Spring Break Fun (and yes, more soccer)!

We headed out of town right after the last day of school before Spring Break on Friday, March 25th. We drove to the Bloomington, Illinois area to have a delicious supper at Avanti's with a friend. We talked until it was really late, and then we crashed at a nearby hotel. The next morning we were back on the road, heading towards Branson, Missouri. Our original plans included us stopping in St. Louis and going up in The Arch. Unfortunately, those plans had to be changed due to the SNOWSTORM that was going on while we were going through St. Louis! UGH! What a way to start off our "spring" break!

It was a long drive, but we finally made it to our destination: The Welk Resort in Branson. It was still quite chilly, but at least we left the snow behind us! This is the building we were in:

And we remembered to take nice pictures of our room before we trashed it! LOL

It was a beautiful lodge, and it was hard to believe that we finally made it! Spring Break vacation, here we come!

Kyle's birthday was over the Spring Break, so he got a special "custom" car as one of his presents from Ridemakerz. It's like a Build-A-Bear store but for cars! He LOVED it. First, he picked out his basic car to start with:

Then he got to pick from a whole bunch of wheels, running lights, and tons of other car parts I don't know to customize his car however he liked. Then he got to put it together!

Success! One car custom built and created by and for Kyle.

He even put a remote in it and was playing with it right at the lodge:

He is so proud of his car!

The lodge had a great swimming pool, hot tub and even a nice-sized slide. We did a lot of swimming while we were on vacation.

We took it easy and had nice lazy, sleep-in days a lot, but we made sure to have some fun too. One of the kids' favorite things to do was play laser tag.

Dee was the reigning champion every time; she was able to talk Kyle into ganging up on Kenny each and every time. Kenny said he was always getting one of them in his sights to take down, while the other one was shooting him in the back. :-) They also had a nice glow-in-the-dark miniature golf area there as well.

We even tried zip lining for the first time. We had all gone parasailing before in Florida, and everyone thought that zip lining sounded just as fun.

We all did our little "practice" strip where they show you the basics of zip lining.

Then we were good to go; it was time to climb up and do our first zip line.

And here we had a little bit of a snag, after getting up that high... Kyle was not so sure that he really wanted to zip line anymore. Dee went, then I did, then Kenny... and they could not talk Kyle into trying. So... since it was a lot more effort than I had planned on, and I was already concerned that I wasn't going to physically be able to finish the entire track... Kyle and I called it quits. They were very nice about it; and they even let Delaney and Ken come back another day to "make up" our unused tickets. I was able to take the good camera and get some nice shots of them ziplining:

They had to cross some bridges to get to other towers, and they even zip lined together once. I guess the wind was blowing against them, and the lighter people weren't getting all the way across. With Kenny's added weight, Delaney was able to zip across with no problem.

Unfortunately, the week had to come to an end. It was time to pack up and head back home. Fortunately, though, the weather was MUCH improved! We were able to visit The Arch on our way back home. Look at the difference in the St. Louis weather, compared to our earlier snowstorm!

This was a new experience for everyone, as Kenny and I had never visited The Arch before either. After waiting in a long line to get our tickets (I recommend purchasing them online in advance!), we got their package to see the documentary on how The Arch was made as well as a ride to the top. The documentary was really neat; it was amazing to see how it was made. Then we got in another long line to wait for our ride up.

The views were amazing! It was hard to believe that we were actually IN The Arch and so high up.

We were so glad that the weather cleared up, and we were able to do this on the way home. It was a great experience. We highly recommend it!

And that's the official end of our Spring Break, it was hard to believe that it went by so quickly. Until next time...

Then, of course, the very next day we got back... Delaney had a soccer game! She had a Three Lions home game, and they finished with a 2-2 tie.

And NOW, this is officially the end! Back to reality... :-(

Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle

It has started already: soccer season!

Delaney started the soccer season with her Three Lions team this past weekend in Indianapolis at the Dynamo Round Robin. They had three games to play -- two on Saturday and one on Sunday. They've been working in small training groups over the winter months, so this tournament was their first soccer games together as a team this year. They almost seemed a bit rusty as they started out, but they seemed to get right past that and back in the groove. They won their first game 2-1, then tied the next two games: 1-1, 0-0. All in all, a great start to the season.



