Saturday, June 18, 2011

Father's Day in St. Louis






We celebrated Father's Day for goblue dad in St. Louis this year with Great Grandpa Adolph, Pa Mark, Mary Ann and Uncle Tim. Madelyn and Great Grandpa had not yet met, so it was fun to take the kids on another adventure. We have one more big adventure in Michigan to round out the summer.

Here are Kaitlyn and Madelyn right before 'wheels up.'


Kaitlyn is enjoying some homemade trail mix as a mid-morning car ride snack. She's also watching a Princess movie, so for her, life is good!Madelyn was chewing on her toes at this point in the car ride. I didn't snap the picture fast enough, but you can see her foot is still in her hand. She cracks herself up while doing it, which makes it even more funny.
We arrived in St. Louis just before dinner and were treated to Pi. Not sweet pie, but delicious pizza pies. Good call Pa Mark and Mary Ann - it was some of the best pizza I've eaten.



Kaitlyn decided she needed a short rest after a fun morning at the Firehouse Cafe and feeding the ducks with Pa Mark, Mary Ann and their friend Jim.
After Kaitlyn rested, we went to the St. Louis Zoo. Kaitlyn loves to ride the train and this year she brought her binoculars. She had some great views that day.

Kaitlyn loved seeing Malea and Jade, the 'kid' elephants. Jade has a new baby sister. Kaitlyn voted on the St. Louis Zoo web site to name the new baby elephant Kenzi, which won. Kaitlyn can't wait to see Kenzi next time.
I believe Mary Ann and Kaitlyn are looking her camera to see some photos that Kaitlyn took of the elephants. Kaitlyn's feet got tired, so she got a ride on daddy's shoulders, and Pa Mark's, and Uncle Tim's...

After our adventure at the zoo, we had one tired little baby girl. It was hard to wake her up for dinner, because she looked so cute sleeping. Meanwhile, as Madelyn slept, Kaitlyn ate Dobash from Lubeley's, a Kupferer tradition. Yes, it was before dinner, but hey, we're on vacation. :-)

Our crew ventured out to another delicious dinner at a lovely restaurant in downtown St. Louis by a wonderful city park. The walls were all glass, so you could see out every side of the restaurant, which Kaitlyn loved.
It's no longer the Kupferer boys, now they're are Kupferer girls. :-)
Kaitlyn really wanted to get down. This photo is taken in the city park as are several that follow.






We spent Father's day morning with Great Grandpa Adolph at his apartment and had a nice breakfast in his building. Everyone gathered in his apartment to visit for a while before a small group of us visited the Botanical Gardens.
It was a hot, sunny day, but the botanical garden was beautiful with flowers in full bloom and lots of people wondering through out the garden. We only covered a portion of it. Below Kaitlyn is pretending to push daddy into the fountain.
Kaitlyn throwing pennies in another fountain to make a wish. She actually made a couple shots on the center plate.
Daddy and his girls on father's day.
Kaitlyn talking to cousin Evie and Mary Ann about the pretty flowers. We did have to remind her several times that the flowers, petals and leaves were not for picking!
The garden had a treehouse exhibit. Kaitlyn decided to take a little rest. This was our favorite tree house, wish I had a better picture.


After the gardens, we all rested a little bit and then met at Pa Mark's apartment for a yummy dinner with family. Below Madelyn is saying hi to Great Grandpa Adolph. This may be a sign that her shyness is slowly going away.
Here is part of the crew relaxing after dinner. I think everyone did a thorough job of wearing Kaitlyn out.

Until next time St. Louis!

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Madelyn Turned One!

It's hard to believe that a year has passed already and Madelyn turned one year old. We didn't have a party, just a couple neighbors over to have a little cake and ice cream. It was a simple, but sweet way to wish a happy birthday to our baby girl. All in all a lovely day (okay, minus the whole finger prick and shot thing at the doctor's office)!

Here are a few pictures from the day of her birthday before we had cake and ice cream.

"It drives Kaitlyn nuts when I chew on her trains, but it's my birthday, so I'll chew if I want to!"

"Cheese!"

Sisterly love or is Madelyn really thinking "let me go!"

" A hair bow too mommy. Why, oh why? You already put me in a dress, so I can't crawl and now the bow!"
Madelyn loved playing with the pieces of wrapping paper.

Madelyn and Graham 'playing'. They were so cute together - friendly and just curious about each other. Adorable!!!
I'll skip the cake saga (i.e. first cake bear head fell off) and just show picks. It is a chocolate bear cake for Madelyn and the other cake is a neopolitan cake with chocolate cake/chocolate ganache, strawberry cake/strawberry filling and vanilla cake/vanilla buttercream.

Those are supposed to be bear paw prints on the side of the round cake.

Madelyn is one strong kiddo, the bear almost took a face plant while we held it in front of her to sing happy birthday.

"What is mommy making me try now?"

"So far so good, I think I'll have another..."

"Yummy!"


Happy First Birthday Madelyn!

"I'm going to eat as much frosting as I can - just like mommy!"

"Hey, who took my cake?"


Sunday, June 5, 2011

Upside Down World

Madelyn really likes to stand.
Madelyn is still learning to drink from her sippy cup. It's sink or swim time as we're down to one bottle a day.
Madelyn loves standing on her head. It's so cute!!



Hi mommy!!

Friday, June 3, 2011

Swim Lessons

Kaitlyn started swim lessons last week. Here are a few pictures from her first lesson. They focused on kicking their legs and blowing bubbles in the water. Kaitlyn didn't put her head in the first day, but she did the second day. She's doing great!

Kaitlyn trying to kick on her own.
Kicking her legs with her swim coach.
Hannah and Kaitlyn after swim lessons.
I told Kaitlyn when she turned four I would paint her toe nails. So here are her adorable toesies getting painted for the first time.


Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Science Experiment

Uncle Tim gave Kaitlyn a science kit for her birthday. Here she is doing the 'volcano' experiment with daddy. She wanted to know why it didn't look like the volcano in the picture. Guess we'll have to build the volcano out of paper mache next time.