Day at the farm!

Every year we spend many a fall days at the farm cutting the firewood. The kids are always so excited to go up there and play on all of daddy's toys. This past Sunday we made our first trip of the year. We headed up there with MawMaw, PawPaw, Uncle Dan, and cousin Jacob. The kids were so excited and had so much fun. Unfortunately it was too wet to go too far into the woods so we had to stay up close to the road.
Joey playing around in the woods.

Adriana and PawPaw sitting down for a break.

Joey cheesing it up!

Andrew and PawPaw getting the tractor out to drag a tree out of the woods to cut it up.

During firewood cutting season no one gets a break. Both the older kids were put to work helping with the wood splinter.


We have to do what with this big pile of wood?!? Thats right Andrew now we have to load it into trucks!

Even the littlest ones have to work around here.

Adriana probably worked the hardest out of all the kids helping to load up the trucks.

We sure did work up an appetite. Time for a break to eat some yummy hotdogs. Boy are they good eating outside after a hard days work!

Andrew was certainly enjoying it!

After the work is done its time to play. Chris and I took turns giving the kids rides around on the four wheeler. Andrew was having so much fun on it and I think road the four wheeler for a good hour!


So after the day is done we had three truck loads of wood cut and loaded. Wow, now that is a lot of work! But don't worry, this is only the beginning for us. For those of you who don't know, this is our main source of heat in the winter. I cut off the furnace first thing in the morning and build my fire. I keep the fire going all day until bed time. Its definitely a money saver as far as our gas bill goes! It just takes a little sweat and hard work which I don't mind giving. Now we can bring out the cold!

Adriana's 1st sleepover!

This past Friday night Adriana had her 1st sleepover at our house. Yes, I realize she is 7 years old but I have a feeling I'm going to be one of those moms with a lot of things. The poor girl will probably be 13 years old before I ever allow her to sleepover at someone else's house!
So for our first sleepover I went to my playgroup friends for some advice. They had some really great suggestions of fun things for us to so. So this prepared mom had pillowcases for the girls to decorate for each other, candy necklaces to make, lots of blankets in the playroom to make a fort with, cupcakes to make and decorate, and the new Disney Tinkerbell movie to watch (I knew neither one of them have seen it). Although I forgot to take pictures of them doing any of the above activites because it got a little hectic keeping them on task and still taking care of the boys. But it did turn out to be a lot of fun!
Adriana and her BFF Janet.

They decided to play dressup and put on a movie show for us. This was the only pictures I got because this was the only time I got to sit down and relax the whole night!


Finally late into the night the two girls finally fell asleep......aaaahhhhhh!

The next morning I took the two girls and Joey to watch the Octoberfest parade. Andrew had a soccer game and unfortunately had to miss it but we saved him lots of candy!

It was a great first sleepover and Adriana is already asking when we can do it all again. We shall see........

Persimmon seeds!

While out on our hike at Busch Wildlife we came upon a persimmon tree. There is an old wise tale that says if you take a persimmon seed and cut it in half it will predict the winter. A fork means a mild winter, a knife means a cold winter, and a spoon means lots of snow. We decided to give it a try and see what this winter will hold. After getting the seeds out and cleaning them up we were able to cut them in half. What did we find? Drumroll................spoons! So we will have to see if we are going to have lots of snow this winter! We did this when we were at Pere Marquette too and it also showed spoons. The kids are very excited but I had to tell them that its just an old wise tale then I had to explain as best as I could what an old wise tale was. I don't think they had a clue when they all stared at me with crazy looks over their faces so I'm sure they are telling all their friends that we are going to have some crazy blizzards this winter :)
Here is a picture of the spoon seeds.

It will be interesting to keep track of them each year and see if it holds much truth to it!

Hiking at Busch Wildlife!

This is another one of our 60 hikes in 60 miles. This time we stuck close to home and went to Busch Wildlife. I really like this little hiking area as its paved and its short enough not to be too much on the little ones. We really want to do some of the hikes in the fall when the leaves are starting to turn so stay tuned for some of the prettier hikes.
Here is the kids peaking through the bird feeders, but this time we went in the evening and of course there wasn't any out. I guess only the early birds get to see the bird....hehe!


Running down the paths.


Daddy and the boys figuring out which way we need to go.

Stopping for a pretty picture.

The three cutest little hikers I've ever seen!!!!!!......alright so maybe I'm a little biased!

This time the only wildlife we really got to see were frogs in the fishless pond but they were still a lot of fun to see.


