May 22 to May 31

05.29.11 We have had a pretty eventful weekend.  It started with a birthday party at McCullum Park.  Kirsten was one of two girls at the party.  Peter, Esther and I came because they were going to the fire station after some of the festivities.  Peter and I escaped to the park while the kids ate lunch.  We played until the drizzle of rain became a little more unbearable.  We came back in time to watch Kirsten and her friends hit the pinata.  Kirsten and her friend Julia were some of the better sluggers.  Eventually they had to pull the pinata open and throw the candy on the ground.  As they were opening presents we heard the fire engines leave the station (it was right next door to the park.)  So then we had to wait until they came back and they had cake and then ran around in the rain.  At this point it was still raining a little bit hard. 

Finally we saw the fire engine come back and we all went over to the fire station.  Peter was in his full fireman suit from Halloween.  The firemen were pretty impressed and all made comments about it.  The kids were able to get into the fire engine and look around.  Peter who has a absolute love for fire trucks got in at ever chance and touched way too many things.  Esther was a peach the whole time.  While we were at the fire station, she kept smiling at the fire chief and at the end he brought a hat over just for her.  At that point she was exhausted and starting to fuss, but still smiling for anyone who would look at her.  Our day was done and so we headed home.  The kids loved the whole day.

05.30.11  Our Memorial day was spent at a railroad park in Rochelle, Illinois.  It is basically a spot where many tracks cross or come together there.  From their website it says, "Today these two railroads daily haul millions of tons of merchandise on at least 80 to 90 trains a day through Rochelle in a 24 hour period. This has made Rochelle a "hot spot" for train watching, drawing visitors from every state in the nation and world wide."
It was amazing to watch the long freight trains come past.  We saw four different trains come by.  The first was was hauling lots of different cars - box cars, tankers, flat beds.  The next one was all semi trailers.  The third was hauling cars in these huge metal boxes.  The last one we saw before we left was hauling shipping containers.  Peter was in heaven and could have stayed there all day long.  He was pretty enamored by the whole event.  Lucky for us, Kirsten likes trains and enjoyed being there too.  The temperature was a bit on the hot side.  I think it got all the way up to 90 degrees, but we had a nice breeze that kept us from being too hot. 
We had stopped for lunch at a little diner in Rochelle.  The kids were pretty excited because they got to have breakfast for lunch.  They were funny through out lunch.  They kept commenting about different things going on in and out of the restaurant.  Esther was smiling at whoever she could get to look at her.  Our waitress was pretty funny every time she came by.

Our drive home was long but we were able to stop and get ice cream at our favorite store - Oberweis.  YUM!

Here is one of my favorite pictures from today.

May 15 to 21

05.19.11 Today was the Joy School Picnic.  We have completed our year of Joy School and decided that to finish off the year we would have a picnic at the park together.  Although I didn't take pictures of them, we had the Parkers, Englunds and the Korella kids at the park too.  It was fun to get together and the day was nice.  Esther has begun "drinking" out of a sippy cup.  At least that is what she thinks she is doing.  Mainly I am trying to thwart the grabbing mommy's cup routine that was happening.

On the way home from the picnic we saw this way cool tool box.  The kids thought it was pretty neat.  It took me a minute to figure out what it was the first time we drove by it.  I just had to take a picture.  Kirsten thought it was pretty funny that I wanted to take a picture. 

05.21.11  We have begun a new phase in our house.  Esther is pulling herself up to things.  Not really getting up, but because her bed is set really high we had to drop it down so she won't pull herself up and over the edge.  Now she can sit in there and move around and not topple out the top.

Obviously I am really lacking in the picture taking department.  I realized today as I was moving pictures off the cameras that I have a couple "photographers" in my house.  I thought I might showcase their work.  They are pretty busy when it comes to the camera, and can make pretty good self-portraits.

Here is Kirsten's.

And here is Peter's collection.

I guess I better get back on the bandwagon and begin taking the camera with me more often and to think about taking pictures.  We have had many opportunities to take pictures but I don't have my camera with me.  It had become such a habit for the last couple of years and now I just don't think about it.  Hopefully I will get it together and start doing more pictures.  We will see.

May 8 to 14

05.08.11 Mother's Day - This was a fun mother's day.  My kids are just old enough that they can help dad make the day special for me.  I basically gave Dave the recipes for pancakes for breakfast, BBQ Ribs for Dinner and a cake mix for dessert.  And they did wonderful.  I sat in my chair while breakfast was being made and read the newspaper.  Then I sat down to a couple heart shape pancakes.  Aren't they cute?  I opened my presents - a couple of special feet for my sewing machine I requested.  Church was nice and, of course, I got my flower to plant.  For dinner we had red potatoes and BBQ Ribs.  The kids cut up strawberries to put on the white cake they had made.  It was a wonderful nice day and I am grateful to be a mom to these three beautiful children and to have a wonderful mom.  Thanks kids and Dave it was great!!

05.10.11  It has got really hot around here - like hot and humid summer weather.  Where did spring go?  We had hamburgers and hot dogs on the grill tonight for dinner and Dave took Esther out so I could finish making the potato salad.  He put her in the baby swing and away she went.  Each time she would swing back her arms would go out and she would get this huge smile.  Then it would come forward and she would swing back and smile. 

05.12.11 It is so hot that the neighbor got out the slip and slide.  Away they went back and forth all afternoon.  Esther was asleep and I decided to work on the front half of the garage.  Our bikes and strollers and stuff were getting out of control.  I pushed a couple of things around and have a couple of things that need to go to the shed but the front half of my garage now has parking spaces for the bikes, strollers and other outdoor toys we use.

