Princess Party

Elle hosted a princess party for the girls in her Sunday school class. All the girls came dressed up in fancy clothes and we got out our fanciest plates, serving trays and decorations. It was quite girly. Jon was thankful he "had" to leave.

We had a short talk on the fact that every girl dreams of being a princess. There is no chance that we will actually wake up and live in a castle and have maids waiting on us but if we put our trust in God, we can be the DAUGHTER OF A HEAVENLY KING!! How exciting!! It is God's PLEASURE that He adopt us into His family and then we are PRINCESSES!!

We even had a prince. He was a great help. He got "punch" for everyone and helped light the candles. Doesn't he look handsome?

Elle came down in her fancy dress and had a very beautiful accessory!

Our fancy dinner

We did nails...

and hair...

And the finished product...

All the finished princesses!!

Very lady like, don't you think?

Olivia and Hillary

Paige and Raegan

Christina

Kaylie and Kelsie

Elle and Reese

Familiy Camp 2010

Every year we make the 4 hour trek to Family Camp in Indiana. This year, Graham, Elle, Jon and I drove out with my mom (my dad was de-tasseling corn) We were able to stay in Mom's pop-up camper, which is about as roughing it as I get.

When I was a kid, we would go to camp and play soccer and frisbee football from Thursday to Sunday and be hot and sweaty and not very hungry. We would stay up ridiculously late and sleep in the cabins. Now, however, I get to skip the teen camp part, show up in time for supper on Friday and for the rest of the weekend, we sit and eat. No more frisbee or soccer. No more hot and sweaty. No more cabins. No more staying up til insane hours. I now have the beautiful excuse that my kids will be cranky if we do not get to bed early. We stay in the camper all by ourselves and get dressed in peace. I get to sit at the lake and watch the kids swim instead of running ALL day long. I hardly ran at all this weekend, in fact. I am really feeling old. I told myself that I would NEVER be one of the lame mom's that sat on the sideline when there were games to be played. I am VERY HAPPILY the lame mom now. There is really no point in running. Which brings us to the meals that I was never very hungry for after running all day. Now, I am sitting at camp so I get hungry. I eat a full plate for every meal. It is really quite ridiculous.

It is really fun to see our kids enjoying camp now. Graham has all sorts of friends that he can't wait to see the next year. Elle made a great friend this year--Kiera. Kiera's aunt even got Elle to sing in the talent show. They did "The wise man built his house upon the rock" When they got to the end, they sang "and the house on the sand went..." Elle said right into the mic, "I don't know!"

Graham getting ready to go on the lake with a friend. They spent about 10 minutes in the reeds by the sid of the lake and decided kayaks were a good idea. They had much better luck with those.

Elle and Kiera

Susan and Carolyn kept Reese while we were gone. (Thanks guys!) They said she took naps and was good. I know Elle didn't get enough sleep and soon it was evidenced that they were both in need of a nap!!

Can't wait til next year!!

Potty Training

I am thinking of potty training Reese. She has made a pretty good run of it today but I am not holding my breath. This morning she unrolled all the toilet paper and then rolled it back up again! :)

Potty training is an exhausting thing (especially for the mom!) Being the stellar mom that I am, I let her run around naked all day. And yes, that did include some outside time. Just pray that the neighbors don't call DCFS before this is all over with. She was having a snack and...

Wish us luck!!

Wear your seat belt

I hope you can get to this. I am a firm believer in seat belts.

http://embracethis.co.uk//

Miller Park Zoo

Ari and her three kids and Becky and two of her kids went with us to Miller Park Zoo. We were quite a train!!

The petting zoo

The kids got to pet a Madagascar Hissing Cockroach!

Holding the millipede

Our whole crew. We also had Hayley, who is the granddaughter of Jon's coworker! It was a lot of kids but everyone did great!

We got McDonald's to avoid hypoglycemic meltdowns and had a picnic. Then we hit the splash park. Jack was getting brave.

I guess Reese doesn't understand corn cob holders

Walking in Parklands

Deer tracks! (Uncle Brian would be so proud!)
























































































Reese was a trooper! Her little legs just kept going! Unless there was something interesting to look at, of course.

Stopping to eat lunch

We found a dragon fly that had just molted. The skin is beside it and then in my hand in the next picture. I had never seen that before!!

We had so much fun exploring. My kids kept taking pic of EVERYTHING so this is just a few. It started raining at the very end and we were very glad to see the van. Reese had to be carried for a little way because she said, "My shoes are tired." It was a great way to spend the morning!!