2nd week of June

The second week of June was just as busy as every week of June. Maddi had the day off from dance Monday and she enjoyed some time in the kitchen. She made macaroni for lunch, jello for dessert and it seems like something else too but I have forgotten what it was. Brett was in the city for two nights for meetings and while he was there, they put him in the Presidential Suite. We considered spending a night with him but with Maddi's crazy dance schedule, it just didn't work out. Instead, we enjoyed the beautiful evening at home and watched Emma draw smiley faces with sidewalk chalk.

It is the cutest thing how she spins around in a circle to draw the circle and then puts on the eyes and mouth.

Tuesday I had to run a few errands at the mall and we made a quick stop at the Furry Babies store to see puppies. Cade was in love with this little husky. He wants to have a husky when he's an adult and name it snowball. He says he likes huskies because their eyes are blue and they remind him of Omie's eyes.

Emma was full of cheesy smiles. She really wanted to see a little puppy she could hold, but they were all sleeping. She asked to go back and see if the puppies were awake the next day so she could hold them.

Tuesday night, Cade had his first summer swim meet. Maddi had her friend, Jane, come with us and it ended up being a blessing Jane was there. 2 minutes after getting to the swim meet, Maddi asked for ice cream. I told her to take Emma to the park for a little bit and then have ice cream because we had all night to eat ice cream. Man, I wish I had listened to Maddi and let her have the ice cream....Maddi took Emma down the slide and felt they were going too fast so she pushed her leg against the side to slow down. Her knee buckled and she was hurt pretty badly. She started screaming in pain which made Emma start screaming. Jane came running back to the swim meet to find me. Maddi wouldn't straighten her leg at all and wouldn't stop crying (either would Emma) so I decided to take her to urgent care for xrays.

Thankfully Jane was with us to help me get Maddi to the car and into urgent care. Maddi enjoyed the wheelchair, I think. While in the waiting room, she pulled out a tooth, I should add. Brett was in the city and if he had tried to drive back out to Oswego, he'd be stuck in traffic and he wouldn't be much help at that point. Thankfully Cade was able to stay with some family friends and they cheered him on at the swim meet while I took Maddi. Apparently Cade did great in his first two events. I got back for his last event, 78, only to have the meet cancelled at event 74 due to the lights going off at the pool. It ended up Maddi had xrays that showed she didn't have any breaks or tears or anything. Jane and Maddi went home and Jane took care of Maddi until I was done at the swim meet with Cade. What a night!

Thursday we made our annual trip to the Jelly Belly warehouse in Wisconsin with the Deckers. The kids wanted to take the tour so they could get their free jelly beans :)

Maddi (11), Emma (2), Meg (5), Jill (8), Cade (9), Abby (9)

After we bought all of our sugary goodness, we headed to the park to burn some of it off. That also means the annual nasty jelly bean eating contest.

Emalyn was the only smart kid who didn't participate in the contest.

Meg and Emalyn spent some time hanging out together.

I wonder if Cade was eating boogers, canned dog food, skunk spray, diaper wipes, or what flavor or grossness.

Maddi taking just a little taste.

I've never tasted these nasty flavors, but I have smelled the kids breathe after eating them and I can say their breathe smelled just like dog food, skunk, etc. NASTY!

Crazy how big the kids are all getting.

Once the kids made their way to digging in the sand, it was time to call it a day. As always, we had a great time visiting. We are so happy they have moved back from China and hope to see them later this summer again.

Later that week, Cade bought a new water gun and Emma enjoyed learning how to use it. Now that the weather is nice and warm, Emma loves to go outside and hang out, even by herself. Such a cutie pie!

More Baseball and Dance

Thursday with Grammy was busy with me teaching, Maddi going to dance and tutoring and Cade going to swim team practice. Grammy enjoyed some time at the park with Emma while we waited for Cade to finish swimming. That afternoon, we met Maddi's friend Jarid at the park. I mentioned in an earlier post, it was God's perfect timing that we had a playdate set with Jarid while Grammy was here. It was emotional for Janet and Jarid's mom to talk about their children with cerebal palsy and I know it made Janet's heart very happy to see Maddi and Jarid interact. I know it certainly made my heart happy to see Maddi with Jarid, she had talked about him all year, but I had never met him. As we were leaving the park, he drove his wheelchair over to our car to try to see Maddi one more time. He was busted by his mom. So cute!
On Friday Maddi had dance most of the day and Cade, Emma, Janet and I had a nice lunch at Chilis. That evening Cade had a baseball scrimage.
Saturday morning, Cade had a baseball game and Maddi had pictures for dance. Emma insisted on wearing a costume like her sister and wanted to get a picture taken too. I snapped this on my phone, but the photographer did take a cute one of the two of them together.

Emalyn was wearing a costume Maddi wore her first year in dance company, when she was in first grade. It was a little big on Emma but considering she's only two, it's hard to believe it fit Maddi when she was 7. Emma matched little Caitlin so we got a picture of them together. Little cuties!

Maddi was very interested in Grammy's cane. This was the first time we have seen Grammy using a cane, but we were glad to see she was using it, she makes us nervous walking! Maddi talked Grammy into letting her gem the cane for her so Maddi spent Saturday afternoon making the cane all sparkly and colorful. Grammy is a good sport and will let her grandkids do whatever they want. It made Maddi quite happy.

Sunday was a busy day that started with a baseball game, followed by lunch and then a mad dash to Maddi's dance recital. Cade and friends hanging in the dugout.

Grammy with Cade in uniform at lunch. Cade's lucky he got to have both grandmother's at his baseball games two weeks in a row.

