Cade's Party

Cade had his 6th birthday party at a place called Bogie's. They have bounce houses, video games and glow in the dark putt putt golf. Brett was trying to teach them how to play foosball but the attention spans didn't last very long.

Cade with some of his friends playing the video games.

Maddi and some of the girls were playing fortune teller with one of the video games. The fortunes the girls were telling were quite humorous.

I never got a good shot of Cade with his cake. Brett videotaped and a friend took the pictures while I lit the candles. This is one of the best shots we got of the cake. It was a Wall E cupcake cake. Love those cupcake cakes because they are cute and you don't have to cut them and nobody can argue over getting the corner pieces. I love to hear the kids singing Happy Birthday. It's so cute how they add on pizza..ooh, la, la...scooby doo on channel 2....big fat lady on channel 80...etc.

Maddi playing putt putt. They had to wear socks for the bounce houses and then she put the flip flops on without taking the socks off. Quite the look, huh?

Some of the kids on the golf course. It was so neat with the glow in the dark. All the kids had a blast.

I think Cade was excited about his shot here.

Cade had a great party with lots of friends. Happy Birthday little Cade Man!

My Baby is 6!

First I have to apologize for the birthday boy in his boxers. I guess he's showing off his "birthday suit". Tuesday, August 12th my little baby boy turned S-I-X. We had to leave the house by 8:00 so I could teach a class and I almost always have to wake Maddi up to leave by 8:00 because she likes to sleep until 8:30 or so. She knew it was Cade's birthday and he was dying to open his presents from her, Omie, and Todd and Breezy so she woke up early so he could open presents before we had to leave. That was probably one of his most favorite gifts, just the fact that he didn't have to wait a few hours to open presents.

He was quite excited to see that Omie got him the Indiana Jones game for his new Nintendo DS. Look at the excitment on his face!

Reading the card Maddi made for him. She made him a very sweet birthday card. I love the fact that Maddi and Cade are so close to each other and love and care for each other so much.

Chillin on his new Aggie pillow/chair from Todd, Breezy, Maison, Blake and Case. He loves lounging in the chair playing his DS.

It makes me so sad to see my baby grow up but it's so much fun too. He's such a fun loving ball of energy. He has such a love for life, even at the crack of dawn when he wakes us each morning with such a big happy "good morning mommy. I have lovins for you". He's so big and doing such big boy things but he's still mommy's little boy and is such a great cuddler. I hope that part of him never goes away. Party pictures to come!

Pre-Birthday Celebration

Ever since Maddi turned one we have celebrated the kids actual birthday at Chuck E Cheese. Since Brett will be out of town on Cade's real birthday we celebrated early last Friday. The kids were excited to see their Daddy walk in so I captured the moment with Maddi and Daddy hugging after she jumped in his arms.

The Stanley Family has a strange habit of sticking their tongue out when they are concentrating. My dad did it, brothers do it, my kids do it....how can those traits be passed on? Check out the tongue and the total concentration on Cade's face.

Maddi and Cade were racing with the water squirting game.

Notice the concentration (tongue) on Maddi's face during the water squirting race. I showed her the picture afterwards and she didn't care that she was sticking it out because she won!

All smiles for Maddi. She won cotton candy and a popsicle on the wheel game. You pull the handle and the light goes arounda wheel and you can win tickets or other cool prizes. She spent most of her tokens on this game trying to win that silly cotton candy.

I don't know who had more fun, Cade or Brett. They were playing a two person hunting game. Boys will be boys!

Me with my baby boy. It seems like yesterday we were taking him to Chuck E Cheese and he could barely walk and we were chasing him around. Now he's such a big boy and he still likes to run free and do his own thing but we can let him run on his own and we don't have to chase him.

Saturday we took Cade to Best Buy to buy his birthday present. We usually give them their presents on the morning of their Birthday but Brett won't be here so he got to have it early. He got a Nintendo DS Lite and I wanted to make sure that Cade and Brett had a chance to get it all figured out before Brett left since I am not much help when it comes to electronics.

Cade has been wanting the DS for a long while so he was all smiles when he finally got one. The real Birthday is Tuesday, August 12th and his party is on Thursday so more pictures of the birthday to come.

Happy Box

Maddi and Grace are decorating with stickers to make a happy box. Cade is not so happy because he was bored and complaining of nothing to do so I pulled out his summer workbook that we have totally not done this summer. I had him write about his summer and do a math page. He was not happy about that but it made me realize how badly we need to continue writing even though it's summer. Poor guy does not enjoy those small motor skill activities. Maybe next time he's bored he'll find something to play with or else I'll pull the workbook out again!

