the rest

The rest of our time was spent at Eve and Joe's house in Champaign Il. We went house hunting with them one day, spent a day shopping at outlets, and went to Allerton park another day. It was so nice getting to catch up and play cards (Rook and Spades) every night...like the 'old' days! Anne taught us a new game (Bananagrams) too. *we missed you Kelly...next time you better come:)

gazebo at Allerton park...
we went to the top of it:)

they had a COOL section where
you could walk 'through' the trees:)

in college we played cards ALL the time...even in between
classes! (Anne, Eve, Kelly, and I had most of our classes
together my junior and senior years:)

no comment on the outfits...but in
college we dressed alike ALL the time..
big dorks...we know:)! we were able to
celebrate Eve turning old while we were there
and enjoyed a FREE Molten Chocolate Lava Cake!
(our fav. dessert in college...and now!)

farewell to Eve

thought i'd add a picture of us in our
apartment this was taken in 1998...wow we're old!

Chicago...day 2

MORE walking, Sear's tower

awesome view from Sear's tower

we had a fabulous waiter at bubba gump's...he brought us
LOTS of cold water after our walking:)

view from the ferris wheel

Day two we once again WALKED all over the city again...love you Eve! We went to the Sear's tower and Navy Pier with some stops along the way. Of course we had to get pics of the 'Chicago' sign, and Eve wanted us to try Garrett's popcorn. Anne and I had our first taxi ride and I went on a ferris wheel for the first time. Another great day, but by the end our feet were killing us!
*all the pics were taken with the little camera...Brian had the good one at home with the kids*

off to the windy city...

farewell to the fam and off to Chicago!

after TONS of walking we ate lunch at Weber!

we went to the Shedd aquarium and saw a dolphin show,
beluga whales, and BEAUTIFUL sea creatures!

we ended the day with a walk through Millennium park,
dinner at Buca di Beppo's, a drive to Wisconsin and the
BEST ice cream I've EVER had at Oberweis!

My AWESOME husband took off work to watch the kids while I went to hang out with Eve and Anne in Illinois. I am so thankful that he is willing to let me go and that he's MORE than capable to watch and care for the kids. He volunteered at Cailey's school, became the 'taxi driver', chef, and maid for the time I was gone and did a great job at it! Thanks honey!


I went to Chicago for some 'girl time' with my roommates from college last Friday. Eve lives in Campaign, Il so we spent the first two days in the city and the rest of the time 3 hours away at her house. The first day we walked around the city and went to the Shedd museum. I was ATTACKED by a bird on the way into the Shedd...not a fun experience! At first I thought it was a bat b/c it was so loud in my ear and went straight for my head! It REALLY hurt...I guess it pecked me or something. Then it came back a SECOND time and did the same thing!! It never bothered Eve or Anne, so we're guessing it has something against blonde's:(!! **note, add fear of birds to my list of phobias! After that we looked around the Shedd at the most beautiful creatures and fish I've ever seen in my life! God is amazing and creative!

I Stand Relieved

At approximately 7:33 PM EDT, Heather returned and I have been relieved of my duties. I will return to work leaving command and control of the children back in the hands of my lovely wife where it belongs.

Welcome back Heather.

Things

Cailey and I were discussing things I do not know how to do as it pertains to the children, particularly the fact I have no clue when it comes to fixing the girls' hair. So the past few days Kinsey has been walking around practically blind with hair in her face (cue Heather grumbling) and try as I might to put some sort of bow in Cailey's hair it just doesn't work.

I informed Cailey that fixing their hair was not a "Daddy thing." She agreed and indicated that "throwing kids in the air" was a Daddy thing. Fixing hair is a "Mommy thing." Knowing how to get places in the car is a Daddy thing she says because Mommy does not know how to do it by herself.

Anyway, in approximately 21 hours Mommy will return and do Mommy things again.

Marbles Museum

I took the kids to the Marbles Museum on Saturday in hopes they would not rise up and attempt to seize control of the house. They had a great time overall making it a fun day for them.

Father's Day

I was instructed to stay in the bedroom while the kids made me breakfast. When they called me down they had a bowl of cereal with milk in it, a whole banana and a slice of bread with peanut butter on it. Why a slice of bread? Because according to Cailey they tried to toast it but "could not figure out how to get the toaster to work." That was a good thing since five year olds and toasters are probably not high on fire department's list of winning combinations. Anyway, it was a rather huge breakfast from my kids who had to keep Kinsey from eating it before I got downstairs.

