Quick Fun with Omie and Al

Omie and Al took an Eastern Eurpean vacation. On their flight home, they had a long layover in Chicago, so we got to spend some time with them. Thank you, Al, for booking the layover so we could see y'all! Luckily, their plane arrived a little early, so we were able to see some of Cade's baseball game. I should add this was their teams first victory of the season, so that was exciting. Some very happy fans at Cade's game. I took several pictures and in each one somebody had a goofy look to them and this was the best one, even though Emma looks psycho.

Al with Emma. Al is so sweet with the kids.

After lunch, we made our way to Uncle Julio's for a delicious lunch. I have to add this to remember that on the way to eat I had my mom jump out of the car at a stoplight to run some almonds to Cade in Brett's car. Cade was complaining that he was starving, so Omie saved the day. It was like a Chinese Fire Drill, just like we used to do when we were young :)

Emma with crazy eyes in the picture above, now Maddi with a silly face.

I love these people!

So sweet...After lunch, we were going to try to go to the Willis Tower to the Skydeck, but we realized I forgot to bring Cade's tennis shoes. We went over to Dick's to buy him some new shoes and it took so long for him to choose that we didn't know if we had enough time to go there. We decided to go play putt putt golf. It ended up being a better choice than the skydeck and we all had fun playing golf.

Our crew, minus Brett.

Miss Em didn't want to play golf, but she had a great time hanging out doing her thing.

After golf, we made a stop to Oberweiss for ice cream. Yum!

Then it was time to say our goodbyes. Omie and Al had to catch their plane back to Texas :(

I wanted to show the new shoes Cade chose. Bright orange. Lovely!

Hugs all around!

We had a great day with Omie and Al and are so glad we got to see them, even if just for a few hours.

After we took Omie and Al back to the airport, I took Maddi to a graduation party for Patience. Maddi looks up to Patience as a dancer and Patience has been very sweet to Maddi. There are 6 girls graduating this year, and Maddi is going to miss them so much.

Buns and Baseball

Maddi now has to wear a bun for ballet class along with a leotard and tights. They've always been able to wear any other dance clothes and hair how they want. On Maddi's first day, Emma noticed the difference in Maddi clothes and hair and wanted her hair just like Sissy's, in a bun. She totally looks up to big sissy. So sweet.

Here is Maddi with her junior girls at ballet. It's nice to see them looking so ballet-ish in their tights and leotard.
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This weekend was one of our usual crazy weekends filled with lots of fun. Cade had a baseball game Saturday morning but left early for the Chevy Youth Sports baseball clinic at Wrigley Field. It was quite the adventure getting to Wrigley. We thought we had plenty of time so we stopped for cash, then went home to get Cade his shirt with his name on it, then Emma had to stop to go potty, then Cade had to stop to go potty (in the hood, I might add), and then we were in crazy traffic. We finally made it to Wrigley...late, but we made it. It was a gorgeous day.

Cade missed one or two rotations because he was late. Here he is in his first group. He's the tall one in the orange shirt.

His turn to bat.

There were several helicopters flying by and later we found out it was President Obama. He had come home to Chicago for the weekend.

My big boy, Cadester, listening intently.

Pitching time.

Another station...

Cade's face made me laugh, he's running fast!

Moving on to something else. Cade's friend, Ethan, was in his group with him.

Hanging out in the dugout. Such a great experience and memories for these kids.

Kendall, Maddi and Emma being supportive sisters in the stands.

Fielding with the ivy wall in the background. They ended the clinic early because they had some college kids trying out for the Cubs. Not sure if they were for a practice team or just for scouts to see, but we stayed to watch them for a while as we ate our free hot dog lunch. It was cool to see them play, especially when they were throwing the ball in from right field to home plate. We really want to see batting practice, but we were kicked out before that because they didn't want to risk one of the kids getting hit by a foul ball.

After the clinic, we made our way across the street to McDonald's for some ice cream. A few funny things...Emma said she didn't want ice cream because she doesn't like ice cream, just cheeseburgers, so she had a cheeseburger. I'm pretty sure she's not my child. There was a Breast Cancer walk down by Wrigley Field so there were several vans driving around with bras on them. One of them had a blowhorn and they were saying "save the boobies" and another one had "need a lift" written on the windows. The kids thought it was very entertaining. There was also a walk of some sort with people wearing mustaches. It was very odd seeing girls, boys, men and women wearing mustaches. A visit to Chicago is always an eye opening experience :)

3 happy little kiddos!

2 happy little parents!

