Family Zoo Trip

Okay because I waited so long to update my blog now my events are all out of order.  We actually went to the zoo before Grace's baptism.  We wanted to make at least one trip this summer when Andy didn't have to go to camp.  Since we have so much girl stuff we asked for a new membership for Molly's birthday and thankfully got it from Andy's parents and were so excited to put it to use.  Maggie pretty much had already mapped out where she wanted to go and where she didn't want to go.  Molly was mesmerized by everything, she loved it.  We weren't surprised, she loves animals and can make a ton of animal noises.  We didn't go the the farm animal part this time, but I know Molly will love that too.  We had a nice little picnic lunch and then, as always, finished off our zoo trip with a carousel ride!

Okay now with this picture of Molly...she is super into saying "cheese" when she gets her picture taken, which she is doing...but she was also in the middle of a snack...string cheese!

Pictures...

In case you are wondering...for some reason it is taking forever to load pictures on my blog so I skipped that part so that I could at least be caught up with the events...even though what everyone really wants to see are the pictures of the events...coming soon...

Grace's Baptism

This past Sunday Grace, my sister's baby, got baptized.  I have the honor of being Grace's godmother and was so happy to be a part of this day.  The ceremony was right at 2 in the afternoon which is bad timing for naps.  Maggie can skip, but Molly would be a terror if she skipped.  Andy stayed behind while we headed to the church.  The church had been struck by lightning the night before so there was no power.  Thankfully it was a beautiful, cool summer Sunday afternoon so we were all pretty comfortable.  Afterwards we headed to a pizza place in Joliet for a little family celebration with Derrick's family and mine.  Andy and Molly joined us. Because Andy wasn't there at the ceremony Maggie was the one that took the pictures below!! Maggie spent most of the time in the arcade room thinking she was playing the games, but we never gave her any money to actually play.  It was a fun day to spend with family and to share with baby Grace!

Mission Accomplished!

Maggie told us at the beginning of the summer there were two things she wanted to be able to do, ride her bike all by herself with no help and to do the monkey bars all the way across with no help.  We are happy to say she accomplished both these things.  She now requests to rider her bike on our evening walks, no matter how long of a walk we are taking.  And as for the monkey bars, although frustrating at first, she swings along them from start to finish with ease now!

Soccer School

Maggie did soccer again this summer.  She doesn't play games and isn't on a team.  This is just a class to teach her the skills and to have her doing something.  They have soccer in the fall, but with Andy coaching we aren't sure if we can actually make that work.  For now she is just having fun learning how to play!  Like last year to she got a medal on the last day and Andy was able to play a game kids verse the parents.  She had so much fun!

Pool Time Fun!

So basically if it was a sunny day out we headed to the neighborhood pool this summer.  It didn't take Maggie long to put her swim lesson skills to work.  She can do the back stroke, loves to swim underwater "like a mermaid" and perfected an underwater somersault.  Molly was so little last summer she only made in the backyard pool, but this summer she was able to get acclimated with the water right away and absolutely loved it.  I hung with her in the baby pool most of the time, until she got restless and wanted to be a little more adventurous.  Next summer she will be ready for floaties and Maggie might be ready for swim team!

California Cousins

Let me first start off by saying I am a good 4 weeks behind on my blogging events.  What can I say...the end of the summer came and I got lazy, so I am not going to pretend like these events happened yesterday, I am just going to tell about them as I best remember them from the past four weeks.  At the end of July my brother, his wife Julie and their two boys, Jack and Sam, made a trip out to Chicago (because they were going to be making another trip out to Jamaica with my mom).  The California Cousins had a blast together.  We only saw them for a couple days before they headed into the city to spend some time with Julie's family.  On Sunday we headed over to my parents to celebrate my brother's birthday.  It turned out to be kind of a cloudy day so in between naps Julie ended up taking Jack and Maggie to the movies...by the time they returned their energy had been so bottled up they ran, and convinced Eric to chase them, for the rest of the afternoon.  Then we had a nice whole entire family dinner and a birthday cake celebration for Eric.  We have been lucky enough this summer to see Eric twice in two months which is pretty rare.  Its crazy how fast these kids grow, even more so when you don't see them everyday!

 Of course no one would stand still long enough for me to take a picture of them all.  I do have a picture of the whole family, but its on Snapfish...I will get it sometime soon to share!!