The artwork above was the kids' handiwork with some help from Heather. It was a very nice gift for a very nice Father's Day.

Beach Day

Note: Heather is in Illinois visiting friends. During the next few days I will be filling in for her on the blog with updates on the kids. -Brian

Cailey's school had Beach Day for the Kindergarten classes. This involved the kids fishing treasures out of small pools and going down a water slide into a pool among other things. Of course given the lack of sand I am not sure why this was not called Pool Day instead of Beach Day but I digress. I went out there to volunteer with Kinsey and Braden tagging along.

Ha Eun

Kinsey has always been my girly girl and lately she wants to take her baby everywhere! She loves to push her in the stroller and even tries to give her a piggy back ride:)!! Ha Eun has brought up lots of conversations too because most people haven't seen a Korean baby doll before. I can't wait for KINSEY to figure out how the clothes work because I find myself putting different clothes on Ha Eun ALL day! I love that she's SO into baby dolls, jewelry, accessories, and dress up clothes:)!!

tae kwon do

We wanted Braden (and eventually Kinsey) to be involved with something that was 'Korean' so we chose Tae Kwon Do! Cailey decided she wanted to try it as well so now it's something the kids can do with daddy. (The owners are Christians and want families to take it along side of their kids.) Because they were under 7 a parent had to take it with them...and it wasn't gonna be me!...Don't get me wrong, I love to kickbox but I don't need one more thing on my plate right now! I am SO proud of Brian and happy to see how excited he is about learning his blocks and kicks! The kids are learning through playing games mostly which I think is an awesome approach! Hopefully this will be something they will enjoy for a long time:)!!

cool pool!

watching for water to fall

We were able to go to another friend's pool this week and the kids had a blast! This pool had buckets that dumped water on their heads, a giant mushroom with water that came down and more! It's been SO hot that the water felt like bath water but the kids didn't seem to mind:)! (Braden usually complains he's cold in the water but there was none of that this day!) Kinsey once again swam away from us and even got out a couple times and jumped in BY HERSELF! Cailey desperately wants to learn how to swim so she can go down the slide. Most pools around here require you to know how to swim before you can go down the slide. (Makes sense) The problem is she's TERRIFIED to get water up her nose. MORE swim lessons to come in July...hopefully she'll be a swimmer by the end of the summer! This is the third year I've said, "I can NOT have three non swimmers at the pool again!" Water wings and life jackets have helped out this year though. (In the past we ONLY went to the Y pool where they don't allow water wings and their life jackets were worthless for my kids. This year we have FRIENDS that let us come hang out at their water wing friendly pools and the Y got smart and bought new toddler friendly life jackets!)

Elle, Mary Claire, and Cailey

pool and a picnic

Since it's been SO hot around here lately we pulled out the 'kiddie pool' for the kids to play in while we're at home. The kids first went in it on Saturday and Cailey stayed in it for over FOUR hours! Kinsey was done after an hour and Braden would have stayed as long as Cailey if his nap didn't interfere! I'm sure gonna be sad when the days of kiddie pools come to an end!

it's TOO small!

Cute matching suits right? One problem...I sent Cailey with 'her' bathing suit when she was staying with mom (nonny) and dad (poppy). Mom kept telling me it was too small, to which my response was, "well it's too bad...it's brand new and she's gonna wear it ALL summer!" The other day when we were going swimming with friends I decided it would be a good time to be all matchy matchy (which I LOVE...as do the kiddos). I found Kinsey's suit but couldn't find Cailey's. I look in the closet...and there...hanging up...with the TAGS still on is CAILEY'S bathing suit! Oooops! Have you caught on yet? I sent Cailey with Kinsey's 3T bathing suit to wear at mom and dad's...now I feel AWFUL for making her wear it! She was relieved to put her 6T one on and felt much better! As you can see in the picture, Kinsey's is REALLY stretched out, which makes me sad, but Janet said it doesn't look bad on a toddler...hopefully she's right because she's GOING to wear it:)!!! I guess that's the downside to having matching clothes and sharing a room-but I could have sworn I looked at the size...:)!

handprint burn

This is what happens when you rely on your 4 year old to apply sunscreen on your back...any questions? I mean really, I've been fortunate to not get worse burns on my back (since I can't reach it) because I'm at the pool pretty much everyday....every summer....alone with the kids. It's always been hard to figure it out but most times I've gotten the kids to do it. This is the first summer that Cailey has been able to cover my entire back....Braden did a great job....he just missed a little:)! I love that it's his handprint on my back though...so cute! (If sunburn can be called cute.)