School's Out Forever

Hi All,
School's out forever - for my mom, that is. We took the opportunity to celebrate over a few days time.

Party with co-workers: We attended mom's after hours send-off from her co-workers at a local establishment. There was good pizza, appetizers, and refreshments, and I think Drew polished off a bowl of chips on his own. We were the only party there, and the kids enjoyed exploring the place (a.k.a. chasing each other around the bar).

The whole gang

Drew and Bree took a break from their "exploring" for a few pictures. 

Celebratory roses from Dad

Family Celebration: We also set aside a day to celebrate as a family and enjoyed a nice meal - Chinese takeout, so Mom wouldn't have to cook - LOL!

Drew and Bree helped out a little in the yard before dinner.

And family gatherings = family pictures!

Celebratory cake

 And the celebratory cake server...

Congrats to Mom on retirement - relax and enjoy!

Happy Easter, Happy Birthday!

Hi All,
We held a dual celebration today, for Easter and my Grandma's birthday (plus all the other family birthdays on or around this time).
So, I guess that makes my first official Easter hosting experience, although we got a lot of help from family members. (Everyone brought food, including my parents' huge and delicious ham.) So, I can't take all the credit. :) All in all, I think it went well. Most importantly, my gram (our guest of honor) said it was perfect and really enjoyed being surrounded by family.

Drew and Bree enjoyed some outside time with the grandparents and some Easter eggs. Thank goodness for the nice day!

Bree, Papa, and the eggs - Papa tossed, Bree retrieved, and they repeated again and again.

And Drew enjoyed some reading time with Aunt Diane.

When it came time for cake, my amazingly talented cousin-in-law Hillary had us covered once again. The cake was beautiful, and tasted incredible (Bavarian creme = delicious!)

The birthday line-up! Once we started looking, we found lots of April/May birthday people in the crowd to join in on the fun.

Our family shot for the day; many of us were pretty worn out by the time we took this picture.

And the last picture of the day; yes, the kids were officially done at this point. At least my parents are still smiling!

Happy Birthday To You, and You, and You

Hi All,

We had yet another multiple family member birthday celebration this weekend. This time, it was for Darren, Sarah and Jim. Darren and Sarah are lucky? enough to share the same birthday (same day, different year) like two other kids we know. And Jim is just six days before them.

Here's to the whole birthday bunch!

All Ducked Out

Hi All,

We held a baby shower for my cousin Lisa and couldn't resist the duck theme once again. Everything turned out awesome, and we had lots of good food, fun, and guests to make it a success! The only downer was that Bree was supposed to attend, but woke up feeling very ill. Her first baby shower will have to wait!

Congrats to Lisa and Eric. We can't wait to meet your little one!

 Tasty duck cookies!

Hillary's awesome duck cake

And my "ducks on a pond" punch

And the happy parents-to-be!

21 Months and Other Celebrations

Hi All,
Drew and Bree are 21 months old today. In addition, we celebrated Thanksgiving with Jim's side and our nephew Conner's sixth birthday. I love the picture above. They look like quite a pair, don't they? Unfortunately, most of our attempts to get a nice side by side shot of the twins turned out like this....

And this....

A little bit of cooperation from the guy with crayon on his lip....

And very little from this girl....

But hugs always seem to be the answer!

Drew and Bree weighed in at 29 and 24.5 pounds respectively.

And now, for a few shots of the six year old. Love, love, love the orange pop mustache!

Something tells me he is going to like this gift! :) Happy birthday Conner!

Oma's Day

Hi All,
We celebrated my mother in law's birthday today (Oma to Drew and Bree). We had a nice dinner (compliments of Jim), presents, and of course, cake. I experimented with a homemade vanilla cake with an Italian meringue frosting. It called for lemon curd in between the layers - first time I've ever used that! Very tasty!
Here are Oma and Drew preparing to blow out the candles. I think Oma is on to the fact that these candles are not going down without a fight. Happy birthday Oma!!!

Fall Birthday Bonanza

Hi All,
The last few years or so, we have been consolidating our birthday celebrations a bit. So now, Chad, Mom, Dad and I all celebrate our birthdays as a family sometime during the end of September. As usual, the kids enjoyed a day at the grandparents. They actually spent the night, so Jim and I could attend a work dinner party in Detroit the evening prior.

"Grandma, if you are wondering where your measuring spoons are - he did it."

My children refining their musical talents

This kid can play!

Pumpkin inspection

Family shot

Softball or football - how about both?!?

Mom convinced us to take a birthday cake shot - after half the cake was gone

Birthday Celebration

Hi All,
I celebrated yet another birthday. The celebration started a little early, as Jim and I spent the weekend in Chicago. We arrived Saturday mid-day and settled in to a relaxing day. We grabbed some Thai food (a favorite of mine) for lunch and watched some football and dare I say a nap before venturing out! We headed to a sports bar to catch dinner and some more football with our friends Doug and Lisa. We also made a stop to the John Hancock observatory for some great views of the city. Then, on Sunday we joined our friends Al and Sandy for the Bears-Lions football game at Soldier field. Both teams played bad, which made for a close match. And, we witnessed first-hand the most controversial call of the weekend - a Lions caught pass in the end zone to win the game (yes, it WAS a catch), which was reviewed and called incomplete to everyone's surprise.
Monday was back to business as usual.  We attended our first gymnastics class today at the MAC; it's called Wrigglers. The class description stated it was for children starting as young as 18 months. But Drew and Bree were nowhere near ready to perform much of anything the instructor asked of them. Bree wanted nothing to do with the instructor and spent the entire time running around the gym on her own or stuck to me. We did get a few somersaults out of Drew. Luckily, D & B were the only two kids in the class, so we weren't disruptive to anyone else!
But, of course, it was good to be home to celebrate my birthday with my kiddos. When Jim got home, he cooked a great dinner, then we made a cake run which made the day complete! :)

Bree at the ready to help with the opening of gifts

Drew demonstrating his latest trick - climbing over couch to the buffet table

Trying for a picture - but the kids are way more interested in the cake

and balloons

Happy Birthday Uncle C

Hi All,
This week we got to celebrate Chad's birthday - 22 years young. We do a group celebration of the August/September/October family birthdays during September, but somehow Chad still scored dinner and a cake this week!

"It's Uncle's birthday, but WE got the new wagon!"

The prettiest flower in the patch holding a sunflower!

"Ok Mom, you've been humored; off with this hat!"

The birthday boy and his cake

A rare photo including the family photographer, a.k.a. Mom

Just Ducky

Hi All,
We were busy this past week preparing to host a baby shower for my dear friend Erin. The theme was ducks, and Drew and Bree helped by making sure the duck tub was in working order.

Ready for the high seas!

Tub for two

And here, Bree and Drew have one of their favorite toys - the cell phone! Although, this particular one has been retired, and they much prefer our active ones. They have made calls on numerous occasions, sometimes unbeknownst to me!

And Grandma was here, so we got a pic of me and my babes.....

And, here we are the day of the shower. We had a great day and enjoyed helping Erin get her "ducks in a row" for their new addition. Drew and Bree were not in attendance, but did show up at the end to help with the unwrapping of the gifts!

Congrats to Erin and Raulie!