Nice!!!

Just some random pictures that all I could say was...NICE...as my reaction!

Harry enjoying his first homemade oreo milkshake....nice!

Addie enjoying her first homemade Oreo milk shake...Nice!

Harrison pulling out the ironing board to straighten out his Robin Hood outfit as I'm ironing away in the living room myself on some sewing projects...NICE!

Addison offers to help me sweep the floor but the dust gets swept under the rug...she said she learned it from watching the Snow White movie and the animals when cleaning the dwarfs house did the same thing...NICE!

Harrison searches for some clothes to wear. Said he couldn't find anything....NICE!!!!

Addison grabs some paper, string and glue and creates her own baby carrier and party hat. Way to be so intuitive sweetie...NICE!

Farmer's Market Shopping

Farmer's Markets are in full swing now during the summer time and we are lucky to have one in Metamora, but after a really quick walk through up town and a dozen ears of sweetcorn, we decided to head to Peoria's river front market.

After being spoiled with European markets for the past 4 years, I was a little let down, but then snapped out of my pre-judgements and appreciated the fact that we had something remotely like them here in Peoria. We found the busiest tent and bought a good basket of tomatoes from them to make some homemade salsa. We also bought some farm fresh brown eggs like we used to have in England. There were some really great things at the markets but I had to get used to the fact of paying that premium for farm grown products vs when going to the market in the UK where you paid much less than grocery store prices.

But it was a beautiful day and the kids really enjoyed watching the boats on the river and Kevin and I enjoyed just being out and about.

Addie Spends a Week at VBS

This week Addison got to go to Vacation Bible School at Crossroads Methodist Church in Washington. She had such a great week and met some fun little friends. Each day she had learned a new word and it floored me when she said, "Mom, we need to have more COMPASSION"! It was great seeing God work in my little girl and that she was obviously surrounded by wonderful people all week and I was so proud to watch her grow and perform in her little program at the end of the week. (She's in the middle of this picture above, to the right of the little girl in a yellow shirt)

After the program we got to go to her classroom and gather her bag of crafts that she made all week. Obviously we could see why she was so happy after every session - she got to do CRAFTS every day!

After the whole program, we got a hotdog dinner and got to go play at the huge carnival they church hosted afterwards.

After face painting, balloon animals, pig races, duck ponds, fishing games, putting games, and so much more, these two little ones were spent, but what a wonderful evening.

Gone Fishin'

Our last day in Iowa with my mom and dad, so of course we need to go fishing.

Harrison fishes with Grandpa and is totally a game hog catching loads of bass and blue gills.

This was my (well Addison's) first fish, but at least not our last. Thanks Dad for catching a picture of this monster.

This is more like it...we had a great time and caught lots of fish. One of my most favorite memories of things I did with my dad when I was a kid was going fishing and I hope to pass that on to my kids as well.