The First “Golden Birthday”

Today we celebrated Moose’s ninth birthday, which makes today his “golden birthday,” the first one of those we’ve celebrated in our family. Now, I’m not really sure how you’re supposed to make a golden birthday special, especially for a nine-year-old boy, so it looked pretty much like any other birthday in our house, although we did have a tea party yesterday at Moose’s request, and celebrated St. Louis’ birthday along with his. It was a fun day…he got lots of Lego movie sets to build:

We went out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants (Eckert’s):

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And he had a green bus cake with his favorite colored-flame candles:

I think Moose had a really good birthday, and I’m very thankful to be celebrating another year of our younger son’s life!

Happy Bunny Day!

Today Bunny turned ten. I’m kind of in denial about this fact, but I guess that doesn’t make it any less true!

As she has for the last several years, she chose a bunny cake, but this time had me decorate it to look like the stuffed bunny Turkey got her for Christmas last year (thus the snowflakes on the face, even in July!).

She had a very nice day…her presents included some new Lego sets, a new book series, and a new dress for her first and favorite American Girl doll…it doesn’t get much better than that when you’re a ten-year-old Bunny-girl!

Birthday Cakes

My birthday was spent doing the perfect birthday activity…cake hunting! We drove all over the area, from Kimmswick to Union to Augusta to several stops in North County, and other places in between, and found 10 cakes. I can’t imagine a better way to celebrate my (and St. Louis’) birthday than going for a drive to parts unknown with my family to find more of these amazing cakes!

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Ladybug Turns Seven!

Today is Ladybug’s seventh birthday. I’ve been looking forward to this birthday for almost a year. Here’s why:

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Last year, not long after Ladybug turned six, American Girl announced that they were retiring the one doll Ladybug had always wanted…Molly. She thought this meant that she was never going to be able to have her. What she didn’t know, was that I went out and bought Molly the day they announced the retirement, and put her away for this birthday. Ladybug was confused when she opened the box, and then ecstatic. I’m so happy we could do this for her!

For the first time, she requested a non-decorated cake for her birthday. She decided she wanted me to make the Schlafly sticky toffee pudding cake. I was happy to comply!

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Happy birthday little Ladybug!

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Summer Fun 2013

Well, I guess now that fall has officially begun, summer is really over. We had a lot of fun these last few months, starting when school let out, until the last official day of the season…here’s a look back at some of the things we did!

We visited a lot of playgrounds:

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And spray parks:

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We saw a dock dogs competition:

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We went to Grant’s Farm (twice!):

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And had a few tea parties:

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We saw a lot of baseball games:

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We went to Eckert’s and picked blackberries:

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And peaches:

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We visited Six Flags St. Louis for the first time:

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And celebrated the Fourth of July:

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We visited the zoo:

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And saw the new sea-lion exhibit for the first time!

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Turkey played in his fourth season of baseball:

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We celebrated some birthdays:

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And had fun at VBS:

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We volunteered at and/or visited the LCMS convention:

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And toured the Gateway Arch for the very first time!

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Bunny met a few famous people, who happened to be married to each other!

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We went on a few road trips:

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Ryan and I repainted the front room of our house…it looks so pretty in blue!

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We visited the Art Museum:

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A new school year began:

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We toured the Science Center:

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Some of us were just cute!

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Did I mention baseball?

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I worked hard to make this a fun summer, even though, as always, we didn’t go on a vacation. It’s going to be hard to top this amount of fun next summer!

Happy Birthday, Fredbird!

This weekend, the Cardinals celebrated Fredbird’s birthday. As it was the annual Build a Bear giveaway day today, the one game we try to make it to every year, we were there when the gates opened!

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Chickadee doesn’t need a ticket to the game yet, so she didn’t get her own Fredird, but Moose already had one at home, so he generously shared his with her (and she did not want to let it go)!

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There was confetti:

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And chalk art:

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And, of course, we sang “Happy Birthday” to everyone’s favorite mascot. But the highlight of the game was the fact that Fredbird’s friends from around MLB came to wish him a happy birthday! (And he even got a chance to rough up the Pirate Parrot a bit…in a very friendly way, of course, while trying to hit his birthday piñata). They even brought him a present!

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The Cards didn’t win this one, but it was still fun to be there for the party!