A Little Bit of Lately

We can't wait for the weather to get warmer!  It has been a long, long winter and we are ready for Spring.

Last week was only my second full week of work since the last week in January!  We are slowly moving into spring mode here, which makes for happier people!

The plate my mom gave me for my birthday!  I love it and it instantly brightened up my kitchen!

 A beautiful 65 degree day at the winery with friends.

The next day it was 30 and snowing!!

 Dave kept Dane home from preschool last Wednesday so that they could spend the day together.  They went down to the marina to do some fishing.

Dane had a great time!

Mom's Birthday

Our family LOVES to celebrate birthdays!  We celebrate all of the siblings, spouses, and kids' birthdays!  March 1st was my mom's birthday.  My mom spends every single day making her kids, their spouses, and her grandkids her top priority so we wanted to spoil her more than ever on her special day.

Her birthday started Friday night with several of the girls spending the night, watching movies, and eating snacks.

Saturday morning everyone came over to her house and we made her brunch.

 We gave her a gift card bouquet with gift cards to some of her favorite places.

 We gave her a photo album, made by Katie, of our girls trip to New York.

 Everyone loved looking at the album.

 About noon the husbands took the kids for the park and naps and the girls headed out to manicures and pedicures.  I hardly ever get a manicure, but I decided to get one.

 After manicures and pedicures we shopped at some stores in downtown Kirkwood.

We then gathered at TJ and Ashley's house for an Italian Dinner.  We had meatballs and toasted ravioli for appetizers, then salad, bread, and cannelloni and manicotti for dinner.

 We had mom's favorite cake, White Chocolate Mousse Cake, from her favorite St. Louis bakery  for dessert.  The grandkids loved singing Happy Birthday to their Mama.

Such a fun day celebrating my mom, who deserves to have the very best birthday ever!

Lately...

We  moved Dane out of his toddler bed into a big bed.  I thought his bed converted to a twin, but it actually converted to a full!  Such a big bed for my little guy!

 The Eye Dr. has been watching Dane's vision for the past year and a half.  He decided that since he hasn't seen any improvement and since Dane is now in preschool it was time to go ahead and prescribe glasses for our little guy.  Dane is pretty farsighted.  When we went to pick out glasses I asked the lady to put all the options on the table.  I wanted Dane to pick out what he wanted.  Dane tried them all on and looked in the mirror each time.  He decided on this pair because the inside of them are red and that's his favorite color.

 A week later we went back to pick them up.  Dane put them on and said, "Daddy, everything is bigger."

 Reese has really, really wanted Dane's glasses.  I knew we had sunglasses somewhere in the house, so I searched and found a pair for Reese.

 Now Reese wears sunglasses around the house.

 Sometimes he even wears them at 6:30 a.m. as we head out the door to daycare.

 Dane has really gotten into building with the smaller legos lately.

 Trying on Daddy's turn-out gear for the fire department.

 Mommy and Reese having some snuggle time

 Daddy picked the boys up from daycare and preschool and they went by Station One Cafe (an old fire station) for some cookies.

 Reese was a handful all morning.  I put him in timeout (again) and he walks in my room a few minutes later and says. "Reese read Bible."

Claire's Birthday Party

Claire had her 5th birthday party at St. Louis Gymnastics Center.

Dane was so excited and he had a great time!

Stretching

Following the leader through the obstacle course

 The Spring Mat

 The foam pit

 After an hour of play Claire opened her presents and had cake and ice cream!

Dane had such a great time we are thinking about signing up for a week of summer camp this summer!

Valentines Day and Birthday Cupcakes

Since Valentines Day was on a Friday it was perfect for us to have our family Valentines Party that evening.

Aunt Amy brought some Valentines games for the kids to play while we waited for dinner.

 Making a tower out of conversation hearts

 I never know what I am going to get when I try to take a picture of there two!

 My Valentines!

 The kids' table

My brother, T.J., and my brother in law, Tom, grilled steaks for dinner!

They were so good!

 The adults had already celebrated my birthday at the winery and the kids were celebrating Claire's birthday on Saturday at her gymnastics birthday party, but we had cupcakes and ice cream sundaes to celebrate a little that night also.