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.

Summer Holiday at Grandma and Grandpa Dea's

Our number one favorite thing about moving back to America was now getting to spend more time with our families. So it was a treat to get to spend our summer holiday with our families. With Grandpa Dea adding a new addition to his garage, there were lots of things to experiment with at their house. Grandma had fun building things with the kids.

Harry was a champ with his hammer.

Along with a new garage addition, Mike was ripping off the old roof and re-shingling it. Kevin looks pretty good on a roof as he helps out his dad. It was only 96F out and being on a roof was not what this inside engineer was very used to, but it was good for him.

Inside in the cool air con, Addison has fun drawing and doing crafts. She amazes me everyday with what she comes up to draw. Here she's drawn Lightning McQueen....she didn't even ask for any help!

In honor of the 4th of July, I helped the kids make red, white, and blue weaved placemats.

Addison then did a pretty darn good job drawing a portrait of Grandpa.

Happy Birthday to Me - 33!

Yes, I'm a year older but I feel like I'm celebrating my 40th birthday for some reason. I got to enjoy my day with my kiddos at a park and then with a water fight with my kids in Grandma's back yard.

My mother-in-law was a sweetheart and made me a birthday cake.

Then for a real special treat...Kevin took me out to eat in Omaha at the Upstream Brewery. It is a pub like restaurant located in Omaha's oldest firehouse. I was pretty excited to see proper English Bangers and Mash on the menu but that was only at lunch time. So I had what they call pork medallion schnitzel, but it was like three huge pork tenderloins on mashed potatoes. I think the fun-est part of the evening was this little bookshop that Kevin and I ventured into with some of the funniest and raunchiest titles around. These are things you would buy for gag gifts for other people but some were good enough to have for a good coffee table book.

Cars 2 with Grandma Sally

We got a special treat today by getting to go see Cars 2 with Grandma Sally. We almost didn't get to go as for some reason Grandma's Cadillac didn't want to shut off, but after a bit of drama it all worked out and she got to go to the movie with us. It was awesome and I absolutely loved all the locations they had in the movie - Italy, Paris, and London!!!! Great fun had by all!

Henry Doorly Zoo

We are spending our summer holiday back in Iowa this year, but for a family day out while back in Western Iowa with Kevin's mom and dad we snuck over to Omaha to the Henry Doorly Zoo. I visited the zoo almost 14 years ago (after I graduated highschool) when my family when on our very first "family vacation" which was a tour of southern and western Iowa. Now I was getting to take my kids (funny thing was that even though Kevin lived less than an hour away from this place his whole life...the only time he had been was when he was in kindergarten - we won't talk about how many years ago that was).

We had loads of fun riding the air lift ride across the park.

Fun in the rain forests, the desert, and savannah all in one day.

Love those ostriches, hippos, giraffes, koi fish, monkeys and more!!!

They've got the whole world in their hands...this huge marble globe moves around on a layer of water.

We spent over 6 hours at the zoo and didn't even see it all. We had so much fun and it was great to get out on an adventure again. We haven't done anything like this since we spent our last day in London and it was very nice to be together and forget about the chaos our world was in.

Dea Family Reunion

The Dea family is HUGE and eventhough we've travelled the world over for the big international O'Dea reunion and this local one is about as big I think. We have fun getting together with the really big group, but this was also a great time for us to Ry and Lindsay and cousin Emma!

Four generations of Dea's - Great Grandma Helen, Grandpa Mike, Daddy/Uncle Ryan, Addie, Harry and Emma

Emma is such a cutie and she loves Grandma Sally!

Grandpa has an eye on Addison's cake....but she's pretty protective of her sweeties.

These three cousins are so cute together. Addison takes over as Emma's older "sister" and leads her all over the place. It is so cute to hear them all be able to have conversations with each other. Soon there will be 4 of them as Aunt Lindsay is due with a new baby soon.

Prezzies from Singapore

Today we got a super fun package from Singapore as Auntie Min has gone all out again as she always does. Harrison LOVES his I "heart" Singapore shirt!!!

Addison got some fun girly stickers!

And I for my birthday got this awesome shirt and amazing Singapore Family Favorites cookbook!!! I love you sis...thanks for the pressies!!!!

I Wanna Be Just Like Daddy

Happy Father's Day Kevin - you should be proud of your "mini-me" Harrison as he picked out his outfit today so he could match his daddy!!!!

A Day at the Washington Pool

Today we went to the Washington Pool. It wasn't the hottest of days but the kids have been dying to go and it worked out well for all of us to make it.

We had lots of fun playing around in the little kids fun area and later had some snacks. It was good to get the kids playing in the water and getting used to splashes in the face. I had hoped to get them in swimming lessons this summer but I think just getting them used to the water would be good this year and we'll shoot for the lessons next year.

My friend Amity and her daughter Norah joined us as well to add to our fun. Not much time for these two mommy's to visit with each other as the kids were going in all different directions but it was nice to be there together. After a couple of hours and noticing that Harry's lips were completely purple we decided to head home to warm up. Next time we'll try to hit one of those 95 F degree days....

