1st - 2nd Birthday Party

Part of our visit to St. Louis a couple of weekends ago included a small family party for Brooke's second birthday. (Thanks again to Krissi for all the great photos.)





It was mostly immediate family and I used some of the Caillou party supplies that I'd bought online to decorate.


I was not able to use the cake-topper that I'd ordered as when I opened it, I found a New Orleans Saints helmet. Brooke didn't know the difference, but as Krissi said, "Imagine the surprise of the Saints fan who opens a picture of a bald kid with a dinosaur."




The girls got to play with Gigi. They also played with Grandpa Charlie, but for some reason I never get photos of him.




Brooke got some very fun and cute presents. The singing card went over huge.





It was an amazing day so we were also able to spend some time outside. In shorts. In late October. Man, there are times that I really miss St. Louis.

Grant's Farm Part 2

We went down to St. Louis two weekends ago for my good friend from college, Jackie's, wedding, as well as to have a little birthday celebration for Brooke with my side of the family (more on that later).


On Friday, Tim, Krissi and I were all looking for something to do with the kids. We weren't able to find a good, decently-priced, open-on-Friday pumpkin patch, so we headed to Grant's Farm. I've mentioned before how much I love Grant's Farm, so I'll spare the gushing. But we had another great time there. (Thanks for taking the pics, Krissi.)


We went earlier in the day this time, so the goats were actually hungry for milk rather than clothes. Brooke had fun feeding them.



What a pretty little girl. She's getting so big.


And a cute little guy.




We had lunch after and Brooke was freaking out because a fly landed on her. Tim said something involving the word, "Bam!" and it elicited this response. It still does if you say it to her today.

New Backyard

I have a bunch of great photos from last weekend in St. Louis to post, but that'll take awhile for me to organize. In the meantime, here are some photos of Brooke playing in our new backyard. These were taken on the couple of exceptions of days when she wasn't playing with the neighborhood kids.


It's not a huge backyard, but obviously it's fine for her right now.





And THIS is why we need a fence asap...


I actually kind of think she looks a little like me here.


And when did she start to look like a little girl? Ready or not, she's growing up. And I'm not...ready, that is.

Cougar No More

Matt finally joined me in the thirties club last week which means he can stop bugging me about being a cougar. I couldn't hope to live up to the surprise that he gave me for my birthday, but I wanted to do something special for him, so my friend Kristina and I threw a joint 30th birthday party for Matt and her husband Scott (who turns 30 this week).

We began by having everyone channel their inner Barney Stinson and join us for laser tag. It was the ten of us, about 5 innocent-looking middle school girls and what seemed like 75 loud, smelly 13-year-old boys. The boys dominated (me, at least) and I have the feeling that the girls were preyed upon by most of us. Survival of the fittest, people.


Matt was smiling at me for this photo, then they said we could go into the "arena" so he abruptly turned around and left me. Always young at heart, I guess.


After laser tag, we headed back to our house for all of the guys' favorite artery-clogging food. We had Portillo's beef, Two Brothers pulled pork and Taylor Street (aka Capri) pizza. Plus about 10 types of candy and maybe 20 different desserts. I really should have taken pictures of the spread.

We had a game where we listed the descriptions of 4 types of beer (again from Two Brothers) and they had to guess which was which. Matt and Kevin tied with 100% each.


Then we had a pinata. Why not? Brooke got to go first, then each of the birthday boys.


Candy!


We sang "Happy Birthday."



And the guys rounded out the night with a finger of Scotch. Because that's a mature, distinguished drink. That makes Matt gag.


I hope that the party showed just a fraction of how grateful I am to have such a funny, supportive, loving man in my life. Brooke and I are very blessed.

Big Grandpa

These past few days have been very sad for us as we laid Matt's Grandpa to rest. He fought a courageous fight with an ugly disease and we'll miss him tremendously. Through it all, Matt's grandparents' love and devotion was a great example and one that we can aspire to.


In addition to her times visiting with us, Brooke often went over to Grandma Audie and Big Grandpa's house on her days with Grammie Deb. As Matt shared at the service Monday, she and Grandpa often had their meals at the same time. They sort of looked out for each other. Grandpa called her "Baby" and she would say, "Shhh...Dampa seeping," when he was resting. We'll tell Brooke these stories for years to come.

Spring Valley Court

When we first put our house on the market in January...of 2010...Matt asked me if I would miss it when it sold. I thought about it for a second and told him that I wouldn't. However, in the 18 months that passed between then and last Monday, when we moved out of that house, we crammed quite a few memories in - all of them involving a certain little girl.

It's the only home this neurotic labradoodle has ever known.


The only place he's had his birthday cake.


It's where we brought Brooke home from the hospital. Where she learned to crawl and walk.



It's her first home and it makes me sad that she won't remember it. It's also the house where I adjusted to living in Chicago. And I know that it's just a place and that it's the love and people that make the memories, yada, yada...but I'm going to exercise my freedom to be slightly over-sentimental, as I at times tend to do.

When I first started this post, we were still in Spring Valley and I was getting choked up as a wrote it. Since then, I've been able to gain some perspective. We also had to stop back by the old house to pick up a few things, and I was able to see how eager this cute young couple was to make it their home.




I'll admit that I also cried as we left the house, but as soon as we got to our new place, the neighborhood girls came over and asked, "Can Brooke play?" and I realized that we've made the right decision and that we'll be able to build so many more memories at this great new house. We're really excited to be here. Brooke's been totally unphased by the move, sleeping better here than she did at Spring Valley. It's been a slower adjustment for Ozzie (btw, we're taking suggestions for name changes since Ozzie Guillen left the Sox), but he's coming around. I think he and (Tom) Brady, the labradoodle down the street are bound to be BFFs.

Oh, and let me know if you're looking for a moving company NOT to use. The picture doesn't do justice to the huge gash they put in the wall of our old place.