Marys Birthday and Bronners

Mary had a very interesting and different birthday. She has lost much weight and all her souvenir shirts from past Mackinaw visits no longer fit her, so while we were there we tried to replace most of them. You can see the new souvenir shirts displayed by Mary that she got for her birthday.

When her birthday actually came, James helped decorate the house with balloons (not one did he blow up). We took Mary to her favorite outlet mall in Birch Run, then took a quick trip to Bronners Christmas store in Frankenmuth. It began to rain so we headed back and Mary had one of her favorite meals of all time, barbecued ribs and chicken from the Boneyard restaurant.

Thanks to all who sent cards, gifts, and well wishes.
(more…)

Edited: September 6th, 2010

Happy Birthday Aunt Criss

James has been signing his cards for the last couple years but this is the first card that he ever made up himself. He carefully chose just the right color (red, his favorite) and wrote a happy birthday letter to his Aunt Criss. James waved it in the air to make sure all the ink was dry then posed for a picture with the card. James really enjoys doing things like this, something that his father was never very good at.

So Happy Birthday to Aunt Criss from James, Mary, and Chuck and hopefully we can stop by on our way back from Macinac (hopefully we make it there, not sure now what Peg’s status will be that week).

It should be noted that James does not like talking to people on the phone, don’t know why, he does not talk to anyone on the phone including his parents. When he was 3 he had a phone in his room and he dialed 911 and hung up. The police called to see if everything was ok and if we needed help. Since then James has not had a phone in his room so maybe this is his protest for taking the phone out, lol. (more…)

Edited: August 19th, 2010

James Shopping Spree

My sister Peg and I took James to Target so he could spend his Christmas money from Uncle Bill. James went right to the videos and bought a Scooby Doo movie and Scooby Doo puzzle which did not really surprise me, what did surprise me was he went to the food section of the store and spent the rest on snacks that we usually do not have in the house – Doritos, Oreo Cookies, Ice Cream and pizza. We have been keeping pretty healthy food in the house such as apples, oranges, pears, rice cakes, etc that we have for snacks, I guess James is putting us on notice that we wants a bit more variety in his diet from the 5 kid food groups -cookies, chips, ice cream, pizza and candy (his Aunt bought him a Valentine Day sucker to complete the entree).
(more…)

Edited: January 10th, 2010

Johnathons Birthday 2010

James got invited to a birthday party for one of his classmates, Johnathon, and it was at the Lincoln Park skating center on Southfield.  James had a blast and fell down more times than I care to count, but each time he smiled and got right back up.  The theme for the party was Spiderman and each child got a goodie bag including a mask.  We will have to remember the skating rink for James birthday instead of Caesars and Applebees, it was really well done.
(more…)

Edited: January 2nd, 2010

New Family Members for 2009

I remember we used to give the dove eggs away because they never were fertile and the doves would spend weeks sitting on eggs that never hatched. Its kind of rare for doves in captivity to breed, none the less, the doves we got last year hatched 2 chicks and the proud parent doves are taking good care of the chicks, feeding them and cleaning them. They still can’t fly and sometimes stumble and fall but they are doing pretty good and should be able to fend on their own in a couple weeks.

Pretty bird would be proud to see how her tradition is being carried on. For those who don’t know we do several magic sites and use the birds in magic tricks to promote those sites.
(more…)

Edited: January 24th, 2009

Mary’s Birthday 2008

I thought James would have fun helping me decorate for a small surprise party for Mom. He was in school now but I wanted him to know we can still have a lot of fun together afterwards. We went to the party store and got balloons, noisemakers, and cake to celebrate and decorated the kitchen table while Mom was out shopping. James and I had a blast and Mary was certainly surprised when she walked in with groceries and saw the decorations.
(more…)

Edited: September 5th, 2008

Jadens Birthday (a little early) 2008

James, Peg, and I went over to Natalies house to see Jaden and wish him a Happy Birthday (his actual birthday was about a week away but we would not be able to make it that day). Jaden and James played with hot wheels and watched videos and Natalie had a spread of food for us. We played on the computer for a bit, looking at Natalies Myspace page. A fun time was had by all, we will have to get together with Natalie, Jaden , and little Katelyn more often since they only live about a half hour away.
(more…)

Edited: July 15th, 2008

James 3rd Birthday 2006

James 3rd birthday began with a trip to Applebee’s for the Applebee Birthday Treatment, then we surprised him by having his gifts in his parents room where he never dreamed of looking for them (however after this was over he decided to sleep in our room to make sure we weren’t up to anything).

Once again we would like to thank everyone who helped make this such a wonderful day for James. He had so many balloons, presents and gifts to open plus cake and ice cream. James was in his glory this day.
(more…)

Edited: September 18th, 2006

James 2nd Birthday 2005

James second birthday was celebrated in stages, with a small party at home and another one at Caesars. He got to play with his new moonwalk as well because it was such a nice warm day for late September. Thanks again to everyone who showed up at the party and/or sent gifts. James had a lot of fun and had a great day.

September is really becoming a great time for us to do things, the weather is just simply spectacular, the only bad thing is that we know the end of summer is coming.
(more…)

Edited: September 18th, 2005

James 1st Birthday 2004

Hard not to laugh at some of the expressions James has in these pics, couldn’t have cared less about his birthday it would seem, at least till the cake was cut.

Happy Birthday James
(more…)

Edited: September 18th, 2004