Don't You Love Surprises

Oh, my how time flies. This was a part of our super-sized celebration at our place on Mother's Day. We had four mothers in the house: Lauranell, Brett, Jenny and Brook. We also had birthdays to celebrate: Greg's 50th, Jess's 83rd, Spencer's 10th and Maddox's 4th. We do food very well, so well, in fact, that the crowd came for lunch and stayed through dinner!

Surprises can be life-altering. Did you know that?

When you are 3 going on 4 you need a little help keeping your eyes closed.

Aunt Piper was happy to help.

Don't we all love surprises? The anticipation grabs a hold of everyone!

The not looking part is excruciating. A little help here...

And then...

Oh, my...

a puppy!

With slobbery kisses...

and sharp teeth.

"Just don't poop in the house. Got it!"

Happy Birthday, Maddox!

Adventure Girls

These two - it was ALL because of these two, Nancy and Rechelle!

They were both born on November 4, you see. Do you know what a birthday means among friends... let alone two birthdays?

A reason to celebrate, of course, and celebrate we did!

Under the inspiration of Kim, we piled in the car and headed west. We met up with Katie in McPherson (McFearson in my spelling book), Kansas, at The Cook's Nook.

But that was only the beginning. We wandered down the main drag, moseying in and out of shops until we found this little treasure...

"What? Me? Why, yes, I would love to be interviewed for your story! It was 29 years ago this week that I was born. This day with my girlfriends? It's spectacular! No I would not say there is a food theme. No, definitely not! Well, yes, we met in a kitchen store... yes, we are in a cake store and... well, um, yes, we are planning on having lunch... "

Toting our bags of pancake mix, muffin mix and syrup "for our children", we slogged on to lunch at a greek cafe... hummunahummuna...hummus, anyone? We gabbed and gabbed until the the cafe workers turned off the lights and padlocked the door...ha ha ha, so it seemed, but it turned out the workers needed to set up for a wedding reception while wondering if we would ever leave!!!

We continued on our quest to investigate any shop with an interesting name, sign or window display.

We ended the brisk, breezy afternoon with a warm cup at the local coffee house.

What better way to celebrate two birthdays then...

hanging with your girlfriends.

Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Rechelle writes about our day, too, right here and Nancy gives her pics and perspective here.

Sporty Forty

A birthday to celebrate? We love to celebrate! Our friend, Dale, recently turned 4-0.

We've all heard the "40 is the new 30" phrase being bandied about these days. In the case of Dale, it's just may be true. In preparation for his birthday, he completed a half Iron Man. The show-off!

His wife, Nancy, served up some scrumptious food and you can check it out on her blog here.

We relaxed on the deck for a while. As some of us are a bit older than Dale....ehemmm, not by much, just wanted to make that clear... we gave him the news on what to expect.

We included an explanation of the new gear Dale would be needing for all his sports activities. "Dale, you'll be needing this to hold up the family jewels, and fight the effects of gravity and aging!"

She did not appear amused. Could it be because she will be turning 40 this year as well and only wonders what eye-opening information and incredible, keepsake quality gifts she will be receiving?

Ok, back to the celebrating...

and the relaxing...

Dale's girls, Alison and Madison, helped make the evening special.

As did cake and ice cream...

Happy 40th birthday, Dale!!! We love you.

Birthdays: Party on Lemp Road

We hit the highway after school on Friday and headed to St. Louis. We have quite a few family birthdays in April and May and they needed some more celebrating! We especially needed to help my sister, Pam and my brother, Marty celebrate their birthdays. Pam, the oldest of the four siblings, was born on May 6 and Marty, 2nd in line, was born two years later on May 7.


We descended upon Marty and his wife, Leslie's house.




Our dinner included marinated, grilled pork tenderloin and seven layer salad...yum. The best part, of course, was dessert - baseball cupcakes made by Pam and a to-die-for Carrot cake.





I need to find a way to fold up and pack to bring home this incredible antique dining table. It seats 14!!!

Pam receiving a birthday hug from Ellie, Marty's daughter.

Marty was simply filled with glee about celebrating his birthday.

His birthday kisses came from Abbey!

Dane was sporting a birthday watch and thinking about cupcakes.

Spencer got some prized money for his birthday from Grandpa and is surrounded by cousins, Marshall and Ellie, and Aunt Leslie.

It was a wonderful weekend!

The Youngest is a Year Older

April 20 was Spencer's 9th birthday. 9th, oh, my. How can that be? Unfortunately, we weren't able to celebrate on April 20. We have, however, had two celebrations so far...maybe that's helped.


Spencer knew exactly what he wanted for his birthday...




















Our first celebration was a meal at Red Lobster and he selected the Snow Crab legs. He cracked, pulled and picked on his own and loved every minute of it!

Last Thursday, he had some buds over to help him celebrate again. He just loves these guys.

Especially since like him, they love to pretend they are wild and carazzzzy guys. I'm sticking with pretend...yup, that's my story.






Spencer's the guy in our family who gets us laughing and wondering WHERE he comes up with his stuff. Here are a few pictures from the last year...

Skiing in Breckenridge, March, 2007. That's Spencer in the front with his brothers, cousins, Marshall and Ellie and Uncle Marty.

Kids are amazing. He learned to ski over a three day period including riding the lifts up the mountain and attacking a blue slope on the last day! Green - beginner, blue - intermediate, black - expert, double black - certifiably insane person.

It would appear he lost both of his front teeth in this bout...you should see the other guy.

Happy Birthday, Spencer!

Much Love, Mom