A Trip to St. Louis.....

The weekend before Gabe's birthday we had to go to St. Louis to pick Ali up from her trip to see Aunt Ronda in Boise. Gabe had been asking to see Monster v. Aliens but it had to be in 3-D. Since no places around here were showing it I found a theatre in St. Louis that was, so we took him to see the movie as part of his birthday....

Here is Ben and Gabe outside of the theatre...
The "Boys" with their 3-D glasses after the movie....Cool Dudes!

This one was taken inside the theatre....I had to make it quick (and no flash-that's why it's blurry) since we could not take photos....

After the movie we headed to the airport....Here is Gabe and Ben....Look...Gabe is taking over my job by posing and taking photos of Ben....
Ben with a mural of Charles Lindbergh.....

Gabe....with his camera.....taking a photo of me taking a photo of him!

Beau standing in front of the Chapel in the Airport. It was really nice, I had never seen it before. This was not here when I worked at the airport. It was just a wall (janitor's room inside) and around the corner was where I worked in the Flight Attendant's Adminstrative Office. It was in the basement.

Ali arriving from her flight......Doesn't she look glad to see us?

This is where I spent almost 2 1/2 years when I was working for TWA (Baggage Service)....It's has changed alot, as well as the rest of the airport....They are finally updating the baggage carousels and have done a few already.

I thought this was funny.....my family can not read "DO NOT ENTER!"

It's always fun to spend the day away having fun........

Busy, Nice Weekend......

Saturday was the Annual Bowling awards at Silver Dollar Lanes...All three boys were on teams this year.

Here is Gabe with his awards....1st Place Team (Schuette Foods) and Most Improved for his league.....This was his first year bowling....

Ben recieved 1st Place Team (Also Schuette Foods) and another for high scratch game....

Grandpa Bo came and watched the awards......

Here are all three with their awards....Beau's team (again Schuette Foods) got 2nd Place and he also got an individual award for a scatch game.....

Ben and Gabe with their team mate Wyatt as the 1st Place team in the Bantums.....

On Sunday we attended our godson, Liam, 1st Communion. It was a special day for him and we were so glad we were there for him.

His mom Leigh Anne is one of my dearest friends. We have know each other since I was 6 and she was 4 years old!! We have always stayed in each others lives and it's nice now to watch our kids grow up knowing each other.
Here is Liam with his Communion cake....Isn't he cute??
He was getting tired of photos so when it was our turn to get one with him we thought we would do something a little different.....Look at all our hairs...it was soooo windy.....

It was a nice week and the following week proves to be another busy one....

Misc. Photos To Share......

Here are a few photos to share....

This is the way Shakes spent most of the winter....wrapped up in her blanket! She gets really cold so we have a special blanket for her. We call her Granny Shakes.....
Ali and Shakes.....

Gypsy trying to look all innocent from all the stuff she does......

Ben on St. Patrick's Day......

Gabe after a shower with crazy hair......

Happy 7th Birthday Gabe!!!!

Yesterday was Gabe's 7th Birthday!! He had a great day. He started out at bowling, got to pick lunch (McDonald's, of course!), went to visit his Godparents Noah & Holly, went to Walmart and picked out his present (Moon Sand, I guess it's the coolest stuff ever), got a new pair of shoes and ended the day with a special cake! We had also celebrated his birthday last weekend by going to St. Louis to see Monsters v. Aliens in 3D. Not bad for a 7th Birthday!!!

We did not want a big cake so we would not have alot of extra so we found this little cake that was just perfect...
Make a Wish.......

It was a small cake but we were able to put 7 candles on it......

A Weekend With Lincoln.....

One weekend in March we took the boys and went to Springfield to get away...We walked around downtown and also visited the Lincoln Presidental Museum.

Here we spotted a piece of art of Lincoln all made with jelly beans....
Ben outside the Old State Capital.....

And now Gabe....

I thought this was funny.....Lincoln eating a hotdog!

We stopped and eat at a local pizza place and since Beau has been on an onion ring kick lately he had to have some of those.....

Here is Ben and Gabe....if you look to the right of the Old Capital you can also see the current State Capital Building also.....

Here is Gabe in front of a painting of Lincoln inside the Museum......

It's Abe! No....it's really Ben :)

Gabe dressed up as a soldier......

Gabe with Abe as a young boy outside his family's log home in Kentucky......

This is the only photo I got from the "inside" of the museum. There were to be no photos taken but I tried a few (of course without my flash) and got in trouble by Gabe from not following the rules! I am glad I have him to keep me honest. This is a photo of Mary Lincoln getting ready for a fancy dinner at the White House. The gowns they had were beautiful.....

I am trying to get some information on the lastest war news from the Generals but they are not sharing any important information with me.....

They have a replica of the White House inside of the Museum that was really cool.....Ben and Gabe are near the front.....

Here is Beau and Ben with the Lincoln Family......The detail at the museum is fantastic. The wax models are so real life. Gabe was afraid at first to touch them......

If you are ever in Springfield....this is a must to do when seeing all the other Lincoln sites.

It was really nice to spend sometime in Springfield that did not include a trip to the Cardic Ward at St. John's Hospital! We have so much to do right here in Illinois that it's fun to see what's in "our backyard".

Hope Your Easter was Happy!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and blessed Easter.....We had a very nice day.

It's been a tradition the last few years that Grandma Jane would invite usually the youngest grandkids to her house on Good Friday to color eggs. This is great for me cause I hate the mess of dying eggs (and Grandma even cleans it up!) This year it was Sara, Madison, Ben, Gabe, Morgan and James. Here is some of the finished eggs......

Ben coloring his eggs......Now it's Gabe's turn..... We have always had an Easter Egg Hunt. This year I thought I could get away from not doing it. It's not that I don't like to do it it's just I did not think anyone would care......Well as the day went on that's all Ben and Gabe talked about. Not having any candy in the house to fill eggs Brian and I went to Walmart and found something. I filled the eggs (I think we have around 100) with the candy and also some loose change and took the boys outside and "hid" them. Even though they watched me "hide" them they had a good time picking them up. Some of the eggs we use every year are eggs my Mom used when she would do the annual hunt. It's kinda a special touch to know that Granny is still with us.

Ben and Gabe working together to find the eggs.....They took turns so that they each could have the same amount of eggs...

Ben spotted one in the grass!!!

Gabe going in for the pick up.......

The baskets are full....let's go see how much we got!! Ben wanted me to tell you also that he had his pockets full of eggs too!

100 Days of School.....

In January sometime Ben's school (Central) celebrated the 100 days of school. Ben only told me the morning of that they were supposed to dress as if they were 100 years old! So with 20 minutes to go this is what we came up with.....A 100 year old French man!!
The hat is an old beret (don't know where we got that), Brian's suit coat, broom stick for a cane and the mustache I cut out with paper and taped it to his lip....Oh and the box is an old crate that I had on my shelf with my other antiques......

He was pretty happy with him self (and me....yeah mom gets a gold star!). I think he looks really cute too.