Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Sorry!
Bryan was on vacation last week and we were busy! We began the week with 3 sick kids, 3 cases of pink eye and Eileen had an ear infection! We also had lots of projects around the house to complete as well as fun activities to fit in!
I had to put these pictures of Joseph in. He was having so much fun playing with the vanity while the girls were still sleeping.
He just realized that we can see each other in the mirror! Too cute!
Zoo Trip
On Wednesday Eileen had her final school trip to the zoo. She had such a good time running around with her girl friends! They were so excited to read all about the different animals and find the birds, mammals, reptiles, and amphibians.
Eileen with her record sheet for categorizing all the different animals.
Eileen and her friends Madysin and Emily, in this room the birds fly freely. It is really neat but made the girls a bit nervous at times!

Shopping for Dad!
Bryan Olivia and Joseph met us at the zoo and rather than take the bus home we headed over to the mall. We still had to get our end of the year gift for Eileen's teacher and Bryan needed a new tie for the wedding we would attend on Saturday. Once we got there he needed to look for a new shirt, coat, anything that was on sale! Eileen had her mind made up to get her teacher a ring holder (she brought hers in for show and tell and her teacher loved it and told Eileen that she would love to have one of these too!), I know these things are everywhere but for the life of me that day I could not fine one! Finally 3 stores later we found ONE, not my favorite but Eileen liked it. Needless to say after a morning at the zoo and an afternoon at the mall the kids had had enough. Joseph wanted out of the stroller and Eileen wanted in!
Joseph love the 3-way mirror, he kept giving himself kisses!
Olivia and Eileen in the stroller, ready to go home.

Last day of School
Thursday was Eileen's last day of pre-school. Eileen loves school and was sad to have her last day come so soon.
Going in for the last time
Hanging her bag in her locker for the last time.

Graduation
That afternoon we all returned to school early to pick her up from school and attend her graduation. It was very cute, the teacher reviewed all the things the children had learned that year, and then they sang a song from each unit. Following the songs the children each received a diploma. Olivia and Joseph were very good through the whole thing, Bryan on the other hand thought it was way to long and hot, I did have to remind him that he just attended the shortest and most exciting graduation of the parenthood years.
Eileen and her fellow graduates entering the ceremony.
Eileen listening and waiting to graduate, can you tell most of her friends were not as interested in this whole program?
Olivia watching the presentation with her friend Jacob
Eileen receiving her diploma, what a face!
Eileen taking great pride in her accomplishments
Eileen giving her teacher a final hug.
Olivia and Joseph with the graduate, for the life of us we could not get Joseph to look at the camera (he was way to busy throwing rocks!).
Eileen and me on her first graduation

Putting up the Play Set
During the week Bryan also had to work on setting up the play set! He was able to get a rototiller and till the entire area, level it, put in a weed barrier and then the assembly began!
It's coming along, he was able to do all of this himself with only minimal help from me!
Some of the steps were more confusing than others, the pictures were sometimes more confusing than helpful!

Friday
On Friday we went to Eileen's new school for next year. They have "Kindergarten Round-Up", all of the entering students and parents come for a meeting and the children see the classroom and meet the teachers. Eileen was very excited and when it was done and we were on our way home she told me that she knows where the bathrooms are now. After the "round-up" we were off to Madison. We went in for a very short stay to see Jonathan and Sigan and a surprise visit from Mike, Jen, and Gwendolyn. It was short (we left the next morning) but it was so great to see everyone!
Unfortunately this is the only picture I took while we were there! Olivia and Gwendolyn look like family for the first time (it might have something to do with the hair!).

Saturday morning we got up early an made our way back to "The Falls", we had a wedding that afternoon and Auntie Krista was nice enough to come stay with the kids so we could stay overnight at the hotel. It was a beautiful wedding (and very nice to be in church without having to worry about snacks, and books and anytime we heard a noise wondering if it was one of ours!).
Jenny and her dad going down the aisle.

Happy Memorial Day!
Monday we met our friends and went to the parade and then back to their house for lunch. Well lunch turned into dinner and before you know it we had spent the whole day there! The kids had such a great time playing together. Of course I brought the camera but didn't think to get it out of the diaper bag!

We had a great week, but it was busy! It will be nice to just have some quite time at home (yea, right!).

Monday, May 14, 2007

Happy Mother's Day!
We had a wonderful Mother's day! First the kids all slept past 8:00, thank you very much! At around 9:30 Mom, Dad, and Benjamin arrived and after some visiting we had a simple breakfast of baked french toast, fresh berries, whipped cream and juice and coffee. Following our breakfast we went to the Audubon Center for a hike in the woods. It was perfect, the weather was a bit cool but sunny and nice! We stopped at every bench and lookout point along the way but it was just nice to take a quiet walk in the woods! We made our way down to Lake Michigan, and everyone had a turn throwing rocks into the lake. As we made our way back up to the facility the girls were saying how tired their legs were getting. Eileen's were apparently not so bad since once we suggested a race between her and Uncle Benjamin she was off and running! Olivia on the other hand was not going to be so easily conned and got Papa to give her a shoulder ride! After looking around the facility a bit more, we headed for home. Of course we did have to stop and pick up "Chicago Dogs" for lunch on our way home! After Nana, Papa, and Benjamin left the kids all went down for a nice long nap, a perfect end to a wonderful Mother's day!

