Rainy Days...

With Friday being a beautiful day, it was hard to think about staying indoors on Saturday and Sunday when the rain just wouldn't stop. What did we do to keep ourselves busy? On Saturday the kids and I drove up to Gresham for my friend Katie's baby shower. I love baby showers..getting to see all the cute baby items that people come up with. She got a lot of wonderful gifts including this beautiful changing table her brother-in-law made.

Katie Otto

They played a game which required these ladies to diaper and dress a baby in record time.

Her sister made these cute pacifiers for snacks on the tables. It consists of two lifesavers and a jelly bean. Very cute idea. Katie - due on May 30th. She looks so wonderful and cute pregnant! Pregnancy definitely agrees with her.After the shower my friend Jenny asked the kids to come and have a sleepover with her boys Alec and Ayden. You didn't have to ask my kids twice, they love it at the Bartz house. So Rick and I went to Menards to order a new front door and shutters. I know, what a great date night! We did go out for dinner too though. LOL

On Sunday morning Lexi came home and asked us if we noticed anything different about her. Hmmm, what could it be? Oh, that tooth that has been hanging by a thread for two months finally fell out! Yeah! What else could we possibly do on a rainy day? Shopping of course. Lexi really needed shoes so her and I headed for Oshkosh to do a little shopping and when we got home we had a "movie afternoon" watching the new movie "Happily Never After 2". Hoping for sunshine next weekend.

Happy Birthday Jackie...

Happy Birthday to my sister-in-law Jackie Fischer.

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday dear Jackie...

Happy Birthday to you!

Jackie and her family - Kyle, Kal and Leighten

What's that? Everyone wants to see a childhood photo of Jackie? Well, I might just have a couple.

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Actually, funny story about the pictures before I show them to you. We were cleaning out Grandpa Reno's apartment early this year and I came across a handful of photos of Jackie from elementary school. I said to Leighten, "Leights, ask your mom if she wants these pics.". So Leighten yells, "moooooomm" Then I said to Leighten, "actually never mind, don't ask her. These are going to come in handy soon." LOL Sorry Jackie. I actually have several more I could have used, but I will save them for next year.

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(note the J on her sweater - hee hee)Happy Birthday Jackie!

The Dells...

On Thursday we headed for the Dells for a little mini vacation for two nights. It was just our family and our niece Leighten. This was the first time we had visited this particular water park. It was quite large, having three separate water parks.

The first afternoon/night we spent in the Wild West Water Park. This park had a big kid area, a small wave pool, four body slides, big raft ride, one tube slide and the big draw was the Black Hole ride. This park was fun, but the water was cold. brrrrRick and Will in the tree house area.Will, Melissa, Leighten and Lexi in the wave pool. Lexi in the wave pool.

The second morning we went to the Water Dome. This water park had one huge wave pool, a big raft ride and a nice sized kid area. Will really liked this one.
Will in his new swim outfit.

Leighten

Lexi and Leighten in the wave pool.

Will and Lexi

Rick and Will at the wave pool.Lexi and Leighten with their new airbrushed tattoos.

We also went to the third water park called the Klondike Kavern. It had a lazy river (with really warm water), two tube water slides, two body slides, a big kid area and their signature ride "The Hurricane". I did not go on this ride (I am a chicken), but Rick, Lexi and Leighten did. I guess it was a bit scary the first time, but they went back on it again.

Lazy River
Will in the kid area.Leighten and Lexi in the kid area. This bucket dropped 1000 gallons of water every 10 minutes or so. The kids loved it. (Leighten is on the right.) Will getting tired after eating lunch.Everyone was exhausted Friday night from swimming from 10:00 a.m. to 8:30 p.m! Needless to say it didn't take long for the kids to fall asleep. Unfortunately the next morning Will woke up not feeling the best. :( We were going to swim for a couple of hours before heading back, but ended up leaving right away in the morning. We got home early enough to enjoy the beautiful weather outside.

Lex and Leighten picked today's song. I think I actually like it too.

Happy Easter...

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter. The kids had a fun filled weekend. It started on Friday when Grandma Joanne picked them up and they got to spend the night at her house with their cousin Leighten. On Saturday morning Grandma took them to an Easter Egg hunt and then in the afternoon we took them to visit their Nana, cousins Jenn and Ella and Uncle Gary and Aunt Emily. On Sunday they woke up to Easter Eggs all over Grandma and Grandpa Schmidt's house and to a fun filled day out to eat and playing with her cousins on the Radies side.

Will finding a kite that the Easter Bunny left in the dryer.

Will wearing his new Spider Man hat.

Egg trails leading to presents. (the dog thought it was funny to move the eggs around to confuse the kids)

Will found his Easter basket in this wooden basket at Grandma and Papa's house.

Lexi finding her Easter basket which was wrapped in a blanket and hidden in her sleeping bag cover. Took her quite awhile to find it this year. That sneaky rabbit. Lexi with her new swim goggles.

Will after his bath with his new Lightening McQueen shirt and Spiderman swim trunks. Lexi drawing on her new 3D coloring book from Grandma and Grandpa Radies.

Once the kids were dressed up, I tried to get some photos and then my camera died. :( At least I was able to get a couple.

Lexi requested the song to go with this blog today. (she likes to look at the blog too)

Happy Birthday Jim...

Happy Birthday to my future brother-in-law Jim.

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday dear Jim...

Happy Birthday to you!

I hope you have a great day! Rumor is Jim is having a birthday party tonight at Hoppers. Cut out one of these pics of Jim and redeem for a free beer!

Love,
Melissa, Rick, Lexi and Will (the kids miss you!)

Pre-Easter fun...

On Sunday we had a great time dying Easter Eggs. This is the first year Will has really had a chance to participate in dying Easter Eggs. When I first told him we were going to color eggs he went into his desk and came back with a handful of markers. "I have the markers mama", he said. LOL Hard to see, but Lexi drew on bunny on this Easter egg.

Will's "funny face" egg he made.

On Monday after school, I took the kids to see the Easter Bunny at the mall. Will was ecstatic, couldn't wait to get there. Lexi wondered if the Easter Bunny would be a man in a costume or the real Easter Bunny. I told her I was pretty sure it was the real Easter Bunny.

So we get into the mall and as we are heading down the wing where the Easter Bunny is and Will spots him at the end of the hall. He starts yelling, "Hi Easter Bunny, Hi Easter Bunny, I want a hug Easter Bunny." It was so cute. The Easter Bunny was waving to him and blowing him kisses. As soon as I let him out of the stroller he went running for the rabbit and gave him a big hug. He sat right on his lap and smiled for pictures. It was the quickest and best mall photo experience ever! When Will got done he said, "Easter Bunny, you are my buddy."

Then...as we were checking out, Lexi whispers to me.."mom, I have to tell you something when we get out of here.". So we start heading back down the hall and she says, "mom, that wasn't the real Easter Bunny." I said, "are you sure, how do you know?" She said, "he took off his glove and put it back on his hand quick." I said, "are you sure, because Bunny's have skin underneath their fur." She said, "mom - he was wearing a ring." I then said, "well, it is kind of like Santa Clause, he can't be at 100 places at once so he must have sent one of his friends to dress up like him." She seemed O.K. with that. Oh the joys of seeing our favorite characters.

I hope everyone has a safe and Happy Easter!