The good of the week continued with the arrival of my coworkers' baby boy and the last chemo treatment of my dear friend Kris...two definite reasons to celebrate! <3
This week I also celebrated the relationship of our boys. It is so fun to watch their love and friendship grow as they get older. They truly are one another's best friend and I hope it always remains that way!
Here, Asher is teaching Avery his class dance to "Fight Song" for his school talent show.
On Wednesday Jen (my coworker) and her husband brought their new little guy into work to show him off on day 2 of his life outside the womb. LOOOOVED getting the chance to hold him and also got a bit of a kick watching my boss nervously hold him as well. He was a little hesitant but we assured him that he wouldn't break the little guy (baby Rohan). I couldn't help but laugh as 12 years ago I held my high school BFF's baby in the very same nervous and awkward manner. I guess I've come a long way since then!
Another reason to celebrate this week was the arrival of my workbook for a new bible study I am joining. Earlier this month I was having a rough week and feeling very down and lonely. One morning on my way to work I prayed that God would show me His love for me. A few hours later a friend of mine put out an invitation on Facebook for an online women's bible study that she was going to lead. For a while now I've wanted to join a study but with a job and two kids time is limited. When I saw this invitation for a study that I could do from home with other women scattered around the US, I jumped at the opportunity and truly felt that God had answered my prayer from earlier that morning.
- It was our day off together
- It was the Avery's daycare provider's birthday.
- We were going to get to the spend the week doing fun stuff in Chicago and visiting dear friends.
With so much fun to be had, Avery and I headed to Meijer to prepare while Asher was at school. We bought the supplies that we needed to enjoy a treat with friends and share a treat and a ballon with the birthday girl. Once we had what we needed we headed back home to get baking.
For the treat to bake, we made a recipe for Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes as I felt everyone could use a taste of summer since the weather outside didn't show any of it. It was a pretty intensive recipe, but Avery and I enjoyed the process together and the results were beautiful and quite tasty!
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| The cupcakes had lemon in the cake and a raspberry on top with raspberry frosting over and a raspberry garnish! ...all made completely from scratch! Yum! (The frosting was the BEST part!) |
Avery especially liked that I let him lick the beater. Usually when we make things it has raw eggs in it so I don't let the boys enjoy the (uncooked) leftovers, so this was a special treat for Avery! He kept saying over and over "that was so fun!" :)
(2) Videos: Frosting!
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| The final product |
When the cupcakes were done, Avery and I headed to Asher's school to pick him up and then the three of us delivered some of the cupcakes and the balloon that Avery picked out to Christina to wish her a Happy Birthday. Shortly after that Eric got home from work and we headed down to Wheaton, Illinois to visit our friends the Laillets who used to live in Kenosha. We got there around 7pm and even though we haven't seen one another in several months it was like we had all been together last week. We picked up where we left off and the kids had a blast playing together. Avery was the only one that took a little time to warm up to everyone and that was mostly because he had fallen asleep on the way there and was still waking up. Once he did he was game to play with Asher, Theo and Lilou like they were all the great friends that they had once been! (After all...Lilou was Avery's first non-related kiss!) The kids played, had dinner and dessert and then played some more while the adults ate.
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| This was the moment Avery had been waiting for all day. He was so excited to finally get to taste our creations and get to eat the "muffin" with the purple wrapper that he selected just for himself! |
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| Lilou & Avery getting the bad guys! |
Eventually the fun of Friday night had to come to a close so that everyone could rest up for another day of fun. The kids were not happy about having to go to bed (even though it was HOURS past their bedtimes) and they were even more unhappy that we would not let them sleep together. Asher REALLY wanted to sleep in Theo's room and Avery wanted to sleep in Lilou's room (something I didn't think we'd have to deal with at age 3). Knowing that my boys tend to sleep roughly when away from home though I insisted that they sleep in our room. To put it simply, I was not their favorite that evening but oh well. In the end I was right because Avery slept TERRIBLY that evening, not falling asleep until almost 11pm, waking several times during the night and then waking up at 5 in the morning! Eric and I were exhausted when Saturday came, but I was happy I'd spared their family the rough night of sleep.
As I mentioned, Avery woke up before the crack of dawn on Saturday and Asher was not far behind. They couldn't wait to get out of the room so once they had driven us sufficiently crazy we allowed them to sit quietly in the family room and wait for their friends to come downstairs. Eventually they heard footsteps behind them and excitedly turned around to find Fabien. Eric said that their faces fell in disappointment but then smiles popped back up as Theo followed close behind. Then they were off to play away the rest of the morning.
At the end of the morning, we all loaded into our vans and headed to Schaumburg for lunch at On the Border followed by our secret fun for the day.
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| I missed seeing these guys together. They were always such great friends. <3 |
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| Avery's kid's menu said to draw yourself running on the treadmill, so he attempted to do just that. I was surprised how accurately he drew, even including fingers....then he decided that he needed "100 Arms". :P |
Our surprise adventure was to take the kids to the Legoland Discovery Center. We kept it a surprise from them just in case it didn't work out to go for some reason, so when we pulled up to the building and they saw what it was they were VERY excited!
