Our trip to the big city...

We headed out Friday morning for Minneapolis to visit my cousin,

Pam and her family and just for a short get away.

We stopped at the Mall of America before going to their house and our kids had a blast. Lego land was their favorite but I think they mostly just liked that Jordan and I played with them and let them take as long as they wanted looking at toys and having fun in the Disney store and any other store they wanted. We just let them be kids.

Pam and Mark have 6 kids - 3 biological and 3 adopted. 2 of the adopted have pretty intense special needs. Jordan and I kicked Pam and Mark out of the house Friday night for some couple time and we manned the house and the 10 kids!

I should note that their two oldest are 17 and 14...so we had lots of help!

Saturday we all went to the zoo together.

Here we are waiting to head out...

And what? you don't head to the 'big city' and do things like

swing on tire swings, climb on tractors and pet farm animals?

It is still the Midwest! :)

The MN zoo has a great Farm Area.

It was easily Tess's favorite part of the day.

Lauren really loved it too...Avery hated it!

She giggled and screeched the entire time we were with the goats.

A few of the gang.

1 week old. Um, CUTE!

And while I was making lunch...

E.T. came by for a visit...

Her sisters did this to her and I don't think they've ever seen E.T.

But it was the first thing that popped into my head.

I love my days.

School's in session

Before I chronicle our trip I have to show off these pictures from today.

When school got out this summer I said that we were taking June off...

Well June is over. So today we cracked open the school work again.

Each of the older three has some different goals in a lot of different areas.

I thought they would moan and complain.

I was wrong.

It was like the most exciting day of the summer. No joke.

It turns out I am not the only member of the family who craves schedules and structure.

I've loved our laid back time but I can't do it all summer...I get antsy. Weird.

Once we were done it was time for art.

And I'm not kidding - it may have been the highlight of their summer.

Kids and paints...such a combo!

I showed them these examples and gave them 2 rules - 1. the petals of their flowers have to touch the edges of the paper 2. the background of the paper has to be a different color than the flower.

Sullivan was so into this he hardly talked.

And if you know Sully, you know that is a miracle.

Tess actually sat and did this the whole time the others did.

Still concentrating hard.

So proud!

They all did so great. I wouldn't help them with any of it.

They drew their own flowers and did all the painting and designing. (except Tess)

very fun!

And now displayed in our place of honor.

Starting at the top and going clockwise its Lauren, Avery, Sully and Tess.

Its funny that while Tess worked for a long time...she hardly painted anything...(where did all the paint go that I know she used up? Im scared.)

Click on that picture to get a closer view - Avery's is very detailed...each petal is actually made up of lots of small hearts.

I also found it funny that all the examples they looked at had huge centers to their flowers but my three chose to make small centers...

Alive

Yes we are all alive and well.

I guess I shouldn't take an almost week break from blogging...I had people emailing to make sure I wasn't being held for ransom.

We spent Friday through Sunday in the Twin Cities visiting my cousins and having a little mini-vacation.

Now its laundry and life.

Pictures to come!

Tess's update

We traveled to Iowa City today for Tess's recheck on her kidney reflux issue. Jordan went with the kids' and I since I am pregnant and couldn't be with Tess during her actual test. And once we got there I really wondered how I ever thought I could take 4 kids down there for that alone anyway!

She and I were both traumatized as they put her catheter in. At one point she had both skinny little arms in a death grip around my neck screaming, 'no mommy! no!'

Like I said, traumatized.

Then she and Jordan went to the radiologist for her test. It took forever. After about 20 minutes of sitting outside the door listening to her cry and scream I about said forget it - we dont need the test, she's fine, we are out of here!

10 minutes after that they came out and I guess they got the test complete. Jordan literally looked like he had run a marathon or something. He was sweating, his hair was all over the place and his eyes said that he never wanted to go through that again!

So then we all headed to meet with Tess's actual urologist. And we got the great news we were hoping for. Tess's reflux issue is gone. She's outgrown it just like we had hoped. So no more daily antibiotic and really, no more worries. The only way they will want to retest would be if she were to come down with a UTI accompanied by a high fever like she had in May of 09.

We are so thankful for the results.

And I'll say it again...spending approximately 3 minutes in the waiting room of the pediatric specialty clinic at the U of I will make you feel like the most blessed mother in the world. Our short day with Tess was nothing compared to what some parents deal with every single day.

