Indiana Trip

Last week, the kids and I were traveling with my parents in Indiana.  The trip was mainly for my parents to continue getting my grandma's affairs in order, an estate sale etc.  We tagged along mainly so my grandma could see the kids and meet Jackson.  

Hanging out with Oma

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago

Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago - Idea Factory

Amelia attended Disney's animation academy - her Mickey Mouse drawings!

*Click photo to enlarge and see her drawings better :)

Gino's East, Chicago - best pizza EVER!

On Oma's spiral staircase one last time

Glowstick (and glasses!) bath at the hotel!

Cashier Amelia @ BellaBoo's

Water fun @ BellaBoo's (Joe was drenched from head to toe by the end!)

Amelia and Cousin P @ BellaBoo's

Amelia and Cousin A @ BellaBoo's

I lost this guy at BellaBoo's only to find him in the men's room, washing his hands :)

Pit stop on the way home to McQueen and Mater!

Joe sharing his hat with MeeeQueeeen!

Long days in the car, six nights in a hotel, eating nearly every meal out...yeah, travel is not high on my list of things to do any time soon!  As stressful as the week was I'm glad we went to see family.  I'm also glad to be home though ;)

How We Beat the Heat

We have had some unbearable, hot and humid days this week.  100 degree weather is just not my idea of a good time.  We found some ways to "beat the heat" though and we survived!  

Running through the middle school football field sprinklers (behind our apartment complex)

Organizing projects - including making the living room toys more Joe-friendly!

Baby pool party on the fourth!

Playing in the water in the parking lot from our garden watering system

Tonight we busted out the train set and the letter trains my family got the kids for their Easter baskets.

The train set is large and getting it out is quite the production, hence, why it doesn't come out too often.  It is a lot of fun though!  

If we were ever outside this week - it involved water.  We didn't stay out much longer than a half hour at a time because it was just so miserable (mostly for mama...) and sticky out. 

It has finally cooled down into the 70s and we opened the windows to air out the apartment and give the A/C a break.  That thing has been working overtime this week!  I imagine it will be nice and hot again tomorrow so I am enjoying the fresh air while I can.  

I am really looking forward to more tolerable weather so I can get the kids outside more!  The past two nights have been challenging.  It is obvious that Amelia is feeling cooped up after this week of heat so she is acting out which frustrates me which upsets Joe which leads to three cranky people in this apartment which is just not any fun! 

Fourth of July Pool Party

This year we spent July 4th with friends!  After I got home from work, Jason, the kids and I headed over to Lisa and Al's house!  Their son, D, hosted his first pool party and Amelia and Joe were invited!

Everyone in the pool!

It was a lot of fun watching them all in the pool.  Aside from Amelia everyone was between 7 and 10 months old.  Sometimes they would all just sit there and slap their hands on the water and other times they would all be moving and knocking into each other.  We laughed a lot!

The men of the pool - Joe, W and D

Serious Boys

Joe found a little girlfriend for the day, C

C decided that D's lap looked like a nice seat!

Attempted group shot!

Amelia was excited once the babies were done swimming because she got to pull a slide over to the pool!

I'm not sure how long we swam but it was long enough to turn Joe's little feet into prunes!

After swimming we grilled brats and chicken.  The hit of the night was the Jell-O Lisa made.  She used red and blue raspberry jello, layered.  "Frosted" it with Cool Whip and made a flag out of strawberries and blueberries on the top.  We all had some and started talking about how we hadn't had Jell-O in such a long time and how it tasted really good.  As we sat around talking we picked at the Jell-O and eventually Jason and I were the ones to polish it off.  It really hit the spot last night.

We watched New York's fireworks on TV before we all headed our separate ways.  No live fireworks for us.  With small kids who were tired and a mama who gets up at 2:30 a.m. for work it was just not worth it this year!  Oh, and the 100 degree weather we've been in this week (no joke) only helped make our decision to skip fireworks that much easier.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had an incredibly low-key weekend.  We did nothing big and exciting.  We didn't go anywhere.  We visited a few people Sunday but other than that we stayed home!

Saturday I got home from work mid-afternoon and we just hung out at home and played with the kids.  Joe wowed us all with his "walking" skills:

After the kids went to bed Jason and I watched the movie Super 8 with our friend, Leigh.  

Sunday we had lunch with friends at their home.  Amelia had fun running through the sprinkler they set up for her.

Joe was content to play with a bowl that originally held water for their dogs.

When we left there we headed to my parent's house to hang with Auntie Kim.  (Nana and Papa are out of town - for the Indianapolis 500.)  We set up the play pool my mom found at Goodwill for $5.  

The set-up on this thing was not fun but eventually Jason had it all ready to go.  

Amelia had a lot of fun with it!  

After dinner (tacos) we had and kitty-cat cupcakes.  I think someone enjoyed hers...

 

 

Monday after I got home from work we hung out in the parking lot with some of our neighbors who were planting gardens.  There is a small strip of land between where we park and the property fence and each unit can plant whatever they like in the soil in front of their cars.  I don't think we will plant anything this year but it is good to know for next year!  

We had never really socialized with the neighbors in the eight months that we have lived here until yesterday.  Amelia had some fun playing with a couple neighbor kids and their "toy" of choice was mud.

She had so much fun in that mud!  Pretty sure those pants are history but I guess that's the price you pay for a good time sometimes.  

We rounded out the weekend with incredibly mismatched pajamas last night.  And Pinocchio.

 That was pretty much our weekend.  Nothing too thrilling or noteworthy and that's ok!

Our Weekend

I'll start with this past Thursday evening...which was the special service's ice cream social for Amelia's school!  We got there and all she could even think of doing was playing so that's what we did.

She loves to play on the small beach at the "rainbow park" and look for seashells (snail shells, really.)  Once the infant swing freed up Joe got to have his fun!

After a bit Amelia decided that she wanted ice cream after all.  They had all the toppings one could think of.  The topping bowls covered two, maybe three (I can't remember), picnic tables.  She chose sprinkles and Valentine's hearts.

Friday we had the first 90+ degree day of the year.  It felt like summer, not spring!  I didn't like the idea of sitting at home all cooped up but I also could not fathom walking to the park which I was sure Amelia would ask to do.  So I called my family to see if there were home and we ended up going there to play with the water table, kiddy pool and sprinkler.  

It was Joe's first time "swimming" and he loved it!  He just sat there and splashed around.

I love that is says "tons of fun" - it is so fitting of him!

Eventually he fell over and at that point he had had enough.  So Amelia got Auntie Kim to drag over her Little Tykes slide and she had fun with her "water slide."

Saturday we hung around home and watched the Preakness Stakes.  Once again, our picks did not win!  We may have to jump on the bandwagon and root for "I'll Have Another" to win the Belmont.  We'll see.  We had a movie night with our friend, Leigh, and it seemed fitting that we watch Secretariat.  She and Jason watched Haywire afterwards - I fell asleep about two minutes into it!  What can I say, I get up early and I get tired!

This afternoon Jason and I had our first date in, well, a long time.  Auntie Kim babysat the kids.  We went to dinner at a fairly new place in town, caught a movie and stopped by the Dairy Queen on our way home.  

 We saw What to Expect When You're Expecting and it was pretty funny!  

Today was the start of my first week of only working five days.  I had today off and also have tomorrow off.  So far I am really liking this two days off a week thing and it is only day one!