Ohio Bound :(

Well the time has arrived and two of my favorite kids are moving out of state! :( It has been a lousy last couple weeks ever since I got the news. Not only for me, but especially for the kids and their dad, as well as uncle and grandparents... even close friends of the family. Divorce is never an easy things and just when you think things are settling down and everyone is getting into a routine after nearly 3 years, one of the parents wants to move out of state. Without going into details, this decisions has flipped many people's worlds upside down, mainly two children and their father's. It makes me sad to think they won't be near so that family and myself can go to school events, see them on a regular basis, be there if something bad should ever happen... all things good & bad that so many people have to miss out on now. No, I am not related to these two wonderful children by blood, but I was their aunt for four years and a "motherly" figure for them on the weeks for a good 2 1/2 years. Hailey told me herself a couple weekends ago, "You're still my Aunt and always will be no matter what anyone says. I love you too much!" As if that didn't bring tears to my eyes! I just keep telling myself the holidays will be here before I know it and I will be able to see them again. There will be moments when the day may seem to drag on, especially if it is a significant day during the year that is normally shared with Hailey and Logan or if I am doing something that reminds me of them... those will be the hardest moments. I know what this move is doing to me, so I can't even imagine what it is doing to them or their father. :'(

On a positive note (always have to have something positive), the past couple weeks have been all about the kids. They got to have a slumber party at my new place, got to go to a couple movies (one with just dad and the other with what use to be our family of 5), see grandma and grandpa 2 weeks in a row, have a wienie roast at the Pirate and Witch's house and just spend some time with Dad!!!

Back to the slumber party... I invited the kids, dad and Uncle Matt over for dinner and a movie, as well as a friend's daughter Shelby... then the kiddos got to sleepover! The kids chose "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" to watch... the one made back when I was a kid! Hello?! During the movie, poor Shelby conked out so it was like the Jack's Links commercials at my place. Only instead of "Messing with Sasquatch" it was "Messing with Shelby". Check the pictures out above. Logan and Hailey got a kick out of it! And in the morning when I showed Shelby the pictures she thought they were pretty funny too!! :) We had a great night that weekend... actually great time both evenings. The kids dressed up in Halloween costumes while at the wienie roast the following night. Hailey, Logan and Shelby had so much fun together two night in a row!!!

I am going to miss Hailey and Logan very much!!! What I thought I had lost with them a couple months ago, was nothing compared to this. As hard as it will be for everyone, I hope that Hailey and Logan will enjoy this new chapter in their lives, makes lots of new friends, and share all their wonderful adventures with us all back here in Illinois! I love you two!!!

Catching Up

I have a lot of catching up to do over the past two months! I was behind before my "Big Boom" but things are all finally starting to fall into place and settle down to a degree. With that said here are some pictures I'd like to share. They are a quick overview of the summer and activities and an easy way for me to get caught up and hopefully back into the swing of things!







So this is the last couple months summed up in a quick few pictures! Enjoy! :)

Easter Count Down

This weekend I helped the kids make Easter Count Downs. Technically they are a count down to Good Friday (that's when Lonnie gets them again), but you get the picture. They are just like the advent calendars you can buy in stores around Christmas time. Of course this idea came from Family Fun Magazine... where else?! If you don't get this magazine, I highly recommend it. You can get it here, a 1 year subscription ($10) or look up recipes, crafts and more for free online.

The Egg Carton Count Downs are quite easy to make and you only need a few simple supplies...

• Egg Carton
• Tissue Paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Fillers... goodies/treats/notes

First you cut off the top of the egg carton. Next turn the egg carton over and trace on tissue paper. I made ours slightly bigger so we could fold edges over. Cut it out. Fill each section of the egg carton with goodies. We used stickers, pencil erasers, tootsie rolls, coins, and notes. Once you have your goodies placed in the carton, squeeze glue around the edge of the carton, and middle high points. Place the tissue paper over the carton and lightly press tissue paper down onto the glue sections. Next, cut out circles of different colored tissue paper and glue over each section of the carton. This helps hide the goodies and keeps them a mystery! The kiddos then wrote the numbers 1-12 on the dots. You don't have to do this, but we wanted to make sure the kids received the same surprise on the same day.


