Lucas' first birthday party!

In honor of Luca turning one, we had a giant birthday party for him! We invited the friends, the relatives and ended up with quite the turnout! I tried to time it so it fit Lucas' schedule best, and it did seem to go better than Mia's first party! We started at 11am and ended at 2pm. I think everyone had a good time - Lucas did so that's what really matter right? here are the pics!

all cleaned up!

sweet, sweet baby

Stay-cation, part 2

I split my vacation up over 2 different months so i was due another stay-cation around luca's birthday. i had 10 days off and "planned" to do something every day! Day one i cleaned for his party! Tuesday was Luca's birthday so we went and bought him a present from Mia, had lunch out and then Tina came over with Lexi and Brianna. I made fun-fetti cupcakes for Luca and everyone enjoyed them! Especially Lucas!! Wednesday we went to see Dr. Nancy and got our one year shots. He did pretty well with them. After that, we headed to the City Garden to meet our friends. Madison and tyler were there along with sydney and Tara! It was a wonderful way to spend the day!

Here are some pics from the city garden. this time we remembered the swim suits! My favorite picture is the center one - i love the way the water looks!

Thursday I spent grocery shopping, finishing the house and gearing up for the party. Friday I met up with some awesome moms to go see the children's zoo! I have never been to the children's section and it was free before 9am! Mia loved playing with Chloe, and Luca had 6 other kids to play with! I think it was a great time for everyone! i also love this center pic, it is of Bella and Luca! I was so glad Becca could join us!

Lucas is one!!!

Today my baby is one! Hard to believe one year ago today I was stuck in rush hour traffic, trying to get to the hospital to have him! And here he is today - a big healthy super sweet boy! He is not yet walking, but has been teasing us by standing from a sit in the middle of the room for awhile. I am not worried, when he is ready he will walk, i am sure of it. To keep with tradition (which i am a huge fan of), I made lucas some cupcakes. funfetti cupcakes. always my favorite and always good! I also got out the circus themed accessories to turn it into a carousal big top. These are from Darrin and I's first birthday party! he loved his cupcake - he ate the whole thing! Happy birthday sweet lucas!! We love you!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Bella!

Bella celebrated her first birthday and her parents had a wonderful party for her at forest park. although i thought the party should be at the world's fair pavillion, we had to settle for pavillion Number 9! It was a great day, not to hot and loads of fun! Happy birthday bella!

The City Garden

Recently, St. Louis debuted it's city park. The Mr. and I took the kids down for a day of fun! They both loved it! We tried to take them to the historic crown candy that my parents took my sister and I to when we were younger, but the line was out the door. That can mean a 20 minute wait or a 2 hour wait! So we left there and went to Fitz's on Delmar. The food was great, and the root beer float was awesome!





Tasting the water

Mia and Luca

One happy boy!

And one happy girl!

Lots of Lucas

late night conversation

i don't remember what they were talking about, but they seemed to be having a great time! Even Luca found a phone, dialed them up and said hello!

Cutting of the hair

quiet time with poppa

Toad-ally Awesome

pout! and belly!!

The handy work of a drunk driver

We live in quiet suburbia. Our house is the last one on the end of a fairly long street. It's quiet and no one bother's us. We have 3 car's and one of them used to easily be found on the street. Since school ended, D's car has been on the street in front of the house. he may have used it for errands here or there, but mainly it sat on the street. And usually there are 2-3 cars behind us, including our neighbor from HS's. Not this night. there was no one behind us, no one else on the street. just us, us and out dumb bad luck! The only evidence was the skid marks and the white paint left on the truck. The neighbor saw the car that hit ours but didn't get a plate number. more of our dumb bad luck!! It is frustrating to have someone destroy your property with no care or concern. He/She simply backed up and left. Hopefully karma will get them.

hot diggity dog

Once upon a time, we were a PBS family. But PBS kept changing the line-up on us. the pre-school programs were being shuffled and changed non-stop. one week we could watch clifford and curious george, the next week we couldn't! she loved martha speaks - she could not get enough of the singing dancing dog! and on occasion we watched sid the science kid and betsy's kindergarten adventure. Seseme street wrapped it up. but then SS was moved to noon, martha was on at 0630 and the other shows were scattered around. So, we moved. To the disney channel. Now we watch things like Oso, Handy Manny, 2 episodes of Micky Mouse club house, ending with the imagination movers. Daily, i am asked to re-wind MMCH's ending for the hot dog dance. Mia loves to dance with the disney characters. Especially daisey duck! Here she is doing the hot dog dance! she dances with the IM's too - but that's another post! Like the dress? it was 730 or so and Mia already had her self dressed! the dresses are another post too!

happy blogoversary to me!!

i have been blogging for 3 years now! that's a long time! according to my map to the left, i have more visitors that i thought!! for example - who is in or near beaverton, oregon? or tobyhanna, pa? laurel, maryland?? milford, delaware? new york?? i know who is in germany (hi andrea and family!) and springfield, il (hi re!). but i am at a loss for some of the others! won't you leave a message so i know who you are?? it is my blogoversary after all!! i will put a 3 year blog highlight reel up soon!

Happy Birthday Amelia Rose!

there will be a whole post with party details, the actual day and my disbelief
that she is three, but for now, here are some pics to recap her birthday!
The first is her birthday, july 18, 2006, then year one, two and three.
I can't believe she is three already! Happy birthday to the best girl ever!
We love you more than anything!

amelia is 3!!!!!

With every new year comes another birthday. While I enjoy the planning, celebrating and the party, the idea of my babies growing up is sometimes scary! Every year is the same thing, wondering how my baby can be another year older. Miss Amelia Rose is 3! She is very excited to be 3 and is looking forward to all the things she will be able to do. Like pre-school - she is so excited about starting school! She is in gymnastics now - her last class was on her birthday! After that we headed to the butterfly house for a family day of fun! There is a lot to see and do there and the kids loved it all!

Happy Happy birthday my sweet girl! May you continue to be the ultra-sweet girl that you are today, may you love school and have a passion for learning and may you always and forever be happy!

gymnastics spring edition

I have been looking for a dance/gymnastics class to put Mia in to burn off some of her extra energy. We found one at the collinsville REC. It was a 6 week class that covered the basic tumbling, jumps and balance beam. Mia loved it, and i did too until the 5 weeks. our regular teacher was not in, so we had a sub. she didn't know the kids, their names or what we were working on. i was more than irritated. but i made it to week 6 expecting to see our regular teacher. nope, and this was a different sub!! who was late and gave some lame excuse that she forgot she was teaching the class! i got another eval and told them how i felt, not that they cared, but i felt better!! here are some pics from week 6!

the scooter

One of Mia's favorite gifts from her birthday is her scooter. she loves her scooter! While she already had her big party, on the kids actual birthday, we have a small celebration with cake and one present. We had to make a last minute run to the store to get icing for her cupcakes. i make this cake myself and let pick out the cake. This year, Amelia picked out confetti cupckes. they were moist and so tasty! and she helped me make them. On the way back, all the neighbor hood kids were out, riding their scooters and bikes. Mia was so excited and insisted she get her scooter out to ride with them and to make friends! This is the only girl that would take time to talk her, but it made Mia so happy! That is her birthday outfit she is wearing, a birthday girl shirt, pink tutu and silver sparkle shoes! happy birthday Mia!

11 months