Iowa vs. Wisconsin Football

October 22, 2016:  What a fun fall weekend get-away with some of our very best friends!!  Iowa vs. Wisconsin football game in Iowa City... Iowa didn't pull off the win, but we had an awesome time! 

Girl's Weekend

August 27-28, 2016: I love my momtribe!  We meet every Tuesday morning for Bible study and we just do life together.  We mom together, laugh together, cry together, encourage each other, help when needed, and we have LOTS of fun while we do it all!  We try for a couple overnights each year.  Our favorite place to go is Michigan.  We spend the day in St. Joes shopping and eating lunch.  We stay at Sandi's cabin and spend our night grilling out, playing games, and obviously being very silly...  I love these girls!  They make me a better mom.

Missing a few of our mamas...

Blessing Bags

July 26, 2016:  My mom's group decided to tackle a little service project with our kiddos... We got together and let the kids make "blessing bags" for homeless.  They colored pictures to include and filled the bags with toiletries, snacks, socks, water, etc.  We love keeping one of these bags in our car all the time.  We also take one or two with us when we are visiting bigger cities.  I love that my kids are learning to care for others... 

Park Hopping

July 25, 2016:  My friend Michelle and I thought it would be fun to plan a day of park-hopping.  It was hard to find a free day for both of us (summer just seems to fly by) but we landed on a day that Kinnick had football camp in the morning (so we had to pick him up after a few park stops).  We started our day with a Dunkin' Donuts planning session.  We had our Shorewood map out which highlighted all of the public parks... we made a plan to hit as many as possible (and a few other parks we knew about!)  All in all we visited EIGHT different parks... and started a new summer tradition!!

Mapping out our Route...

Eagle Ridge Park:

Nothing like getting muddy at your first stop!

Hampton Glen Park:

We packed LOTS of snacks & drinks!

Wesmere Park:

Renwick Community Park:

Shorewood Park:

DuPage River:

Little Coyote Park:

The Whole Crew!

Gabrielson Oakwood Park:

Westshore Park:

College Girlfriend Meet-Up

July 18, 2016:  I adore spending time with my college girlfriends... even better, our kids get to be friends too!  They few and far between, our get-togethers, but they are precious and they make my soul happy...  We tackled Bloomington (Miller Park) splashpad, complete with pizza delivery for our picnic, and an ice cream stop with these TWELVE kiddos.  I love these girls!

Summer Lovin'

July 5, 2016:

The kids (especially Sadie) love watching "challenges" on Kids YouTube.  Of course this means that they want to have their own challenges.  One that they kept begging for was the "eat it or wear it" challenge.  They put it on the summer bucket list, so I let them do it.  It was a fun start to a great summer day...

After their "challenge" we went over to my friend Michelle's house for lunch and swimming at their lake.  Their family recently moved into an awesome house on a little lake.  They have a little beach in their back yard and lots of fun water toys--paddle boat, paddle board, kayaks, tube...  we spent a whole afternoon of fun in the sun!

We were pregnant together with Carver and Elizabeth!

We finished this perfect summer day with homemade funnel cakes...