Camping at Pere Marquette

This weekend we went camping at Pere Marquette State Park in Illinois. It started off saying it was going to be cold and windy, but it actually turned out to be a perfect weekend. We did get a little rain on Friday morning but that was it. The kids got to play a lot more outside with this trip than they did the camping trip before. Here is a few pictures of what we did all weekend.











Here is Adriana and Andrew skating. Adriana roller blades and Andrew just uses Adriana's old roller skates. They are both getting really good at it.













Here is Adriana and Andrew roasting marshmellos to make somores. Don't worry they were very closely supervised :)

They both created their "masterpieces" on the roads.

We went on frequent walks with Maw Maw's dog Daisy. She was very worn out by the end of the trip.

We spent our evenings sitting around the campfire. We haven't been able to tell ghost stories since I would like to get a little sleep at night without two very scared kiddos :)

And Adriana would help cook breakfast in the mornings. Don't worry her supervisor is standing next to her :o

Yes Joey was on the trip with us. He just didn't get to do as much but he did get a lot of fresh air and had lots of fun watching his older siblings. Don't worry Joey, you'll be joining in on the fun faster than momma would like!!!!

Second trip to the Magic House

Most kids are lucky to get a chance to go to the Magic House once a week, but thanks to my forgetfulness (I forgot my cell phone there on Saturday) we got to go again on Sunday. This time we brought Aunt Kimmie, Kaitlyn, and Jacob with us so they could have some fun too.


Here is a picture of Aunt Kimmie helping all the kids with their art projects, OK so maybe she is only helping mine ;)



















Here is Andrew creating his masterpiece while the other kids got to go see an exhibit for older kids.







Here is the kids having a safe water war with each other.









Joey got to enjoy a little water fun too!

Princess Fairy Tale Tea Party

We took Adriana to the Fairy Tale Princess Tea Party at the magic house. What fun she had! She had to get her picture taken with Cinderella to show both of their dresses (she's such a girl)








Adriana and Maw Maw making her princess tiara










Adriana eating her snack and wearing her Tiara








Here is Joey and Cinderella, I think Daddy was a little jealous he wasn't there for this picture :)

Congratulations Jacob!

Congratulations Jakey Bob on your First Communion! We are all so proud of your accomplishments and what a great little man you've become!!!!!








Jacob with MawMaw and Paw Paw









Jacob, Kaitlyn, Adriana and Andrew











Jacob and Adriana (best buds!)

Fun with cousins

Maria brought Gabe, Mike, and Angeline over to play with the kids yesterday. They always have so much fun playing together, although 6 kids under the age of 5 gets to be a big handful for us to entertain. Here is a few pictures of the kids playing together.

Michael and Andrew blowing bubbles together.

Adriana telling the boys not to get to messy playing in the sprinkler.

Of course they don't listen to her and have lots of fun getting wet in the sprinkler. Andrew kept stinking his butt in front of the sprinkler and letting it hit him.

Uh oh, we got a little too messy! Time for a bath!

Angeline and Joey hanging out inside where its nice and cool!

Adriana's horseback riding.

Adriana has started horseback riding again, but now she is riding a new horse. Moon has been put into retirement because of his age and now she is starting to ride Trusha. Trusha is a younger and faster horse so Adriana was a little nervous riding her for the first time. She rode her around the block and only made it halfway and asked to get off. Next time we are just going to have her ride in the arena and see how she does.