Delaney forgot her mouth guard in the beginning of one game, so we got a nice "mouth-guard" free shot here. :-) But with braces costing basically the amount of a small vehicle, we quickly reminded her to use her mouth guard.









It wasn't all that warm out, but it definitely could have easily been a lot colder -- so we'll take what we had. We even had a threat of a lot of rain Sunday, and only had to deal with a quick light rain before their last game. We also lucked out with no super early games and had a nice enjoyable weekend with the kiddos, and Delaney loved hanging out with all her soccer friends at the hotel. Good times!

Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle

 

Family Hair Changes...

Hello, everyone. Kenny here again. We had some family hair changes done this weekend - take a look!!!

I started to grow my hair out again since the new year - but Danielle didn't like it too much. So while out with Kyle today, I decided to have it cut and styled. How does it look?

Kyle has been wanting a change - so we decided on a faux hawk.

Now, I bet you didn't expect THIS ONE!!!

I think Delaney feels left out - maybe she will want to be next!!! (NOT!)

Luv, Ken

 

Happy 40th Birthday, Danielle!

Hello, everyone! This is Kenny, hijacking our family blog from Danielle who normally posts since I figured she wouldn't post her birthday pictures!!!

We actually celebrated her birthday the evening before on the 23rd. We were able to get together with her parents and grandmother as well as her sister with her two boys at Kelsey's Steakhouse for a wonderful birthday meal out. Then afterwards, we went to her sister's house for cake and presents!



Her parents found sparkles for the cake with a big 40! Is that hilarious or what? They were pretty strong sparklers too; I think Danielle was concerned that a potential fire could start. Kyle thought they were awesome and was trying to get a close look at them. :-)

Since Kyle was right there admiring the awesome sparklers, he helped blow out the regular candles. Which really weren't "regular" as they were trick candles provided by me! HA! We ended up having a lot of smoke between the sparklers and trick candles, which in hindsight, wasn't probably all that great for someone with a rare lung disease!



Since I am still in my thirties (39 and holding), it's been a lot of fun teasing Danielle about hitting the big 40! It's fun mocking her on being in an entirely different decade than I am, and I can do it for an entire year! Good times!

Happy Birthday, Danielle!

Ken, Dee and Kyle

Busy, busy, busy!

All of the birthdays in our immediate family fall in the first quarter, so we always go right from all the Christmas celebrations straight into birthday celebrations! Whew! Delaney is first, with a January 4th birthday!

She had a big birthday party with some friends at the Dyer Indoor Soccer Arena. We had the smaller field for a couple of hours, and we had a lot of different games and activities for them to play. Kenny did a great job as the master of ceremonies for the event!





After playing all the games and the winners receiving their prizes, we had pizza and chips. Everyone was pretty active during the games, so the food was a welcome break. Then Delaney opened up all the wonderful gifts she received from all her fabulous friends.



Afterwards, we still had some time on the field. So they headed back out and played some soccer, they were playing hard! Then it was finally time for cake and Dilly Bars! Mmmmmm! We tried, for the first time, a "cupcake" cake pan. Delaney liked it, so I guess it was good to go.

Since we used a "cupcake" cake, Delaney and I made tiny "cupcakes" for everyone as a little thank you for coming to her party. They were made out of socks! We thought they turned out so cute.



Here is a close-up of one of them.



The things we do for our children! :-)

Then she had yet another celebration for her birthday with our family. Due to scheduling issues, we didn't end up holding it until much later in January. Since the celebration ended up right around her Great Grandma's birthday -- we had a double birthday celebration for the family! We made another "cupcake" cake and got a little more adventurous with this one.



Altogether, we were celebrating over 101 years in our family: Delaney her 12th birthday and Great Grandma Imogene her 89th birthday!!!

Next up in our family to celebrate their birthday is Kenny!

Also this month, both Delaney and Kyle received their latest report cards -- and we are happy to report they were all A's! Delaney was also on the Principal's Honor Roll for Taft Middle School (Straight A's). We are so proud of their hard work and accomplishments!

Ken & Dani

 

Somehow the holiday celebrations are over...

Our family is so blessed to have lots of family nearby to celebrate the holidays with, so we have had lots of celebrations with both sides of the family. The celebrations started back on Friday, December 17th with Danielle's side of the family. All the kids were soooo excited to have an early start on visiting with family, eating yummy food and opening Christmas gifts.



