Lillian's 4th Birthday Weekend

I picked up Keira early from her daycare in Lowry, and drove her to the Wooden Shoe to surprise Lillian and Jak.  It's hard enough to get my two kids outta there at the end of the day - it was damn near impossible to get three to leave! But once we strapped them all in the back seat - they were thrilled!

 Aunt Casey got out of work early and came straight over. She entertained the kids while we waited for Grammy and Opa to arrive from the airport.

 We had a nice pre-birthday dinner and Lillian got to open a couple presents.  Hello Kitty books and slippers from Grammy Kerschen, A Nature and Science Membership and some glitter pens and markers from Grandpa Kerschen and this life size barbie doll from Aunt Casey, Uncle Robert and Keira.

The next morning we headed out to the indoor pool at Apex bright and early to secure a spot.  

 Lillian sandwiched between two 8 year olds - Alivia and Holden

 Grammy & Aunt Casey with a wiggly bunch of kids!

 Matching bathing beauties

 As you can see, the kids didn't have much fun at all...

 Lillian put the finishing touches on her Hello Kitty cupcakes, with Mia's help.

 And they devoured them right away and jumped back in the pool - lucky for them no one made them wait a half hour like we always had too!

 Genevive, Mia and Lillian

 Mia, Sophia, Lillian and Marek

 A worn out mommy and grammy - with two energizer bunnies.  They swam 4 1/2 hours straight and we still had to peel them away from the pool!

After the official birthday party was over - we didn't quit the celebrating!  Holden and Everett came over after nap time for dinner, playtime and a sleep over....and more cupcakes!

It took a lot of tucking in and trips back upstairs - but Lillian finally came down from the birthday high and went to sleep (subsequently allowing her big cousins to go to sleep) around 10 PM.  They arose early too - they were up before 6 AM.  It wasn't until later in the morning that they told me they were up several times during the night too.  Apparently. Lillian woke up, and Everett told Holden she should sing Lillian a song to help her fall back asleep.  Holden was struggling with that request in the middle of the night, so Everett sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to her and they all fell back asleep.  We had our own Peter Pan Nursery in the house last night.  What a great Mother's Day morning to wake up to 4 kiddos in the house.  Uncle Mike helped Holden and Everett call Kim to say Happy Mother's day and we all met at church - even Aunt Casey and cousin Keira,  What fun our pew full of kids was!

 Kim hosted a yummy Mother's Day Brunch after church for the whole gang.

We ate and ate and sipped mimosa's and bloody mary's - it was Mother's Day afterall!

Oops...

Of course, my car broke down, with no warning, in Aurora, 45 minutes to an hour from home, in the pouring rain.  Of course it did!  Haha - it was so absurd, I just had to laugh.  At least I didn't have the kids with me.  Thank God, Fiona and Mike and the kids came to my rescue.  And thank God for the Aurora Police Department, who not only pushed me out of traffic, but used their hand cuffs to chisel corrosion off my battery and tried to jump start my car in a down pour! My pants were so wet, you could see my freckles through them! 

It turns out that I needed a new alternator.  But this little mishap gave me an excuse to be late to work the next morning and ride along to several of Mike's jobs with him in the AM.  The kids thought it was pretty cool that mom AND dad dropped them off at school in the morning.  And Jak told his teachers all about my car dying, over and over and over again all-day-long.  "Momma's car died, in the middle of the street".  Both kids were very worried about me, bless their hearts (and bless Mike for surviving that car ride to pick me up, they had 100 questions on repeat the whole drive!).

Nature and Science Museum with East Side Lily

I had some free tickets to the Nature and Science Museum leftover from work.  Erica and I took the kids to see the dinosaur exhibit but enjoyed quite a bit more than just dinosaurs!

 Lillian loves a chance to hold a real baby!  I think Addy is enjoying it too.

 The kids were looking at a big scary dinosaur!

 It was hard to pry Jak away from the watertable!

 Young paleontologist at work.

 Art always makes her smile!

 If you crank the wheels, you get the balls to circulate through this maze.  Pretty darn cool.

We had so much fun, Lillian's going to ask Grandpa Kerschen for a membership for her birthday!

Wish Of a Lifetime

Mike and I enjoyed a fancy night out last night.  My boss "won" tickets from corporate to attend the Wish of A Lifetime Gala, Jeremy Bloom's fundraiser to grant seniors dying wishes.  It sure was fun to dress up and go out with my honey for a night!

A nice dinner, followed by some dancing!  Good time...

Braxton's Birthday Party

 Well, this was one birthday party where Jak did NOT feel like a tag-a-long.  Lillian was the only little girl invited to Braxton's birthday party at Jump City.  She didn't mind at all.  We walked in and several little boys shouted, "Lillian!" and gave her big welcoming hugs.  Jak jumped in and participated with the best of them! 

 Jak climbed up to the top of the slides using the rope pull on the side with hardly any effort and certainly no fear.  Some of Lillian's classmates took an hour to finally get the courage to do it without their mom's assistance!  I'm proud of my fearless boy!

 Lillian, Tristan, Jak and Braxton seemed to get the most enjoyment out of this bouncy birthday. They didn't stop until our color band was asked to go home and we were kicked out!