VBS 2018

Vacation Bible School is always a cRaZy and fun week around here.  By Friday afternoon, I was so tired, I could hardly see straight!  Not to mention the fact that we closed on our new house the following week and we were in the heart of baseball season... We had a lot going on!

I got to teach missions again this year.  Our youth group was getting ready to go up to Chicago to work with Ms. Pearl, so we decided to make her daycare our mission this year!  We went up to visit with her, and she said she really needed some help in her garden.  She mentioned wanting a big sign, so the Chew family was able to make that happen!  Aside from that, we painted stepping stones for the garden and raised money to help with building a stage (which our crew did) and getting other needed supplies.  

Here are my kids with their groups for the week:

Lucas:

Jacob:

Hannah:

Aleah:

Me and my crew:

I am the zoo keeper, and these are my wild animals!

Hadley & Aleah

I was able to babysit my niece Hadley 1-2 days a week this school year, and then also was able to keep her about 4 days a week through the summer.  It was a lot of fun, and Aleah and Hadley got to be really good friends.  It was fun that I was able to have Landon for a school year, Madelyn for a school year, and now Hadley for a school year.  The girls had all sorts of fun:

Playing dress-up:

Hadley found my missing keys one day in the Barbie dreamhouse elevator (they had been gone for a week!).  She chose a cookie for breakfast over money.  She said she "has a whole bag of dollars at home."  Crack me up!

We went to the library program several times!

Hadley loves playing outside:

I took them to a Disney Halloween party one day in Savoy and we had lunch at Buffalo Wild Wings:

More dressing up:

Playing sleepover:

McDonald's Playplace:

Spring has arrived:

The ONLY nap she took the whole year, haha!  This was after a FULL day in Champaign (movies, park, picnic, Betsy's, ice cream, and more)!

Lunch at the Mexican restaurant:

Helping me at church:

This spring, they had to go to lots of appointments with me (lawyers and eye doctors and all kinds of fun things).  They were very well behaved!

We got to go see Hadley in her pageant:

We had so much more fun; we just didn't get pictures of it all!  We went to Sholem and cooked and went to parks and had a blast!  Hadley went to Kindergarten this year, so we miss her, but she is still coming to play after school for about an hour, several days of week, so we're happy about that!

Mother's Day

Betsy made us a yummy Mother's Day cake!

I got a couple of new Willow Tree figurines.  I really love these particular ones, as they are a good picture of my life as a mother for the last 10 years.

Tristan's Graduation

Josh and I were able to attend his brother Tristan's college graduation (without kids!).  He received a degree in Computer Science Engineering and will be going to Canada for post-graduate studies.  He graduated at the top of his class with a very tough major.  He is a very smart guy!  

Aleah's 4th Birthday!

Aleah wanted a "Wellie Wisher" birthday party this year with her cousins.  We decided to meet up on a weekday at First Christian Church in Champaign.  I already had Hadley for the day, and Uncle Paul, Aunt Emily, Aunt Betsy, Grandma Teresa, and even daddy got to come over during lunch!  

I made Wellie Wisher cookies:

and butterfly sandwiches:

That Sunday, Grandma Teresa made her a giant cake after church:

and she got Moana gifts:

That night, we had the Downing side over for dinner.... (and we went to see a house in between the two parties... which we decided to buy!).... It was a cRaZy week!

And then a couple of weeks later, we got to celebrate at Grandma Jody's and Papa Bob's:

She got 3 new Wellie Wisher outfits:

On her actual birthday, she was stuck at home with the stomach flu.  It was no fun at all!  But a sweet lady who we don't know too well saw on facebook that she shares a b-day with Aleah and was sad for her being sick on her special day, so she brought Aleah some special surpises  It was a very nice gesture!

Despite being sick on her actual birthday, it worked out that her parties were the 5th, 8th, and 21st.  She still got plenty of celebrations in!  We love our new 4 year old!