40 Years!!!

A few weeks back we celebrated my parents 40th wedding anniversary at a local Chicago restaurant.  It was truly a joyful and blessed evening commemorating such a wonderful occasion.  My parents are and inspiration to all of us and we had so much fun together. 

Aren't they still so adorable after 40 years?  

They are a model for all of us and it touched Don and I to think of our two little girls 

growing up and celebrating our 40th anniversary someday.  

Milo's Turns 2 (well last month)

So I am very late in blogging about Milo's birthday last month. His 2nd b-day party was a blast! We had pizza at Moretti's and then went back to Kristin and Eric's for dessert. My sister and I made a train cake for Milo.

What a goof ball!

Dino and Mary

 So on the day of Milo's actual birthday we spent the entire day together. Lucy wore her party dress and practiced singing "Happy Birthday" the whole week leading up to his b-day.

We went back to Kristin and Eric's so that Milo could open his presents. I love this picture because it reflects the cousins to a tee--Lucy is rockin out with gusto, Lila is smiling like a little Bird, and Milo is all intent on the task at hand.

We spent the day at Legoland which was a lot of fun. Although there was this one Lego lion whose roar scared the little birthday guy half to death

Of course I had to bring my little buddy some cupcakes for lunch.

For dinner we went to Superdawg for a Chi-town type of celebration. Milo was a big fan of his hot dog and fries!

4th of July

It's always fun to celebrate the 4th of July in Kewaunee! Here Lucy is watching the fireworks with her Daddy. Thank goodness that Grammy and Puppy remembered the ear plugs which helped her to not be so scared of the loud noise.

We went out to breakfast at our favorite local joint. Here Lila is saying, "Hooray for Bacon!"

Our little stars and stripes girls!

Her favorite place to be is in the swing.

The bird and her Kunkel

Birthday Weekend Activities

For Lucy's birthday we went to a kiddie amusement park in Green Bay. Can you believe the rides were only 25 cents each and no admission fee to the park? Seriously this park was so cute that we definitely want to make this a family tradition. Lucy and Milo rode tons of rides--Milo's favorite was the train and Lucy loved the helicopter. She rode it 4 times!!

The carousel even had a little donkey just Lila's size.

I told Don it was blasphemous to put Lila on a Packer's horse, but there was no Chicago Bears horse in sight--figures!

Of course Lucy had to take her birthday wand

My Grandpa, Aunt Nancy, Mom and Dad. It  meant a lot to Don and I that my Grandpa and Aunt drove all the way from Minnesota to spend Lucy's birthday weekend with us.

After a fun filled day at the amusement park we took an evening stroll down by the beach.

Enjoying the view!

Payton loves running through the waves!

Another day we enjoyed Kewaunee's annual shrimp dump!

Lila is crawling all over the place!!

Lila has started to pull herself up this past month-what a big girl!

Lucy is rockin the new headband and tulle skirt she got for her b-day.

Lucy's Turned 3!!!

We went to Kewaunee for our annual tradition of celebrating Lucy's birthday there. We had such a blast! My Grandpa and Aunt Nancy joined us for the celebration. We had Lucy's favorite meals, played in the inflatable pool, went to a kiddie amusement park (pictures of that to follow) and I made a Count (from Sesame Street) cake. Lucy has been talking for weeks about wanting a Count cake. When I asked her what kind of cake she wanted she responded without hesitation, "the Count." Little did I know at the time that the Count cake pan has not been made since 1977, so I had to buy a collector's edition pan off E-bay. But she was insistent that that was the cake she wanted and I figured she should be able to call the shots on her b-day!

How many 3 year old girls request a Count cake, I mean really?

Lucy waited so patiently to be able to touch her cake and was so excited when she could finally do so.

Taking a spin on the new radio flyer scooter from Grammy and Puppy

Three generation photo

Daddy's little girl! Lucy loved wearing her princess dress for her party. She was dancing all over the room with Milo while opening her presents. In fact she was more into the dancing then the present opening. Don wore his "I Love Lucy" shirt for the occasion.

The morning of her birthday we surprised Lucy by bringing her a present right after she woke up. In this picture she is opening up a tee ball set from Grandma and Grandpa VG. She loves playing with her tee ball set and has already gotten pretty good at her swing.

Before her b-day Don and I and the girls went to the party store to pick out some items for celebration. She wanted a "special" Dora birthday cup to drink out of and a birthday necklace.

It took me longer than expected to finish her Count cake so we postponed her cake for a day and put a candle in our dessert one evening. She was thrilled to blow out her candle twice.