We took quite a few different family group shots; the kids were getting antsy with all the pictures. :-)



Here's Danielle & Danah with their Grandma Imogene (Dinah's mom).



And here is Danah with her boys and Taggert! LOL We took lots more, and the kids were quite happy when we were finished.

The gift exchange is a lot of fun. We take turns from youngest to oldest, opening gifts and exclaiming over everyone's presents. A few highlights:



Kyle received a new LEGO game, Atlantis. He was so psyched!



Delaney received the new Pictionary Man game. She's played it at a friend's house before and was definitely excited to get her own game.



I received a mug with the saying, "All I want for Christmas is PEACE on EARTH and really cute SHOES." Too funny!



And Kenny received a baking pan to make individual little brownies or whatever, so that each piece has its own nice nice crispy edge. (He's weird that way, the kids and I fight over the soft middle pieces.)



Then we went on to a couple of celebrations with Kenny's side of the family, starting with his mom's side.



Kyle was the designated Santa, announcing all the gifts and who they were from. Since Kyle's not known for his ability to be quiet and hold still, this was a perfect job for him -- keeping him busy throughout the evening. We also gave Dee the camera, and we ended up with quite a few unique shots from the celebration.



Kenny's sister Kim and her husband Ed, obviously having a good time. LOL



Their son Michael, cheesing it up mightily for the camera!



Kenny's Uncle Rich, giving quite the pose for the camera!



And who knows what Kenny was doing here! Then next thing we know, it's almost time for Christmas Day! On Christmas Eve, we let them open a gift each -- so they opened each other's gift. They got each other a DSi game -- do they know each other or what? Delaney got Kyle, "Zorro - Quest for Justice"; and Kyle got Delaney "Super Mario 64".

Kyle got a new MP3 player from Santa (which he was QUITE happy about), and Delaney got a couple of new wii games from Santa including The Beatles Rock Band (new songs for her guitar!). They received many other gifts; they are so lucky to have such nice things. After opening our Santa and immediate family gifts, we had Kenny's dad's side of the family over to our house.



A highlight of the celebration, was Michael receiving a $10 bill in a card and being so excited that he "mock fainted" on the ground in delight. Hilarious!

It always makes me think of a Clint Black song "Slow as Christmas" -- "Every Christmas day makes every other day seem long, And what seemed would never get here has so quickly come and gone." How true is that? It's hard to believe that the Christmas celebrations are now behind us.

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and wish everyone the best for the new year!

Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, wishing you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Ken, Dani, Dee & Kyle

A Christmas Challenge from Kyle (and Ken)...

Kyle was playing a Christmas Game online. He had to decorate a Christmas tree, matching all the patterns on the ornaments. He did all but the last few levels himself (as it was progressively getting harder), and he needed Daddy's help with those -- and the very last one... Kenny did by himself! Here is their finished tree all decorated:

We'd like to send out a Christmas Challenge to everyone to see if YOU can decorate your Christmas tree. Aunt Danah did it, but her comment wasn't all that complimentary to the game and something about her contacts drying out while she was doing it. Up for it? :-)

Try it! And let us know what you think...

Ken & Kyle

Merry Christmas!

Yep! Somehow it is December, and our house is all decked out for the holidays. Can it really be the last month of 2010 already? While I dread the mess that is made when all the holiday stuff is pulled out of the garage, I must admit, once all the decorating is finished -- I do love how festive the house feels and our Christmas tree is simply beautiful.

Both kids are old enough now to be really helpful when decorating (no more surreptitiously moving ornaments so that there isn't a big glob of ornaments in one spot that Kyle could reach), and it was a lot of fun trimming the tree together.

We actually have FOUR Christmas trees! Delaney and Kyle each have a miniature one in their room, and we also have a soccer Christmas tree. I'm sure this isn't all that shocking to most of you, and yep -- it is in the soccer room. :-)

The soccer ornaments were taking over the family Christmas tree, so they had to get their very own tree. :-) It's a white Charlie Brown-ish fiber optic tree. It looks really pretty in person, but I'm having a hard time getting a nice photograph of it.

I'm trying to enjoy the holiday season and not get too pulled into all the holiday stress (and calories!).

Dani