The CIRCUS comes to town....

In the "better late than never" category, we went downtown a few weeks ago to see the Barnum and Bailey circus at the new Sprint Center. Uncle Paul, Aunt Audrey and Anthony and Kaylee were in town from Germany, so we had quite the crew!

The circus was so AWESOME! I hadn't been to a real circus since I was a small kid...I hardly remember it. Abbie and Lauren loved it! Their favorites were the trapeze artists, elephants and...the performing dogs. Yes, the dogs. With all the "bigger than life" exhibits and animals, they liked watching the dogs dressed up in dresses doing tricks...oh to be a kid again!

The BESTEST birthday party ever....well, not really.

Ok, since you are all dying to know and e-mailing me with "what happened??" "I have to know!"--here's the story.

The "plan" was a swimming party at Lifetime Fitness from 5pm-7pm for Lauren's 5th birthday. Pizza, cake, presents first, then an hour in the indoor pool. Now remember, its already chilly here, so swimming is such a big deal this time of year.
It all started out so beautifully....See picture 1.

All the kids come with their swimsuits and goggles on...we are heading up to the party room at 5:10...guess what...TORNADO WARNING...complete with SIRENS and EVACUATIONS TO THE LOCKER ROOMS! No, I"m not kidding. The party hadn't even started yet...AND GET THIS, we have to separate into BOYS and GIRLS to go to the appropriate locker rooms.--See Picture 2 & 3.

We are finally "released" from the locker room. We head upstairs to the party room. We have pizza and drinks. The party lady begins to cut the cake...and guess what...another TORNADO siren. So we load up all the kids again, seperate boys from girls, and head down to the Locker rooms again. To pass the time, we play charades, Simon Says...you get the drift. Then the lady comes on over the loudspeaker and tells us we CANT leave the locker room there is a tornado within 10 miles of the gym. SERIOUSLY? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I'm "locked" in the gym locker room with 15ish 4 year olds, their siblings and a few moms and dads (remember, none of them were allowed to leave, unless it was at their own risk?!?!?) ...Oh, and did I tell you my Aunt and Uncle and 2 cousins are visiting from Salt Lake City and are living in Germany, now, and have NEVER been through a tornado...yeah, seriously. So after about 20 minutes the tornadoes move on out and we had back to the party room for cake...I decide to forget opening presents and decide to let the kids swim for the rest of the time because its been so crazy.

ARE YOU READY?
CAN YOU THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE THAT COULD HAPPEN?

THE LIGHTING DETECTOR KEEPS GOING OFF, SO THEY WONT LET US SWIM!!!
Try explaining that to 15 four-year olds, wearing swimming suits and swim goggles.

So my party people quickly blow up the bounce house, pull out the parachute and scooters and the party continues to the gym. So the kids had to forego the swimming, but got to play in the gym instead. See picture 4.

In the car on the way home, still having not opened presents, Lauren says..."This was the worst birthday party ever." Yep, it pretty much sucked. But...most of the kids didn't even know what was going on...no one freaked out over the tornado, cried, or complained (too much.).

Lauren's birthday party...

We had Lauren's birthday party this weekend...it was...ummm...quite interesting...almost a COMPLETE disaster...ALMOST. I don't think I can quite put into words what happened yet...I'm not ready to re-live it just yet. Maybe tomorrow...stay tuned. :) You probably wont believe it.

Jonas update...

Here are some new pics of Jonas...he's getting so big! I'm happy to report that he and the cat seemed to have come to an "understanding"--the cat doesn't really care for Jonas, but she will put up with him. Jonas still loves to chase him and play!

He weighs a whopping 10 pounds!

Labor Day weekend

Over Labor Day weekend, we sent Jonas to cousin Brenda's for the weekend, and off we went to Des Moines. All of Jon's mom's family got together from all over--Minnesota, Colorado, and Iowa to celebrate Jon's grandma and grandpa's 60th wedding anniversary. Can you believe it!!

We had a busy weekend...but best of all...we stayed at a hotel with a pool and hot tub! That's all the girls needed to hear. We went out for dinner, went to Saylorville Lake, and even played "The Newlywed Game" one night to see how well we knew our significant others. I could not believe just how much Jon's grandpa and grandma remembered from way back when.

It was so much fun, even though the only ones missing were Sara, Bob and baby Elsa, and of course their newest addition, Grady. He was only 2 weeks old, so he couldn't fly from Pennsylvania just yet.

