Happy Father's Day

So, it's been a tradition since we've moved to Chicago that we go to "Texas" for Father's Day and Brett holds the kids in front of the sign. Really, it's Texas Roadhouse but we like to pretend we're in Texas. Well, this year was not easy, and I'm not sure that Brett will be able to hold all 3 kiddos next year. Cade is 84 pounds, Maddi is 72, and Emalyn is 17-18 I'd guess.

Look how big those kiddos are compared to Brett!

Cade wanted a turn to hold Emalyn too and none of the pictures of him holding her turned out that well, but here's the best one. You can only see the back of her head. I love that the kids love Emalyn so much that they fight over who gets to hold her. I do get nervous with Cade holding her sometimes but he's getting so much better.

We had a great Father's Day starting with a guest speaker at church. We like our church, and they have a wonderful children's ministry, but our pastor doesn't draw you in and catch your attention very well. He's a great person and loves God, but I wish he was a bit more dynamic. Anyway, it was such a great service and we LOVED the speaker. It really hit home with Brett and I both about parenting. After church we headed to eat at Texas Roadhouse. Then Emalyn and I took a nap and Brett took the kids to hit golf balls at the driving range. Apparently Maddi was quite entertaining as she did a turn after hitting the ball each time.

Cade had been at golf camp the week before so he was excited to show Brett what he had learned.

After golf, we went to the pool for an hour or so and then came home to eat dinner and get showers and hit the sack. Brett is such a great father and I'm so glad that he is the father of our children. We love you and appreciate you, Brett!

Prarie Fest

Saturday morning Cade had a baseball game and then we went to Prarie Fest. I took a few pictures of Emalyn before we left.

I like how this one shows her two bottom teeth. She was trying to get to Cocoa. That baby loves the dog!

Maddi and Cade were playing a game where Maddi was trying to hit the target to pop the balloon over Cade's head. Strike one, strike two...

She got him! I just have to say that Cade does actually own other shirts than his Texas Aggie tshirts. I tried to get him to change shirts, but he refused and Brett didn't help in the matter telling him and me that it's fine if Cade wears the same shirt every other day if it's an Aggie shirt. I told Cade he wears the same shirt every day to which he replied "I wear one Aggie shirt one day and the other Aggie shirt the next day". Fine, but they are so faded. We need some new Aggie tshirts if he's going to wear one every day!

Poor baby looks hot and miserable. She loves this dive stick. She carries is around everywhere with her. She's my little Chunka, Chunka! Check out those thighs!

Trying to cool herself off by taking off her hat, I guess. Poor baby got her first sunburn that day. I must have missed putting sunscreen under her right eye and top of her nose. Brett said it was so bad it looked like child abuse. It was bad, but not THAT bad. I've told him a thousand times he over-exaggerates (thanks dad for that line).

Cade gave a shot at the chipping contest. He went to golf camp last week and he was happy to see one of his coaches from golf was working the booth. Cade made a hole in one at putting at camp and won $5.00. He was so excited to get money and Brett was so proud!

Next stop, the karate tent. Maddi bowing to the master.

Strong baby (what we call her) showing off her skills!

You go girl. Check out the boys in the background watching. They're probably thinking there's no way a girl can break a board.

Yeah, take that!

Cade's turn...

Cade is learning how to use his strength and size.

Way to go kiddo. Reminds me, we need to watch the new Karate Kid movie.

Cade wanted to keep the boards he broke for show and tell. Ha ha!

The main reason we went to Prarie Fest...the ice cream eating contest! I told Cade about it when I was reading the pamphlet about Prarie Fest and he was all over it. Maddi didn't enter because, well, she's the worlds slowest eater. Seriously! Plus, I'm pretty sure she would have thrown up. She did get ice cream later at home and got to take her sweet time eating it, just like she likes it.

Cade loves to eat and he barely stops to breath while he eats. An eating contest is right up his alley!

They had two minutes to eat as much as they could. When they started counting down the last 10 seconds, Cade decided to ditch the spoon and use his hand.

He did get 2 brain freezes but he kept on eating after a little break.

A little smirk with a mouth full of food and mommy and daddy can't say anything about using his manners....

It's over and he's looking a little sick, but he never did get sick.

What's your name? In 2nd place, we have Cade McDonald!!!!

All smiles! Way to go kiddo. Your Pa would be very proud of you!

Last stop, the petting zoo. Another side note, we told Cade his red hat didn't match his faded maroon shirt, but he's a boy and he could care less. Ugh...The kids had a BLAST feeding the animals. We wouldn't spend the ridiculous amount of money for the scarey rides with creepy carny workers, but we did fork over $1.oo for each kid to get a cup of food for the petting zoo. Best $2.00 we ever spent!

Emalyn kicked this goat with her foot. Still holding the dive stick, by the way! The goat should be happy he was only kicked. Emalyn got a hold of several animals hair!

