Applebee's Birthday

Apparently we had another birthday in the family yesterday. Megan declared yesterday that it was Applebee's birthday and that she needed a party. Well any excuse to have some cake.....


So Tim picked up a delicious chocolate cake on the way home and after dinner we sang happy birthday to Applebee and Megan blew out the candle (eventually).



So Happy Birthday Applebee!
If you are wondering Abby decided that Lena's birthday is March 28, so another party is not far away.

Megan's 3rd Birthday

Three years ago our baby was born - how time flies! There was snow and ice on the ground, much different than the sunny 40+ degrees we had this weekend. Just one of the first photos of us at home with Megan with big sister Abby helping feed her. I can't believe how small they both look!




For the birthday party we headed to Bonkers, our go to favorite place to have birthday parties that exhaust children and there is no cleaning involved! We showed up after it opened to grab our tables, which was lucky since that place was extremely full last Saturday.


Playing a little Big Buck Hunter before the guests arrive.



Upstairs playing games - Abby, Carter, and Levi.

The Tinkerbell birthday cake. Megan picked it out herself - first time without peer pressure from Abby. There was only one piece left and it was good! Thank you Hy-Vee!

The birthday girl with her cake.

Posing all grown up with our birthday shirt on.



Opening one of our many presents. The Hello Kitty is about as big as Megan is!


At home on Sunday with our just family party. She has a gift from Abby and one from Mom & Dad.

One more cake.....at least it's a small one.

Blowing out the candle and trying not to set our hair on fire.

The other blowing out the candle photo. This one only got frosting in her hair thankfully.


Megan at 3

• Not officially potty trained yet - but is in big girl panties this week - so we're hoping it's near!
• Still speaks a little Meganese, you get used to it when you are around her for a while.
• Best friend is her sister Abby
• Has a little bit of an attitude when you ask her to do something she doesn't want to do.
• Can eat as much pizza and/or cheese as most adults can.
• Favorite Movie (as of now): Gnomeo & Juliet
• Still can throw a fit like a champ
• Is probably left handed
• Still likes to snuggle
• Is fearless
• Still taking a 2 hour nap in the afternoons
• Starting to dress herself
• Has a flip flop fetish
  

and so much more........

Thank you all that came to her party and gave her gifts! She is still on a high from her birthday weekend extravaganza, and will talk about it for months to come.

Snow Day

We received a couple inches of nice packing snow yesterday and we decided we better take advantage of it as it might be the only snow we see this year as they are calling it "the winter that never was" in Columbia. I had ordered a snowman kit for the girls around Thanksgiving and this has been our first chance to use it. His name is Frosty of course.




Snow angels and sledding were next on the list of things to do. Followed up by grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup to get warm again. It was an evening well spent.

Coco Keys Trip

This past weekend we took an overnight trip to KC to enjoy in some indoor water park activities. Last New Year's Eve we spent the weekend here and the kids had so much fun that Jenn and I decided we should go back for at least a night so they could enjoy it again. They still talked about the weekend there from last year like it happened last weekend so they remember it very well.


The girls posing in the Pirates Cove kiddie pool area. Allison had a good time in that pool also with the zero entry area.


Another pose from the big kids. This year they were brave enough to go without their life jackets - or at least we allowed them to where they were taller than the depth of the water.
They are all extremely comfortable with water and slides.

And this year at least 50% of the kids were not scared of Coco. We had breakfast with Coco on Sunday morning and Abby and Ashley were very excited to see him and take pictures with him. Where are Allison and Megan you might ask. Allison is hiding behind Jenn's leg not very happy and Megan is screaming/crying while Tim is holding her as far away from Coco as she can get. The hostess had to instruct Coco to stay away from our table as Megan didn't react that great to having him close - but was always curious to where he was. Allison would hide under the table if she saw him......maybe next year.

The kids found the business center before we went to dinner on Saturday night - so they are just getting some last minute business transactions done before we left. Computers were still working the next day so that was a good sign.

We had a very nice trip with the Cowan family and one night with playing on the day of check in and check out seemed to be just the right amount of time to spend there - or as much as the husbands could handle. Megan came away with a black eye, scraped up arm, leg, and ankle so it's successful in our book as nothing was broken. They are already talking about going back again.......

Basketball and Birthdays

This past weekend we went to the MU vs. Texas Tech basketball. It might be our only chance to see MU play this year (and they were still ranked #2 at the time) so we couldn't pass it up. Thankfully they won - although they did try pretty hard to make it unnecessarily interesting. Our children continue to have a fear of Truman the Tiger and refused to go anywhere near him or where he might be going or even looking at going. The Cheerleaders on the other hand are another story. I think they are Abby's favorite part of the game. She imitated the dancers the whole time and was lucky enough to get a picture with the whole dance squad.




Sunday afternoon we headed back from the lake to attend Carter and Levi's birthday parties at Bonker's. Can't go wrong there with the chance to run around.

And yes it was a Cardinal's cake.

One last photo from the game with my 2 cheerleaders. They lasted through the whole game and enjoyed all the activities. We cheered for DGB as he walked around the court - so hopefully he picks MU for football next year.

The Final Christmas - or first of 2012

This weekend the Schmidt family traveled down to Branson for the final Christmas - or first of 2012, however you want to look at it. Since we were in Iowa over Christmas we usually celebrate with Tim's family in January when it's less hectic. So we rented at 5 bd/4ba house on Table Rock Lake at a resort called The Cliff's that was very nice. It had plenty of room for all 11 of us to enjoy ourselves. The 92 inch TV media room didn't hurt either :).


We started Friday night off with some present opening so the kids could have some entertainment for the rest of the weekend.


Pre-present opening poses. And yes the girls are basically holding Theo in place for the photo. He wasn't that excited about it all.

And this was the view from our deck. Very peaceful this time of the year with just a few fisherman going by.

And Megan's favorite gift - her own cleaning cart! I expect to have a shiny clean house this week with all the extra help now that she has her own "stuff".

Overall the weekend went by very quickly with family meals and a little bit of shopping. We were packing up and heading north on Sunday before we knew it. Tim is still recovering from his food hangover.

Jessie's Wedding & NYE

This New Year's Eve we celebrated with our friends and also officially welcomed a new member, Greg Conger, who married our dear friend Jessie Barnett. As we usually all get together for NYE anyway, Jessie just made it easier on us and picked the location. So up to northern IL we traveled and spent time in Waukegan, Libertyville, and Grayslake.


Wedding Day - Leann and Jess are proudly handing out programs.


Wedding rehearsal - Greg might have said something about not wearing red/Cardinals gear after the World Series win so we had to not disappoint him. The bribe was to get a photo with the couple then they would take the shirts off. Rehearsal dinner was a Mickey Finn's - one word...Growlers.

Wedding Day again - and the lovely cake, there was a snowflake theme throughout.

At the church - Jessie is behind Fr. Bob unfortunately.



At the reception - Dave, Scott, and Tim all texting Pollard because they missed him.


The happy couple at their table for two. Jessie was a BEAUTIFUL bride and her dress was amazing.

Our GBS picture

And yes - boat races in the hotel hallway. Not our finest moment - but some Wisconsin friends of Greg decided to challenge us to "flippy cups". Little did they know how skilled we were due out St. Pat's adventures. We did require them to go "up and down the river" which they didn't appreciate. In the end: MO 2; WI 1 - they didn't ask us to play again.

Congrats to Jessie and Greg Conger!! What a way to bring in 2012.