Our trip to the Zoo

So my friend Whitney called me and asked me if I wanted to come meet her at the Zoo today. Sure I said. The weather is finally starting to get nicer and that would be a really fun way to spend the day with my kiddos. What the heck was I thinking taking all three kids out by myself?! It all started out great and we started heading out to see the animals. I had both boys in the stroller and Adriana was walking next to me. Then Adriana started complaining that her feet were hurting so I took Andrew out of the stroller and let her sit down. What? Take Andrew out of the stroller to let him run free? Thats exactly what he did too, run free. He was trying to climb over the fences and get to the animals (crazy boy). So I decided to carry Joey and put Andrew back in the stroller. Now I don't know if you've ever tried to push a double stroller with two kids in it and try to carry another one but it just doens't work. So I had Adriana get back out and put Joey back in. Well now Joey is starting to get fussy because he is tired but doesn't want to miss anything by going to sleep. He finally goes to sleep though so we continue on down to see the penquins. We go into the building, which I might add is very cold. That of course wakes Joey back up. He is doing good though and just looking around. We leave the penquin house and continue our quest to see the giraffs. Adriana starts complaining that her feet hurt again so out comes Joey (I've learned not to let Andrew out) and I'm trying to push this heavy stroller up the hill to the giraffes. Whitney starts laughing at me trying to do this and switches strollers with me. Now Joey starts fussing again and we finally make it to the Giraffes. Both kids get out of the stroller to see the animals and I put Joey back in. Then Whitney and Kelly start yelling that Andrew is running away. I start to walk after him and see him stop so I head towards him. Now I see him almost over the fence to whatever animal was in there and had to run and grab him down. I get back to the stroller and now Joey is screaming and won't calm down so that ended my fun filled day at the Zoo. I have to put a reminder into myself not to ever go by myself again. I did get a few pictures in of the kids.




Adriana and Andrew looking in at the fish at the hippo area. Unfortunately none of the hippos were in there.









A picture of the three kids. Adriana and Andrew were arguing over who gets to hold Joey.

A picture of one of my favorite animals. I think they said this was actually one of the babies, not sure which one. It didn't look like much of a baby to me :)

A picture of Andrew smelling a flower that I asked him not to pick. Andrew and directions don't go very well together.

Joey's Baptism!!!!

Well Joey is officially a Catholic now! He was baptised on 04/20/08 at St. Peters Catholic Church. His Godfather is Uncle Dan and his Godmother is Aunt Emily. He did really well during the ceremony and actually fell asleep. There was 11 babies getting baptised all together, it was crazy! I take it back he did great until Father Ghio poured the holy water all over his head and he started crying. But he settled down really quick. We had the reception in a reserved room at Culpeppers. It was great being in the room by ourselves and all the kids could run around and play together without interrupting anyone else. Joey managed to sleep through all the festivities there as well :)




Here is Joey getting his blessing from Father Ghio!








Joey and his Godparents!





















Uncle Dan lighting the baptismal candle and blowing it out.





Joey wearing his Baptism garment












Here is a picture of Joey's cake. It was really cute. It was a quarter sheet cake with a sheep cake on top and on it was written "May the lamb of God bless Joseph on his Baptism Day!" I got it from IGA (Man I love their cakes!)

Earthquake!

What a crazy night! On 4/10/08 at approximately 4:37am Chris and I were suddenly awaken to our bed shaking uncontrolably. We looked at each other and I asked what was going on? At first I thought it was a tornado because the news was calling for storms overnight. I jumped up and looked outside but it was dry and no wind at all. I ran into the kids room to check on them but they were both sound asleep and snoring away. Finally it all stopped. Then I sat there wondering to my self "What do you do during an earthquake?" I had no idea since we don't have them very often around here. I'm very prepared if its a tornado but I don't know about an earthquake. And the more people I talked to about it the next day said the same thing. I guess I'm going to have to start practicing some earthquake drills......just in case. I also had to check on my insurance policy to see if it included earthquakes, luckily it does. I'm glad it was just a warning to us this time and no one was injured, next time I'll be prepared!!!!

April Camping trip

So we went on our first camping trip for the year this weekend. We camped at Cuiver River State Park. It started out great. It was actually a little hot out and I had to change the kids into shorts. Of course they had a lot of fun playing in all the mud and water that was left over from the rain they had this morning (as you can see from the picture. We camped next to Maw Maw and Paw Paw which the kids love because they can go from one camper to another.

Adriana chose to spend the night in Maw Maw and Paw Paw's camper this weekend so we just had the boys. They would fall asleep next to each other at night as we would watch a movie.

Paw Paw brough Jacob down on Friday afternoon to spend the rest of the weekend with us. The three kids had so much fun playing together. And even though it got really, really cold the rest of the weekend they did get to play outside a little. Adriana and

Jacob had fun roller blading and Andrew actually learned how to roller skate.

This was Joey's first camping trip. He was four months old. He seemed to really enjoy it especially on Thursday night when he could actually go outside. The rest of the weekend he just got to hang out inside because it was a little too cold for him. Overall I think he really enjoyed it and I know we are all looking forward to more camping trips this year. Just hopefully not on weekends that start off with 70 degree weather and end with it snowing.