May 7 to 13

This week while Dave was off on a business trip to New York I decided to move the Day Lily plants from the front flower bed to the side of the house.  There used to be Hostas there but for some reason I cannot keep them alive.  I think the Day Lilies will do much better since they thrive in the sunlight.  They tend to spread also and had begun to take over my front flower bed.  Peter wanted to help me water the flowers and since it was nice outside I didn't mind that he got me wet a couple of times.  The front yard looks different now and maybe I will get the rest of the plants planted before it gets too hot.

05.08.12 Kirsten's class was involved in the Poetry Coffee House at school this night.  They read 2 poems together as  class.  Other students read poems as small groups or individuals.  It was a nice evening.  Kirsten's class read "Land, Sea, and Air Animals" and "Jellyfish" by anonymous.  This is a picture with her friend Julia Toth.  I didn't get a picture of them on the stage because I recorded it on video.  If I can figure out how to get it on here I will put it on.

Okay so this really isn't an old picture but because of their goofy costumes I decided to make it look all vintage.  (Pretty sad when vintage means how my old pictures look.)  This is Kirsten's friend Alex.  They were being pretty goofy.

 05.10.12  We planted our flowers today, I had three very "helpful" helpers.  It was fun to work together to plant.  We decided to take a short trip to the Home Depot because we only had one small shovel and it wasn't working to get all the plants in.  While at the 'Depot' we bought shovels for each of the kids and gloves to help them work.  Then the planting went much faster.  They were both pretty excited about having their own shovels and I was grateful for the extra help.  Then, of course, we had to water them.  We almost had a fight over who was going to do it.  We took turns and the flowers were mostly watered.

05.12.12  (PICTURES TO COME)  Train day at Union Station in Chicago.  We stopped in Downer's Grove on our way to the city and had lunch.  We rode the train into Union Station and wandered around looking at the fun trains set up  Then we took a tour of the trains they let us go on.  The first train was cool as we wandered from one end to the other looking in the rooms and seeing where you would sleep,eat and enjoy a train ride across the country.  The second train we went on was more of a luxury train and we were not able to "TOUCH" anything.  After about half the train Esther and I (and most of the family) were done.  AND we stopped.  We couldn't move forward and couldn't go back.  It was a bit claustrophobic for me.  We seemed to always get stopped in the very narrow passages.  It was hard not to want to bolt at the next opening we saw, but alas we were not done.  The very last car was actually pretty cool but I was so done and Esther was so done that we rushed through it.  We wandered around Union Station a little longer and stopped to get fresh warm pretzels to eat.  Then rode back home on the train.  It was  a fun sucessful day.

Happy Mother's day.  The kids gave me darling cute cards, bookmarks and a coupon book.  It was a nice relaxing day off for me.  We had crockpot turkey, potatoes, jello and dessert.  It was a fun day.  It was too bad that Kirsten started getting a fever about dinner time and didn't feel all that great after that.  But I must be the luckiest mom to have these sweet kids who love me.  Thanks for a nice mother's day!  Love you!

May 1 to 6

It's been really hot and muggy, so after school we had popcorn and Popsicles for snack. I think Esther really liked hers.

05.04.12  Woodridge had it's annual Motion Explosion and the weather was just beautiful.  After a half day of school and while Esther was napping the kids helped with chores until Esther was up.  Then we went over and played on all the fun vehicles they had.  They also were able to go numerous time down the bounce house slide.  Kirsten met up with her friends Julia and Alex.  Peter saw some of his friends but didn't meet up with any of them.  He and Dad explored the place while mom and the girls ran from place to place.  Esther met up with her friend Audranna, and they played in their strollers while the big girls ran around.
Peter is on top of the bucket in that picture up on top.  It was pretty high up there.  Dave was there but he also was taking the picture.  He told me about it later and I am not sure that I was all that impressed.  He could have been really hurt if he fell.  OH Mom, don't worry so much he would say.

05.05.12  Kirsten had a soccer game again today.  It was not as warm as it seemed.  Kirsten and her team didn't win or lose today.  They just tied the Green Goblins.  Kirsten is improving every time she plays.  Dad got some pretty cool shots today.  I was pretty glad that she didn't have to be goalie for very long.  She enjoys playing.

April 23 to 30

04.25.12  A wagon trip to pick up Peter at school.  It seemed like a good idea at the time but when we got to school we caused a little bit of a distraction.  All the boys were just so excited to see it and were swarming around us.  Oh, well,  it was fun anyway.  Esther had picked up the camera and so Peter took this picture and others on our way home.  He is a pretty good photographer wouldn't you say?

05.26.12  Craft group at the church.  I actually didn't get any pictures of the cute menu boards or chore charts that were made that day.  When I get mine done I will post it.  Liberty had a blanket to work on.  Esther found a baby chair that she sat in for awhile during the morning. 

04.28.12  Our annual church cleaning.  This is one of my favorite activity of the year.  I was sad that we had to leave early to go to Kirsten's soccer game.  It was miserable outside watching Kirsten.  We were all in our winter coats and had at least one or two blankets on.  I guess we could have watched from the car but the coaches wife had an extra hot cocoa from McDonalds, so Peter and I had something to keep us warm.

04.30.12  After postponing the butterfly release from Friday to Monday, the first grade class had to adapt their release again today.  Originally we were all supposed to walk down to Lake Harriet and release the butterflies and have a picnic lunch.  But the morning started out kind of dark and by the time it started we were wondering if it was going to rain.
The teachers lead all the kids out to the back area to release the butterflies.  It began with singing to the butterflies and reading poems to the butterflies.  As we stood outside you could feel light drops on your head.  Before we were done singing they had to move us back inside because of rain coming down  harder.  While inside waiting for a never ending stream of rain, we had lunch and played a couple games.  Then we took the butterflies back outside to the area where the preschool is picked up and dropped off.  It has an area where there is an overhang and we were able to be there and stay dry.  Kirsten got to hold a butterfly before it flew away.  Some kids got to hold on to the butterfly and for others the butterfly flew away quickly.  We enjoyed the day and Esther really enjoyed her chocolate chip cookie.  Not sure if you can see it, but the very last picture on the bottom is of her face.  It is covered with chocolate, I never can be too surprised when my kids eat something with chocolate in it.  It does get in their stomachs but somehow just enough is smeared all over their face.