Friends and a New Year

The Ball Family came for a visit and we were all very happy to see them. Sadly, Emma and Ellie didn't totally remember each other right away. However, they became fast friends. Emma called Ellie "Emily" quite a few times because she is used to the new neighbor "Emily" coming over to play. She would just get so excited and go over to Ellie and touch her and say "Ellie!". Ellie got annoyed with it and told her mom "Emma keeps pushing me and saying my name." I should have counted how many times Emma said "Ellie!" on the first night. They had a lot of fun together.

Grace spent the night at another friends house the first night, so Maddi spent a lot of time with the little girls. Maddi was upset Grace wasn't here, but I reminded her what it's like to try and spend time with everyone when we are visiting Texas.

Brett and Brendan spent a lot of time playing ping pong. Cade and Jack would occasionally get to be their dad's partner for ping pong.

Sweet girls.


Andrew and Cade shooting some hoops.

More ping pong. I hate the look of our unfinished basement, but it gives a lot of space for different things.

Time for some dinner. Chili and cornbread.

Maddi helped the little girls dress up. Maddi put Emma in dress up clothes a few nights before and I couldn't believe that she was big enough for some of the dresses.



Ellie came up with this look with some help from Maddi putting it on. An apron for a dress complete with a cat tail on the backside.

Emalyn spent a lot of time running around the coffee table singing her happy song. Andrew and Ellie thought it was fun too. At one point in the night Emma let out a loud shreek. She was hopped up on sugar and also so happy to have her friends at her house.

The kids and adults played Apple to Apples and then it was time for bed and they got the sillies with their pjs pulled into their arm pits. It's just not a good look, no matter the age.

The next morning, the girls were laying down playing games on Ellie's parents iphone. The kids played, we ate lunch and napped and then we drove over to Downer's Grove to the Heimbuch's house. We had a great time hanging out there and then we all spent the night there. We watched the ball drop in New York and then were putting kids to bed. The parents ended up going to bed with the kids after the ball drop. Lame and old, we are. We didn't see midnight, but we did hear fireworks at midnight so we somewhat saw the new year come in.

The girls were hanging out on New Year's morning after eating some donuts.

It was a fun way to ring in the new year, with some of our favorite friends. After all that has happened with friends and family this past year, we are thankful to put 2011 behind us and look forward to 2012. We are hopeful that it will be a year of change, but either way, we are going to count our blessings and enjoy making more memories.