Hailey and Logan start their count down officially on Monday. We also put extra goodies in so they could share with their big brother back home. This is a great craft for any count down you may want to do. Janelle made one for Q... it is a "Moving to Chicago" count down! You just have to get creative. You could do one for vacation, any holiday, a school field trip, arrival of a new sibling... ANYTHING!!

Halloween

The month of October has proven to be the busiest month of 2009 for me. Yes, I already know this with two months to go. Between volunteering at Dungeon of Darkness Haunted House (blog and pics to come in a day or so), being sick and all the showings for Sullivan's house over the past two weeks, the month flew by.

Sunday I took a deep breath as we jumped into November. I started the month off by beginning to edit nearly 600 photos (I've only got a fraction done) that have been waiting patiently on my camera for the past three months while my desktop computer was out of commission. Thanks to Matt, he ordered the power supply (I refused to do so myself until after the holidays... I'm so cheap) and installed it. Now my desktop is up and running so I can include pictures again in my blogs. That mean more blogging too :)

Below is a scrapbook from Smilebox with photos of all my favorite kids dressed for Halloween. The pages with the small pictures, just click on each and they will appear in the big photo box. Enjoy!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Week with the Kids

So the kids (Hailey and Logan) were here all last week and are here this week too. At the beginning of last week all the kids had to run around with Kim and Matt to a million different doctor appointments. Finally on Wednesday they were able to stay home and play, ride their bikes and do what kids do.

As a reward of sorts, for being such good sports earlier in the week, we took the kids to Dragon Land Thursday night for Family Night. Although it was a bit cooler than we would have liked the kids had fun. This time Hailey and Logan braved the BIG slides. Logan went down on the double inner tube with both Kim and I. Hailey, although hesitant at first, did the same as well on the individual tube and the red slide (rear ends only). Jayden had no problems with the slides. She knows how to swim so it was never an issue. They had a blast. As I am sure you have gathered, Kim and I both got into the water. It was pretty cold after about 15 minutes but somehow I managed to stay in for a good hour.

Jayden and Hailey

Logan and Kim

We also met a wonderful group of people from Magnolia Heights, here in Pekin. We hung out with this lively bunch and talked the last half hour while the girls continued to swim. We got quite a few looks from others, disproving and wondering why we'd converse with a group of mentally handicap or slower individuals. I guess when you are brought up surrounded by individuals like that and your parents work with individuals such similar to our new friends, you don't see them as different. It is such a minor issues that to be quite honest too many people focus on and/or are disgusted by.

Friday, the whole gang met Quinton, Sloan and I at Safety Town. The kids had a blast. Quinton was so excited to see Logan. They were inseparable from the moment they get there. Of course much of their play and talk was about Star Wars, both boys are obsessed. The girls buzzed around on their bikes since they were on two wheels . Little Miss Sloan had a blast walking around and checking out all the kids. At first she pushed her little cart I had brought along for her, but it didn't take long for her to realize she could go a lot faster without it. She'd see one child go by on his bike and start to chase after him, and then see someone else come from the other direction and switch her own course to take off after them instead. She was laughing and enjoying herself the whole day. Safety Town was a great ending to last week!!!

Dragon Land

It is our weekend, well Lonnie's weekend, to have the kids. Since by chance I had today off I asked if we could get the kids early. We have promised the kids all summer, as well as the last, that we'd take them to Dragon Land; a water park with slides, a sand pit, free use of life jackets and zero entry into the water. Not wanting time to get away from us again this year I decided Thursday evening would be the day. FYI: Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7-8:30 pm is Family Night; $7.50/family. That's a lot better that $5 each during the day especially when us 3 adults didn't get into the water.

The Kids Had a Blast!!

Logan surprised us all by going down the kiddie slide multiple times without any adults there to catch him. Although his second time he got scared and it looked as though he was scaling down a rock wall. ha ha :) He enjoyed floating around in the water with the provided life jackets and even got his face wet on purpose a couple times. Toward the end of the evening, he braved the "Mushroom Waterfall". He managed to get under it a couple different times without freaking out. Needless to say, Logan still has issues with water getting on his face. His bravery and willingness to try new things in the water, made me so proud of him!!!
Hailey surprised me too. For someone who has never had swim lessons she did quite well in the water. Holding her breath underwater, practicing her back float, and venturing into deeper water that went up to her neck (yes it scared me to death, but she promised to stay closer to the blue line for my sanity) were all things I didn't expect from her. She helped to encourage Logan down the slide and go under the Mushroom Waterfall. Toward the end of the night she started getting frustrated that her bottom kept sinking while doing the back float, so she put on a life jacket herself to help her get the feel of the back float.