And the boys

Boys, oh boys.

There is something just 'special' about little boys.

Really.

Sweet little girls

These three will almost always cooperate for a picture.

I think our problem here is 'too many photographers'...the subjects dont know where to look.

Pinata!

This was Avery's favorite part of the party.

But she really didn't want to break it!

Last year Tess was too little for this...but this year she was all for it!

Party pics

There were lots of cute moments at the party.

Tess just loves Adele. Adele loves her back but is smart enough to be a little

scared of her. When Tess loves, she loves hard!

Tess loves singing 'Happy Birthday' and blowing out candles!

Avery believes her birthday wishes really do come true.

This guy blew up like 300 water balloons for the party.

And got a really bad sunburn on his back to prove it.

But he's still cute.

We tried, we really really tried to get a group picture of all the grandkids on Jordan's side.

But I have decided that it impossible without serious bribes.

And just think...we have two more to add to this picture!

And Apollo Creed

An American Girl

Nice

It wouldn't be a typical 4th of July weekend with out

one child with a minor burn from a sparkler and

one call to the ER because another ate bug spray with DEET.

Nice.

HER monkey

Grandma, its safe to say...she loves 'HER' monkey. She says he's 'mine'!

ah!

My mom MADE this monkey for Contessa's birthday.

She started last fall...I'd say he was worth it!

Success

The party was a big success. The kids had a great time and Avery and Tess been having trouble deciding which new toys to play with.

After the party we headed out to Trina and Garrick's for sparklers and fun and now I think its safe to say - we are partied out.

We had a red, white and blue theme...with some pink thrown in - and a rainbow cake - Avery just had to have some pink for it to be a real party!

And my cake. Oh my cake.

It was beautiful.

And yes, I almost cried.

Lots more pictures tomorrow.

I take it back...we did have fun today!

We did nothing but have fun from 5:30 till 10:30 tonight.

This is called a happy little girl who got to play with her friends!

This is called 'kids, tackle the x-football player'

Where did he go?

This is called adorable...although he did poop all over me.

And this is called making fun of the pregnant lady with mashmallow gone crazy!

Sullivan ended the night by saying, Thank you mommy, that was the funnest night ever!

(Which was great, because I got thanked although I did nothing to make any of it happen!)

cake

If it weren't for this on my to do list: rainbow cake, I'm pretty sure we could have made it to the pool today...but I have trouble saying 'no' to a certain 6 year old's birthday party requests.

So we are doing this instead of swimming.

Isn't it happy?!?! :)

I caved and went with the Wilton Food coloring instead of the other stuff.

And while you really cant tell from these pictures - the colors look AMAZING!

I cant wait to see them when they are baked.

The top middle is actually an awesome purple and the bottom right is actually a bright red.

My biggest tips for making this cake are:

1. grease your pans like there is no tomorrow!

You do NOT want to have one layer break - you will cry. I promise.

2. after they have baked and cooled - cut off the top of each layer (except for your top layer)- the part that rises up and domes in the oven. If you don't you'll have a leaning tower of pisa cake. That will probably make you cry too.

3. freeze the layers before frosting.

4. If you are like me - have someone else frost your cake. Really, you don't want to go to all this work and then be embarrased to show it off because you are HORRIBLE at frosting.

Again, tears.

for real.

(and yes, Im pretty sure I vowed to never make the party cake again...but again, having trouble saying no lately!)

tomorrow and today

tomorrow is avery and contessa's big birthday party. lots of fun. the weather is going to be perfect!

so today is clean, cook, organize, decorate and work day. not fun. the weather is also perfect today. which makes it even less fun for what we are doing.

:)

Lilly Pads

We had a big day at the pool Thursday.

After practice in swim lessons and some pep talks from mom and Lauren - Avery conquered the lilly pads!

Victorious!!!

Then after seeing his 'big' sister master them at lessons Sullivan vowed that he would do it the same day. So that afternoon he gave it a shot. He sat in this spot for awhile and thought about it. But then big sister Avery came and helped him pull the first pad closer and urged him to try.

Made it onto the first one!

And then he had it.

He counted...he went on them 30 times in a row!

He only stopped to come and tell me what # he was on.

SO PROUD!

And I must admit that this mommy was just a little proud of how the older siblings helped out the younger ones to accomplish this feat today!