Children's Garden

Cleaning up my pictures in iPhoto I found some from late summer. My brother Tim and I took Sky, Elaina, and Olivia to the Botanical Gardens to play in their Children's Garden. The kids had a lot of fun but by far the kitchen area was the biggest hit.

Elaina hard at work on her meal, which just a few minutes later, Sky dumped everywhere. Tears of course followed.


Seriously it is hard to believe she is Tim's daughter!! She is such a ham like her daddy:)


No surprise she liked this part of the garden...she loves to help me cook at home!

June fun

I hate that I haven't been blogging more since I have been out of school. I think that it is not only fun for our family and friends to read and see pictures but I love to look back through old posts. So I pledge to try harder and blog more in the second half of 2o1o!!

In mid June Aunt Barb (aka BoBo to Elaina and Skylar) came to help my mom recuperate from back surgery. The day before the surgery we enjoyed getting out and playing in the water fountains at Tillas Park. It is such an awesome park...totally redone and so much better than when we were kids and played there. But it definitely is a place I can't take the kids myself. They seem to get out of sight very quickly!

After climbing and sliding, they hit the cool music toys.


Skylar posed for a picture with MoMo. I think he adores her more than anyone else in the world...including me and Jon!


And finally cooled off in the sprinkers while BoBo and I watched!




Elaina loves her BoBo! She talks about her all the time and can't get enough of her when she visits us. Elaina told her the first day, "I love you, BoBo." Paused and said, "I missed you BoBo!" Please move here, BoBo!


Anyone who knows us knows we are total Cardinal fans. We used to go to many games each year but with the kids it is not quite so easy. Finally we had tickets to an early evening game which we knew they wouldn't last through but at least we could take them for a bit. It went about how we expected.

Elaina was excited to go because we told her Fred Bird would be there.


It was a ball giveaway game so the kids got a souvenier that we didn't have to buy! We wandered around and they took in the crowds. Skylar clapped and cheered after the National Anthem. Having no interest in attempting to reach our seats, we headed to the part behind the bleachers to eat. Skylar was thrilled that we brought some fruit snacks and Capri Suns.


Elaina dug into all that plus the nachos!!


Skylar charmed us with his adorable face, right before finding a nearby puddle and sitting down in it and splashing while we were packing up. Oh course, his sister joined in the fun!


The only way to distract them was to point out Fredbird who was taking pictures nearby. Elaina loved him almost as much as she loved meeting the Easter Bunny. She sleeps with her Fredbird Build a Bear and talks to him all the time. She is definitely a Cardinal Fan. That is until World Cup is on and she watches with Daddy who taught her to yell "Goal!!".


Sometimes they fight but more often than not, they are the best of friends. Watching the rain from our front porch, they stopped to hug a couple of times. Sweetness:)

Outdoors having fun!

When you need to kill an hour or it is rainy and you just want to get out of the house, Lone Elk Park is a place we often go. They have bison, elk, deer, and wild turkeys. You never know what you will see. Off the same road is the World Bird Sanctuary. Jon has taken the kids but I had never been. As we were heading in, a woman was carrying an eagle on her shoulder to take it inside to be fed. Pretty amazing to see one so close! A few pictures from when we visited.

Checking out the eagle up close


She LOVES to run!


Skylar made a mistake and tried to touch the rope. Tough girl Elaina put him in his place!


Huge cage you can climb into...Skylar loved it and didn't want to come out.


So Elaina and I joined him:)


Lone Elk Park. Baby bison that could barely walk. Must have been just born (it is pretty neat that Elaina can look at this picture and tell us it is a bison).


Just an elk walking in front of our car



This weekend was HOT! Like in the 90s with humidity hot. So we decided to do summer like things....Strawberry picking at Lake View Farm in St. Charles! Elaina loves strawberries and was running around the house yelling "I pick strawberries" before we left. She definitely ate more than she picked. She just kept eating and saying "Mmm, it is SOO good!". Skylar enjoyed picking for a little bit but then gave up.



So independent, she wanted to hold it all by herself!


Found a big one


Hanging out in the strawberry field


Messy and loving it

Limping to the finish line....

So I have 9 1/2 days of school left. I feel like the countdown has been stuck at about 10 for a few weeks now but no it is getting less each day. Limping to the finish line is what we are saying around here. Sickness hit our family hard a few weeks ago. We should count ourselves lucky that really our kids have only had colds for the most part. The stomach bug was awful and really knocked us out of commission. Jon was the only one spared of the violent vomiting. Yep, lovely. Nothing like throwing up in the shower and then holding your daughter who is doing the same only moments later. We did lots of loads of laundry that week.

This picture of Skylar was taken about 3 hours before he woke up covered in vomit. And of course it was the first time in forever he ate a ton at dinner. So much that Jon and I high-fived across the table. Luckily he was quick to recover after spending a day in our arms and sharing his germs with his mama.



It hasn't been all sickness around here. We did celebrate Mother's Day Eve by taking the kids to Ted Drew's for the first time. It is so fun to do things with your children that were a part of your childhood and I have lots of memories of our parents and our neighbors packing us into the car to go to Ted Drews. I still get the same thing I got when I was a kid.

So I believe in Nature and Nurture playing an equal role in a child's development. Must be the nurture part that has Elaina such an ice cream lover. She will scream ICE CREAM if she sees it in the store and goes nuts for it.


Ready for the first bite...


"It is SOOO good!" as she went on to eat hers, and bites from everyone else's.



The case for Nature playing a bigger role...seriously?!? Who doesn't like ice cream!?! Oh, yeah, that would be my kid!


Mother's Day treat for me was that my mom and I went out to a movie and dinner alone. So Jon took the kids to our neighbors for a BBQ.

Playing with their dog


Group shot, for me perhaps?


So helpful he was even watering empty pots.






Playing catch with the dog

Apple Picking at Eckert's

Ever since Jon and I got engaged at Eckert's in October of 2001, we have made a yearly trip back there. We looked forward to the day when we had children we could bring and make it a family tradition to pick apples. Well as shown in pictures from last year apple picking the first attempt didn't work too well. We planned ahead this year to go early enough that the weather would be nice...but of course it was super chilly. Mom, Tim, Erika, and Olivia joined us too.

Yeah, he is really happy to be at the apple orchard.


Our fearless one


And our more cautious one.

She needed one last look.

Olivia is now walking!

Cousins

Petting the goats which I didn't even want to do.

Checking out the bunnies (Skylar was with us...he just wanted nothing to do with the animals).

Off with MoMo to pick some apples.

Double fisting but sharing at least

Daddy and Skylar

Olivia

Tailgating after apple picking

I am ready to go home!