3 tired little kids, only 2 pictured :)

Love Long Weekends

We all loved the long Memorial Day weekend and we packed it full of fun. Friday night, Cade had baseball practice. After practice, one of the families had the boys over for hot dogs. Saturday morning Cade had a baseball tournament an hour away. We left the house at 7:00 a.m. but that wasn't a problem since Cade and Emma were both up at 6:00. Cade's team had the best two games they've had all season. They lost the first game 8-5 and the second 22-17. We were happy to see that the games were at least close this time. Cade pitched well for two innings in the first game but then struggled the second game. He was pulled after giving up 4 runs (mostly walks, Yikes!). He had some really nice hits and the team played so much better defensively. I should add that he had another home run last Tuesday. I was there to see it this time and I was happy and proud of him. After baseball Saturday, we made a quick trip to the pool with Miss Emalyn.

Cade was worn out from playing two games and Maddi was trying to wake up from her nap on the car ride home. Emma tried out her puddle jumper and it worked great! She had fun swimming with Daddy.

A happy little girl! She had been asking to go swimming and we promised her after baseball we'd take her.

She kept pointing to the area that's roped off where the kids come off the water slide and saying she wanted to go over there.

This was her first time to really swim since last year. We were at the hotel pool a few months ago, but the pool was so cold, she spent most of her time sitting in the luke warm hot tub. She wasn't so eager to jump in like last year, but more sat down and held Brett's hands and scooted in. By Sunday, she was full out jumping like last year. After a quick swim, we went to a graduation bbq for our neighbor, Wyatt. It was a great night with fun neighbors.

Sunday morning, Emma and Maddi played in the sprinkler for about 2 minutes. Ha!

The whole family made a trip to the pool Sunday morning. We broke a record for high temp that day and the pool was already pretty crowded at 10:30 when we got there. Cade took a friend with him and they are in the background. It's the only picture I got of Cade all weekend :(

Emma was much more eager about jumping in.

She was really doing a good job of swimming back and forth between Brett and Maddi. Later on, she was swimming back to the side and climbing out on her own too. She's part fish like Cade, I think.

I love their smiles! We left to go home and eat lunch but Maddi stayed with a friend at the pool. I got Maddi from the pool a few hours later and then Maddi and I went to run a few errands at the mall. She is so fun and funny to shop with these days. I enjoy our time together with just the two of us. That night, we went to a friend's house for a bbq and the kids had a BLAST! They played with water balloons and were launching them down the street. It was a great day.

Monday was more laid back and we got some yard work done, kids played with friends and we enjoyed some family time. The kids have the rest of this week of school and a few hours next Monday and then it's SUMMER!

Happiness

It has warmed up here this week and Brett took Emma for a walk and then to the park while I was getting some work done in the house. They decided they would turn on the sprinkler and let Emma have her first sprinkler experience. She was very excited!

Making her approach...

...all smiles...

Omie, does this remind you of Maddi girl running in the sprinklers at your house many years ago?

She decided the water was much too cold. She would make this face each time the water would hit her. Emma asked to go inside after a few minutes of sprinkler fun. We'll have to try again when it's a little warmer.

Brett, Emma, and Cade went to Cade's baseball game while Maddi and I went to Rockford for a dance competition. Brett enjoys taking pictures of the games. This was Cade avoiding getting picked off at first.

He pitched as a releiver in the 5th inning and the whole 6th inning. I hear he did great.

We have three more baseball games in the next three days. Swim team is supposed to start too but he will have to miss the first 3 days because of baseball. Baseball and swimming make Cade a happy boy :)

Brett took a ton of pictures of Cade and I didn't get one picture of Maddi this whole weekend. I stole a few from fb from a few weeks ago. This is Maddi with the youngest girl in their company, Caitlyn. Cait and Maddi adore each other and Cait really looks up to Maddi.

This is some of the dance girls after class one day. They were silly one night and put stickers on their cheeks and then the girls took turns bringing stickers to wear on their cheeks during class for a few days. Dance makes Maddi very happy.

All of our kids make us very happy and seeing them happy is the greatest. Maddi was very happy (and we were proud as parents) to get a note from a parent of a boy at school. There is a boy, Jarid, who is new to the school this year and he's in a wheelchair and can't speak. He signs. Maddi has become friends with him and talk/signs with him each day at recess and will even help his teachers get him out of his wheelchair and go down the slides. Jarid's mom sent a note home to us saying how Jarid has enjoyed socializing with Maddi and would like to continue over the summer and asked for me to contact her to plan a time for them to get together. I'm sure most kids don't even pay him any attention, but Maddi noticed him, made the effort to get to know him and learned the alphabet in sign language and has been a friend to him. I imagine their friendship means the world to Jarid, but I'm pretty sure it means just as much to Maddi. I am so incredibly proud of the person she is and thankful for her kind heartedness.