Thurs. Aug. 11, 2016 - visit to IL

 The twins loved playing in Grandma Cathy's fountain...and drying their hands on Aunt Amy's dress

 A push from big sister

 One of the advantages of a big family is you always have playmates

 Logan likes to do chores, like helping Grandma Cathy water her plants

 A truck!

 Great Grandpa John and Great Grandma Charlotte came for a visit while we were in Metamora

 Great grandparents with great grandchildren

 Aunt Joanie was in town so we got to see her, too!

 Tristan was probably showing her how to use an app on her phone. These kids are all very tech savvy from an early age.

Homemade snow cones!

 We all love to play

 Their great grandparents brought birthday gifts, so let's open them now!

A Mickey Mouse train set of duplos for each of them...Mickey, wheels and blocks are their favorite things!

Getting some assembly help from Great Grandma Charlotte

 And then it was time for Grandma Cathy, whose birthday is coming up, to open a few gifts

 Micaela, Aunt Joanie, Riley, Grandma Cathy, Great Grandpa John and Great Grandma Charlotte

It was great that so many of us were there to celebrate together

 Joanie made her sister Scotcheroos, one of her favorites!

Then it was time to wrestle with Great Grandpa

 All this partying and playing is exhausting

Micaela checking out how her first girl cousin is growing

Then it was time to celebrate the upcoming wedding and the upcoming baby

Diapers and wipes...you'll need a lot of those

Expert Micaela explaining some of the things Aunt Amy and Uncle Kevin need to know about child-rearing

 When we got home it was time for Riley to go to Girl Scout Camp. Every morning the GS van picked her up (I love that it says, "its cookie time" on the side)

 Our adorable camper

This week the 4 kids and I spent some time in IL visiting with family and celebrating birthdays, weddings and babies. We had a great time playing at Grandma Cathy's house. She has a swingset in her backyard and a park that is just a few blocks away so we spent a lot of time outside burning energy. We were very lucky that Aunt Joanie was visiting IL and was able to bring Great Grandma Charlotte and Great Grandpa John to Metamora for a day so we could all spend some time together. Aunt Amy even stopped by after work. We made snow cones, celebrated Grandma Cathy's upcoming birthday with a delicious dessert from Aunt Joanie and played, played played. The twins opened their birthday gifts from Great Grandma Charlotte and Great Grandpa John. Somehow they knew exactly what these little boys like and gave each of them Mickey Mouse train set of duplos. It was a fun day.

On Saturday Aunt Chris and Aunt Kim hosted Amy and Kevin's baby and Anita and Suzanne's bridal shower. A lot of the Kellys were there, including my cousin Sam who is a twin. I haven't seen him in at least 10 years so I was glad he was able to stop by and give me some advice and warnings about twins. The boys were a little shy at first but warmed up to anyone who bribed them with cookies. After the gifts and games we swam in their pool for the rest of the afternoon. All the kids loved it and got some private swim lessons from the resident scuba instructor, Dr. Great Aunt Anita. She had Logan sticking his face in the water and blowing bubbles right away, I wish we could do this more often! 

It was wonderful to see so much of our family and catch up with them all but after 5 days we were ready to get home and see Daddy, who spent the weekend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (the UP as they call it up here) biking, camping and star gazing. Plus Riley had to get ready for her week at Girl Scout day camp. She left Monday morning for Day 1 of Campapalooza, a combination of all the fun things you can do at camp including archery, art, hikes, cooking on a campfire and singing songs. She loves it!