Early Childhood Block Grant

For those of you that live in Illinois, this is a MUST read...

Our lovely govenor is voting to eliminate the Early Childhood Block Grant for all public schools. Here is the flyer I just recieved from Mom about it. PLEASE CALL AND VOICE YOUR CONCERN...

Early Childhood Block Grant will be Eliminated TODAY

Please Call your local Legislators NOW the vote will be taken by May 31st!

Some key players to call:
Governor Quinn- 1-217-782-0244
Michael Madigan(Speaker of the House)1-217-782-5350
John Cullerton (Senate President) 1-217-782-2728
James Clayborne (Majority Leader) 1-217-782-5399

Want more information?
www.voices4kids.org
www.ounceofprevention.org
www.actforchildren.org

Listen live-
www.ilga.gov/house/audvid.asp

Zoo Field Trip

Friday was the Kindergarten field trip to the zoo. Seth was very excited about this. The classes have been working on rain forest/jungle animals all week, so we had a list of animals to try to find at the zoo.

We started out at the reptile house. I think we spent about an hour in there with one of his friends. The next place we went was the monkey house, and they blew right through there. What is it about snakes and boys? The other mom and I wanted to watch the monkeys and the boys were ready to move on...hahaha

Next was the big cats. We like watching them too. It was a beautiful day so almost all the animals were out and some were even playing!!

Not sure how many of the rainforest/jungle animals we actually found because we ventured off to the children's zoo and the River's Edge to see the hippos. They are my favorite!! They were very active that day...

Seth likes watching them swim too, and I love taking pictures of the kids watching them swim!!

Ok, all, this is going to be a long post. So I apologize now, but hopefully you will get a kick out of it. Last Monday Grace had her first dance recital. Now mind you, Mom took her to the rehersal because I was still not feeling well after my procedure. She did great at the rehersal and did both of her routines great, then ran off, and they had to shut down the entire rehersal to find her. Needless to say, they didn't stay for the practice of the finale...LOL

Monday came and I was quite nervous about her getting away from us again, so I was back stage for the first routine (ballet) while Mom, Dad and Seth were watching and taking pictures. It was priceless...she did so good.

Every once in awhile, she would go off track and check out her outfit and make sure she was standing on her spot.

All of the girls were gorgeous!!

Next was the tap number, Mom took her up for this one, because she said that she laughed so hard on the ballet that I had to see this for myself. I took the camera and just started shooting. I wasn't really sure what the pictures were going to look like because Iwas laughing so hard too, my hands were shaking...LOL

This is were the really funny part is, she decided that in the middle of her number she wanted to show off her skirt, so she grabbed it and started moving sideways to shake it. It didn't matter what the other girls were doing...hahaha Then she realized she wasn't where she was supposed to be and stopped to run over and join the others...the video is much better....LOL

The End!!!

Dad video taped it, so as soon as I get that on disc I will get it up here so you can see it...

Fishing Derby...

I am finally able to get to the computer while the kids are in bed and I am mending from my procedure to put up more pictures.

Last Friday night, Hayden and Carson stayed the night and on Saturday morning we went to watch their soccer game. They did an excellent job!!! After the game Aimee and I took the kids to the park where I got a text from Annie about a fishing derby in a nearby town. I called Annie back and got the details and we all headed home to get our gear and head out to do some fishing. The kids had a blast!!! Scott was the savior for Aimee, she wouldn't touch the worm so putting it on the hook proved to be challenging for her...she would put the worm on the top of the container and hook it that way!!! She was hilarious!!

Scott getting his little fisherwoman ready to cast!!

Seth was pretty patient with the fishing. He was really enjoying himself out there soaking up the sun!

Grace and Seth each caught one fish...they were so cute out there!!! Seth was probaby watching everyone else's bobbers more than his own...LOL

Grace was a great sport...she did get bored fishing after a while, so she decided it would be more fun to roll down the hill at the park...LOL Once she did catch her fish she was very excited until it tried to "attack" her!!! hahaha

We had to leave early to get Seth to his baseball team pictures, so everyone else split the fish that Seth and Grace caught and they all went home with something. Abby won third place for the 0-3 age group, Hayden won third place for the 4-7 age group, and Carson won an attendance prize...Congrats to all!!

Thank you Annie for calling and inviting us. We all had a great time!!! We will definitely have to do it again sometime!!

Aimee turns 32 today!!!

I have known Aimee since 1992 when she first pulled into the barn with her trailer. I was walking my horse around and he spooked a little and I remember her telling her dad, "Slow down, you are scaring her horse and then she won't like me." LOL Well, here we are 17 years later and we are still friends/"sisters". She has always been there for me through everything. She stood by me when I got married and I flew 3000 miles to see her get married (that was a surprise too, she didn't know I was coming), our oldest boys are 2 months apart and our youngest ones are a year apart. I have made numerous moves since being married and she has been the one I call when I have a problem and she is my reasoning and sanity!! She is a loving wife, am amazing mother and an AWESOME friend!!

She deserved a day for her, so last night the kids and I went to the balloon store and got a balloon bouquet, banner, and sash and took it to her work (she wasn't there) for her to see when she got to work this morning. She called me when she got to work and said I was in trouble...hahaha Little did she know what was to come the rest of the day...later I had a fruit bouquet delivered to her before her meeting (btw it didn't have a name on it, so she automatically called her husband and he said he didn't do it...hehehe) and then Grace and I took lunch to work to share with everyone there when she got back from her meeting. She was very surprised!

Carson (her youngest) singing Happy Birthday to her!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AIMEE!! I hope you enjoyed it, because you certainly deserve it...

Happy Birthday Hayden!

Saturday afternoon was a very busy day for us...After the baseball game we had some shopping to do for Erin and Hayden's birthdays. We went to Collinsville to give Erin her gift and then headed home for some lunch. About an hour later Dawnjulene brought her kids over with her truck so that I could take them to Hayden's party. (I had her three kids over night so that she and her husband could have the night for their anniversary) The party was great. All of the kids were great and got along.

The party was at World Class Gymnastics...Kate did a great job of putting up an obstacle course for the kids and the parachute rides were a big hit!

Grace , Donnaka, and Dache' had a great time on the trampolines. You would never know by looking at this picture that Dache' was a shy girl...

The whole gang!!

Thank you Hayden and the Ott family for a great time!!

Coach Pitch game...

Seth had his first game on Saturday. He was so excited!!! He got to pick out his jersey and was ready for the big game...He did an excellent job!!

Here he is running the bases....

Out in the field, waiting for the ball at first base...

At bat...

Go ILLINI!!!