Happy Birthday Andrew

WOW!! Andrew is 8years old already. How time flies! This year he received a new baseball glove because his other one was getting pretty worn. We asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday supper and his choice was Jasmine's Thai Restaurant! He loves that place. Here he is eating his orange chicken with his chop sticks. About a week later we had Andrew's birthday party at a pizza place where he invited several friends from school and baseball. They played lots of games and bought "wonderful" prizes with their tokens! What could be better than a room full of boys? Nothing....we love it this way!

Minneapolis Trip

The second week in August I had the opportunity to attend a Nurse Educator conference in Minneapolis, MN. The hotel was real close to Mall of America, and I wanted someone to go with me. Then I thought, who loves to shop? So, of course I asked my sister Lisa to go with me. We first met in St. Louis and flew out the next morning. We luckily arrived early, so we were able to go to Mall of America right after lunch!!! It was awesome. It had 3 levels and best of all, there was an amusement park in the middle. There were probably 5 roller coasters, a carousel, a log flume ride, and many many more rides for the kids. There is one picture here where Lisa and I were eating and we were looking out over the park. We ate great meals, walked A LOT, and had a really good relaxing time together. Now of course, I had to attend a conference for two days, but one evening we took the train all the way to the new Target field, home of the Minneapolis Twins baseball team. We also walked a long way over the Mississippi River to try and find a good eating place, but all we got were blisters! It was nice and all, but we ended up going all the way back to the mall and eating there anyway. The pictures here are two of the amusement park, Mall of America sign outside, two pics are huge animals and robots made out of legos. There was a big Legos store there which was great! Thanks for going with me Lisa, that was fun--even if we didn't ride the log ride!!!!

First day of school

You know what the first week of August brings! That's right, it's back to school time for all of us. All of us had to go back to school on Aug 4. Paul is happy now because he gets breakfast. Here are pictures of the boys as we left, then paul took a picture of me too!

Mud Dog families at Miner's Game

The Mud Dog baseball team had a wonderful summer. Not only that, we have the best parents ever! The boys played hard and we all decided that the team needed to celebrate as a "family". Plans were made to attend the Miner's baseball game in Marion, IL. What a great time. Paul arranged for the boys to actually take a little practice out on the field and the kids got to run bases from 6-6:30. They kept saying "wow, we're on the big field!". After that, each child got a ticket for a hotdog, chips, and drink and they each got a new baseball. The Miner's won that night, and those boys were all into the game yelling and rooting for the Miners. Here are pictures of Andrew and his friend Ty on the field, several of Andrew's favorite buds from the team, then the boys right next to the field in the ninth inning cheering them on, hoping to get a foul ball! Oh yeah, here's a pic of Andrew getting ready to run the bases--look at the expression on his face.

St. Louis Cardinals Game

Last Wednesday Paul called from work and said, "get the kids ready, I bought tickets to go see the Cardinals!". So, after lunch we headed up to St Louis. We got there plenty early hoping to get to see batting practice and maybe an autograph or two. But to our disappointment, the gates don't open til 5:15 and they only sign autographs on "autograph night". But anyway, we watched the visiting team bat, then headed to get something to eat before the lines got too long. We stood around a table to eat, but poor little Andrew's chin barely reached over the top! He looked so cute just digging into his hotdog and fries, but it didn't bother him at all! We had fantastic seats on the lower level right between the catcher and third base. Kids had a good time and I think we all had one of every food item they had. Oh yeah, and Paul had beer! Here are pictures of the boys on the metro train that took us to our car because we parked over in Illinois to avoid driving in the traffic--their first train ride!! Also, here is a statue of Ozzie Smith and also the boys with Stan Musial statue.

July Happenings

July 4th we had our annual firework celebration. Lots of good friends and neighbors brought food and the kids had a great time. I bought lots of waterguns and a slip n slide for them to have fun on. Paul smoked chicken, burgers, and hot dogs before we had our firework display.
After July 4th, Andrew and Paul had baseball tournament and Adam finished up with his swim team meets. Andrew's team the Mud Dogs ended up getting second for the season and in the tournament, and Adam's swim team ended up going undefeated in their swim league.
July 18th Adam had to have epigastric hernia repair so it's killing him not to be out in our pool every day. Also, it's just plain hard to keep him from being so rambunctious. That boy only took Tylenol and Motrin for pain, I never even gave him the Tylenol with Codeine. Paul says his pain tolerance is pretty high like his, but I think he takes after his tough mama!! Grandmas and grandpas came to visit and he got lots of pampering.
July 21 was the swim team's banquet and Adam received a trophy for participating on the team.