Happy Birthday Sweetheart!

I can't believe that "Daddy's Baby Girl" turned 5 years old today. She had a really big day. As soon as she woke up this morning she asked where her balloons and presents were! She got to open up one present before she went to school. She took snacks to school today for her birthday (Tinkerbell cookies). After school, Mommy picked her up and she went to Chuck E. Cheese with two of her friends for lunch. Then when Brandon got home from school (and Dad got off of work early) she got to open up all of her other presents. We went out to eat at Lone Star (one of her favorite places to eat) and then went and got the balloon she had been talking about all day. We then had to get ready to go to Brandon's last basketball game of the year and had a pizza party for the team afterwards. The whole team sang "Happy Birthday" to her. We finally got home and quickly got ready for bed after her marathon birthday. As she was going to sleep, she asked if tomorrow was her birthday too!

She also got a post on the Kreidler's Blog that you can see here. Some more pictures of her birthday adventures can also be seen here.

Brittany's Bouncing Birthday Party

Brittany had her birthday party on Sunday at Midstate Gymnastics Center. They have a large room that has a big Bounce House, a giant slide and a long obstical course. Then after a while in that room they move to the gymnastics area and get to jump into a large pit filled with foam blocks. At the end of the party, we all went back to the party room where the kids had cupcakes and juice and Brittany opened up all of the wonderful presents that her friends brought for her. Everyone had a lot of fun and I'm sure are sleeping well tonight. You can see some additional photos from the party here.

2008 Illini Spring Football Game

The Turner Tribe headed over to Champaign on Saturday to watch the Illini Spring Football Game. Although the weather was not great, it didn't rain a drop on us. It was great to see the football team again as I have been anticipating their return since the Rose Bowl. It would have been better if there weren't so many players missing from the Spring game. There was other things going on to appease the rest of the tribe: merchandise sale outside the stadium, band playing in the section next to us, the cheerleaders in our corner of the stadium, and they were working on the renovations on the west balconey during the game. After the game, we ate at Papa Del's Pizza before we headed back to Springfield. Overall, the stadium construction is coming along nicely and the offense performed better than they did leading up to the Spring game. Looking forward to next year! You can see more pictures from the Spring game here.

Neighborhood Scavenger Hunt

On Sunday morning, we had a scavenger hunt in our neighborhood. One of our neighbors organized it and it was based on clues planted in our neighborhood. There were about 30 kids that participated and were organized into 5 teams. Each team had to follow their clues to find their next hidden egg with another clue. Once all the clues were found they had to get back to the start and the kids got prizes. Brandon picked out a water gun and Brittany picked out bubble gum. Everyone had a great time. After the hunt was over, a lot of the kids were playing with their new water guns. As you can see in the picture below, Brandon was firing his gun at some attackers while Brittany was keeping an eye out protecting the flank.

Brittany and her Friend Lauren!

Brittany invited her friend from school, Lauren, over to her house after school today to play. They had a lot of fun together making a pizza together and playing together. Unfortunately it was raining throughout the day and all the activities had to be inside. Her and Lauren are good friends and I'm sure there will be many more play dates together!

Whole Lot of Shakin' Going On!

Well, we were woke up to a lot of shaking early this morning. After a couple of seconds to figure out what was going on, we experienced something very unusual this morning...........a 5.2 magnitude earthquake located 135 miles SE of Springfield, in Southeastern Illinois. After we went and grabbed the kids and brought them back to our bed, I turned on the radio to confirm that it was an earthquake and heard where the epicenter was located. Angie and I called our parents to make sure everyone was OK down there. I was up for almost an hour listening to the radio reports and trying to comprehend what to do if another one occurred. It's not like you think about earthquakes everyday here in the Midwest. Later in the morning there was an aftershock registering 4.6 magnitude. I felt it at work and Angie immediately called me when her desk in the basement started shaking. While I was talking to her, Paul in St. Louis sent me a message asking if I felt it too, as his office building was shaking pretty well. There is some really neat information that you can find on earthquakes. Here is a poster of this morning's earthquake. There are also the seismograph readings, shakemaps (I think I just like their name), and all the details on the first earthquake and the second big aftershock this morning.

