Today was a super fun family day! The gorgeous 70 degree weather felt like fall instead of the end of July. We love us a trip to Prairie Farms and so we've had this event on our calendar for awhile. Today was their Hootin' and Hollerin' Hootenanny event. It was packed full of people, story tellers, music, tractor rides, bounce houses, food, and of course, the animals.
checking out the goats in the petting area
he was pretty brave, despite not showing it here
notice her left cheek. this is the before picture.
checking out the rabbit
time for a tractor ride!
notice Ellie's cheek now - she had a nice fall and now has a bruise :(
we waited a LONG time for this. He was scared to go in, but then did awesome jumping!
Ellie wishes she could be jumping
He even went through the big kid "race". I had to help him with the wall, but he did everything else!
checking out the tractor
All in all, a fabulous event and wonderful time just hanging out as a family!
We spent the rest of the weekend in Peoria and had a great time. Friday we laid low except to brave the freezing cold for a photo shoot with my sister. I was hoping to get at least one picture for our Christmas cards, but Owen was a disaster. My sister's a miracle worker, but he screamed and had a runny nose and poor Ellie was freezing. So I'm not crossing my fingers too much.
Saturday morning Owen woke up to be greeted by the cows. He has officially named the one we see most often Herbert Owen. William and Grandma fed them some potatoes.
After a little play time, we decided to head out to Target just to get out of the house a little bit. Man she looked big sitting in that cart!
When we got home, we decided to give the photo shoot one more try since it was a bit warmer. So we get everyone back in their clothes and driving out to my grandpa's nursery. Owen did a little better. . .for about a minute. Sigh.
We just hung out Saturday evening and finally watched a good movie out of the 3 we saw over the weekend. Tower Heist. It was very funny!
Ellie got a kick out of learning how to shake her head from side to side.
This is how Owen spent most of the weekend at Grandma's and Grandpa's. He loves to line up his cars. And then take them upstairs and line them up. And then take them back downstairs. And repeat. Repeat again.
Today was a super fun reunion day at my parent's church. Ellison liked modeling her new hat. :)
We got to see Laura and Andrew, who are living in Austin, and meet their sweet little girl, Ellery. Laura and Jenna led worship and it was fabulous!
Here's Ellie's and Elle's matching carseats.
We also got to see Pam and Kevin and Philip and Kara far too briefly as the kiddos were pretty much done after lunch today. Grandma let Owen take some of her cars home (like he doesn't have enough at home). He wouldn't even let me take the bag off his lap the whole way home. I think he had a great time!
Thanks mom and dad for a fabulous weekend! Can't wait to be back for Christmas!
This past weekend, we had a fabulous time in Peoria. We went for a couple reasons. 1) I needed help getting the kiddo's costumes done and 2) my brother, Philip, was in town to see us his new girlfriend, Kara. We arrived Friday night just in time for some Monical's pizza. The kiddos got to stay up late and then the adults watched We Bought A Zoo. Cute movie, if you haven't seen it yet.
Then on Saturday morning, we ventured to downtown Peoria to go the newly opened Caterpillar Visitors Center. It's a pretty impressive building. If you don't have kids with you, you can actually read about how Caterpillar got started and all the neat things they do around the world. Or if you have kids, you can chase them around as they climb on the really cool tractors.
William enjoyed the architecture
thanks Louise for the adorable outfit!
getting ready to head inside
checking out the massive two-story Cat 797 truck
he really didn't love being in the driver's seat
Grandma and Ellison
we both fit in the scoop!
just a few of the tractors
walking up and down the stairs was his favorite part
William and Owen
that's one big wheel
Kara and Philip went with us
Then we went home to do lunch and naps. That afternoon and evening, my mom and I worked on getting the kiddo's costumes all finished up. Then on Sunday, we got to go to my parents church. It's always so fun to see all their hard work. We love it there!
in Sunday best
worship
hanging out in the cry room
Kara and Philip
so cute. haha - just checking that you read my blog :)
All in all, a fabulous weekend. Thanks Mom for helping out with the kiddos so much while we're there. It almost feels like a vacation.
Probably a video more for grandparents. But Owen is currently in love with his little phone from his play kitchen. As you can tell, he still loves to talk about the moo cows in Grandma and Grandpa's backyard. And his tow truck, another current favorite. I apologize for the vertical video.
Before church this morning, we visited the Vet Med Open House. This is a Champaign tradition every year, I remember going to it when I was a kid. We are so glad we got there right when it started. By the time we drove back by after church, there were cars overflowing the parking lot and people everywhere. We pretty much walked in and got to see everything we wanted and walked out. We tried to milk the cow. Owen loved it from far away, but almost lost it when I put him down to milk her. Maybe next year buddy when you're a big bigger. Please excuse the fake smile:
We saw the famous fistulated cow, basically a cow with a big hole in it's stomach. They give you huge gloves and you can put your hand in. We opted just to take a look. It was a massive cow!
Yesterday, I was super busy trying to get a meal ready for a friend who just had a baby. Jenna was over the afternoon borrowing our internet and washing machine. So when Owen got up from his nap, William and Jenna gave me a little break and took him to the south farms. On South Lincoln, there are TONS of cows. We comment every time we drive by that we need to take him there. So they finally did. I would say Owen thoroughly enjoyed seeing some more cows up close and personal. Please ignore the fact that he is in mismatching pj's. I promise he didn't wear those to church earlier in the day. :)
I am a 30 something stay at home mommy who lives in a great city in the middle of lots of cornfields.
I have 3 amazing kiddos, Owen (4), Ellison (2), and Miles (brand new). I love Jesus, my amazing hubby William, and our dumb orange tabby cat. I couldn't live without Diet Coke, snail mail, sushi, the color pink, my hot glue gun.
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