Happy 14th Birthday, Lane!

We took Lane and Emery down to the Mall of America to celebrate Lane's 14th birthday (which I cannot believe he is already!). Those of you that know Lane well know that he cannot get enough of amusement park rides. He rode them for almost 8 hours on Saturday! Emery didn't really seem interested in rides this year so we took her to Build-A-Bear. She could spend all day in there! Sunday we spent the day shopping and enjoyed a nice lunch at the Rainforest Cafe. It is really a neat atmosphere in there and we like to eat there every year when we go down to the mall. I secretly told the waitress to bring Lane a 'volcano' cake for his birthday to surprise him. About ten minutes later they brought out this cake, shaped like a volcano, with a big lit sparkler sticking out of the top of it! There was a big line of wait staff chanting, "Volcaaaaaaano, volcaaano...." all the way over to our table. So, yeah, needless to say, he turned bright red! Hahaha! It was a good weekend and Lane had a GREAT birthday!!! Happy Birthday, Lane!!!



Aubrey and Melodee met us at the mall to ride the rides with Lane. Jake and I are pretty much big wimps in our old age.

Emery with her puppy, Moonshadow, that she made at Build-A-Bear!

They rode this crazy ride so many times that I think they lost count!

Rainforest Cafe

Going Green!

My kitchen was the one room in this house that had not been touched since we bought our house ten years ago. So after many hours of debating on colors, ripping down wallpaper and ugly border, priming, painting, and putting down new flooring, I am so happy that my tiny little kitchen has finally been shown some love!



BEFORE:






AFTER:







No more old wallpaper with a mismatched border! And no more knicked-up white flooring that drove me CRAZY! The trim and shelves need to go back up and then we should be done with our first home improvement project of 2009!! Yay!!