May 1 to May 7 - A busy week

A sleeping baby!  Esther likes to do things when she goes to bed.  Take her binkie out and move herself into the corner.  She is pretty funny.  I never find her in the place I put her.  She has figured out how to move herself around and she does it when ever she can.

"Got Milk?"  I found this pair of pajamas quite appropriate.  She is now sitting up like a pro.  She can balance herself and also likes to play with toys until the get to far away.  And then sometimes she does a controlled fall.  Other times you can hear the BONK!

Again with the growing up thing.  I am having a hard time believing that it has been six months since this beauty entered our family.  Happy 1/2 birthday Esther.  At her last visit to the doctor she is 15 lbs and about ___ inches.

No more pictures mom.  I'm off. 
{She is almost crawling.  She can roll almost anywhere and has mastered a version of Army crawl that is pretty cute.}
Scoot!  Scoot!  Away she goes!

05.06.11
Woodridge Touch a Truck show!  We spent the afternoon climbing on trucks and playing in the bounce house firetruck with the Parkers.  I had to laugh later when Peter was trying to explain to Dave about how he loved the fire truck with the stairs and the slide.  It was his favorite.  I was pretty excited about the Big Wheels.  I hadn't seen one in a long time.  It brought back a flood of memories - riding down the hill and skidding into the driveway.    I could see the same look in Dave's eyes as I told him about the Big Wheels.  I'm amazed we made it through our childhood. 
It was also fun to finally be able to have a picnic outside.  I had forgotten how nice a sandwich tastes when you are getting your hair blown in your eyes and have to hold on to your plate while you eat.  I do miss it and can't wait to have more picnics as the weather gets better.  Speaking of weather - it was beautiful up until we were driving home.  Then it rained on us. . .  then stopped.

05.07.11
National Train Day.  What a day we had.  It started with a trip to Union Station with the kids on the Metra train.  So here is the conversation at the train station. 
"When is the train coming?" 
"Soon"
"This is my first time on the train." 
"Me, Too." 
"Dad takes the train to work" 
"Yep" 
"When is the train coming? . . ."

This was a momentous day - we were going to ride the train into the city.  I was pretty excited but more excited that I had a seasoned veteran to show us the ropes.  Our train ride was fairly long.  Especially for Dave - he is used to those quick commuter trains.  But the kids absolutely love looking out the window and watching things go by.  I don't think you could take the smiles off their faces.  I think their favorite part was when we were really close to the city and we went over some smaller bridges.  It kind of made the train shake and they were very narrow.  The kids giggled and giggled.  It was quite contagious.  The conductor was really nice and gave the kids "tickets" even though they were actually riding free.  I was very appreciative.  {The kids watch the Dinosaur Train (on PBS) and have some pretty funny ideas of how the train system works.  We had to explain to them that there was no time tunnel and the conductor wasn't going to explain to them about dinosaurs.  I don't really think they thought that but I would be surprised if the notions weren't floating around in their head.}

Once we got there it was mass chaos.  Again I was glad that we had 2 adults and 2 mobile children.  Easier to keep an eye on them.  We wandered around and saw different things.  One of Peter's favorite parts was the model trains.  He was enamored with them.  He would have probably stayed at that spot for the whole time if he could have.  We got a bag full of goodies including a paper engineer hat.  The kids got to "paint" train cookies in celebration of Amtrak's 40th birthday.

It was a really fun day and we were all pretty tired on the way back.  The kids were able to color a little bit, play with their trains and enjoy our reverse trip.  What an exciting fun adventure for the Anderson clan.  It will be fun to try it again . . . in a while.

Easter Holiday Fun

Esther is figuring this getting around thing out.  She is now rolling and/or scooting around to get to places.  She has the most beautiful smile that people love to see.  I just can't believe how big she is getting so fast.

04.21.11  Playgroup Easter egg hunt.  Peter was pretty excited when we got there and wanted to help hide the eggs.  I let him at it and then realized he hid almost all the eggs in one spot under the chairs.  I had him try and spread them out and then we went to wait until the rest of the eggs had been hid.  Then the craziness begins.  I think this is one of the most well attended playgroups of the year.  Of course anything with chocolate and sugar is always a hit.  And this way you know that your kid is probably not going to get run over by the really big kids.  After we had a potluck lunch that both the moms and kids could enjoy.  Esther is almost starting to sit up by herself.  I am holding her with my leg to get this pictures, but it is only a matter of days before she figures the balance thing out.



04.22.11 One of my favorite things to do is dye eggs at Easter.  It is becoming one of Kirsten and Peter's favorite things too.  I decided this year to try and make my own coloring for the eggs out of food coloring and found that it worked pretty good.  A couple of the colors weren't perfect but it really doesn't matter when your kids are going to make a crazy mess of everything anyway.  What a fun way to start our weekend.

04.23.11  We had an egg hunt on Saturday morning.  The kids have loved hiding eggs for the last couple of weeks and so they were pretty excited to go find eggs and then eat some of the contents.

04.25.11  The girls were dressed so darling for Easter in their matching dresses I made.  Easter was a wonderful day filled with music and talks about Jesus.  What a nice day we had to celebrate the Resurrection.

04.30.11  A momentous day for the Anderson kids.  Kirsten got her training wheels off her bike.  She had a couple wobbly moments and then once she figured it out away she went.  Then dad decided to get her new bike out of the shed and after a couple adjustments she was off on that bike.  Then Peter wanted to try the bike out and so dad put the training wheels back on the bike and with a couple pushes and a little prompting away he went.  We had a couple crashes (after we found a helmet for him) but he loved the idea of riding a two wheeler.  But if you ask him he likes both the tricycle and the bike equally.