Valentine's Day

We LOVE Valentine's Day in this house.

The Christmas decorations come down and BAM, up go the Valentine hearts and wreaths and flag...Valentine's colors go so well with our house....the hearts go so well with what we want to show to all...LOVE! It's also extra special as Jayna celebrates her 1/2 birthday at school on the 13th and she ALWAYS takes Valentine sugar cookies for her treat!

Anyway...it was quite the busy Valentine's Day Week...as are many weeks with a family of 6. We've survived busy weeks before, and I'm sure they will come again. However, this year, I completely missed the importance of NOT being busy on Valentine's Day.

(Just a side note...so disappointed in all the activities scheduled for the actual Valentine's Day. We must be "odd" in that we love to celebrate it as a family. Ellie alone had 4 activities that were at the same time or overlapped. Insane.)

So let's back up....Monday the 13th was no school for Ellie and an appointment day for Jayna as well as her 1/2 birthday. I did not know that during her appointment, she was dwelling on the "bummer of the 14th" when we'd be so busy that we would not truly celebrate as a family. I figured, if we had a special breakfast time in the morning, all would be well. It wasn't. After the kids got to school, I was on the phone with the woman Jayna had lamented to the day before and it hit me hard... the 14th was special to the girls and we had to change some things. Andy and I text'd back and forth a few times and decided to yank the kids from EVERYTHING other than piano lessons that afternoon and we were celebrating as a family in the evening. Since I know Jayna stews on things, I even called the school to have the message passed on: "No choir tonight...we're celebrating Valentine's Day!"

That morning, though, we had to deal with the mini-snow storm that blew through the area. While Colin rode his bike in the paths, I shoveled the strange white stuff that has been absent from our state....yes, it may have melted in the next couple of days, but the piano teacher was coming and I hate for people to have to walk through the snow if they can avoid it!

Next order of business....the balloon decorating. I LOVE Pinterest. I had seen an idea of helium filled balloons floating above a bed with notes of love attached to the bottom. I knew I wanted to do it for Andy but I was scared of the balloons. For some reason, a certain 3 yr old toddler still loves to put strange things in his mouth! Anyway, when I went to the party store to order the balloons, they had a deal for the mylar heart shaped balloons. Sweet! I had the kids each take a heart note and write what they loved about Andy. As they got so excited about blessing Andy with these balloon-cards, I realized that Andy would be fine with 4 less balloons...I was going to bless the kids as well! When it was all done, there was a balloon love note in each child's room as well as 6 balloons in our bedroom. Andy LOVED it, as did the girls....as for Colin, I'm quite sure he didn't "get it" yet.
So after school, we told the girls the surprise....we were going to leave RIGHT after piano lessons and go to Stevi B's for pizza and we'd even play games. We never play the games...never. They were over the moon excited...it's the ONLY place that all 4 will really eat a decent meal. We were ready to "love" the kids by taking them to a crazy restaurant! It was very successful...everyone's love tank was filled...especially Colin's, when he got to play the "car game", as seen below!

Until next year....Happy Valentine's memories...know that you are loved, friends and family!

A Day At The Farm!

This past weekend, we returned to Pickett, Wisconsin to attend the "Day On The Farm" event.

This event is amazing. It is FREE. Anything that costs money is very reasonable and all proceeds go to St. Jude's Hospital. It is an event to remember a little boy, Jarid Kumbier...a little guy who passed away from a cancerous brain tumor in 2000. To read more about it, check out this link http://www.dayonthefarm.com/index.html
--it REALLY is an amazing fun family event!

At the farm, there were kid sized tractors to ride (Jayna was the lone rider!), there were pretend cows to milk (again, Jayna was the lone milker!)...there was a "corn pen" full of dried corn to play in (fun!) and there are many wooden "statues". On these statues, hundreds of children have stamped their hands and written their names--every year they do this. It's amazing to see just how many have come to the event!

