8 years ago... in a galaxy not very far away

A little baby girl, Jaina LuAnn Groen, was born.

It is hard to imagine how quickly eight years can fly.  Truth be told, there are plenty of times the minutes crawled by..(like at 2 AM with a colicky baby), but every other moment, flown.

For her eighth birthday, Jaina struggled to decide on a birthday cake. For weeks, she wanted a ballerina cake. So for weeks I pondered how on earth I was going to make a ballerina cake.

The night before, unfortunately, she changed her mind. She decided that she wanted a Star Wars cake.  Well, okay......

I sent Mike on a Wal-Mart run, and lo and behold, he came back with Star Wars toys. The boys in the house were pretty giddy at this prospect.

And the cake turned out pretty well.....

We had her party at Grandma and Grandpa Groen's farm.  There was more space, and time to be outside.... and we had fireworks.

 

 

Here are all of the kids together.  Somewhat posed...

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Jaina!

 

 



First Day of school

In keeping in chronological order, the next major even in our lives was the first day of school.

Jaina started second grade this year, and Jackon?  Well, Jackson is still in the two-year old room, and yeah, pretty much loves it.

And similar to his sister, he also has to tendency now to not stop talking from sunup to sundown. This is fun and exhausting, all at the same time.

Anyway, back to school. 

These pictures are not crystal clear for whatever reason.  I keep trying to convince Mike that OBVIOUSLY our camera is old, that we need to upgrade. But my pay down debt plan also directly goes against this, so I have kind of done it to myself.

And I have to add the next one, because Jackon's  expression just cracks.me.up.  Six ways from Sunday, I tell ya....

 

 

I just really wonder what is going through his little mind at this moment. So i speculate.....

 

 



Ah, kids.

Next up?  Jaina's Birthday Party. It is outta this world.

More vacation...

Why is it that tomorrow in summer speak means.... in a couple of weeks.

That is literally how the last two weeks have felt. It has been crazy busy.

But it keeping with logical order, here is the rest of our vacation...

We went to the children's museum.

 



They had a special exhibit on just the Mystery Magical Tree House series. Jaina loves this series, and was so excited to get to see some of the very scenes she had read about in her books.

I made Jaina pretend to be the President of the United States. A mom can hope right?  She did have a former teacher indicate she will either be a politician or a movie star.  Can anyone really tell the difference?

The last full day, we did some "traditional" sights,like Busch Stadium and the Arch. Rather than bore you with pictures, I just kept it to two.

Busch Stadium  It was HOT.

And the Arch... also HOT

That really sums it up... so let me leave you with some Pi(e)

GREAT pizza place right by our hotel.  I have learned one thing from traveling with kids... learn to love Pizza.

More vacation...fun!

So back to vacation. This one will be really picture heavy, as I attempt to finish what we really did when we went on Vacation to St. Louis.

The first night we were there, we watched the Cardinals (on TV, it was All Star week), and ate IMO's pizza.  (Apparently it is advertised a LOT on Cardinals networks)  It was delicious.

Why  yes, those are half slices of BACON on the Pizza

The next day, we hit up the St. Louis Zoo...

Vacation part two

So. We are in our road trip. We decide to stop at Pancake City in kirksville, Missouri. Supposedly it was famous, but we failed to see the luster.

The adventure was after we ate. When we got back into the car, I noticed I missed a call in my phone?

So, recognizing that this was a Pella number, I decided to call it back. So I did, and this was the conversation:


Me: hello this is Erica Groen and you called me?

Lady: Oh, just one moment (transfer ensues).

Man answers: hello, this is detective xxxxxx (cannot remember his name)

{mental thought here: OH CRAP!}

Detective: did you happen to pay for your gas this morning?

Me: I think so?

So, detective xxxx proceeds to explain that when we got gas that morning, we drove off without paying. They got our license plate from a camera, from some amazing detective work, found my mother, which is how they got my cell phone number.

So we look at the receipt, and sure enough we had paid for breakfast, but not for the gas. Keep in mind that we were the ONLY car getting gas at he time. So Mike assumed that that he had also paid for that.

So after hearing our story the detective asked if my mom could go pay so that they could close the file. So now I had to call my mom:

Me: Mama! I am a fugitive of he law!

Mom: I know! Thy have an APB on you! Laughing ensues.


But she agrees to pay my bill.

Close calls on the Groen family

Vacation- part one

Here enters a few posts where I try to outline the experience that we are calling out family vacations.

Now growing up, my parents took my sister and myself all over the Midwest for family vacations. And we had a great time. At least from what I remember we did. Now having taken my own children on some trips, I would love to hear my parents recollection of these events.

But this summer, we decided to venture to St. Louis. The best part is my parents are about halfway so e had a place to stop for a night or two each way an give the kids a break. (I will let you decide which "kids" needed the break!

But before we even got on "vacation" mode. We seemed doomed from the start. Let me tell you why.....

The night before we left Pella, Mike hurt his back. I cannot tell you how what when where why, but suffice it to say, he could not move. He is laying on our bed crying out in pain. I had no idea what to do.

Finally, mama Erica took over. I told Mike that we were going to the emergency room. So off to the Pella ER we went. After a check out and some medicine, we were back at my parents, not having any idea what Monday would hold, or even if we would be leaving for St. Louis.

Holding my breath on Monday, Mike woke up feeling significantly better. So we decided to go for it. We packed up the car, got some gas, and out of town we went.

Wait for the next post for more....

I moustache....

So, I have developed a recent love of the moustache.

Not to the point that I think the men in my life should grown them....
(pause)

Okay, back from laughing my hiney off. Mike knows how I feel about facial hair, so there will be no Moustache Mikey...

Anyway, i do like fake ones... once especially used for pictures. Which is how I spent the hours waiting for Jodi's wedding to start...

The kiddos got the first take. They  had no choice.

I made Mindy join the fun

The groom participated

I made Mike help

The bride - hoped she shaved later

And Eli couldn't be left out

And with that...

I moustache outta here...