Taylor's 4th Birthday

This past week-end was very busy. Friday night we met with some fabulous friends at a wonderful restaurant in Old Town St. Charles called The Vine. The food was great and the company even better! We had so much FUN. Hanging around adults and having grown-up conversation allowed us to escape reality for bit.

We had a late night Friday night, and an early morning on Saturday. .. with about 4 hours of sleep we went to New Town in St. Charles for a photo shoot. (I am almost done processing the photos, and they will be online soon!) The family was amazing, and like almost all of our photo shoots, they made us realize how much we love our "job". . .the people we get to meet, and the memories that we get to share with them are amazing.

Saturday afternoon we went to a birthday party for Taylor. . .one of Mackenzie's classmates who turned four. Her birthday was so much fun, and very different from the others we have gone to this year. Her party was held at the Stuffin' Station, a place where you stuff your own "animal", give it a name, and love it forever. Ironically, it was located NEXT DOOR to The Vine! Here are some of the pics from the party:

Here is Mackenzie stuffing her Snow Tiger
This is the birthday girl, Taylor. Isn't she adorable??
Here's Mackenzie naming her Tiger. She named her "Chowder". . .where she got it I don't know, but I thought it was cute!
Here is the wish that went inside of "Chowder". . .
"Chowder" being stitched up. . .
Mackenzie's expression said it all . . .It's like she was thinking, "If I pacify her for one picture, she will (hopefully) leave me alone!"
After all of the animals were made, the kids played hot potato.
Then they tried to get "bees" aka clothes pins, into a jar.After the games, Taylor got to open her presents and see what kind of cool loot she was going to play with at home.

Here is the birthday girl blowing out her candle.

I was too busy gabbing with the other parents to take photos of the cake, but I got this pic on the way home. Notice the purple lips. One of the goodies in the goody bag Mackenzie received after the party was purple princess chapstick. It smelled like grapes and could be worn as a necklace. Mackenzie LOVED it as it filled her desire to be royalty!

Monster Cookies. . .YUM!

So I have been a little preoccupied lately. . .reading the "Twilight" Saga by Stephenie Meyer. If you haven't read it, DO!. . .I mean, seriously, the books are wonderfully written, and the storyline is amazing! I finished the 4th book of the series, and now that it is over, feel a bit sad. I started a new book, but it's just not the same.

Anyway, when I wasn't obsessively reading, I was still living lift to the fullest. Last Saturday we went to the birthday party for a one year old whose name is Blakeli. Blakeli's parents just bought a new home, so we decided to celebrate Blakeli's b-day and their housewarming all at once. We got Blakeli a gift certificate to our local paint-your-own-pottery place. Honestly, it was probably more for her parents than Blakeli, I mean really, it's not like Blakeli really cares about how cute her hand prints will look on a plate or bowl. I hope they all enjoy the gift certificate. . .we have painted pottery each Christmas with Mackenzie, and I love the pieces we have created as a family. I will have to post those sometime. . .but alas, I digress. Back to the party.

For the housewarming gift, Mackenzie and I went to Target for an adorable cookie jar. What home is complete without a cookie jar?! I found exactly what I was looking for and made immediate plans to fill the jar with a recipe that I couldn't wait to try. A month or two ago, while watching the Food Network, Ms. Paula Deen was making Monster Cookies. I waited, and waited for an excuse to make them, and when the housewarming party came up, I was elated! Trust me, the cookies were wonderful! Here are some pics of our labored (ha!) effort!

Mackenzie is ready to go. . .
Apron on. . .Check
Mixer. . .check
Ingredients. . .check
Slightly obsessive mom with a camera. . .check. . .


Adding the oatmeal. . .
I love drop cookies. . .they are so EASY! :)The cooling process. . .
The finished product. Isn't the cookie jar cute? I think I might have to go buy one for myself! With the chalk spot, you could put most anything inside the jar. Think of the possibilities. . .crayons, pasta, coffee. . .

July 5th. . .

On Saturday, July 5th, we were invited to a house warming party for some good friends of ours, Traci and Steve. We hadn't see them for a while, so were very excited to see both them and their new abode. Their house is AWESOME! I wish I would have taken pictures - espeically of the front yard. It looks like a straight up MOUNTAIN from the street to the front door - with about 15 steps separating the two. Next to the stairs is an impossible-to-mow looking patch of grass. The fact that Steve mows his lawn is amazing!!

Here is my sister, Laura, and my adorable nephew Ryland.

Don't you just want to KISS THOSE CHEEKS????
Everyone was asked to bring a dish, so of course, I brought the Peanut Butter Fudge cake! It looked even better the second time I made it! To switch it up a bit, I added some dark chocolate chips along with the peanut butter cups to the topping. There is a layer of icing in the middle of the cake, but for some reason, it didn't show up in the photos. Weird. Trust me, this cake is very YUMMY!
Matt and Mackenzie played some badminton. . .this was Mackenzie's first time playing, and she loved it! Do you see her shirt? My sister gave it to Mackenzie a while ago, and I couldn't wait for her to grow into it. Well, Saturday was the day that she was going to officially wear the adorable-ruff-a-ly shirt. I got her dressed, only to be combatted with, "Mama this shirt is SCARY. . .I don't want to wear it." I promised her she only had to wear it for the party, and as soon as we got home, she could take it off. That satisfied her, and I was happy she wore the cute. . .albeit scary, shirt! :)
Steve. . .our gracious and kind host.
And this is Traci. . .our gracious and kind hostess. . .she is also one of my scrapbooking buddies. . .Steve, not so much. He doesn't get into scrapbooking for some reason!

