Happy 70th Birthday, Dad!

We drove straight to my parents house from Chicago to celebrate my Dad's 70th Birthday. What a great man he is! By now, Kenzi was totally getting into the unwrapping of presents. She had just had her birthday, so she thought she should help Papa unwrap all his gifts. I think you can see, Papa didn't mind at all if his Kenzi-roo, (or Snickel-fritz, as he calls her), helped him out:)

See what his sweatshirt says? "It's all about the Grandkids" HA!

We love you Papa!! Happy Birthday!!

More American Girl Pics...

Kenzi was totally enthralled with the doll chair that attaches to the table. She wasn't into the four course dinner (guess it didn't help that we began dinner with Ghirardelli ice cream!), so she took the doll and the chair on the floor and had her own little party. She was talking to her baby, and singing Happy Birthday to her. It was so cute! Meanwhile, Kristie and Camryn and I were answering the conversation starter questions and having a ball!
Happy Birthday Kristie, Camryn and Kenzi!! I love you!

American Girl Cafe

We celebrated the girls' birthdays at the American Girl Cafe:)

American Girl Store

We were last in Chicago in 2005, and they have since moved the American Girl Store. (oops, forgot to tell us) We were almost in a panic as we walked to the old one only to find it NOT there! We went to Ghirardelli's and saw it on our way, so much to our relief, it was even closer to the ice cream store than before! Kenzi had a ball in the store. She wanted to put her doll on all the displays. Kristie was so cute with her and would lift her up so she could see and reach all the beautiful displays. I am so thankful that these sweet sisters love each other so much!!

Chicago Favorites...

We always have to stop and have ice cream at Ghirardelli's when we are in Chicago. They were handing out peppermint bark squares as we went in and out. Kenzi did SO good with her own ice cream cone! You go girl, you have been taught by the best!

Crankin' out Christmas Cards

Camryn, Kenzi and I went back to the hotel at naptime and put Kenzi down for a nap. Camryn and I cranked out the Christmas cards:) UNTIL we ran out of adhesive.....UGH!

More Chicago Fun...

Yes, Kristie's wish came true, we went to the PB Teen store in Chicago.

Friday night, the boys went to see a movie and the girls stayed at the hotel. We thought it would be fun to get a treat from the little hotel shop and then eat it while watching a movie. We stayed at the Embassy Suites hotel downtown, and they have a little reception each night with munchies. We brought the ice bucket with us to get ice. We got little Shirley Temples, and then stopped to check out the munchies. They had a yummy pretzel mix. We wanted to take some back to the room, but didn't have anything to put it in.....or did we??? Yep, you guessed it, we used the ice bucket!! No ice that night. Then we STILL got our ice cream treats (and Cheetos for Kenzi). Four little treats were a total of $18!! We thought the sticker with the 235 on the ice cream was the price. NOT! It was the item number. My chocolate chip ice cream sandwich was $4.99!! YIKES! We made sure we enjoyed EVERY bite!!
Carson and Kristie are both taking German, so they HAD to find the Christmas tree from Germany:)