End of the School Year

The end of the school means it is time for Field Day!  Once again, it was the hottest day of the week (maybe month!) - but we thanked God for no rain and a beautiful, refreshing breeze!  Here are the kids in action - they had a blast!

Maddie & Will waiting for their turn

Alex just got wet with the sprinkler!

Will's partner wasn't playing very nice!

Here are Maddie & Will wearing their Kindergarten graduation cap.  They are officially 1st graders!  This coming year with be Katie's last year at Roosevelt.  She is excited about being a 5th grader and helping with patrol this coming school year.   Alex will be in 3rd grade.  Seriously...where does the time go!

Katie's 10th Birthday

Our oldest is now in double digits!  It really doesn't seem possible that she is already 10!  I look back at baby pictures and it seems like last year...definitely not 10!  I still stick to my saying, "the days last an eternity...but the years fly by in a flash!"

We asked Katie what she wanted to do for her birthday.  We continue to have our extended family come over for a few hours to celebrate, but we wanted her to celebrate in a special way with her friends.  She asked if we could go to one of our favorite pizza places, Spinners.  So, we loaded up Katie with 4 of her friends and headed out for pizza and ice cream.

 

All 5 girls had their American Girl dolls with them.  They had fun opening presents and laughing - lots and lots of laughing!  After eating, we came back to the house for a while so they could play for a while.  I think I heard something about an American Girl fashion show!

Katie still loves her American Girl dolls!  Most of her presents this year were for her doll!  She received a few outfits, a tea party set, a book set, Rapunzel & Flynn barbies, beads, necklace & a journal.

Blowing out 10 candles on her Ariel birthday cookie

Matt, Becki & Katie

 

Cousin Kayla & Katie - holding Katie's two dolls in their new outfits

Katie with Grandad & Grammy

Katie with Katherine, her Sunday School teacher & friend

Katie with Uncle Willy & Aunt Barb (we celebrated Barb's birthday too)

Snuggling with Ariel - present from Great Grandma Hart

Another House Project

I have struggled with updating my laundry room for a long time.  I wanted to paint & put things in order, but have not had the ambition or know how!  One day I decided to try the green paint from the downstairs bathroom on the old cabinets.  I LOVE the new, fresh look!  So, I decided it was time to get working!  I painted the walls a light gray, cabinets are now white & green, added trim to the floor, reorganized the pantry and repainted the cinder-block walls with the special waterproof paint.  We updated the utility sink - much needed!!  And painted the wall behind the sink.  The only thing left to do is repaint the floor.  Unfortunately, this may wait for a while!  It will be a big job since I will have to move things as I go!  I am very excited to see the finished product though!

Before shot of the old utility sink & wall

After shot of the wall & new utility sink

Mother's Day - 2012

This is my Mother's Day present/craft from the kids.  The past few years, Matt has found a craft idea online, kicked me out of the house for a few hours and then worked with the kids to recreate that craft.  This year, they made a flower for me!  If you look, you will see that the leaves are made out of a tracing of each child's feet while the flower is made up of each of their hands (2 left, 2 right on each flower).  I added the grass, sun & clouds to the front window to make a nice spring scene!

This is what happens when you live with girls!!

 The other day, Will and Maddie were playing out front with some neighbor kids.  I think they even mentioned that they were playing with makeup...however, I didn't think anything of it!  What they didn't mention was the fact that they were the "models" and the others were putting the makeup on them!  I think Tammy Fay would be getting a run for her money right now!  Did I mention that there was perfume involved too??  Wow, they smelled!  Maddie looked about the same as Will!  It took us quite a while to get all of the makeup off both of them!

Annual Fun Day in Freeport, IL

Every year around Mother's Day, we travel to Freeport, IL. We started this tradition over 10 years ago - before kids! Matt delivered flowers to Freeport and fell in love with the city. We would get groceries for super cheap (double couponing!), go to Krape Park, visit the flower shops and eat yummy ice cream at Union Dairy. We continued this tradition as the kids arrived. I love looking at "old" pictures and compare to new pictures - how much the kids have changed! This year, we started our day trip with a few letterboxes and "Looking for Lincoln"s.

Here is our first stop:  Looking for Lincoln - Kent, IL.  Site of Black Hawk War Battle.  As you can see from the second picture, the stop gave us a beautiful view!

We continued north to find the letterbox, "Winds of Change".  We went to a cemetery on a hill that gave us a great view of a new wind farm!  The large windmills (76 in all) were a sight to see (and no picture can do it justice!)! 

Still hunting for letterboxes, we stopped in Monroe, WI to find a letterbox and eat lunch.  No luck with the box, but we got some great pictures!

We walked the Jane Addams Trail in Orangeville, IL in search of a letterbox.  It was a quick hike on a nice gravel path.  The kids loved running ahead and checking out all the wildlife.  Here are Will & Alex playing on the bridge.

The usual highlight of the day - Union Dairy - was next!!  The kids loved looking at all the ice cream and deciding which one to try!  This year, Maddie chose Superman while Will, Alex & Katie tried a new flavor, Pirates Booty.  Will couldn't say that name without giggling....

 

Right next to Union Dairy is the Lincoln/Douglas Debate Square.  Freeport has done a wonderful job of beautifying this square.  There is a nice statue (it's a bit dark, but you can see it in the background).  We learned that there is a "Looking for Lincoln" at this site also.

Our last stop for the day was Krape Park - our favorite park in all of our travels!!  We played in the huge wooden playground, rode the carousel x2, slid down the fire pole, drove the firetruck, walked around the park/beside the river, admired the waterfall and climbed a rock wall!  There is also frisbee golf & put-put golf.  It is a great park!

 We came across this family of ducks - aren't they adorable!!

 On our way out of town, we saw the Little Cubs Field - a miniature replica of Wrigley Field.  The kids loved running the bases.  It was a great way to end our fun day!

 

Until next year, Pretzel City!!!