Free Day at the Peoria Zoo

As part of a special promotion, the Peoria Zoo was free to anyone who wanted to come visit this past week. Today was the last day to go, so we took up odds against the looming rain and went to the zoo.

We met up with Emily and her kids as to make a play date out of the trip as well. Colter really enjoyed the meerkats.

The girls of course just love hanging out together no matter where it's at. They are two peas in a pod hanging out with the lions.

Harrison liked the lions as well. I had only been to the Peoria zoo once, several years ago, before they added their new Africa exhibit. I really liked all the new set up and the new animals. We are very lucky to have a zoo so close to us even though it is a little small. The kids had a great day and it was nice to just get out of the house to do something with all the rain we've been having.

Ahh...Panera Bagels!!!

This morning I got to head out on my own to do some cabinet shopping and to treat myself to my freedom I stopped at Panera Bagels for breakfast. This was truly a site for sore eyes as it has been years since I had a Cinnamon Crunch bagel with honey walnut cream cheese lathered all over it. My old boss and I used to take turns treating each other with these tasty treats when I worked at FS and GROWMARK...ahh, it brought back memories of days when I traveled the countryside and worked 50+ hours a week. Then I flashed back to reality that I work 100+ hour weeks and have the greatest job being mommy to my kiddos!!! (But it was fun to relive the past even if for a few moments.)

Playing Around at Black Partridge Park

I had the crazy idea to load the kids up in the bike trailer today and head down to the park. Going to the park wasn't the crazy part, but that the 1/4 mile bike ride down to the park about killed me. It took every ounce of energy out of me to pedal that far toting the two of them and the trailer. I was feeling pretty low about how out of shape I am. We had some fun playing around the park. They really seem to enjoy this park, but it's just not the same as going to the park in Glinton.

Anyways, later on after I got home, I realized that my bike tires and the tires for the bike trailer hadn't been filled with air since we reassembled the bikes and they were all horrible low. No wonder I was dying while trying to lug them all around...I felt at least a little bit better about my fitness level after that but I do seriously need to get back into shape.

Cherry Ice Pops

It has been so hot that we needed to find all sorts of means to have fun and stay cool. My Grandma Roux used to make us the best cherry popsicles when we were kids and my mom used to make them in all different flavors for us as well. Might as well carry on the tradition for a 3rd generation, so we made homemade cherry popsicles. They turned out great but the kids were so impatient and thought that as soon as we mixed them up that they would be ready. The whole concept of something taking time to freeze was not in their knowledge base.

After checking them about 10 times over about 6 hours time, we finally found them to be ready to eat...and eat them we did!!!

Monkey Joe's

Today was so super hot so we wanted to find a fun indoor place to play. So we met up with the Hardy's (Emily, Madeline, and Colter) for a play date at Monkey Joe's...new indoor soft play place in Peoria.

It's full of huge inflatable play areas, slides and bouncy castle type things. The kids had a blast aside from a few rug burns and getting jumped on by some bigger kids a few times.

Harrison at first wouldn't have anything to do with any of the play areas...not even the little baby "under 3's area" for like the first hour. This is a bit disconcerning to a mom who just paid a ton for her little guy to NOT play and illegally eat animal crackers on the premisses. But finally the boy started to have some fun after mommy jumped along side him for a while. Then he got really brave and climbed the super slide. I couldn't even see him when he got to the top.

....but he had a great time coming down!

A very fun day that continued with lunch at our friends' house and even more playing!

Bug Painting

The kids have been craft crazy this summer so far. I finally got a little craft center set up in the basement for them to paint, color, or whatever in. Today they wanted to paint "bugs". Addison got a little bug making kit and the two of them had a blast.

They are both so very meticulous and concentrate so hard on doing it just right.

Eventhough it does take quite a bit more supervision with these types of projects, I like them a bit more as we turned the bugs into magnets to use on the refrigerator.

What a face! He just got made at me for trying to help him put the magnet on the back of his lady bug...

"I Want to Clean My Own Dishes"

Harrison has really been wanting to do a lot of things on his own lately - get dressed, brush his own teeth, and now washing his own dishes. I hope this kind of willingness continues on through the next several years....but I do have to say that it's been lots of fun watching him grow up.

Enjoying Cherry Fest 2011

Tonight we headed down to Washington to enjoy a bit of the Cherry Festival. I would have to say that if any foreigners wanted to see what America was all about, they need to come to a town festival in the Mid-West as it wraps us up in a nutshell - midway rides, funnel cakes, snow cones, country music, beer gardens and fireworks.

The kids had a great time getting to ride a few of the rides and then we parked the truck about a block away from where they were going to shoot off the fireworks so as it got close to 9:30 we headed out and sat in the back of the truck with our lawnchairs and enjoyed watching them...true American style! Funny enough all the kids could talk about all day was watching the fireworks but once they started they both complained about them being too loud and were afraid that they were going to get hit by them...but Kevin and I had to remember that they hadn't seen a fireworks display this big. The closest thing they seen is the backyard show on Bonfire Night at the Beale's house...Can't wait until the 4th of July and see their faces!