A view from my window

As we were driving home the other night we noticed our neighboring horse farm had a new baby colt!  Isn't this the most adorable thing?  We recently went to my parents and brought home six new heifers that are going to be recipient cows for our Angus herd.  They've been enjoying our lush grass!  Our garden was looking great too until the hail struck on Saturday.  I took this picture before that so it's not near as pretty now.  I just hope the plants recover or we are going to have to till some of it up and start over again. 

Earth Day

Lauren's class attended the Earth Day celebration at Carlyle lake.  It is really a great educational event for area schools.  Unfortunately the weather was terrible for the outdoor event so we were not able to stay for it all.  The kids loved Ronald McDonald's ecology presentation, the exotic animals, and the meeting Fredbird.  I'm hoping for better weather next year for this fabulous event! 

A little mess...

Blake loves to help cook, especially anything that requires the use of the mixer.  So the other day we were mixing up a batch of chocolate chip cookies (my new favorite recipe from Pinterest) and Blake was doing a great job of adding all the ingredients.  Then he turned on the mixer, but not on low as I'd instructed but rather on high.  Whew, we had a mess on our hands, flour went everywhere!!!!  On the counters, floor, step stool, cabinets, everywhere within about three foot of the counter. 

Blake was not happy with my reaction which was first to say NO and then I started laughing.  What else was there to do in this situation!  He thought he was in trouble, which he was not, so he wouldn't let me take a good picture of him.  So this is the best I got of him trying to escape me. 

Cardinals Opening Day



Bradley and I got the opporunity to go to the home opener for the Cardinals and on top of that sit in the green seats!  It was a very cool experience.  The weather was miserable with rain and cool temperatures resulting in an hour rain delay and less pomp and circumstance but it didn't put a damper on the experience. 

While we were eating in the Cardinals club and waiting for the rain delay to end, Tony LaRussa was just three tables over from us.  How cool is that?!  They brought in all four of the world series championship trophies onto the field with respective players and managers.  It was awesome to be that close to Stan Musial, Whitey Herzog, and really cool to see David Eckstein and Jim Edmonds again. 

Then for the starting lineup they drove Ford trucks around the field and the players jumped off the back of the trucks at home plate as they were announced. 

Although the Cards lost, it was still a lot of fun to attend.  I hope I get the opportunity again!  Go Cards!

Bartlow Easter and Addie's 7th Birthday

The Bartlow side celebrated Easter at my Aunt Gloria's in Springfield this year.  My aunt lives on the lake and has a huge yard so the kids really enjoyed playing outside and having an egg hunt.  They all got some good exercise running all over to find the eggs.  Addie was the winner thanks to her daddy Aaron helping her out with her strategy.  She gets it honestly because Aaron always won our egg hunts when we were kids too.  Its still funny to see how competitive the adults get coaching their kids!  You can also see from the pictures we have a few ornery ones in the group! 

We also celebrated Addie's 7th birthday a little early.  She is such a sweetheart!  Lauren loves her like a sister.  The big girls had so much fun climbing trees in Gloria's yard.  Braden and Blake were big pals too playing farm and then chasing each other with sticks.  They are going to be double trouble as they get older.  I'm so glad they have each other though!

We even managed to grab a few family photos too!  

Wolter Easter

Easter with the Wolter side was pretty fun this year as we had three little girls joining in on the egg hunt.  Katelynn and Teagan got into it and figured it out pretty quick, Brooke was a little more reserved and wasn't sure about the whole thing.  The three big kids had the few hundred eggs found in no time.  The kids enjoyed opening their Easter gifts and having lots of new things to play with.   

Easter Fun!

Easter is one of my favorite holidays to do fun things with the kids.  Lauren loves to dye easter eggs so she took charge of that.  Blake was too busy farming outside with daddy and grandpa.  He did help decorate them with stickers on upon his return but he really wasn't that thrilled with the activity.  Lauren, my mini me, decorated with fun glitter designs and they turned out so good!

I got to use some of my creative energy as well and made Bakerella's Easter egg cake pops and Easter baskets.  They were a lot of fun and not hard at all.  Lauren was a big help to me decorating the tops of the baskets with the coconut and jelly beans.  Since Grandma Vernitta's birthday was on Easter weekend we made her a peeps flower centerpiece for her table.  She loves peeps, especially stale ones so when I saw this idea on Pinterest I knew I had to make it for her.  My floral design skills need some help, but that's okay....

Of course Easter would not be complete without meeting the Easter bunny and going on a town egg hunt.  We went to the egg hunt in Albers this year.  It was a beautiful day so there were lots of kids in attendance.  The kids were thrilled with their finds and their treat bags they got afterwards. 

Spring Break

Lauren had Thursday through Monday of Easter Weekend off from school for "spring break."  We had originally planned to go to the zoo on Thursday but our plans got changed and we ended up going on Good Friday.  Wow, what a disaster that was!  All the parking lots were full before 10 am and we had to drive around for over an hour to find a place to park in Forest Park.  We ended up in the Muny parking lot which meant a lot of walking for the kiddos.  They did great though!

The zoo was so packed.  I had never been there when it was like that.  We only got through four animal exhibits because of the long lines, etc.  Of course we had to ride the carasoul and the train because a trip to the zoo is never complete without those!  So we didn't see many animals but had a lot of fun regardless.  Despite the crowds, the kids were happy and enjoyed taking it all in.  Its always better when you are with friends too! 

I did make a mental note to not go back on a holiday! 

4H Cooking Project

Lauren is taking her first cooking project in 4H this year.  She has been practicing following a recipe and doing things on her own.  Her first practice recipe was to make her own smoothie.  She did a great job and it even tasted good!

Happy Birthday Brooke!

Our niece Brooke celebrated her first birthday on March 31st.  She is such a doll and such a good baby, well now toddler.  Her mommy did a great job on her birthday party with a duck theme, one of Brooke's favorite words.  She loved opening her new gifts especially her kitchen set.  We gave her a personalized step stool with a name puzzle on it.  She thought it was good to crawl under which resulted in her getting stuck a few times!