Brittany's Ballet Recital

Brittany had her ballet recital the week before we left on vacation. Mommy helped out with the class again this year while Daddy and Brandon watched the peformance from the crowd. Since Paul is not around this year to edit and get my video on the computer, it might take a while for me to get it done. She did a great job and hopefully I will get the video on in the near future. This picture is after the performance with her friends the McKeowns. In the meantime, here's the link to last year's performance: photo album and video.

Brandon is Now a First Grader!

Brandon finished up school and might have his first crush on a girl in his class. Lauren was a girl that liked him all year and he talked about her a lot as the school year finished up. He had a great first year of school. He loved it and is looking foward to 1st Grade. This picture was taken by Mom on one of the field trips late in the school year. Doesn't he look cool?!?!

Ballet Parent Observation - May 2008

Brittany's ballet class had a parent observation day this month. Luckily Angie had a camera in her purse to be able to capture a few pictures since we forgot that it was coming up. It's getting close to her ballet performance for the year so they have been practicing their performances. This year they won't wear costumes for their 30 seconds of fame. You can see a few of the pictures that Angie took here.

School's Out For Summer - Brittany

Brittany finished up with school a week earlier than Brandon. Her last day was May 19th, and her class had an outing at Midwest Gymnastics (same place as her birthday party) from 9-10 on May 20th. She had fun playing with some of her old classmates but is looking even more forward to Summer Vacation. She will officially be a Kindergartner in the Fall.

Garage Sale

Angie participated in a garage sale at one of her friend's house this weekend. She carried out tables and bins of stuff (I was afraid to ask what all she was selling.) They were busy all day Friday and Saturday. Angie ended up netting over $1,000 from the sale. I think that is a sign that we buy too much stuff! At least we have some stuff cleared out so we can now buy more!

Garmin Purchase

The Turner Tribe is going technological. Since we are planning on going to Florida in a couple of weeks, we decided to get a GPS to help guide us along the way. We ended up getting a Garmin. In addition to directions, it has a lot of other features including bluetooth capable, gas prices, weather, traffic, and movie information. We are looking forward to the vacation and the GPS will make it just a little nicer.

Belated Happy Birthday Amy

Better late than never. I told Amy I would get revenge on my birthday picture she selected for me on their blog, so here it is. Hope you had a great birthday Amy!

Hawaii Class Trip?!?!

Brandon's class has been studying Hawaii for the past week and they got to go on a trip to Hawaii! Even though my property taxes make me think I am paying enough for the kindergarten class to go to Hawaii, they went on a pretend trip instead. Angie went to help in the activities (one day as the surfing photographer and another as the plane stewardess). Brandon had a great trip and you can see a slideshow of his trip here.

Happy Mother's Day!

We had a nice Mother's Day. The kids got Mommy a new Webkinz and had made some beautiful cards for her. They had made some art projects at school for her too. Daddy made his world famous cinnamon french toast for brunch and we went out to eat at Lonestar Steak House that evening. We would like to wish our mothers a Happy Mother's Day too!

Seems Like Old Times

It seemed like old times being together with the Kreidler and McKeown families again on a weekend. The Kreidler's came up Friday evening and we all had Joe's Pizza. (I wondered how the weekend was going to go since Joe's was empty on a Friday night and Paul almost started a fight in the parking lot.) All the kids had fun playing outside on a nice evening and the women went downstairs to scrapbook the evening away. The Kreidler's headed back to St. Louis Saturday afternoon but not before Paul treated us to lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings!

Baseball Heaven

On Monday, I took off work early to go to St. Louis to meet up with Paul and go to the St. Louis Cardinals game. It was great to see Paul and he had got us some sweet seats about 12 rows behind the visiting Cincinnati Reds dugout. It was a very cold night (45 degrees) to watch a ballgame, but the hot chocolate helped us get through it. Although the Cardinals won 2 out of the 3 games in the series, we got to see the loss. Even a cold night at a losing Cardinals game is still a pretty good night. Below are some of the pictures I took that night at the game. (To see an enlarged picture from the slideshow, double-click the picture. You can also view a full screen slideshow, or a link to the album to view them individually.)

