Our girl turns 4!

May  19th was our sweet Big Girls 4th Birthday.  A few months before her birthday she started talking about having a birthday party with all of her friends, and decided she wanted a Garden themed party. If you know our girl, it's right up her ally.  She loves to dig, pick flowers, grow veggies (and eat them).  So that's what we did.  We celebrated at Brown's Park in St. Matthews, and the day was themed with garden-esq activities and treats :)  We had a scavenger hunt, our girls favorites... lots of veggies and fruit, dirt cake, and even planted some flowers to have the kids take home.  Mike even brought the old firetruck "Betsy" and gave the kids a ride around the park.  I think the adults might have had more fun with that than the kids did even!  Marmie and Papa even made the long trip from Mississippi to join us, and I don't know how we would have pulled it off with out them there!

 

Here's some of My favorite pics from the day!

Madeline anxiously waiting for the Party to start!

Some of her sweet friends from church

Getting ready to blow

She's LOVES her daddy

Taking a ride on Betsy

Planting flowers. This was the only thing she really wanted to do at her party with her friends , so we made it happen :)

With her planted flower

Her good friend Dallas

Some of the cousins

So thankful for this sweet girl's life!

Hubby's Birthday

 For hubby's 33rd birthday we decided to go to a Louisville Bats game to celebrate.  The opponents coach was Mike's favorite childhood Cub's player Ryne Sandberg.  Mike and Rivers got to go into the game early and get some autographs.  Rivers LOVED the baseball game and has pretty much been obsessed with baseball ever since. Mike's determined he's going to be a second baseman. It was definitely a fun day celebrating Mike's life.  I'm so grateful God has given me this man for a husband and such a wonderful father to our children!  Happy Birthday Babe!

Here's a video that day of Rivers asking for his own autographed baseball... He was so mesmerized watching the players. 

IMG_1166-1 from Mariah Frantz on Vimeo.

Baby Girl turns ONE!

We celebrated Gloria's birthday for two days really, because Mike was scheduled to work on her birthday and we couldn't get out of it.  That same day we also had a church picnic and a good bye party for Miss Lindsay, so it worked out well to have her birthday dinner the next day.  

The morning of her birthday Madeline and Rivers wrapped up some "presents" (some of their toys) to give to their baby sister.  It was pretty sweet to watch their generosity towards her.

 The birthday girl at the church picnic

 We took cupcakes up to the firehouse to celebrate with Mike that night.

 We love this precious girl so much!

 Spaghetti was the main course, one of our girls fans.  Here she is, one happy girl after digging into her cake!

 So thankful God has given us such a blessing.

 All cleaned up and opening her present.

Saying Goodbye to "Miss" Lindsay

Since January, a dear friend of mine, Lindsay, lived with us while she worked on raising support to go on staff with Revive our Hearts ministries, led by Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Lindsay was one of the first friends I made when I moved to Louisville 7 years ago and has been a steady and faithful friend ever since. She was such a joy to have in our home and quickly just became one of the family. We all miss her so much and are so sad to see her go, but are really excited about what God has in store for her life with ROH. 

The whole Family

 She helped organize a sweet surprise birthday party for me with some of my close church friends.

 

We love you and Miss you, "Miss Lindsay"!

Trip to St. Louis

I like to call May and June birthday season around the Frantz household.  Between May 9 to June 18th all 5 of us have a birthday!  This year was kind of a milestone for me and to celebrate the big 30 Mike surprised me by taking us on a little family vacation to St. Louis.  We had a blast, and actually hope to make this a semi frequent short vacation for us as a family because there are so many fun, family friendly and FREE things to do there!  Here are some of the highlights.  

The kids the first morning by the famous arch.

 The first day we went out to Grants Farm.  They had all kinds of animals and fun little activities to do.  Here are the biggest two feeding goats.

 First snow cone... I think she enjoyed it!

 Sweet littlest one enjoying the beautiful day

 Rivers Loved the baby goats so we had to make one more stop to feed them before we left.

 One of the famous Budweiser Clydesdales

 Mike and Rivers in front of Busch Stadium

 One night after dinner we walked down to the arch and this was the night view of the pretty city.

 Arch at night

It was such a great birthday celebration. Thanks to my sweet hubby it was definitely a memorable one too!