Still my adorable two

Well during the 6 months of no blogging they did get even cuter! (if that is possible)

mr handsome in his pink tie...not sure how i convinced him to wear that! (oh yeah, the promise of ice cream afterwards!)

and miss lilly...too adorable. and do you LOVE the dress? my friend did it.

they are such hams.

do you LOVE that flower on top? my friend did it.

i love my kids.

Happy Easter!

Easter was a little different this year. Tim took them up North for the weekend while I worked on the house, so I didn't get to see Lilly in her pretty Easter dress but since she likes to wear a dress everyday I will have to put her in it for school! I did make a nice dinner and hide some eggs all over the yard before they got back that night though. It was fun to watch them scurry about. Such pros now that they are older! Next year I will have to get a bit trickier!
The Easter egg hunt in my grandmas backyard which was kinda fun since I did the same thing when I was little!

And of course the giant Chocolate bunnies! Which they wanted to eat for breakfast the next morning! I love them to pieces.

A New Park = A New Adventure

So we checked out a new park a few weeks ago. It was actually called a "childrens garden" vs. a park, and it was a nice change of pace. It was more of an architectural landscape wonderland and the slide you see below was the only piece of "playground equipment" that was there and as you can see it was built into the rock which was pretty cool.

I wasn't sure what the kids would think at first but you put 2 kids in a new place that has rocks, sand, trails, tunnels, "a little town" and it equals nothing but adventure full of treasure fights an robberies...

These tunnels were their favorite part. There was a series of them all on a trail and once they realized that you could climb on top too it was quite fun. At one point they were playing with two other kids that were also on top of a tunnel and they were acting like they were on different pirate ships (and yes of course there were cannons and guns being shot back and forth).
There was alot of running and hiding and chasing (which equals tired children)

And then the other side of the park were all these little storefronts which made for great imagination games.

In this senario, Lucas was hiding in the coffee shop from the cop (the other boy...I forget his name) because he and Lilly had stole money from the bank. Lilly on the other hand had already been caught...

and was in jail.

It was a fun evening and brought a little more imagination and fun that your typical playground. We will definitely be going back...and next time I will take a book to entertain myself while the children, I mean pirates, pillage and plunder.

oh how they grow

Well, the group hasn't grown any since last year...(and actually dwindled in size for the picture op). Haven't been able to get the entire old Highschool girlfriends group together all at once this summer, but we are spreading out the love. Actually going to have a few girls here in August with no children which should be fun as well! Below are some fun pics from a few weekends ago when I got to see a friend who was in town from NJ and of course was hosted by the lovely Stephanie. Of course we always forget to actually get a picture of us...what's up with that?

four boys in the middle of three beautiful ladies.
i love the expressions in this one...my kids are such cheeseheads.

here is the one from last summer.

and here is the three of us from two years ago.

and here we were 14 years ago. ha! who would have ever thought?

Swing your heart out

Just some great summer swinging pics I thought I would share!

I sware if we had a swingset that is all these kids would do!

Yummmmmmmm...Strawberries!

So I took a little time off in the middle of June. I was going to be headed to NeoCon in Chicago for the yearly Interior Design TradeShow (another post) and I thought I might as well extend my fun week since work was slow and the weather for June was already beautiful. I headed up North to the old stomping grounds and caught up with my friend Steph, we stayed up late cranking out some Art which I then took to show to show an owner of a unique gift shop just down the road the next day (another post). Then met up with my girlfriends for Neocon in Chicago for a few days and then headed East to pick up the kids from Gram and Gramp's house. They had had a blast with daddy for a long weekend and then G&G for a day before I got there. And they were super excited to get to play again with cousins Noah and James for the day before we left. Amanda and I decided to head out for a little adventure with the older ones while baby James slept (don't worry, Grams stayed with him). So we headed down the road to a Strawberry patch . I think Amanda was a little unsure about the adventure at first, but it ended up being alot of fun.

The kids were great about finding strawberries, which we had to reiterate as only the bright red ones over and over. And then they wanted to show you each and everyone they found which was cute (at first).

They did a great job and it held their attention for about 20 min before they realized they could eat them, then I spent the next 10 min. convincing Lilly not to eat another one (as she shoved them in her mouth over and over).

We actually filled up the whole box before the kids started running around all crazy.

And now I think it is almost the season for Blueberry picking! Yummo!

