First Baseball Game of 2015: Cubs vs Royals

Aunt Kathy came into town this weekend while Grandpa Bart and Grandma Kiki were visiting. We all went to a baseball game: Cubs vs Royals. Kathy brought Simon a Royals tshirt which he wore under his cubs jersey! We got VIP tickets to see batting practice on the field, but unfortunately batting practice was rained out. Game was still on and they still went on the field though! It was a great game with everyone having a blast! Simon was really tired (the adults might have been as well!) and we left the game when it was tied 4-4 in the 7th inning.

Headed to the game!

At the Ernie Banks statue.

Whole group right as we arrived.

ON THE FIELD!!

Watching the game.

Building Furniture

Simon practices using the drill. 

Memorial Day 2015

Memorial Day we went to Vickie and Joseph's house. Lillian loved the train and giving Maddie 'Baby!' hugs (which pretty much looked like she was strangling her but came from a place of love). Simon spent tons of time running back and forth and just hanging out.  It was a great time for all! Meant to get a family picture but just forgot to do it!

Visiting the Delaneys' at Epic

We went on a road trip to Madison on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. Because we're crazy we decided to go there and back on the same day which is 6 hours in a car (3 hours each way). The kids were amazing - there was only about a 20 minute melt down for Lillian on the way home when she got woken up from her nap and after a few minutes in we realized we hadn't fed her dinner (she eats dinner usually around 4, before the rest of us).  It took us the next 15 minutes to convince her she really did want to eat and then she was happy Lillian again. We spent the car rides both ways listening to music and looking out the window. Lillian made Digit the Piglet dance along with some songs and we all had fun. Simon spent about 20 minutes of quiet time (while Lillian napped) listening to his own music on his headphones and looking out the window.

We spent 4 hours in Madison with Chris, Erika, Casey (8) and Darby (6). Simon LOVED playing with the boys. Lillian was a bit too little to keep up but she tried hard to do so! Though we didn't get to do much catching up due to kid chasing, it was nice just to hang out with Chris and Erika.  We actually spent the day at Chris's workplace - EPIC. It was amazing. There was a small beach and huge, perfectly manicured lawns. Lillian wondered probably further than she has been from adult supervision in her whole life! It was a great day that will hopefully be repeated in the near future.

Left to Right: Darby (6), Simon (4), Casey (8), Lillian (1.5)

That is a fake duck. They spent 10 minute trying to coax it to come closer.

This is Chris's WORK. That's us up on the balcony. Kids were swimming in the water.

Still Chris's Work - perfect grass. We ate, played ball and generally had a blast running around.

Little does Lillian know that Chris just gave her Orange/Banana JUICE.

Yeah, she likes it.

Lillian running and counting down

She has started counting down with us: "set, GO!!!" or "Ready, RUN!!"
She also knows the words for numbers and understands that we like to say them together so she'll say things like 1,1,1,6! or TWO! and it is super cute.

Just before I started this video she was counting down without any prompting saying SET GO trying to race Simon home.

Dr Simon

Simon and Lillian have been playing doctor a ton. She will bring the doctor kit out and lie down - I think her goal is to get him to play with her. It works every time!

Dr Simon says: "It says start - that must be very bad." 

Did you hear that cough? 

There is a monkey in her ear!!

Lilly takes a call

A while back, Jessie gave Lilly an old nonworking phone of hers to play with.  Lilly still plays with it constantly, having long conversations and texting ("button, button, button") with whoever she's imagining is on the other end.  Often when she answers the phone, she pretends it's Simon calling to talk to her ("Oh!  It's Simon! [for] me!").   I missed her long chat just a few minutes before this video but you can still see her answer it a few times, and wave goodbye to the phone when she hangs up.

Outside Time!

It was a lovely weekend and we spent the majority of it at the park. 

She got up here on her own!

And did it again! She only took a couple steps on her own before tipping, but it was pretty impressive!

Playing catch with me from the slide!

Happy to play on her brothers tricycle - he was distracted playing catch.

Rounding out the weekend with the watertable!

Pull up champion!

Simon and Alan built a bedframe while Lillian and I napped.

Week with Lillian

Jessie was on vacation this past week so Alan and I traded off days at home with her. We had a great time with that little munchkin. She is so very joyful!

Don't you hang out in your halloween costume?

Fish samples at Whole Foods - she loved them.

They have been getting along together so well lately!

Such a happy girl all the time!

Feeding her puppy. 

Reading the book to Bunny. She pointed out the animals to him and everything!

Wall of Dog!

Making a fort with Daddy.

First Scooters cone all for herself!

Simon Spring School Picture 2015

Full resolution below is Simon's Spring School Picture from 2015. I'd like to say we purposely made it casual because his fall picture was formal, but really we just forgot it was picture day. He definitely makes it work though!

Mothers Day Weekend

We had a wonderful mothers day weekend. I had hoped we could spend the day outside, but it was cold and rainy. We went to the nature museum on Saturday and on Sunday we went to the Garfield Conservatory. Great weekend of snuggles and fun, despite the weather. We even got scooters - in winter jackets.

Mothers Day Snuggles

Guess who loves popcorn?

I asked for a smile and I got the best smile!

First Scooters of the year!