Happy 40th Anniversary Mom and Dad

So, my Mom and Dad officially celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary on June 21st!  However, this past weekend, we were all 'home' in Indiana to throw them a party.  We had a fun time with our entire family celebrating their 40 years together.

My whole family

 My parents and all my siblings with their families.

My parents with all ten of their grandchildren.

My sister, Debbie, and her family  

Emily, Brady, Debbie, Gabe, Hannah and Adelynn.

Our Family

 Ava, Jon, Andrew, and me.

My sister, Laura, and her family

Jason, Isabelle, Laura, Ian and Aiden.

My brother, Dave, and his family

 Liam, Tiffany, and Dave.

My Mom and Dad re-enacting the moment they cut their wedding cake.  This cake was home made by my sister-in-law, Tiffany.  It was delicious!

My Dad feeding my Mom...

Then, it was my Mom's turn to feed cake to my Dad.

Along with the cake, we also had a chocolate fountain for dessert at the party.  Here, Jon is helping Aiden rescue a banana that fell into the fountain.  The grandkids absolutely LOVED (an understatement) the chocolate fountain!

My parents addressing their guests at the party, which was held downstairs in their basement.

There were about 30 guests in all that came to celebrate.

As the festivities continued, I realized my munchkins had disappeared on me.  This always alarms me, just a little, at my mom and dad's house because they live in a subdivision that has 'lakes' in it.  My parents' backyard has access to a lake without any gates or fences.  

So, in this moment, my mind goes to the worst case scenario:  My kids have probably walked upstairs, out into the backyard, and wandered into the lake without anyone noticing them.  AAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!

  Well, to my relief, I found them playing quietly with each other in a room right off the main area in the basement where the party was being held.  Whew!  I think I need to keep a better eye on them next time we throw a party for my parents!  :-)

Along with having a party for my parents on Saturday, we all, my siblings and their spouses, took them out for dinner to a local Italian restaurant, the night before the party.  We gave them a '40th Anniversary' picture book that we all put together online several weeks before the party.  We had pictures of each of them growing up, when they were newly married, and as their family grew.  The book ended with recent pictures of us and our own families.  They REALLY appreciated their book and we were so happy to give it to them.  After we gave them their gift, we each went around the table at the restaurant and shared what we appreciated about them as our parents over the years.  It was truly a special time of family bonding.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!  

Thank you for being a great example of two people committed to their marriage for the past 40 years!  We all love you so much!

Happy Father's Day!

This past Sunday, June 20th, we celebrated Father's Day!  

Jon is a wonderful Daddy to our munchkins and we love him so much!

Here he is raking leaves in the Fall with our munchkins' 'help.'  

This was taken on Christmas Day, right after Jon assembled the new train set for Buddy.  I just love this photo of the three of them.  Aren't they so cute?

Our Sweetheart and her Daddy on her 4th birthday.  

Buddy with his Daddy on his 3rd birthday.

And here they all are on Father's Day 2010.  

We went to church in the morning followed by lunch at Ledo's Pizza.  Then, after the munchkins' naps we headed to a local shopping center that has a pond and a boardwalk, to visit the ducks, geese, and other birds.  It is where these last two photos were taken.  After we had our fill of walking around and watching all the animals, we went to get some ice cream.  It was a very hot day and ice cream seemed to be the best way to cool down.  

We love this man so much!  Thank you for being such a great Daddy to our kids honey!  Happy Father's Day from your wife and two munchkins.

Amazing Butterflies

This past Wednesday my munchkins and I went with our MOPS (Mothers Of PreschoolerS) group from church to Brookside Gardens to visit the Butterfly exhibit they had in their conservatory.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera with me when our whole group was together.  I was only able to get a few shots of the butterflies with my cell phone.

We saw several different types of beautiful butterflies.  The kids had a great time looking at the butterflies and pointing out all the beautiful colors on them.  

My kids love the white butterflies they see outside when we take our morning walks.  You can imagine how excited they were to see butterflies with different colors on them than the plain white ones we usually see.

Some of the butterflies landed on a few of us, but most just flew by us or stayed on a flower so we could get some fantastic pictures of them.

