New photos of Tessa!!!

What a wonderful day to wake up to THREE new photos of Tessa JiXing in my inbox!! Now if we could just get travel approval!!

Here she is!!



What???? You expected all three photos here??

~~Happy Birthday Kendalan~~

Yesterday was the BIG day that Kendalan has been talking about for months now! She was FIVE years old! We sang her Happy Birthday early in the morning and she tried to decide all day where she wanted to eat her Birthday Supper. She changed her mind many, many times throughout the day and finally decided on "Olive Garden" Great choice! We then came home and celebrated with more singing, cake and presents! She blew me kisses at OG and then gave me her million dollar smile that lights up my life!!

She has just blossomed and grown up right under our noses! She is tiny but mighty and has no problem telling us how it is going to be! She was moping around the house this morning and I asked her "Why the long face?" She says, "I thought when I turned 5 that I would be bigger than this!" Trying to keep a straight face I assured her that she has been growing all along and that no one will be instantly bigger on their birthday. She was pretty unhappy that she was pretty much the same size today as she was when she went to bed last night! Our Little Miss Princess Diva, her cake, sisters and of course, her crown!! We love you sweetie!! XOXO!!








Second birthday.............


Third birthday.............

KC Zoo

Yesterday we met up with our friends Gary, Sophie and Zia Joy at the Kansas City Zoo. It was a beautiful day! This was our first trip to the KC zoo and I am sure it will not be our last! We headed out to Africa and saw giraffe, zebra, elephants, rhinoceros, hippopotamus, ostrich, baboons, chimpanzee, gazelle, meerkat, lions and more! We barely scratched the surface of all the animals there.

Kendalan was excited to see Zia!


We had to stop and take photo ops along the way. Beautiful girls + waterfall= pretty photo!



It was hard to get the girls to turn around to look at us for a photo. The elephant is much more entertaining than parents are!



After trekking through Africa, we stopped to enjoy the picnik lunch we had packed. Then with renewed strength we headed back up the hill toward Australia.


By this time Zia Joy was ready for her nap, so she took her Mommy and Daddy home while the VanCamp girls searched on to see what else we could find. Daddy decided it was time to rest in the shade and watch our wagon. We decided to see what the Discovery Barn was all about and the girls would have spent the next several hours playing in there it it hadn't been for their weary Mom saying, "Let's come back a different day."

Bunny sightings!

The Easter bunny hopped through our lives very quickly and silently this past week. Along with leaving goodies for the girls the bunny also brought us a touch of spring!

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

Catching up

Two days after our spring snow storm, we warmed up and the snow started to melt fast! The girls really enjoyed the chance to get out in the snow and have a mini snowball fight! The next day it rained and all the snow that had not already disappeared was washed away by the rain. Now when we step outside the house we can hear frogs croaking all around us! It is wet!

Today we were all ready to get out of the house and do something different. We took off and drove to Legends in Kansas City to eat. We wanted to eat somewhere we don't have close to home but where? We have driven by the outside of Legends before but have never stopped. Today we stopped, and started roaming around to see what was available. Lots of choices! T-Rex won out mostly because the adults were outnumbered! Here are some of the words to describe T-Rex. Wow! Cool! Loud! Neat! Expensive! and after dining there we can add that to our list of "Been there, done that". Can't say that any of us are real anxious to go back.

First day of Spring?

Well Mother Nature is sure having a laugh on us! Welcome Spring!! This was the view out our front and back door yesterday. Today the sun is shining, the wind is blowing (hard) and it is 37 degrees. Is supposed to be 60 by the middle of the week. Gotta love Kansas weather!!






And to think...I was running around Friday with sandals on!