Girls Night!

I have a couple of dear friends that I use to work with, we try and get together every so often to catch up. Back in January when the community education booklet came out, I saw that there was a cake decorating class in it, so I immediately e-mailed both Naomi and Nichole asking if they'd want to go with me for our April get together. I've always wanted to take a cake decorating class and I knew these two ladies would probably enjoy it too. We had a great time at the class, we each got to decorate our own cake, the person giving the class owns her own cake business Everyday O'Cake'sions. She did a great job teaching all of us different techniques, showing us all the different tips to use, how to level a cake and fill it. It was a lot of fun! Here are a few pictures from the night and the next day when the kids ate the cake!

Nichole, Naomi and me showing off our cakes!

My creation.

Inside my cake...mocha mousse filling...delish!

Kindergarten Circus

On the 20th of April, the kindergarten classes had their spring program and it was a Kindergarten Circus. The pictures I have aren't very clear, I was too far back and don't have the right lens for my camera to get decent up close pictures, but I got a few pictures anyway. The program was really cute and all of the kids did a really good job, they did actions or sign language to every song they did. I was really impressed with how well they all did.

 Amelia is in the back row, third from the right.

Each class took a turn sitting in front

of the rest of the kids doing something extra special 

for the program.

Amelia did a super job! In the past when she's participated in a program for school, church or preschool, she hasn't always sang along, mainly just watched the other kids and this year she sang every song, did every action right along with all of the other kids. It sure made me proud and even brought tears to my eyes, it made me feel SO good to see the progress she's made in the last year.

Cowgirl Cookies

About a month ago we attended a birthday party for our dear friends' daughter. Miss Clare turned 4 and she is totally into horses. So naturally she had a horse birthday party and Adeline insisted that we buy Clarabelle a horse (toy of course!) for her birthday, after all she declares on weekly basis that "Clare is my best friend". Those two are two peas in a pod and I see a lot of trouble in our future. Thank goodness they won't be in the same grade! Katie made the coolest party favor's I've ever seen. Every family got to take home a jar of Cowgirl Cookies to bake, each of the kids got their own straw cowboy/girl hat to take home also! The girls and I made our cowgirl cookies the week following the birthday party and they were AMAZING! Best chocolate chip cookies I've ever tasted. I had to take some before pictures because I thought the jars were simply adorable! Katie found the idea on Pinterest. I have a serious addiction to Pinterest, if you click the follow me tab on the right hand side you can join me on Pinterest! Anyway, you can find out how you can put together your own jar of cowgirl/boy cookies. They are simply delish and I must keep it in mind for future gift giving opportunities!

Everyone took a turn stirring the cookie dough...

Stella wasn't so happy that it wasn't her turn to stir the cookies!

My crazy girl Adeline, yes she is wearing Christmas pj's in the 

middle of the afternoon.

Thanks Katie for the great Cowgirl Cookies!

Easter 2012

Due to the busy spring we have planned, we decided to stay home for Easter this year. Normally we go to my Mom's on Good Friday and then to my dad's parents on Saturday evening and spend Easter day with my dad's family. We decided to invite my mom, step-dad, grandma, sister, niece and uncle down for the weekend, only my mom, grandma, sister and niece were able to come for the weekend. For Easter dinner we entertained my family along with Mary, Ron and Kevin's great-aunt Alice. Gene purchased the most delicious ham from the local meat market, I kid you not, it was one of the best hams I've EVER had. We really enjoyed our weekend with our house guests and dinner guests. Sorry that this post has taken me so long to get up that I can't remember all the details of the weekend! Enjoy the pictures!!

Saturday night we dyed Easter eggs, all 5 kids really seemed to enjoy it. It has been a few years since we have dyed eggs, so I thought it was a perfect activity for the kids. Even Stella and Hazel had fun doing it!

Grandma Carrie and two of her girls.

Checking out what the Easter Bunny left

The Easter Bunny even left baskets at Grandma Mary's!

*I apologize for being SO behind on blogging, I just can't seem to find the time to do it as much as I use to. I'm working on getting caught up...slowly! Hopefully this week I'll have a little more time on my hands!

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!

It's been a while...

So it's been waaaaaay too long since I last posted here. In fact, I signed in tonight for the first time in weeks and found this post that I started on April 17 and I never finished it. Life has been kind of hectic lately and I'm having a hard time catching up it seems. Story of my life I guess! These pictures are from the last few months off my cell phone. So the quality sucks, but it's fun to see the kids change over time! I promise I'll try and get better at blogging, though we have a busy month coming up it's not looking promising!

Amelia and Stella before Amelia got on

the bus!

Amelia got glasses in February, isn't it amazing how grown up she looks?

The picture above was taken about a week before she got her glasses!

Two crazy kids. I think we were visiting Kevin at work for lunch!

Stella all snuggled in for nap. 

Yes, I know she has a lot of stuff in her crib,

she loves her "illows" (pillow pets in her bed and about 3 blankies!)

Three of the four kids inside our new XXL Utility Tote from Thirty-One

Addie the night before her birthday party with her cake I made.

Sledding behind the six-wheeler President's weekend at the cabin.

Addie got a new swimsuit from her Godmother for her birthday,

she couldn't wait to model it!

Best friends.

Playing with the different settings on my phone.

Enjoying the nice weather!

Vinny boy loves being outside.

Always picking out her own outfit.

She insisted she needed the pumpkin hat!

It was Amelia's when she was 6 months old!

Digging to China (per Paul)

Having a pretend camp fire.

Princess Punzel

Addie in her new fort!

My dad built Paul a loft bed and delivered it and set it up while Paul was gone.

Super Addie

Stella and her Ninny Buddy

Amelia's birthday lunch at Olive Garden

Flip Flop cake made by Grandma Mary

I promise I'll try and get better about blogging!! I haven't been very good at taking pictures either so that doesn't help in the blogging department!