We got a little glimpse of the teen years to come Saturday morning. All started well and then there was a little arguement between Maddi and Cade and the next thing you know, Maddi has her backpack packed and she's running away! I was washing my face and getting ready when Maddi came in to tell me goodbye and she's leaving (wearing her pjs by the way). I told her not to leave, but she was already downstairs and out the door before I could get my face washed and dried. Luckily Brett was out front mowing and saw her come out and rescued her. He brought her back in and we had a little heart to heart with lots of tears and she says she'll never do it again. She's just so emotional and so fragile and she's only 7! The girl wears me out and I think it will be good for her and her mom as well once school starts back in a few weeks and she gets back to her routine. It really was nothing at all that made her upset to want to leave and never come back. Could it have something to do with Cade's birthday on Tuesday? Maybe. Brett's brother just had their second child two weeks ago and the oldest child is lashing out at dad and grandma. It totally reminded me of Maddi when we brought Cade home. She loves Cade dearly and Cade adores her, but sometimes I think we still rocked her world by bringing home another baby.

So, after all the crying and apologizing etc. the teacher/counselor in me came up with a "happy box". Maddi and I decorated a box with stickers and hapiness and she is going to write all of her happy thoughts in the box. Whenever she is having an unhappy, blue day she can go back to her box and read all of her happy thoughts and focus on all of the good in her life instead of the bad. Girls. Thank you God for only giving me one girl!

Looks pretty happy now, huh?

Happy Thoughts....by Maddi McDonald.

Trip to Museum

Tuesday we headed to the Museum of Science and Industry with some friends from Texas. We met Alex and Clara when Maddi was 2 1/2 and Cade was 8 or 9 months old and they were in play group together. They moved from Texas to downtown Chicago right around the same time we moved to the Chicago burbs. It's so fun to have friends to play with in the city. This was our first time to this museum and the Radtkes have been numerous times so they were great guides to show us around. The kids enjoyed each others company and Tracie and I got to talk and catch up with each other. The kids loved the science guy with his demonstration of magnets in the picture above.

Cade and Alex really enjoyed the huge train set and were eager to follow the trains around. Notice the airplane hanging above Cade. It was a real airplane suspended on the second or third floor and we went inside of it and saw some really cool stuff. This museum is incredible and I'm not really much of a museum person!

Alex and Cade watching the trains.

Cade said his favorite part of the museum was the idea factory. This was part of that area and he thought he was magic making the ball float in the air.

More of the idea factory. Shooting water at a target which made the wheel turn which made water pump up which made something else do something else and so on. Cade was fascinated with trying to figure out how it all worked. My little engi-nerd in the making!

Alex and Cade, the little train conductors.

Maddi and Clara weren't so enthused with the train so they decided to play on the trolley instead.

Another favorite of the day was the fire and smoke demonstration. This is what I wanted chemistry class to be like. Playing with fire and chemicals. My chemistry classes were more boring like balancing equations with moles.

Another fun demonstration was making goo. The kids each got a turn to pour water or stir or add coloring, etc.

Check out the concentration on those little faces.

Ta-da! The goo is ready. Since they don't want goo all over the museum the kids could only play with it at the demo area but it was fun anyway. It was such a nice museum and there was a nice crowd, but we were able to see or do what we wanted. Another demo area was a lab with a disected bull frog. Maddi was totally interested in that and Cade kind of had a sick look on his face. The volunteer was showing them the organs in ziploc bags and Maddi grabbed the bags and looked at everything. I spared you the photos of the frog organs.

The last exhibit we saw was the farm. The kids always love pretending to drive the tractor and milk a cow. This is Cade sitting in the wheel of the tractor while Maddi was driving. They're already asking when we can go back to the museum. We still have plenty to see and do that we didn't get to this time, so we'll have to get back soon.

Random

I will post later about our fun trip to the Museum of Science and Industry, but here are some random things without pictures.

1. Football is going well. Cade barely cried Monday when they had their warm up lap and there haven't been any tears since. Yeah!!! He is actually having fun and is doing so well. I still get nervous for him when they hit each other but he is really holding his own out there. He is the youngest kid since he's still five until August 12th, but he's not the smallest, so that gives him an advantage.

I just have to say that I am so thankful that I had brothers growing up. (I never thought I would say those words. Ha ha) The world of boys and sports is quite different than my world of being a girly girl into dance. I've learned a lot from having brothers and it's helped me in having a boy since I'm the one who gets him ready each day. Who knew you need a cup (so fun. If you don't know what that is, don't ask), a girdle, rib pads, knee pads, shoulder pads, a helmet, chin strap, etc. and they're all pretty tricky to fasten properly. I did forget to put on his rib pads one day and that was pretty embarrassing when the coach called me over about 45 minutes into practice to ask if I had brought his rib pads and that he needed them on. I also learned that boys sweat A LOT and they can get pretty stinky and it's not even that hot here. Thank you God for my brothers and thank you for only giving me one stinky, sweaty boy to take to and from football.

