Discovery Children's Museum

 We ventured down to Bloomington today to visit the Children's Museum.  We decided to check out the museum and get a pass so that we can get into the museums in Chicago next week when we meet Maryn and her fam. It's a fun museum with a lot of interactive play for the kids. The first floor has a lot of career role playing, train tracks, and a water area; the second floor is all about farms; and the third floor is the creativity floor with acting, music, painting and crafts. It's a fun little museum, but not quite as fun as the big city ones :)

Cole loved the cars and trains, Ellie loved the doll house, Dax loved the water area and even Daddy found something fun to play with :)

There was a lot more to do...I'm not sure why I didn't take more pictures. I guess we were having too much fun playing ;)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

It's the big 31 for Ben! Sadly, he had to work all day and he has to work all weekend so we don't get to have a party or do anything fun. We still wanted to celebrate with Daddy, so I let the kids stay up until he got home. I made him his favorite, chocolate cream pie. It kind of melted so it was more like chocolate milkshake pie, but he was still excited!!

Happy Birthday Ben!!

You are the best husband and daddy in the world! We miss you lots while you are at work and can't wait for "daddy time" when we get to be with you. Love you forever!!

Halloween Fun

As always, there has been a lot of fun Halloween activities. Captain America, Princess Aurora and little Dumbo have had a blast :)

 Last Saturday we went to a trunk or treat at the Intermediate school:

Cole and El both had school parties. I didn't get to go to Cole's party so no pics, sorry bud.

We went to the pumpkin patch in Morton. The patches here don't have all of the extra fun things to do like in Iowa, but it was a fun little outing for the kids to pick out their own pumpkin.

 Look at the size of those pumpkins! :)

We had a lot of fun decorating them too! Ben and Cole carved, El and I painted, and Dax just threw his :)

Ben had to work tonight, so I took the kids trick or treating solo tonight. We went to find Cole's best friend Josh. He was already out knocking on doors with a neighbor kid and his dad. As we were walking around their neighborhood I discovered that the neighbor dad was the state trooper that gave me a ticket last month for speeding when I didn't notice the speed had changed. I was pretty mad about the ticket and thought he had no compassion. As I trick or treated with him I realized that he is a really nice guy and I was too quick to judge. Instead of blaming him for not being understanding I guess I should have been paying attention to the signs. It was a good lesson and a fun night...until it the clouds opened up and dumped buckets of rain on us. We ended up walking two blocks in strong winds and pouring rain to get to our car. The kids were all crying, Dax dumped his whole bucket of candy, and we were all drenched by the time we got to the car. It was definitely a memorable night!!

Happy Halloween!

Family Pics

Danna also took some awesome pics for us while we were visiting:

Thanks Danna, you are amazing!

Choo Choo

Since Ben has this week off we decided to visit the Pettits in St. Louis and use or groupon for the Museum of Transportation. It's not a very exciting museum, but the kids had a blast playing! There was so much to do at the Creation Station: train tables, dress ups, crafts, all sorts of fun!

 (This is Cole in his space ship)

We also were able to go inside some real trains!

 Little Bubba got worn out before we made it to the big boat, airplane, and ringing the train bell

We were supposed to have a train ride as well but the train wasn't working. The kids always have fun no matter what though, so this day was a success! I really love my kids and how they can find joy in simple things.

We had a fun little break visiting our awesome friends in St. Louis. Thanks for the quick getaway Danna!!