The Day Everything Went Right!

Note how I dressed the boys in their brightest yellow matching shirts so they'd be easy to spot in a crowd! Thanks for the spiderman shirts, Grandpa Jim!

Those of you reading this who are parents know...a day like this comes along once in a LONG while...a day when everything goes right! We headed to St. Louis yesterday and decided we were going to have a good time even though the forecast was for a high of 39 degrees and snow mixed with rain...the night before Grace and I prayed and asked God to make it sunny and warm...(I had little faith that this would happen)...here is a summary of our perfect day:

Didn't run out of gas on the way there, even though I drove 75 miles an hour for an hour on E!

Made it to Qdoba on fumes for lunch instead of stopping at any of the 10,000 Mc Donalds' along the way!

The manager surprised us with free brownies for the kids b/c they were "so well behaved"

When we got to St. Louis, it was 70 degrees and sunny!! It was a miracle! (or at least an answered prayer!)

We found 2 parking spots (daryn had to drive separately so he could drive home Monday when his flight arrives back in st. louis) next to eachother in the FREE parking!

Free admission into the best zoo in the country.

Absolutely no crowd at the zoo! and all the animals were out so we could see them.

Not one major problem or complaint at the zoo! (parents of 3 kids-you know this is amazing)

The cheetahs were out and very visible..(our children along with a few of their cousins have a cheetah obsession)

Bathrooms were plentiful

The hippos were awesome

We let the kids pick out a small stuffed animal since they were all so good...They were only $5 each! I consider that a miracle, as well!

Hotels.com had booked us one extra room that we would have had to pay for (we were supposed to have only one) but the hotel let us cancel that room and not pay...(don't use hotels.com!)

The Ethiopian food was GREAT! (Queen of Sheba restaurant on Olive Blvd-we love it!)

The pool water back at the hotel was WARM!

They let us squeeze a rollaway bed in the room (some hotels won't let a family of 5 stay in one room)

All three kids went to sleep great!

Daryn didn't wake anyone up when he left for the airport at 3:30am

So, the day ended w/ many little victories...individually none of it seems very spectacular-but those of you w/ kids know-to have a day of roadtrips and vacation where nobody fights, nobody gets in trouble, and everybody is happy and complaint free-is a MIRACLE!!!! Yeah! Thank you, God...

of course, today is another story now that everyone is exhausted:) haha

Hear are a few pictures from the Queen of Sheba restaurant...you should have seen how much injera our kids ate!!! By the way-another awesome thing-Grace and Luke love Ethiopian food as much as Anteneh! haha...no complaints even though it is so different than American food...I love that we can eat at ethnic places w/ our kids...it's a special thing to eat it w/ Anteneh...and the kids LOVE eating with their hands....
and last but not least...Anteneh dancing at the restaurant...

A Frozen Easter

Happy Easter Everyone! Here is our family Easter picture-in the morning when it was like 45 degrees...before it started sleeting/snowing...
Look at those adorable children!
Cute Easter boys...
This picture is so sweet...It looks posed but really they were just standing there and I told them to turn and look at me...Grace looks so old!
Everyone mom's worst nightmare...her son coming out of the house to hunt for easter eggs at grandma's wearing a black and red batman costume.....ahh! He's in this costume for all the big family pictures with the cousins! haha...and we forgot the easter baskets so the kids had to use paper bags! Oh, well...they had fun...even though 2 seconds after this picture was taken it started to sleet!




Today I took the boys to the Newburgh, "Fortress of Fun"...it's a big wooden maze like castle in a park...By, golly-if it won't get warm around here, we are going to play out side anyway and PRETEND it's warm! Even if I have to bundle up and sit under a blanket while I watch the kids play at the park! The boys brought their swords and played "knights"...one of their favorite things to do...here they are crossing the bridge, ready to fight the dragon! OMG! I LOVE this picture...Anteneh had never been on a play bridge before and was scared b/c it was shaky-so, Luke put his arm around him and helped him across while he told him they were brave...(tear to my eye)
Looking down through the tire tunnel!

Grace's Birthday

Grace and her cousin, Joceyln... For Grace's Birthday, she had a sleepover! Well, not a REAL sleepover...I figured that the girls were a little young to actually spend the night so we did a make believe sleepover! Everyone came in their jammies with their sleeping bags...we did all the stuff you would do at a sleepover (including ice cream sundaes) but all the girls left at bedtime! Here is a picture of Grace in front of her ice cream bar, ready to party! (with my mom in the background)
Grace in her cheetah jammies with her pajama wearing friends! (and Shadow, who was the only boy allowed!)
This picture of Luke is from the next day at the family party...of course he got hot running around and took his shirt off...it's classic...I love taking pictures of him..
Look how pretty she is! My six year old!

I just love this picture of Anteneh and Shadow! He had his batman suit on and his blankie around his neck as a cape and decided to take a little break from fighting the bad guys just long enough to cuddle with his dog:) He even had a pillow propped up on him. Shadow is a good sport!
We have been mighty busy lately...here is a sort of 'before' shot of our kitchen...we ripped off the tile backsplash, removed these old countertops, and cleaned the mold out from under the sink (there was a lot of wood that needed to go)...
And here is an 'after' shot...I love our new countertop! We also replaced the really old nasty sink. We are still working on the new backsplash (as you can tell from the picture)...