“If you want to be happy, BE” Leo Tolstoy

Sunday, May 29, 2011

St. Louis Park, Minnesota

We are the top middle apartment

Kate Jess and their cousin Claire running amok

so funny how cool a "Salt Lake City" shirt is outside of Utah

Our apartment complex (the girls wore makeup-looks like an 80's music video)

The park with our house behind (the girls call it a Hotel)

amazing Wolfe Park

Kate went straight for the monkey bars

lots of light ahhhhhh

this apartment came furnished (Thanks Best Buy for the apartment and the furniture). It also came with my little brother and his family living just 20 minutes away.  And Audrey, new little Audrey.

a little out of order right?  Such a cool park




home sweet home. A Computer, a laptop, and a quilt. 

I'm way too tired tonight to order these pics...the park

really?  who came up with this idea?  


Kate and her cousin Ethan playing

Ethan "got his worm in parts" (it broke) :( I'm such a mean aunt taking a pic of this but Dawnell is such a sweet Mom.  

cousins performing on stage

Kate took this one, she's growing up so much. 

Claire came wearing the same shirt as Jess, Jess had to change into hers

Ethan retreated to the tent with Kate's Violin. He is going to be a great musician like his daddy.  

Jess painting Claire's toes 



Eating dinner at Dave and Dawnell's new house. Kate got to sit at the special chair.  Their house is so clean and nice. I told David it feels like he's all grown up and living in a big house like the ones we played in as kids.  

Kate was flipping out over the box elder bugs. David told her she could use the magnifying glass to destroy them. Spencer suggested flicking them.  None of these awnswers worked. Dawnell was forced to kill the poor bug.  

oops, Spencer dropped the ramp off the moving truck on David's foot.  

this is what TV is like in the midwest

Tornado in the Glenwood area  in Minneapolis 

poor trees. Minneapolis in the background

.News article from Tornado


entrance girls room and bathroom

girls bathroom

our bathroom through a closet we couldn't even fill up.....

Dirty view, sorry didn't doll it up for the blog this time.  

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Kate's Birthday Party

We had so much fun. It rained though so we moved it to the community center....it was like the loudest thing ever.  


We started with Face Painting thanks to my darling friend Angie.


and her amazing husband Larry


This is their son Pheonix, Kate loves him so much.


I made balloon swords and simple crowns (amazing skill set hu?)



Bike pump in action, of course



Sheresa my Neice is living in Madison and she helped out a ton-she ran from the community center to the house, took pictures and helped some kids not kill each other. Her official job was to run the Fishing Game. 



Sheresa also fixed the messed up cake. I ran out of frosting and she improvised so well.  This was a carnival birthday and we found this cute Lala Loopsy Ferris Wheel.



see what I mean cool pictures.  Kate and Sheena were playing the piano, to add to the quietness of the party.
In the past I have always made birthday hats but this year Kate had a Tiara, Jess can wear it for her birthday too!



Adeetya is from India and is one of Kate's best friends. Sheena is from Taiwan


Anselm looked so great with his Spider Man face Paint.


He gave her a drum, harmonica, tambourine, and whistle to add to the extreme quiet at this point. Kate was so thrilled, her face says it all.


Pheonix's mom gave Kate her own nail kit, she even decorated it with a K and some sparkles.  (the balls in the back kept the little babies busy during the party)


Jess was so sad that she didn't get to open gifts...classic


what a mean mom to even let her cry enough to get this picture.  She got a lot of love.


Drake, who is the Rock Star of the world turned all the buckets from the bean toss game upside down and started playing drums with Jess and the drum...ok can you guess what it sounded like now????



Emily is so pregnant so she got to be in charge of the bean bag toss.   (Angie and Emily and I watch each others kids. We've become great friends, our kids all get along so well and our husbands all like each other too. RARE.) 


Spencer was in charge of the cotton candy machine, Hit of the party but super slow, he was threatening the poor kids.



Maka and Lizzy had so much fun painting their nails with Kate's new polishes


Adli gave Kate a bunch of fun coloring stuff.
"He's such a good boy" says Kate. Kate painted his face.  


 Mary and Kate are both tall girls in their class and so sweet in primary.  Mary is always so kind to share all her toys with the girls when they are babysat.


Wills is the one with the balloon, his mom is holding his walrus.  He is in preschool with Jess and his brother Adli is in school with Kate.  


 This is the only picture of Griffen I have, he was the oldest kid there and one of Kate's favorites, he came up to Spencer and me and said thank you for everything, what a doll.


 darn it this is the only pic of Will I got but he is the most darling boy.  I got the next photo of him at my house a couple days later.  



when it was all said and done, she was pooped. Happy Birthday darling Kate we love you so much!!!
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