Botanic Garden with Great Pals

We were so happy to see our friends the Stolls during their recent trip to Chicago!  We made plans to meet at the beautiful Botanic Garden for the morning.  We battled some rain showers but still had a fabulous time and even got to see the sun peek back out before we left the garden.  Afterwards, we had a great lunch together at The Happ Inn and gave them giant hugs goodbye.  Until next time!

Dancing in (or...near) the rain!

The kiddos

Family photo (with baby #3 looking ready to arrive, but somehow still have over 3 months to go!)

The Thomas trains were a big highlight

Friends for 16 years and counting!

Mother's Day 2012

I am a lucky mom on this Mother's Day!!!  Love these little guys to pieces.  And...this is a very special Mother's Day, as we are also expecting baby #3!  Due to arrive October 1, 2012.  We are blessed!

The Zoo with the Burkholders!

 The Burkholder Family drove into Chicago for a weekend and we were so happy to spend time with them and check out the Lincoln Park Zoo!  It was a little chilly, but we saw some great animals and had fun on the carousel.  Afterwards, we all came back to our house and had dinner, followed by "the best sleepover ever."  The few times thus far that we've had other children sleep over at our home, everyone usually bunks in Cassidy's room.  But this time, the boys got to have their own spot in Gavin's room, and Gavin was bursting with pride and excitement.  I'll never forget closing his bedroom door after saying goodnight, and he was literally grinning from ear to ear with his head on the pillow as he looked at his big cousin Michael there with him.  We are thankful for our cousins!

Brown County 2012!

The whole crew (minus little John Vlach, who was napping)!

We had another great reunion with my best college girlfriends and their families!  Once again we all met up in Brown County, IN and stayed at a big log cabin that fits our group of 17 (and that number seems to inch up every year!).  With 8 adults and 9 kids, we are finally outnumbered!  The kids have so much fun together and all get along so well.  This year the hot tub was a big hit - the kids went "swimming" many times each day.  They also passed their time going on hikes, looking for bugs, and walking to the farm next door to catch a glimpse of the cows (and one day, we even ended up with a huge wandering cow in our front yard!).  When playing inside, they were entertained with dance parties, playing dress-up, and checking out each others' toys.  Cassidy and Gavin were so sad to leave when the 4 days were up!  Of course we adults had our share of good times too, making large group meals together, chatting and laughing late into the evenings, and checking out the scene in nearby Nashville, IN.  It's a trip I look forward to year after year!

Our cabin - "A Hidden Treasure"

The very popular hot tub!

Making s'mores around the campfire

Exploring the great outdoors

Group hike!

Great fun rolling down the hill (although not as fun later when all the kids had weird rashes and scrapes!) 

Rapunzel and Kermit

Girls' day out in Nashville - where we each picked out a new spring scarf!

Funny faces ~ great pals!

Superheros Unite!

Some pictures just bring an instant smile to my face - this is one of them!  Gavin has gotten into superheros lately and likes to put on their various costumes.  Cassidy and Daddy were happy to join in the fun.  I just love it and wanted to share!

Easter 2012

We had a wonderful Easter Sunday this year.  The kids woke up to find their Easter baskets and hidden eggs, courtesy of the Easter Bunny, and then we went to a lovely morning service at church.  Afterwards, we headed out to Grammy and Grandpa Brown's house for another fun Easter egg hunt in the backyard and a great day spent with family.

Good Morning!!!

"The Land Before Time" dinosaur puppets from Grandma and Grandpa Reder were a huge hit!

Family photo!

Cassidy finds the first egg...

Gavin spots one next...

Happy kids!

Helping to make brunch using the manual egg beaters that belonged to Grammy Church - Erik's grandmother

With Grammy Brown after the jelly bean hunt!

Easter Preparations!

We had fun preparing for the Easter Bunny, as always!  We hard-boiled eggs and the kids had fun coloring and decorating them (never got around to actually eating them - oh well).  We also went to one of Wilmette's Easter festivities, the Linden Square Bunny Hop.  This was such a fun morning with live bunnies to pet, a visit from the fire truck for the kids to climb on, treats from each store on the square, and best of all was a visit from the Easter Bunny.  I snapped a shot of the kids standing with him, and had no idea that the photographer from our local paper stood right behind me and snapped the same photo.  How fun to open the paper the following week to see the kids' pictures in the paper with the Easter Bunny!  We also tried out a new recipe for "bunny bait" - a popcorn treat that you leave out for the Easter Bunny the night before Easter.  It was fun to make (messy fun!), however it sounded better than it actually tasted.  Oh well.  The Easter Bunny ate his portion, so that's all that mattered!

Hard-boiling the eggs...

I just had to include this.  Such a typical scene in our house these days.

Eggs are done!!!

Meeting the Easter Bunny at Linden Square

Helping Daddy make our "Bunny Bait"

 More to come soon on our actual Easter Sunday celebration - it was a lovely day!