Old Settler's Week!

Old Settler's Day is in town!!!!

 

You know, when I was in grade school and even high school, Old Settler's Week was always the best week of the year. We would basically live up at Old Settler's Days from Wednesday to Saturday. Rides, food, friends....what more do you need during a Midwest summer????  I've spent so many birthdays up at Old Settler's Days celebrating. It's the perfect way to celebrate in my book.

 

Now that I have kids and have moved back, I now see Old Settler's Days as a parent. Hot. Chaotic. Money. :) I get it now :) But we still went to feel the magic of Old Settler's Days. We went during Friday's wrist band day. I was smart enough not to spend a million dollars on a wrist band for my kids but I did buy a few tickets. We met my fabulous friend Jenni and her beautiful baby girl Ivy. We started our first ride on the carousel.

 

A picture before the ride starts!!!

He was so proud of sitting on this horse.

It all went downhill after the carousel started turning. Charlotte started screaming hysterically. HYSTERICALLY.  She didn't even make it one lap. She was clawing at me. It was just so bad. So, she vetoed any other rides.

 

The next ride we did was the Amtrak, choo choo train ride. Sawyer LOVED IT.

He was the smallest guy on it. See him? Third one from the back?

Charlotte's stance during the train ride.

 

So we headed over to something they could both enjoy. The germ infested blow up jumper.

They LOVED it and even made friends inside.

We had a pretty successful trip to Old Settler's Days.

Ivy is just beautiful and we had so much fun with her and Miss Jenni!

On Saturday morning, my birthday morning, I got up early and headed to do the Lincoln-Douglas 3 mile race. No better way to turn 32 than running 3 miles at 7 am. I walked it last year with Dad, Dale, and Mary. This year it was just me. So, I ran it. I ended up running with my friend Maegen. We finished together so that was nice. We were like 6th from last but we still finished.

 

Then, I came home to surprises from my kids and my babies' daddy. They were so sweet. The house was decorated and everything. I am just so lucky.

 

After that we met Mary and we headed to the parade route to enjoy the parade!!!

Charlotte hates parades. She hates humans dressed as animals or weird things. She clung to Mary quite a bit during the parade.

 

Lydia's first parade!!!!

It's my birthday!!!!!

See where Charlotte stood????

Sawyer loved it. Tractors, trucks, lawn mowers, random people throwing him candy.

 

What more could a boy want???

She would run out and grab candy and glare at people then run back behind Mary again.

The dancing people. We see them everytime. How cute are they? They don't advertise or represent anything other than dancing older people. They are a crowd favorite.

Who are those dancing people?

 

The redbird. The man that made my child fear parades.

Our favorite....Salon Seven. They handed out popsicles.

Brilliant girls.

Sneaking in some candy...

A quick picture with his favorite twins.

The parade was a success and Charlotte came out at the end and watched all of the random tractors. We then ate lunch and headed over to Aunt Bare's baby shower/Lydia's meet the baby shower.

Courtney did a great job. It was perfect.

For that night, Grandma and Katie came up to watch the kids so we could go out for my birthday. I am so lucky to have a grandma that would drive almost five hours round trip to do that for me. Grandma, Katie, and Melissa came up after Mallory's baby shower. We ate pizza and got ready. Alex got home from work. He bought me a car for my birthday. Yes, a car. What a guy....

 

We met up with Jodi and Derrick and headed up to the square to hear Jake Maurer play and to hang out outside on a beautiful summer night.

We took our own drinks :)

Party girls!

When the crowds cleared, we posed for pictures.

 

So appropriate at a family event.

Love these two and the fun we had on my birthday.

We had planned to be back around 11 and didn't get home until 2 am. It was a bit rough. We all felt pretty terrible the next day. We cancelled our plans to go sit in the heat at an STL game. It was 90 in St Louis that day. Sawyer spent the morning with Papa. Charlotte spent the day with Ella. Grandma, Katie, Alex, Mary, Liddy, Melissa, Katie, Sawyer, John, and I all went to lunch at Bernardi's for my birthday. It's just the thing I needed to ease my stomach after a night of fun.

Our sweet girl. She had a rough while at the restaurant but once she settled down, she was perfect.

