She did it!

Jess is finally riding her bike!!

In all honesty, I was beginning to think that she would be using training wheels until she went to college. Ok, ok. Maybe just high school. She just really didn't seem ready to go without. But once she said she wanted to, it only took a couple of days. Not whole days, just 30-40 minutes. A confidence booster I guess.

Maybe this gymnastics class is paying off. All about balance and holding herself steady. She does that in class. It just needed to be transitioned to her bike. And self confidence.





She went pretty far (more than once). Our house is on the corner with the white work van in the drive way.

Thanks for asking...

This is a random Brandon funny. I probably should have just added it to the previous post. Oh well...

Anyway, on Sunday while we were out and about we stopped for lunch. Brandon sitting next to his daddy and eating his sandwich says, "so daddy, how was your vacation in Hawaii?"

"It was really nice. Thanks for asking."

My sweet boy making polite small talk. How cute is he?

Nevermind that our vacation was 6 months ago.

The Great Outdoors

We truly enjoyed this weekend! Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come. Beautiful days and happy kiddos.

Saturday morning we decided to head out to Eagle Creek Park. After packing a quick lunch, we headed out. We took several different trails. The kids climbed trees. We played at the playground.... ok, actually they pretty much stayed at the merry-go-round. We had trauma at said merry-go-round. Brandon had a turn of spinning the merry-go-round. While running (it must go fast to be fun), he tripped. Landing flat out in the dirt, practically under the dang thing, he rolled over, jumped up and hopped on with all the other kids. Jess, the only one on, was sitting on her knees facing outward. One big spin sent her face first into the dirt. There wasn't really the roll over, jump up like her brother. Poor girl had dirt from head to toe. (no, we did not get a picture of it. all the dirt, that is)
(This was Sunday morning.)
And for the record, she did get back on. Sitting in the middle. On her bottom.

We also had a house guest on Saturday night.
The kids loved having Ray over. They just love all over him. He really enjoyed the green car. (Really need to find the handle that attaches. I didn't send one of the kids to Ray's house to push him around in it.)Almost like he knew the month of May is right around the corner!

Sunday after Ray left, the kids played in the sprinkler. We took a walk around the neighborhood. Grilled. Anything to stay outside and enjoy those blue skies!

And because I can't seem to limit the number of pictures, I'll make a Smilebox. :)

Make a Smilebox slideshow

There are a few pictures that were taken vertically, but we will just have to make due... well, unless you want to look at them sideways. me either.

Enjoy!

This past weekend

Just thought I might give a bit of an update from the weekend. We are already half way to the next. Right on top of things, I know!

The kiddos were invited to stay all night at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It has been a whooooole month since they moved. I think that is like years and years when converted to kid terms. So that meant that we got to go out. It was kinda like a date! Nice dinner, eaten when served. We saw the movie Taken. We liked it. But I have decided that my daughter will just have to have a caperone until she is somewhere around the age of....80. Is that too much?

Saturday was an awesome day. We went to the garden shop and bought a few more flowers, which ended up being planted in the back yard, and some annuals for the planters on the front patio. We spent the whole day outside. The kiddos finally made it home around dinner time.

Sunday we went to The Children's Museum. It has been a crazy amount of time since we had visited. We packed a lunch and spent the day. I think I will add a slide show... hmmm, imagine that! :)

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

(the little arrow will turn the pages. made "scrapbook" instead of slideshow)

And finally, since spring is on the way (I think), I thought I would give a little redecorating on the blog. It seemed springy and fun. Not to mention that birthdays will be here soon! And the orange text looked much nicer.

Orange for Stellan

Stellan is having surgery this morning. Someone came up with the idea of wearing orange today to support Stellan and his MckFamily. In looking thru some comments, Jen had the idea to blog in orange as well. I thought that it was a good idea.

Brilliant

Brandon and I were on a quick errand today. While driving he likes to try and count all of something (all trucks, all the telephone poles, etc). He tells me "there's like 150!" And I ask him to count it out. He counted all the way to 119 all by himself. He is not 5 yet. I think that he is brilliant!

Jess brought home her 9 weeks progress report.

92% B
89% B
97% A
91% B

I think she is brilliant too!

Easter

Easter morning the kiddos hunted for eggs that the Easter Bunny left. Candy before breakfast. Everyone got ready to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house and off we went. After we had lunch (yummy stuff), the dads and dad-to-be hid the eggs outside for the kids. We had taken our tripod with us to work on getting a family picture. It only took 8 shots. I think that is pretty impressive considering there are 11 people and not an actual person behind the camera as an "attention getter." We all ended up spending the whole afternoon. It was well after dinner time before everyone headed home. It was an enjoyable and relaxing day spent with family.

I like this picture.


Another Smilebox slideshow. Another of my new favorite things!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Preview

Make a Smilebox greeting

Easter Bunny

Here it is... Easter Bunny 2009!

Why exactly did I email it to everyone?? Why aren't you just checkin' it out on the blog?!?


Check outRay at his first visit.

Spring Break Chicago Style

Long time, and again, no posting.
I have a reason this time. We packed up and headed north to Chicago. Only for a few days. We spent one at home to regroup and headed to Dayton to visit my mom.
But before I get started, I have to say a big "THANK YOU!!" to Tina. She is kind enough to take Duchess while we are away. So even the dog gets a little time away. Thank you so so much!
We got up Friday morning to head out. We had already entered into the GPS the locations that we wanted to visit. Seeing how we would be getting into town earlier than check-in would allow, we went to Navy Pier. Too bad that it was cold. There would have been lots that the kiddos would have enjoyed... aka the huge ferris wheel!
We shopped and ate and walked all around. Including "The Magnificent Mile." Two new Build-a-Bears have homes with us.

The Museum of Science and Industry was on Saturday. Cool place. All hands on. Brandon and Daddy had personalized Gravitrons. We were able to follow each step in the making of their specific toy. We also toured the only German U-505 sub at an American museum. How cool is that?

Sunday was Shedd Aquarium day. There is a lot of renovations going on right now. It was a neat place, so image when it's done! Might have to plan on another trip. We have tons of pictures of stings rays. Jessica's new favorite animal. Only a few ended up in the slide show.

After spending the day out, we would find dinner on the way back to the hotel. I think the favorite time of the day for the kids would be swimming in the hotel pool. Little fishes! With their limited amount of swim time, they are both doing really well learning to swim.

Monday we headed back downtown. We visited Sears Tower. We were "only" able to go to the 99th floor, instead of the 101st. Bummer... Then it was time to say good bye to Chicago. But I have to say I have one tiny thing to complain about. The parking. While I think that it is pretty darn cool that it is all flat rate and prepay, I did NOT like how much we had to pay. But all said, we had a good time.

This is a slide show with a sample (74 pictures worth) of our trip. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox slideshow