we made a sling out of one of Rosie's baby blankets. She wore her baby around all day long! We went for a walk and she wore her on the walk, too! It was so sweet! She also had the highly coveted job of baby helper that day, and so you can see she "wore" her baby while feeding Rosie! Sort of multi-tasking I would say! I can't think of a better thing to be training for than being a Mama!

 

Happy 21st Birthday Gabe!!!

Family is such a blessing to my heart! Imagine my excitement to hear from my brother Mike in Hawaii that he and his son Gabe would be visiting with us this week! We haven't seen Gabe since he was 4 years old, none of my children at home had ever met Gabe, and he'd be celebrating his 21st birthday with us!! What an amazing gift from the Lord! Take a peek for yourself!

Gabe and Edward and Jon loved playing soldier!!

We love you Uncle Mike!!!

Have you ever had a friend that listened to EVERYTHING you said??? I mean EVERYTHING?? Well...this is the type of friendship that Gabe and Jon developed instantly! It was sooo cool!

Uncle Mike does facetime with Miriam!

Gabe's birthday breakfast on the fancy birthday dishes! He had a giant pancake and bacon and fruit salad and apple juice.

That evening we all piled into our 15 passenger van for a special birthday dinner at Happy Family restaurant in        Epsom. . Glenn, Great Grammie Winslow, Grampa Dave, Grammie Linda, Uncle Mike, Gabe, Me, Madelyn, Grace, Elisha, Edward, Jonathan, Nicole and Rosie! Wow!

Joining us at the restaurant were Chris and Brittany and our precious granddaughter Marlie!! Such a treat!! Also joining us were Gabe's other Grandmother Connie, and her daughter Heidi, and Heidi's daughter Bekah. Here is the whole gang! There were 19 of us all together!

Marlie meets her Auntie Rosie! Crazy, huh??

Marlie really loved Rosie!

We enjoyed a few rounds of the telephone game after we ate! It was really fun!!

After dinner we came back to our home for some homemade icecream cake and presents!

Great Grammie enjoyed the fellowship, too!

It was Uncle Mike's 46th birthday last week on the 26th of April so we celebrated that, too!

Gabe had a great time opening his gifts!

He was especially excited by the scratch tickets from Grampa!

 Happy Birthday Gabe! We love you! Now...promise us we won't wait another 17 years before we see you again, okay???