Lauren goes to Pre-K

Ok, so I'm a little late posting this :(

Lauren finally headed off to Pre-K at the beginning of the month. She is already having so much fun. She even has homework, just like her big sister. She's so excited!

I have a 2nd grader...

How did this happen...my little baby girl just started second grade. How time flies!

Abbie has always been so excited to go to school. Up until this year, she has gotten her first choice teacher...this year, nope. She's not very excited about school this year, but she's still a trooper and going with a smile on her face everyday--granted its only the second day.

I found this website with a neat recipe for a pencil cake for the first day of school. She loved it!

Here's to a great year!

Way back when...the BIG picture

For all the cousins and aunts that saw the picture of Alice and my dad from....ummm...many years ago...I actually cropped it, there is a bigger picture...complete with Audrey, Kirk, Grandma and Great-Grandpa.

Thought I might share it for everyone...gotta love old pictures!! :)

Meet Jonas...

I finally gave in. After months of hearing how much the girls wanted and NEEDED a dog, I gave in. Abbie has had her cat now for almost 2 years...and we are NOT cat people...she lives here only because Abbie loves her...does that sound bad?

Anyway, after driving all over Kansas...many times...we finally picked out the newest member of our family. His name is Jonas (after the Jonas brothers). He is a 12 week old Cockapoo who is totally cute. Still working on the housebreaking and getting along with the cat, but so far, he's fitting right in :)

Twins?

I totally freaked out when I saw this!
The first picture is a picture of my dad and his sister, Alice from many years ago.
The second picture is a picture of Michael....

Check out my dad and Michael...

OH MY GOSH!!! Don't you think they could be twins?? The resemblance is CRAZY, don't ya think??

Let's Go Fishing!

The girls have discovered their fun thing to do this summer...FISHING!

We took them out to Heritage Park on Father's Day, but we didn't catch ANYTHING :(
That must be because we didnt' take Paw Paw with us (He was in Florida). So the girls and I gathered up our backpack, picked up Paw Paw and Kiki, armed with real worms and Lauren's Dora fishing pole (of course!) and Paw Paw's tackle box and off we went. We probably caught 25 fish....a few sunfish, bluegill, crappie and even a catfish and bass. The girls loved it--even though Lauren had to take a break and head to the playground.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th!

We started the day with an early bike parade at mom and dad's neighborhood, and then off to our friend's Troy & Nicole's for some fireworks and fun!

Butler County Fair

We just got back from visiting Jon's family in Iowa last weekend. We went up because the fair was in town. This carnival is totally the small town fair that you'd think it would be...carnies, carnival rides, games and lots of food. It was so much fun, even though it was pretty cool for June...we wore sweatshirts and jeans!

It so fun for the girls to play all weekend with their cousins!

Parkersburg

As many of you already know, Parkersburg Iowa was hit with a F5 tornado in May. That is the small town that Jon grew up in. It was devastating to hear about all the damage. Jon still has a few relatives that live there. Fortunately, his aunt and his uncle and their families were not injured, however they bost lost their homes. We saw all the news footage and some pictures and couldn't believe what we were seeing.

We went back to visit Jon's family this past weekend and I can't even explain to you how awful it was to see this small town that I have grown to love over the past 14 years. Parkersburg really was THE small Iowa town. It was so cute and so "Normal Rockwell." Seeing it in person was unbelievable! There are no trees left, everything is FLAT...there are only foundations where homes used to be. We heard so many stories of people who were in their basements while the tornado came into town...people's hearing aids being ripped out of their ears, second stories of people's homes being picked up and moved into their front yard, and even Jon's aunt's return address labels were found in Wisconsin! Amazing!

Aunt Carol's house used to be Grandma Gussie's before she died, so it was a very special place for all of us to gather for Christmas dinner, but unfortunately there wasn't anything left after the tornado. Jon's uncles house was also destroyed (its the first picture up at the top)...it used to be a 3 story home. He was at home in the basement when the tornade came through...it only took 39 second to go through town. When he and and his wife came up from the basement, he thought that maybe a window or two had been blown out...what a surprise to find his house was hardly standing.

There is quite a bit of rebuilding going on, but its very slow. There were over 300 homes that were completely demolished and there are only about 5 homes that have begun rebuilding. While we are so thankful that Jon's family was not hurt, it really brings home how thankful we need to be each and every day, and thank God for our families and our blessings.

