Strawberries!!!

Last year there were no strawberries (or peaches or any other fresh homegrown fruit) up here because of a late freeze, so we missed out on strawberry picking. So I was so excited that we got to go this year. This was over in Belleville at Eckert's - if you have the chance to go, it's a really fun place. They take you over to the patch on a tractor-pulled wagon and there's a cute country store filled with fresh fruits, veggies, jams, jellies, and what looked to be very very high calorie high fat baked goods (the boys and I were especially impressed with these). There's a restaurant, too, but we didn't venture in there.

Anyway, we made out with about 5 pounds of freshly picked strawberries, apple butter, blueberry preserves, and a bottle of water (it was hot in the strawberry patch). So we've had strawberries on waffles and strawberry shortcake tonight - which the boys said they didn't want any of (we can't figure out what's WRONG with them!)

I'm working on the pictures from DC, but there are so many of them that it's taking me longer than I thought it would. We had a great time, though!

budding photographer

Elliott has been interested in taking pictures for a couple of years now. After we got our new camera (my baby), I let him take the old one every once in a while and take pictures. Then I got a new smaller camera last year and decided a few months ago that Elliott could have the old old camera. So he takes it places and loves to take pictures. A couple of years ago all his images included half of his thumb, were crooked, blurry, etc. But he's really improved! He took this picture on our way home from Champaign the other day and I was quite impressed with what he captured! It definitely could use some Photoshop, but I think it's really good for a 5 year old!

It' nice outside!

I'm sure I'm going to regret saying this cause it seems like every time I think winter and the nasty part of spring is over, it just all comes back again! But I really think we're done with the yucky weather for a while. Anyway, we've been enjoying it at the zoo, helping Amber move, and canoeing with Jeremy (and that was all in one weekend!) I must say the boys really loved the canoe! The picture of Jeremy looking back was him telling me that Ethan had just said "I almost felled in..that was fun!" Just gotta say that I did my best with the swim lessons for the poor boy!

We have a graduate!!

Elliott and Ethan had their closing program this morning at preschool, and Elliott is officially a graduate now! They had decorated their own graduation caps and did an awesome job at the program. It was fun to finally hear the whole "Genesis, Genesis, verse 1:1 verse 1:1...." song that Ethan had been singing around the house for the past couple of months. And Elliott's class performed a song that they had made up themselves!

During the program, Elliott got to have a special part and be a flag holder. He was so excited and proud of this! I'm not sure what the thing is with Ethan pulling his shirt over his knees - who knows why he does things. For some reason he likes to chew on his shirts, so at least he wasn't doing that. He did speak in his gruffy monster voice a couple of times though, to entertain everyone I'm sure.

Grandma Dee got to come over for the program, so the boys were excited to have a special person there! We had to laugh at Elliott's responses to some question that Ms. Jana had asked him as part of this really really awesome scrapbook she made for each of the kids in her class (she's just a very good teacher and an awesome friend!). Here are the questions and Elliott's answers:

What do your mom and dad do for work: My mom does laundry and plays with me on her day off. My dad works at a pharmacy and doesn't get home until I am in bed.

What do you want to be when you grow up: A Jedi

My favorite food my mom makes is...: Fish. My mom doesn't really cook the fish; my dad does on the grill outside. She makes the things that go with it, like green beans and rice. I don't like rice.

I just had no idea that I got a day off!! We're very proud of the Jedi thing too. The book was full of everyone's responses, examples of their artwork and academic work, handwriting, pictures, a letter from her to Elliott, etc. It is a priceless gift.....just so so nice of her to take the time to put each one together for each child - THANK YOU JANA!!

So we're off to Kindergarten and 3 year old PreK next year - hope it's as fun as this year was!

Family Weekend

This is my sister Erin who is due with her first baby (another boy!) in July. Isn't that a cute baby bump? We're so excited to get a new baby in the family. The boys and I went over to my mom's house to help throw a shower for Erin this weekend and got to see lots of family...... below is a picture of all the "second" cousins on my mom's side. I'm looking at it and realizing how big Elliott is getting. Time really does fly with kids!

And I had to include my Aunt Sharon with the newest addition, Caden. Can you tell how much she loves her grandchildren?!

Catching up

Sorry it's been a while. I'll try to catch up with a few things. Nothing too exciting - just everyday stuff. Well, actually we did have an earthquake a couple of weeks ago. No, it wasn't the wind, the construction outside, a storm, or a tornado (our husbands did try to convince us more instinctive women that it was any one of these things). It was a real live earthquake. Everything was fine with us. My sister lives almost right at the epicenter so she had some damage at her house but nothing too too serious.

So the sun did decide to shine again and we were THRILLED to say the least! We've been spending the few nice days we've had off and on outside in the cul-de-sac playing and chatting with our way cool neighbors. It's so so nice to just walk outside and have instant friends to hang out with (for us and the boys!). I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but we just feel so blessed to have moved into such a great neighborhood - all of our neighbors are so nice and fun. Did I mention there are 20 kids on our street? And at least one more moving in a few months from now. These pictures are from a day that we decided to walk to the park (another perk for us in the neighborhood). Elliott keeps reminding Brian that he promised to teach him to ride without training wheels this summer, so stay tuned for that.

After the pool incident with Ethan this winter I decided the boys had to take swim lessons before our pool opened, so here's the little guy himself. He only acted scared the first 1/2 of the first lesson and then all was good (especially after he got to go down the waterslide at the end of the lesson). I think his teacher and other classmates for sure would agree that he does not need any extra instruction in kicking. The other kids just automatically turn their heads now when it's his turn to swim - think they've been splashed one too many times?

A couple of weekends ago we got to meet up with the Maeders! They were in town for a Supercross race - Dylan's passion! Their boys are super sweet - Ryan even let me hold him for a while. Brian and Chris are good friends from Orlando, and Chris happened to marry Kristen, who's from Indiana so hopefully we'll get to see them more since we've moved closer. We used to hang out together in Orlando before anyone had kids - I just kept thinking it was so strange for the four of us to be pushing a stroller around and chasing little boys now. And here's my latest adventure.....Amber is moving to Champaign so I got to go house hunting with her last weekend and we found this cute house (as well as many others!). Hopefully all goes well and we'll be moving her into this very house very soon!

Chicago

My neighbors invited me along for a girls' weekend in Chicago this past weekend and it was so much fun!! We went to see Wicked - yes, I finally saw it, and yes, I understood it even though I've never seen The Wizard of Oz. Our hotel was really cute and the shopping did not disappoint us! We even finally found a Chicago hot dog, and it was worth the 2 hour search. I love that these girls are my neighbors - they are so sweet and it was so fun to get away with them and laugh all weekend!