We all Scream....

For Ice Cream!!! Sunday afternoon Cade and Maddi were over at our neighbors playing in the sprinkler. All of a sudden Cade ran into the house frantically looking for his $3.00 dollars because he heard the ice cream truck and he is going to buy ice cream for everyone. He found his money and took off outside and was down the street before Brett and I figured out what he was talking about and what he was doing. I seriously think he would have ran around the whole neighborhood had we not stopped him. Luckily the ice cream truck came right in front of our house and the kids came out of the woodwork. $3.00 won't buy much from an ice cream truck these days, so we let Cade keep his money and we bought the ice cream for them.

Happy kids with their nasty looking popscicle-ish sponge bobs and spider man treats.

Looks tastey, huh? Not even I would take a lick of that thing!

Father/Son Bears Game

Brett took Maddi on the Father/Daughter canoe trip a few weeks ago so when he was offered tickets to a Bears pre-season game Brett decided to take Cade for their father/son time together. It was Brett's first time to a Chicago Bears football game and he was thrilled to share that experience with Cade.

My little Brettley and Cade man having some boy bonding time. By the way, when Brett went with Maddi I took Cade to see WallE. My friends were in town on the night of the Bears game and Maddi spent the night with a friend so I took Maddi to see Mama Mia a few days before the game to keep everything fair and square. We loved Mama Mia. However, I did not love fielding all of the questions from Maddi about how/why she didn't know who her dad was. :)

Down...set....

Don't know what this is a picture of, but I thought it looked important, so I'm posting it!

Cade man and his souveneirs. He loves those crazy things you can put on your hands! They had a great time.

August 16th and 17th- Air Show and Football

I am way behind on my posts....this is from a few weekends ago when we went to the Chicago Air and Water Show. We missed the water part, but the air show was so much fun. Notice the hearts the planes made in the pic above...that's how we feal. We heart the Air Show! Something was wrong with my camera and most of the pics with the planes had a big black spot on them. Either the lense was dirty or the sun was too bright, who knows, I'm not one to find out what the problem is and fix it.

We had no idea that we'd actually get a great spot on the wall of the lake where Brett and I sat and then the kids played in the lake. We totally weren't prepared and had not swimsuits, snacks, towels, etc. We were just winging it and never expected we'd actully stay for a while and enjoy the show. Notice in this pic of Cade and Brett that Cade's front tooth is sticking out over his lip. He has a loose tooth that he won't wiggle or let me wiggle so it's not coming out and it's starting to look funky. You know how I love those funky loose teeth...I want to rip it out!

Maddi and Cade are constantly being asked if they are twins. Notice their height, almost even. Maddi wants to be a twin so she doesn't answer because she doesn't want to lie to people but she wants them to think they are twins, so she says nothing.

So since we were so unprepared the poor kids had to play in the lake in their clothes. We knew it was a matter of time before they were all soaking wet and sandy. We were on Michigan Avenue at the Oak Street Beach so I just walked on over to Macy's and lucked out with suits for the kids. They only had a few small girl suits left and luckily they had two of the same for Maddi and Emily. They no longer had boy swim shorts so I got him regular mesh shorts. They were all on clearance and I got Maddi, Emily and Cade all new suits for $13.00 and change. When we rode the bus down Michigan Avenue Brett gave me a hard time about not being able to get off and do some shopping. As luck would have it, I did get to shop after all (who cares that it was a quick trip just for kids suits, shopping is shopping).

Talk about some happy kiddos in their new suits. Now they got to really enjoy the lake. The air show was great, but it was so much better since the kids were swimming in the lake. They would swim, look up at the cool planes, and go back to swimming.

Cade was thrilled that he could play in the sand and not have to worry about getting dirty.

Maddi spent time making a sandcastle with trash in the lake and on the beach.

After getting the kids changed back into their clothes, we headed over to Uncle Julio's on North Avenue. The kids were starving and were having a great time playing with the flamingos from our margaritas and the dough for tortillas that the tortilla maker gave them.

Brett and I were happy enjoying our swirl margaritas and some good ol Mexican food. Maddi took our picture and informed me after taking it that I look fat. Don't you love an honest girl?!? She told me to sit differently and took our picture again but it was blurry, so you get to see the fat one. If you ever want to know if your butt looks big, just ask my Maddi girl. Wonder where she gets that trait.....After Uncle Julio's we got back on the train and headed back to the 'burbs because Cade had his first football game Sunday.

Check out my little football stud #45 Cade McDonald. They won their game 19-0 and it was so fun to watch. Cade is still trying to figure it all out, but in my eyes, how you look is just as important as how you play and he's looking good in his little uniform if you ask me!

At the home games they even have a little run through. They have cheerleaders who cheer for them as they run through and they announce their names.

That's my boy. He played first team offense and was on the kick off return team. He almost got the ball on the first kickoff which made Brett and I really nervous. He would have gotten clobbered, I'm sure, and never wanted to play again. He liked the game and was surprised how fast and easy it was compared to practice.

Park Day

One of my favorite things about living away from Texas is that the summers are so fun. We don't have to worry about the heat and avoid going outside for most of the day. It has been even more mild than usual this summer and we are LOVING it. I just laugh when Maddi complains of it being hot when it's 85 degrees. Doesn't she know where she comes from?!? An 85 degree summer day would be cold in Texas. To enjoy the beautiful day we headed to a local park that has a free tram tour, a fun playground and a very small zoo. Maddi and her friend, Jane, were all smiles while waiting for the ride to begin.

I'm pretty sure that Maddi is part monkey. She's such a climber!

Spider-Cade to the rescue.

We're at the "funky" stage. Maddi and her friends are losing their young, sweet looks. They've lost their teeth and don't have the cute toothless grins anymore. The big teeth are in and man are they big. They just need to grow into those teeth....but then they'll all have braces...and then they will be big grown up pretty girls and the boys will be interested in them....and that scares me!

This bald eagle was staring at us the whole time at the zoo. It was so pretty.

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.