Tim’s Bday!

Well, as if we needed an excuse for a long weekend in Springfield, it also happened to be Tim’s birthday!  It was the last weekend of Fall Break for us, so we got to leave on Thursday and spend all day Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday there.  It was nice to not be rushed, and we got to hang out with Grandma De & Grandpa Don while we were there, so it was a good trip all around.

We spent Friday late morning/early afternoon at Grandma De & Grandpa Don’s house.  We had lunch, visited a lot, caught up on news, and played outside, of course!  You can’t keep our girls inside!  Anias was already hibernating, so we didn’t get to visit with the turtle, but the girls found other ways to occupy themselves.

Like picking the flowers with Grandma

And coloring with sidewalk chalk!

Audrey is sooo interested in doing whatever Laney does that she kept coloring right on top of Laney’s picture… which just made Laney scream, of course.  They were pretty cute (and quiet) for a minute or two, though…

After a good visit with Grandma & Grandpa (and when the girls were making it clear it was naptime), we headed back to the Looten’s to rest, and wait for the rest of the clan to arrive!  When everyone got there, we had Tim’s birthday dinner… some seriously delicious mexican food!  And, of course, strawberry cake! 

The birthday boy and his cake… for some reason Mom didn’t want to put 32 candles on the cake… weird.

Funniest thing the whole weekend was Audrey and Grandpa’s chair.  Every time he got out of it, she raced over and climbed in.  She was NOT interested in sharing, either- Grandma tried to sit in it with her, and she said no.  Nobody else could get away with stealing Grandpa’s chair, that’s for sure!

Speaking of not being able to keep our girls inside… that is especially true of Miss A.  She spent the mornings out on the porch with Grandpa!

Saturday we headed to Silver Sollar Ditty to play for the day.  As always, it was a good day, and we had some absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather.  Probably would have been warm enough for water rides, but we managed to steer Miss E. away from them!  Actually, one of their favorite things to do was to hang onto the fence and watch the boats go by in the Lost River.  It entertained them through lunch, which was pretty sweet! :)

Grandma & her girls, watching the boats

Watching the boats meant a few rare moments of stillness for Miss A, and I couldn’t resist getting a couple of pictures…

Then the girls discovered that there was a little puddle where one of the waves from the river splashed over onto the sidewalk.  And what did they do?  Jumped in with both feet!  Water babies…

Of course, it wouldn’t be a trip to SDC without a trip to Geyser Gulch and the ball vacuums.  These things could occupy the girls for HOURS.  It’s amazing.  Wish I had one on my spare room, I think it’d be worth it…

So, funny story about this dog… Laney has really latched onto it lately, and it was actually a gift from Josh to me when we were dating in college.  Kinda cool that she’s so fascinated with it.

Great angle on this shot by Josh!

And once they got tired of the ball vacuums, Laney had to try the climbing net.  Unfortunately, she was a little short for some of the jumps, so guess who got to join her!!  What a good daddy…

Laney also spent a lot of time hitching a ride with Grandma Jo!  Love the totally blue lips from rock candy.  Laney has discovered the joy of pure sugar on a stick. :)

Yeah, I don’t even know.

Grandma & Miss A.!

We left the City and headed to Mr. G’s Pizza in Branson.  They have really good Chicago-style pizza, and we really had a good time visiting.  After dinner, we headed back home, and Laney picked Megamind for everyone to enjoy (which, I actually think everyone did enjoy- it’s a pretty good movie!). 

Sunday we went to church, and then Tim and Mal & Mom and Dad headed back towards Branson to check out a wedding venue (Yay, Tim & Mal!).  Since they were going to be there for awhile, and we wanted to get back at a reasonable hour, we packed up and headed home while they were gone.  The trip back was a little rough, but we made it by 11:30 or midnight.  And it was worth the late night to get to see all of our Springfield family for a long weekend!  However, now we’re glad to be home for a few weekends… it’s been a VERY busy fall.  Maybe our schedule will clear up this winter… ha, ha.

