Happy Birthday to Twins!

Happy 2nd Birthday to the Julius twins, Kristin and Sarah!



We got quite the treat today, our boys were invited to be a part of the girls birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. I can't believe they're 2. Though it makes sense, Sam is, and has been for a few months. Chris and Emily are 3 months apart and Sam and the twins are also three months apart. It's good that all of us are Best Friends. It's become our tradition to go on the kid's birthdays, for lunch, during the week, to avoid the crowds. Super awesome.



My boyz agree.



Sam was having a wonderful time on the little merry go round, not sure how many times he rode it.



And Chris got a big kick out of this roller coaster ride. He figured out the way to go. Oh yes, he's ready for some coasters this year. In shoes, he's now tall enough for the one at the zoo, but we haven't done it, but he loves them. Just like Ma..and Pa!



It's hard for us to avoid having a Kiddie table, there's so many kids. But the kids were very happy about the pizza, even Chris ate!



How cute are these Birthday girls?!



Forget Pizza, Let's PLAY! They've got the right idea.

Under a shady tree, you and me

There's this Lori Berkner song, Under a shady tree. We love it.



The chorus goes, "Under a shady tree, you and me. Under a shady tree, you and me." Today after Chris went to day camp, Sam and I and went to meet some friends at Ellis Park. Only no one else showed up.



The sun was still low in the sky, and instead of terrible heat and humidity, like we've had the last couple days, Sam and I enjoyed a relaxing bit of time in the park. It's funny that I got to go there with Sam. I hadn't been since 3 summers ago, when I used to go walking when Chris was at Sycamore services summer developmental preschool. I found out I was pregnant that summer. I had a clue when one day after a walk, I felt the great need to curl up and take a nap...at 10 in the morning. Yeah, I was preggers. Miracle #2.



I loved the park, and today, So did Sam. This week's Crazy Days of Summer theme was Light, so I've been keeping my eyes peeled for some beautiful light. Well, Sam and I found it today.



We took a walk across a bridge, literally over the river and through the woods. Found a pretty creek.



And we found a pretty little wildflower garden.



And it was a little shady too.



How I loved spending a little time today under a shady tree with my Sam.

Wordless Wednesday

Celebration of the 4th

Happy 4th of July!



Am I crazy for putting us all in red? Maybe. But I love the matching clothes look, and the boys are only going to let me do it for a little while longer. They are growing up too fast. Sigh.



First thing on our docket yesterday was to be in the Parade. How wonderfully freeing that we can march in the town parade for our Church VBS. That's Freedom of Religion in action right there. God bless the USA!



The theme this year is Pandamania! so the boys got Panda ears to sport along with their flags.



And then both boys were invited to ride the float. Nothing says Festivity like bunny ears, with panda ears, and Flags. :)



Sweet Brothers.



Sam and his friend Jenny. He got bribed into happiness by digging into the lollipops we were throwing to the kids. I tried to limit their candy intake, but I think they had a steady stream of candy in their mouths all morning.



This wink gets me, every time.



Here's our group on the float, of course, it was raining. Did I mention it was raining? Well it was, a nice drizzle, just enough to frizz our hair, and then enough to put droplets on my camera.



Eric and Chris toss candy to the kids along the parade route.



There was a bucket of candy on the back of the float for those of us (Moms mostly) who were walking behind, to grab fistfuls and toss. Gotta say, my favorite part was beaning the occasional teenager or other mom with a piece of candy. Really appealed to my delinquent side. To Chris's too, once the kids started to run low of candy on the float, Sticky Fingers McWillman started to go for our candy too, almost going overboard. He had to be shut down and banished from the back of the truck.



After the parade, we had a picnic to go to. Grandpa Willman grilled out brats, so we headed to their place to meet up with the rest of the Fam. While we waited, Chris asked very nicely if he could try on my new hat. I couldn't say no. He was so adorable in it.



And added bonus of this holiday weekend is celebrating my niece's, our Goddaughter's, birthday. Alexis was born on the 3rd, and she just celebrated her 10th birthday! Grandma was real subtle with a giant cookie. She's growing into such an amazing young lady, its not fair. I can't believe she's in double digits already.



Meanwhile the boys enjoyed some mini-cupcakes.



Uncle Karl took a few moments to read to Chris and Kaylee, it was so sweet. Meanwhile Sam was having a great time being tossed around by Aunt Erica.




