2 in 1

 We celebrated one last time with the May birthday girls, this time with Grandpa and Grandma Salfer and Grandma Elaine.  Natalie wanted a Frozen party so bad and I told her it had to wait until we celebrated with her grandparents.  So finally the day came and I decorated and keeping with the "frozen" theme purchased a DQ ice cream cake.  I put the finishing touches on myself.  That was the easiest part!  It was the most layed back of all the parties which I enjoyed!

A Teenager in the House!

WARNING:  Caitlin has now entered the Teenage Years
                           Please pray for Brian and I!!!

This girl is beautiful, quirky, over the top obnoxious at times, one smart cookie (all A's, all year) never afraid to try something, doesn't feel the need to follow the crowd, athletic, great big sister, awesome helper when she's in the mood, great with Lauren, curious, loves to read, loves school, not into the boy-thing yet, could eat pasta all the time, Loves God, Loves her parents, Loves her sisters, Loves to be in charge.  She's just really fun to have around and a really good kid!!


We had a couple birthday celebrations for Caitlin.  The first one was with the Landwehr's (her Godparents) who came up from Iowa.  They stayed overnight and were able to spend more time with all of us.  In between rain showers we played games, tennis, wii, hung out and ate alot of food.  The girls always enjoy getting to spend time with their cousins (which are the same ages).

After track practice the day of her birthday, we swooped up Caitlin and celebrated at her restaurant of choice-Buffalo Wild Wings.  We had a pretty good time, although surprisingly enough the girls were over stimulated with all the tv's.  I never thought that would happen.  They couldn't wait to get out of there!  After dinner we headed home and had birthday dessert-Strawberry Shortcake.  Nice and light and Yummy!

Tricked Ya!!!  Relightable candles are soooo much fun!

The 2nd party we had was a joint party for her and Natalie with Grandparents.  That will be my next post.

Then last weekend she invited 4 of her friends to spend the night with our crazy family.  Poor Brian...10 girls and himself.  He handles it so well though!  The girls were fun to have over and our kids loved getting even more attention.  Caitlin is lucky to have such good friends...I think she'd agree!

Another Birthday cake...this time no trick candles!

Natalie is 5!!!!!!

Natalie...what do I say about this sweet girl?  Well, first, she has been waiting to celebrate her birthday since her last one and when the movie Frozen came out she started planning the party.  Natalie is my left handed, spunky, big blue eyed, entertaining comical, helpful, little girl.  She loves her family, being a big sister and a little sister.  She loves watching Scooby-Doo, riding her bike, baking with mom, helping Dad with odd jobs, putting together puzzles, and playing restaurant with her sisters.  She loves school and her teacher Mrs. Voigt.  She is super excited to start kindergarten next fall and go to the same school as Emily and Rachel.  She is a very picky eater, but always has room for dessert.  She could eat Nutella at every meal. :)  She's always singing, dancing, humming or skipping.  Most of the time she's smiling but every once and a while the horns come out.  She is quite stubborn and thinks she calls the shots around here.  She will have to learn the hard way, unfortunately, that she isn't the one in charge.  I just hope Brian and I can survive raising this one!  Oh, but we love this little bugger and can't imagine life with out her!  Happy Birthday Nat-Nat!

Friends from school - Courtney, Molli and Libby

At Dino's for birthday meal with Godmother Alisa

Rachel's First Communion

Oh the day is finally here!  Rachel has been looking forward to this for so long and we are so happy for her and proud of her.  It was a spectacular day filled with warm weather, family who came for the celebration, good food and conversation.  Rachel looked especially beautiful today, but I think she's beautful all the time!  

May Day, May Day...Hang On!!

May Day...May 1st...My Birthday...Last Year in the 30's

Here we go!  My last year as a 30-something.  Really?  I remember when I thought that was old!  To be honest, I'm a little sad/depressed but on the other hand I can look to see what God has blessed me with.  An awesomly, wonderful, loving, faithfilled husband, 5 amazing, beautiful, blue-eyed, smart, funny, unique, perfectly made little girls, supportive, loving parents and in-laws, an amazing sister and brother who gave me an awesome sister-in-law and brother-in-law and sweet, sweet little nieces and nephews, good health, a warm home, the best friends anyone could ever ask for and great neighbors.  Obviously, after this list (one which I could go on and on) there is no need for sadness, only joy and thanksgiving!

