Grandparents and Father's Day

Texas Grammy and Grandpa came for a visit while Grandpa was in Chicago for work. The timing doesn't work for us to go to Texas Grammy's summer camp that's in Texas this year, so Texas Grammy did some of the activities they are doing at camp with the kids while she was here. These are their bunny-copters.

And here they are seeing how they fly down from the second floor. The kids had a great time going to the pool, park, playing four square and basketball and hanging out with Grandpa and Texas Grammy. We are looking forward to them retiring and moving back to the states at the end of the year so we can see them more often. They said when they come back to visit, they are staying until Emalyn lets them hold her. Emalyn pretty much screamed every time they looked at her for the first day or two. By the end of the visit she wasn't screaming and she would give them kisses and blow them kisses but she wouldn't get too close to them. What a stinker!

Saturday evening the kids opened their birthday presents from Grandpa and Texas Grammy and Brett and Oliver opened their Father's Day gifts. It wasn't quite Father's Day yet or their birthdays. It's become a tradition of the kids getting their birthday presents at summer camp when they have an "unbirthday" party. The kids were all smiles in anticipation.

Maddi, Emma and I went to a pink birthday party for a neighbor earlier in the day so Emma already had her birthday shirt on. She got a tricycle from Grandpa that has a parent handle to push her. It's just like our neighbor Ellie's and she loves it!

The kids wrapped Grandpa's gift in bag after gift bag. They enjoyed watching him open it.

Daddy with his girls. Maddi is still wearing face paint from the pink party.

Someone was happy with their Legos for their birthday! I was glad and surprised he chose Legos for his gift. He doesn't play with them as often as he used to but he was very excited to get Legos. Maddi got money because she's saving up for an ipod touch or an ipad. She was quite happy too!

The go go squeeze applesauce is one of Emalyn's new favorite things. She loves eating applesauce with a spoon and also in the squeeze pouches.

She's going to turn into applesauce soon.

She asks for applesauce by going to the fridge and saying "aaahh uuuhhh", like applesauce without and consonants. Then she'll ask for a spoon by saying "ca", like car without an r. I see speech in her future, just like her sissy :)

Brett got Swedish fish candy as part of his gift. Emalyn took a bite...

...and...

...she loved them!

So Grandpa made a little trail of swedish fish so she'd have to get close to him to get more candy. It's so sad that she was so aloof of her grandparents. Reminds me of stories I've heard of someone saying "leave me my lone"!

Sunday morning we went to church and then we went for our traditional Father's Day lunch at Texas Roadhouse.

We attempted our traditional picture of Brett holding the kids in front of the restaurant, but the kids have grown too big to do the picture. Brett was upset that the day has come that he can't hold all of his kids in his arms. It's okay Brettley, it was bound to happen.

Emalyn with her stink face. I think she was just hungry and wanted to get inside for some of those yummy rolls.

I guess we'll have pictures of Brett standing with his arms around the kids from now on.

It was nice that Brett had his own father here on Father's Day.

Another picture of stinker with the stink face.

After going home and eating ice cream and watching Daddy Day Care, it was time for some fun at the pool.

Emalyn loved the splash of the ball coming up from under the water.

And we loved the look of surprise on her face after the splash!

Somebody is part fish and LOVES the water! She jumps in over and over. Reminds me of Cade when he was little. No fear of the water, at all.

Lots of fun pictures jumping in over and over and over....




Looks like someone swallowed some water. Oops!

The only picture we got of Emalyn with Grandpa and Texas Grammy.

I love the look on Cade's face in this picture. He adores his little siter. I am so thankful that the three kids love each other so much.

What a great day celebrating a great father!