Hunter's 4th B-day Party

Yesterday Matt, Mackenzie, and I went to a birthday party for Hunter. . .he turned four in March, but wanted a swimming party, so his mama suggested that he wait until June when the weather was warmer to celebrate! We all had the best time, and everything was perfect: the weather, food, hosts, friends, etc. It did rain for a few minutes, but that was enough time to get out of the pool for some lunch!

Here are a few pics from the day. . .

This is the b-day boy, Hunter.

Some of the guests. . .that's Mackenzie and Elizabeth closest to the camera.
This is Tyler, Hunter's brother. He is turning ONE this week! Isn't he precious?!?!?
Ms. Elizabeth getting ready to swim! Don't you just love the expression on her face? And you have to admit you totally want to pinch those cheeks!Here's Ms. Mack relaxing with her Daddy. Don't you just LOVE her new swimming suit? I picked it up for her at Target.
Getting ready to blow out the candles!
This was Tyler's cake.
Who needs hands???
Well, maybe hands would steady the cake while you eat it!

School Days

My weekdays are pretty much the same. Get up, get ready, get Mackenzie up, get her ready. . .drive to Mackenzie's school. . .drop her off. . .BUT WAIT, it does get interesting. . .

The classroom where I drop her off (which used to be her class about three weeks ago) has a window that faces the parking lot. I LOVED it when she moved to this class because I got one more chance to say good-bye to her in the morning. For the most part she is always smiling, waving, or yelling bye to me. There are the occasional times when I don't see her at all. . .or the times when she is mad at me for leaving her and crying. It just depends on her little four year old mood at the time.

Lately one of her best friends has been saying goodbye as well, so I made a special point to bring my camera just to catch the girls in the window. It may sound crazy, but it warms my heart when they say bye to me in the mornings.

Seriously, are they not totally precious???

My favorite one is the one below. . .

What a week-end!

We had FOUR, count them, FOUR, parties to go to last week-end. Two on Saturday, and two more on Sunday. It was crazy! Fun, but crazy! The first party was for one of Mackenzie's friends named Noah. He is now four years old! He used to go to Mackenzie's school, but now stays home with his mommy, so we only get to see him every once in a while. We miss Noah, and are so glad he invited us to his birthday party! You never would have known that it had been a while since Mackenzie and Noah had seen each other. . .they played like the best friends they always were!


Noah's party started at 3pm, my nephew, Ryland's, started at 4pm! Ahhhh! We made it a few minutes late to Ryland's. . .he forgave us! His parents held his 1st b-day at the park and went all out. Ryland had three cakes. . .well, two cakes, and a bunch of cupcakes. The food was fabulous, and so were all of the guests!
Here is the Birthday Boy!!!

Here he is enjoying his cake. . .

I KNOW Mackenzie had a great time! She got to play hopscotch, climb a rock wall, and play with a bunch of her friends. . .including Bethany. . .a new friend she met on Saturday. Bethany and Mackenzie had identical laughs, and it was hilarious to listen to them playing together!
I love this photo of Mackenzie. . .it looks like she was modeling something. . .I am not sure what. . .the slide, maybe? Who knows? She has that certain wind-blown look. . .hmmmmmmmmmm. . .could have been b/c the wind was blowing!



Here is Mackenzie sliding down the slide - under Bethany's legs!


Sunday started off EARLY celebrating my birthday. . .my real b-day is in Feb., but it's hard to get everyone on my side of the family together to celebrate! So, we did it Sunday. . .sorry. . .no photos!

The last party was a welcome home party for Matt's and my great-nephew, Aiden. And Boy-oh-Boy! is he precious!! And HANDSOME! Look at those piggies!

Look at that FACE! Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?!?!? It's hard getting near him really, his grandma happens to be somewhat of a baby-piggy. It's understandable of course, but one of these days, when she is off her guard, I will hold the baby! :)

While we were visiting Aiden, a friend of the family had his son, Braden, there visiting as well. Take a look at this face. . .Doesn't it just scream out for some smoochies?

Although the week-end was BUSY, it was amazing. We were surrounded by family and friends the entire time. It was incredible! And how could we possibly be sad when we were around so many babies?!?!

Birthday Party #6

The last few months have been FULL of birthday parties for Mackenzie's friends. . .I think today marked number six. . .since December. Most have been at the "bounce house" place. The one we were invited to today was at the YMCA. It was a very nice change of pace. . .not that we don't love the bouce house! What I really loved about the "Y" was the fabulous LIGHTING in the room. Most people probably don't think about the lighting while at a birthday party. . .but, well, I do. The lighting in the bounce place = flat. So, I end up taking only a few photos. Today, I took a ton. I couldn't help myself!!!

This is a photo of the beautiful birthday girl, Sydney. Isn't she precious??

Mackenzie being a goof ball! She was sure to scream out, "Mama!" so that I could catch her in the act! I am so glad I did!!!

Cupcakes and gifts. . .


The Y did something very cool. . .while Sydney was opening her gifts, they had the child that brought the gift sit next to her. So, while Sydney was opening Mackenzie's gift, Mackenzie got to sit by her and help! Cool idea, eh??

This is the birthday girl goofing off. . .

We were so lucky to be invited today. . .the other parents and kiddos that were invited were so much FUN!!!