Monday Night Rainbow

After a long, dreary, rainy Monday . . . we had a surprise after dinner! You could see both ends of the rainbow, but the clouds covered most of the middle of it. The kids wanted us to jump in the van and see if we could find the end and a pot of gold!! Wouldn't it be nice if it were that easy?

HAPPY 8TH BIRTHDAY ETHAN!

You could say we had a "ROCKIN" fun time in Wheaton this weekend! Ethan got Rockband for his birthday, so we all took turns playing that for about 10 hours straight on Saturday. Adam, Ethan & Auntie did great on guitars while Kelsey & I jammed on the drums. Hope you had a fun birthday weekend, Ethan! We love you!

Look out Eddie Van Halen!

And he's off!

This morning, Rob met Papa 1/2 way to STL to drop Adam off to spend the week down there. Papa said he had a surprise for Adam and the hint he gave him was "blue", so Adam was sure he was going to a St. Louis Blues game. However, when he got to Papa's he found a new blue motor scooter waiting for him! He spent all afternoon riding all around the neighborhood. I think they had a pretty fun 1st day...they played Wii, took Kahlua and Maggie for a walk and then went to see Horton Hears a Who. Adam said it was really good - Papa said it was "okay"! Don't know what they have planned for tomorrow, but I'm sure there will be more scooter riding!!

Happy Birthday DD!

Hope you have a great day!

HAPPY EASTER!

Today we headed down to Virden to celebrate Easter with the Kime's and Ireland's. Since there were snow flurries, we had the egg hunt inside at Sue and Larry's. All the kids were excited looking for eggs and even more excited to open them! Then we rounded everyone up and went to Mama Dee's on the square for a family style dinner. It was so good that I'm pretty sure none of us will be eating dinner tonight! Hope everyone had a Happy Easter!

BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Okay, so turning 40 ended up not being too horrible after all. I spent the day doing some "kid-free" shopping (thanks, honey!), watched a bunch of shows I had DVR'd and hadn't had time to watch, had a wonderful dinner at Bella Milano (even though the waiter spilled two glasses of water all over our table and one glass crashed to the floor!) and then enjoyed a quiet night at home watching movies with Rob (thanks Grandma and Jane for keeping the kids all night!) I'm truly blessed to have such a wonderful family. Plus, I still have our girls 40th birthday trip to Cancun to look forward to in June! So I guess the moral of the story is that having another birthday, even a "big one", definitely beats the alternative! I just hope I can remember that in 10 years when I hit the next "big one"!

It's official....

I'm finally 40! As much as I've NOT been looking forward to this day, it's starting out to feel pretty much the same as yesterday. I woke up to some beautiful homeade cards from Adam and Emily and a pretty good chorus of Happy Birthday from the family (which ended with Emily jumping in my arms and saying I love you!) I guess it's going to be a good day afterall.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes from all my friends and family!

Our American Girl

Emily got chosen to model in the American Girl Fashion Show! We are SO proud of her! She will be participating in the Gala Event on Friday April 25 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library & Museum. All proceeds benefit the Children's Miracle Network. She is really excited, so it should be a fun night. If you want to check out the website, here is the link:

http://www.cmnspringfield.org/americangirl

Send in the clowns...

Just a Sunday night with two goofballs. At least they were having fun together! It's been a really nice weekend, getting jobs done around the house, movie night last night, church this morning and a wonderful dinner tonight of corn beef and red potatoes (thanks Dad!) Now another week to look forward to!

Happy Birthday Emily K.!

Happy Birthday Emily! Hope you have a super duper day!

AMERICAN GIRL AUDITION...

We got notice today that Emily was chosen to audition for the American Girl Fashion Show!! I didn't tell her about it in case it didn't work out, and she still may not get selected to model, but it will be a fun experience for her. She loved modeling in the bridal show in January, so at least she's had some practice. The audition is March 17th and models will be notifed on the 18th, so at least we only have to wait 1 day!

Fun with the Jr. Blues

Friday night we went to see a Jr. Blues game. My office gave out a bunch of free tickets at the start of the season and we still had a bunch we hadn't used yet, so we thought it was a good night to catch a game. We met Adam's friend Adrian and his mom there, too. The outcome wasn't very good, we lost 3 to 1, but we enjoyed watching anyway. After the game, the Nelson Center offered "Skate with the Players", so we rented skates for the boys and let Emily go out on the ice with her tennis shoes. I think they all had fun skating next to the players and they were all very nice to pose for pictures for us.

ISAT Testing Week

Today was the first day of the ISAT (Illinois Scholastic Apptitude Test) exams for grades 3-5. Each day there will be two tests lasting approx. 55 minutes each. Today Adam had reading and math. I asked him how he thinks he did today and, well...you can see his answer in the picture!!