Augustine's 3rd Birthday (10-10-2008)

Here is our 3 year old Auggie! We had great weather on Friday so the kids got to play outside and enjoy the day. Auggie wanted an orange cake, so that's what he got. It looks a bit on the pink side but he was happy.
Gaga & Poppy came over to celebrate with us and brought some cool gifts!
---concentration---carefully removing the tape---

Here are a few pictures from last weekend when we went to Didier Farms in the rain. Just after we started loading the kids in the car it started to rain. After telling the kids we were going and getting everything ready I wasn't about to consider NOT going there. I told the kids on the drive over, that because of the rain we may just have donuts & hot cider under the shelter and walking through the store. We had our donuts & cider, took a pony ride & listened to the band that was playing. Thankfully after the first hour+ the rain stopped and the kids got to enjoy running around and the rides.

Apple Picking

Friday we went to Royal Oaks for our first time apple picking. 83 and sunny is not what I call apple picking weather! Although the weather was not right by my standards for apple picking we went anyway because it was a group outing with our home school group. We got to tour the orchard on an antique tractor drawn wagon. Poppy told the kids he had driven the same type of tractor 45 years ago! Poppy called it a putt-putt tractor. We watched an educational video on pollination, growing and picking apples, picked 5 apples each, and enjoyed a cider donut and 1/2 pint of cider after our tour. The kids had a great time and are enjoying eating the apples. The only downfall was the tired, hot twins. Xavier & Oliver were miserable during the wagon ride back out of the orchard.

here is where it was about to get ugly!

Xavier started to cry, then Oliver, and they cried the whole wagon ride back out of the orchard.

Party

Sunday afternoon we hosted our first kid party themed knights & princess to celebrate D'Angelo, Augustine & Adeline's birthdays. We had it at Jumps n Jiggles The kids had a great time and loved having all of their friends and family there. It went very well and I was happy with how easy the party attendants at the park district made it for us. They were very helpful with the set-up & clean-up. I had fun getting everything ready for their party and it was fun to see how excited they were to watch me prepare it all.

I made tunics for all the little boys and had crowns for the little girls. Here is D'Angelo wearing the one I made for him. Auggie never wanted to wear his during the party.

these are the fun dollar store shields I purchased for the little boys to take home

Grampy was here to celebrate with us! Back at our house...

A tiara for Tia
I'm 4 today!

For my scrappy friends.

The goody bags & the thank you cards I am working on.

D'Angelo is 4

Happy 4th Birthday to my D'Angelo! I am so excited for him to wake up in the morning and have an awesome day. Four years ago today I didn't know my life was about to undergo a major change. I was unaware of newborn D'Angelo and certainly had no idea I would be meeting him, my firstborn son, in ten short days. Instead, I was thinking, wow...I just turned 30 five days ago. I wasn't unhappy with turning 30, but I also was not overjoyed with turning the big 30! I can happily say now that 30 was the BEST year of my life. It is the year in which I became a parent and fell completely in love with my sweet baby D'Angelo. The love a mother has for her children is like no other. I thank God every day for the opportunity, gift, challenges and great blessing of parenting my children. It has been an awesome experience to watch D'Angelo grow from the precious 10 day old newborn I fell in love with into the sweet little boy he is today.

Summer is unofficially over & the weather here feels very much like autumn. It's after 2 am and it feels cold outside to me. I'm wearing a sweatshirt, jeans and socks! I think my feet forgot what socks were. It seems to go from sticky hot & humid here to cold! As in, one day the kids are out back splashing in the pool...the next it's time to get out socks & jeans. Don't get me wrong, autumn is my favorite season, it's just that it appears out of nowhere and summer ends so abruptly.
Rick got to enjoy some even cooler weather himself this past week while in Colorado. He & his friend Tom take an annual trip there to hike in the mountains, I can't wait until the kids are a little older so we can all go on a vaca to Colorado. While they were away, the kids and I spent time at my Mom & Darrell's. We did the usual run around all day playing, campfire with marshmallows in the evening, and lots of golf cart rides. The other fun thing is the big guys are having a blast learning to ride their Fisher Price quad all over the farm! Hmmm, what else did we do? We also got over to the Walworth County Fair last week. I roasted 25lbs. or better of Roma tomatoes on Wednesday to make soup & Darrell just brought me another HUGE box of Roma's today! Thankfully with the cooler weather I don't mind having the oven on all day long.
Exciting stuff here, isn't it :)

