June went by in a flash

Phew!  This month has truly flown by.  I have been taking pictures but haven't had a moment to stop and put them together.  I decided to get them on here and then when I get a chance I will come back and put in more information about what we have been up to.  It has been a busy, busy month.  I don't see it getting any calmer as we will be leaving on Friday to go to Utah.  But for now I will feel better if I am at least caught up with the pictures that I have been taking.  Enjoy!!  We have been pretty busy as of late!

06.07.11 Swimming at the pool.

06.08.11 Playing at the splash park

06.10.11 Playing at the park

06.12.11  Family Picture at the Park on the way to church.

06.18.11  Woodridge Jubilee

06.21.11  A tornado touched down in Downer's Grove.  It was an F1 which is the lowest scaled tornado.  I was at the church practicing the dance for the luau and found myself hearing tornado sirens and watching the sky darken and begin to rain almost sideways.  The tornado touched down near 63rd street and Main St.  near the Downer's Grove High School.  As we were traveling to our friends house on Thursday (2 days after the tornado), I noticed that the power company was fixing the power lines on 63rd.  Many of the poles were bent over toward the road.  Some of the people in Downer's grove were with out power for 2 to 3 days.  I am grateful that we were safe and had power.  The storm calmed down around 9:30 pm and we were able to go to sleep and wake up to a beautiful morning.  Pretty interesting night.

06.13 to 06.24.11  Kirsten and Peter have been in swim lessons for the last two weeks.  I wasn't sure what to expect after our swimming adventures the last little while.  But Kirsten and Peter were troopers, they swam like little fish after a little prodding.  Both need to practice bobbing up and down in the water or in other words - getting their heads wet, but they progress wonderfully from the beginning.  Peter's class got to go down the slides that the pool they had lessons in.  I was pretty excited when Peter decided to go and do it again.  Too bad the weather wasn't cooperating this week.  It was either 80+ degrees and we were sweating it out on the sides or it was just above 60 and the kids were purple lipped and chilled to the bone.  There really wasn't very many nice days for lessons.

Sleeping Beauty - this is usually what Esther did during swim lessons.  I painted her toenails and fingernails one day.  Aren't they just precious.  They are so tiny and cute.

06.25.11 Woodridge 1st Ward Luau - Our ward put on the best party tonight.  We had mounds of wonderful food.  Shredded Pork, Rice, Fruits, Salads and Tons of Yummy desserts.  Kirsten, Peter and I danced in the program.  The program was put on by Kevin and Naomi Hanks.  They along with a professional team of dancers began the night with many beautiful dances.  After they were done then each of the organizations in the ward danced.  I got “volunteered” to dance by Naomi and I thought it might be fun.  Boy, that was so much fun.  I went to many practices and practiced at home until I felt comfortable enough to be on stage.  We had a great time and I have to say the Relief Society danced the best.  (Probably because we practiced many more times then anyone else.)  In the picture on the right with all of us are: Angelika Kimberling, Me, Anne Datillo, Colleen Douglas, Debbie Somchay, Kerry Hickenlooper, Suzanne Saatkamp, Naomi Hanks, and Becca Van Uidert.  We danced to a song called the Palehua.  It was a beautiful song and the dance was nice.  Yes, I helped make all of our dresses, along with many of the sisters in the group.   The kids danced in with the Primary.  Peter sat on the front with his friends Tommy Parker and Justin James.  When I asked him why he didn’t sit back with the other kids.  He said he didn’t want to leave Tommy up there by himself.  What a sweetie.
The Elders Quorum had their faces painted and did a cool dance.  The High Priest did a traditional slap dance.  The Young Men and Young Women both danced traditional dances.  It was one of the coolest activities that I have been to in a while.
What an enjoyable evening!

June Beginnings



The months are just flying by.  Esther is now 15 lbs and 12 oz.  She is figuring out how to crawl.  Not just Army crawl but up and all fours.  She likes to get into my purse and take things out.  She puts everything in her mouth and prefers things that are not toys to her toys sometimes.  We think she might be getting teeth since she is always drooling and has been a bit crabby lately.

06.03.11  The last day of Kindergarten.  This year has really flown.  Ms. Leppert is a wonderful teacher and we will really miss her.  One of the moms in Kirsten class organized a picnic at Castaldo Park.  We had a warm day - the car thermometer said 85 degrees - but there was a nice breeze and the kids didn't seem to mind.  They ran around and played for hours.  They played in the "sandbox" otherwise known as a volleyball court.  It was a fun end to a great year.

06.04.11 RACE DAY!  We spent the evening at Chicagoland Speedway.  We were able to bring the kids because they were FREE!!  We had so much fun watching the race and spending time together.  We had to weather a huge thunderstorm on our drive there that continued for a little bit but stopped just short of race time.  We got to hear the huge dryers working to get the track ready for the race. 

 

Here are a couple funny things that the kids said or did.

When asked what their favorite part of the night was they said things like . . . "the airplane flying around with a flag." . . . "the race cars" . . ."the cotton candy."

 

Because of the thunderstorm the kids did some puddle jumping.

 

Kirsten and Peter loved the mini 7-Up cans that we brought.

 

Peter ate all of a foot long corndog.  Yummy!

 

Mom and Peter went up and down the 50 plus steps from our seats to the bathroom no less then 4 times . . . oh, the joys of potty training.  (Note to self: Don't take potty training kid to race.)

 

Peter asked dad with 50 laps to go. . . "when are we going home?"

 

It was fun to watch the race and the ending was pretty exciting. Our favorite race driver Carl Edwards was leading for most of the race but on the last lap he ran out of gas in turn 4 and the #31 passed him to win.  (He came in second by coasting in.)  Our only disappointment was we didn't get to see him (Carl) do his famous backflip when he wins.  {Dave may have been slightly disappointed that he didn't get to stay and watch the ARCA race that ran after the race we watched.}

 

**Esther spent the evening in the capable hands of our friends the Camerons.  Which much to their dismay was spent listening to a child crying for her momma.  They were troopers and held out until she passed out on Jason's shoulder where she slept the rest of the night.  So sorry she was such a pill, can we still be friends???**