There was this tiny little pig that was just the cutest little thing ever. He'd scurry around and if he got picked up he'd squeal like crazy. It cracked me up how so many random animals were all hanging out together. In this picture there is a rooster, bunny, goat, llama, and pig.

Yep, this poor llama got his hair pulled.

Cade feeding the tiny horse as Cade and Maddi called it. We tried telling them it was a donkey, like in Shrek, but they didn't believe us.

Sweet little sheep or something like that.

Looks like they're smiling at each other!

Maddi was in heaven with all these animals. She sought out the ones not getting much attention. She found these baby roosters hiding under the bucket in the shade.

The sheep found her and he's licking her! Gross! She thought it was hilarious!

Maddi's introducing Emalyn to one of the baby roosters she found.

Brett and I are pretty sure Emalyn tried to rip this poor roosters head off! Check out Maddi's face.

This goat was trying to eat our stroller most of the time. I guess he realized it belonged to the baby that was torturing all of the animals. We had a short, but great visit to Prarie Fest!

Fun for Everyone

Some of the fun things we've been doing lately....

Sunday Maddi had La Finale, which is like a recital, for dance. It started at 7:00 at night so we got a babysitter for Cade and Emalyn and Brett and I had like a little date night watching Maddi dance. This picture is from their opening number that they just learned a few weeks ago. Maddi was so excited to get lifted by the "big girls".

This is their beginning pose for their lyrical dance to the song We Live. The back of the costume is so pretty. Maddi is on the far right.

Here they are in tap dancing to Disco Inferno. Maddi is 2nd from the right. I don't reallly care for these costumes or the dance. It's ok, but not very exciting. It's very fast and I'm quite impressed that Maddi can keep up with these girls. The girl closest in age to her is exactly 2 years older than her. She's tiny and looks like she's younger than Maddi, on Maddi's right. The other girls are 12-14 years old. Next year they are supposed to have some younger girls in the company and Maddi will dance with them and also the older girls. It will be nice for her to have some girls more her age to dance with.

This is the musical theater dance to Mary Poppins. They are dressed like boy chimney sweeps. Not my favorite outfit, but it's a cute dance. Maddi is doing the straddle on Jenna's back. They've done pretty well with this dance this year.

This is the large group jazz dance to La Vida Loca. They have done really well with this dance all year. Maddi is the center with her arms in a V. This is a super fast dance too and Maddi certainly holds her own. She has grown so much as a dancer having to keep up with the older girls. The girls are all so sweet to her and she really looks up to them.

This was after the show. Poor Maddi girl had been crying. One of the older girls isn't going to be allowed to dance at Nationals because of some financial stuff and the girls had just found out that would be Marissa's last time to dance in the company and they were all crying when it was over. Marissa is 16 or 17 and I'm not sure that Maddi knows her that well, but Maddi was so upset that she was leaving.

I am so glad that Brett loves to watch Maddi dance. He looks forward to seeing her dances and never complains at all. So many times I've wanted Maddi to quit dancing and Brett is always the one who encourages me to support Maddi and support her passion. He's such a great daddy, especially for Maddi girl.

At any point during any day, you can usually find Cade making/playing water balloons.

I'm so happy the kids have learned how to tie balloons and can make their own. However, water balloons can cause trouble, and Cade has been banned to only playing water balloons with Maddi or with parental supervision with other kids.

A good friend from Ohio who we met in Texas moved to Wisconsin right before we moved to Chicago. 2 years ago they moved to China and will be there a few more years before moving back to Wisconsin. They were at their house in Wisconsin visiting for a few days, and we were able to meet up with them and eat lunch, go to Jelly Belly, the park and then play at their house. Abby is a few weeks older than Cade, Jill is 6, and Meg is almost 3. We met them when Cade and Abby were a bit older than Emalyn is right now, and Maddi was probably Meg's age!

It was a great day for the park, and Emalyn loved being outside. I sat on my sunglasses on the way to Jelly Belly and broke the arm on the right side, so my glasses were a bit crooked!

Little Meg was so cute and funny. She would eat all of the nasty flavor Jelly Belly's, like vomit, centipede, skunk spray, etc. and not even bat an eye. I don't think her taste buds are fully developed or something because they smelled awful, I can't imagine the way they tasted. She was running around breathing on us letting us smell her yucky breath.

Meg was very interested in Emalyn and was so sweet to her. Jill was great too and she even fed Emalyn almost 2 servings of pears. All of the kids had such a great time playing together and got along really well. I can't imagine what those girls thought of Cade and his weirdness of being a boy, but Cade's used to being around girls.

I think Cade and Jill were eating ear wax flavored jelly beans here. Nasty. I don't think either one of them liked that flavor. We can't wait for the Decker's to move back to the states so we can see them more often!