Little Gym with Avery

Avery has started Little Gym on Saturday mornings. She loves it! From the very first day she's not been shy or afraid and has ran around trying everything.

She looks like a total pro to me! 

She obviously needed a break.

Always a crowd favorite - the balls and bubbles!

So much fun to go through some of the same things with her that we did with Ross. It definitely shows a difference in their personality. She's not afraid of anything and Ross was just the opposite.

Funland

Ross and I went to Funland with some friends and he had such a great time! He loved riding the cars - he really loved riding everything though. :)

Emma and Ross ended up on quite a few rides together. As it turns out Josh is a bit afraid of heights.

 

Back on the car ride but this time the motorcycles. They did the full handlebar lean the whole time.

Caroline and Emily was there with us too. This ride spun in cirlces but you could also spin the middle part and your car with go in even more circles. Makes me sick to even think about attempting to ride it.

Roller coaster fun!

 We decided to have a snack and while doing so they found the water mister.

Much fun! We followed it up with pizza at U.S. Pizza. Can't beat that in the life of a 4 yr old.

 

Brad caught this great video of the kids and if you watch closely around the 20 second mark Ross kisses Josh. I just love it. They are truly good friends. You can also hear them yelling "Boo! Cardinals" to Brad as they spin by him. They did that a lot that day.



Mother's Day with Meme

We had a late get together for Meme for Mother's Day b/c they were on quarentine for a couple of weeks. You'll also note that there is not one picture of Meme - I didn't notice that until today.

Uncle Steve is so good with his niece and nephews!

Avery was all over the place!

Can anyone find Avery? This girl loves to play hide and seek!

Where's Avery?

We did get a picture of Grandad. I think Avery is fond of him.

We had a good visit with everyone! Pizza and playing. You really can't beat that.

Also, if you ever wonder where Ross is - he's always there but the little crazy rarely lets me take his picture anymore.

Swim Lessons

At Grace the juniors and seniors get the option of going to swim lessons in the spring. We definitely signed Ross up. The classes were split into different groups based skill level. Ross was placed in the "please let me just sit on the step" level.

He did get more adventurous as the weeks passed.

Note the "stair sitters" are all boys.

Not the best picture but on the other side of the pool are the most advanced - all girls. There were 2 other groups not pictured and they had both boys and girls.

 

Ms. Karen did so great with the boys. If they weren't relaxed she would sing to them as she tried to get the boys to float on their back. Loved her.

Here Ross thought he was actually putting his face in the water. He popped his head up and was so proud of himself.



The kids all had a great time for the 6 weeks of swim lessons. We need to keep it up.

Videos from Chicago

This first video is of Ross and McKenna when they were in the photobooth getting their pictures taken. I love that a YouTube video was included. Obviously, Ross found a face and stuck with it.

Singing "Oh, How I Love Jesus".  

Singing "This is the Cross'. He wanted to make sure that even though we missed church that Sunday we still had some praise music. He loves his church music, and so does Mommy! :)

 

 

Chicago: Final Day

We went to the zoo again on Sunday before we left for the airport so we could see The Sparks girls again.

Ross loved this carved out tree! When you crawled in there was some glass there and you could get a good look at the animals.

Photgraphy by Ross. He's getting really good!

He also loved this water fountain.

One of the highlights of the morning was he found an empty stage and boy did he put on a show! (videos in the next post)

This was an old car that they made into a popcorn stand.

The absolute highlight of the morning was going to the playground across the street from the zoo. That's all Ross had wanted to do our whole trip and he finally got his wish.

He finally talked McKenna into swinging with him and you can tell my her face that she liked it.

We said good-bye at the park, none of us wanted to go but the kids ended up giving big hugs to each other.

From the park we went back to Mr. Phillip's and he took us to the airport. We had such a great time with him!



Picking Dandelions

Chicago Day 3

Saturday we met up with McKenna and Mrs. Danielle! McKenna was actually excited about it but she wasn't too keen on Ross taking her picture so early in the morning.

Headed to Lincoln Park Zoo.

We rode the bus there which stopped a few blocks away from the zoo. We walked pass a park area that had TONS of dandelions and the kids were in Heaven!

Obviously they don't suffer from allergies.

If you enter from the back side of the zoo you go to the farm part. Ross was quite happy to see a John Deere.

He actually waited in a line for a good bit to get on the tractor. Now of course he could ride his Poppie's tractor anytime but a true JD lover can never pass up a tractor. He let McKenna on too.

This was an interactive game where you sorted the different types of seeds. He really liked it.

He said "take me a picture".

Ross had the camera again. I think McKenna is his muse.

He's getting pretty good at it. If you remember he used to chop heads off a couple of years ago.

Selfie. I loved looking through the camera at the little finds. Of course he also deleted a few that I'd really wanted.

After nap and Daddy finished his golf game we went to the John Hancock bldg. (over rated in my opinion, but the kids liked it)

It has a great view of Navy Pier. We ran out of time and didn't get to go there. Next time!

It was so great to see them together again. They always pick up like they've never missed a day.

Window washers.

Escalators. Ross was happy he got to ride a few times.

We ended the day eating pizza at a great little cafe that only served outside.