Happy Birthday Uncle Chris!

Many years ago, when I was single and kid-less, I instituted a tradition of visiting my brother at the firehouse to celebrate his birthday! This was for two reasons...one was to embarrass him and make him acknowledge his birthday! The other was purely selfish...to hang out with all of his cute fireman friends!! 10 years later and it's something I've never missed and it's even more of tradition now that the kids are involved!! We ALL look forward to our luncheon and visit with Violet Township, Station 592!



Cousin David and the girls!

A day at the Zoo!

We went on a field trip to the zoo a few Friday's ago and had a blast. The weather was awesome and most of the animals were up and out to play!

















Katy was so excited to ride the carousel.


She rode the horse all by herself!


Ava really thought it was fun to watch Katy go around and around!

Ava's 1st Birthday Party

Ava's party was a few weeks ago and the theme was "Over the Rainbow"! I had a FUN time putting together decorations and just enjoying the preparation for this party!! It was an amazing day with beautiful weather and we had many guests from out of town that normally don't get to come to our family events which was fabulous! Here are a few highlights from the day...

Our birthday girl (this outfit reminds me of Rainbow Brite from my childhood)!



Big Sissy


















This cake was baked by Todd and me. It was 6 layers...Todd baked 3 layers, I baked the other 3 layers, Todd iced the entire thing and I decorated it. It was a labor of LOVE!




Isn't the inside gorgeous?!