Benjamin had a very exciting birthday! Mom and Dad came to visit him for lunch at daycare with cupcakes and birthday hats for all of the babies...it was so cute! Benjamin really loved his cupcake and so did all of his friends! We took lots of pictures and I will try to post them tonight...

Grandma and Grandpa Andrews and Great Grandma Murphy all called him to sing him Happy Birthday! How special!! He even got on the phone with Grandma and Grandpa to show them his new skill...he can take the phone, put it up to his ear and say "Hiiiiiii!" I bet he won't know what to do with himself now that all of the excitement is over! I guess he's left to just enjoy all of his cool new toys!!

My parents scanned in some old photos (and I mean OLD photos...Happy Birthday Dad!) of my Dad from when he was little. Here is a little comparison of the two June birthday buddies...scary!

We celebrated Benjamin's first birthday this weekend with family and friends. It was a successful party and so much fun to see everyone! Thanks again to everyone who made it.

As you can see by this picture, Benjamin really enjoyed his cake, which Mommy made to look like a page from his favorite book, "That's Not My Robot!" While holding it up for pictures, he started to dig right in on the frosting and loved every bit!! We will be adding more pictures to come from other people who took some at the party, so keep an eye out!!


After everyone left on Sunday, Mike ran a 5k race for the Ronald McDonald House, so Benjamin and I hung out. I made this video of him saying his (possible) third word...listen carefully...

Mike celebrated his first Father's Day this weekend! We had an excellent day with his family at Minnehaha Falls park in Minneapolis. Mike received the poster here in the picture from Benjamin and I. It is made up of pictures of Mike and Benjamin throughout the past year. He also got a Dr. Suess Book called "Hop on Pop!"

On Saturday I performed in the Rochesterfest Cemetery Walk as a dead person from Rochester's history. I had SO much fun and acted my little heart out for 17 separate groups! What a tiring day!!! Joe had a graduation party on Saturday as well so Mike and Benjamin went up to the cities for that, a parade and also so that Mike could watch the US World Cup team tie with Italy. Thursday will be a big day for the US team who plays Ghana. We're very excited!

We had a wonderful weekend! Saturday we went up to the twin cities for Deutsche Tage with Joe, Jen, AJ, Andy and Jennifer. We ate amazing German food, danced around to an oom-pa-pa band, and enjoyed being outside (even though the weather was unseasonably cold). Then the whole crew followed us down to Rochester where we spent Saturday night and Sunday playing and having fun with family. Benjamin and AJ finally got to spend some quality time together and they really had fun playing and making trouble. Joe and Andy helped Mike install a new faucet in our kitchen, which looks great and works wondefully!! It was so great to spend time with everyone, it is hard to get back to the grind this week. Benjamin's birthday is quickly approaching and we're all getting ready for the big day!!!

Joe graduated with his bachelor's degree in Business and Information Technology this Sunday from St. Mary's University. It is a great achievement to go back to school like he did with a full-time job and a family, we are so proud of him! Benjamin had fun seeing his cousin and the whole family!

Saturday night Mike and I went to a murder mystery dinner at our friends' house (Laura and Eric). It had a mardi gras theme and we all had fun roles to play. Of course, it is verrrry unlike us to get into the whole costuming and characterization part of it all, but we had fun anyway! ;-) Eric turned out to be the murderer, which was a relief to me because I was the murderer at the last mystery that I performed in with the Historical Society! I would have begun to think I was being typecast! Here is a picture of the whole ecclectic group:

Our next weekend includes a trip to Deutche Tage, which is an annual event by the German American Institute in St. Paul. There is no doubt that we have some good German food and beer in our future! Joe, Jen and AJ are traveling back to Rochester with us after that and will be spending the night and all day Sunday with us, we are very excited! Benjamin can't wait to share his pool with AJ if the weather is nice!!