SUMMERTIME

So, yes, school's been out now for about 6 weeks...we've been awfully busy, but it doesn't seem that we've done that much. How come I'm always tired?
This summer has gone by so fast....I can't believe its already JULY! Abbie and Lauren have really been enjoying their summer...they have even gotten along really well, but I think that's about to change!

The big news this summer is that Abbie is finally riding her bike...all by herself! We bought her a new bike last fall and only got out one time to teach her. But lo and behold, she was ready to go in June! She still doesn't like to use her brakes, she'd rather just jump off the side of her bike---yikes!

I'm SOOO bad about blogging...

Geez! Almost two months without blogging! I told you that I wouldn't be good at this. Seriously, I think about it all the time...how I just took all these pictures and how I need to upload them, but somewhere along the line I get sidetracked...hmmm, I'm really going to try and do better. Don't be surprised if I end up up posting 4 times today....Be careful what you wish for....:)

The CIRCUS!!

We took the girls to their first ever circus last week. Our friend Troy is the Grand Pooba or President?? of the Lion's Club, and they brought the circus to town. Now, I've got to say that the only circus I've been to have been the big Barnum and Bailey type...this was definitely not the BIG circus. This was a small, and probably family-run circus.

They brought the elephants and a tiger, but we didn't get to see the tiger because she had just had 4 baby tiger cubs 4 days before and they were in the semi trailer...hmmmm, not sure how I feel about that, but anyway....

We were most impressed with the trapeze artist, the unicycles, the elephant ride and the balancing acts, and all the junk food we ate....blah! It really was a great show and the girls loved it, so that was what was most important.

Pajama Party!!

Abbie had her birthday party last week...she decided she wanted some friends to spend the night...I told her 3 maximum...she told me she wanted 12...ummm, I don't think so. Instead, we opted for a 1/2 sleep-over with 14 first graders...what was I thinking????

They all came dressed in their pajamas. We decorated pillow cases with fabric paints, had a LOUD dance party in the basement, complete with Hannah Montana and all things High School Musical. The hit of teh night was the glow in the dark limbo.

I have to say the girls were so much fun!!! Yes, there was a lot of giggling and LOTS and LOTS of screaming, but they seemed to have a blast!

Do you wish you were there? Jon didn't... :)

How does this happen??

How do 7 years go by so fast???

Seriously, she's a newborn, then you blink and she's 7!!!


Abbie turned 7 on Tuesday...my how time flies. She has grown into such a beautiful little girl. She is so happy, kind and fun. She's so awesome!

For her birthday she wanted to go out to her favorite sushi restaurant...yes, I said sushi. She loves this little sushi house that has a train that rides around the edge. You get to pull off your sushi plates as it comes around. She LOVES it! She ate 9 plates of sushi, and out-ate us all. Her favorites are shrimp, crab and yellow tail sushi...she eats it all raw!

So after sugar overload with High School Musical cupcakes at school with her friends and sushi train for dinner, Abbie called it a day!




HAPPY BIRTHDAY ABS! WE LOVE YOU!

Dinner Auction

Kerri & Amber
(Oh, and Phil & Rob in the background!)






Do you think she's $4500 cute?


Ok, so I'm a few weeks behind...but hey, at least I'm still blogging...

Jon and I went out with some good friends a few weekends ago to our church Dinner Auction. We have gone to the auction every year for the past 4 years, but this time, we went in style...in a Hummer limo. It's been a long time since we've been in a limo...Limo rides just haven't seemed necessary with small children...well thats about to change! I tell ya what...having a limo is the way to go...
1--I didn't have to bring a coat (even though it was FREEZING) because we get door to door service.
2--Wine and champagne (need i say more)--Dom Perignon, in fact!
3- No need for a designated driver!

So anyway, after a night of much wine, dancing, and bidding, we actually won something...and NO not the puppy that Jon wanted so badly...no way was I going to pay $4500 for a 4 lb dog--thats over 1k per pound!
We came home with Abbie's class basket...tons of gourmet coffee and goodies with a tray and coffee mugs that had thumb print animals decorating them. I'll see if I can snap a pic of it and post it...I know a few of you have asked for a pic.

Hope all is well with everyone!

EASTER 2008

Look at this folks, I'm on a roll! 2 posts in a week!

Hope everyone had a great Easter....ours was a lot of fun, although very cold. I was just starting to believe that it was going to get warmer. I wasn't surprised that it was cold, being that Easter was in March!!

We went to church in the morning then to mom and dads to eat and veg out all day. The girls did an Easter egg hunt. They really did need their coats! Hopefully the warm weather is on its way!