A Dairy Queen treat

It was a beautiful Saturday this past weekend. After lunch, we decided to take the kids to Dairy Queen by the Iowa River for an ice cream treat. Both Peter and Natalie knew exactly what they wanted: blueberry sundaes...and that's what they got!

They sat down eating their ice cream while saying hi to joggers and bicyclists going by on the trail.


After we finished our treats, we took a short walk along the trail ourselves. Elaine seemed to enjoy the warm sun with her hair pulled up...

with Daddy behind the wheel!


I don't know what it is about this picture, but I love it.

Peter and Natalie liked watching things float along the river, like the leaves they kept tossing in. Doesn't Natalie look cool in her shades!?! :)

Then a train came along and it was very loud, but the kids didn't mind at all. They were excited to see a moving train! The trail we were on goes right under the tracks. A little scary for Mommy and exciting for the kids!

Is this is a half-thumbs up from Peter?...maybe Mommy snapped the picture a little too soon before he gave the outting a total thumbs up!

Sibling fun

We had some fun taking pictures while the kids were rolling on the floor. I found it an impossible task to get all 3 kids to smile at the camera and stay still in order to not be a blur. It took MANY clicks, but I finally captured this one.



After a while, Natalie wasn't into the picture mood anymore.

Quite the opposite, Peter was all ready for his close up with Elaine.

Wedding weekend in Ann Arbor

My cousin Amy and her finace Benji got married this past weekend. On pi, to be exact (you know, 3.14159). We had the honor to have Peter and Natalie be their ring bearer and flower girl! How exciting! We'd practiced at home with fake flowers and a pillow to get them ready for the day! My only hopes were that Natalie would be her happy self (not the grouchy shy girl she can be at times) and Peter wouldn't have to go potty in the middle of the walk down the aisle.

Luckly, both of my hopes were fulfilled!

After a whole day of driving from Iowa City to Ann Arbor (that's a 7-hour drive!), we quickly changed and headed straight to the rehearsal. The kids had a great time at the rehearsal. Elaine had an untimely diaper malfunction and scored a new Michigan outfit. She was happily greeted by her Great Uncle George at their first meeting ever.

During the rehearsal, people laughed as Peter and Natalie walked down the aisle holding their snack cups and snacking on Cheerios. I guess when you're hungry for a snack, there's no better time than during a wedding rehearsal! Neither Peter nor Natalie obviously saw nothing wrong with it!

After rehearsal, we went to dinner at The Earle. As Peter noted, it was a "fancy" restaurant...indeed it was! This was our first fancy dinner with the kids. Miraculously (especially since it was way past their bedtime), they did great and the table cloth stayed on the table!

***
Then, the big day came. With my zero experience of doing nice girly hair, I spent a nervous 45 minutes doing Natalie's hair. Being the first time I used a curling iron on her hair, she seemed to enjoy the "salon treatment". I obviously didn't put enough hair spray or something in her hair because after riding in her car seat and getting to the wedding ceremony, some of her curls had straightened out. Live and learn, I guess!

I was tickled pink seeing Peter and Natalie in their tux and flower girl dress.

They seem to having their own fun, too!

They were also awed by Amy the beautiful bride.

Elaine and Daddy got to meet and greet many of the wedding guests and family!

Here was Peter and Natalie's big moment:

Unfortunately, I had got trapped out in the lobby and wasn't able to watch them walk down myself. Fortunately, Anthony (my brother, left in picture) got a great video clip. Hopefully, I'll get a copy of it soon (hint hint Anthony!) and post it here! I was told they did great, walked slowly (maybe a little too slow) down the aisle. It seemed like Natalie enjoyed it while Peter was in a "tired zone" after all the buzz prior to the moment.

After the ceremony, Peter and Natalie loaded up on juice and bread...just enough to give them the energy to dance the night away!

Peter and Natalie really enjoyed the first dance:

Although Natalie wanted to dance with Peter and chased him most of the night, Peter found his own groove and liked dancing solo.

Natalie had her own fun with the photographer while throwing up rose petals!

Then, finally, the family picture with the bride and groom:

Peter wishing to be bigger

While in the kitchen yesterday, I heard Peter talking from our bedroom. I knew he had been reading in our bed earlier, but it didn't sound like him reading. So, I went to check on him. Turns out he heard kids playing basketball at a distant house. He apparently was watching them, longing to play too. Now, mind you, these kids were probably in their teens and playing a little rough b-ball. I gently told Peter that those kids were a little too big for him to play with. He was not pleased with that answer:

But he still was intrigued by their playing...

He seemed okay to know that he'll one day be big enough to play too!

Logic o' Natalie

Natalie has been drumming up interesting logic.

A common determination is something like this:

"It's dark outside because I gotta go to sleep"

We'll need to adjust that logic as daylight savings is today and those long summer days are (hopefully) just around the corner.

We don't understand how she came up with this one:

A couple times before, we noticed whenever the word "expensive" came up in our conversation, Natalie would stop us and say "Don't say that word!" I guess she's borrowing from our lessons of certain words not to say, but how she ever decided that "expensive" was bad, I will never know! However, in these bad economic times, everyone should agree that "expensive" is a bad word. Natalie's logic, in this case, may be spot on!

Natalie, our little star

Natalie has found a calling - a performer. She's been putting on little impromptu perfomances. She will set up a stage - pretty much anywhere that has a foot of space - and begin her show.

Here - I think - is a rendition of Humpty Dumpty. She adds a twist to the end, which sounds like audience participation. It seems that when she squats down, "it's [our] turn", but when she jumps up, "it's [her] turn"...haven't figured that out yet, but I love it.

Oh! But the show isn't over! I praised her on the performance, and by my surprised, she had this in store:

What a gracious performer!

Elaine summed up in a cartoon

It's been a rough week, and it's only Thursday!

Elaine has been recovering from her double ear infection, cough, and a stuffy/runny nose for the past week. Her appetite came back, which is great. However, I would have preferred it not to return with screaming vengeance at 3am! For the past couple nights, Elaine has been waking up through the night, hungry as ever. I've been unable to get her back to sleep easily. She and I have had lots of early mornings. Today, my morning started at 4:40am.

HOW appropriate is this cartoon which was in yesterday's paper that I just got to read this morning:

I'm convinced Elaine has connections with the cartoonist!