Memorial Day Weekend

We have been insanely busy and I don't see it slowing down in the near future. Here are some random things to catch up on and some from Memorial Day weekend.

Emalyn and I got kids meals at Wendy's the other day for lunch. The prize was "Minute to Win It" games. It's this ball game and the cup stacking game. All 3 kids play with these games all the time, especially the cup game.

Emalyn loves to sit on our backs. If Maddi or Cade sit on our backs, she freaks out and says "no, no" and pushes them off. Jealous?

Emalyn loves Ellie and they are so cute when the play together. They are still playing side by side but starting to interact a little more.

Playing the shakers in their baby band.

Here they are in Ellie's police car.

Same thing on another day. Ellie is so good and shares so well. She's used to it, she has 2 brothers and a sister. Emma is working on the sharing thing.

Cade has been playing a lot of baseball. He's doing really well and hitting and pitching well. He also just started summer swim team.

The Friday before Memorial Day was Field Day at school. Maddi had to leave early because she had her solo for dance. Maddi and Emily were waiting out front for the theater to open.

So many times with dance, it's the hurry up and wait game...we were told to get there early to get hair and makeup done but it didn't open on time.

Luckily it was a nice day, so we enjoyed some sunshine while waiting.

We finally got inside and Emalyn was taking it all in in the dressing rooms.

Time to get the hair fixed!

One of the moms took pictures of their dances, so I took these pictures from her off of facebook. Blurry picture, but I love Maddi's leaps.

This was their last competition before Nationals in July.

Still not loving her costume...

...but I do love to see Maddi having fun and doing what she loves.

The petites after solo awards.

Her solo was her only dance that day.

We're back on Saturday for 3 small group dances. Here they are with Miss Lindy.

Pretty girls doing their lyrical dance.

Cookie Time. Girl Scout pledge.

This song/dance is all about girl scout cookies. Makes me crave those evil thin mints every time!

And here they are for their jazz dance to Cuban Pete.

Another great leap.

Cute little girls.

Jaden and Mads shaking it.

Little sister was worn out and took a good nap at the competition. Sweet baby. That was all for that day. Maddi didn't stay for awards because Brett and I had a hot date for our 13th anniversary that night.

Sunday we were back for the jazz line, Gorgeous. Maddi is on the far right. All of the older girl dances were this day too, so Maddi and I went early to watch them dance. They did very well and there were some other really good companies too, so it was pretty fun to watch.

That night, Maddi came home and showered. We went up to say good night and found her crashed out. The busy weekend caught up to her.

It was rainy and we were busy Saturday and Sunday, but Monday was sunny and we made our first trip of the season to the pool.

Emalyn was not enjoying the pool...

...at all!

The water was cold, I don't blame her!

She got out of the pool and ate lunch and eventually...

...she loved it!

She went on this ducky slide 100 million times!

I couldn't believe how many of the pictures we took that had Maddi or Emalyn with their tongue out.

LOVE this picture and the pure joy on her face!

Love this one too!

I am so glad she ended up enjoying the pool. She was sitting with me on the side of the pool and eventually started kicking her feet in the water and then put her hands in the splash. Next thing we know, she's sitting on the side and reaching in to splash and basically jumping in the water to Brett over and over. She did that for a long time and then we brought her over to the baby pool and the ducky slide.

The tongue thing is a Stanley trait. Only, I'm pretty sure I don't do that!?!

Yes, my baby wears a bow even at the pool. What of it?

I never realized when I was watching her climb up the slide over and over that her tongue was out the whole time. So funny!

I think cutie pie is going to have a fun summer at the swimming pool. Maddi and Cade had a blast too, but they didn't get 100 pictures taken of them. They ended up very sunburned and learned a lesson about how to properly put sunscreen on each other. We went over to a neighbors for a cookout later that day. It was a packed Memorial Day weekend, but a lot of fun!

Lucky 13!

Brett and I celebrated our 13th Anniversary Saturday. Monday was our real Anniversary, but that was Memorial Day and we had other plans. We wanted to do something different, so Brett mentioned that he has customers who own boats and do dinner cruises. We got the royal treatment because Brett called his contact at the company to ask about the different cruises and they took great care of us. That's one of the perks of his busisness. It was rainy and cool that day, but it ended up clearing up and we were able to see the city. Here we are waiting to leave the dock at Navy Pier.

We had a great dinner with a live band. Then we went out on the deck to watch the fireworks show. The city of Chicago does fireworks every Saturday and Wednesday during the summer. It was really a good show. We were right next to the barge that wsa setting the fireworks off. Since the weather wasn't so great, there were only like 180 people on our cruise. They can hold 600, so we had a great view on the upper deck and it wasn't crowded.