MDA Walk

The week after the Fish Fry, we made the much shorter trip to IL for the MDA Muscle Walk.  This is always a good time spent with the extended Price family raising money for MDA, in honor of my cousins, Beau and Gabe.  Being in the fall, the weather is often iffy, and this year it rained… a lot!  But it was still a great time, and a good way to raise money to find a cure for muscular dystrophy. 

Eating is always a highlight… all of the women make desserts, and my uncle, Clint, smokes some pork for bbq sandwiches to sell in the snack bar.  Deliciousness!

Uncle Clint, manning the grill…

Daddy & Laney, enjoying some lunch.

There’s always a MASSIVE silent auction (like, 300+ baskets massive) with some great stuff in it.  This year we set up the tables and baskets underneath two pavilions because of the rain, and they barely fit.  There’s definitely something for EVERYONE in this silent auction!

HALF of the silent auction baskets, seriously- crazy big!

There are always lots of kids… I have no idea who this kid is, but saw him passed out in the swing.  Too cute!

Laney and her cousin Ayden had a great time playing.  Pretty cute!

Love this little girl… who is definitely NOT a toddler any more!

Audrey… mooching food off of Uncle Charlie!

Dad doing his thing during the live auction!

One of Laney’s favorite games was taking this giant blow-up crayon and “coloring Daddy pink.”  It was pretty funny!

She also loved driving this car, just like last year!  What is it about little kids and a steering wheel?

Meanwhile, Miss A. discovered the seesaw.  She LOVED it… huge grin the whole time!

Audrey also discovered the merry go round, with Uncle Charlie’s help, of course.  Coordination would have helped, though…

A little lean…

…and down she goes!

So Aunt Ruthie joined in the fun to help!

Anyway, it was a really great weekend, always good to see our IL family, and a nice chance to see our CoMo family for the second weekend in a row!  Can’t wait until next year, we’ll be ready to do it all again!!

Laney’s 4!!

So, I’m a horrible mother and I haven’t posted Laney’s birthday pics… but, well, it’s been busy around here!  Since Laney’s bday, we spent an evening in Narnia, made a trip to CoMo for the MHBC Fish Fry, and a trip to IL for the MDA Walk.  So, that’s a lot of going!  This has been our first weekend home, and even then Josh spent Saturday afternoon & night at church for a youth lock-in!  So, I’m pleading overly busy… and better late than never, right?!

Anyway, on to the post… Laney obviously turned 4 on September 12th… I can’t believe she’s really 4, she seems like such a little girl now, definitely not a toddler anymore!  It’s hard to believe that she’s really growing up so fast, and is probably even going to KINDERGARTEN next year. Wow!  But, we have a year of being 4 first! 

Laney got to choose her birthday dinner, of course, and made her daddy proud- she chose cheeseburgers, french fries, and fruit cocktail! :)  Good choices all around! 

Here’s the birthday girl, with her crown from Narnia, and her birthday dinner!

So, Laney was VERY specific with her cake choices (again, similar to her Daddy!).  She knew she was having two birthday parties (one coming up in CoMo), so she said for her birthday here, she wanted a white cake with pink icing and Snow White on the top.  Well, Mommy is cheap, but creative, so here’s what we ended up with:

So, it’s french vanilla cake with strawberry icing, which was kind of a no brainer.  But I struggled with the Snow White- I am certainly not artistic enough to draw one at all, much less in icing!  And I didn’t really want to pay $10 for a little figurine… so I did a Dollar Tree drive-by, and hit the jackpot- I found a wand with interchangeable gems that had princesses on them.  My first thought was to stick the wand in the middle, but it was like 6 inches taller than the cake, so I ended up putting a little dollop of icing on the cake and leaning the gem in the middle.  And then, of course, lots of silver sparkles for some bling!  I thought it turned out pretty cute, and she seemed pleased with it, so we’ll call it a success!

She at least managed to listen to happy birthday without covering her face, like last year!  Love that smile!!