Completed MS Walk

Angie participated in the MS Walk on Sunday. It was a really nice day for the walk. She was joined on the walk by Janet, Nancy, and Holly (Nancy's sister). According to the MS Walk website, the Illinois chapter raised nearly $2 million for MS programs and research on Sunday.

Birthday Number 3

Even though we were without TV, internet, or telephone service all weekend when my parents came up to visit, Brittany (and even Brandon) found a way of entertaining themselves celebrating Brittany's birthday again opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa Turner. Brittany got three more Mariposa barbies and a new game for the Wii. Brandon even got a Webkinz out of the celebration. It was a nice visit from the grandparents too bad it followed the lightning strike of our house.

Bring a Friend to Karate

Brandon got to bring two friends to karate last week. He picked his two best friends in his Kindergarten class, Drew and Landon. Drew tried out the Karate class with Brandon, but Landon wasn't quite so sure about it so he sat on the sidelines and played Leapster games with Brittany. Brandon's two friends got to ride the bus home together after school and played for a little while before Karate class. Brandon really likes Karate and enjoyed sharing it with his friends.

Basketball Season Over

Brittany's birthday was also the last game of the year for Brandon's basketball team. We had a really good year (if they kept score for the whole game and not just quarters, I would assume we would have won every game easily) and had a great group of kids. Brandon was improved over last year and really did a good job on defense, getting steals, and passing the ball. He was a lot more active this year and was into the game more than last year. He really enjoyed the season and is looking forward to playing this summer in the driveway on his new goal. The season ended with a pizza party at Fulgenzi's. You can view a slideshow of some pictures from this year's season here.

We're Back!!!!!

We are behind on posting (see previous post) and lots of other things, but we have a pretty good reason. A week ago Friday, our house was struck by lightning when a strong storm rolled through Springfield. It must have struck in the back corner of our house since that is where the majority of the damage occurred. Since the storm occurred Friday evening, the earliest we were able to get anyone out to start the repairs was Monday......so it was a very long weekend. Here's the list of everything that was affected by the lightning (that we know of so far): Satellite TV (repaired Monday), Telephone Service (repaired Tuesday), Internet Service (repaired Wednesday), Computer Ethernet Ports (repaired Thursday), Garage Door Openers (partially repaired Friday), Electrical Circuit in part of basement (repaired Tuesday). The casualties in the storm were our network router, basement refrigerator, battery back-up sump pump, and the treadmill. The bad thing was that the lightning traveled in through the non-electrical lines (satellite, cable modem, and phone lines) so there wasn't as much protection for those items.

Luckily no one was injured (Angie was standing looking out the front door when it struck) and nothing damaged was irreplaceable. We didn't lose power other than a few flickers, unlike some people in town. It just has been a big expensive, inconvenience. But we are back online now and will try to get caught up on everything else that has been put aside in the past week.

MS Walk (Sorry for the Late Notice)

Dear Friends and Family,

Angie wanted to let you know that on Sunday, May 4, she will be walking in the Walk MS 2008, which benefits the Greater Illinois Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Approximately 400,000 people nationwide, including 20,000 here in Illinois, live with the devastating effects of this chronic, progressive, and often disabling disease of the central nervous system.

As many of you know this disease has affected several people in our lives (including my sister and our good friend Nancy). The Illinois MS Walk will be held at 13 sites across Illinois and the goal this year is to once again be the #1 Walk MS in the country by raising over $3.35 million.

The National MS Society, Greater Illinois Chapter offers a wide array of local programs and services for people living with MS and their families. These programs are designed to inform and empower people to maximize their health and independence. It is one of the top supporters of clinical research on MS. In Illinois there are 15 research projects being funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society at approximately $3.5 million. Since it’s founding, the National Multiple Sclerosis Society has contributed more than $420 million to MS research.

More information about the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Illinois Chapter and its programs can be found at http://www.msillinois.org/. If you would like to donate, please visit my personal page. Thank you for your support. Together we can lead the fight against multiple sclerosis!