Turner for Two!!!!!

Brittany joined in the fun on the new goal and made her first baskets ever!!!! She was really excited and wanted everyone (including the neighbors) to watch. As you can tell from the picture she has nice form on her shot. I asked her if she wanted to play basketball next year and she said she didn't. I think she will enjoy playing on the new goal this summer too.

Game Time!

We finished the installation of the basketball goal Thursday and Brandon started immediately breaking it in. He shot around for a half an hour before Daddy decided that he should be allowed to raise it up and play for a little while on it. Brandon made three shots on it when it was raised to 10 feet and was really excited about it. Angie asked the kids this morning if they thought everyone would be talking about the earthquake to their teachers this morning. Brandon said that he was going to tell his Kindergarten teacher about making the shots on the ten foot goal, not the earthquake! They both had a great time playing on the new goal. I'm sure we will all spend a lot of time out there this summer.

Happy Birthday Grandma Turner!!!!!!!

Basketball Season!

It's basketball season again at The Gym. This year's team is a lot better than last year. They are all playing defense really well and there are several kids that are really good. They only keep the score for each quarter, but I think there have only been a couple quarters all year that we haven't outscored our opponent. Brandon has Mason on the team with him as well as Emily across the street. We are in the process of putting up a new in-ground basketball goal here at home so he can play throughout the summer.

Don't Mess with this Kid!!!

Brandon has received two yellow stripes on his karate belt. The picture above (which I think this is his 'mean' face) is showing off his first stripe. The next class he picked up his second stripe too. He really enjoys the class and looks forward to it each week. Brittany stopped taking lessons after the two-month introductory. She was really good at it, but she said she wants to just do ballet at this point.

Spring Fling is OVER!!!!!!

Finally the Farmingdale Spring Fling is over! Maybe I will finally get my wife back. Angie had to organize the donations for both the Pre-K and Kindergarten auction baskets. She also had to come up with and execute the Kindergarten Art project for the auction. Her idea was to use fingerprint art to decorate a bookcase with pictures and titles of children's books. After many practice runs with all the kids (and adults) here at the house, Angie went to the school and had to get all four Kindergarten classes prints to make the pictures she came up with. It turned out pretty well and she even included a scrapbook of pictures of each class and a copy of their artwork with the artists' names listed below each. It raised $150 for the school. [Next year, I might just donate the $150 to keep her away from all of the projects.]

Angie was also in charge of the Kindergarten booth at the Spring Fling. It was the "Candy Bar Walk", which is just like a cake walk but the winner gets a candy bar and everyone else leaves with a Tootsie Roll. She worked an hour in that booth and a half hour in the library with the book sale. I worked the Candy Bar Walk for a half hour and the Pre-K bean bag toss for a half hour. The kids had a blast at the Spring Fling, but I don't think we have ever been so happy for something to finally be over. You can see some additional pictures of the auction items and Spring Fling here.

Poster Entry

Brandon entered the poster contest at his school for the Spring Fling. The theme of the event was "Let the Games Begin". Brandon's poster had the olympic rings with "2008 Farmingdale Let The Games Begin" written within the rings. Below he had the Olympics medal podium and added in a few fireworks in the air. A few days later they judged the posters and Brandon won 1st place in the Kindergarten class! Brittany told Mom about it when she got home from school since they announced the winners over the intercom for them to come to the office to receive their medals. The picture below shows Brandon proudly displaying his first place medal that he won in the poster contest.

A Blog-apology!

I have received some complaints on lack of blog entries and want to issue the Official Turner Tribe Apology! I think ever since the Kreidler's Blog got rid of the Good Bloggers and Bad Bloggers listing, I have gotten a little lazy. In addition, we have been a little busy with the Spring Fling, Easter, gathering tax info, ballet class (Brittany, not me), basketball practice/games, karate, installing a new basketball goal, etc. that we have been too busy to blog about them. I am working on the blog entries to get caught up and hopefully will be able to stay up with it a little better in the future!