Silly animals at the fair

Lotsa tomatoes.

roasted tomatoes & garlic
What happens when you allow two toddlers to play with rice??? Lots of fun & a BIG mess.

obviously they didn't get the concept of keeping it in the bins and on the cloth.

Sharing a photo from Eric's 30th birthday party at The Cubby Bear.

Grandpa, me, Eric, and my Mom.

I don't think there is anything quite like a Chicago block party! I hadn't been to one prior to last week in years and I am so glad that my kids got the opportunity to enjoy one. There was good food, games, face painting for the kids, popcorn, snow cones, and the company of friends. Thanks to Jerry & Tricia for having us over. The Chicago fire dept came and opened the hydrant for the kids to play. This was a first for my kids. When I was little the older kids in my neighborhood used to get out the channel locks to open the hydrant on our corner. We would run through it until the police came to chase us away and close the hydrant. Where else does this go on? I am curious to hear about other block parties & fire hydrant antics. The kids also got a chance to ride on one of the CPD horses, thanks Audrey. Towards the end of the night my friend Harold let the kids get into his squad car. D'Angelo asked to sit in the back seat and H's partner told him that he couldn't because that was where the dirty bad guys sit. D'Angelo is still talking about the bad guys going to jail.

D & Auggie

While my brother was in town he got all nostalgic and took himself on a trip down memory lane. He drove around our old neighborhood and took a few pictures.

Here is the home we grew up in.

I remember the day the little sapling out in front was planted. I went to preschool in the morning and returned in the afternoon to find my new tree. It really has grown.

The school we attended K-8

Sayre Language Academy


Tia Grace is 5 months old!

It has been a crazy, busy time around our place. I think I say that all too often. We have been in the process of renewing our foster care license. Every 4 years it comes up for renewal. This entails completing paperwork, background checks, completing 16 hours of classes each (Rick & I over the 4 year time period), physicals for all family members (Rick & I both run out the week of home study to get these done), home inspection and another home study. Had our home study on Friday and it went well. Glad to know we should be granted our renewal.

We received the boys' amended birth certificates with their new legal names on them! Yippee Skippy, that thrills me. I am listed as their mama and Rick is listed as their father.

Saturday we attended my friend Ruick's 40th birthday BBQ party. We had a nice time visiting and the kids enjoyed playing and having what else? cake!

My Brother Eric and his family came in from Cali for a nice long visit. My grandfather took the bus from Appleton to visit last Thursday and left yesterday morning. My sister-in-law had a surprise party for Eric's 30th on Sunday at The Cubby Bear. Eric's first suspicion raised when my Dad suggested grabbing a beer at The Cubby Bear with my grandfather who doesn't drink! Eric was surprised though and it was a nice time with a good group of his friends.

Yesterday was his actual birthday so we spent the day together at Coco Key Water Resort . I left the littles home with Grandma Debbie while my mom, Josh & I took the big three to meet up with Eric, Michelle & Bailey. The kids had a blast! We spent more than 6 hours there before my crew was so tired I thought they were going to fall over. My brother took me on the fun, dark, fast water slide. I was so nauseated and lightheaded at the end of it I couldn't stand straight for a few moments. I will not try that again, the affect on me was vertigo like.
Upon entering the car I inform the kids that once we get home we will have a quick dinner then get to sleep. D'Angelo cries out, "What about Uncle Eric's birthday! We did not have cake & a party yet!" Thankfully, I was able to assure him that we would get to sleep in order to make a cake in the morning for a BBQ party tonight. Which is where I am now. I am trying to blog while my kids holler at me about making a crazy birthday cake. Off to make a cake!

You babies should really stay off of the

kitchen sink & stove!X & O: partners in all things naughty