Art and Other Adventures at Home

Peek.  Asher and Albert were playing in the bathroom.

Addilyn's giraffe.

Elias' first time painting.  He was pretty exciting (and eventually wore a hole in the paper from painting exclusively in one spot).

Asher's painting.  I like how he has samples of colors all over. 

This is where Albert was while everyone else was painting. He seemed happy.

A grasshopper!  This grasshopper found it's way into our house and was hanging out on our window in the dining room.  Everyone was pretty excited to be able to check it out up close before we let it go outside.  Oddly enough, we had a second one make it's way in to our kitchen on the same day.  We haven't found another before or since. Weird.

Markers.

"What are you going to draw?"

"Ummmm....?"

I love this face!

He's going to get you!

He was helping.

Giant baby!

 

Standing up in his crib.  He's mastered the art of pulling up and here's the proof.  This is how I find him every morning and after every nap.

A Party for Cornelius

Last week we had a birthday party for Cornelius (Addilyn's favorite stuffed giraffe).  We made some rainbow cupcakes to celebrate (and so we could cross "bake colorful cupcakes" off our summer list).  Addilyn was mixing in the green food coloring.

 We then just dropped in different colors of batter into each liner.  That way each cupcake was unique.

This was an egg-free cake recipe so that we could share with Asher.  I'm not sure if it was because of the lack of eggs or something else in the baking process but these cupcake tops were concave instead of convex.  We decided that would give us a good opportunity to add a surprise ingredient.

Decorating the cupcakes. 

Pretty little cupcake.

Cornelius during the birthday song.

Blowing out the candle.

Getting a card and opening her present.

Checking out her present.

Enjoying his cupcake.  If you look closely you'll see that we filled the top with mini chocolate chips before frosting them.  Mmm.

After all our work, Addilyn told me that it wasn't really Cornelius' birthday.  She was just pretending.  Cornelius' birthday is actually on Easter. 
Oh, I guess this girl doesn't need any help with imaginative play.  I had fun throwing a party with you anyway, silly girl.

Addilyn's First Day

Today was Addilyn's first day of first grade.  The first day of school requires a special cereal for strength and courage.  This morning everyone got Chocolate Chex (Oooo, ahhhh)!

All dressed up and ready for the first day.

There was a  minor kerfuffle this morning as Tyler and I realized that this top was more of a shirt than a dress.  The shorts she was wearing underneath just weren't going to cut it. That necessitated a wardrobe change as we headed out the door and leggings were swapped in at the last minute.  All turned out well.

Super cute!

The whole family went with Addilyn this first morning.  Asher even helped by carrying her lunch for her.  He's such a good brother.

Here he was standing with Albert away from the chaos that is lining up on the first day.  The kids don't know the routine yet so all the parents are standing with them and it's sort of a mess.

See.  A mess.

Luckily, Addilyn didn't seem phased by the disorder.  She was enjoying standing with Maizy and chatting with the other girls in her class.  We are heading out to pick her up in a few minutes and then we'll hear how the rest of her first day went.  Yay for the start of another school year!!

The Air Show and the Bean

Last Sunday we went to the Chicago Air Show. This was our set up on the beach.

 The kids thoroughly enjoyed being able to play in the sand (while occasionally watching some awesome planes, helicopters, etc).

Tyler and I thoroughly enjoyed watching all the acts in peace.

Super cutie.

If you look carefully, you can see the air pushing downward.  This Harrier jet was hovering right there over the lake.  It was LOUD.

Addilyn has started helping out with the vacuuming.  It's awesome how much she loves helping out.

Kendall and Joel were in town a while back.  We met them downtown and went to the Bean.

Here I was being all creepy and taking a picture of Tyler taking a picture of them.

Kendall then took a picture of the 6 of us at the Bean.  Not everyone was happy about it.

We then wandered Millenium Park and spend some time in the family section of the Art Institute.  On our way, the kids got to see a birds eye view of the Metra trains.  Asher was pretty entranced.
All in all, it was a pretty fun morning with Aunt Kendall and Uncle Joel!

Cookies, Playdough, and More Playground Fun

Addilyn helped me make cookies.  She was excited because she got to lick the beater (that was always my favorite part too).  As these were Asher-friendly cookies(no egg), I didn't feel even a little bit guilty about letting her either.

Scoop.

Here she was forming the dough ball.  We baked a dozen and then froze the rest in little balls for easy baking later.  She's concentrating so hard.

 

Lick.

A cheesy pose by the finished product.  Mmm...cookies.

 She also helped me make playdough. 

We made four different colors.

And then Asher pretended to eat it.  I think he made a hotdog bun.

There is this one park that we are really loving lately.  It's a couple miles north and east of our place so we bike to it.  It has an awesome tree to climb.

The boys were a little more tentative.  I guess it's hard to get traction in Crocs.

Standing.

Looking cute in his swing.

Super happy baby face!

 Serious baby face.

This playground is huge and complex.  It's pretty much all wood (except for the occasional tire, etc).  It has a train engine which the kids love.

Dropping wood chips through the top of the train engine.  I don't remember if this somehow repaired the engine or if it signified raining.  Maybe it wasn't involved at all in their imaginary game.  Maybe it was just fun.  Either way, the kids love this park and the fun imagination games they play with Daddy there.

Here we were trying to recreate a picture we took of Asher and Elias when Elias was about Albert's age. 

I realize now that we never posted it to our blog and only had it on our phones.  Oops!  Well here is the original picture.  Cuties!

All four in the baby swings.

The oldest three high up in a tree.

Sleepy jungle cat.