Forts!

With all the moving and unpacking around here, there have been plenty of boxes to make some great forts. Our original fort was made out of the box that our range came in. I cut out windows and doors to Eli, Lexi, and Tori's specifications, and then they decorated it and dubbed it "The Friendship Fort." They had me write that on the top and also the slogan "fun is friendship." Budding ad execs in the making.

The second fort Eli had was made out of a smaller box and pillows by Grandma Amanda when she came for a visit. It was just the right size for Eli to climb inside and "sleep."

Now that we are all moved in I put the kids to work on Monday and had them move the lighter boxes that they could lift to the basement. Then we constructed forts for each of them from the boxes and blankets we used for moving. Noah opted not to have a roof on his fort (which was good since we were running out of boxes), and Eli's fort was built off of the Friendship Fort with the addition of another room. Then Lexi and Tori each had their own and we built a tunnel and smaller fort for everyone to share. The boxes we used I won't need to unpack or put away for a while, and since we have no other use for the basement right now it will stay fort central!

Where'd everyone go?

Found Lexi!

And Eli too!

It's a fort-a-palooza in here!

It's Ours!!!!

Well, it's official. After many delays, we finally closed on the house on Wednesday afternoon. No problems during closing at all and it was very quick as well. Praise God! I think Jon and I were beginning to doubt that we would ever actually own the house.

Cleaning has begun in earnest yesterday (all day and the house is only half cleaned, ahh!!!). And bright and early this morning (7:15 am!!!!!) they called to tell us the appliances would be there in twenty minutes. Jon headed over since there was no possible way I could wake up the kids in time and get over there.

Now today it's more cleaning and then Jon's Dad and Sherry are coming for the weekend to help with repairs and projects. I'm just itching to get in the house and live there! I can't wait to get our things all moved in. But the house has to be clean first so I'll be back doing that all day again. I'm tired, sore, and smell like cleaning products but I'm happy!!

Home sweet home!!!

Dairy Discovery

Last Friday night, Jon, Eli, and I (Matea stayed with Grandma) headed out to a dairy farm in Alto for their family fun night. You got a tour of the farm, ice cream, milk, cheese, a hayride, a bonfire, and could play in their straw maze and corn crib. We thought it would be nice to have a night with just Eli to have some fun and thought it would educational too. We ended up with an even more "interactive" tour than we thought we would!

When we arrived we got our milk and cheese first and then Eli played a little bit in the "corn sandbox" as he called it, while we waited for the next tour to start.

Posing with my souvenir cow.

I'm happy to be here!

Playing in my corn crib . . .

The first stop on the tour was the milking room, which the tour leader said could be "overwhelming" sometimes. Eli just stared with big wide eyes. The cows are on a raised platform and all you see of them are their backsides and their udders. Then they are hooked up to machinery that moves by itself. And it's a very narrow corridor between the milking platforms. And it smells. So overwhelming is a good word. When we came in some cows were also coming in, and apparently we made some of them nervous because they started pooping everywhere. But when the poo hit the metal floor it just sprayed out - all over us. Yep, direct hits. Hair, clothes, the whole bit. Thankfully not mouth, eyes, or hands. They gave us towels to wipe up and we didn't think it was that big of a deal (some lady near us freaked out like cow poo was atomic waste or something). Eli said, and is convinced, that the cows "milked on us." We tried to clarify once and then thought he should just stick with the milk philosophy. :)

Standing by the giant steel drums of milk. They make 13,000 gallons a day! 

After the milking parlor it was on to the barns! We saw a calf that was only an hour and a half old! That was neat. It was all wobbly legged and cute. Eli didn't want to go near it though. Same with the big cows. He did say once, "I never saw a real cow. These cows are big."

Wobble wobble cute little calf.

Whatcha lookin' at? We're trying to eat here.

After the main barns we headed to the calf barn, and Eli got to feed a baby calf. He was getting ancy though and kept mooing at the babies. He fed the calf for a bit and then lost interest. In his defense, the bottle they gave us was very full and it took the calf a long time to finish it. Longer than a 4 year old's attention span. :)

This guy is thirsty!

I like feeding baby cows (for a minute at least!)

Kisses.

This cow kept trying to lick Eli. She had a crush on him I guess. :)

After the cows it was time for the ice cream and straw maze. The maze was definitely Eli's favorite thing there. He would have kept playing in that thing for a LONG LONG time. But, it was time for a hayride. Then one more game of hide-and-seek in the maze with Mommy and Daddy and it was almost 9:30 and time to head home. We were the last ones there and had a great time!

Going into the straw maze with my ice cream cone. Mom warned him of the dangers of this, but it all turned out okay. :)

Back in the maze and ready to go hide for hide-and-seek.

Where's Daddy?

I can run and jump all over this maze!

Off to our hay ride!

I even got to ride a cow! What a lucky boy!

You spin me right round . . .

We were in the office on Friday and Elijah started spinning himself around in the office chair. Matea, on the floor, thought that was the neatest thing and watched him for bit, but then wanted in on the action. I thought we'd give it a try and put Matea in the chair with Eli in front of her. Eli spun slowly at first and Matea loved it! She loved it even more when he went faster though. She was just squealing and had a big grin on her face. To me the funniest part was when they stopped though - her little eyes would, as Eli said, "wiggle all around." I think both of these two, especially Matea, are going to like amusement park rides just like their Mommy!

I'm holding on tight to my brother!Let's go faster, Eli!

Look, no hands! I'm getting brave now! Spinning around is fun!

And, since I'm getting to be such an expert at this, here's a video!

Splish Splash at the Beach

Over breakfast Thursday morning I asked Eli what we should do today. Eli promptly replied, "We're going to Millenium Park with Lexi and Tori. And you're bringing snacks!" I thought that sounded like a pretty good idea to me, so we called up Aunt Lori to see if they and/or the girls were free. Millenium Park has a beach and a splashpad but I wasn't thinking of going there at first because it costs money to get in. But it doesn't cost much money and we decided to try it out. Grandma came with to help with the kids, and even though we got a bit of a late start (Eli ate breakfast at 10:30, so by the time we had the idea, cleared it, packed, etc. it was mid-afternoon by the time we got to the park) we had a great time and it was worth the money to get in.

We played at the splashpad first and the kids liked it, but the water was quite cold and it wasn't quite hot enough to really enjoy it fully. So we headed to the beach for the rest of the afternoon. We swam (it only gets chest deep so that was nice), built a sand castle complex complete with a lake, and had lots of fun. We'll definitely be going back!

Eli watched Tori go in first to see if she liked it.

Playing together at the water tables at the splashpad.

Lexi ventures through the rings and the spray!

Matea, eating the water of course.

Splashing around and screaming, that's our girl!

Now I'm in the lake!

Filling our little lake with water!

It takes a lot of water!

Eli's "sand dozer" cleared out the path to the lake.

Matea loved sitting in the water and playing too!