Summer Break Week 9

Looking back on these pictures, I guess it was a water filled week.

It was another beach adventure with friends from my city church.  Trinity's BFF met us at the beach and then spent the night at our house.  Those were great memories for Trinity.

Reeve and Everett spent most of their time trying to run on water and bury then dig up dinosaurs.

Elias spent most if his time trying to figure out this new texture they call sand.

We took a little family getaway to St. Charles to spend the night in a hotel and have some pool time.  Elias was already worn out.

The below was one of the best and scariest moments of our year.  The best because I got this awesome picture.  I put the camera on the self timer as it delicately balanced on the diaper bag.  What were the chances that everyone would be looking, smiling and so focused.  amazing!

Minutes before the craziness!

The very neat windmill was situated on top of a very large and steep hill.  Did I say steep, yes steep.  The children wanted to run down said hill.  Eddie said good idea.  I said no way, it is TOO STEEP.  Maybe rolling would be better.  But hey, what do I know!?!?!?  What I do know is that I saw Reeve take off down the hill and witnessed his little legs too short to keep the momentum as he went sailing into the air and landing on his face.  Yes, HIS FACE!  His eyes rolled back in his head, he couldn't breath, his face began to immediately swell.  I was calm on the outside but a complete basket-case on the inside.  Once he regained his composure I asked his all sorts of questions from vision to pain to basic whereabouts.  I deemed him okay enough to avoid the hospital but the adrenalin rush I was experiencing almost sent me to the doctor.  I thought my heart was going to explode.  The poor kid had the texture from the grass embedded in his head.

 Our last stop out of town was a boat ride on the Fox River.  I demanded we go on.  I thought it would be a nice relaxing end to our day.  Nevermind the 100 degree heat index, the lack of breeze and the 1MPH speed of the boat.  The hour ride seemed more like 3 and we were all begging to get off this thing.

Summer Break Week 8

This week was taken up almost completely by VBS.  I decided this year that instead of taking 10 preschoolers from activity to activity (which was exhausting) that I would organize, create, pass out and clean up the snacks.
I was not prepared for the chaos that ensued.  I seem to think I am in pretty good shape and are a pretty patient person.  Snack time tested me physically and emotionally. LOL
25 preschoolers came into a small room demanding their snack.  They spilled drinks, requested more water before we even served food, made a mess, wanted something different.. on and on and on.
As they were trying to leave, 25 more preschoolers came through and tried to maneuver around the other kids leaving.  The new kids wanted their snack, their water.....
My head was spinning around and around.  I was sweating, my heart was racing, I needed air..
At the end of the day so many little ones had the time of their lives learning about Jesus.  that is what it is about.
My niece Ava came with us which was a great time for her and Trinity to spend a lot of quality time together but also for her to see our church and love it as much as we do.
Although exhausting, I look forward to it next year.

We did sneak a movie night in our week with tasty snacks.

Summer Break Week 7

I am having the most fun as I ever had as a mom.  I think it is because all my little people are excited to get out and so many things and can start to appreciate not being stuck in the house.  (Elias likes to be stuck in the house, in his crib for naps but he is flexible enough to go with the flow.)

Week 7 brought us to the Little Red Schoolhouse.  It is one of my favorite places since I was little and that cute schoolhouse has been upstaged by the awesome new nature center.  However, said schoolhouse is still open and houses the old black crow who likes the quiet space.

We had little time to walk the trails since Trinity was busy at Art Camp and needed to be picked up on time (that didn't happen this day).  We met a new friend and had a little picnic by the lillypads.  I couldn't walk far on the trails anyway since my much needed wheel of my stroller flew off an hour earlier and I had to MacGyver it on with a bobby pin.  Turns out, I didn't do MacGyver justice.

The next day we met my SIL, niece and nephew at Ty Warner splash pad.

This picture of Everett in the background cracks me up.  He is doing his karate kicks to the mercy of the water.  I am surprised he never slipped and cracked his head open.

Elias enjoyed getting his toesies wet.

Jase loved pouring water over everyone heads.  The funny thing is that I don't think there was ever much water in the bucket.

Ok, then it was the Nature Museum.  (I didn't realize how busy this week really was.)  We saw butterflies being released.  Shortly after this picture was taken a huge flash of lightening illuminated the glass atrium we were in followed by the largest thunder I ever heard.  I screamed out loud and it was a crying free-for-all for the boys who were so shaken they wanted to go home immediately.  Thankfully they calmed down.  Fast forward 5 minutes to seeing the rest of our family walk down the hallway *soaking* wet.  I guess they got caught in the storm.  :(

Best pictures of the year thus far.

Trinity's art from her art classes.

Summer Break Week 6

A short detour from the doctor's office brought us to Millennium Park to cool off.  They weren't as thrilled with the water as they were for ice cream.

 So, we parked it in the grass and cooled off with some yummies.

 We saw fireworks that night.  We love the neighboring town's show because the fireworks are so very close to you.  The boys all freaked out when they started.  Everett quickly demanded we go home so Reeve quickly followed.  I stuck my thumbs in Elias' ears and he quickly calmed down.  Reeve was shaking like a cold dog until Eddie covered his ears.  He insisted on the full palm method opposed to just plugging the holes.  He wanted his head squeezed.  Everett finally got it together on grandpa's lap.
Three Quarters of the way through I felt firework debris falling on me.  I quickly sat up and covered the babies' eyes in fear of hot embers blinding him.  After the grand finale and the lights went on we soon realized that we sat too close.  The ground looked like a war-zone with large chunks of fireworks surrounding us.  Fuses, wicks, shells and charred cardboard was everywhere.  Next year we back up.

 On the 4th we headed to my aunt's to swim and eat and throw the kids high into the air.

 2 days later we headed to the beach.  By 5 at night the temp was a nice 110 but with the shade and lake breeze we survived.  We met our friends, had pizza delivered to the beach, smuggled in some drinks and fought off seagulls.

 The gang.

 Once the lifeguards left, the girls took over.