So, our dinner and drinks were free, we got souveneir glasses with our cocktails, they gave us a complimentary shrimp appetizer, we had the best table looking out the window and right next to the band, they gave us free pictures in a frame that they took of us on board, they took us in to meet the captain of the ship, and they brought us this enourmous dessert platter! Our waiter kept saying, leave room for dessert, one of everything. We had no idea they literally were going to bring us one of everything on the menu. We ate ourselves silly with desserts. They were all sooooo good!

This is the platter after we had eaten as much as we could eat. There was chocolate cake, brownie, peach and blueberry cobbler with ice cream, bread pudding with ice cream, cheesecake, strawberries, turtle cheesecake, rasberry cheesecake, whip cream, and candles. We did a lot of dancing to try and work off some of those desserts. The band played everything from slow dance music to Lady Gaga. They were really good. We had an absolute blast together. It's hard to believe it's been 13 years since we got married. I am so thankful for Brett and lucky to have him for my husband and the father of our children.

Birthday and Carpet

Saturday was my birthday and Brett and the kids made it very special, as always. They started out with very nice hand made cards. Emalyn even sat in Maddi's lap and made a card for me. Brett wants to take me on a trip to the Bahamas, but I'm not sure if that's gonna happen. We'll see. I'm too tight with money right now. It seems like we've been spending money like crazy and I just can't see spending a couple thousand more right now. If we do go, it will have to be next winter so we can get out of this place and it's crazy cold. It was a very nice thought and I'd love to spend time with Brett in the Bahamas, but we'll see. The kids have been so sweet lately with Mother's Day and my birthday and have written very nice things. Maddi even typed up a story on her own the other day about how she has the best parents in the world. Cade wrote the cutest story about me for Mother's Day and even said that I'm as helpful as a maid...even more helpful than that! I love those kids. They make me laugh and they make my heart happy!
Saturday night our family and the Ball family went over to the Heimbuch's. We got together that night because it's what worked for everyones schedules and it worked out great that it was my birthday too. They even got a cake for me! Here is a picture from Brett's phone of Emalyn and Ellie hanging together in the basement. They are so cute together. It was nasty and cold the whole weekend, but it was a nice weekend with the family.

Today we are getting new carpet. Having new carpet will be awesome. Preparing for new carpet...not so awesome! It's like moving but not really moving. My house is a wreck right now. Makes me a little CRAZY! Since we are getting new carpet, Brett let the kids write on the old carpet. You can kind of see the writing on the stairs behind Maddi and Cade. It made me laugh because Cade wanted to number the stairs. Brett has a quirk that he always counts stairs as he goes up or down them. I guess Cade does too? I'm not that smart. I just go up and down and it never occurs to me how many stairs I'm climbing.

I told the kids I wanted pictures of them with their carpet drawings before they left for school. Emalyn wanted in on the pictures too. This picture sums it all up: Maddi is still getting ready for school at the last minute (tying her shoe), Cade has his yo-yo (he is slightly obsessed with yo-yoing these days) and Emalyn is holding a phone and two bottles of pretend milk (she always carries things around).

Here is Cade with his graffiti carpet. I couldn't bring myself to write on the carpet, but Brett and the kids enjoyed it. Maddi even said it was a dream come true. Not surprising. She writes on any papers she finds and often draws on herself. You can't see it well, but Cade wrote "Buddy is a man eating fish".

He also wrote I love Chicken. lol

Here's Emalyn showing her OCDness on the stairs. If she has the slightest bit of dust/dirt on her, she says "Uh.oh" over and over. Should be a fun summer with wood chips, dirt, etc. in her shoes. Especially since she won't wear socks with her shoes. You can see more of the writing on the stairs. I have to admit, I was not so happy that the markers they used on the stairs were Crayola washable and were coming off on the kids feet Saturday and tracking around the house. Brett got paper towels and soaked up what he could off the stairs. Good/fun idea gone bad...

My big girl. She has been a trooper and is even napping in the pack and play in the dining room right now. Even with the carpet people banging and dog occasionally barking.

This is what our driveway looks like right now. It's our new carpet. They have it laid out and are cutting it outside and then bringing it in. Thank goodness it's a beautiful sunny day. Not sure what would happen if it was raining.

I joked with Brett that since our 13th wedding anniversary is in 2 weeks, this is our gift to each other. Some years are paper, gold, etc. In my book the 13th anniversary gift is carpet! It will be nice to have new carpet. The carpet needed replacing when we moved in 4 1/2 years ago.