Cupcake Wars and A Relaxing Labor Day Weekend

I hope all of my friends and family had a good Labor Day weekend! Ours was super sweet ;)

Michael and I decided that we wanted a do nothing weekend, and it was exactly what we needed!

Saturday morning we took James's 2 year Chair Pictures 

(Link to pictures here)

Then we hit the gym and picked up Mike's new car

After that we had a surprise for our girl!

We took a walk (which is the kid's favorite way to spend family time) to the local grocery store.

Do you see those birds we found on our walk home?!?! 

While James and I picked out dinner Mike and Jenna picked out everything they thought they would need to have our very 1st Family Cupcake Wars!

The Theme was Me... Like Me, Jacqui Reece, Mom, wife, lover of all things sweet! 

While Mike and Jenna made their cupcakes I made dinner "cupcakes"

I call them Steak Fajita ala guacamole cup 

We had dinner while their creations baked

then James and I cuddled with Buzz during the "decoration time" 

Once their time was up it was time for my favorite part

Tasting

Jenna made me chocolate pumpkin cupcakes 

with a chocolate chip crust

And Mike made me pumpkin pie cupcakeswith cream cheese filling

They were pretty and yummy

Though Mike's flowers were very pretty Jenna took the win with the chocolate crust!!

They agreed! 

And Jenna was excited to bring the left overs to her church friends for Sunday school!

Sunday we tried out the new Lions Park (Super Cute)

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Then we went home and the kids played outside while Mike and I spent some alone time, and watched them from the couch 

 Then we had family movie night and foot rubs :)

Monday we took the Labor thing seriously, and started in on our side yard project!

Nothing wrong with a little slave labor right?

James was so freaked out that Jenna was holding a worm ;)

Site supervisor right here ;)

 Oh and that guy right there is Bill he just started helping when he saw Mike working! 

Then another neighbor Lisa showed up with veggies for all of us, and all the kids started playing

I LOVE THIS HOUSE MORE, BECAUSE OF THE NEIGHBORS WE HAVE!

I feel so refreshed and more in love with my husband, kids, and home than ever!

I love times like this when there is nothing you have to be doing just having fun with no one around!

Our New House: Backyard Addition

When we moved into our house there was no fence, no grass, and no patio. 

A year later we are making some progress!

We planted grass and had a big back patio laid 

 Mike built a fence with the help of his dad, sister, and Jenna

Then this spring it was time to make the back corner of our yard "The Kid Zone"

My only job in all of it was drawing a picture, doing some safety research, and Amazon Shopping!

When I was done I gave my work over to Mike and his parents, and they brought my idea to life!

Step 1: Bringing in the wood

Yay having minions (and their caped manager)

Step 2: Foundation, walls, and swing beam 

And Beam testing ;)

Step 3: Putting up railing to make the upstairs of both forts safe. 

And putting up the very important tic tac toe ;)

Kade got to cut all of the railing, and did a fantastic job!

 Jim never wanted to come down once his was "done"

He now knows how to say X, O, and well Roar is what he says for lion

The kids loved working and playing on the "job site" 

I don't really know what they were playing, but ya know... kids! 

And I really don't know why my son prefers to work naked?!?!

Step 4: Painting 

Mike's mom actually did 98% of the painting, because she is awesome like that!

And being the wonderful Grandma she is she always made sure to let the kids "help" her, and spent so much time working on all of the "little details" to make it just right!

Step 5: Put up and paint interior walls 

And then of course trying out the chalk board walls immediately

Step 6: Swings!! 

 Safe to say it was the kid's favorite step so far!

Step 7: Rock wall, fire poll, and chin up bar on the big kids fort

My husband is a trooper those rocks take 6 steps each to put up... he loves all my ideas ;)

Step 7: The roof

I am so glad that we had my father in law's experience for making this project so safe for my kids!

As far as James is concerned Papa hung the moon (for James), and Scott never had a problem slowing down building to teach his boy everything he knows!

Step 8: Stairs (and that darn) Slide... again me and my good ideas 

But the kids love it!!!

Well there is about 50 steps that I am leaving out like the 2 hours it took Michael to build the door I wanted for under Jim's fort, the bench and table Scott made James in 30 seconds without even trying, the little shutters that Sue made just because I thought it would be cute, or the 200 trips to Home Depot that each of them made for more sand, trim, safer parts then came with everything I bought online, more trim, more wood, tools I have never heard of, and oh did I mention trim?

The kids didn't mind that the project was taking a whole month they just played on it anyways ;)

All of that work, and it is finally over! 

Friday morning the Orkin guy sprayed for bugs, then the bark guys blew in 10 yards of bark, and Mike filled up the sand box!

James played in his new kitchen while Mike and I cleaned up the tools, and added the finishing touches!

Here is the upstairs of the kids fort

The down stairs of James's fort from his front window 

And the sand box under the big kids' fort

When the kids got home from school they all got to play on the finished product!

They were super excited!

And here is the reason we paid to have our floor plan flipped when we were building!

So that I could see my kids play from one of my master windows! 

**don't mind my prego belly in the reflection ;)

Now that I sit here uploading pictures for this post I can't help but feel so thankful for my husband and his incredible parents for all the time and money they put into this triangle of dirt just to make our kids happy!