funny faces!

Grown men can learn from very little children for the hearts of little children are pure. Therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss. (Black Elk)

love

I'm out of creativity this week...so I'm falling back on the old standard: an adorable picture with some good words...happy day!

It's my Birthday :)

Yeah! Although, I'm officially on the "downward slope" of my 20s...but I'm having an amazing day...and it just reminds me how lucky I am!

My morning started off with over-sleeping (ugh)! But it was all uphill from there...with flowers from my boys and the best card from Jack (Jim):

It's true! And then I got a surprise card from my Pops on my car...he even stuck it in a zippie bag to avoid the condensation! Thanks, Dad!!! (love, Bones)

And then I came to work and got a big surprise with a festive-decorated desk and lots of delicious snacks!

And this sign that cracks me UP! (PS: I'm NOT 30!!!)

And another one that makes me laugh again...apparently, I'm a mini-cougar! (Don't ask!)

And THEN, I opened my inbox to find that Carey sent me some hilarious ecards that rocked my morning and made my face hurt from smiling...

Thanks, Care!

And I did get the musical birthday wishes from my Mommer :), who is the bomb and gave me my birthday present early...and it's been the best gift ever! Yes, it has contributed to my apparent incessant-picture-taking, but it's an obsession I l-o-v-e!

So now,

I'm off to be old, chow down, and party like a rock star (kinda)...if I'm lucky, Jack will sing "Happy Birthday" to me, like he did for Papa (check out the video at the bottom)!

Thanks to my family and friends...I love you to pieces and I'm so, so, SO lucky to have you in my life...you're the best :)

Jack met Thomas!

Thomas the Train, that is. Jack loves him! Well actually, I don’t know if it’s Thomas or just the fact that he’s a train. He loves trains! Choo-choo! (I think I’ve mentioned that before…here…and here…)

We took an exhilarating ride on Thomas (and by exhilarating, I mean riding roughly 5 mph approximately 0.5 mi…but Jack enjoyed it, so that’s all that matters!).

After the ride, there was plenty of Thomas activities, but Jack most enjoyed playing with the Train Table Sets…I think someone told Santa how much he loved this ;) (And yes, it’s not even Halloween, but I’ve begun my Christmas AND Birthday shopping to avoid stress!)


So despite getting lost on the way there, barely making the train, and braving the cold...it was a fun day out with Thomas and Jack!

The Greffet's Take On Chicago!

Here's a few more from our recent trip to the Windy City

And then came the fun part...

Here's the girls, the first (and only) time we wore our bike helmets...

And Jennie and I met a crazy guy showing his support for his friend! I'm all about the support, but as you will see later, we were nearly frozen and we were layered!

Our Fearless Leader! Jim spent most of the day staring at a map trying to figure out the most time-efficient way to navigate through downtown Chicago whilst keeping us at a place where we would not be stranded on the "wrong side" of the marathon line...

And Jennie spent most of the day wishing Jim had better navigational skills, and wondering when my camera would break or my hands would get frostbite so I would stop annoying everyone with my relentless picture-taking...(the answer is never!)

LOL...at mile marker 10-ish, we stood for roughly an hour and a half searching for Mark...to no avail! During this time, as we froze and Jennie couldn't feel her legs, she decided to wrap her right leg up in the only spare piece of clothing we had (leaving her left leg to go numb)...notice the look of anguish on Jennie's face, and the mockery on Joanie's...

(This picture is out of place, so don't let the look of comfort on their faces fool you!) This is from the first day we had the bikes. Jim and Joanie look happy when they haven't been riding for 4 hours, right:

Sibling love...

Fun times, good laughs...

Oh, Chicago: I may like your city...but I still hate the Cubbies! :)

A Fishy Boy...

Swimming, swimming in the swimming pool BATHTUB! (An old camp song Carey and I used to sing)

There was a day, not too long ago, when Jack was afraid to be in the bathtub without his "toddler-tub"...but those days are long gone!
And so is the worry of not getting him into the bathtub...now we have to worry about getting him out!

Someone forgot to tell Jack, "No DIVING in shallow water!" Here he is preparing for his approach into the depths shallows...(also an activity that causes extra worry!)

And just look at that splash! (I think in technical diving terms, you want as little splash as possible...but Jack just loves to go against the grain!)

And working on his breast-stroke...

He's a fishy little boy!

Picture Day (again!)

Back in April, Jack had his first picture day…and it didn’t go over so well. Little man just didn’t want to pose. (We even tried a picture day 2.0 and that didn’t work.)

So today is picture day again, and I’m nervous because Jack isn’t feeling well, but, he now says “cheese” for the camera and makes a hilarious face that cracks me up! Like here:

I hope the quick pictures I snapped this morning are not an indication of how things will play out today! Jack wanted his second waffle so badly this morning that he couldn’t focus for the camera.

So, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that we get a good “first” school picture for the memory books! Because I'm diggin' his Halloween-Pirate sweater!

Way to go, Mark!

Congratulations to my FIL, Mark, for finishing the Chicago marathon with flying colors! In freezing weather, he toughed it out to impress and inspire us all. Here's the gang pre-race

He brought it home for Kansas...and the Greffet family!

We tried desperately to find him at 3 different check points during the race, but between 40,000 other runners and about 25% of them wearing a white shirt and blue hat, we had little luck...until the last mile! (Next year, we will use the GPS tracker, for sure...and we're getting Mark an outfit to help him stand out!)

So Jim "pirated" the race and hopped in to cheer his dad on! I think Jim's total miles ran for the day was roughly 0.05 (est.); Mark's total miles for the day: 26.2!

And here's the champ, post-race...

Can't wait for Chicago 2010!

As Joanie's poster read, "If it was easy, I would do it!"

I have much more to share, including plenty of random pictures (I think everyone finally understands why Jim gets so annoyed with my incessant picture-taking!) and some funny tandem-biking stories! :)