Guess who is EIGHT?!

This girl! That's who!!

Amelia turned eight on March 28. We went out to dinner as a family and then we had cake and presents at home. In a couple weeks we're going to the MN Zoo and a hotel to finish celebrating her birthday. She had the choice of what she wanted to do for her birthday party, she said she wanted to take friends to a hotel. Kevin and I said "You can either have a friend birthday party or we can go to a hotel, but we're not taking friends to a hotel".  She chose going to a hotel. We haven't renewed our zoo membership since it expired in July, my Grandparents gave us money for Christmas to buy something for the family, so we're going to use that money to renew our zoo membership. Our kids enjoy going to the zoo and the membership really pays off. There a few things at the zoo since we've been there, so I'm looking forward to taking them again at the end of the month.

Adeline is FOUR!

When did this little lady grow up? My baby is no longer a toddler, she is a preschooler! Wow! She is spunky as ever and we love her to pieces. She keeps us on our toes and wondering what her next move will be. She is an entertainer, always singing, dancing or telling a joke. She loves her baby little sister to pieces, they are best friends and sometimes each others worst enemies and I wouldn't want it any other way. They play so well together and she has taught Stella so much. In the fall she will be going to preschool and I don't know what I'll do without my daily entertainment! I'm sure Stella will do a fine job keeping me on my toes!

Adeline is a girly girl and Tom Boy all rolled into one. She loves dressing up like a princess, wearing dresses right along side playing Ninja Turtles. When Paul is home from school, you can often find the two of them playing turtles together in Paul's room. Paul passed on his Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pj's to Addie. She loves the turtles so much, she just had to have a TMNT themed birthday party!

 

To celebrate, Kevin and I gave her tickets to Disney on Ice for her birthday. We went with two of her bff's and their mom's which happen to be a couple of my bff's also. All three girls have birthdays within 9 days. Addie is the oldest, next is Rylee and then Kaelyn. They are all standing in birth order too! Such fun little girls!! After Disney on Ice we went to TGI Fridays for a late lunch. The girls had a great time celebrating all of their birthdays!

Stella's 2nd Birthday!

Our Stella Kate turned two on September 9. She's such an independent little lady. Wow, is she a busy one! Repeats EVERYTHING the kids say and her nickname around here is "Me, too!", because whatever the other kids are doing, she wants to do. We had her birthday party on September 8, the grandparents and my grandma were the only people who were able to attend. It was a nice party and it was nice to be able to visit with everyone. We had the party in our new garage, aka Kevin's new "Man Cave." We added onto our garage this summer. With the help of my dad, my Papa Dave and our friend Scott, we were able to get the garage up and shingled all in one weekend in June, of course it happened to be one of the hottest days of June. We appreciate the help we had and that we were able to get the garage up. The garage worked perfect for what we built it for, we wanted an area that we could have to entertain, extra parking and storage. Kevin has his "bar" out there. We served the food and everything right in the garage and then Stella opened her gifts on the patio. I grilled 3 beef roasts, and I've learned that, that is the best way to cook them. Our friend Ryan made them like that this summer when we were at the cabin and so we decided to give it a try for Stella's birthday party, they were a hit. Thanks Ryan for teaching us a new way to cook a beef roast!

Amelia and Addie visiting with Grandma Mary

Grandma Mary and Stella

Stella checking out what is for dinner!

I made cupcakes and this smaller cake for Stella's birthday, my mom whipped up the buttercream recipe for me so I could prep the rest of the food and help Kevin get the backyard ready for the party.

Papa Matt lighting Stella's candle. It was a little windy on the patio.

Stella wasn't so sure what to think of everyone singing to her and watching her. 

Getting help with her presents from Addie!

Paul is always dressing up and doing something goofy!

These two are the best of friends (most days!)

Grandma Carrie made Stella her own Super Stella cape. She loves it and plays with it on a daily basis!

Miss Stella had a great birthday! I can't believe she is two already. My baby grew up too quick, and she is quick to tell you that she is not a baby! She talks so much, she has tbe biggest vocabulary of any two year old I've ever seen. She never ceases to amaze me with what she says and does. Love this little girl!

Sunday night, the day of her actual birthday, we went out for dinner with her Godparents becuase they were unable to make it to the birthday party, she insisted on bringing her new baby "Emma" with to dinner. She doesn't go anywhere without Emma these days.

Amelia Jayne turned 7!

Amelia turned SEVEN at the end of March, can you believe it?! Our little girl is growing up way too fast! This year we gave Amelia the option to have a friend a party if she would like. When we asked what she wanted to do, she said "Friend party at a hotel." In response we said, "No, you have to decide, we can either do a friend party or we can go to a hotel and stay the night as a family" She decided that she wanted to stay at a hotel and by hotel she meant the Waterpark of America. We did a little research and found out it was going to cost over $230 for ONE night for our family of 6.

