Happy 6th birthday, Erin! We love you!

We enjoyed celebrating your special day with your Godparents, Erin and Juan, and of course Ana Maria!

Fun with the Kotnour Clan!

For anyone who knows the Kotnour clan, go ahead and be jealous that we got to spend a night with them, celebrating Mark's 9th birthday...

We got to give our Goddaughter, Katharine, a few big hugs...

Maria was all smiles, and jumped right into the Delaney chaos, as if she never moved away...

She and Molly Grace picked up their silly play right where they left off...

And enjoyed a little chocolate cake besides.

Timmy and Aidan had lots to catch up on...

If I'm not mistaken, I believe they headed straight upstairs into Legoland (aka, Aidan's room).

Nicholas was SO much bigger.  He and Seamus were double trouble, without a doubt!

But so much fun...

(I love this one of Nicolas!)

We MISS this beautiful family SO much!!!

And we treasure the few hours within our busy schedules when we can reunite :)

Until next time, Kotnours......God bless your beautiful family!

Bridget's Last Hurrah of Summer Vacation

Bridget had a get together with some of her friends just before we started school in September.  They decided to go bowling...and go geek.  I think they did a fine job at geekdom, don't you?

Theresa, Kathryn, Christine and Bridget

Root beer never tasted so good....

They even had code names.  Looks like Bern is way ahead of the pack!

Aren't they a grand little group?  You betcha!

Beautiful girls, inside and out!

The geeks girls then had a sleep over....

...in a camper!

They really had a great time.  Thank you, Theresa (and of course your parents), for having the grand, geeky last hurrah of summer. 



Oh, and just so you know, the girls were sooooooo excited to start school the next week.  If you don't believe me,  just check out this video.  Some smart person captured it on film!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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Sometimes there are just no words!

Times like this, pictures speak much louder than words. I have no idea who or what these characters are, but whenever Teresa and Molly Grace get together with their neighbor friends, Morgan and Lauren, they come up with something interesting. Summer is quickly coming to and end but at least the girls can say they've had plenty of creative play...

More Pictutes from Moira's 18th Birthday Party

A friend sent some more pictures of Moira and Father Eric's birthday bash.  (Thanks, Stacie!!!)  We miss our friends who recently moved back to Madison.  Our girls were their babysitters here in GB, and you can see how happy they all were to see each other again! 

Moira, Bridget, Eileen holding our Goddaughter Katharine, and Molly Grace

Teresa, Molly Grace, Maria and Erin

Eileen and Katharine

Maria and Moira

Timmy, Mark and Aidan

Teresa, Aidan, Seamus and Maria

Me, Nicolas and Tim

Mike and Erin

Good Times...

Some dear friends of ours, the Kotnour Clan, recently moved a little ways away from us.  We are sooo sad to see them go!  We were lucky enough to have them back for a visit just a short time after they moved. Our girls have been their babysitters for a few years now; these kids are almost like siblings to my girls.  Oh, how we'll miss them!

Here's our little God-daughter, Katharine.

And Princess Maria...

And the youngest, Nicholas...

There are no pictures of the boys, Timmy and Mark, because they spent most of their visit in Legoland (Aidan's bedroom), and the camera didn't make it up there.


Bye-bye Kotnours.  Come back again soon!!!

The Day Spa

Recently, we were able to have two of the girls' friends stay with us for a few days.  Of course they had so much fun!  Just what does a houseful of girls do when they have a couple more girls added to the mix?  They create a day spa, of course!  (video courtesy of Bridget)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Prom Pictures

Last night was the homeschool prom.  Moira and Eileen both attended this year.  They had several friends over to our house to get all dolled up.  Hair was straightened, hair was curled, fingernails were painted, make-up was applied and last minute alterations were done to the dresses.  They ate bon-bons while they labored.  Well, not really, but they did eat cream puffs, along with some other semi-healthy food. The final product....eight lovely ladies ready for a night out!

The lovely Moira

The lovely Eileen

Goofin' off (yes, Moira did wear sparkly green shoes)

Friend Jessie, Eileen, friend Debbie

When the girls were all ready, they met some of the boys who were getting ready at a neighbor's house.  Here are the girls...the boys didn't make it in this picture...

Eileen, Debbie, Chelsea, Jessie, Hailey, Meghan, Andi, Moira

Here's the whole gang with a couple of boys...Matt and Nate

Close up of those shoes!

Children's Museum

We are so fortunate to have the best neighbors.  Our neighbors who live two houses down have three children who are such great playmates for our younger kids.  Our older girls have been their babysitters for years. It is charming to see the kids move back and forth between our houses, setting up elaborate pretend play themes.  Sometimes they play house. Many times they produce theatrical productions that seem to have several continuing acts or chapters.  These acts evolve over weeks of play. There is a high comfort level among the kids at each others homes.  Little Tyler will check out our refrigerator to see if there's anything worth snacking on; my kids will wander over to ding their doorbell at the crack of dawn (or at least try to before we catch them in their tracks).

Last Friday we all went to the Appleton's children's museum, The Building For Kids, and had such a great time. 

Here's Teresa, Morgan and Lauren cooking up something in the restaurant...

Aidan, Lauren, Tyler and Morgan manning the air traffic control in the cockpit...

Tyler and Molly Grace

Captain Aidan

Erin was completely enchanted by the entire day.  She went shopping...

She played musical instruments...

She pondered her smallness in contrast to the grand universe....

And when she came up missing, we found her reading books.  (I should have known!)...

Seamus was content in the stroller.....

For about 2.5 seconds.....

In light of Seamus and Erin's needs to run, climb and hide, I corralled them into the toddler jail play area while my friend Debbie took the older kids to various fun places.  The toddler area had short walls surrounding it, which the little two did not even contemplate scaling.  That would be because there was no place on the planet that they would rather be at that moment....

There were big, plush three-dimensional shapes to climb on...

There were chairs set up near tables filled with toys and puzzles...

And last but not least, there was an iiiiiide (slide) for Erin.  At the top of the wide stairs she climbed (in order to reach the slide) was a gigantic carrot.  Erin would sign carrot when she got to that point, which is probably my second most favorite sign she does (it is done by pretending to hold a carrot in your hand while taking a bite.  Erin makes a giant crunchy bite sound when she makes this sign.  It's cute.)  The giant carrot was follwed by the best part of all: sliding down the celery.  I don't know the sign for celery, but Erin enjoyed sliding down it about six dozen times...

It was interesting that with the exception of one cute little boy, we had the toddler area to ourselves.  That one cute little boy's name was Seamus!  Not a common name.  I had a good time talking to the other Seamus' mom.

So, after a few more interesting exhibits and lots of time spent in the art center, we packed up and headed home. Thank you, Pagel gang, for such a fun day!