ADAM'S 11TH BIRTHDAY!

Last Saturday, Adam celebrated his birthday with his best buddies, Jordan, Blake and Andrew. Adam and Andrew have been friends since they were in pre-school together at Pleasant Run. Actually, he and Andrew's birthdays were so close together that we did an "all day/all night" joint birthday bash to celebrate both their birthdays. We started the day at our house and the boys had fun playing in the yard, shooting Nerf guns at each other and shooting some hoops. Then Rob and I took them to see "Where the Wild Things Are" later that afternoon. After the movie was over, we dropped them off at Andrew's house where they ordered pizzas, played video games and had a sleepover. They are really great friends, and even they go to four different schools, they get to spend the summers together at Lutheran High Summer Camp. So they are already anxious for next summer to get here!

Adam was surprised to get a new leather jacket from Grandma for his birthday. Just what every 11 year old boy needs! Needless to say, it will NOT be worn to school!
Adam chose Palermo Italian Restaurant for his birthday dinner. They have the best pizza and asiago cheese breadsticks - yum!

Grandma and her favorite boy!

A birthday hug from little sis!

Our 11 year old!

WASHINGTON PARK PHOTO SHOOT 2009

We took the kids to Washington Park to get some updated pictures of them. It was a gorgeous day and they cooperated as well as could be expected after eating all that candy at Emily's birthday party!!

EMILY'S SWEET LIFE BIRTHDAY PARTY

Saturday was Emily's birthday party with her friends, along with her cousins and brother! The Sweet Life is a candy store that's fairly new to Springfield and just loaded with all kinds of candy, ice cream and other neat treats. This was their first birthday party and we thought they did an outstanding job. All the kids had a blast and even the staff seemed to enjoy themselves!

The birthday girl ready to start ripping open presents!

The kids played a couple candy games and then got their faces painted.

Pucker Powder!!! Everyone got to make their own giant stick of sugar!

Picking out their ice cream sundaes

Adam, Ethan, Kelsey & Emily

Having a ball at her party!
After decorating their own treat bags, everyone got $7.00 in candy money to fill their bags with whatever they wanted,

End of party picture!

EMILY'S 7TH BIRTHDAY!

It's hard to believe, but yesterday our little girl turned 7 years old!! We celebrated by going out for breakfast at the famous Charlie Parkers (they have the best pancakes ever) and then Emily chose her favorite restaurant for dinner...Noodles & Co. After dinner it was back to grandma's house for presents and cookie cake. Glad her birthday was on a Sunday year because we had a very busy day! Her "kid" party will be next Saturday and we're looking forward to seeing the Russell's then.



Since we are "dog sitting" Papa's dogs this weekend, we took them for walks after breakfast. Here is Kahlua with the kids. She's the "senior citizen" of the crew!

The pretty birthday girl!

A nice brotherly hug for the birthday girl!

Daddy with his favorite girl!

Grandma and Emily

A pretty new dress

and a new Barbie! Lots more gifts, but too many pictures to post!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2009

The kids couldn't make up their minds what they wanted to be this year (or in Adam's case, if he even wanted to dress up!) But at 11:45 today we found Emily's costume and at 3:00 got Adam's. We were cutting it a little close as trick or treating started at 4:30!

The Little Mermaid and Dr. Powers!!!

We took the kids to Mill Creek subdivison so Adam could go around with his two good friends, Blake (the gangster) and Jordan (the Whoopie cusion). I was glad Adam had his cell phone so we could find him when we were ready to go because they got pretty far ahead of us!
We then found Emily's good friends, Megan and Morgan, and got to hit a few houses with them!

Later we ended up in Oak Park subdivision with the McKeown's and the Stehn's.

Not sure who is scarier...Mike or Rob!

MILEY CYRUS CONCERT

Wednesday night my friend Janet and I took our girls to see Miley Cyrus at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis (where the Blues play hockey!) Words cannot describe how load a bazillion screaming girls can be!!! But it was a fun night and the girls had a great time seeing their "idol"!

Janet, Melanie and Maddie...waiting for the show to start!

Jen and Emily


This was Emily's first "real" concert! She had a ball!