2. I do not enjoy window wells. About this time last year I had a lovely post (with pictures) of our visitors in our window wells. Well, this afternoon Cade, Adam and Maddi came running in the house that there was a baby monkey in our window well. I only WISH it was a baby monkey. I took a look and said I didn't know what the fur ball was, but that it was not a baby monkey for sure. The kids took off down to the basement to get a closer look through the window. After further observation they decided it was a baby beaver. I was sure it wasn't a beaver either. Maddi saw a neighbor and called her over to identify the furry creature. Debbie told us it was a mouse and she would have her husband come over to rescue it. Gary, the dad, and Molly, the teenage daughter, came over to rescue the mouse. After getting the half dead mouse (maybe a bird dropped it in the well?) the kids noticed some of those nasty spotted frogs we found in there last summer. So he got those out too and then we headed over to the wetlands behind the clubhouse to let all of the creatures free and let nature take care of them. We did take some pictures from Maddi's phone, but I don't know how to send them to my email, so you're spared the nasty rodent and creapy amphibian pictures.

Football, Canoeing, Baseball and More

This was Cade with Maddi and Daddy at his first football practice. He was all smiles. First hour went great, next hour he cried twice because the helmet was hurting his head. Day two, first hour great, next hour cried 4 times. Day three disaster. Cried most of the second hour.

He's supposed to be listening to the coaches, but he's making sure we're watching him.

Fourth day was the first day with full pads and it didn't go so well either. This is Cade with tears after practice. Brett was so frustrated that his little boy was CRYING at FOOTBALL. Remember that Cade has been wanting to play football for a long time and this was his idea, not ours. So the coaches encouraged us to keep encouraging Cade and they swear that after the first game (August 17th) it clicks and even kids struggling with keeping up love the rest of the season. August 17th is a long time away to watch your child cry and seem absolutely miserable. Somehow Cade decided at the end of practice on the 4th day that he would try hitting and then he decided it wasn't so bad. Friday, the 5th day and second day with pads, he only cried during the warm up lap and then he did so great! He did all of the drills (some with hesitation) and we were so happy for him.

This is after practice on Day 4 and Brett was telling Cade how proud he was that he decided to participate even if it was the last 15 minutes of practice. I think he's rounding the corner and is deciding football will be fun. This league is a HUGE committment with practice Mon-Fri from 5:30-7:30. When games start they'll cut Friday practice and when school starts they'll cut Monday practice, but for now it's a lot of time and effort. Hang in there Cade man!

Friday afternoon we went to lunch and the outlet mall with Maddie H. and her brother, Gavin, and her mom. The kids stopped to play on all the little rides along the way. Maddi and Cade are just about too big for most of the rides. How sad is that? My babies are SO big. We got in some back to school shopping. Great thing about living up here is that when all the back to school fall clothes come out you can actually buy them because it won't be long and it will be cool enough to wear them. I always hated how all the back to school clothes were for fall and the kids couldn't wear them until Christmas (it seemed) in Texas. I guess it goes the other way in March. All the spring and summer clothes come out and there is no sense in buying them because you can't wear them until June (if you're lucky).

Saturday was Maddy-Daddy and Cade-Mom day. Brett took Maddi on a father-daughter canoe trip with church. There aren't any pictures to show for it. Right before they left Brett said he decided to take the camera and just put it in a ziploc bag to keep it from getting wet. I asked him not to take it so it didn't have the chance of getting ruined. Good thing. 20 seconds after they got in the water they hit a rock and the canoe dumped over and Maddi and Brett and everything inside was soaking wet! They had a blast and spent some quality time together. Cade and I went to see Wall E (boring movie) and then had lunch and ice cream.

Saturday night Maddie H. spent the night and Cocoa decided to have a sleep over with the Maddis too. Cocoa usually sleeps in her kennell, but when we went to bed she wasn't in her kennell. We called for her and she didn't come so we went looking for her and here she was. We let her stay at the sleepover with her girls.

Sunday we went to church and the kids got candy cigarettes for snack. Cigarettes! At church! What is this world coming to?

After church we changed clothes and picked up Cade's friend, Jack, and went to the Kane County Cougars game for Brett's work picnic. We were at the party deck in center field and we had a nice time.

Before the game the kids got autographs. Sunday was Jimmy Buffett day at the game so the team was wearing flowered shirts. Even the visiting team had to wear the goofy shirts in a different color. They played good Buffett songs during the game, but the shirts were a bit much. I can only imagine what the players thought of wearing them.

The gang in front of the dugout. Even the dugout was decorated in the tropical theme.

Ozzie, the mascot, came out to the center field deck with us to sing the 7th inning stretch.

More autographs!

When the game was over the kids ran the bases. Go Maddi!

Cade's off.

Cade turned it into a race instead of just running the bases. He was super excited to beat this girl. His comment was "you know, if you play football you have to be really fast and I am fast because I beat the girl in front of me." Maddi ended up beating Cade's friend, Jack. I didn't notice any other kids racing other kids. My super competitive kids are like their father, I guess.

After running the bases the kids danced to the band that sang Buffet songs (they were a horrible band by the way, but the kids didn't mind). They had a lot of energy to burn from their liccorice rope, cotton candy, sno cones/dippin dots and sprites.

These kids had quite the moves! After the game we came home and ate dinner, bathed the kids and then straight to bed. Another fun and busy weekend is now history!