Springfield, IL

We had decided, since Katherine has taken an huge interest in history lately, to take a short trip to Springfield, IL over christmas break. So, on Tuesday after Christmas, we drove up to Springfield from St. Louis (about 100 miles) and after checking into our hotel, went to see the Old State House, Abe Lincoln's law office across the street ( I didn't get any pictures of this), and his home several blocks away.

All of those sights were GREAT! It was amazing to feel like I was standing in the same spot that Abraham Lincoln did 150 years ago - before he was president! These sights and the Visitor's Center, near his home, are fabulous and I highly recommend going to see them! After a pretty good night's sleep, we went the next day to drive around the current Illinois State Capitol building and to the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, just across from the Old State House. The museum was decked out for Christmas and was beautiful.

There's a great kids play area in the museum with dress-up clothes as well as old toys from the time of Lincoln and a "Lincoln's home" doll house. We spent a LONG time in that area.

We got our picture taken with the Lincoln family. :)

A replica of the log cabin where he was born and grew up in Kentucky (if I remember correctly). We had a fabulous trip and I highly recommend you get there if you live within any reasonable distance to Springfield. We all had a great time!

Swimming Lessons

We've got all three kids enrolled in swimming lessons this spring - at the same time. We all go and each child has his/her lesson at different parts of the pool. John goes with Christopher and I try to watch all three of them at the same time. It's hard, I tell you, but better than spending the entire day in swimming lessons - we get it all done in 45 min on Saturday mornings. Katherine has become a fish and loves the water, but still needs a bit of work on her actuall swimming skills. Elizabeth has not really enjoyed the swimming lessons. She's fine in the water, but several of the girls in her class are kind of wild and there is lots of splashing and she doesn't like getting water in her face. So, she enjoys the little games that they play, but when it comes down to "swimming", she doesn't always enjoy herself (as you'll see in at least one of the pictures). Christopher has no fear in the water (which increases my fear!). All three will enjoy the pool this summer, but it will be near impossible for me to take all of them by myself. So, we'll just have to wait for Daddy to come home to to. Anyway, on with the pictures.

Elizabeth is not so fond of the kickboard - she's gotten better at it recently, though.

She has fun sitting on the steps, though.

Love and Lost

The girls got cute outfits for Valentine's Day, so I wanted to share pictures. We all went out for a family dinner on Valentine's Day - John and I got our "date" a couple of weeks later (Feb 28) at the Covenant Christian School auction. A fun time.

Then, just yesterday in the car on the way to school, Katherine lost a tooth! It's her third tooth, but the first two were almost a year ago, so it feels almost like the first one! She was giddy with excitement and this morning was anxious to see what the tooth-fairy brought - 3 quarters. Is she cheap? Katherine doesn't know any better. What's the going rate these days, anyway? I don't know. She was excited to put that in her bank and got some fun things at school yesterday, too. She's growing up!

Pumpkinland!

Theis Farm is very close to our house and we went there this afternoon to play at Pumpkinland and get some pumpkins to carve. Pumpkinland is an play area built with hay bales and the kids had a blast, as you can see. Me and Christopher on the slide FUN!

Katherine and Elizabeth on the slide Elizabeth with our pumpkins...

Elizabeth on the slide - they all could have gone over and over and over again!

Climbing on the hay bales with daddy

Sorry for the blurry picture - he's in constant motion!

Elizabeth in the pirate ship with her pirate hat

Everyone had a fabulous time. It was very windy and pretty chilly by the time we left, but we came home, had homemade turkey soup, watched a movie, and everyone went to sleep very quickly tonight! A fun fall day. As I write, the temperature is down to 45 degrees and it's supposed to be close to freezing tonight. Fall is definitely here!

A beautiful Day

This morning after church (actually, I guess it was after lunch), we went outside since it was such a beautiful day and got some pictures of the kids. These are just a few of the really great ones that we got. Christopher will not stand still for more than a second, so the prospect of getting one of the three of them together is pretty much nill - hence, I don't even try. Anyway, enjoy the pictures - Katherine is 6, Elizabeth is 4, and Christopher will be 21 months this week.