THE FRICKES: Picture Overload

One of Lane's favorite outdoor activities- chalk on the walk

He loves that his tractor has a radio! He was jammin out one day and said, "When I get big I am going to sell tractors like Jacob." He then began to pelvic thrust (his dance move at the moment apparently) and said, "yep, like this." I guess he thinks that dancing=tractor sales. Ummm.

This is THE MOST FAVORITE outdoor activity for him. He loves his tractor

Vicki and I enjoyed the Hearts At Home National Conference again this year in Bloomington. The mission for the year was to take selfies with superheroes and hashtag them to Instagram and Facebook. We had too much fun with this mission. Seriously, I nearly peed my pants.

This years conference was AMAZING! (Every year is!) The keynote speakers were phenomenal! Gary Chapman and Lysa TerKeurst are world famous authors! My Mom gave me Gary's book "The 5 Love Languages" several years ago and I truly think it was one of those life changing books. It changes your perspective and helps your relationships if you make the choice to really apply the knowledge and information to your life. I then passed the book on to Vicki who I believe also enjoyed it. It really is a MUST read! And Lysa was just soooo relate-able and funny. Loved her keynote message most of all.

Jason is a superstar for watching the boys while I was gone all weekend at the conference. They had a lot of fun romping around and being boys.

Photobooth pictures at the conference. So much fun! Except for my hyperanal tendency to over think things. Those hats were on 5,000 heads. YUCK!

Vicki thought this was funny- it was just some book promotion but we had fun with it.

We've had such a time tying to get new flooring installed in our kitchen. It has been MONTHS in the making...I stripped woodwork and pulled off wallpaper in a hurry (all within 3 days) thinking I needed to have it done BEFORE our new floor got laid....only to be told that the floor wouldn't be laid because our floor is unlevel and it needed to be corrected before the new floor can be installed. This is the picture of it being leveled. Ummm. FUN!

Jason took me to the Ameristar to stay for my birthday! We had a beautiful room and a really fun memorable time. He spoils me and I love it!


I hate selfies but -this is how I spent my birthday morning....hot tub with the hubs. Perfect!

Pictures just dont do it justice- seriously gorgeous! I loved having the tv in the bathroom -had it on while I did my hair/make-up.

Jason made reservations for us to eat at Josephine's in Godfrey...I had never been before. The food was excellent. They treated me to this birthday treat...delicious but oh so bad for me and my thighs.

As if watching our children for the weekend wasn't enough...I came home to find that the dinning room was all decorated and set up for a birthday party. Sandy had decorated and made lasagna and pie to celebrate. Such a sweet surprise. She is always so thoughtful. I am not sure why God blessed me with such amazing in-laws but thankful and happy he did.

Lane hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa Fricke's house

Grant and Lane at their first ever hockey game.

Since Grant raised over $100 for Jump Rope for Heart at school he was given a free ticket to the Jr. Blues hockey game. He also got to walk in the players box where he and the other kids who raised money for the American Heart Association got recognized and a picture taken. He thought this was pretty cool.

The boys loved the game! Especially Grant...he liked seeing the fights. (YIKES)

Later in the game we ran into some of our buddies. This is Lane with his bud- Mason

Grant and Brock -intensely watching the game.

Mohawk and no pants while playing indoor basketball- cause that's how he rolls.

Lane saw brother had a mohawk and insisted on giving himself one- except for he combed down which resulted in a reverse mohawk??? I don't know-he does his own thing

Took the boys to see the movie HOME (they'd talked about it for months!) Lane fell asleep, so did Jason, I cried, and Grant LOVED it!

We attended a bowling benefit for little Mason and Lane wanted to bowl so badly. The lanes were full so he just stood and watched. And watched and watched and watched....he was really entertained.

Grant with Mason

Lane loves to fool with things...this day he saw me cutting a salad for lunch and he wanted to do it too...so I let him have at it (with a pretend knife of course) and he did this for a good half hour. Mamas out there...take note...this is a good distraction and entertainment if your desperate for a few minutes of peace. He was just as content as a bug in a rug while "playing chef" as he called it.

My attempt at a St. Louis Cardinals birthday cake for Grant. YIKES

Wacky Wednesday at school

This was fun! My April Fool's Day trick for the kids was telling them we were having an Easter egg hunt but instead of candy in their eggs I put old batteries, sticks, rocks and paperclips in them. The look on their faces was priceless. I did in fact have a real Easter egg hunt with them after this. I also stuffed Grant's shoes with toilet paper so they felt too small when he put them on. LOL- I loved watching him attempt to put them on not once, not twice but three different times before saying, "what the..." hahahahahaha

Lane liked being fooled. He thought rocks and batteries were awesome.

The kiddos after finding the eggs that were stuffed with candy.

Celebrating his 7th birthday with the daycare kiddos

Yep, I did that! The kids were all talking about how Grant should just dive his face in his huge piece of cake. Grant kept saying, "no, I don't want to get all messy." I could tell he kinda wanted to do it so I just helped him out. It was a hoot-it was all up his lil nose and everywhere.

When his tractor runs out of battery he has Grant's old powerwheels as backup.

This is the card we gave Grant for his birthday. He loves to play hangman so we thought he'd enjoy it. And he did. He just giggled and giggled and after presents were opened he said, "my favorite thing is the card" lol

Grant didn't have school on his birthday (spring break) so he requested a birthday lunch at McDonalds so he could get the happy meal toy -from the HOME movie. The boys ran and ran and ran until they literally couldn't anymore.

Since before Christmas Grant has been really into MAGIC...so he decided several months ago that he wanted to have a Magic Show birthday party. This was Grant's last BIG birthday bash at the town hall from here forward he will just invite a few friends to join him for a fun day somewhere....so knowing that we decided to go ahead a hire a magician for the show and go out with a bang. So happy we did- he had a great time..and it ended up being a fun party.

His cake was cute- not exactly how I wanted it but it turned out cute anyway.

Easter morning- sunrise service- the morning after his big birthday celebration... it was a miracle we pulled it off without incident.

Easter egg hunt at the church....always fun

He has his little tongue out whenever he's really focused.

These two--one minute mad at each other and not getting along and the next being as sweet as sugar with one another.

Grant wears grass stains as an accessory as a woman wears jewlery. it's become part of his everyday look. No joke, the kid was outside less than one minute for the Easter egg hunt before getting a grass stain. I think he thinks he has to slide like Lou Brock every time he's outside.

More birthday party pics

Lane enjoyed watching the magician set up- he was just so engrossed in what he was doing.

Pretty Mallory

Still watching the magician.

Grant with his buddies

Playing with Uncle Jacob

It was so fun to watch the kiddos react to the magic show...more fun than watching the show itself

The magician made us do a little song and dance-when he said the magic words. Funny to watch as well.

Grant's favorite part was seeing Snowball the bunny.

The kids ate these up...funny how if I just would have put a bowl of fruit out they probably wouldn't give it a second glace but make it into a wand and LOOK OUT--they're pushing and shoving for the last stick.