a ZOOper Birthday Party!

4 years old! How is that possible? Recalculate that figure! Ok, it's true, my little Dane is 4. sigh Since his birthday fell on a Tuesday and party wasn't til Saturday, I bought ice cream cone shaped cup-cake pans (say that 3 times fast) and made the cup-cakes...with Dane and Drake's help...see previous blog. Then the day of his birthday we ate them. The idea is that the cake looks like the icecream cone and the icing looks like the icecream. NOT REALLY! I am not a cake decorator so it looked like a cupcake with a stem...which by the way broke off in the boys hands and they had to race T-Bone to the cup-cake on the floor. My solution: I eat the stem, since I don't like icing and the boys eat the cupcake with the icing and sprinkles....happy happy joy joy *smile* Who remembers where THAT quote is from? Dane took more cup-cakes to day-care to share with his friends and then we came home and opened gifts. He's seen here holding a couple favorites and his new Lightening McQueen chair. The rest are on the table: puzzles, cars, remote control helicopter... But wait, a few days later we had a birthday party at the St. Louis zoo!
MORE SUGAR!











The whole package included: lunch, cake and icecream, games, goodie bags and a dressed up character of our choice. We chose Elmo since Dane is afraid of Penquins (one of the choices) the others were Kangaroo, bear and a few others I can't remember. I figured Elmo would get the best reaction from all the kids there. 1st he tore through his gifts:









Drake had a couple gifts of his own:









Then all the kids colored a big card for him:










Eating:









ELMO!








and then last, but not least, singing, cake and icecream! He got shy with the full attention on him. Funny, I feel the same way, even with 35 birthdays behind me. After us big kids took a breath and got all the stuff together, we toured the zoo on the train (A "Must Do" everytime we go) and then went to the children's zoo...to get the little one's last bit of energy out and to ensure a sound nap on the way home.









Over-all, a great day!

Rainy Day (Not-So-Blues)

Peek-a-Boo


So it's pouring outside (thank you Hurricane Gustav) and I get as restless as the boys. We read lots of books, watched more cat and mouse (Tom & Jerry) than I normally allow and during lunch I decided it's craft time. I made trees using their feet as the trunk and hands as the branches/leaves. Don't ask me where I come up with this stuff, I was just sitting at the table eating my grilled cheese and tomato soup and told the boys what we would do after lunch!















Of course sitting in our house for 1/2 an hour requires 2 hours of serious play with all the reserved energy we just saved up. I'm talking about me, not them; those who know me well, know I'm not joking. wink wink
I built a tent using Dane's bed...that was fun....for 5 minutes...it took me longer to make it than they actually played in it. But I didn't dare take it down at bedtime!


And then we played Hide and Seek till daddy came home...how come I always have to seek? And how come they pick the same hiding place each time? And how come I have to act surprised each time I find them?...part of the mommy job I guess *smile*

Labor Day weekend

As usual, we have to pack everything in because it's FUN that way! And it WAS fun! We went camping and fishing on Saturday, came home early Sunday for our dear friend's wedding at 11am and then on Monday Christine and I painted the columns in our dining room. I couldn't narrow down the pictures so here's the slide show:

Happy 40th Birthday, Andy

Andy got his Bow and he is pumped about using it this fall. He's been up target shooting every morning when the sun comes up and in the evening before it gets dark if he's home in time.


Check out this spread...and look closely..one of the arrows shot down the "spine" of another one splitting it...great shot, Andy!


And here are the boys watching Daddy practice as well as their 1st attempt at finger-painting. However neither of them enjoyed their fingers being "icky" so we used paintbrushes, q-tips and popsicle sticks.



Later that evening we did another bon-fire...kool-aide, beer (mommy and daddy's kool-aide) and smores...not the healthiest, but summer necessities at our home!



Tune in next time for our Labor Day weekend pictures: camping, a wedding and the 4th and final birthday.