Cory's visit

My wonderful sister, Cory, came to visit with her 3 children and we had so much fun.  We took tons of pictures and laughed a lot.  Alyssa asked us, "what you funny about?" a couple of times as Cory and I were about to cry from laughing so hard.  When I tried to describe it to Chris he just looked at me with  a blank expression.  Thank goodness for sisters.  My other dear sister, Stacy, asked to see the pictures, so these are for you.  Wish you could have been here too (but it was a lot quieter where you were!)

 Cousins playing in the basement.  There were a lot of goofy moments and they played so well together (minus Alyssa screaming at Paul and him punching her in the face-minor issue).

 Sweet Lily.  That girl is a doll and so sweet.  

 Sammi and Hailey had a lot of fun playing together.

 At the park.

 Paul crying on the playground.  I was trying so hard not to laugh, but that kid is so darling, even when he is sad.

 Happier times at the park.  

 We headed to Brookfield Zoo and had a lot of fun (minus the time when we lost Alyssa for 10 of the longest minutes of my life).

 Alyssa and Paul actually sharing space and liking each other.

 Cute kids!

 These girls kept having sleepovers in the same room and hanging out together.  So cute.

 At the Peggy Notebaert Nature museum in Chicago (thanks Kori for the recommendation).  They have a room full of free flying butterflies that the kids either loved or hated.

 Sammi used Lily's flower to try to lure a butterfly to her and eventually got one on her finger.  On the other hand, Hailey was really freaked out, but still tried to get them to land on her...not really sure about the psychological issues there.

 Little Miss Happy

 Cute girls

 Playing in the water

 Tired out on the drive home.

 They spend tons of time on the trampoline-this is right when they all woke up and couldn't even get dressed first.  Cute girls.

 Cory may kill me for posting this, but I thought it was hysterical.  The kids were putting water balloons in their swimming suits and then jumping on the trampoline to pop them ("Sonic Pop").  But, they would walk around forever before they would pop them and it just looked too funny.

 The balloons entertained for hours!

 Mr. goofy.  Paul is too funny and has a darling personality.

I just had to post this b/c a lot of our time was spent watching different sporting activities.  The kids were so patient driving all over and watching various games every night of the week.  We sure loved having the Hopkins family here and can't wait until Florida!

Carter turns 12

I can't believe it, but Carter is 12.  This is such a big birthday for him and it was fun to see him be so grateful and thoughtful to those around him.  It was a great day.  He wanted me to bring McDonald's to school for lunch.  After school he hung out with a friend until dinner (steak-what a boy).  We had brownie sundaes and opened gifts.  He's a fantastic kid and turning into a wonderful young man.  On Sunday, he was ordained a deacon...I cannot believe it.  We are now in the world of Young Men's and he has already gone on his first campout.  Crazy days.

 All of the kids made a card for Carter and he had fun reading them.  Grant put a joke on there about a chicken crossing the road which was pretty funny.

 Carter is really into baseball and got a new bat from my parents.  

Looking sharp on Sunday

Brookfield Zoo

On the last day of spring break, Chris stayed home so that we could hang out. He and Hailey decided to make breakfast for everyone and went all out. Since I never make bacon or sausage, they were all pretty excited and I was revolted by all of the smoke in our house. :)

After breakfast, we headed to Brookfield zoo. It had been a rainy morning, and there was no one there. This is the first time that I've been there and no one else has been in the monkey house. It was so nice. We haven't been to the zoo in years-Alyssa hasn't been since she was an infant, so everyone was pretty engaged.

Those gorillas are pretty intimidating. I learned that in the 90's, a 3 year old boy accidentally fell into the gorilla area, and that one of the female gorillas actually carried him to safety. I tried to think of that as they were glaring at us.

We found a peacock marching around. He was not happy with us and kept his feathers up and turned around in circles. I think he was happier once we left.

I hope we never meet one of these in the wild either!

Alyssa loved the polar bear though.

Checking out the penguins.

On our way out of the zoo. A wonderful day.

Springfield

This week has been spring break for us and we decided to head down to Springfield to check out some Abraham Lincoln history. We started out at Oak Ridge Cemetery where the Lincoln's are all buried (except for his oldest son).

The structure over their burial site is beautiful and stunning. It pays homage to the man who helped end slavery in America. We were able to go inside and see where the family was buried and to remember the wonderful things that he did.

Right outside the tomb is this sculpture. Legend has it that if you rub his nose, you will have good luck. Our wonderful tour guide told us that he had failed to rub the nose as a youth and then he took off his hat and showed us his bald head. He strongly encouraged us to rub the nose. :)

We all complied.

Next we went over to the Lincoln Museum. Unfortunately, you can't take a lot of pictures within the museum, but it is EXTREMELY well done. Very informative, but also very easy to enjoy. I will say that about 3/4 of the way through, Andrew said, "is this whole place about Lincoln? I'm getting a little tired of learning about him." It was pretty funny.

Right outside of the "White House" exhibit, there are statues of the First Family. Of course, there is always a line to have your picture taken. When we came out of the exhibit, it was open and we ran over, soon to be followed by a horde of people. I quickly tried to line up the family, and you can see how unproductive that was. My favorite part is that it looks like Grant is trying to bite off Chris' wrist.

Inside of the museum is "Grandma's attic" where the kids can play some period games. Hailey dressed up in some costumes and declared that she looked weird. She's never really gotten into the dress up thing.

Grant trying to get the little ball into the cup.

Andrew figured out the spinning thing pretty quickly and did it for a long time.

Carter liked the Lincoln logs and tried to build the tallest house he could. He's always going for the best...Mr. Competitive.

Alyssa is learning a few of her letters and wanted to sit down and write them. She likes being big.

This is the house that the Lincoln's lived in while they were in Springfield. Not sure what Grant is doing at this point.

Here is the old state capital where Lincoln would have been involved in politics. The famous "a house divided against itself shall not stand" speech was given inside and we got to see the room. Grant was losing it at this point. He was so done, until....

We saw a Cold Stone right across the street from the Old State House. Boy, did that change his spirits fast! Thank goodness for ice cream. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

With the warm weather, we headed outside for the day. Andrew decided that since it was St. Patrick's Day, he was going to find some good luck. He managed to find several 4 leaf clovers and even a 5 leaf clover! He was pretty excited and figured he's saved up enough luck to last until next year. :)

March?!?

We have had unseasonably warm weather here for over 2 weeks. It's been 80 degrees the past couple of days and we have been soaking up every minute of it. Today, the kids wanted to play in the sprinkler and I kept thinking, "It's only March!!!" Next year on St. Patrick's Day, I think we'll look back on today and wonder if it was a dream.