My personal favorite is the monarch butterfly.  This is what I think of when I think of a butterfly.  The other butterflies were so beautiful and colorful, but I guess I'm just

 partial to this one.

After the munchkins had taken in all the wonder and amazement of the butterflies, we ventured outside  and saw a few water fountains.  I thought this was a perfect opportunity for another timeless photo, right?  

We had a great time enjoying the butterflies and the fountains at Brookside Gardens.

Let's Go For A Walk

For the past few years, once the weather turns nice, the munchkins and I have taken about an hour long walk in the mornings.  It's a great way to get my exercise, for us to get some much needed fresh air, and to enjoy God's creation.  The kiddos do great job staying in their double stroller looking around, asking lots of questions, and sometimes even singing a few songs.

This particular morning, Ava wanted to bring one of her stuffed animals, Bunny.  I told her as long as you hold onto Bunny, you can take her with you. 

(You will see that Bunny makes an appearance in each one of these pictures.)  

Still hanging on to Bunny...  

Our walking route is through a neighborhood.  Once we get to a place where we can see construction trucks building a new local road, we turn around and go home.  The walk round trip is about 2.5 miles. 

Well, this morning when we were almost home (and I was tired and sweaty) Ava discovered that Bunny had fallen out of the stroller at some point during our walk!  

Bunny was lost!  

So, as soon as we arrived home from our walk, we all climbed into the car and I decided to drive our walking route to search for Bunny.  We were about half way through our route when we found Bunny just laying on the sidewalk right where Ava had dropped her!  Whew!!!!  Ava was so excited to be reunited with Bunny! 

Lesson learned: Next time we go on our walk, we won't be taking any special friends with us.

Ava's Last Day of Preschool

Ava had her last day of preschool last Thursday.   The parents were all invited to join the preschoolers for their last day.  

We enjoyed listening to the kids sing a song with stick puppets, Mrs. Hayes reading a special book, and then eating a delicious fruit salad that the preschoolers made for us.  Before we left, Mrs. Hayes and Mrs. Maul told us to take our child's pieces of art, which were hanging up all around the room, home with us. We had a wonderful time.

Ava really enjoyed going to preschool this year and meeting some new friends along with having a friend she already knew, Jillian.  Ava loved having Jillian there with her.  Jillian was a wonderful friend to her.

Mrs. Maul with Ava.

Mrs. Hayes with Ava.

We are so proud of our little girl for finishing her first year of preschool!  Way to go Sweetheart!  Mommy and Daddy love you so much!

Next year buddy and Ava will both be in preschool.  They are growing up so fast!

Buddy's 3rd Birthday!

Yesterday Buddy turned 3 and we celebrated by having a party for him. We had 3 families from our small group at church come over for a cook out. Each family have become dear friends of ours. They have become our family here, especially since our families don't live close.  We had hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill and of course birthday cake and ice cream. Since Buddy's birthday is always so close to Memorial Day, I think we will start a new tradition by having a cook out for his birthday each year!

So, over the last several weeks, whenever we asked Buddy what he wanted for his birthday, he'd always say, "I want a Gill cake!" (For those of you who may not know who Gill is, he's the idol fish on Finding Nemo who had a broken fin. Nemo met him in the aquarium.) Well, we dropped the ball on that one. I did try to find a Gill toy (to put on top of whatever cake we decided on) and asked two different grocery stores if they could make a Gill cake, but we were unsuccessful on both fronts. We ended up getting him a cake that had Dory and Nemo on it. I told Buddy, "I'm so sorry we couldn't find a Gill cake for you!" He replied, "It's all right Mommy," along with a great big hug to reassure me that it really was okay!

Buddy is such a sweet little boy. Happy Birthday Buddy! You are a special gift from God and we love you very much!

Brother and Sister

We went to the park the other day, me and my munchkins. While we were there I had a great idea to get a few pictures. Problem was I didn't bring the camera.... wait, no problem, I had my cell phone with me. These were the shots I was able to get... with the help of some editing on my computer.

These are some precious pictures that I'll treasure forever!

I hope my munchkins develop a great relationship, not only as brother and sister, but also as best friends.