Wedding Day Prep

Thanks to Aunt E for all of the fantastic pictures.

Here are some pictures of us getting ready for the big event!

M getting her hair done!

Voilà!  Gorgeous and very mature hairstyle for a four-year-old.

 














All dressed up for the occasion.  M even got to wear lip-gloss and blush!

Sittin' pretty.

Girls just wanna have fun!

~

Wedding: Rehearsal Dinner

As promised, here are lots more pictures from the weekend of Aunt J and Uncle S's wedding!  Here are some pictures form the rehearsal dinner.

We luckily had two flower girl dresses, so M was very pretty for both rehearsal and wedding.  It was a long night and the kids were pretty pooped by the end of it.  We had a delicious dinner at Buttita's.

M and Daddy

C and Mama

M with that glazed over look.

~

Marwiage Is What Bwrings Us Together Today: Rehearsal

Aunt J and Uncle S got married last weekend, and they asked M to be the flower girl.  It was a great honor for M, and she made us all so proud.  I will have more pics later, but these are the initial few:

The beautiful bride Aunt J and M at the rehearsal!

M's "practice" flower petals - very easy to make. I just eyeballed a flower petal shape, and then used my finger nail to curl them.  Even made them in the wedding color scheme!

Getting ready for the practice round!


C had no interest in sitting through the rehearsal, and instead was loud, obnoxious, and insisted on wondering around the church and up into the choir loft until I eventually took him outside to the playground:

Weeee....

And here is a preview of the big day (lots more to come):

~

Carseat Driver

"Go faster so you can go through the green light before it turns red!"

"Hurry up!"

"Ughhh - why are you going so slow..."

Talk about a backseat driver!

She likes when she's in the car with Daddy.  "We go fast together, don't we Daddy!"

~

Oink, Moo, Neigh

C has been learning and practicing his animal noises lately.  He will copy almost any noise we make, and does a decent job.  He has mastered:

Roar - and can I say, he couldn't be more adorable when he roars!

Moo

Baa

Neigh

Meow

Quack
Ooo-Ooo Aaa-Aaa

and is working steadfastly on
Woof
Ribbit
Gurgle (fish sound)
and more!

We've had lots of great animal books to help us out along the way.  Even though most of them do not specifically emphasize animal sounds, we add them in!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Eric Carle
My First Word Bath Book has a really great animal page with vibrant pictures
Shark in the Dark  by Ben Cort- a great rhmying book, and we do roar for the shark, and gurgles for the fish.
Caps for Sale by Esphyr Slobodkina - lots of monkeys!
Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You? by Dr. Suess 
The Farmyard Tales series has lots of different animals too. 


Also, Sandra Boynton has some really fantastic books.
Moo, Baa, La La La
Doggies!  - Lots of woof, bark, arf-arf, and a nice long howl too!
And my new favorite, a gift from Aunt B, is called Perfect Pigs, and you can download the song from her website!  Highly recommended!

~

Non-compliant

C's sweet, cute little "Yeah" has been replaced by the ugly, mean, nasty "No!"  He says it constantly. Before even thinking, he is already spitting out "No!"

What happened to my agreeable little baby?  I'm hoping its just a phase.

~

Creature

Best quote of today:

"The mailbox was knocked down by creatures," which she then defined as "the mean guys who broke it"

Good use of vocab, babe!

The #3 definition of creature: person; human being.

~

Daycare Fieldtrip: Airport

K took the kids to the airport last week!  Apparently it was such a slow day at Willard Airport that the staff told her to head over to Flightstar.  Staff gave them a personal tour, and even let them get in an airport firetruck with sirens, lights, and all!  The kids were fascinated, and the friendliness and service of the folks there was so phenomenal!  Even told them to come back again!

M in the carosel door

Looking for airplanes!

Thanks to all the Willard/Flightstar staff who entertained the kids!

~

Daycare Fieldtrip: Area Parks

Not sure which park this is, but I really liked the photos K took of their visit.

M from the lookout point!

C in the sand.

So cute!

Slide!

~

Daycare Fieldtrips: Champaign Library

K has been regularly attending story time at the Champaign Library.  It is newly remodeled, and they have a fantastic childrens department and wonderful childrens librarians.

C plays at the library before story time

M and C settle in for a story.

C and J, very entertained and intent on listening to the librarian.

Lego table!