There was a corn maze (Ava: "Dad...this is scary!), a giant sand pile (Which Colin LOVED.), and a really cool pumpkin patch with green and orange pumpkins. Above, Andy is holding the heart shaped green pumpkin....because I love green and we all love each other! :)

There were also ponies....

and since I am allergic to horses, ANDY got to do the honors of walking around the pony ride with Colin....nothing like dodging "the" piles! Colin was in heaven...just waiting, he was doing a little jig saying "Hi Horsey!" and he just floated around the pony walk for his turn! The girls enjoyed it too--it's not too often they get a chance to ride a "horse"!

The event was a 2 day event....and both days, they did a giant balloon release. It was breathtaking to watch. The red balloons were for adults who had lost a battle with cancer, the yellow balloons were for children who had lost the battle.

Andy and I continue to reflect on how much work goes into putting this on...and it is so much fun for the children. We happily will continue to find time to support this great cause and to spend "A Day On The Farm"!

Labor Day 2010

Once upon a time, a sister visited another sister and on Sunday, that visiting sister and her boyfriend went to Two Rivers to see some sort of 'design' museum type thingy....and as soon as they arrived in Two Rivers, that visiting sister called her sister and said "YOU GUYS HAVE TO COME HERE! It's a KITE FESTIVAL!" That was 5 years ago that we dropped what we were doing, jumped in the van with our swimming suits, and spent the day at the beach...and started our Labor Day tradition of the beautiful Kite Festival in Two Rivers, WI.

But this year...the weather was windy and cold. Not beach weather at all. Add to that I had 1 baby getting over the croup cough and 1 8 yr old who had already missed a day of school with a cold. We weren't going to be swimming in Lake Michigan with the weather like it was.

So what to do? We realized our beloved children's museum pass was about to expire...so we high tailed it down to Madison where it was rumored that their new museum was loads of fun. We invited our Kite Festival family friends....and off we went, without our swimming suits!

The museum is amazing. It is totally different than any other we've frequented (And we've been to many in the midwest!), it was engaging for a HUGE age span and they had LOTS of staff on hand, keeping the areas picked up and ready/fun to play in.

All 6 of the children loved it, and played together so nicely. We played for a bit and then took our picnic lunch out to the capitol lawn, and then played some more. We couldn't figure out what the deal was-did Madison have street vendors out every weekend?! Later, we found out it was the day of "Taste of Madison" and thankfully, we got to the city VERY early and only glimpsed the gigantic crowd that was milling about the capitol!

The museum had fun/challenging climbing structures, and a "human" gerbil ball.

Below, you will see Silas and Ellie....typical competitive 1st borns playing with the water tornado exhibit:

And watching their success:

And then, the 2 non first born/non competitive children watching the 2 competing first borns:

The museum also had a painting WINDOW! Ingenious!!! The kids painted on the window and then squeegeed the paint off to clean their "canvas". Colin REALLY got into it and we have red paint memories all over, forever....

The museum also had cool, unique blocks. Let's just say this next collage is titled "My Blocks"...those of you who know Colin will laugh....

But with those blocks, our friends thought of the best idea: to build a gigantic domino maze! Very neat and very cool. To see the dominos falling down, click HERE. After the 2nd setting up of the maze, one of the girls said "The crowd wants more, we should do it again!" Setting up the blocks had created quite an audience, who also cheered and clapped when the blocks went down. Another girl looked at me and said "Embarrassing!"

And then, on the roof top of the museum, they had lots of outdoorsy stuff. Petting the chickens, seeing an egg be fried by the sun, gardening stuff, flowers, it was really neat!

After we left the museum, we were hungry for dinner. One of our new goals is to be more "normal" with Ellie's allergies. We're calling ahead of time, asking what the restaurants can do for Ellie's meal and we've been shocked at how "easy" and wonderful this has been. Friends had suggested going to "Ella's Deli" in Madison. What a fun place it was.

