Summer Fun!
I am trying to catch up on my lack of summer blogging before it gets super busy again and I just give up completely! The kids were busy this summer with soccer, swimming, VBS, cheer camp for the girls and T-ball for Joseph! We also had a lot of fun just spending time together this summer!

Soccer
On Monday nights we would go to the soccer field at 4:30 for Joseph's hour long practice, then there was a 15 minute break before Olivia started at 5:45, practiced for an hour, 15 minute break and then Eileen had her hour long practice. It goes without saying that Monday nights were not my favorite, but the kids had fun-weekly picnic dinner and playing soccer with friends.

Joseph practicing his kicking

Olivia dribbling the ball

Eileen making a play for the ball

Swimming Lessons
Every Tuesday and Thursday night we had swimming lessons. Eileen's stoke is getting much stronger and her endurance has improved as well. Olivia did so much better this time!!! (She was willing to get in the water and do what her teacher told her to do!) Joseph was not thrilled with swimming lessons but did okay-most days he got in the pool.

Eileen doing some deep water swimming (it's always a big deal when they swim in the 12 ft. deep part of the pool).

Olivia getting ready to get in, she is the one with her arms above her head.

Joseph being lifted into the water by his instructor.

Strawberry Picking
I took the kids strawberry picking on a gorgeous June day, the berries were delicious!
Riding the truck out to the strawberry fields

The girls were a great help and picked an entire flat all by themselves. Joseph was a little less helpful and kept jumping all over the place. I finally sent him out to the road (the one on the farm that takes you to the field not the real road-it's to the right in the picture above). Joseph continued to jump all over the place and...
ended up jumping into a huge mud puddle! I laughed so hard! He did not find this very funny however so I took his shirt off and wiped him down the best I could and then finished picking our strawberries.

Joseph returning the wagon we used to get the strawberries to our car, I LOVE this picture!

Vacation Bible School (VBS)
The kids attended VBS for the first time this year and had a great time! They did crafts, learned songs, heard bible stories and of course the ever popular snack! On the last day there was a mass and lunch for the families to attend with the kids. The kids performed some of the songs they learned prior to mass.
Joseph was on the side we were sitting on, that's why I don't have the girls performing.

Joseph with his leaders

Olivia with her leaders

and Eileen with her leader-they don't look like they had much fun do they?

A beautiful summer sunset

So this gets us through the first few weeks of June, I will continue to work on getting caught up-thanks for your patience-as you can see we have been busy!

Eileen ran her (hopefully first) marathon!
Eileen was able to participate in the Lakefront Marathon kids run today. We didn't find out about this until she ran in the Run Back to School for MPS, so we were a bit late with her registration-the kids had all summer to run their 25 mils and Eileen did hers the last 2 weeks of September. The kids completed the 25 miles on their own and then ran the final 1.2 miles on the course of the Lakefront Marathon. It was a wonderful and inspiring morning for all of us-we can't wait to go back next year!
It was a very early and cold start to the day!

Arriving at the course, the kids are running to Grandma and Grandpa!

Eileen and Bryan doing their warm-ups in the parking lot

All of the runners participating in the kids lakefront marathon.

They're off, Bryan is in the baseball cap and gray sweatshirt-Eileen is to his left and a bit in front.

Not a bad view while you're running!

Eileen and Bryan coming in for the big finish!

Almost done, 26.2 miles!

I did it!

Family pic at the Lakefront Marathon

After the race the kids fed the ducks their peanut butter and jelly sandwiches,
and created quite a scene with all of the birds that began showing up!

Eileen at the finish line of the Lakefront Marathon!

While we waited for the first finishers to come in we went and got some hot chocolate and a bite to eat. Here Joseph is cooling down his hot chocolate.

They even had a booth with balloon animals and face painting for the kids

We stayed for the first finishers,
Top finisher overall

top female finisher.

This was such an inspiring and special day for all of us and we do hope to make this an annual event for our family.

And I know I am behind a whole season of updates but I have to start somewhere right?

Happy Birthday Cherub!
After Eileen had written her thank you cards, and I had cleaned up the party a bit the kids and I loaded up the mini-van and headed to Madison for another party! We were invited to a Birthday Dinner in honor of Cherub turning 14! Brian and Kelly put out a delicious dinner with BLTs, corn on the cob, fruit salad and a choice of dessert!

This cake had chocolate covered coffee beans mmmmmm.

I like this picture of Cherub, he looks so happy.

And the every popular blowing out the candles shot.

After dessert we got back in the car and headed home for the start of summer and all that comes with it!

Eileen Celebrates Her 8th Birthday With Friends (and a sleepover!)
For Eileen's friend party this year we agreed she could have a sleepover and decided to go with a hotel theme. The girls were invited to the Grand Opening of Hotel Eileen, they ate in the dining room, had their nails done in the salon and watched a movie in the theater room.

We set the table for the girls dinner,

place cards were made,

Eileen was seated at the head of the table,

and the menu cards were placed at each spot.

Before the guests arrived Eileen decided that she needed her hair done, she picked this hair style and loved it!

During the party Olivia worked both the front desk and waited on the girls for dinner service before joining in the fun. Olivia checked each girl in when she arrived and Joseph and Bryan were the bell hops that took the girls bags and brought them downstairs for them.

The girls had choices for their meal which they all seemed to enjoy!

After dinner and gifts it was time for some free play in the basement!

While the girls played they were called up for their nail appointment in the salon (no pictures of that since I had to do the nails).

After everyone had their nails done it was time for dessert! Eileen wanted blue and green cupcakes (they looked like little planet Earths-mental note for Earth Day next year), with blueberry puree and whipped cream.

Following dessert it was time for the craft, each girl used fabric markers to decorate a hand towel that would then go in their goodie bag to take home.

I had Olivia make one in advance to make sure the project would work, here she is showing it off while the other girls worked.

We also made little bottles of soap, lotion, and body spray for the goodie bags.

Along with the mini-bottles and towels, we also sent the girls home with a chocolate truffle, a toothbrush and floss picks.

Finally it was time for pajamas, Olivia gave these to Eileen at the party.

The girls watched Hotel for Dogs and ate popcorn (and trashed the basement-but that was to be expected). They finally fell asleep between 12:30 and 1am.

The next morning they were up at 7:30 ready to go again! The girls had their breakfast on the sun porch. For the continental breakfast we offered them (junk) cereal, go-gurts, applesauce, bananas, and sunny D.

I think the girls enjoyed serving themselves.

Eileen had so much fun and the girls were for the most part very good, it was nice to be able to give Eileen this memory.

And it did make my drive to Madison the next day much easier!