Josh and I got her a Jesse (from Toy Story) doll, which she’d been asking about for forever, so she was quite excited.  And we really enjoyed our simple birthday party at home! 

And then we had a big ol’ party in CoMo!  We headed there for the Fish Fry at MHBC, which I totally forgot to take my camera to, so I have zero pictures from it.  But we decided to have a party for Laney’s birthday on Sunday after church.  We went for a quick-fix lunch of hot dog city.  The cool thing was that the Lootens decided to come up from Springfield to join us, so it was QUITE the party! 

There were so many of us, we ended up pulling the breakfast room table into the living room, and then we accidentally split up and put all the Prices in the dining room and the Lootens in the living room… it was kind of like the Hatfield and McCoys!  Only without the killing and the hard feelings, of course…

The Lootens…

And the Prices…

Audrey and Yaya…

The smile didn’t last too long, though, because it was late by the time we got the lunch done, and poor Miss A didn’t even have it in her to make it through the lunch!  Not much keeps Miss A from eating, so she must have been WIPED! :)

And, again, Laney was very specific about what she wanted for her cake.  For her cake at Grandma’s house, she wanted chocolate with pink icing (of course) and Cinderella on it!  During my same Dollar Tree run, I found a package of princess frisbees… so this cake ended up looking like this:

The bonus of the frisbee cake toppers was there was a spare!  And, since we were celebrating Dad’s birthday at the same time, I just KNEW he wanted a Belle cake!!

Birthday boy and girl!

Laney refused to blow out her candles… I guess she got stage fright or something, but she wouldn’t do it until Grandma Price volunteered to help!

But she was more than happy to help Grandpa blow out his!

Anyway, so quite the celebration for Miss Laney, but we just happened to be making the trip home.  The whole trip was really fun, if a little short!  We got to hang out with my parents on Friday night, and stayed up way too late telling stories and laughing.  And then Saturday we ran some errands, and went to the Fish Fry.  It was actually really fun to go to the Fish Fry and not be totally stressed about working, and baking, and being there all day.  We had a great time, though!  I really wish I hadn’t forgotten my camera!!  They filled a wading pool with birdseed as a sensory thing for the kids to play with, and Audrey could have stayed there forever.  She was totally entertained.  Laney spent the whole time just running amok, like she’d never left.  It was such a good time hanging out with our families and our friends from Columbia (and Springfield!).

Just as a kind of 4 year old update, here are a few random things about Laney…

• She still LOVES to read.  She has started to notice words, and even sounded out her first word a couple weeks ago (it was Mole, randomly… we were reading a book about animals).
• She is also learning to write, she can write her first and last name, and actually can write Josh, too.  Pretty cool watching her learn!
• She is still petite, although she’s getting taller.  All her 3T pants are kind of short on her, but the 4T pants just about have to have the adjustable waistband!
• She is TOTALLY into princess (shocker)…
• Her new favorite thing to do is play Wii games.  She got hooked on Wii Sports Resort, and did LOTS of sword fighting!  Then she got started with Mario Party 8, which is like a board game.  She’s actually pretty good on that one.  And then Grandma & Grandpa Looten got her a Disney Princess game, which she also loves (shocker), but she can’t play for very long on her own- it takes a little bit too much coordination!  So there’s a lot of me moving the princess while Laney wields the wand! :)
• She is VERY independent.  We are having lots of fits and butting heads about what she can and can’t do. We just keep telling ourselves that this independence will be good in the long run!  She’s definitely a leader!
• She still has some trouble with her eyes.  We noticed it first when she was about two, and then last spring they did a screening at school and flagged her.  So, anyway, we have an appointment with a pediatric ophthalmologist in Louisville in a couple of weeks.
• She is very imaginative, and has a great memory.  She can tell some serious stories, and it’s pretty entertaining.

Anyway, so, that’s about it… a really long update that was really overdue!  Hopefully I’ll have time to update again with pics from the MDA Walk this week… it’s Fall Break here this week!