Trip to Champaign

Way back on Mother’s Day weekend, we went to visit TJ’s brother Brett and his fiance Rachel and meet her family.  Did I forget to mention that Brett is getting married???  :-)  September 3rd is the big day and Rachel is super sweet and already adored by her soon-to-be nieces.  Anyway, it was a perfect weekend. . . we met the family, saw her dress, played at the park on a beautiful day, swam at the hotel pool, visited Brett’s church again, more fun friend visits, and sweet mother’s day gifts.  And somehow this is the only picture I got of the whole weekend.

A little breakfast under the hotel desk.  :-)

Pony Tail

I think I forgot to post this a while back.  Leighton’s hair has FINALLY grown enough to do little pony tails.  :-)  Exciting news, huh?

Girls and Shoes

Leighton loves shoes.  Even when she was younger, she would be very particular about which shoes she wanted to wear.  I don’t think the other girls were quite that way quite so young.  And now, she has two older sisters shoes to wear around the house.  AND mommy’s or daddy’s.  Here are some pics from a day she was wearing my shoes.

  One of her best cheesy faces. 

Yet, another. . .

Are you still looking at me?

Yes, there you are!

China Orphans

I meant to post earlier that our cousins Shannon and Makenna are now in China working with a group called Visiting Orphans.  They are visiting orphanages and loving on those babies who wait for forever families.  They have collected lots of suitcases worth of donations and even get to take the orphanage directors shopping.  Organizations have even donated much needed medical supplies and specialty wheelchairs and cleft-lip bottles.  Amazing what they were able to take.  Some of our friends from church are also on the team along with others from other states.  Please pray for them because it sounds like things just are not going smoothly no matter what they do over there.  They have had a lot of trouble and hassles.  You can keep up with the team at

http://teamchenzhou.blogspot.com/  on the side bar, you can click on the team members pictures to view their personal blogs where they are also each updating as they get a chance.

Pray, pray, pray!  They just want to help these babies!

Parachute Time

Jaylyn likes to lead her sisters in fun activities sometimes.  She reminds me of how Makenna plans fun activities for her sisters.  :-)  So, this particular day, Jaylyn must have been reminiscing about Little Lambs play group and their play time with the parachute.  Leighton was having a blast.  :-)

Bouncing the stuffed monkey on the parachute.  Make it fly!  Nice boots and jammies, huh?

Then they took turns sitting under the parachute and made animal sounds or something while the parachute went up and down on them.

So fun!

Eggs

Late post again. . . dyeing eggs for those grandparents that might still want to see . . .  :-)

I’m ready!

Handy mini spatulas are good for dyeing eggs!

Stick in the egg and dip!

Leighton liked to use it too.

But she also just liked to dip in with her hand.  :-)

They stayed busy dipping and creating

Nice job!

Don’t forget to stick out your tongue because this is hard work.

We tried out the magic glitter shaker this year.  It worked all right.

Then Leighton decided, well, lets just peel the egg!

Yes, this is a funny idea!

See!

What fun!

I love being creative!

Here are some of the cracked, colored & glittery eggs

Adley’s Preschool Egg Hunt

What kid doesn’t love an egg hunt, even if they last about two minutes.  :-)

I love how Adley was just “floating” down the steps ready for the hunt. 

Found one!

And another!

I want one!

Woohoo!

The class waiting for everyone to finish.  I like the boy with his head in his basket.  :-)

Play time

Hi, Mom!

Then we had some fun taking pictures of Leighton.  I think Jaylyn took all of these except for this first one.

            

Hanging Around

 

Lake

Most readers probably know TJ’s trip to China ended up being a bit shorter than planned.  :-)  But his three days were great.  Then he got to take us all to the lake for the rest of the week.  I didn’t really take too many pictures, but here are a couple.

Here are the guys before they left.

At Miner Mikes – Osage Beach (Small indoor roller coaster")

Covered Wagon Ferris Wheel

And SKI BALL!

We enjoyed swimming at the indoor pool, a little shopping and lots of relaxing and having fun together. 

Thank you Diana and Larry for sharing your place! 

(The girls are already asking when we get to go back and swim there again!)