Mommy's lil' Monkeys

There's a new app that has filters that you can add.  This monkey one is kinda creepy but kinda wonderful at the same time.  I always thought that I wanted little monkey kids but after seeing this, as adorable as they are, I think I prefer them just the way they are :-)

Done, just in time

This morning I hung the last few frames, just in time for the shower today!

Today we are hosting Kristin's baby shower.

We served soup in bread bowls, salad and snacks.  These fruit cups were a hit!

Jennie made some adorable cupcakes.  We are getting pretty good at hosting these things together. 

Everything turned out perfectly!

Can't WAIT until that baby makes his appearance!

Hidden Picture

Hannah made a hidden picture for me today.  It was a layout of our kitchen with items hidden in the drawing for me to find.  It was pretty impressive!

Work in Progress

I think I have come up with something that will work.

The blue tape line on the wall is the height of a future piece of furniture that has yet to be determined.

Now, the plan is to leave these templates up for a few days to see if the layout works in that space.

Bead Day

 Ethan came over for a little bit today to do melting beads.  The kids have been really into these things lately.  They look up patterns online and then copy them to make some pretty impressive creations! 

90 letters from 90 loved ones

This week Grandma Bauer turns 90 years old.  90!  That is quite the accomplishment!

A few weeks ago we decided that this year we needed to do something special, different than just buying her gifts.  I mean, what do you buy a 90 year old who has everything she could ever want?!

We thought about a party but when mom hinted around, grandma was not on board with that idea.

We started contacting people about her big day coming up and asked A LOT of people to write her a letter or mail a birthday card to me or my mom.  We collected cards for days and on her birthday presented her with 90 well wishes!  She spent the next few hours reading these letters from old friends, relatives, people from church, friends of her granddaughters, old neighbors and even staff from the clinic she attends.  She was clearly touched.  Throughout the next week she continued to receive cards and letters mailed to her home and at the end of the week this wonderful lady had received over 118 notes/letters/cards! 

Well at Grandma's today I wanted to capture a few pictures of things around granny's house.
This phone.  The girls are always amazed that it makes noise when they pick it up.  They are confused by the sound of the dial tone and are blown away by the idea of having to dial the numbers to make the call. They always want to call someone and then they are confused why they keep getting people tangled up in the cord. It's sort of funny to me that grandma never got sick of her decorations.  That she never felt the need to just 'be done' with the way something was.  Nope.  These monkeys hung out here for YEARS.  I wonder if she loves them or maybe she doesn't even see them anymore.

This lamp.  I don't even think you could buy a lamp with jewels like this anymore if you wanted to. 

This candy dish.  Where would you even purchase a dish like this? 

These books.  There is a whole wall at Grandma's full of old books.  I am pretty sure that grandma has read each of these multiple times.  She's pretty amazing like that.  She will tell you about one of these books and within minutes, find you the exact book that she was talking about.

This light fixture.  The only one I can ever remember being here.  You can see that this white glass with gold trim was clearly the fad.

 

This couch.  Probably one of my favorites.  The couch has been something that changes.  She has had a few different ones that I can remember, they are usually always floral print.
This couch didn't come with that indent.  Bob Bauer put it there.  Hours and hours of hard work.

Fighting Illini

Basketball season is coming to an end.  This is the last year that Hannah will play coed basketball.  I am looking forward to next season when it's all girls.  The boys get pretty aggressive and the girls don't get much of an opportunity to get the ball. 

Date Night

Tonight we went out to celebrate Valentine's Day with the Janssens.

We got an actual babysitter, Sophia, who is watching our girls and Jax over at Carl and Leah's.

The boys took us to Burch Steakhouse then we went to Acme Comedy Club.

The food was amazing!  All of the appetizers, sides, steaks and drinks were perfect.

After dinner we had some drinks at Acme before the show started.

The comedian was not very funny.  At all.  Actually he was pretty awful.

We ended up walking out before it was over and Bobby came to pick us up and bring us home.

Thanks Bobby!  (sure is nice to have a brother in law that drives for Lift)

 

Super Berries

I love Pinterest!  We are going to a Super Bowl Party today at Amy and Tom's.

We always have so much food so I thought I would bring something that no one can turn down- chocolate covered strawberries!  It was a good idea too, every single one was eaten :-)  No leftovers!

First and Last

Spend an evening outside in the cold sampling beer?

Ummmmm, no way.

Too things I am not a fan of beer and cold.

Did I mention it would be a night out with my sisters and brother in laws?

Well........maybe it wouldn't be too bad.

Or so I thought.

It started out great!  We met at Joe Sensors for lunch and drinks.  Jennie made us Snack-laces, Leah borrowed me a warm scarf and hat, the kids were at grandmas, we were set!

It wasn't so bad when the day started but as it got darker it got colder.

I am not a fan of beer.  Although you can find other drinks at the Beer Dabbler.

Hard Rootbeers, Cider Beer, Wine, but mostly beer.  Blech!

There wasn't enough there to keep me interested and by the end of the night I was absolutely freezing.

Waiting in line for nasty beer that I wasn't going to drink, standing on ice, for hours. 

Probably not ever going to do that again.

I mean I guess if you told me that most of my sisters and brother in laws were going to be there too, you might be able to talk me into it.  Maybe.