So where will our next hiking adventure take us? Only time will tell but we are all excited about it!

Adriana's actual birthday!

On Adriana's actual birthday, I made up a cake to help her celebrate. I know my cake isn't as fancy as some people but I actually ran out of time trying to make it.

Celebrating with her brothers!

Happy 7th birthday baby girl!

Andrew playing basketball!

On Monday Andrew began playing basketball for the St. Charles Parks Department. He has been looking so forward to this and could not wait to start. He did really good practicing and listening to his teachers! I was so proud of him! They split the group of kids into three groups and practiced dribbling, passing, and shooting. I was really impressed with how they had it all set up. Andrew had so much fun and cannot wait to go back again next week! He keeps telling me that he is going to be a professional basketball player when he grows up.......with his height he just might be able to make it!
Here is a few pictures of our cute little rookie!

Dropping off the animal donations!

Today after school we made our trip to the St. Charles Humane Society to drop off the donations. When we got there we were greeted by 6 different people who all wanted to meet Adriana. After helping us get our car unloaded, Adriana was treated to a private tour of the facilities. We got to learn all about how the animals are acquired and the process they have for each one of them.
Then we got to go and play with a few of the animals. There was only two dogs that we were able to get in the cage with to play. They said they have a huge turnover for the dogs which is a good thing but they are constantly getting in new dogs and are never sure how they will be with the kids.
Adriana with one of the sweeter dogs to play with.

Then off to the cat house we went. It was so neat to see how the cats were held in the house. The whole house was for the cats and they had plenty of open room to run and play. I guess I expected them to be in cages so it was nice to see that they were able to roam free especially since they said many of the cats will spend almost their entire lives there.

The saddest part of the cat house was the upstairs room. One room had cats with feline leukemia and the other room had cats with another kind of disease that I forgot. These cats can only be adopted out by people who cannot have any other cats and promise to keep these cats inside since they do have contagious diseases. So many of these cats will never live outside of the room they were in. Most of these cats were super sweet and I could have easily took them all home! It just breaks my heart to see all these animals that may never have a home or owner of there own. But they do have many volunteers who devote themselves to these animals and will spend hours with them at the shelter. That makes me a little happier and more than likely that will be me and Adriana sitting upstairs petting all those cats for hours at a time :)

Everyone was so nice there and really showed Adriana how appreciative they were of what she did. I'm so glad they made it a big deal for her and maybe she will decide to do this again next year.
They even let the boys play with the animals.

Adriana's 7th birthday party!

Sunday night we had Adriana's 7th birthday party. Adriana choose to have it at Great Skate again this year so she could invite all the girls from 1st grade plus all her extra friends and cousins. Everyone had a great time and it works out great because we do a private rental and don't have to worry about having extra people at the party. It was such a fun time and everyone really enjoyed themselves!
Here is the birthday girl!

Adriana skating with her friends!

Some of the kids in line for limbo!

How low can you go? Adriana is getting pretty low!

And so is Andrew!

Adriana's birthday cake (of course it had to be horses!).

Singing happy birthday to Adriana!

Blowing out the birthday candles!

In the party machine! She gets to grab as many tickets as she can to win lots of prizes.

Adriana and her friends picking out some prizes!

This year made me especially proud of her. She has choosen to give donations to the local no kill animal shelter instead of receiving birthday gifts for herself. As she put it "I love animals more than I do toys"! She is a very special and generous little girl and I couldn't be more proud of her! Not too many 7 year olds would be willing to give up birthday gifts to give to someone else. Although, a few of her friends did get her a few things which made me happy for her!
Here is a picture of most of the donations she received. This isn't even all of it because we are still getting more! Thursday on her actual birthday we are taking the donations up to the shelter. I talked to them on the phone and they have a few people that want to meet with Adriana and give her a special tour of the shelter and let her play with a few of the friends she is helping out with! She is so excited and can't wait to go. I'm so glad they are making a big deal of this for her and hopefully she will be willing to continue her generosity and love the feeling it gives you to help others!

Happy birthday to my beautiful, generous, loving little girl! We all love you with all our heart!

Andrew's preschool years!

Here is Andrew's 1st day of school pictures from the last 3 years of preschool.
1st year of preschool at Francis Howell for minds in motion with Ms. Jeanne.

1st day of preschool at Curiosity Corner with Ms. Weber and Ms. Zerbolio.

1st day of preschool at Curiosity Corner with Ms. DeVries and Ms. Thomas.