~

Daycare Fieldtrip: Curtis Orchard

K took the boys to Curtis Orchard earlier this summer too!  I love how much K takes advantage of the local resources we have for little ones.

C and Baby J fly on the swings!

C peeks through the bus door.

C in the playhouse.

Can't wait for a little later this fall when we can go apple picking!

~

Daycare Fieldtrip: Decatur Children's Museum

K took the kids to the Children's Museum of Illinois in Decatur last week.  I've never been, but it sure looks like an awesome place to take small kids.  Check out all the neat things they did:

 M changes a tire at the Super Service Station.

 M and C go shopping at the Johnston Supermarket.

Water table fun.

M gets her hands dirty at the Deep Blue Sea Paint Wall!

~

Daycare Fieldtrip: Allerton Park

K has been busy this summer!  She has taken the kids all over the place.  She is so great at keeping me involved with the kids, and sending me pictures throughout the day of their adventures.  Here are some highlights from today's trip to Allerton Park.

The kids walk through the towering juniper bushes.

Stopping for a pose on the steps of the sunken garden.

 M posing with a statue.

C on the steps of the gazebo.

M pushing the stroller through the Fu Dog garden - one of my all-time favorite gardens! How cool!

~

Battle of the Sexes

While we try not to strongly influence the kids with gender-stereotypes, this is the scene that I happened upon as we loaded up in the car the other day:

M with babydoll, C with big ball.

So, no matter how hard you try, it seems to happen anyway...

~

Uninvited Guest

M spent the day with Uncle M a couple of weeks ago, and upon her return, they happened upon a friendly cicada in the driveway.  Uncle M is known for his love of insects, and excitedly placed it on his shoulder and brought it in the house to show C.

The kids greet the cicada.  C continuously yells out "Bug!" 

Time for your close-up!

~

Pooped Out

After the very long weekend, this is how we found the kids on the couch Sunday night:

Zonked.

~

Nocturnal

M and I were discussing nocturnal animals, bats specifically, as we crossed under the covered bridge inside Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve.  Which led to a conversation about owls. 

I asked M, "What time are we awake?"

"When it's light out!"

"That's right," I continued, "and what do we do at night time?" hinting at an answer of sleep - but oh, no. Not M:

"Read books!" she answered enthusiastically.  Yep!

~

M's 4th Birthday Party

We had over forty people at our house for M's 4th birthday party.  We don't usually see that kind of crowd unless my husband's family is visiting!  We had a great time.

We started out with a monkey craft, thanks very much to Uncle M's friend M for prepping that craft - it was a huge hit:

Then we began our Dora adventure.  We had to swing through the jungle vines (jump ropes), then cross the river (blue paper), then go through the hoola hoop maze to find our "backpacks"

Friend F, crossing the river.

Fourteen children attended our party and participated in the events!  Wow - I didn't know we knew that many children!  We had great representation from all of the various social groups that Mary has - school, two day cares, random kids of mom and dad's friends, etc.

Swiper the Fox paid the group a visit, trying to swipe our backpacks!  But we told him "Swiper, no swiping!"  Uncle S was a good sport, even though he didn't want to fill this role.  He fulfilled his god-fatherly duty.

C gets his turn to be Swiper The Fox.

Once our backpacks were decorated, we proceeded to collect prizes out of buckets spread out around the yard:

Friend F claims his prize.

Lastly, we topped off our backpacks with the candy from the Dora pinata:

C takes a swing.

We were all exhausted at the end of the night.  But my little girl had a great time:

My little girl is growing up!

~

Fantastic Farm

We went out to Ashmore, IL to celebrate our friend A's 2nd birthday.  The highlight was the pony that A got for her birthday from her grandma.

Me and the kids on an ATV ride!

I'd never seen the smile on C's face so big as it was when he was ridin' on the pony.  The pony's name is Crackerjack.

C loved playing catch with the birthday girl!

We needed some fresh air in the country (after the morning we had!), and the kids had a blast.

~

No Regrets?

After a particularly difficult morning, which included a forty minute power struggle/argument about lids on cups, both my husband and I were pretty fed up.  We continued with our busy Saturday as best we could, getting the kids ready to run some errands.  M carried on about the cups, even stating that if four-year-olds are too big for cup lids, then she "didn't want to be four anymore!"  So there.

Finally, as we loaded the kids into the car, M questioned Daddy, in a how-do-you-like-me-now sort of way:

"Why did you have children!?"

Sometimes I wonder that myself, my dear...

~