St. Pat's Survived

Another St. Pat's has come and gone and as I have taken a vacation day to recover and finish the cleaning - or surveying the damage - depending on the room I am cleaning I've had some time to reflect on some of the weekend's highlights. As I am finding some 2nd day discoveries behind toilets I am cursing a few of those highlights. Right now I am just thankful for Lysol......
I didn't take any pictures which I wish I would have as it was an entertaining weekend. Some tried to reclaim some of their former college glory days and others came up with a few new surprises. But here are a couple of the highlights:

• Boat races in the garage
• Summer weather and being outside most of the weekend
• 45 minute french fries
• Boat races again after midnight....
  
• Scandalous
  
• I need a portal
• My muscles hurt.....
• If the trailer is a rockin......or am I rocking, maybe it's the wind?
• Text pick/hook ups at bars
• 3 Man
• Forgetting the rules to 3-Man and making up a few new ones
  
• Scott not speaking English after 30 minutes of 3-Man
  
• Is this Hangover 2? No - it's Bridesmaids
• Filthy stinky aromas - not exactly a highlight but present every night, morning, and afternoon. You shouldn't be able to clear out of driveway with your stink if you are outside but our friends are just that skilled.

So as I wait for the carpet cleaner to show up I am thankful that everyone made it home safely and had a good time. And we survived yet another St. Pat's, and continue to enjoy our version of the "Best Ever".

Abby's First Father Daughter Dance

This past Friday night was the Auxvasse Elementary Father Daughter Dance and we found out that Preschoolers could attend as well. So there was a purchase of a dress that twirls and jewelry and make up applied. As you can see my little 5 year old looks all grown up.




Posing outside with Tim. Megan had to get a little jewelry and make up on as well so she didn't feel left out.

Posing.....again.

And a Megan update!! By some miracle the whole potty training thing clicked this past weekend. She was in big girl panties all weekend with one minor accident. We might be seeing the end of pull ups in our near future..... We'll be at the end of our potty chart by the end of the week.
We are very proud of her!

Abby was kind enough to pose with Megan as well. Megan let her borrow her Tinkerbell necklace and a couple rings which was a nice sharing surprise.

This weekend is our annual St. Pat's party with the Rolla crew. Wish us luck that it's not too painful.

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.