Actually she's three... and Saaya's continuation....

Lenora Daye Schupbach is 3.

In honor of her birthday, Miss Daye had pancakes for breakfast; this kid can eat, let me tell you. Her Mommy made her a "3" then a "2" then a "1" then a "L" and an "O" after that Becca made her a "puppy" shaped pancake but Leni barely made it through that one... I think she was getting full.
Happy Birthday Lenora Daye. We love you oh, so much.

One present now and one present when Gramma and Grampa get home from work.

Lenora and Daddy
Mommy and baby... I mean 3 year old... *sigh*
After breakfast it was time to go to uptown/downtown or whatever they call it now, Normal. We spent Lenora's birthday having a picnic, acting silly, and going to a Children's Museum. This is a picture of the angelic Becca Kay.... claiming she's the "good one" in the family... I'll let Ben and Carolyn decide that one."I want wings too."

Now for a quick break in the oh, so cute, pictures of Lenora. I have to tell you what I made her for her birthday.
Once again, I got the recipe from www.thepioneerwoman.com/cooking

and totally had to make them.

What are they? You ask.

Well, just take a peek.

Crushed oreos

flower pots with pound cake lining the bottom and straws stuck in the them was the first couple of steps... hmmmm sounds yummy already.

Layer the pound cake with yummy ice cream that has been softened and top with just a little bit of oreos. Don't use all the oreos just yet.Then I had to put my babies to bed. I had made them the night before Lenora arrived because I didn't want her curious little mind wandering what I was doing in the kitchen. So I did 90% of the prep beforhand. mmmm

When we were ready I put a flower inside the straw and used the rest of the oreos to cover the ice cream and make it look like soil. :) (sorry for the bad picture)

Lenora was please and kept asking to eat "dirt"
Aunt Joanna, Aunt Joanna... can I have dirt?
Music to my ears!

Now? Where were we? Oh yeah! The children's museum....
Jonah

Adelia True
Saaya, Lenora and Aunt Joanna acting silly!!

Speaking of acting silly....

no one speaks "silly" like my Dad, Lenora's beloved Grampa.

Lenora loves my parents like no one else. There is no one else who quite compares to her Grampa and Gramma Schupbach...
I mean, who else would do this?

or this?

or this?

See what I mean? Silly!
Here's Lenora playing with some of the exhibits at the museum.

Adelia getting propeled by the high powered air thingys.
Giant Chess game
Even Adelia enjoyed the museum.
It was a little too loud for Lenora when the car honked its horn. Saaya and I enjoyed it though...
Funny mirrors...
My favorite room, the room where you could paint on the "walls"....
There was a jungle gym type thing that was a maze of some sort. It actually hung throughout two stories so if you climbed to the top you could see the third floor action. my sweet baby... i mean big girl niece.
who apparently is a lion!
A Dad and his daughter playing checkers... I won't tell you who won but I will tell you it was a VERY good day. Oh look!?! McLean County (aka where I live) sends soybeans to China and Japan... that's cool.
After the big birthday bash Saaya and I headed out to go to Chicago. This is our train ride to downtown.
We stayed at my friends Heather and Lindsey's apartment which is downtown three blocks from Lake Shore Dr. It's beautiful!! I loved it.
Hanging out by Lake Michigan with Lindsey or Heather. After our walk to the lake we went to Millenium Park and met up with my friends Andrew and Michael and hung out downtown.

Lindsey at Millenium. Everyone should have an Andrew Meikle in their life... but since there's only one, you'll just have to go to Chicago and befriend this guy.

Andrew and I have been friends since the kindergarten sunday school class in Sheboygan.
Our families often got together to hang out and play with Andrew and his three siblings... his older sister Sally let me watch "Return to Oz" the Wizard sequel and I only had nightmares for about two weeks afterwards. Just kidding.

Andrew is a great friend. Loyal and totally trustworthy. He's the life of the party and has often bailed me out of different situations.... Like the one below....

Let's just say, being towed in Chicago, is never fun.
Thanks Andrew for waking up that day.

Milennium Park was beautiful. The city lights at night illuminate the "bean"... a work of...er, art in downtown.
Saaya and I walking on the bean.
Saaya and I playing in the fountain.

After I dropped of Saaya and finally got back to normal, I had Lenora and Adelia to distract me. This girl has many many faces. Her scary face.
Joking around.
Oh there is a great smile.
Where does she get all those funny faces?

Uhhh don't answer that.