Kylie's birthday party!

Kylie had her first friend birthday party a couple weeks back. We hit up Monkey Joes for the special occasion-- mainly because there was no way we were having 25 kids at the house! HA! So, 2 hours of jumping, running and cake were enough to make one 5 year old happy!

Here are some pics below-- not a lot-- it was too hard to keep up with Kylie, her friends and the twins.

Kylie in the birthday chair


Twins taking a break with Dad.


Cousin Ryan

The Cake

Very serious.

Blowing them out!

Aunt Bryn telling Kylie she can eat as many pieces as she wanted...

Super Neighbor Lee

Super neighbor Lee hosted a birthday party for the kids. She had hot dogs, chips, cupcakes and ice cream. The kids had a great time and she even had gifts for them. These kids are spoiled. In any case, here are some pics of the party. Thanks Lee!

Lee and Shay


Shay trying to open her gifts


Anika is just content holding the gifts and not opening. Dork.


Still trying to open the present.

Happy kids

Shay and Kylie at the kids table.

Mimi Fairy

Mimi (pacifier) fairy came and went..... here is what she left behind.

Anika waking up and finding Mickey in the morning--- doesn't look to thrilled, but maybe it was because she woke up about 2 hours earlier than normal that morning.



I can smile... Mimi fairy brought my sister something too. What a nice fairy.


Yeah, I am a big girl.

In Anika's words- I still ask for my mimi every night when I go to bed. I even said Mimi fairy can take my Mickey away.....I haven't gotten them back yet.

Anniversaries and ComEd

Anniversaries are supposed to be filled with presents that one wants.... or as in our case, a 7th wedding anniversary presents are supposed to be gifts made of copper or wool... But who are we to follow the rules!? Instead, ComEd hands us our 3rd power outage in 6 weeks.... and from previous experiences this summer, we know when the power is out, its going to be a long one-- as in over 24 hours. So, instead of the wool or copper gifts, we go with the heavy duty steel generator. Thank you Home Depot, Screw You ComEd.... oh, and Happy Anniversary Chris!

Here are some pics of the kids enjoying some "power free" toys (the first few photos are from the 2nd outage-- not the most recent)

Anika playing with her "daddy potato" and making sure she is safe with her helmet on.


Kylie getting all her friends pretty (notice the bows) for their performance. I was TOLD to take a picture-- so you all are seeing the ponies too.


The Dora house (which has been in hiding for 2 years) has made a new appearance-- and has been a HUGE lifesaver recently.

Shay (most recent power outage) is now gone sticker crazy.... I think its her version of telling you she is pissed she can't watch Dora before bed.

Kylie's drawing-- a mermaid and a friend.

Final product

Anika (notice the sun is out-- there were no storms to cause power outage... and did I mention it was only 10 houses on our block?!?!)

Not only has Shay gone sticker crazy, but her baby has too!

And oh yeah, Happy Anniversary Chris!

Chris' masterpiece

I'm not one to talk garden stuff, but here is Chris' masterpiece--- weathers been perfect and we've been eating lots of fresh produce-- and same with some of our neighbors!

The back part of the garden has been taken over by pumpkins--- they are huge already. I can only imagine what they will be like in a couple months. Insanity!


This is just one of the pumpkins seen from the other side-- still yellow but changing daily.


Tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and tomatillos

Beans, potatoes, parsnips, kohlrabi, onions.... I think I got them all...

Looking out from the deck

Back bed off the deck

Chris and Kylie's pots

Wisconsin Dells

The Donovan's took on Wisconsin Dells... and made it home alive... with a few meltdowns and sleepless nights, the trip was well worth it and full of "firsts." We stayed at Mt. Olympus- which on our research, had the most to do with kids under 42 inches-- and it certainly did and kept then extremely busy, overstimulated and happy. Here are some pics from the trip-- we didn't get many since we couldn't watch the bag of stuff the entire time and didn't want the camera to walk off... So, enjoy what you get... which isn't much!

Shay and Anika feeding the goats- do you like Ani's glasses- almost straight on her face... :)



Shay feeding the goats and getting licked. Eewwwww....



Trying to get food for the goats



Ani, Kylie and Shay on a boat

Kylie on her first roller coaster.... not sure she'll do it again anytime soon.....

See..... not sure it will happen anytime soon...

Tea cups

That's Shay playing in the water (pink and white shirt)

Ani getting "thrown" in the water (blue shirt) and Shay playing (pink and white shirt)

Kylie going down the slide.... the water was FRIGID!

That was awesome-- she did it about 1000000 more times that day even though the water was frigid, but good thing she did it this day because Saturday it was packed and lines were so long!

In the car after dinner-- way past bedtime (almost 8:30) and the kids were so wiped from the water park all day.

Kylie posing with her new stuffed animal, "Shelly"