Care package #6

We were so lucky to send our sixth care package last week with our friends Kelly and Jon and their son Max.  They flew over to Korea last week to meet their daughter Lucy and attend their court hearing.  They were kind enough to take an "oversized" care package for us.  It was flat but a little larger than the typical gallon size package......all because we wanted to send a custom photo pillow and the smallest size is 16x16.

I am super excited at how well the pillow turned out....we included photos from our session on the beach in the Florida Keys.  We incorporated a photo of Peter into one of our family (upper left)....and in keeping with the confidentiality clause, I had to blur out his face in the photos of the pillow below.

The finished product.

Closeup of the upper half.

Closeup of the lower half.

I found a website that allows you to create custom board books for toddlers.....I chose a bunch of snapshots and this is a nice way for Peter to flip through more photos of us without ripping pages!

 We included a cute kids book in Korean.....

And a MagnaDoodle with a special message.

We used a Space Bag to flatten the pillow as flat as we could and then put everything into a larger bag.

We got it shipped off to Kelly and she included it in the extra suitcases she took with lots of other care packages for waiting families.  Peter should receive this one later this week.  We are hopeful to get pictures this month.  Last month was the first time we missed getting updated pictures since we accepted Peter's referral in December.  We've been lucky to get so many but I will admit it was tough to miss a month.  Here's hoping.....

Playing Hookey!

A few weeks ago I decided to play hookey from work and head to an Iowa Cubs game with my boys.  Lillie doesn't have the attention span for a ball game, so we left her at school for the afternoon.  It was a lovely day and the weather was perfect.

We started with BIG hot dogs.  Nothing better than a ballpark hot dog.

Beautiful view with the Capitol building in the background.

Lots of smiles!

 Lemonade, yes please!

Much to my chagrin, the boy loves cotton candy.  Ugh.

We really need to do stuff like this more often....Paul thought it was so cool and kept saying the word hookey all afternoon.

Independence Day 2014

Our dear friends the Craney family drove a long way to visit us for the Fourth of July this year. The kids were super excited....and the parents were excited as well!

Check out the boys that brought us together in the first place.....they met when they were 10 months old and here they are at age 6.  Like peas in a pod!

We spent much of Friday morning playing outside.  It was a beautiful day and we took full advantage.  Paul was showing off his mad basketball skills.....

.....and Mister Me Too (aka Nicholas) was following Paul's lead.

The bounce house made an appearance.....Lillie had a blast bouncing outside!

 And so did Joseph......

We packed a picnic lunch and headed out to Jester Park.  We spent hours eating, playing and hunting for bugs.

Lots of time on the swings.

Did I mention the bug hunting?  Cicadas to be exact!  They were big and loud and the kids loved finding them.

Partners in crime....the boys got along really well.  Good thing Lillie likes to play on her own sometimes as she sometimes got left out of the boy fun.

 After we left Jester Park, we headed to the Saylorville Lake spillway.  With recent flooding, the spillway is really a sight to be seen.  Lots of water moving really fast and spraying up unexpectedly.  Lillie fell asleep in the car so she missed the spillway fun.

A yummy dinner on the deck....love this crew!

And some festive cookies for dessert......

It doesn't get much more patriotic than this.....the serious one.....

.....and the silly one!

The kids had fun with sparklers even though it was still pretty light outside.

 And then a quick game of soccer before it was time to get cleaned up for bed.

There was a whole lot of this throughout our weekend.....which typically ended in arguments over who got to be the good guys and who had to be the bad guys.

On Saturday, it rained.  A lot.  So we headed to the Science Center for some fun.  Tubes and balls, what could be more fun?

Making dams in the water area is serious business.

Lots of Lego car racing....

Dinner at Wig and Pen was yummy!  And we actually for a group shot where everyone was looking at the camera.  Should have bought a lottery ticket that night.

Silly putty was a fun distraction while we waited for our food.  Why not make a fake nose?

And why not make a fake nose for mommy too and then make silly faces?

Last morning together.....lost of last minute play time.

And some pop tarts for breakfast.

I can't tell you how much fun we had.  We are so thankful that Rebecca and James were willing to drive so far to visit.  The kids have so much fun together.  We had so much fun with adult only time too.