At the dance recital, they had some raffles (we didn't win. boo!) and Maddi and Katie were the assistants. Maddi's friend, Jarid, came to the recital with his mom and sister. Jarid was really enjoying the music and dancing and would squeal when he really liked something, like when Maddi was dancing. So cute!

The recital was very long (4 hours)and Jarid and Emma only made it until intermission. Janet and I stuck it out to the end. Emma, Brett and Janet at one of the breaks. Emma insisted on wearing a costume to the recital too. She just wants to be like her big sister. I can't blame her!

At the end of the recital, they presented the teachers with scrapbooks that everyone made a page for. Maddi had a bag to give to the ballet teacher, but she had to leave before it was over. There are many things about dance that I don't love (the time and money, really) but the teachers are so good the girls and really care about them so much.

The dancing queen with Grammy after the show.

When we got home, Emalyn wanted to show us her dance moves. Brett had her take off her costume while she ate dinner, but she wanted it back on right after she ate. She slept in it too and kept talking about her ballet class (she doesn't go to a ballet class. ha!).

Emma learns all of her dance skills from her sister and from watching dance videos in the car. This is one of her favorite moves. Funny, it's one of Maddi's favorites too.

We realized we didn't have many pictures with Emma and Grammy from the trip so we got a few Sunday night before Grammy left early Monday morning. Emma was very happy to see Grammy for a couple days and then she wasn't very sweet to her. In fact one time I came downstairs and Emma told me she had yelled at Grammy! I'm not sure if she was tattling on herself or was proud of herself. It earned her a time out anyway. Thankfully by Sunday night she was a fan of Grammy again.

Something was very funny!

One of Emma's favorite things to do is to "ding dong". When we get home from somewhere, she always wants to run to the front door herself and "ding dong" us. She doesn't know to ring the bell, but just presses on the window and says "ding dong". It's so stinking cute. She wanted to ding dong us while she was playing with Grammy.

We had a great visit with Grammy and are so happy she was able to come visit us. She's never come for as long as she did because she always had to get back to work. Now she's retired, so she's got time to do these kinds of things.

Fun with Grammy

Grammy wanted to see the city while she was here and we figured an architecture cruise would be a fun way that involved the least amount of walking. Wednesday, Brett took off from work, and Maddi skipped dance and we had a fun day in Chicago. I have to note that Maddi has a ridiculous schedule for dance this month, usually about 6 hours per day. Anyway, we were lucky to park close by the Wrigley building, which is where the cruise departed. Our crew, minus Brett.

We ate a yummy lunch at Corner Bakery and then made our way to catch the boat. Grammy and Maddi chilling on the bench waiting to board. We didn't realize how many steps there were to get down to the river. There was an elevator for part of it, but Grammy had to take the stairs the rest of the way. Thankfully, she did ok and didn't fall :)

Me and my baby boy. We were first in line to board the boat!

On the boat and ready for some fun. The kids have been wanting to ride a boat and Emma was very excited about riding a boat too.

As much as I want to move back to Texas, I have to say that I will miss Chicago and doing fun things like this, if or when we ever do get back to Texas. It was a gorgeous sunny day with a high in the upper 70s.

I think Daddy went over to make sure that Maddi had a good hold on Emma so she didn't take a swim in the Chicago river.

Maddi and Cade seem to be listening intently to the tour guide while Emma is cheesing it up for the camera. Ha!

One of my favorite building in Chicago with the round parking garage. The tour guide said the condos are pie shape inside. Weird.

Cookie time! We bought cookies at Corner Bakery and saved them for the tour. About 5 minutes into the tour, the kids were already asking for their cookies. They are just like their mommy, I guess. I have been craving another monster cookie from there. It was soooo good!

One of the draw bridges opening. We got stuck in traffic on the way into the city because they were opening one of the bridges to let a big sailboat through.

I've done the river cruise a few times, but this time we went into the locks and out into the lake as well. It was pretty cool to see how the locks work, I could never really wrap my head around it. We had a good view of Navy Pier and the city as we waited in the locks.

This lighthouse has a funny story. I was asking the kids later that night if they learned anything from our tour and they both said they learned a lot. I asked their favorite thing they learned, and Maddi said she liked hearing how people used to run around naked at the lighthouse. So the story is that the Navy used to run the lighthouse but realized they could rent it to civilians for $1.00/month and they could run the lighthouse. It worked well until one of the tenants liked to have parties out there and that was fine until the people started running around the lighthouse naked during the parties. Then the military decided not to rent the lightouse out anymore. Of all the things we learned, that stuck out to Maddi. So funny. She was also amazed that someone could live there for only $12.00/year. I can't remember what Cade learned now but I know it was something more educational. lol

Not a great picture, but one of the only ones with Grammy on the boat.

Me with my cookie and Emma thinking about taking a nap. She didn't nap and really did well considering the tour was during her nap time and lasted 2 hours.

A very pretty city.

I wonder what Cade was thinking...

Pretty Maddi girl.

The crazy McDonald crew once we got back to the dock. Our tour guide was very interesting and I wish I remembered even half of what he told us. He just graduated with his Masters in History with an emphasis in Chicago History so he had some good architecture information but also some good history lessons. I'm not much for history, but he made it very interesting.

After the cruise, we stayed at street level to get back to our car. Emma talked her Bubba and Sissy into doing 1, 2, 3 jump with her! She really is one lucky little girl. We were going to go to the shore of Lake Michigan to one of the beaches, but decided to head back home to avoid rush hour traffic. After we got home, we went to the pool for a bit and then called it a day. It was a fun afternoon making memories.