A family reunion

Last weekend was the bi-annual Monroe-Read Family reunion. We head to Milwaukee Friday afternoon and had a nice time hanging out with my mom's extended family. We had dinner at Carrabas and stopped at a fun little market called Brennan's where we picked up some local wines and beers.

Saturday morning we met the Waterworth family at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Everyone had a good time and it was nice to catch up with Dani, Chris & Abby.

They had lots of animals....including 2 elephants.

Peacocks that wandered around free.

And monkeys.....I mean Abby & Claire in front of the camels.

Then we went back to the hotel for naps and a little pinata action. To celebrate Lucille's 80th birthday, her niece made her a pinata that looked strikingly like her!

We had dinner as a family and then headed back to the hotel where a wild game of picture telephone took place in the hotel lobby.

Memphis

So, not only will blogger not let me publish my post. It also won't let me rearrange my pictures. So, these are in a crazy order.

The first weekend of July, Trever and I headed south for the summer meeting of Family Heritage. We left Friday after work and spent the night in Marion, IL. Then we got up and headed the rest of the way to Memphis Saturday morning.

The last night we were there we visited Graceland. Here I am with a picture of "The King" listening to my audio tour of his home.

And playing a little guitar

On the 4th of July we headed to Canale Farms which is a horse farm that specializes in company picnics. Trever thought he'd show the girls who kept falling off the ladder that it wasn't as hard as it looked....but it was.

Sunday night we went to a Memphis Redbirds game. The are a AAA team for the cardinals. While we were there, there was a shooting at the hotel across the street. CSI even showed up!

Saturday night we had some AMAZING ribs at Blues City Cafe. We also tried some shrimp and catfish.

This is Trever and his friend Katie having breakfast at Cockadoos. Trever had a BBQ omlet.

And a picture of the two of us. Even though I am a little blurry!

At Canale Farms they had a tether ball set up. I totally kicked Trever's butt at it! I had LOTS of training on the blacktop at Bellflower Elementary.

A Mickey Party!

I have lots of pictures to post! I'm going to start with Claire's birthday party!

We planned Claire's party for the weekend after her birthday. We decided months ago that we would have a Mickey party since Claire is a HUGE fan of Mickey Mouse Club House. Daddy also had big plans for the cake and, as you can see below, he out did himself!

But as much as we had planned and wanted everything perfect for Claire's big party, we could stop Claire from feeling yucky. She ran a pretty good fever most of the day and spent a good portion of the day in bed or clingy to mommy.

She got lots of really great presents. Including a tricycle with all of the bells and whistles. We let her "unwrap" that and her sandbox early with the hopes it would cheer her up.

Then we had pizza! Pizza with black olives is typically Claire's favorite food, so that's what we served at her party! We kept with the Mickey Mouse theme on the pizza too.

Claire got a new show shirt from Aunt Kyla, Uncle Ron, Caisey, Maddi & Kempton.

And a little magnadoodle from Grandma & Grandpa.

We woke her up to blow out her candles. As you can see she wasn't too in to it.

But the good news is, the day after her birthday it was like she was seeing her presents for the first time! She was soo excited and felt sooo much better! We're still not sure what the deal was, but luckily it was short lived! Here is Claire with all of her loot!

A Day at the Zoo

A couple of weeks ago, we met our friends the McIntyres for a day of family fun! We met at LaGondola for an early lunch and then headed to Miller Park Zoo in Bloomington!

Here is our crew....

Eden, Claire, Harper, Lydia & Gavin. (Claire just said "those are my friends")

Claire posed for a picture with the Tiger.

And they all acted like monkeys!

But the highlight for Claire was definately the Merry go Round!

They also have a wonderful playground and splash park at Miller Park!

Daddy & his little girl

Our baby girl is 2!

Blogger is not my friend these days....here is a post from about 2 weeks ago. I am trying to post another one, but not having much luck.

Claire had a very big birthday weekend! We've been on the go a lot this past week, and the weekend was no exception.

Saturday morning Claire woke up on her own, but she didn't know mommy was going to catch her sleepiness on camera.

After a little cuddling and cartoons, daddy made Claire a special birthday breakfast. Claire was less than enthused when we set her in her chair.

But she got excited when she found out she got cinnamon rolls from a can! Or maybe she was laughing at daddy's singing!

Doesn't she look so proud of her self and soooo grown up!

She did a really good job blowing out the candles until her nose got a little too close to the flame.

She wasn't a big fan of the cinnamon rolls and requested a banana instead.

Saturday afternoon we headed to Onarga to celebrate the wedding shower of Trever's cousin, Kelly.

I tried to get a picture of Claire and Maddi together but didn't have much luck. This is a good picture of Claire! :)

The bride-to-be!

When we got home Claire wanted to help daddy with chores. Since her dress was already a mess from her snack at the shower, and it was from a garage sale, I let her wear it outside.

On Sunday we tried to take a few more pictures between church, breakfast with Maddi & Kempton, and a shower for Miss Cierra.

But after all of that, Claire was soooooo sleepy that she put herself in time out.

And finally, after a full weekend of parties for everyone else, we got around to unwrapping Claire's presents from mommy & daddy!

She got a diaper bag with bottles, powder, burp rag & diaper for her babies, a charm for her bracelet, a book and a big bubble wand!

And at her 2 year check up last week she weight 29 pounds and was 36 inches tall.