We all had such a great time, I hope we will have the chance to do it again!!

Corn Nut Fix!

On our way to Walmart last night, it was a repeat of last weekend. All Miss Hailey could talk about were corn nuts! Well I am glad to announce she got her Corn Nut Fix!!! After eating a 6" sub, she downed a whole big bag of Ranch Corn Nuts while watching The Last Mimzi (great movie by the way). Hopefully, it will satisfy her all weekend long. We'll have to wait and see how the next two days go :)

Corn Nuts and the Movie "Up"

You may be thinking what in the world do corn nuts and the new Disney Pixar movie Up have in common. Well the answer is nothing! However, Hailey tried corn nuts (ranch) for the first time this weekend, and is now obsessed with them. We stopped at Circle K (our 2nd stop after Kroger) instead of Casey's (where the ranch flavored corn nuts came from) on our way out to Elmwood. Hailey refused to get the Original or BBQ flavor since the store didn't have Ranch and settled for a push pop sucker instead. We all thought this would be the end of the corn nut drama, however, we were wrong. The child would not stop talking about them. How good they were, how they crunched, and how she was going to get more next weekend while they are here were all brought up numerous times throughout the drive. Never has a 40 minutes drive seemed so long!

Once we got to grandma's house Hailey got distracted by some new toys that were picked up at a garage sale. To my knowledge, there was no mention of corn nuts all afternoon. On our way home was a whole other story. Maybe it was my car (past couple days Matt keeps telling me it smells like corn nuts) or the fact that we were headed back to Pekin. Either way, the corn nut talk came around full circle. The thing that got us adults was that we would be talking about one thing and out of left field, Hailey says " Oh, I just can't wait until next weekend when I get to have corn nuts." We all laughed and went about discussing other things. Then again Hailey with the corn nuts "Hey, Daddy? You're going to get some more of those Ranch Corn nuts before I come back next week, right?!" Talk about a one tracked mind! This happened probably five different times by the time we got back home.

So where does the movie Up come into play you may be asking. Although the kids have seen it, I have not. But from the movie trailer and what the kids have been quoting, Hailey's little corn nut comments remind me of one particular scene in the movie. The dog is talking to the old guy, introducing himself and all the sudden he looks to the left and says "Squirrel!" waits a few seconds and then turns his attention back to the old guy. Up Trailer scene starts 1.17 min

Comparing Hailey's random quirkiness to this scene in the movie makes it all a little more funny (for us anyway).

Cooling Off

Last time the kids were here, the days were dreadfully hot. We had them outside in the water as much as possible. Hailey loves the water, where as Logan hates it. Don't get me wrong he enjoys playing in a warm bath, but cold water and a sprinkler that sprays is not an option in his mind.

Of course, Matt and I's oldest "child" Xena, had to join in the fun too. I believe she loves the sprinkler and kiddie pool just as much, if not more than the Hailey. I'm certain it is the lab in her, which is why she loves the water so. I don't even want to think about what she would do or what would happen if we took her to a pond and let her off the leash. We'd probably never get her back!
Due to all of Xena water activities, she now has a yeast infection in her ears caused by a combination of her seasonal allergies and moisture getting trapped in her ears. All her aliments (heart worms, allergies, & ears) and medication (don't even get me started) over the past year a lone, are breaking the bank! Oh, the love of an animal :)

As Hailey and Xena ran around taking turns exhausting themselves in the sprinkler, Logan took a hands off approach and barely got his big toe wet in the kiddie pool.

Uncle Matt threatened to throw him down the slip 'n slide and Hailey hugged him with her soaking wet body, just so he could get a few drops of water on him. He didn't like this in the least. I told him to throw a bowl of water on Hailey, and apparently he took it literally. He threw the whole water filled bowl!! Luckily it missed Hailey's head (by inches). Logan managed to muster up some courage to chase Hailey around the yard. She tried her hardest to get him to run over the slip 'n slide during the chase, but Logan knew better. All I can say is that us adults were quite entertained by what we heard and saw. The kids (including Xena) had a blast and that's all that matters! You may be wondering where Halo was during all this. She was nonexistent, the little chicken, staying up on the deck with Mama!