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!