Daddy and Joseph all loaded up ready for our hike!

Uncle Benjamin, Papa and Eileen showing off their rock skipping skills. Benjamin and Papa were quite good but Eileen showed them all when just as we were leaving she some how (I still don't know how this happened!) threw the rock (think of how kids throw, straight down) and it skipped 3 times! She was so proud of herself!

Nana, Olivia, Bryan, and Joseph all enjoying their time on the shore. I think Olivia must have thrown 100 rocks in the water, all about the weight of her!

Nana and the girls enjoying yet another of the lookout points. Eileen brought her binoculars with her so whenever she saw some thing interesting she would take a closer look!

The ladies taking a last look at the lake before our hike out, the girls loved the birds.

Olivia enjoying her shoulder ride from Papa.
Happy 60th Birthday Grandpa!
On Saturday May 12th we gathered in honor of Sebastian "Butch" Tocco! We all gathered for dinner at Buca's, the food was delicious! It was really nice to sit down together knowing no one (ok, none of us) had to do any work to make all of the food or clean it up! We had a great time and the kids did an amazing job, considering we were there for about 2.5 hours!
Grandpa getting ready to blow out his candles!

Brenden enjoying his cake, and no the shots are not for him!

After dinner we went back to Krista and Carl's for "cake" it was in fact his surprise party! From what we can tell we were able to pull off the surprise, so many friends and family came in to celebrate with Grandpa!

Round 2 of cake and candles!

Happy 60th Birthday Butch, looking forward to celebrating many, many more!

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

We are Waking!!!
Yesterday when the girls were taking their nap, ok quiet time in their bedrooms, Joseph was feeling adventurous! He went from sitting to standing completely independently and from there he took his first true steps! The most he has put together is 5-6 steps, but they were upright not the diving for Mom while my feet are moving steps, real steps! We are so excited that he is on his way to real walking! The funniest part is I kept trying to get a picture or video of him walking and every time I would pick up a camera he would fall, and every time I would put it down he would take 4-5 steps! All of the video of him is him crawling and Eileen and Olivia yelling in the background, "Mom, he's doing it, he's going to walk! Stand up Joseph! Come here Joseph!" And me telling them to "Leave him alone! Give him some room!" It is a funny video even if it only has him taking around 3 steps!
Here he goes...

The look on his face here says it all...don't fall...just keep going...

This picture is too cute, you can just see how happy he is with himself!
Schlitz Audubon Nature Center
This past Saturday we went to the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center for a presentation on Birds of Pray. It was a great program, they showed us an eagle, falcon, hawk, and numerous owls. All of the birds kept here are birds that will never return to the wild due to the severity of their injuries, so they are very good with large groups. The level of the presentation was informative but I think the kids got some of it, just seeing these birds was so impressive! Olivia did come out of it knowing the 3 things that made a bird a "Raptor", sharp beak, sharp talons, and good eyes (binocular vision). The facility is amazing, if you every have the opportunity to go I highly recommend it! It seems to be fairly new all wood building right on Lake Michigan with a wrap around porch with rocking chairs out there to sit an enjoy the view. Inside they have more rockers (adult and child size) to sit by a warm fire. Last Saturday it was cool and wet, so being so close to the lake believe it or not yes in May we did enjoy sitting by a warm fire! We hope to go back on Mother's day to check out some of the trails.
Sir Frederick

Walker

Barley

Eileen comparing her wing span.

Friday, May 04, 2007

What a Week!
We have had a very busy fun filled week here at the Tocco homestead! I was lucky enough to get the weekend "off" this past weekend. Bryan stayed home with the kiddos and I went into Madison to spend some quality time with my friends from HS. It was so nice to get some uninterrupted guilt free time with my friends, we played cards, ate and ate and ate, and stayed up very late and then woke up on our own rather than to the sweet sounds of children telling us they are hungry! When I got back it was full swing with a week full of activities, I think was a preview of summer! On Monday we had playgroup, Tuesday we had our friends over for the morning, Wednesday we went to the park with friends and then had them over for lunch, Thursday we went to the zoo with our friends Kathy, Grace and FINALLY met our friend Tommy who is 4 months already! Today we had another park morning. Thankfully Bryan got the day off yesterday so he was able to get some yard work done while we were at the zoo and then we spent the afternoon with Daddy! We also had some delicious brats and corn for dinner, Daddy cooked them on the grill for us and then cleaned up the kitchen for me before going to his softball game-Yea Daddy! It was a late game so we didn't go and they didn't win but he is just happy to be out there again. We are looking forward to a weekend with NOTHING scheduled, maybe a little Cinco de Mayo celebration on Saturday!
Joseph sitting in the wood chips at the playground.

Olivia checking in on her little brother.

Joseph LOVES corn on the cob!