American Girl Store with Rachie

Julia is a great reader! She was introduce to the American Girl series at Christmas this year by Rachie. She gave her several of the first books in the series so that Julia could decide on which girl was her favorite. She had Rebecca all picked out when we discovered "Meet Julie" a girl who lived in California in the 70's that had recently moved and was starting a new school. (Sound familiar?) She also has beautiful long blonde hair. So she checked that book out at the library and she was sold! Rachie got Julia the rest of the series for her birthday with the promise that she would take her to Chicago to the American Girl Store to get her very own Julie doll.

We took the train, a huge highlight for Julia, but nothing even was a comparison to how excited she was about getting her doll!

We found Julie!!

And we found her lots of her accessories... (something to use future birthday money to buy!!)

More Julie dolls

This is one very excited little girl...

And with Rachie!!

It was love at first sight!

We got home very late and Julia was very, very tired!!

One last very sleepy picture!!

Smallville!

The new SuperMan movie was partially filmed in downtown Plano, IL, which is very near where my parents live. Chris' favorite comic book hero has always been Superman! So when we were there for some yummy Uncle Lar's Pizza, Chris posed with the cool background. 

More left-over Smallville decor!


Watch for the movie coming to theaters in the summer of 2013!!

Children's Museum with cousins and Grandma

We had so much fun at the Children's Museum with Grandma and some of the cousins! 

Ava and Leah riding the train

Matthias playing some "beautiful" music.

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine..."

Such a cool use for old wrenches!

Matthias was so fascinated with the train table

It was close, but just barely Marilyn and Julia outweighed Leah and Matthias.

Leah enjoyed playing music too!

Ava our little drummer girl!

"All Aboard!!!" Matthias the engineer!

Grandma taught Julia how to weave and she spent a good amount of time making....

THIS!!!!


We had such a great time at the Dupage Children's Museum.  Thank you Grandma Thanepohn for a very fun day!

Bean at the Bean

Ever since we started calling Ava 'Bean' I have been dying to take our Bean to the Bean in Chicago. The best part is that I put Ava in the same dress that Julia wore when she first went to the Bean at just about the same age. These two don't look like sisters do they!?!

This is Julia in June 2008

(I had a very hard time finding this picture, and getting it to rotate 

and stay rotated proved to be a challenge)

And this is Ava in June 2012

More fun at the Bean

We had such a fun day in Chicago with Rachie, Sarah and Charlotte. We took the bus and the subway all in one day! The kids also walked several blocks to enjoy lunch at Chick-fil-a! 

Julia and Sarah even wrote a song as we walked to distract her from the distance!! :)

Ava and Rachie

Mirrors and Toddlers... pretty much the best entertainment!

I loved sharing "my city" with my kiddos!

Its a good thing we were there to hold it up!!

Matthias especially loved looking at himself in the mirrors!!

Pajama Mornings

While we were in our transitional time between Michigan and Port Huron, the kiddos and I stayed for a few weeks at Phil and Susan's house. Julia, Ava, and Matthias had a good time playing with Leah's toys in the basement during the early morning hours!!

 Julia was so proud of herself for building this wall. I was proud of Matthias for not knocking it down before she could finish! Very soon after I took this picture he ran through the wall head-first! 

Truck ride with Grandpa

Grandpa took Julia for a ride in the big truck. They went to see the cattle farm and she wasn't even a little scared of them! Such a brave girl!

Staying at Grandma and Grandpa Thanepohn's house

While we were in transition from Michigan to Missouri, we spent a couple nights at my parents. Ava and Matthias had a good time playing outside at their house.