Unfortunately we don't have that kind of money to throw away on a hotel room for one night. Her birthday was on a Wednesday, she kept saying "I can't wait to go to the hotel this weekend." Kevin and I would say "Oh honey, I don't know if we'll be able to go or not because it costs a lot of money. Maybe we could just do a pizza and movie night" She asked almost everyday and we gave her the same line.

We wanted to surprise her, so we had Mary get us a room at a hotel she uses for work, because she can get them for cheap, it's a decent hotel and they have a pool and hot tub, so it's a win-win. We kept blowing it off when she'd ask what we were going to do. Friday afternoon she gets off the bus after school and says "Oh I can't wait to go to the hotel tomorrow night" I said "Oh honey, I don't think we're going. How about we have a pizza and movie night tonight?" She said "That sounds good" But I could see the disappointment in her face. So I told her we'd go out for pizza instead of making it at home and let her choose the pizza joint. She wanted to go to Pizza Ranch...perfect. There is one in Lakeville on our way to where the hotel was. We didn't say anything to the kids other than we were going out for pizza, we loaded them up in the car, I had packed our bags in the car while Addie and Stella napped and Paul and Amelia were at school. So they didn't know I had things with.

Everyone fell asleep in the car on the way to go eat "pizza", we pulled into the hotel parking lot and everyone started waking up and once they were awake we said "Surprise! We're staying at a hotel tonight to go swimming and we'll order pizza." We had arranged it with Mary to have her order the pizza and pick it up for us. We called her from inside the house before we left, so she'd know about how long it'd take for us to get there. Since she has the work connection at the hotel and a good work relationship with the manager, she arranged to have snacks and drinks put in our room before hand. So when we checked in and got up to our room, there was a Happy Birthday balloon on one of the beds. Pop and water in the mini fridge and different snacks. After we got into our room and settled, Kevin called to "order" the pizza. About 15 minutes later, there was a knock on our hotel room door and the kids sure where surprised when they opened the door and saw it was Grandpa and Grandma delivering the pizza! They just couldn't figure out how the pizza guys would know to have Grandpa and Grandma deliver the pizza. We haven't let them in on our little secret. The kids had a blast, we ate pizza, swam, pigged out on junk food and stayed at a hotel. What more could 4 little kids want? The next morning after we checked out and we stopped at Caribou, while I was inside ordering coffee for Kevin and me, the kids were all excited about how much fun it was and how they want to do it for all of their birthdays, etc. They were full of chatter the whole way home about how much fun it was. It was so fun to be able to surprise the kids and have a super cheap hotel stay!

Here is our baby girl as a newborn, just hours old!
And look at her now at 7 years old! Crazy how fast they grow up!

Adeline turns THREE!!

So I'm waaaaayyyyyyy behind on posting here! I uploaded these pictures from Adeline's birthday party on February 28 and apparently I never got around to actually posting the pictures. Life has gotten away from me, what can I say! We had a Toy Story Birthday party on her actual birthday. She had a great time and I think the party guests did as well!

Addie and her friend Kaelyn

(K is 9 days younger than A)

Toy Story cake I made.
The fondant looked much better the night before when I made it, but she still liked it!

Blowing out her candles!

Present time!

Stella bella and Grandma Carrie

Papa Ron making her laugh!

Addie and Clare

My mom made the pennant banners hanging in the windows. 

I love them. Hanging from the ceiling are army men suspended from twine!

Thank you everyone who helped make her 3rd birthday so special!

Paul is FIVE!

My baby boy turned 5 last Tuesday, can you believe it?! I can't believe how much he's changed in 5 years, he's becoming such a "grown-up" or as my dad use to refer to himself as a kid a "junior adult", somedays you'd think he's 15 the way he talks and goes into detail about things. We sure do love that kid. This post is very picture heavy, some pictures are from his actual birthday and the mini-celebration with just our family and the others are from his Surprise Birthday party. Yes, you read that correctly, surprise party for a five year old. That was Paul's request! About we returned home from Brainerd after my aunt's funeral, we were discussing his birthday and what he wanted to do for it and he said he wanted a surprise party. Gene told him the only surprise would be if we didn't have a party for him. I told my mom about this and she said we had to make it work. I lined up for Grandma Mary to take him Friday night, Papa Ron was gone golfing in Missouri so Paul thought he was going to take care of Grandma while Papa was gone. It all worked out well and I think he was truly surprised!

Patiently  waiting for his birthday cupcakes after his steak dinner.

Blowing out his candle.

Good cupcakes!

Even Stella enjoyed the cupcakes. Her and I split one but she stole most of mine too!

Not sure what she's doing!

Sleepy Amelia.

Opening his gift from Uncle Gene

Super excited

Ben 10 "watch"

Surprise! Met at the door by all the kids

Trying to figure out what's going on.

Still not sure why all the kids are here.

All the kids (except Hazel and Jilly) in their Halloween Costumes

Our adorable niece Jilly and her daddy Brandon.

Transformers cupcake cake!

Grandma Carrie's Guitar Rice Krispy Bars

Time for Gifts!

Thank you everyone who helped to make Pauly's birthday special!