Day two was very action packed. It's not every day that they are in 'Ca-go.' Jen and I made the plan to have breakfast at 'me house.' I know the kids love donuts so I made sure to have chocolate long johns for the kids. I just loved it. Again I am so blessed that Jen and John made the drive to come visit.
After donuts we did little activities. Patrick and I got the kids "Room on the Broom" and "Five Little Pumpkins" so we had story time.
Also - notice that Oreo that Avery is holding? So the day before the Cicci's arrived Jen and I were on the phone and Rudy was in the background asking if I had snacks. I told him I would make sure I had snacks but he had to tell me what he wanted. Well Oreos was his choice. I found the Halloween edition I might add, the ones with the orange icing. I gave Avery and Rudy one and Jen was like, 'Are you sure you want them to have those in the living room?' I was like it is no big deal, 'I'll just vacuum.' Jen just smirks, and says 'Ok, yeah... right.' How very wrong I was indeed. Still 2 weeks later and I am finding orange icing around.
Then we found a mask that I had kept from a show where I did an adaptation of The Wizard of Oz where I played the Scarecrow, which lead to putting on the movie. Now I am not sure I have heard the word 'why?' so many times in my life. It starts with someone making a statement and then Rudy or Avery saying 'why?' So 'that is a scarecrow.' 'Why?' 'Cause they scare birds away.' 'Why?' 'Cause they eat the farmers corn.' 'Why?' and it just continues.
But once the witch came onto the screen we had to watch all the witch scenes. We watched the witch melt maybe 50 times. This also lead to a lot of 'why?' questions from Rudy. Also hearing Jen's response was amazing and shows she really knows how this mom thing works:
J:'The witch melts'
R:'Why?'
J:'Cause she is mean.'
R:'Why?'
J:'Cause she hit her sister.'
R:'Why?'
J:'Cause she is mean and doesn't share'
R:'Why?'
J:'I don't know why she would be mean. It's not nice.'
R:'Why?'
J:'Cause she was mean to her sister.'
R:'Why?.....'
So remember that Oreo I mentioned, Avery left me a gift in one of my candle holders. A completely licked off all icing Oreo half. Found 2 days later. Yeah, I'll just vacuum.
Once it was later in the morning we all loaded up in the new SUV and made a trip to downtown La Grange. It is really close to 'me house.' We started by stopping by and picking up candy of course and an array of different caramel apples to have for dessert after dinner later. We looked around at different shops and walked around before lunch.
After lunch we had planned to ride the 'big choo choo.' The metra train runs from La Grange to Western Spring in about 2 stops and it seemed like the perfect amount of time for the kids' attention span.
It was hilarious. We had to tell Rudy to stay back behind the yellow line and everyone had to hold hands. He was so hilarious when I was taking the picture. He had such a big smile and kept commanding, 'stay back, stay back.'
We got on the train with no trouble - except loading the ginormous stroller and moving three kids along. It was so funny. We had to travel from car to car looking for a seat and the kids were stunned/excited. Defnitely not the choo choo at White Oaks Mall. We finally found a seat by the time we made it to the first stop and I stood in the aisle with the stroller. Then right after that they called our stop, we got up and off very efficently. Literally 2 minutes we were on the train. Perfect amount of time.
I love in this picture how Rudy is checking in with me like 'can you believe we are on a big choo choo?'
Ben also had a selfie moment with Jen on the train. #babyonthetrain
When we got off we stopped by a bakery in Western Springs that makes these really good smiley face sugar cookies. On that day, however, they had monster cookies too. So Rudy got a Monster cookie.
And Avery got these cute little pink tea cookies.
Once we finished at the bakery it was starting to rain so we made the two block walk to Sue the Great's house. We ate more cookies, followed by more youtube/ipad games.
Then the Minella's came over after a wedding that they had been to in the morning.
It was still raining so we had a great time staying indoors for awhile. Aunt Sue the Great had these hilarious costumes that fit Rudy and he would leave and come back in a different outfit every time. A doctor, race car driver, wizard, and many more. I wish I would have taken pictures cause it was hilarious. I commend Jen for always being on top of pictures. When I finally realized, "oh I should be taking pictures," Rudy had moved on but Avery thankfully had tried on the witch costume.
Avery also learned 'I'm a little teapot' with Aunt Sue the Great. They did a little performance for everyone.
We finally decided that the rain was not gonna keep us from shopping. So we all got our umbrellas and made the walk back to downtown Western Springs to shop in the little boutiques. Thank goodness Aunt Sue the Great had so many extra umbrellas. We wouldn't want anyone to be left out.
It took us some time to get everyone the right umbrella, convincing Rudy the small green was, 'so cool,' so one of us could have a bigger umbrella for the walk. Then once we made the two block walk to the shops it stopped raining. However, thank goodness we had to stop for a big choo choo.
We finished our shopping day and then made our way back to Aunt Sue the Greats to pack up the car and walk over to Aunt Dawn and Uncle Dave the Great's house for bath time and dinner. Bath time was so funny.
We gave Ben and Avery these awesome hair styles.
Once we all were laughing Rudy said, "do me hair." Uh, sorry buddy.
Then it was dinner time and everyone was winding down. Uncle Dave the Great, Rudy and Avery read a book for awhile to find the Gold Bug.
We also had those amazing Caramel Apples for dessert that we had got earlier in the day from shopping in downtown La Grange. They were all sliced up so everyone could try all the different flavors. There was cheesecake, snickers, peanut butter bomb, and a turtle caramel apple. We all had our own personal favorites.
I just have to add this action shot of Avery. It is so funny to me because Avery sometimes gives me this look like 'I really don't understand you/get you/you are crazy/not impressed.' It just cracks me up how sassy she can be and she is only 1. I can not tell you how many times she has rolled her eyes at me.
Before we all did our final goodbyes we had a moment of just sittin down to relax. Rudy and I started a game where I would take a golf ball and put it behind my back and then tell him to pick a hand. Once my hands where behind my back I would then hide the golf ball by sitting on it. So Rudy would choose each hand then look behind me and ask, 'where is it?' Which I would then get the golf ball and make it seem like it was behind his ear. We did this again and again. Every time he found the golf ball it was so exciting. My magic tricks were flawless. The golf ball traveled to everyone, John's shoe, Tessa's Bun, Aunt Dawn the Great's pants cuff, Jen's hair, Kate's hair, and I even coughed it up. This again was one of the moments where I wished I would have been taking pictures. Luckily Avery always takes a moment to catch on to the activity. I was able to get a great picture of Peach looking for the ball and then we found it in her hair. It was so cute when she found it. She ran around telling everyone, 'I found it, found it, found it.' It was a pretty big victory for Peach.
It was time to say goodbye. I think everyone was exhausted from our two action packed days. After 20 minutes or so of the Cicci's departure Jen sends a text, 'didn't take long."
I can not say thank you enough to everyone who helped me celebrate my happy. I am so fortunate to have my family who made me feel so special on my quarter of century birthday. Especially Jen and John, I know it is not easy to cut out 2 days to make a trip with all the little ones, but I am so grateful for them. This will be one 'happy' that I will cherish forever. Thank you millions.