For 1 thing, children need NO entertainment while waiting on food here: the ceiling is filled with motorized creatures to watch move back and forth and the restaurant is decorated similar to a carnival atmosphere. And, as you drive into the parking lot, you can't help but see the gigantic carousel. The Glynn kiddos each rode 2x, they LOVED it!

And then the day was done! We got home around 7:45pm and all children were in bed and almost asleep before 8pm! They were EXHAUSTED...and what a fun substitute it was. Next year though...we'll hopefully be back at the Kite Festival!

Toot Toot Chugga Chugga....BIG RED CAR!

Once upon a time, there was a 2 year old who was the master of tantruming during the dinner preparation time.....and once upon a time, there was a mother who had finally had enough of taped Sesame Street episodes. One evening, that mother said "HERE. Watch this....you might like it....", as she put on the very first viewing of The Wiggles. Once upon a time, there was a 5 year old who, on that same evening, said "WHAT is THIS?!?!?!" And so the love of The Wiggles was born.

The love...it is a love like non-other. Seriously. Anyone ever seen Colin dance to "my Wiggles"?! Anyone ever seen the 3 big girls dance along with the Wiggles, singing each note perfectly? It's not often that all 4 children LOVE something, the SAME thing....

So when I happened upon the knowledge that The Wiggles were coming to Chicago, immediately we thought "We HAVE to go." However, the site that *I* found listed the tickets for such a large pricetag that I said to the girls: "Well, Ava can either go to kindergarten at NHCS this year or all 6 of us can go to the Wiggles concert." Ava's response? "I can wait a year to go to school, mom!"

Andy later stumbled upon an early sale, bringing the tickets down to a very reasonable price....and we determined that we'd surprise the children! We, and almost everyone who knows us, kept that secret for almost the entire summer! Way to go, everyone!

What a fun surprise it was! They knew we were doing SOMETHING....and guesses included: Door County, Grammy's, Grandma's, Minneapolis and Omro.
I had purchased iron-on decals of the beloved singers and tee shirts and then wrapped them up. When they opened the bag, they were instructed NOT to yell it out, so not to spoil the surprise for slower openers. To see the surprise, click HERE.

Below: Colin looking down in awe at his shirt...."Toot toot, Mommy!", Jayna excited for the show and then all 6 of us at the Rosemont Theater.
Bottom row: there was a sign that you could photograph the kids by and Colin was so mesmerized, it was difficult to get him to LOOK at our camera!

The show was AMAZING. We all say we'd go again, for sure.
The Wiggles are amazing...even if you don't care for them, you've got to hand it to them...any one that "old" (Jeff is 57!) that can dance and sing without huffing and puffing is pretty amazing. And, they have songs with WONDERFUL messages--messages about eating healthy food, being a friend, getting active to get strong...Amazing.

In case you ARE a Wiggle fan, you're probably saying "That's not Murray!" Murray had to miss this show, but Rico filled in for him. Rico had an amazing singing voice...but he couldn't play Murray's guitar! :)

You might also be wondering about the children's thoughts and reactions:
Ellie: "I'm so excited, I just want to scream and explode!"
Jayna: "I think I'm going to die...." and then she wrote me a note late Saturday night that said "Now THAT was fun, Mom!"
Ava: "I just can't wait!"
and Colin: "My Wiggles. My Wiggles. Mine."
He sat mesmerized/shocked for 1/2 of the show and then he really got into it, singing and dancing in the aisles! We had great seats; on an aisle for easy kid dancing access!

And, ANDY filled up our entire camera's memory card with photos and videos of the fun!
Here is a list of videos that you might want to watch...all of them have the kids dancing at some point, so you can really see if they enjoyed the show!

Big Red Car
Big Red Car...part 2
Rock A Bye Your Bear
Polka song
5 Little Joeys Jumping On The Bed
Shimmy Shake
Get Strong

And in other weekend news, we did spend 24 hours in Chicago. Of course, we drove by N. Kennicott a couple of times ("I can't believe they still have the basketball hoop that *I* used to play with!"), we shopped at Ikea on Saturday afternoon (Of all times, right?! Crowded!), we got Barnaby's pizza to go (how can you pass up the Arlington Height's Barnaby's?!), stocked up on Trader Joe items, and introduced the children to Portillos. They loved it so much that we ate there Friday night AND Saturday night! A great end to summer!

