Father's Day

I just wanted to share Emma's Father's Day gift to Eric.  She saw this and knew it was what she wanted to give him.  It definitely is along the lines of our humor.  When Eric opened it he loved it.  He now wears it very proudly and says it's one of his favorite shirts!

Emma's Birthday Party

We decided to have Emma's birthday party early this year so that she could invite one of her best friends.  This friend is moving this summer and will be gone before Emma's actual birthday rolls around.  So Emma got to celebrate already.  Lucky girl!

She wanted to do something similar to last year, and only invite a couple girls.  This allows us to be more mobile with our activity.  We took the girls down to the Legoland Discovery Center in Illinois.  We had never been, and thought it might be fun since Emma loves Legos so much.  The girls did end up having a lot of fun.

There was a big jungle themed area with lots of huge lego animals all over. 

I think the girls had the most fun building their own cars to race down the tracks.
They each made several different cars.

About the let their cars go down the track.

Listening to the girls in the car on the way down and back was almost the best part.  They were all so crazy silly and just giggly and having such a good time.  Since we're a little over an hour away there was plenty of car time too.  I love seeing (and hearing) Emma enjoy herself so much.  I definitely think this party was a success!

Sheboygan

Earlier this month the state had a "free" day where all the state parks had free entrance and no fishing license was required for fishing, and a few other things, along with several programs and events all over the place.  We decided to drive to Sheboygan to go to the Kohler Park Dunes State Natural Area just for fun because they were having a kids fishing thing, and Emma likes to fish.

It was a beautiful day to be outside.  Probably the most perfect weather day so far this year.  The sun was shining and the temperature was wonderful.  On our way we drove past the world's tallest flagpole.  It was dedicated last June.  The pole is 400 feet tall.  On the flag itself, each star is three feet high and each stripe is four and a half feet wide.  It was pretty impressive.

Fishing was fun.  They had activities for the kids to do before or after they went fishing, including decorating a t-shirt and learning how to clean a fish.  They also gave each kid a tackle box and some tackle.

On the way home we passed a shopping area and decided to stop and wander around.  The weather was so perfect we didn't want to be inside.  They were even having an event there with a free climbing wall.  Emma was very pleased - she loves these things.

More April Visitors

Talk about late getting this posted - better late than never I guess.  My sister and her two girls came to visit us, and we were so excited!  We had been looking forward to it for awhile, and when the time finally came we were beyond thrilled.  I couldn't wait to just hold and squeeze and kiss and snuggle and love her two girls.  Because skyping just isn't enough, ya know?

My sister had found a screaming deal to get here.  The only downside was they arrived super late.  Emma had several tests she needed to be in school for while they were here visiting, including their first full day here, so Emma didn't come with me to the airport because she needed to get her sleep.  When I saw them by baggage claim, Eliza just ran to me and gave me a big hug.  It was awesome!

Carrying Eliza in from the car when we finally got home from the airport.

We mostly wanted to work around Abby's nap schedule, Emma's school schedule, and the girls' needs in general, but we didn't care what we did since we'd be able to be together doing it.  And we ended up having lots of fun.

We did get out to do a few things, including story time at the library, going to the museum and taking the girls to the Jelly Belly store and taking the tour there.

Abby kept wanting to climb over the seat to join the girls in front of us, and she wanted to
take her hat off.  But every time the train started moving, she instantly had a huge smile
on her face and was perfectly content.

This was Abby's content face while the train moved.

We went to a smallish nearby zoo (I had never been there) and the weather was perfect!  The girls had so much fun riding the train, seeing the animals ( I was actually impressed with the number of animals they had considering they were rather small), and playing at the two different playgrounds, the second of which was fantastic!

There was a hippo on the ground that kids could climb on.  What did I want?  A picture of Emma
looking like her head was about to be eaten.  Emma was only too happy to oblige.

My sister wanted to stop by the lighthouse.  When we got there Abby was asleep in her seat, so I stayed in the car with her so we wouldn't have to wake her, while Jill took Emma and Eliza with her.

The girls loved dressing up and trying on every hat we could find.  It was not surprising that when we went to Charming Charlie's the girls went nuts with all the hats and scarves and purses and necklaces.

Unfortunately Abby got sick while they were here, and spent a couple days creating quite the mess.  I guess she thought my place was just too clean (ha!).  It was sad seeing her feel bad.  It also made her even more clingy for mom and less her happy self, which was understandable.  Emma and I both became sick after she did.  Luckily it didn't last too long, and no one else got it.

Some of the best times were just spent playing at home.  The girls adored Eric, and enjoyed playing hide and seek with him, and just being silly with him.  They also liked his ukulele.

Eric had been "hiding" under the piano bench.  We obviously had
 to cover him with a blanket to actually hide him.

The day they left we stopped at a huge park I love the play with the girls for awhile and help them expend some energy before getting on their plane.  

It was sad seeing them go.  I love these girls so much (and I'm counting my sister as one of "these girls").  It's sad not seeing them more often.  I look forward to seeing them all again soon!

I think my favorite part of their visit was just seeing how much the three girls love each other.  Everywhere we went they couldn't get enough of each other.  There were so many hugs, and snuggles, and loving moments - more than we could keep track of.  Come visit me again Jill.  You know you want to! :)