Midwest Keech

My dear hubby bought me a new laptop...technically, it's a birthday gift (almost a month early). It's a nice little HP with a big hard drive. Now, maybe I can run my programs like I want to & do more digi-scrapping. It's running Vista, so that is something I have to get used to. I have to explore & find out where everything is & discover all it's other features. It has a built-in web cam, so there might be some skype action in the near future.

I think with this last post, I'm ALL caught up...at least with the blog anyway. Adelaide had a good birthday. We missed Adam, but it was fun. We started the day by going to the Children's Museum with the Clarks . Isn't she a cutie? For dinner, Adelaide picked Los Potrillos . They call it "the horsey place". We enjoyed our chips & salsa with our Mexican food. Well, Adelaide enjoyed her fried mac & cheese and fries. After dinner, we went home for cake & presents. So Cute! Adelaide was thrilled to get a hula hoop. She has really gotten VERY good at it to. I am surprised how much she ended up liking it. After the cake, daddy took us out to see Ice Age 3 at the theater. It was a little difficult with Allison wanting to climb up & down, but the girls had fun. Happy birthday! I can't believe she's 4!

Sometimes, I think why the heck did I let the kids (insert incident). Well, other times I figure that it can't hurt to let the girls do some things on their own. We were out, and I let the girls pick some nail polish. My initial plan was for ME to paint their nails, but the girls begged me to let them paint their nails themselves. They had a GREAT time. Amelia actually did a pretty good job on hers. Adelaide, on the other hand, needs a little more work on her fine-motor skills. She just kept painting. I think she had 4-5 coats of polish, when all was said & done. Aren't they beautiful?? Yes, I did break out the remover & clean-up the edges. It's been a while though, and they're begging to paint them again. Ah, I don't know...maybe later.

Allison's hair needed to be cut. I was a bit sad, because her hair had curls at the bottom. But, the different lengths in her hair made it look shaggy. Well, my strategy was to have the other 2 girls sit & get their hair trimmed before making Allison get hers cut. Amelia sat very well. I guess Adelaide was too tall or short (not sure) sitting on the booster, so the lady sat on the floor & trimmed her hair. Weird. But, she was excellent also. This is what my baby's hair looked like before the haircut. She did REALLY good. She sat very still and cooperated very well. What a Big Girl! Here are our "AFTER" pictures. What great looking little girls.

One of the things we did this summer while Adam was away, was go to Build-A-Bear. It was a fun time for the girls. Amelia chose a pink teddy bear. Adelaide chose Hello Kitty. Allison chose a kitty too, but she was NOT HAPPY with this particular kitty. She didn't understand that we would have it stuffed. She was mad because I would not give her the one on the shelf for display. Amelia liked pressing the pedal to stuff her bear. Adelaide couldn't help but giggle with excitement. They got to put their heart into their friends. Allison picked her heart too. Allison needed a little coaxing, but she liked pressing the pedal too. ...and she liked putting in the heart. I think this is when she realized that THIS was her kitty. Allison likes her kitty now. After being stuffed, the girls had to clean their new friends. Scrub-a-dub. Allison's finished Kitty. Mia's finished Teddy And, of course, Adelaide and Hello Kitty as a Fairy Princess. After picking some outfits for their new ...

Bryan's dad, Dave, is funny. He is relatively quiet, but SO great with the grand kids . I don't know how it happened, but Mia was combing Grandpa's hair. Of course, Allison had to get in on the action. Amelia thought it was so funny to comb ALL of his hair forward. I love the look on his face. "Look at my trick, Mommy!" Amelia had fun & I got some cute pictures, so she'll be able to remember having fun with her grandpa. We'll miss you guys!

I didn't get a chance to blog about the rest of our Road Trip . After all the trouble with the window, we did actually have a pretty fun time on our trip. For example, the kids had a BLAST swimming in the pool @ our hotel. Even though it was indoor, it was WAY too cold for me. We all thought it was unique that the pool was on the 5th floor. Weird. I have been to hotels where the pool is in the basement, but usually it's on the 1st floor. Adam thought it was very cool. I swear this guy is part fish. We did go to the St. Louis Zoo, even though it was rainy. I was worried at first, but by the time we got through the entrance, it was pretty much done. However, it was a VERY sticky, yucky kind of day. It was something like 83, but with 88% humidity, it was still uncomfortable at times. One of the first stops was the bears. Adam & Adelaide - I really like the penguin exhibit in St. Louis. It's very cool. Grandma thought it was neat that they were so close. My monkeys...Alliso...