Happy Birthday, Papi!

Charlie usually wants his birthday cake for breakfast, so the kids were ready and rushed right down!

mmmm, cake

It should be known that Charlie had just gotten home from the gym...good thing he never actually reads this blog b/c he won't be happy that I posted this pic. :)

Happy Birthday, Bama!

Bama joined us for our errands and was just dying to have a Costco hot dog as her birthday lunch! ;)

Sophia insisted on taking picture of this mom and daughter

Leo and I surprised her with some cheesecake after lunch! 

Everyone loves Bama!

He's always happy with cheesecake too

Surfin' USA

Sophia's dance recital this fall had a beach theme and her group danced to Surfin' USA.  As usual it was cute and precious and she was so very excited to perform on stage.  She had quite a crowd rooting for her too!

Aubrey, Sophia and Lauren ready to dance! 

Leo wanted in on that action!

this picture cracks me up!

Our buddy Ashylnn ready to go on stage

Sophia's Posse!

Leo, stage 1 of Grandma's lap...

Stage 2

and...he's out for the count!

Hard to see Ashlynn and Kate behind all those flowers!

with Grandma!

Jill, Me and Hilary!

Smiley Happy Kindergartener!

My baby is growing up!!!

I think the center back row is a place she'll get to know well over the next few years!

Sophia continues to love Kindergarten every day.  Having a great teacher sure helps a lot too!  I adore her teacher and so does she, so you can't really go wrong.  She is very laid back (which helps me a lot since we all know I'm not so much of the laid back type!) and she's into letting kids be kids!  Their class is the only half day K class and she doesn't let that stop them from doing all the other fun stuff the other classes do too!  We have a great support system of parents in our room and I've already discussed it with her teacher that she should go ahead and just loop with them to 1st grade...too bad she didn't seem to keen on going from a part time job to a full time job! :)

Mall of America

Stacy proposed a random weekend trip to the Mall of America and we figured, why not!  I'm always up for family road trips!  We left the day after Halloween, which maybe wasn't our finest planning, but hey, at least they had snacks for the road!  We stopped in Des Moines at one of Charlie's old college hang-outs for dinner and finally (and boy was it a rough drive this time) made it to Minneapolis after 9 pm.  My kids do pretty well in the car so I can't complain too much but this trip took longer than it should have!  We only stayed Saturday and Sunday morning and then headed home Sunday afternoon.  It was a good time though and I'd love to go back!

Jacob, Sophia and Sarah checking out the giant aquarium at Rainforest Cafe

Love. This.

Excited to build Lego people anyone?! :)

Sophia and Sarah with a giant Lego Friend

Log Ride before

Log Ride after

Even Charlie gets in on the rides!

Linny and Ming Ming from The Wonder Pets.  Leo is beyond excited.

It happened to be Hello Kitty's birthday

Grumpus 1 and 2 on their phones

Andrew eyeing the largest gummy bear

This was my favorite ride!  It went round and round and round!

TMNT, baby.

Jacob and Leo did some ghost shooting, but I think it was a bit too scary for Leo

nothing seemed to be too scary for Sophia who rode everything!

Leo in the Fly Boat

Getting ready to go up!  This ride was fun and a tiny bit scary, but what scared me most was Leo who seemed too small to be held in by the harness.  I was terrified that he was next to me.  I kept one hand on him the whole time!

A MUCH needed cocktail at dinner

This was our family this year....

And this was our family (8??) years ago

I love this so, so, so, so much.  Partially because it has Shelby in it and partially because I think I'm making almost the exact same face, Charlie too!  This was a fun memory of Shelby and the last time I was at the Mall of America.  Before I even saw our picture from this trip I knew I was going to buy it just as an homage to Shelby, but when I saw it I couldn't stop laughing and I can only imagine she was too.  I miss that kid a whole, whole bunch.