video 2010 12 03 19 03 48 rhianna

Peas video 2010 12 03 19 01 52

Homework: My Hero

I guess the world needs more heroes. It’s hard for kids to find someone to look up to these days.

See the posted picture for Piper’s version along with the note we sent back to school in her kindergarten homework folder.

The assignment: HOMEWORK

Please work on this “My Hero” project at home. The completed sheets should be returned back to school no later than Friday, Oct. 22.

Thank you,

Ms. Abel

Ms. Abel,

We did not help Piper with this assignment other than reading through it with her and quizzing her about heroes. This was her interpretation. We did not realize she would draw a self-portrait with a cape.

Sunny & Nathan

Fynn's instant replay of Monday Night Football

Fynn didn't know we were recording him and we probably missed some of the best stuff but here he is watching Monday Night Football and acting it out. It was hilarious. It's not the first time he's done it and I'm sure it won't be the last.

Summer photos

Here's a link to Kodak with some summer photos. If you can't view it, please let me know.
http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?sourceId=533754321803&cm_mmc=eMail-_-Share-_-Photos-_-Sharee

A few more summer things in review...my sister Abby and her boyfriend Nic visited. Nice to have so many family members make the drive this summer.

Piper became obsessed with Michael Jackson so she watched an hour long show on him multiple times this summer. She really got into books, too. We ordered lots from Barnes and Noble and then ended up switching over to library books because we couldn't keep up! Junie B. Jones is the series of choice right now. I think she's about 18 books into it.

There's a place called Phillips Park and it's amazing. It has lots of playgrounds, trails, fountains, a trolley and a FREE zoo. We visited Blackberry Farms and that was fun as well. Went on a train ride and a tractor ride around the place. We even had all four of us ride the ponies - Saylor and Zoey only wanted one turn. Piper and Fynn could have spent all day there. Luckily, there were other horses to ride as well on the carousel. We took a picnic lunch and enjoyed the day.

The Oswego pool is pretty cool, too. They have multiple slides, water and sand areas. We spent a few days there as well.

We tried out new sleeping arrangements this summer. Each month, we allowed one of the tribal members to have a room of his/her own. Saylor was alone in July, Zoey in August and now we are back to Fynn, who is sleeping in his own room again. It was good to give each of them some independence and time alone. And, it strengthened some bonds. Zoey and Fynn became fast buddies when they shared a room.

More again later. Hope you are having a great day!

Where did the summer go?

Well, it happened. We were having too much fun to keep up the posting on our blog. But, we do have a lot of pictures to show for our fun experiences (although not all of our good times). I know pictures are more interesting than words so I'll work on uploading those soon. In the meantime, here's a quick summary of a few of our summer days with more to come later.

We took the train into Chicago again with Nathan's parents in early June. We stopped by the blues fest, viewed some abstract art, parks, fountains and Lake Michigan, and crammed 9 of us (our 8 plus the driver) into a regular-sized cab.

We visited Illinois' largest waterpark, which is about 4 minutes from our house, several times. Piper lost her 2nd bottom tooth after biting into a hotdog for lunch. The waterpark is a very cool place with lots of slides, water adventures, sand and a wave pool - fun for all ages.

Our first experience at a drive in movie theather was entertaining. We watched How to Train Your Dragon. The kids were in PJs in the back of the truck munching on popcorn and giggling. Nathan and I set up lawn chairs on the ground below. The 4th Shrek was the second movie of the evening but we were already pushing our limits. I think we arrived home around midnight.

Piper attended Bible school and taught the tribe all the songs. We still have concerts off the balcony and stairs in our home. Piper also played T-ball for the first time this summer. We made some major improvements from watching the ball roll by us to racing after every single hit all over the field. I think we finally got a handle on owning an "area" of the field. And, to say it was T-ball was a little misleading. I think after the first practice, they switched over to coach-pitch for these 4-6 year olds. She did great! And, the experience made our backyard ball games a little more competitive. It's nice to have a kid at the plate and three others on base. Good thing there are 4 bases for 4 kids!

OK, more later. Have a great day!

Memorial Day weekend

Bon, Sco and Nan visited us over Memorial Day weekend. We had a great time with visits to parks, singing and games in the house, a trip out for drinks and food and a slip and slide in the backyard. One of our favorite parks has a zip line (even grown ups love it)! Here's Zoey on the zipline, Saylor playing and Piper and Fynn hitting some golf balls.

Photos from Oswego

Photo Home: eighmys

Here's a link to some photos from Oswego. If you need my username and password to view, just call or e-mail (Sunny). I'll find a better way to do this next time but I wanted to give Centraldutchphoto.com a shot. There are just over 50 to view I think. It includes some photos of the kids, the house, an indoor church service by Zoey and Saylor, new PJs, our trip to downtown Chicago and the aquarium and Piper's kindergarten round up.

2nd Weekend In Oswego

Our second weekend featured a Saturday trip to downtown Chicago! We all boarded the 9:10 am Metra train out of the Aurora station, which is about 15 minutes drive from our house. The kids had a blast with the train ride and were excited to look out the windows constantly switching seats to sit with Mommy...then Daddy. We arrived at Union Station which is far into the downtown area and walked around a bit. We had decided to go to the Shedd Aquarium but were unsure exactly how we would get there. We approached the cab line, not knowing if they would, or if we could put all of our family in a cab. The driver said for us to pile in, and that's what we did -- six of us in the back. The kids looked as us as if to say, "are you kidding me with this? where are the seatbelts?" All took turns standing up in the back -- Zoey took an amusing fall on a hard right turn.

We made it to the aquarium and spent about 3 hours there including a lunch. Awesome experience and all the kids maintained interest levels for a long time. Saylor seemed to be obsessed with turtles and we saw a lot of those. Penguins, dolphins, and SEAHORSES seemed to be other popular attractions.

We caught a cab back to Union Station and then got on the 2:30 train back to Aurora. All 4 kids fell asleep on the way back. Fynn fell asleep perched up on his knees with his head on the window sill as he was looking out -- pretty cute.

All in all a fantastic experience.

Our first weekend here we visited a park near the Fox River. And, yes, Fynn has since had a haircut. There are a ton of wonderful parks around and the kids beg for an outing to one every day.

Blogging from Oswego

OK folks. It's happened. We're blogging from Oswego. You might be thinking, "this will probably be the only entry we'll ever see," and you could be right. But, we'll give it a try...I don't know how to do this yet so I need to practice. Hopefully, there will be more soon.