Weekend in Salem

We made a quick trip to Salem on Thursday.  The weather was perfect for a lot of outside play!  Which is really nice with the group of kids we had.  My cousins, Libby and Kacey were in town too with their kids.  It's fun when we all get together.  When our 3 families are together, we have 2 kindergarten girls, 2- 4 year old boys and 2- 2 year old girls.  They each have a partner in crime!
My kids started their fun by helping my dad in the yard.  Work is always fun for kids :).

Picking up sticks

Making the stick pile with Pop!

The best part!! I remember riding around in these carts :)!

Nora had to join the fun.

Enjoying the ride.

My Uncle Mike and the side by side are always a hit!  Finley, Haley, Scout and Ethan went for a long ride and loved every minute.

Loading up!

Popsicle snack after lots of running, riding and playing outside.

Phone Dump

I've got a lot this time...



At the Lego store in Chicago. Abby, my dad and I went for a dental meeting.


Nora needed 2 "ponies" this time.


Just a cute girl.


Blowing birthday party.


Nora was even able to bowl a little!



Ethan and his friend, Soren, texting to each other. They thought this was awesome!


Picnic and a movie.


Silly faces!


Family swim night.


First glimpses of spring!



Lego looking at Target.


She has to check out the toys at target too!


Ready for some fun outside!


Making rainbows at school.

I'll try to keep up better :).

Come On Spring!!

I'm back!  Sorry for the blogging hiatus.  I can't remember the last picture I took on the big camera.  It's been bad! I guess, just not much going on around here.  The past couple of days have been giving of us hints of spring!  We went outside after lunch today for some much needed fresh air.

Just picked up this beauty yesterday.  Ethan can drive it...even though it's pink. (It was bright)

Driving Miss Daisy :)

They were so excited to open the NEW chalk today!  

Ethan with some lovely, orange clown hair! (And some nice shades!)

Happy Tuesday!

This morning was a big morning for our little guy.  He had his Kindergarten screening and registration.  He told me he was a little scared, but as expected, he did awesome!  Afterwards, he told me it was really fun!  I spoke with his screener, she was very positive and said he sailed through everything and was definitely ready for kindergarten.  I'm not sure I'm ready...but I'll get there.

Here he is, with his ticket to kindergarten ;).

After we finished with his screening, we spent the rest of the morning at the museum.  There is a new exhibit and the kids loved it.  They had so much fun!

Crawling through a tube.

He's very proud of the ball run he built...all by himself.

Checking out the slide

She went down this thing probably 30 times!

Ethan liked it too, but spent most of his time building with the big, blue blocks.

Here's a picture I stole from the museum FB page to show you what the whole thing looks like.  It is very nice!

Boy's Day/Night Out

Ethan asked me quite a while ago, when he and daddy would get a "boys night out".  So, for Christmas, I got them tickets to a hockey game in Bloomington.  The game was yesterday and it sounds like they had a great time.  I made Jared promise to take pictures :).  Their evening ended with a daddy/son dinner at Texas Roadhouse!

Waiting for the game to start

Their view of the ice!

Enjoying a mid-game snack...a "giant pretzel" is what Ethan told me :)

Ethan's first hockey game

Texas Roadhouse dinner!

I'm so glad these 2 had a great day!  It is so important for some one on one time, every once in a while!  Thanks for the pictures, Jared!  Love you both!

Phone Dump

Ok, so it's been over 2 weeks since my last one...oops! I have quite a few pictures to share!
The first few are from our San Antonio getaway.


On the riverboat tour.


We came up on a car show and thought Ethan would like this old police car.


The Alamo at night.


Hanging out at our friends house. Mayleigh and Nora jumping!


Ethan loves to shovel snow. And we have had a lot this year!


Playing in the bathtub.


Dustin and Amanda came up last weekend. Here is Nora in Amanda's glasses.


The kids just watching some Monday morning cartoons.


Nora by her potty chart. Which happens to be all FULL now! She is doing great!


We made a quick trip to Rural King today and they had chicks and bunnies already!


Daddy reading to his kids! He's the favorite on the weekends :).

Pre-School Olympics

Ethan's preschool class had an Olympic day today.  It was so fun, and the kids loved it.  I went and helped out with one of the 'events'.
This was the event I helped out with.  It was called "Ping Pong Letter Matching".  Each student drew a ping pong ball with a lower case letter on it and they had to blow it across the floor into the matching upper case letter hole.  They loved it!

Ethan's group

Ethan at the starting line :) 

Making their way down to the holes.

Each kid had a "Medal Count" chart.  After they did the activity they colored the corresponding box, yellow (gold), gray (silver) or orange (bronze).

Ethan's medal count chart

Another activity was the "Penguin Race".  They had to keep a bag of rice between their knees, waddle down the lane to pick up a marshmallow and take it back to the other end and put it in the cup.  Whoever had the most amount of marshmallows at the end of 2 minutes won!

Ethan, waiting his turn!

Waddling down the lane :)

After the all the events were over, each student was awarded a medal and stood for the National Anthem.  Such a fun day!

Then for some play time in the big room!