A Mother's Day Outing

For Mother's Day this year we decided to skip church that morning and take a road trip to one of my favorite places to enjoy some family time outdoors.  It was perfect (well, all except for the cold weather that day).  We drove to the West Beach of the Indiana Dunes and did a couple short trails there.  We ended with some time at the beach.  James and I probably would have opted to just skip the beach and get lunch, but Jesse had been eagerly talking about the beach the entire morning and would have been crushed if he didn't get to play with his beach toys, so we spent half an hour or so there.

The hike ended with a nice, easy walk down one of the big sand dunes.  The view of Lake Michigan was beautiful.

Last time we were here it was a cloudy day and Chicago wasn't nearly this visible.

On the way back home we stopped for lunch at Cracker Barrel.  The wait for a table was 45 minutes, but there were plenty of toys in the gift shop to pass the time.

When the toys lost their appeal, we endured the cold so that Jesse could entertain himself with the rocking chairs on the patio.



It was a great day and I was happy to get to spend it with my two boys!

A Rhyme, Some Songs, and a Sermon, Too

Here are some videos of Jesse lately.  The first is a rhyme that he learned from a book of action rhymes that we have.  He gets so quiet in the middle of it that you can hardly hear what he's saying, so here are the words:

A mouse lived in a little hole, 
Lived softly in a little hole, 
When all was quiet, as quiet as can be...
OUT POPPED HE!



This is just some typical Jesse entertainment during lunch. Jesse loves music and singing. The first song is one we've been doing in our music class this spring, and the second one is from one of his favorite YouTube videos. Be forewarned that this video is long...it is entertaining to us, but I realize that we are terribly biased, so feel free to skip over it (and of course any other videos I post) :)


This last one happened today, and I just had to grab the camera.  Jesse got out the New Testament that was given to him at his baby dedication and began walking around the room "reading" from it.  I didn't manage to get all of it on video, but at one point he was flipping through the pages and exclaiming, "This good news...this good news!".  Unless you are familiar with Jesse talk, you may not understand all of what he is saying, but he is basically saying "Thank you God for Jesus, thank you God for Jesus loving me, Thank you God for loving banjo, thank you God for loving crane truck, thank you for loving your (my) books, thank you for Bible study, this says thank you for church, thank you for church verses, this says loving the sink!".  What a silly guy!

Spring Weather and Random Pics

The past two days we have had some amazing weather!  It's about time!  I forgot how much I enjoyed spending the morning and/or afternoon at the park.  Jesse tends to get bored/mischievous when in the same enclosed space for long periods of time, so this weather has been very freeing for all of us! 

For the longest time I kept telling Jesse that very soon it would be springtime.  I told him that springtime is when the flowers come out and it's not cold outside, so for weeks he was telling me "when springtime flowers come out and we go to park".  He could not wait to get outside again.

I also promised him a picnic, so today we took our lunch downstairs and ate at the park. 

 

Jesse's favorite toy at the park is this green car.  Unfortunately it is many kids' favorite, so he is having to work on some patience in waiting his turn ;)  Sometimes he will stand at the window in his room and look down at the park and get upset that someone else is using "his" car.  He has definitely gotten much more possessive in just the past several months, but it's usually worse with younger kids and babies.

This past Sunday while I was getting ready for church, James and Jesse surprised me by getting dressed up in their white shirts and ties.  Jesse's tie did not stay on for church, though.

Jesse sings all the time, and very loudly!  He loves to sing "Happy Birthday" and use his traffic cones as party hats.

 



He's also still into his letters and ABC puzzle.  Usually he just puts random letters together and tells me that they say something (for example, the other day he told me that he had spelled 'Fox in Socks' but it was just a bunch of random letters).  Sometimes he'll get his name (usually the right letters out of order) or something simple like 'on' or 'no' that he sees a lot.  Here he is showing me his name: eeJjss.

Fun with Friends at the Children's Museum

Yesterday morning we went to the Children's Museum with our good friends Andrea, Lilah and Charlotte, so here is another round of pictures from the museum (thanks to Andrea for taking the pictures!).

The fire truck is the closest exhibit to the entrance, so it always makes sense to stop there first.  Lilah and Jesse were pretty serious about getting out to fight the fire, so they weren't really feeling like stopping for a picture.

WaterWays is always lots of fun.  It's nice that they provide rain coats, but Jesse still managed to get himself soaked.

Here's everyone cooking dinner in the log cabin.

And of course playing in the tent...

Lilah and Jesse had fun stacking dominoes.

 

One of Jesse's favorite places is the grocery store in Kid Town.

 

Riding a CTA bus together...

 

We had such a fun morning.  We ended it with the obligatory trip to McDonald's and even enjoyed getting to eat our meal outside on the pier in the beautiful sunshine. 

Nana and Pop's Visit

Last Thursday my parents came for a long weekend.  We had a great time being together and doing lots of fun things.  Jesse is still telling me he wants them to "come back over to Jesse's house".  He doesn't understand how far away they live.

 

 

 

 

 

On Friday morning we went to the Children's Museum.  Last time, Jesse basically had the entire space to himself, but this time there were SO many kids.  Jesse was getting really frustrated at points (and so were we), but he still had a great time overall.  In the future, we will just remember that Friday morning is not a good time to visit (too many bus loads of kids on field trips!).

 

The treehouse section was one of the most crowded, but Jesse managed to get some time in the tent.

 

The fire truck is always a must-do, and especially the fireman's pole.

 

 

 Jesse now associates the Children's Museum with stopping for lunch at the Navy Pier McDonald's.  Boy can this kid put away some food.  He didn't leave behind a single crumb and I think he would have gladly eaten more.

 

 

 

 

We had some rain on Friday afternoon when Jesse woke up from his nap, so we spent a little time in the Tot Lot instead of getting outside.

 

 

Then we had a yummy dinner at Leona's, where Jesse again proved his ability to eat large volumes of food by eating much of his very large portion of mac and cheese, a lot of bread, and some of my parents' pizza on top of that.

 

On Saturday the weather was cold (we even had snow showers Saturday morning...ugh!) and windy so we stayed inside all day.  Sunday was beautiful, though, and a perfect day for going to the park after church and naptime.  Jesse was overjoyed to be at the park (especially to be at his favorite, Harold Washington) and kept seeing things and saying "I remember this!", as if everything was coming back to him after months of not playing in the park.