2nd Week of Summer

The second week of summer was just about as busy as the first week. The good thing was there was no baseball and Brett was in town to help with the craziness. I knew I'd screw the schedule up at some point this month, and Monday was the day. I knew in my mind that it was a night free of dance, swimming and baseball. I took the kids to the pool that afternoon (even thought it was barely 70 degrees outside and cool)and we had a nice relaxing evening. Later that night after the kids were in bed, I looked at the calendar to make sure I knew what was going on on Tuesday. It was then, at 8:30 pm, that I realized I was supposed to sub 2 classes that night at the gym! I felt so bad and sent an email apologizing to my manager right away. She was very understanding, especially since I ended up subbing 5 hours at the gym last week. I hope that's the only schedule mess up during this crazy time of year.

Here is a picture of Grandpa and Maddi at her dance Showcase last Sunday. Oliver was in Chicago all week for classes for work. He was able to sneak away Sunday night and come watch Maddi dance. Texas Grammy didn't fly into Chicago until Monday afternoon so she missed it. I wasn't sure what he would think of the Showcase and thought he might be a little shocked by some of the costumes. Brett prepared him for it and he really enjoyed it. They left after all of Maddi's dances and didn't stay to see the whole company dance at the end so they could relieve the babysitter that was with Emma and Cade. Brett was happy to leave. He's seen the dances before and the Dallas Maverick's were playing in the NBA playoffs against the Miami Heat (they won the game and the series that night), but Oliver really wanted to stay until the end. I guess he really did enjoy the dance Showcase!

Grandpa and Brett enjoying intermission at the Showcase.

Grace and Anne (neighbors) came to watch Maddi too!

Tuesday night, Cade had another swim meet. It was at the Oswego pool this time and the weather was great. Cade got first place in every event he was in. I brought the camera and didn't take a single picture. Awesome!
Ellie came over to play with Emma on Wednesday and we got some pictures of the sweet girls together. We realized Emalyn doesn't know how to hug. She gives kisses instead of hugs.

Kisses!

These girls really love each other and talk about each other all the time.

Ellie knows how to hug. So cute and funny!

Emalyn is going to be so confused when Ellie moves at the end of the month.

I've been working on making a photo book for the Balls of pictures of our families together over the years. I tried to get a group shot and these are what I got...





...oh well, we tried!
Thursday night Brett picked up his dad and step mom from the city and they stayed the night with us. Texas Grammy stayed with us until Monday, but Grandpa had to go back to the city Friday morning until Saturday afternoon. Pictures of their visit and Father's Day coming up soon.

First Week of Summer

Our first week of summer was extremely busy! And on top of that, Brett was in Vegas for work, so I was the solo taxi in business all day, every day. Pretty much this whole month will be busy, but this week was the worst. It will be a little better now that baseball is over. We started out Monday with Cade's swim practice from 7-9, followed by the gym, and then we went to the Outlet mall for a few things. Then we dropped my car off at the dealer for an oil change and tire rotation. While the car was getting worked on, we walked (like homeless people as the kids said) to Colonial Cafe for lunch and ice cream! We all thoroughly enjoyed the kitchen sink ice cream. Emalyn ate the bananas for us. I think she liked the banana split bananas much better than plain bananas. She wasn't wild about the ice cream, but she loved the bananas.

Tuesday was swim team again, followed by therapy for Mads, home for lunch, off to the gym, home for Emma's nap and then dance and baseball. It was a very hot day for Chicago standards (high of 96). Some of the baseball games were even cancelled because of the "dangerously high temperatures". It actually wasn't that bad at the game. Emalyn enjoyed cheering for Bubba.

Of course baby was there to cheer for Cade too. All the little kids at the basball games know Emma and her baby and bottle. It's fun to watch all the little brothers and sisters at the games.

Wednesday, Cade had swimming and Maddi had tutoring. After those were over, we drove to Wisconsin to meet the Decker's for our annual meetup of lunch, Jelly Belly and the park. We decided to take the tour this year. Left to right, Maddi (10), Jill (7), Meg (3), Abby (9 in July), Emma (19 months), and Cade (9 in August).

The whole crew again. My kids look like giants compared to the Decker kids!