After naps, Mommy could no longer move; my back didn't like walking to the parade, in the parade, and home from the parade. I hurt. So we didn't walk down to the fireworks show. We didn't go anywhere. This last pic was the view from the back window, lots of our neighbors were shooting off things, but it just hurt for me to watch. We put the kids to bed at a semi-reasonable hour, and listened to the fireworks from the safely inside our home. Somehow even with getting them to bed at 9, they still had the post-holiday snips today. Oh well, drugs and a good night sleep help with the pain, and an all pajama day, we're all doing much better today.

Happy 4th of July!

Surely there will be more to follow, but we must go play, for now, have a very happy and safe holiday!

Slumber Party

It's been very touch and go for a while, whether or not we could move, when we would move. Well, we didn't exactly get certified occupy-able yesterday, but Close. The inspector told us we could start moving some stuff in, that the house passed. There's drama in the backyard, and the plumbing isn't quite done, so we can't Live there yet, but we got the ok to start the process.



And to us, the first step in living in a new place is the Inaugural Slumber Party. So we did it last night.



We packed up just enough stuff for a slumber party, we had a House Showing so Fina got to come with us too for the first time. It was her first visit to the new house.
We loaded down with jammies, sleeping bags (forgot pillows though - doh!), folding chairs, and a cooler loaded with the bare necesities: beer and milk. The boys went wild as soon as we got in.



We found our upstairs loft to be a mighty cozy area. And the kids were thrilled to be there, and couldn't stop dancing for joy.



Then we ordered pizza. A classic tradition for any First Night.



Daddy's first pizza order! Our official first home visitor was the pizza guy! We have a family tradition the first night in a new house, ordering pizza, not eating on furniture, sitting on the floor, but the downstairs floor was kind of dusty (ok a lot dusty). So we ate our first family dinner on folding chairs, boxes, a cooler.



And it was Awesome!



Then it was time to go to bed. Upstairs. Chris voted to sleep in 'his room' with his brother. They were so adorable.



These are the sweetest.



The boys performed a Good Night song and dance to end our evening. A perfect ending to a great night.



Eric and I had a couple beers and sat in our kitchen and enjoyed a quiet evening. My favorite part of this room is this light.



It was wonderfully relaxing for Eric and I just sit and bask in its light. For Eric, this wasn't his first time staying all night in the new house...just the first he was going to be sleeping.

Chris slept ok, but Sam did not. He spent the first few hours crying, and then we finally gave up and pulled him out of the pack-n-play into the bedroom with us, on the floor. That made him even angrier. Not sure what was setting him off (he was only content to hold my hand) all night. There was not a lot of sleeping.

Yet somehow the boys found copious amounts of energy come morning. The grabbed the few sweeping implements we had and were having a great time cleaning house.



A beautiful view. A beautiful house. God has really Blessed us with a lovely home, a lovely day, and a glimpse of even more to come.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy Birthday to my wonderful Mother In Law, Christine!

We had a wonderful opportunity to kidnap Grandma and go to the Eiteljorg museum for the day.

Grandma and Sam had fun looking at the 'Booger mask' of the Red Black exhibit. Sam kept chanting Booga, no have Booga, have Booga. Such a boy.



Leave it to Grandma and Sam to find all the musical items in the kids area. They played drums of varying sorts, and a dulcimer.



Sam and Grandma set about to 'building' a family totem. They made sure to cover the necesities like a blue car, and camera. ;)



Happy Birthday cuddles for Sam and Grandma as they rock and roll on the stagecoach.



Sam and Grandma take a little horse ride.



Grandma even talked Mommy into hopping on a pony...I think it's been a good decade since I got on any kind of horse.



Love this one. Love that Sam loves this awesome old phone.



It's a Wigwam...not a teepee. :)



Turns out we can escape outside from the museum into a lovely little garden, walking along the canal. It was like standing in the wilderness, surrounded by trees and flower and peaceful quiet, but still being downtown.



We went over to the State Museum for lunch at the Ayres Tea Room, where we had phenomenal food for a quite reasonable price. And the ambience was lovely. I can remember going to the original Tea Room with my family multiple times, so I was reticent about going to this imitation place. But they retained a number of the original recipes, which was great. Even Sam ate his weight. What a great place for a girls (+Sam) birthday celebration.

Though we didn't stick around and do the entire museum, Sam prefered to keep moving, but we sure Love this State!



Happy Birthday Mom! And Thanks for a wonderful day!