~Lexi is 4~

Lexi is 4 years old!  She is getting so grown up.  Listening to her talk, watching her play with friends, and seeing her at school all remind me that she is not my baby anymore, she is a big girl.  Some of Lexi's favorite things are:
~ Best Friend: Melyn Cope
~ Favorite Color: Purple
~ Favorite Food: Cheese (this is all she would eat if I let her)
~ Favorite thing to play with: her Barbie Princesses
~  Favorite movie: Jasmin (Aladdin)
She also loves to dance, sing, and play with her big sister.  Our family would not be complete without her.  She is such a fun little lady, who always can make us laugh.  We love you Lexi!

Since Darinda, Jocelyn, and Lexi all have birthdays within the same week, the Ropelato side of the family get together for a party for the 3 of them.  We had a swim party up at Jerry and Darindas.  The kids love getting together and playing with their cousins.

Picture of the birthday girls on Darinda's birthday.  We took her La Ferrovia for lunch and a birthday cake for the 3 of them to share.

Lexi with Zoee and Garrett

Opening presents

Hunter and Stacey climbing Grandma and Grandpa's tall trees.

Jackie and her friend were being anti-social, so Jerry got the idea to go dump a garbage can full of water on them.  The garbage can was a little heavy, so Dave was all to happy to help him out, lol.  I don't know if Jackie and her friend thought it was funny, but the rest of us sure did :)

Hunter wanted to join in on the fun and dump a bag full of water on Jerry's head, lol.  There is never a dull moment at the Ropelato's.

Lexi's birthday fun was not over, the next night she had a party with the Wangsgard side of the family.  We played our favorite game, the candy bar game.  It was a lot of fun,  although we missed Mckell and Dave.  Mckell was home sick.

 Instead of another cake, we decided to shake things up and have rootbeer floats instead.

Then when Mckell was feeling better, we let Lexi open gifts from our little family.  She got spoiled!

Happy Birthday!  We Love You Lexi!!!

~Preschool time~

Where has the time gone?  Lexi started her first day of preschool today.  She was so excited!

Lexi and Melyn, best buds

Lexi loved school!  She loved playing with the toys, having a snack, and she loved her teacher Miss Jodie.  When I came to pick her up, she asked my why she had to leave because she didn't want to, lol.

~Annual Smeding/Dutson Reunion~

This year the reunion was a little different than others for us.  We had gotten our camper dewinterized (yes this was the first camping trip of the year for us, and the last since summer is over), started packing things up for the weekend, and were getting excited to spend a weekend in the mountains.  However, our plans changed when Mckell came home from school sick on Friday.  She has complained for the last week and a half that she had the worst headaches, she complained that her stomache hurt, and she lost her voice for a couple of days due to a yucky cold.  But she acted fine, didn't have a fever, so we just went about our everyday ruetines.  I think by Friday her body couldn't take anymore.  She had a fever of 105 degrees that I could not get to break.  Finally, Saturday I took her to the doctors to see what was wrong.  She only complained that her tummy hurt.  No sore throat, no sore ears, no achy body.  Just a tummy ache.  Well the doctor said she was a mess.  Her throat looked terrible, they tested her for strep but it came back negative.  She also had an ear infection, as well as pnemonia in her left lung.  We got a very strong antibiotic, and went home to spend the rest of our labor day weekend without camping.  Sunday she seemed to perk up a bit, so we decided to go up to the reunion for the night.  Mckell would just stay inside the camper.  I'm glad we went.  It was fun to get away, even if it was just for the night.

My poor, sick Mckell.

Prizes from the fish pond.

Mckell snuck out for a bit to make some balloon flip flops.

We ran out of balloons, so Lexi's flip flops were made from material.

Dave, Hunter, and Marley had fun playing in the river.

Devin made balloon animals for all the kids.

The kids had fun, as always, playing capture the flag, hearing scary stories by the campfire, hitting the pinata, having a fish pond, and playing in the dirt.  It was a short, but fun reunion.