We headed inside, checked out the gift shop and bought our tickets to go inside. Note: If you ever go buy your tickets online first as they are $5 cheaper or look for a coupon. I've seen the coupons on several of Asher's lego sets he's gotten, in the Lego magazine he gets and other places but I thought it was for the Lego Adventure place in Orlando. I didn't realize we could use them there. Had I known that I could have saved us a LOT of money! Similarly, Fabien had told us that the small $5 Lego bags they sell at Target have a coupon for a free child admission with the purchase of an adult ticket. Since we didn't really have time to go to Target I didn't really think about it. However, when we were all done the boys really wanted to buy something. I let them each pick out something small with their Christmas money and they each picked out a small bag with a Ninjago Lego inside. As I looked at the bag, I realized the coupon was on it as well! We could have bought the toys for the boys and got four tickets to the center for our family and still SAVED $30 from the price we had paid for our tickets. Let's just say I was bummed, but I wouldn't let it ruin our weekend.
Once we got inside the Discovery Center the first stop had lego sculptures of buildings and sites from throughout Chicago. They were quite impressive, especially for Eric and I who had a better understanding of the Chicago sites than our boys.
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| Fourth Presbyterian Church |
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| They both appreciated the bat signal in the sky! |
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| The Water Tower |
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| Soldier Field |
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| The Wrigley Building |
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| Navy Pier! |
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| It's Raining |
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| Blue Brothers & The Batman Car! |
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| The boys were excited to see the Joker's car! |
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| Millenium Park Fountain Sculptures. (I love the light-up Lego Faces!) |
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| Buckingham Fountain |
From the Chicago sculptures, we continued on our way through the jungle and to the Star Wars room.
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| A peak at the room where they design sculptures, etc. Eric and I were both in awe (& jealous) of the Lego organization! |
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| When I packed clothes for the boys for the weekend, I selected Lego shirts for both of them knowing we were going to the Lego Discovery center. Avery's shirt had a Lego Darth Vader fighting a Lego Luke Skywalker and it was almost an exact match to one of the sculptures in the Star Wars Room. |
After the ride we headed upstairs where we were able to have more Lego fun building on our own, watching a 4D movie and learning how to build a Lego sheep.
The lesson to build a Lego sheep was fun. It said it was for ages 5 and up so I wasn't sure how Avery and Lilou would do, but they both did great! They followed the directions amazingly well and put the sheep together completely on their own except for a few tiny pieces that they lacked the motor skills to place.
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| Love his little smile in this picture. Obviously quite proud of himself. |
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| "I got it!" |
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| Lilou (& Britni) showing off the end result! |
When the kids were done building their sheep we headed to the last area of the Discovery Center where there was a giant jungle gym to climb on, a place to build and race our own Lego cars, a river to build and race your own Lego ships and a helicopter ride.
Video: Lego Car Test Track
Avery's Run
Asher's Run
When everyone was done playing and building we briefly met Kai from Ninjago, rode the Nexus Knights ride one last time and then after the boys purchased their souvenirs it was time to say goodbye to our friends. A very cold (almost sleeting) rain began to fall heavily and we headed off for our hotel with a quick stop at Target for a few pool supplies (since I forgot the boys' lifejackets).
By the time we got to our hotel it was getting late. We grabbed a quick dinner for the boys (Eric & I ate lunch leftovers), allowed them to check out the pool and then headed to bed.
The next morning, after grabbing breakfast downstairs we got our suits on and headed to the pool (by "we" I mean the boys as I had NO desire to get into the pool!) The water was a bit cold, but that didn't stop the little guys from going in. It did make Eric not too crazy about the idea but since Avery didn't have a lifejacket and was having a hard time with the tube we bought him he didn't have much of a choice. He tried to stay out but the pleading looks from Avery brought him back in multiple times...such a good Daddy!
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| That Hair! |
Video: Swimming Fun
Daddy Throws Avery
Avery is Fa-Fa-Fa-Freezin!
Eric Throws Asher...to an epic belly flop! :(
When we were finished at the pool we headed back to our room to get packed up and ready for the day. Then we headed off to celebrate the arrival of the newest little Klingenmaier with my cousin Brandon and his family as they baptized him at their church.
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| Brandon, Caroline, Baby Lucas and Co. |
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| Avery with Grandma. |
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| My uncle Richard with his first grand baby. |
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| Mom chatting it up with Lucas. <3 |
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| Telling stories. What mom does best with babies! :) |
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| Avery, Asher & I snuggling the newest member of the family! <3 |
Finally it was time for our fun weekend and week of celebrations to draw to a close. While we were in Illinois, the weather further north was horrendous with areas between where we live and where my parents live getting more than 20 inches of snow! Even in Kenosha the weather was not great. The snow was minimal but we still had freezing rain. Thus, I celebrated one last time this week when my parents decided not to drive home that day and crashed at our place instead. We enjoyed a lazy movie-time snuggle together to finish out the week and then headed off to bed.
Before bed, Asher and I worked together to create a short video to help raise money for his school's Color Run fundraiser. It was a bit tricky to do, but I was able to get a few seconds to make a useful clip to post. :)
Video: Color Run!
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