Our week with Brad and the kids

What a fun week we had! Mom and Dad arrived with Brad, Jacob and Emma on Monday evening and all of us were very excited to see them! We had quite a week in store for us.

On Wednesday we went up to Wildlife Prairie Park in Peoria. It's a beautiful zoo-ish place with all sorts of animals that are native to this area. All the kids enjoyed seeing the animals, but they all loved when we went over to feed the animals. For just 25 cents a handful, those animals were well-fed on grain! Jacob figured out how to get the chickens to stick their heads out of the fence so we could pet them. Ellie loved feeding and petting the horse. When we went over to feed the goats and sheep, she still kept calling "horsey, horsey" to get their attention. It was too cute to correct her! It ended up being a wonderful day. We finished off the animal portion by watching a raptor program and learned all about barn owls and turkey vultures. The kids enjoyed watching the owl fly around the room. We then went and took a ride on the train through the park, which the kids enjoyed as well. The adults enjoyed sitting for awhile :) On the way home we stopped for ice cream and we could not wake Ellie up for anything to eat hers. She was pretty upset when we got home and she realized she had missed out. She had to have been exhausted to not stay up for ice cream!

Thursday morning I stayed home with the girls while Brad and his kids did shopping with Grandma and Grandpa. Emma and Grandma did clothes shopping for Emma. Her clothes are pretty worn out and small so Grandma had fun shopping for her. Jacob got to buy a fishing pole with Brad and Grandpa. He had a fishing outing on Saturday that he needed to shop for. He was very excited about that fishing pole. Then that afternoon Brad took his kids swimming while Sarah and Katie slept and Ellie played in the little pool out back. I was much too tired to go to a pool. It ended up being a more relaxing afternoon, which I needed. That evening we went down to Shelley (Stevens) Ropp’s garage sale. She had a huge amount of girl’s clothes that she was selling and she let us have a “preview” of her sale. We got a huge amount of clothes for my girls and to send to Troy and Rachel for Amelia. I also got a bike cart for us to use next summer when Steve is home so we can go on bike rides together. I am very excited about that one! Shelley has a little girl that is Emma’s age that the two girls really enjoyed playing with as well.

Friday we went to the Children’s Museum here in town. It was awesome. I had never been before, but it was great. We took just the older 3 kids, but I think Katie would really enjoy it, so we'll have to do it again sometime this summer. There was a painting wall (one of Ellie's favorites), water, air hoses, grocery store, arts and crafts, and all sorts of "Midwest" exhibits like cows, tractors and corn. Then after lunch we all headed out to McGraw Park to play. It turned out to be extremely windy and cooler, so the kids weren’t too excited to play in the water. Instead they spent most of the time on the swings and playground. It ended up being another fun outing to the park. They were all exhausted by then, but the evening had just begun. Brad had some friends over for a barbecue, so we spent the evening outside grilling and talking while the kids all played together.

Saturday morning Brad and Dad took Jacob fishing. There was a big fishing extravaganza at Miller Park and I guess there were so many people that the shoreline was completely covered by the time everyone arrived. They had stocked the pond ahead of time so there was a greater chance of the kids catching a fish or two. Jacob caught one and he was very proud of that catch. What a fun idea! While the boys were gone we walked around our neighborhood and checked out garage sales. I got more girl clothes at Shelley’s sale (she had restocked Friday night) and we even found a 2-wheeler with training wheels for Ellie. It’s still new to her, but she actually can pedal the bike- I was very impressed! Riding a tricycle first was definitely the way to go so she got the hang of pedaling without the brakes getting in the way. We invited Shelley’s girl, Lexy, over to play for a little while that morning. Ellie and Emma were not getting along, so I took her and Sarah grocery shopping and left Emma and Lexy to play. We love having our cousins here, but unfortunately Emma and Ellie have been fighting like sisters (or worse) the whole time. It’s been getting worse as Ellie is getting less and less sleep. That afternoon we decided that everyone needed some rest, so we put them all in front of movies and I took a much-needed nap. But then of course no one was tired at bedtime, so we took them all on a nice, long walk to wear them out a bit. I think the adults are more tired than the kids!

And that’s where we are so far. We’ll head to church here pretty soon. It could be intere
sting with all of us cooped up in one place. All I can say is- wish us luck! So far we have had a very fun week. It’s been great having Brad and the kids here. My girls adore Jacob and love to play with him. He is extremely gentle and sweet and really knows how to play well with them. Emma is a sweetheart and her energy wears us all out- Ellie has had fun trying to be just like her.

On a side note- Katie has finally learned how to go down the stairs on her tummy. After one tumble down the stairs because she was trying to walk down them on her own, she decided maybe she learn a new method. I am very relieved that she finally figured this one out! She’s growing really fast and is starting to thin out a bit. She can reach up to counter tops now. Danger, danger! She’s just a crack-up. Her little giggle and gap-toothed smile melts me every time. Ellie is definitely in an investigative stage. She wants to know what the consequences will be for all sorts of actions- good and bad. She tends to take on the personality of the person she is with, which is very similar to Steve and me. Not always a good thing, but it’s a great way for her to test what works for her and what doesn’t. It’s fun to watch her grow and learn. Sarah is growing and becoming more alert. Her head control is getting better and I’m just waiting for that first smile. I know she wants to- I just haven’t found how to get it out of her yet. She’ll be 8 weeks old on Tuesday. It’s crazy how fast the time has gone!

Well, I’ll try to get pictures up soon and I’ll finish writing about our week with Brad sometime next week. I’m not used to being so busy!