I have been such a slacker when it comes to scrap booking. I have not completed any of the kids first year albums yet. I am the queen of random pages! I just work on whatever strikes me at the time. So, I am now on a mission to get these baby books started and completed. I worked on D'Angelo's album Friday night 7pm-2am and again Saturday from 11:30am-2:00 am. I did take a break to go eat dinner at Noodles though. Thanks to my friend Debbie for opening up her home to me and the other ladies this weekend! I made some good progress but I still have a long way to go. I have so many pictures of D'Angelo's first year I could almost do a page a day. Seriously, it's the typical first child scenario- TONS of pictures. I am supposed to go out scrapping again Tuesday night. Do I ever sleep? Not as much as I should. I will let you know that I was tired this morning and it took effort to get up and get to church.

Here are some photos from the week.

We were supposed to go to the spray park Wednesday morning but it rained and rained. We then decided last minute to meet up with my friend Debbie and her daughter Taylor at Nibbles play cafe. The kids had a great time there.

scuba anyone?
howdy

Xavier was very happy to push, pull and carry the chairs around.

beautiful face painting Adeline

Thursday morning we had a playgroup at Lake Arlington with our friends from MOPS. Then we went to another park a little later on our own.

not a care in the world...how far away from Mom can we wander?

Ahhhh, the great discovery!

Oliver is way too curious! No more pictures-I must get him out of the mud puddle.

I'm smiling, I'm smiling.

little boys, where are your table manners? With the amount of food these two get on the floor we could feed another set of twins.

Here is a picture of Tia from Saturday... she is 3 months old already!

A few pictures from the weekend.

It was a bit too chilly for playing in a pool so I didn't dress them for it. Xavier is smart enough to just put his feet into the water while Oliver is ready to jump on in.

This is how the big boys enjoyed the pool Saturday
Oliver
Poster for why young toddler's should not be encouraged to use markers.

Can you see the very blue mouth?

Minnie Pearl is looking for that hat Adeline!

A D'Angelo funny

We have a grocery store here named Jewel. I rarely shop at Jewel so it doesn't get mentioned often in our house. Yesterday I commented that I needed to go to the grocery store Jewel after running into Walmart. I had taken the big kids to buy flashlights at Walmart because it is something they have been asking for. Well, Adeline started feeling ill while we were in Walmart so I told the kids we were going home. D'Angelo got very upset and kept telling me he wanted to go to Diamond's. I couldn't figure out what he was talking about. Until he said, DIAMONDS THE GROCERY STORE! Apparently he forgot the name Jewel but it made him think of a diamond.

It is a rainy day here and I have a bunch of kids who are tired slow movers today. They should be eating lunch right now but I haven't prepared it yet. I have Tia, X & O napping and the big three watching a video so I decided to check my email and read blogs. I ran across this list today on a friends blog and have seen it a few other times recently. It looked interesting so here it goes.
The ones in bold are the things that pertain to me. What's on your list?

