Happy 6th Birthday Meredith!

Happy 8th Birthday Allie!

Today is Allie's 8th birthday. It is also her cousin Amelia's 4th birthday.

We had a party for Allie at Clay Corner Studio, a paint-your-own-pottery shop.

This year's theme was "flip-flops" and Mary Jean made us another fabulous cake. Now I don't usually share my cake, I mean the kid's cakes, with just anyone, but this year I thought I'd be generous. Besides, what business do I have eating an entire cake by myself. The cake was so good. I mean really good...so good that everyone wanted a second piece. Jason said he could see my heart sink every time someone asked for more. But don't worry, I cut the pieces real thin and saved myself some for later.

We went to our favorite restaurant, El Mezcal, for supper. Allie got to wear the birthday sombrero, our favorite waitress brought her a Mexican orange soda, and she got her own fried ice cream.

Whew! I'm glad birthdays only come around once a year.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have one last piece of cake to eat!

Happy 5th Birthday Meredith!

A Mid-Summer Update

Where has the time gone? I've realized that a lot of fun stuff has happened this summer that I've failed to blog about so I'm going to do a little re-cap of our summer thus far.

MAY

Back before the bigger kids got out of school, one of our preschool friends invited us up north to her cabin for the day. We had a fun day sitting in the sun and watching the kids play in the lake.

Here are the kiddos...Ruby, Jackson, and Meredith.

And here are the moms...Carrie (Ruby's mom), me, and Stacy (Jackson's mom).


JUNE

In June, the girls and I headed down to Iowa to visit Grandma Ruth and celebrate Allie's birthday with a cake made by Mary Jean.


We had a great time going to the park, the pool,


Kim's house, Snack Village (the local burger joint), Pizza Ranch (the local pizza place), and various places in between. The best part about my hometown is that you can walk almost anywhere.

Each day we walked to the pool. But to get there, we had to walk through the Tornado Park. The park is really called the Aquatic Center Park but because of the huge spiral "tornado" slide, most locals call it the Tornado Park. The kids loved that slide as did I when I was a child. It still looks the same, red peeling paint and all.

Another fun part of our trip was our ride aboard the Union Pacific Railroad's Operation Lifesaver Excursion Train. It was completely by chance that our close family friend (and my dad's best buddy), Willie, stopped over for a visit on the morning of the train ride. He mentioned how he'd been given two tickets (it was an invitation only trip) but that his wife didn't really want to go. I stepped right up and said I'd be happy to go as long as we could bring the kids. So that afternoon, the four of us took an hour long train ride through the farm fields of Iowa and got a lesson in railroad safety all at the same time.


JULY

Last weekend, my friend Shannon came to Wausau for our annual visit. We did the usual...shopping, eating, watching movies, rollerblading, and playing tennis. I only wish she were closer...but then again, if she were I'd probably never see the kids and my credit card would be maxed out!


Why does time fly when you are having so much fun?

Happy 4th Birthday Deefers!

Allie's 6th Birthday

Today is Allie's 6th birthday!

It's her cousin Amelia's birthday too.

They both had birthday cakes brought from Iowa by Grandma Ruth and made by Mary Jean, the same lady who made all of my birthday cakes when I was growing up. She has made all of Allie's and Meredith's birthday cakes too. Click here to see Meredith's Care Bear cake from her 3rd birthday.

I truly believe the only reason I would have a third child would be to get more of Mary Jean's birthday cake. Yes...it's THAT good!

Winter Break Update

We had a great Christmas day. Santa stopped at our house and left the kids lots of nice gifts. He even filled Mom's and Dad's stockings, too.





On December 26th, the girls and I went back home to Iowa to visit my Mom. We had a great time visiting with lots of friends and family. We also celebrated Meredith's 3rd birthday while we were there.






Birthday cakes are a big deal at our house. The same woman, Mary Jean, made all of my birthday cakes when I was growing up. And so far, she's made all of the girls' cakes, too. This year Meredith asked for a Care Bear cake. We had pizza and cake with friends from my hometown on Friday. And on Saturday, we traveled up north to meet my best friend, Colleen, and her family at Cody Bear's Cave in Mason City, Iowa.

See those handsome boys...that's Nash, Dade, and Kale.




I also got to see all my "Hen" friends. At Kimmy Sue's house, her mom got out the Fashion Plates and this huge Barbie Camper for the girls to play with. It was like a flashback to Christmas 1977! LeAnn and I did a little shopping in beautiful downtown Clarion. And on the way home to Wausau, we stopped at Heidi's in Minneapolis to have lunch.