And FYI, if you bring a few ziploc bags of strawberries back to show daddy don't step on them in the car (and therefore take them quickly out and set them on the shelf in the garage) and then accidentally leave them in there for two days in the midst of 90degree sauna-like weather because they will turn into two bags of mush. Sorry Tim! And sorry that we didn't get to enjoy the rest of our strawberries! :(

Cousin Catch Up

Well I have alot of blogging to catch up on since somehow the month of June got away from me. I will blame part of the reason on the fact that I actually took a little vaca in the middle (another blog), and the other part is just laziness. So, prepare for some catch up, some throw backs and some really great pics over the next week.
Starting with the most recent and working backwards...kinda...we have got in some good cousin time. This past weekend my little sis came down with my two nieces and we got to enjoy some girl time (+Lucas) which was really nice. I was actually up at their place the weekend before at the end of my "vaca", so two cousin weekends in a row had the kids pretty excited! Here are some pictures from our trips;

We did get to help Allie celebrate her 2nd birthday while she was here. Happy Birthday Allie!
I do wish I lived closer to my sisters so we could see eachother more often, the kids have such a great time together when we do see them. One night up North, Lilly, Allie and Hannah were all belting out songs and dancing while Lucas kept the beat on some bongos. It was oh too cute. Here are the naked (potty training) back up singers.

Then, this past weekend we really got the party started with a pancake breakfast and sprinkler park morning. The kids were sitting at the "bar" at the window so Tiff got some cute pics. cheese! I think this pic is funny bc Hannah is so adorable and Lucas is so Lucas. Bring on the pancakes!

Then we headed to the sprinkler park (my new favorite place so far this summer). Gotta love free hours of entertainment!

And then later we headed to Nana and Papaws for a little birthday celebration and grub. The kids has a blast on the swings that hang from their pergola. It was the joy of the evening! the two year olds and the four year olds (that suprisingly still fit in the baby swings) And nothing like a giant cookie and some icecream to end a great day. I guess the celebratory birthday month of June is officially over. Anybody still wanna party?

Happy Birthday to Me!

I celebrated my 31st birthday this past week, I know I know I TOTALLY don't look 31, but it is true. Haha. Here is a great pic of me in my younger days...(in homemade matching outfits of course!- you rock mom!)

This pic totallys shows off my personality...hehehe.

So my day started out with Tim bringing over my presents from the kids early so the kids and I could play for the day. Lucas picked out a pirate ship for me, and Lilly picked out a princess castle (they know just what I love).

we had alot of fun putting them all together...

the finished products!

(I also got some 3d sidewalk chalk, which we will have to check that out later today). The rest of the day was great. The weather was hot so we hit the sprinkler park with my friend Jamie and her kids combined with a picnic lunch (my fav), headed home for naps, joined Tim for dinner and then drinks with my favorite work girls. And then I even crashed a boys night out. All in all a perfect day. I think it will make my top 10 birthday list! Thanks for all the love via fb, calls, cards and support. I have the best family and friends ever!

Throwback Thursday- Some things don't change and some things do

So we live out in the country a bit and really don't have too many neighbors, one immediately to our north, one across the street that you really can't see due to trees and the neighbors to the south are quite a ways back off the road. Our closest neighbors own the 14acres that run behind our 1 acre and are nice enough to let us venture out on it. There is a mowed path that winds through them and if you take the path straight back from our house you will find 2 gorgeous horses that belong to our neighbors on the other side. We have already walked back there many times this year, even before the grass was green, but I found these pics from last summer and they are just too cute not to share.

Ahhh the days where children were content to sit in the wagon for more than 5 minutes...and Lucas wanted to "help" mommy pull. They seem so little in this picture.

The rest of these pictures below are infamous "Lucas portraits" if you could not tell....

Hmmm...could you tell he was sitting next to her in the wagon at this point?
EXTREME close up...I LOVE these self portraits!

There were about 20 of these shots at all different angles...but I thought one would be enough to share with you.

And here are our horses (ok, not ours but the closest we will come to calling any ours). Everytime we actually take something back for them to eat like an apple or carrot they are in the barn and everytime we don't they run up to the fence...maybe this summer we will be able to coordinate the two.

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Since I have had a little more time to myself than normal the last few months I have been venturing back in the trails just me and Wrigley for a little jog every now and then. Not exactly even jogging terrain but it is fun winding in and out of wide and narrow trails and trying to see the horses too. Last week just the white horse was out (without those blinder things on) and it was a very sunny day, so his bright white coat was just beaming in the sun. An absolutley GORGEOUS horse and I just couldn't help but stop and stare at him for awhile and for some reason he was staring back at me. I think God surrounds us with so much beauty each and everyday. I have been trying to stop and recoginize and appreciate the little things more often while at the same time giving credit to the one who created them. God is so good, even in the moments when we don't recognize it.

Wordless Wednesday- Such a Good Dog

Simple Smiles

The simple joy of coloring eggs brings so many smiles. It was really fun to watch with the kids last weekend. They really enjoyed coloring "monsters" on their eggs and then make them mostly pink and green (their favorite colors). Not sure where monsters come into play on Easter, but once Lucas does something Lilly wants to follow suit.

And here is whole bunch once we were done!

How many eggs did you color this year??