Climbing Around the TreeHouse

Today we celebrated Lucas' friend Nate's birthday at The TreeHouse. Lucas had a lot of fun climbing around with many of his classmates, and Megan had a good time, too. The video shows Megan's reaction every time she went down the slide ... not just the first time.

Fun With Friends

We've gotten a few cute pics when friends have come over lately. I think the funniest is the one with the kids and Drew ... the new thing to do is to get out all of Mommy's brushes and fix people's hair. And the best way to style hair? To add cheese, of course!

Birthday! Birthday!

Today was a busy birthday day. We started the day off at Monkey Joe's for Alicia's 5th birthday party. As Monkey Joe's is one of the kids' favorite places, it was a good way to start the day. And Heather did an awesome job making Alicia's cool castle cake. :) Happy Birthday, Alicia!


After fun at Alicia's party and a nap to re-energize, we headed to Hannah's 1st birthday party. Lucas and Megan were excited because they were on their way to eat pizza and cake for the second time that day. :) Happy Birthday, Hannah!

A Star Wars Birthday Party

The Star Wars themed birthday party for Samantha (5) and Everett (2) was pretty cool. They had lightsabers (chocolate covered pretzel rods), Han Solo stuck in carbonite (a small figurine in jello) and several other themed food items. Darth Vader's head even doubled as a piñata. The kids had a blast playing together and we (technically Drew) even got a good picture of all of them together: Lucas, Samantha, Hannah, Carl, Megan, Ben, Alicia, Everett, Kaylee and Nathaniel.

Easter

Megan and Lucas definitely collected more than their fair share of Easter baskets ... though they may think it was just the right amount. :) Mommy didn't want to take them to the Lake Zurich Easter Egg Hunt in the rain, so we hid some eggs around their house (and the Easter Bunny hid their baskets).

For Easter weekend, we headed to Cincinnati to see family and meet our niece Rebecca. Sometimes, I'm surprised by how much we can cram in to such a short visit. We got to hang out with the Suttmann side for an evening, have fun at Aunt Barb's for a bit, and see the Krollmann side ... and then we did it all again on Easter day. Monday was a bit more relaxing and then Lucas and Megan hung out with Grandma and Grandpa Suttmann while Mommy and Daddy went out for dinner with some other family (thanks Grandma & Grandpa!). By the time we headed back to Lake Zurich, I think were ready to head home, but we had a lot of fun over the weekend!

Using Your Imagination

Sometimes when kids are quiet, it's because they are causing trouble. Sometimes they are just being cute and using their great imaginations. I went to check on the kids in Megan's room and found a couple of "birds". The hamper was apparently an egg ... so after being in the egg for a bit, the kids were taking turns hatching. Perhaps we have been learning too much about birds, but they were definitely having fun.

Fun with Mike, Dawn & Kayla

Uncle Mike, Aunt Dawn, Kayla and Baby K came to visit us! We were all very excited for our visitors! Our big trip for the weekend was to head to Brookfield zoo. Everyone told what animal they wanted to see most, and we made sure to see all of them ... Kayla picked the dolphins, Megan picked the giraffes, and Lucas picked the zebras.




I think the favorite part for everyone was the dolphin show, but many of the animals were being just silly and all were fun to see. We got to see an ostrich chase a kangaroo, a camel seemingly complain that he didn't have any water and some giraffes trying some interesting maneuvers to get their heads down to the ground to eat.


A couple of pictures before our visitors left. We hope they had as much fun as we did!

Soccer!

Lucas started playing on his first soccer team today! He's had some soccer classes at school, but this is the first organized team he's been on. His team color is "Daisy" yellow, so they named themselves the Bumble Bees. They start off with a 20 minute practice, and then have a 30 minute game (with a break in the middle). And, of course ... it ends with every kid's favorite part ... snacks! The kids play 3-on-3.

Lucas did pretty well for his first day, especially since it was the first really warm day of the year (80 degrees and humid). It took him a while to warm up, but he eventually did really well with Coach Ben and his teammates (there are 6 on a team). He even scored a goal (and it was in the right net)! Not that there is any score-keeping, or even a goalie. :)