We were the only ones there and got right on a train. Cade and Jill hanging out while everyone else went for a trip to the ladies room.

All aboard! The tour is a little boring because it's only tvs around the warehouse. The kids enjoyed it and now Maddi wants to be a candy maker when she grows up.

We all got a free bag of candy at the end of the tour. Emalyn even got her own bag.

Here she is trying her first Jelly Belly...and she liked it!

So many choices in flavors.

The flavors behind Cade are barf, canned dog food, and skunk spray!

And these are moldy cheese, booger and an assortment of all the nasty ones. No thank you!

Our annual picture in front of the Jelly Belly bug. Meg was already in the car and the rest of them didn't cooperate so well. Oh well, there's always next time.

Then we went to the park to burn off some sugar. Erin gave them each a nasty flavor and they were trying to guess the flavor.

All I know is that their breath smelled just like dog food and skunks after eating those jelly bellys.

Cade seems to be enjoying this nasty adventure. If they enjoy bad flavors so bad, maybe we should do a vegetable tasting with brussel sprouts, beets, egg plant, etc. Maybe they'd like that too. It was pretty warm and humid at the park but after some playtime, we drove back home. It was great seeing Erin and the kids and we hope to see them at our house later this summer.
All 3 kids crashed on the drive home. We went to the gym that night and then we crashed into our beds for the night.

We had some seriously crazy storms Wednesday night into Thursday. We woke up Thursday and found this random turtle on our patio. No idea where it came from, maybe the pond 2 streets over, but it's a turtle. They don't move that fast. We went to the gym and 2 1/2 hours later, the turtle was gone. No idea where it came from or went to but it was very odd. He was pretty big too. Brett's GG passed away late Sunday night. His cousin Brian went to the cemetary and cleaned off the headstone and things and there was a turtle on the grave sight. Coincidence? Weird, if you ask me. I looked it up to see what a turtle showing up in your life means and it means you need to slow down and pace yourself. Very fitting for our busy week!
Later on Thursday, Cade had a swim meet over an hour away. Thank goodness for a dance family that helped with Maddi again, Emalyn and I went to the outdoor meet. It was blazing hot Mon-Wed, but Thursday was a high of 60. It was 54 at the start of the meet and got down to 50! The water was so warm there was steam coming off of it. We spent most of the time in the locker room warming up between events. The meet was cut short, so Cade only did 2 events. He did great and won the 25 fly race and brought his team from dead last to 2nd place on the Medley relay. Brett flew in Thursday evening and picked up Maddi from dance and they got to hang out for a while. Cade and Emalyn were alseep when we got home from the swim meet, so they didn't get to see Daddy. Brett left our house at 4:00 a.m. Friday to go to Boston for GGs funeral.

After the gym Friday morning, we went to the library and then Cade had his last baseball lesson at Bases. I loved this picture of Emalyn copying Maddi sitting on a ball watching Cade bat. Maddi and Cade had friends over Friday afternoon and then we spent the evening with the Ball Family eating and playing together.

Saturday morning, Maddi had pictures for dance and Cade had his last baseball game of the season. I should have brought the real camera, but I did get one on my phone of him batting. He had 3 great hits and pitched well too. He has improved so much this season, we're very proud of him.

These are some pictures Brett sent to me from his Grandmother's funeral.

GG was 92 years old and her health has been declining for some time. She had Alzheimer's disease and it was very sad to see it take it's toll on her. GG was such a wonderful lady, she will be greatly missed!

After Emma wakes up from her nap, we will get Maddi from dance and then go get ice cream to celebrate the end of Cade's baseball season. Then we have lots of errands to run. Quite a way to spend Saturday night. Brett flies home Sunday just in time for Maddi's end of the year dance Showcase. I'm so thankful my kids are all so awesome and helpful with Brett being gone. They really are amazing. They are always helping with Emalyn, getting food or drink for her or entertaining her wherever we are or in the car. I love those kids and I'm proud to call them mine.