Happy Graduation to Ben!!!

This past weekend, we made a whirlwind trip to Freeport, IL for Andy's brother Ben's high school graduation. A week before graduation, Ben qualified for State Track, so we didn't attend the actual graduation ceremony since he was running/jumping at the track meet....but rather, had fun hanging out with the family and being at Ben's graduation party on Sunday afternoon.

The above middle photo is Ben--here is a snippet of what Andy's Dad wrote about Ben in a recent email: "His name was Marc Kensonn Moise and he was so shy he hardly spoke a word. He was malnourished, very short for his age, and had ricketts in his knees so it was hard for him to walk up stairs. He got so attached to me that when he came to the US to live with us, he would crawl under my desk and fall asleep at my feet while I was working.

At seven years old he didn’t know how to hold a pencil. And now Benjamin Marc Glynn is a champion in football, wrestling, and track. And he’s graduating from high school this weekend and getting ready to go to University of Wisconsin/Platteville in the fall."

Anyone who meets Ben LOVES him...he has such a loving, huge, tender heart and he is always willing to help out doing WHATEVER. The joke is that when they come to visit us, Andy always puts the boys to work... "OH, thanks for visiting...would you help us re-mulch our yard?!" and he ALWAYS says "SURE!" with a smile! It was special to celebrate with Ben this weekend--we remember when he was adopted and it has been fun seeing him grow up.

As you can see, the girls REALLY enjoyed trying on Uncle Ben's graduation hat. Colin? Not so much...

As always, click on the invidual collages if you want to see the photos bigger!

This picture is: 1) the girls playing DS together in the morning; 2) all of the girls in the swimming pool; 3) The "Glynn" family with Ben; 4) Ava swimming on Jimmy's back; 4) Ava and Grandma; 5) The 2 Andy's chopping green peppers for the party.

Ellie loved swimming at Grandma and Grandpa's house...and REALLY loved the gift that Uncle Jimmy gave her---3 swimming caps! Jimmy showed her how to put on the caps, how to tuck her long long long hair into it and she was so excited about these caps....that she took them for show and tell to school! :)

Jayna ALSO loved swimming in the pool....and this year, she was a self sufficient swimmer! No more floaties/life jacket for Jayna! She loved the diving board and enjoyed her and Ellie's 1st ever "night swim"...shhhh...don't tell Ava....Ava went to bed early and the big kids got to swim later! Jayna also discovered that Aunt Rachel has a JETTA car....and Jayna's dear friend at school is Jetta....so we HAD to get a picture of Jayna by the Jetta car!

AVA. Need we say more? Sweet Ava....she was a big helper this trip--she helped Andy's mom cut watermelon! She loved the pool as well, and this year, as long as she had on her floatie suit, she had free reign of the pool! Much different than last year when she was scared to not be in our arms! Swimming lessons have paid off! :) The bottom picture is of Ava and cousin Abby walking in the driveway, holding hands. I had told them "walk slowly toward Jayna"....and I snapped the picture. However, the girls kept walking because Jayna kept rollerblading farther and farther away! Pretty soon, the girls were almost at the street....still holding hands, still walking slow! :)
And Colin! We love the middle "Mr. Serious-pants" picture. THAT was his demeanor when he woke up from his nap and had to be social with all of the relatives. He was NOT happy to be posing for a picture with Ben--I think he was nervous we were going to put that graduation hat on him again!

Amazingly enough, Colin did SUPER on this trip. We've NEVER been able to say that about Colin and traveling. He didn't cry much in the car, he was semi-social with everyone....and the best? He slept ALL NIGHT LONG in the pack n play...something he has never done before on a trip. I think Colin will do just fine on all of our little road-trips this summer!