Bought everyone in the bar a drink
Swam with wild dolphin
Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
Been inside the Great Pyramid
Held a tarantula
Taken a candle lit bath
Said I love you and meant it
Hugged a Tree
Bungee jumped
Visited Paris
Watched a lightening storm at sea
Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
Seen the Northern Lights
Gone to a huge sports game
Walked the stairs to the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Grown and eaten your own vegetables
Touched an iceberg
Slept under the stars
Changed a baby’s diaper
Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
Watched a meteor shower
Gotten drunk on champagne
Given more than you can afford to charity
Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
Had a food fight
Bet on a winning horse
Asked out a stranger
Had a snowball fight
Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
Held a lamb
Seen a total eclipse
Ridden a roller coaster
Hit a home run
Danced like a fool, not caring who watched
Adopted an accent for an entire day
Actually felt happy about your life, even for a moment
Had two hard drives for your computer
Visited all 50 states
Taken care of someone who was too drunk
Had amazing Friends
Danced with a Stranger in a foreign country
Watched wild whales
Stolen a sign
Hitchhiked in Europe
Taken a road-trip
Gone rock climbing
Midnight walk on the beach
Gone sky diving
Visited Ireland
Been heartbroken longer than you were in love
In a restaurant sat at a stranger’s table and ate with them
Visited Japan
Pretended to be a superhero
Sung karaoke
Lounged around in bed all day
Posed nude in front of strangers
Gone scuba diving
Kissed in the rain
Played in the mud
Played in the rain
Gone to a drive-in theater
Visited the Great Wall of China
Started a business
Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
Toured ancient sites
Taken a martial arts class
Played a computer game for more than 6 hours straight
Gotten married
Been in a movie
Crashed a party
Gotten divorced
Gone without food for 5 days
Made cookies from scratch
Won first prize in a costume contest
Ridden a gondola in Venice
Gotten a tattoo
Rafted the Snake River
Been on television news program as an “expert”
Got flowers for no reason
Performed on a stage
Been to Las Vegas
Recorded Music
Eaten shark
Had a one-night stand
Gone to Thailand
Bought a house
Been in a combat zone
Buried one/both of your parents
Been on a cruise ship
Spoken more than one language fluently
Performed in Rocky Horror
Raised children
Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
Picked up and moved to another city
Walked on the Golden Gate Bridge
Sang loudly in the car and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
Had plastic surgery
Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have
Wrote articles for a large publication
Lost over 100 lbs
Held someone while they were having a flashback
Piloted an airplane
Petted a stingray
Broken someone’s heart
Helped an animal give birth
Won money on a TV game show
Broken a bone
Gone on an African safari
Had a body part below the neck pierced
Fired a rifle, shotgun or pistol
Eaten mushrooms gathered in the wild
Ridden a horse
Had major surgery
Had a snake as a pet
Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
Slept for more than 30 hours over 48 consecutive hours
Visited more foreign countries than US States
Visited all 7 continents
Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
Eaten Kangaroo meat
Eaten sushi
Had your picture in the paper
Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
Gone back to school
Parasailed
Petted a cockroach
Eaten fried green tomatoes
Read the Iliad
Selected one important author who you missed school to read
Killed and prepared an animal for eating (fish)
Skipped all of your school reunions
Communicated with someone without sharing a common language
Been elected to public office
Written your own computer language
Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
Had to put someone you love in hospice care
Build your own PC from parts
Sold your own artwork to someone that didn’t know it was yours
Had a booth in a street fair
Dyed your hair
Been a DJ
Shaved your head(only from the top of my ears down)
Caused a car accident
Saved someone’s life

Now I need to go make my kiddos lunch :)

Monday evening we met our friend Debbie and her daughter Taylor at the park to hear the community band play. My kids think it's neat that their good friend Taylor's daddy plays the drums in the band. Every time we play at Taylor's house my kids peer into Scott's music room & tell me they want to play the drums. What kid doesn't want to play the drums? The music this Monday was great for kids. They played "Tunes from Toons" that included music from The Little Mermaid, Grease!, The Lion King, Ratatouille, and High School Musical to name a few. The kids had a blast dancing and running around. Debbie and I agreed that since the kids did well Monday night and weren't terribly crabby children Tuesday we would make this our weekly outing. We're going to include a picnic dinner and enjoy this series for the next 6 weeks.

Here are a few pics at the playground

Listening to the concert

Dancing together

OLIVER

XAVIER

Happy Father's Day
Today we enjoyed a laid back day at home with our good friends Jeff & Susan, their daughter Lucy and dog Enzo.

We have had a fun week.

On Tuesday morning we released our butterflies! The kids were so excited to let them fly into the trees, flowers & clouds. This was a great kit I bought for them. We got 12 itsy bitsy caterpillars that the kids watched rapidly change into big "fluffy" caterpillars. During the metamorphosis stage the kids got anxious waiting for the butterflies to appear. The butterflies emerged over a 3 day time span. We were lucky that all 12 caterpillars survived and became butterflies. The kids enjoyed watching them and feeding them fruit slices. They really enjoyed learning about the life cycle of butterflies. We have a great chart we hung up to refer to, read a whole bunch of books about butterflies, and made lots of art projects that centered on butterflies. I think the kids favorite ones were using the egg cartons to make caterpillars and paining coffee filters to make butterflies. I did make one mistake though. I let the kids use their glitter paint for the butterflies so we have had lots of glitter all over the house. All in all it was a fun learning experience for us and we plan on getting another batch of caterpillars before the weather turns ugly here.

painted lady butterfly

He finally gets one to land on his hand!

D'Angelo is up close with a butterfly

Wednesday morning we met up with some other friends for a private party at Pump It Up http://www.pumpitupparty.com/. This is the way to go there and play. $10.00 per kid for an hour of bounce around, run around fun. I had all 6 kids with me so the private party is the only way for me to go there and not loose a kid. Seriously, I am so thankful for my Palatine Moms group. They are a great group of ladies with a bunch of fantastic kids. They are the extra eyes and ears I need when I am out "alone" with my 6 pack. Thanks ladies. I forgot to bring my camera but I hope my friend Debbie will email me some pictures that she took. Even Oliver made his way up to the big slide!

