This is What Happens......

when it's cold and rainy..... we make our very own bouncy house here at home.  For free.

Thanks to all who sent good thoughts our way today for my Gracie. She underwent and endoscopy up at Loyola.  Everything went well and she was so brave.  We are trying to find answers as to why she doesn't eat well and why it's hard for her to swallow.  Everything looked ok today but they did some biopsies just to make sure.  We'll meet with the gastroentologist again in a few weeks to see where to go next.

Park Playdate!

We have so many plans all ready in place this summer. We will be taking swim lessons, Gracie will be in Hip Hop dance, and the twins are in a couple of things, we also have plans every Wednesday. Since so many of us have kids at school, we decided to put together a calendar for the summer. Every Wednesday, we meet up, bring a lunch and swimsuits, and hit the splash parks! Those are fun and they are free! My friend Chris, from work, set it up and rotated splash parks around Plainfield, Shorewood, Joliet, Minooka,and Oswego since we live all around! Today was the first one! We met up at a park in Shorewood but since it was cool, it was not a splashpad day but more like a picnic in the park kind of day. We had fun and we can't wait to keep doing it all summer!

Pool Party!

Today was the first weekday and we didn't have school!  Why?  Because it's summer baby!  (I'm sure that will get old to you readers but I am so excited to be on vacation!).  Today we headed over to our friend Holly's house to swim in this bad boy!  Jackie and Olivia were there too!

This thing is awesome!  There are 2 slides and a little pool.  It took like an hour to blow up so while we waited, we ate some lunch on the patio and got ready to hit the water.  Gracie loved the big slide and she went down it about a million times! 

These two weren't too sure about this so at first they hung out on this little slide.

And ate some cookies that we baked this morning.  (See, we had time to bake this morning...I love summer.)

Our friends Cullen and Mason came too!  Isn't he such a cute dude?

Gracie and her boyfriend Cullen were taking care of each other by holding the sprayer out of each other's way when they came down the slide.

She asked me about getting one of these......oh Grandpa.......

Soon Presley discovered how much fun it was to spray people with the water squirter.

I even took a turn on this.  Ignore the fatness please.

And then, because my friends made me, I ran and dove headfirst through the little slide.  Totally fun!  But totally cold!

Eventually the kids stumbled over to the swingset in a cookie coma.  The entire box of cookies got eaten up!

2 peas in a pod swinging.

Then back to the big swing to eat some more cookies.

Finally Evie decided to be brave and try out this slide into the pool.  She loved it!

In the meantime, we chilled out and kicked back.

Presley discovered the horsey. 

And here is all the kiddies that played today.  They had so much fun and so did we!  I know we have many sunny swimming days ahead of us this summer!  Thanks Holly!

Memorial Day Weekend!

This weekend was the kickoff to summer! School ended Friday and there's nothing but whatever we want to look forward too! Of course we have plans but fun plans!  This weekend we started it off right.  For starters, we went to my friend Dana's house for a cookout on Saturday.  Of course, I forgot the swimsuits so we had to borrow Allie and Emma's.  But Evie didn't mind.

Gracie didn't either.  She couldn't wait to jump in thier pool!  Chuck bought them new floaty things.

Here's Gracie and Allie testing out the water. 

My girls and their suits out on loan.

My friend Dana was like "yeah, come over, the pool's open and the water is warm."  We get there and it's cold.  Thankfully she took Gracie in with her.

The kids had fun playing with the water table too.

Mia was just chilling.  Isn't she a doll?

We cooked out and it was great.  Gracie even ate a hot dog!

And then somehow Kevin ended up sitting at the kids table.  Ha!

On Sunday, we decided to wash the cars.  For the mini, this was a first.  I've only had it for like 3 years now.  She's ugly to begin with she did need a good cleaning inside and out.

The kids were so excited to wash the cars that they even started washing the garbage cans.

Today we went to a Memorial Day parade in Minooka.  We dressed festively.

Here is all of our friends that we went with.

Allie was all decked out in red, white, and blue.

Here are mine.  This was the best picture I could get.

Little Miss Hollywood.

Watching the parade.

It was a short and sweet parade. They threw some candy and we even saw some tractors.

Meghan was in the parade.

And so was Jared.

Presley like the fire trucks best!

After the parade, it was so hot!  We went back to Dana's for some freeze pops.

It was a great weekend filled with friends and family.  It was awesome. It was a good kickoff to summer!  I"m so excited it's finally here!