All in all, it was a wonderful trip...and now we're gearing up for the next visit...this time, we'll be going to Minnesota!

Memorial Day in Door County....

We took a day trip to Door County yesterday--it was supposed to be nice and warm(ish)....or so we thought looking at the weather forecast....more on THAT later!

All in all, it was a great day--we got up to Door County in a little over 1 hour--amazing record speed! And not speeding! Since we had last gone up, some new roads have been opened (we think!) and that minimized the 2 lane slow traffic! We started our stops at the Lang Store in Sturgeon Bay...Katie especially loves that store. Interestingly enough, the same nice ladies were working...and after they commented on the nice family we have (was that a nice way to say BIG family?!??!), the one lady came over to me and said "You really do have nice children--I remember you from the last time you were here!" In later pictures, you'll want to take notice of the girls' new shoes--from the Lang Store, of all places. They thought they were NOT getting new crocs this year....but we caved....

It seems that every trip we take now involves musical carseats! This time, we pulled over just outside of Green Bay to move Ava to the back and Jayna up by Colin. The music was too loud for Jayna in the back...and she enjoyed being able to play with and make Colin laugh for the rest of the trip! Thank goodness for booster seats that make for quick carseat switches!


It was so cute--I turned around at one point, only to catch Ellie and Ava holding hands! Ava was scared watching a certain part of Strawberry Shortcake and Ellie told her that she would hold her hand to make her not scared! Awwwww....

Our big "new" stop in Door County this time was Whitefish Dunes State Park, which is on the opposite side of the Door County Penninsula than the places we usually frequent. Our goal was to experience the caves as well as the sand dunes. Apparently the state park has the biggest sand dunes in Wisconsin! We never did find the sand dunes and we saw just a little of the 'caves'....because it was FREEZING!!!!!!!!!!!! We had left our jackets at home, thinking that a little sweatshirt would be FINE if the weather was around 60 degrees. Right. No so true on the coast of Lake Michigan! The wind was whipping, the water was ice cold...but it was BEAUTIFUL! Ellie actually forgot her sweatshirt, but thankfully "Always Prepared for Everything" Jayna had brought along her sweatshirt AND jacket...so Ellie enjoyed wearing the too small pink jacket for warmth!

This picture is of Andy and the girls standing up on the rocks--the literature we had read online mentioned to be very careful of young children at this park...the drop offs are very steep and slippery--I was paranoid about snapping a photo of just the children with the slippery rock and the whipping wind!


Here the children are a little lower, in an area that wasn't quite so windy. Colin obviously was not interested in the photo shoot!


The entire family!


Katie and children hiding behind the rock...hiding from the wind, that is!!!!


The girls found a part of a cave where they could 'hide'....and have an adventure!


Jayna, being a trooper---she was FREEZING and was ready to leave about 2 minutes into our stop at this location!


Ava.


3 girls walking back to the place where we could climb up to get to our warm van. Funny thing....our van was parked at the top of all of these rocks and it was actually warm outside our van--it was just on the water that it was so windy and cold! We ended up having a nice picnic lunch outside without shivering!


Ellie the adventure-loving girl. She actually got her feet wet, even though it was so cold!


3 girls peeking down at Lake Michigan--we decided that we'll come back to explore more on a sweltering hot day....it won't be so hot at Whitefish Dunes State Park!

After our experience there, we drove over to the other side of Door County and made 2 quick stops--the candy store and.....Sweetie Pies (of course!). It was a fun day!

Happy Easter!

How great it is to worship the risen Lord! Happy Easter to everyone, what an amazing gift it is to celebrate Jesus' victory over death and to have Jesus living within us! We celebrated Easter with Andy's family visiting us this year--it was quite the task Sunday morning to walk into church and put the girls to their test: to find a row in which all 10 of us could fit!

The girls are on spring break this week and already, we've had lots of fun....you'll just have to check back later in the week for more pictures and details!