The Ellis Campout

Cohen taught us how to play color tag.  It might have gotten a little competitive among the adults!

Sparklers to finish off the evening before we tucked some boys in the tents.  Riley immediately came inside with me.  Cohen, and Justin had to come in at 2:00 a.m. due to the rain…only cell of rain in the state of Illinois and just happened to be over their tents!  Brody, and Kurt slept the whole night through.  The boys napped most of the way home the next day after so much excitement with their cousins!!  Thanks for letting us come and play!!

TEN!

Pre-School

Riley started 4 year old Pre-School today.  He was up before the sun and ready to go downstairs.  Kurt told him it was still time to sleep.  He refused to go back to his bed or crawl in ours, so he curled up in the cozy chair in our room and fell back to sleep until he fell out of the chair!  Oops...I did get to sit and rock him for about twenty minutes after he fell.  Didn't mind that extra snuggle time one bit!

(I sort of cringed when he picked out his socks, but he at least he didn't pull them up to his knees like he usually does!)

It was an easy drop off today for both boys.  Brody wanted to walk Riley to his room so we did that, and then Riley wanted to walk Brody back to his room.  I was fearful Riley was going to begin his typical cling-on routine as we walked back to his class.  However, Eli was there when we walked in and so all was well in his world.  

Brody thought day one of Kindergarten was pretty great.  His favorite part was playing outside TWICE and as K student, he now gets to cross the bridge in the playground!!

Kindergarten

The Night Before Kindergarten...

Tomorrow is the day...the day we send our Brody to Kindergarten.  We have double checked the backpack, partially packed a lunch and clothes are laid out.  We read the Night Before Kindergarten and B laughed because he didn't  know why a mama and daddy would cry when sending 'their kid' to school?!  And there I sat crying as I finished the book.  Their room was just dark enough that he had no idea...

Brody is ready.  He really is.  I will probably be the mom wearing sunglasses into school so no one knows how much Kindergarten has rocked my world.

The thing is, I think that the way I feel tonight will be repeated many times in the future as more and more milestones are reached...

Just the other day they were two and snacking off the same stool at Grammy and Grampy's.  Tomorrow, they will dining at school....

Showering Emily with Baby Love!

Emily and Brett will soon welcome their first child into the world.  To help them prepare for parenthood, we were able to shower them with baby love.  I believe Emily’s baby will be Grandma’s 13th great-grandchild.  Boys still outnumber girls in her great-grandchild count.  Will Emily’s baby add to the number of boys or girls?  Time will tell…

While we were busy at the shower, these boys, plus Cohen, were busy in the dirt pile.  I’m not sure I had ever seen such dirty kids…pictures really do not depict just how dirty they were.  There was a ring around Katy’s bath tub after we pulled them out!  But, boy did they have fun and sleep well that night.

Lake Of The Ozarks 2014

In early July, we escaped to Lake Of The Ozarks, Missouri for a few days of fun in the sun.  We met up with Allison and Tracy’s families for our biennial gathering.  We were able to celebrate Jess and Riley’s birthdays…only one day apart!

Gabby painted lots of nails…and not just girls got the royal treatment!  Actually, Brody still has black toe nail polish on my toe.

We took on a few go-cart tracks.

 

And enjoyed lots of baby snuggles with Caleb

We now must start planning for 2016…

Best pals

They call each other Co and Bro!  They are off to Kindergarten in less than a month.  They share a love for Legos and the great outdoors.

Riley and Eli.  They act like brothers and really do have the best time together.  They do have to reminded about a major rule more often than the others: do not touch each other!  What one doesn't think of, the other does.

Harper and Crewe.  These two could easily wear you out. As the middle children, they have joined their dad's and I in our exclusive middle sibling club.  They will appreciate the support in the years to come.

Sir Grant.  You can hold him as long as he does not see his mama.  If she is in view, then she is all he wants.  I think he is quite possibly going to be the tallest out of the whole gang.  

And then there is sweet Baby Adalynn.  She will grow up in the blink of an eye and will be right in on the action before we are all ready for it.  

FOUR

Our favorite matey, Riley, turned FOUR today!  He still let me rock him this morning for awhile as he woke up, so all is well in my world.  And now, me friends, this pirate better rest up for another full day tomorrow.  

The Fourth of July

2014 Father’s Day

 

Father’s Day Weekend was a busy one for us.  The boys and I went to see Cinderella at The Little Theater On The Square with Aunt Katy and Eli.  Kurt picked us up from the theater and we took off on an adventure.  First stop, Beachy’s in Arthur.  Always a hit with the boys because of all the toys the store has to offer and all the horses they get to see on the roads.  From there, we headed north towards Kankakee.  We found a Children’s Museum for them to explore and it just so happens that we were there on a day when it was not busy.  They were quite thrilled that they didn’t have to wait in line nor did they get trampled by bigger kids.  We finished off our day with a little eating, shopping and swimming.  Hotel stays are just exciting stuff to our kids so that in itself was a treat! 

The next day, we headed to Fair Oaks, Indiana to visit the Fair Oaks Dairy.  Fair Oaks sits on 19,000 acres and they milk 2800 cows continuously through the day.  Our animal lover, Brody, was disappointed that he didn’t get to feed a calf or milk a cow.  Our non-animal lover, Riley, was thrilled that we only got to see the cows through the bus window or behind glass in the parlor viewing room!  They had lots of outside activities for the boys, plus a birthing center.  We actually watched two calves being birthed.  The birthing center was quite the set up… the cows were behind glass, and we were sitting in stadium seating for optimal viewing.  After the fact, maybe it wasn’t such a wise move to let our kids watch the birth of these calves?  It has definitely sparked some interesting conversations! 

The drive home was a quiet one after all the excitement of the weekend.

Work Day

After some poor planning on my part, the boys had to come work with me part of the day in early June.  They didn’t complain. We had entertainment in the form of a cement truck, lots of exploring and little movie/work time at Grampy’s desk.  By noon, my assistants were done.  So off to Lake Shelbyville we went for a picnic and some exploring.  If given the opportunity, they would do this daily!  

40

Uncle Chris turned 40 a couple weeks ago.  It took lots of sugar: homemade ice cream, homemade donuts, texas sheet cake, dirt dessert, and sugar cookies to be exact, to celebrate!  We also needed lots of black candles.  So many candles, Eli needed sunglasses!!

Seven of the eight sat down together.  After a quick coral of the missing kid, we were able to snap a picture of all EIGHT!  Brody is often found sitting in that spot at Grammy’s with the baby on his lap.  A baby hog is what he is!