Picnic Breakfast

My kids are obsessed with picnics.  They can't wait until summertime when they can eat outside almost every meal.  One of our favorite things to do in the summer is have "picnic" breakfasts out on our patio, and the kids desperately wanted to do this the other day--when it was 27 degrees outside.  So we had a picnic breakfast in the living room instead, and it was a great hit.  :)

Celine Dion Concert

Well, I never planned on going to a Celine Dion concert.  I never actively sought to go.  But when someone calls you up and offers you a free ticket and an evening out with the girls, you have to admit, it's appealing.  So off we went, sighing in relief after narrow escapes with our lives while navigating city traffic, huddling together as we walked the 5 city blocks from our parking space to the theater in the freezing wind, and then waiting an hour past show time for Celine to actually come out and start singing.  But it was all worth it.  She was great.  She was funny, and down-to-earth, shared from her heart, and performed some really great music!

Cameras were not allowed in, but everyone in the place was taking pictures and videos on their cell phones.  These pics are not the greatest quality, but oh well, you get the idea.  

This picture was taken while she was singing a duet with Andrea Bocelli.  She sang live, and he joined her via a video recording.  the song was "The Prayer," one of my favorites.

Story Time With Aile

As Aile hones her new-found skill of reading, she get more and more excited about being the one to read stories to the family.  And she is getting more and more willing to try books with longer sentences!  I am so proud of her for going after this thing that she loves so much (reading) and diving into it full-force!  You go girl!  :)

In this picture, Aile is reading the book "Five Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree" to us.  The 5 monkeys keep teasing Mr. Crocodile, and one by one, he snaps at them all and pretty soon they are all hiding way up in the tree.  Aile got great joy out of going "SNAP!" each time and making great emphasis in slamming the page down.

Here she is making an observation.  "It says "Merr" (Mr.) in the book, Daddy, but I know it is supposed to be "Mister," so I call it "Mister."

Brenner's Birthdays

I should clarify the title of this blog post.  For some reason this year, it seemed like we were celebrating Christmas forever, and then we celebrated Brenner's 3rd birthday 3 times too!  While this was very fun, I have noticed that it makes my blog posts look like I have very spoiled children (and it did seem a little like that for real too).  We'll have to re-think next year and find a way to do all these celebrations right!  :)  

Anyway, Brenner's first birthday celebration was in his Sabbath School class at church.  He was very tickled by this.  Every week, his teacher goes around asking all the kids of they've had a birthday.  Brenner was just itching to be able to say "Yes!"  :)  

For the rest of this blog, you may, if you are at all obsessive compulsve like me, notice that these pictures posted backward.  So you will see Brenner playing with the toys that were on his birthday cake, and then you will see the whole put-together cake.  You will see Brenner grinning from ear to ear by his opened birthday gifts, then you will see him posing by them before they are opened.  It bugs me so much that they posted like this!  (But obviously not enough for me to do this whole post over again to fix it.  Just enough to rant about it in this huge long paragraph!)  :)

Anyway, I knew we were going to be celebrating Brenner's birthday at Aunt Mary Jane and Uncle Don's house a couple weeks after the actual day.  But I felt bad, and got him a cake to have on his birthday as well.  We invited Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Sidney over and had a small gathering of good times and yummy lemon soy ice cream!  (That was Brenner's pick--because it was "lellow," of course!)

This picture of Whiffer is in here because someday when the poor dog falls apart from being manhandled and thrown and cuddled and slobbered on and all other manner of sentimental and sometimes gross acts, I thought Brenner would like to be able to remember him.  So here he is...

Yes, Brenner's gifts were wrapped in Christmas paper.  I have assured him he should probably get used to this practice.

And here we are two weeks later at the 3rd and final celebration of Brenner's birthday for this year. (Although we did go as a family to the Choo Choo and see all the trains and go on a trolley ride too.  That's what he really wanted to do!  Unfortunately, we forgot our camera for that event.

Anyway, here is story in reverse for you to see:




Have a great year being 3, Brenner!  :)  

Visiting Old Friends and Meeting New Ones

While we were at Nonni's house in Chicago over Christmas, I was able to visit with a close friend of mine and her family.  We have known each other basically since we were born, so it was fun this time to see our kids interacting and having such a great time together!  

Jonah, Eli, Brenner, and Aile ham it up for the camera:

Heather and I smiling for the camera while our oldest children basically sit on each other's laps and flirt.  I'm so not ready for this!

All Aboard!

Near Nonni's house there is a very cute little cafe called "All Aboard."  As you could guess, it is all about trains.  And it was a BIG hit with the kids, especially Brenner!  This was his pre-birthday celebration with Nonni and Grandpa Jim.

This train set was cool because there were controls behind the glass where Aile is standing, so the kids could make certain pieces move.  They thought that was pretty neat.

The train running on the track along the ceiling went around the whole cafe, even through a couple "tunnels" (walls) so it could go through the birthday party room too.

The COOLEST thing about this cafe if that you sit around this U-shaped counter, and the train brings you your food!  We all turned to watched when the train whistle would blow, signaling that someone's food was on it's way!

Brenner definitely thought this was a great place!  He continues to talk about the "train shop" and what a fun time he had there!

We told the waitress we were celebrating Brenner's 3rd birthday, and she brought him a free piece of cake with a candle on the train and all the wait staff sang a special version of the Happy Birthday song.  

Gingerbread Surprise!

Nonni and Grandpa Jim surprised Aile and Brenner with thier own gingerbread houses to decorate while we were there.  Plus the kids got to spend some quality time with them!  They had a lot of fun being creative and making the houses look just how they wanted.