Eggs, Hunt(s) & Easter Celebrations

Oh Easter!  I just LOVE Easter!  And this year we were blessed with super weather!  Finally it was warm!  It seems like years since the last time we enjoyed such sun on this glorious day!

We started out Easter weekend from our favorite visitors to the North, my sister and da' boys.  Those sweet, sweet, never sit still, get into everything, sweet boys!  Why did I think that dying eggs would be a good idea?  Hmmm... it actually wasn't all that bad.  Just a few spills and a few cracked eggs, but hey, they were hard boiled so not a big deal.  The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and we're so happy that they are moving to MN!  The girls wanted to dye more eggs so the next day we made some more and Brian got to have a little creative fun too!  

Easter morning came early, like usual, and the girls were on the lookout for their baskets and eggs.  Brian and I are amazed at how NOT good they are at looking.  It's alot like looking for something they've misplaced in the house.  Not sure why one wouldn't look UNDER things?  Some day they'll catch on!  The rabbit is getting trickier every year with the older 3 girls.  Even the cardinal was a little puzzled with the "robin" egg sitting on the feeder.  They all had alot of fun and were able to find all their eggs after about an hour or so.  We got dressed, looking pretty in the Easter attire, headed to mass to celebrate and then headed to Wabasso for lunch with the Salfer's (thank goodness they left some food for us) and then later in the afternoon to the Moore's for dinner and more cousin time.

April Happenings

We'll start off April with photos from Caitlin's first track meet.  She is loving track and has decided that the 200m dash is her favorite event.  She usually runs the 200m, 4x200m relay and triple jump.  She did have a try at the 400m and didn't like it too much.  She's definitely drawn to the faster races.  Overall, she's improved her times and is having alot of fun.  The Jr. High only had 8 meets scheduled and they missed 3 due to weather...we've froze our butts off at the 4 we went to and tomorrows meet, which is the last, is supposed to be 80 degrees!! Yeah!

Natalie, Lauren and I went on a mini field trip to the pet store and mall in Mankato while our van was being worked on for a few hours.  We ended up walking even though it was a little cool and windy from Toyota and our first stop was Pet Expo.  Lauren was infatuated with the fish and couldn't stop saying "fsh,fsh fsh"  The excitement brought pure joy to my heart.  She didn't like the ferrets though. They were "playing" in their glass cage and she got scared when they ran toward her...Can you imagine?!  It was pretty funny.  Natalie was bouncing from animal to animal and I could barely keep up with her.  After the pet store we headed to the Mall and spent some time in Barnes and Noble.  I kept busy running after Lauren and reshelving books.  :)  Natalie could probably spend hours in there looking at books and playing with the toys.  We then headed to Scheels to say hi to Amy and ride the escalator.  Then I let the girls play for a bit in the germ infested play area.  They seem to enjoy it, I don't.  Extra hand sanitizer after that stop.  We ran a few errands after, hopped back on the stroller and back to Toyota.  We walked almost 2 miles when all said and done!

The 2nd grade class have been preparing to receive their 1st Communion and part of tradition they act out the last supper (Seder Meal) at one of their prayer services.  It's quite exciting to a 2nd grader! 

Thanks to my mom coming and watching Natalie and Lauren, I was able to be a chaperone for Emily's 5th grade class trip to the State Capitol and MN History Center.  In all our years at JI, I've only chaperoned one trip.  Amazing!  It was a great day!  I hadn't been to the Capitol in many years and it brought back fond memories of when I was there with my 5th/6th grade class.  The History center was great too!  I had never been there and the kids LOVED it.  It was nice to spend a day with my brown haired beauty!

The last event in April was the Regional Science Fair at MNSU in Mankato for Emily.  She and the other kids from JI did really well.  Emily ended up getting a Purple ribbon and then 2nd place overall in her age/catagory division.  She received a $40 gift card to Walmart.  Not bad for a days job!