Thursday morning I took D'Angelo, Auggie and Adeline to Pirates Cove http://www.elkgroveparks.org/piratesCove.asp?id=492 for the first time. They had a blast. It was really nice too because there weren't too many kids there. I wonder if the 90 degree heat and call for severe afternoon weather deterred many people from venturing out. It is always an advantage when the lines are super short or nonexistent. Thanks to Grandma Debbie & Josh for hanging out at our house to watch the little guys.

The boys are flyin' down the big slide. Adeline has no interest in joining them.

Choo Choo

messy sponge painting

D'Angelo is getting the hang of moving his boat

Ade & Auggie had a fun time turning in circles.

Here are a few pictures I have taken this past week.

This was Friday morning after playing in the water they decided it was time for a wagon ride.

Tia Grace 11 weeks old

She is getting to be such a smiley girl! D'Angelo is the happiest kid when he can make her smile.

D'Angelo

I took a little video of Xavier laughing this afternoon. I have been wanting to get him on video for a while because he is so darn cute. Enjoy!

SO, How was Vegas you ask?

I have been home from Vegas for over a week now and I am finally finding the time to blog. This is the first time I have even gotten onto the computer since last Thursday-my email was super packed! Anyway, I had a great time in Vegas hanging out with Jennifer and it was awesome to have time to visit with my brother, Michelle & Bailey. Jennifer and I spent Wednesday afternoon at the Paris spa which was completely relaxing. I had the best massage followed by a hot cup of tea that I enjoyed while snoozing on the big comfy chaise in the dimly lit relaxation room. Later on we had paraffin hand and foot treatments and spent time in the sauna which I love. We didn't leave the spa until after Eric was already checked into his hotel and ready to meet up with us.

Jenn & I thought our show started at 8:00 that night so when we went to pick up our tickets at 7:00 pm we were surprised that there weren't more people waiting in line at will call-strange? Um yeah- the show started at 7:00. Thank goodness Eric suggested walking down to Treasure Island early to grab our tickets! We had to stand in the back for a few minutes watching and then were able to be seated. We both enjoyed Mystère and would like to see another show by Cirque du Soleil . After seeing Mystère we went out to eat with my brother, Michelle & Bailey. It was late when we were done so Michelle & Bailey went back to their room to crash while the big kids went out to play for a while longer. It amazes me how quickly night becomes early morning in Vegas!

We spent a nice day Thursday at the MGM pools with my brother & family. Our visit ended with them dropping us off at the Venetian so we could see Blue Man and they could get on the road home since Eric had an 8:00 am meeting to attend Friday morning. Blue Man was not that great, we actually thought it was terrible during the first 20 minutes or so. It got better, but I would never pay to go see them again. I wish I would have spent my money to see Stomp! instead. We were so tired after the show that we went straight back to our room. I watched Juno and then fell asleep for the night.

Friday we spent the day poolside at our hotel then went to Spago for a delicious dinner. We headed over to New York New York later on that night to check out the dueling piano bar. Since it was our last night in Vegas we thought we would check out at least one club so we headed over to the Wynn Hotel. That is a gorgeous place. The club we went to was Tryst http://www.wynnlasvegas.com/#entertainment/tryst/ . It was a younger crowd but we stayed for a little while. There is a huge waterfall that separates the club from the rest of the hotel-very cool. If we were single and younger it would have been a great place to be. Saturday morning

Jenn left early for the airport and my friend Ruick picked me up. Ruick & I went out for breakfast and to Joann's to buy material for a new tote bag she is making for me : ) We didn't have a lot of time before I needed to be at the airport so we headed back to her house and went to the pool. It was so nice to be able to see her while I was there. Funny thing is I will see her and my brother again during the same weekend in August! They will both be in Chicago for their big birthday weekends. Eric turns 30 August 18th and Ruick turns 40 August 16th. I must say that as much as I enjoyed my trip I missed the kids like crazy! It was so weird not having them around. Even unnerving at times. If I ever have the opportunity to go away again it will need to be a shorter trip.

Playing the tourist we had to stop and take our picture at the sign.

Jennifer & I spent Thursday at the MGM pools with my brother & his family. It was a great weather day - not too hot! The drinks were yummy too.

My nephew Bailey & brother Eric at the MGM pool.

Jennifer & me

Eric and me

Bailey feelin' a little freezy cold!

That's a very crooked picture of me

Me with the guys who perform with Blue Man

and Jennifer

A Blue Man