Mary. Taking it all in with a colicky baby :)

 

 

It was a perfect week of Old Settler's fun! Our goal for the next one, Charlotte to make it half of the ride before freaking out. Weirder things have happened :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Peoria has a big St. Patrick's Day parade every year. Mom and I took the kids with us to the parade. Both kids were dressed in green with green beads and what not. Diana came with us as well! It was a party. I had Charlotte all psyched up for it. I promised her I would make sure she didn't see that "Redbird" or any people dressed as animals.

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

The parade people :)

It was a CHILLY day!

She watched a bit of the parade.

This guy sat in the stroller for most of the parade. He just kept eating candy. Look at how red his chubby little fingers are!!!

And we reached the point of anxiety and intermittent hysterics.

 

These guys are in every parade in the area. They do change their outfit though. They just kill me :)

I think Alex and I need to aim to do this in retirement.

In awe of the amazingness of the grade school marching band.

I couldn't NOT take a picture of this. The assisted living bus was in the parade. It had four streamers on it and we could see their little hands peaking out the window. We couldn't even see in the windows at all. It was weird.

 

 

After the parade and after we calmed Charlotte down, we headed to Avanti's for lunch. We were going to try an Irish pub but it was an hour wait. So we went with Italian and the kids loved it.

 

Diana was a great help and Charlotte loved having someone else there to give her attention :)

Metamora Homecoming

September 27th ended up being such a fabulous BIG day for us!!

We started the day out by running errands in Peoria. Mary went with the kids and I. She had been sick since Monday (a stomach bug) but was feeling a bit better. She needed to get out of the house so she went with the kids and I. Our last stop was Walgreens on our little trip and I had said to her, "You know, you might want to take a pregnancy test. No one has gotten sick except you."

Well, SURPRISE!!!

She is pregnant!!! 

Much to her surprise (and everyone else's), she is pregnant again!!! She took both tests in our downstairs bathroom. It's like her lucky little spot...

So, she called her husband...and her doctor....and left to go get blood tests done due to her earlier miscarriage. What a huge (AMAZING) surprise!!!

The kids took quick naps then we headed up town to the Homecoming Parade. Mom and Dad were meeting us. I didn't really think too much about the chaos associated with the parking for the parade but my goodness!! Road blocks everywhere!! Thank God Mom met me, grabbed the kids, and then I drove a found a parking spot. Luckily I made it before the parade started. Mary even got back in time. (And was able to keep the secret from Mom and Dad.)

And we have spotted our first human dressed as an animal.

This poor girl. Chuck E Cheese traumatized her and she has never been the same. She can't even enjoy parades.

Although, I have no idea why there was a dragon in the parade...none of the grade schools or high school have a dragon/alligator/green animal mascot... Hmmmmm.... maybe he was just in it to freak my kid out.

Sawyer could care less about humans dressed as animals. He was loving all of the candy.

We were all in our red for the school spirit!!

After the parade, we headed back to our place. Jodi and her girls came over. Mary came over as well. We took her first pregnancy picture...which she doesn't like but I had to put it up. (Sorry Bare)

Jodi and I took the kids and headed up to the football game. We went with the intention to make an appearance and head home once meltdown mode started.

The girls LOVED it.

The band is ALWAYS a crowd favorite with kids.

Emily's face... she is just beautiful...

Abby and Mare were there as well.

Here is our crew. This was as meltdown mode was starting with my kids. After this picture we headed back to the shoebox.

We had friends over after the Homecoming game. I made soup, and Italian Beef, and snacks....it was so delicious. Sawyer and Emily went to bed pretty quickly after we got back. Charlotte and Ella rallied and stayed up for a LONG time. They watched movies and played so well together.

A few friends and our neighbors came over to hang out and eat and drink. Derrick and Alex (who wore matching shirts) got the fire going. Most of the people were gone by midnight. Us four plus our high school friend, Amanda, found our own way to entertain ourselves. This included jumping over fires and singing...really loudly..... And Derrick is obsessed with Miley Cyrus so we had to listen to quite a few Miley songs.

Finally at 2 am, we called it a night. Jodi slept on the floor of Sawyer's room with Emily, Derrick slept in the living room with Ella, Charlotte slept in her bed, and Sawyer slept with Alex and I. It was a short sleep but such a fun night!