Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Start of Summer

With the end of school and the start of summer we had lots going on, but I don't want to fail to mention Ben's baseball season!  He did awesome this season and earned a game ball (notable recognition of one player after each game that gets to keep the game ball).  Several of the coaches and parents also told us how fast Ben has become since football season (it is the same group of coaches and kids that he played football with).  He did great and really seemed to enjoy it! 


Looks like such a big kid...

Swing batter!

I also took the kids to a start of summer kick off festival, which was a lot of fun!

And we have also been enjoying some of the perks of our new home...such as the jacuzzi tubs!
 
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Moving Week

We had Mama Kay, Papa, Madgie and Patch all up to help us move...the only problem was that our closings were delayed and we were in a hotel most of the week! But they were very upbeat about the whole thing (which was incredibly helpful to Paul and I, who did not feel upbeat about the whole thing) and they got to enjoy some of the end of school year activities with us. Juliette ended school first with her popsicle picnic.


Juliette with her teacher Mrs. Boyer

Her class

Juliette and Mrs. Thomas (the teacher's aid)

All the grandparents with Juliette!  One of the priests was there and talked to the grandparents, remarking how nice it was that they all traveled up here for the preschool popsicle picnic...well, that wasn't exactly the reason they came, but he doesn't need to know that!

Finally, we closed on both houses and were able to move in!  Paul driving one of our moving trucks down our street!

Backing it in our driveway

And he carried me over the threshold :)

So we moved all of our stuff in on Friday, but our nephew and Godson was graduating high school that weekend and we couldn't miss it.  Madgie and Patch stayed back at our house and unpacked/cleaned while we attended graduation, which was very nice of them!  Here is Andrew, a top honor graduate of Benet Academy!

Andrew with his proud parents

Sadly, just a few days before graudation Andrew's friend and ex-girlfriend was tragically killed in a freak accident.  She was waiting on a park bench for her little brother and sister to be done at the dentist and was struck by lightning and killed.  It was really quite a shock and extemely sad for the entire graduating class.  The school handled it very well, draping her cap and gown over her seat.  Her family attended the ceremony and received her diploma on her behalf.  They left the ceremony to a standing ovation that lasted well after they left the building.  It was very moving.

Then it was on to the graduates.  Here is Andrew getting his diploma.  We are so proud of him - he is an amazing kid...star track athlete, star student, Eagle Scout, star nephew and star cousin (our kids absolutely adore Andrew).  And we are thrilled that he will be attending Notre Dame next year.  We can't wait to see what he does and go visit him too!

Then it was back to school for more end of year activities.  This time it was Abbey's popsicle picnic!

With Mrs. Thomas

With Mrs. Boyer

And then it was on to Ben's patriotic concert.
 

Lots of fun activities...I can't believe we found time to move in between everything else going on!  We could not have done it without the help of Mama Kay, Papa, Madgie and Patch.  They were instrumental in getting us into our new house, keeping a positive attitude throughout all the stress, and helping us get settled and fixing/cleaning things throughout the house.  I truly cannot thank them all enough.  We love you!
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Moving on Up!

I know I posted earlier that we moved, but now it's time for some details. The Tuesday after Memorial Day, we had movers come and empty our house. I had to take some pictures from memory's sake of our empty house.  This is from the front door looking up into the family room.


Our office area

Basement

Basement bathroom (which we added in 2006 when we finished the basement)

Laundry room (also added in 2006 during basement finishing)

Our kitchen that I asbolutely loved (redone in 2011)
 

Family room

Upstairs bathroom that all 5 of us shared

Our master bedroom

Girls room

Ben's room

Upstairs hallway

Backyard (sadly, we had to leave our playset as part of negotiations, but we plan to buy the same one for our new house soon)

Luckily, Mama Kay and Papa came up to help us!  Because we had to move out on a separate day than when we could move in, we rented UHaul trucks and separate movers.  To store things with a moving company is extremely expensive, so this was the best option.  It turned out to be a very good ideaa as our closing was delayed and we were in a hotel for almost a week before we could close and move in to our new house, which would have cost a fortune with the moving company, if they could have even accomodated keeping our stuff that long. 

And the kids got a kick out of playing in the truck too.

Juju waving bye to our old house!

Our family in front of our old house.  This is the house that Paul and I moved into as soon as we got married and where we started our family.  When we bought the house we certainly never thought we would have had 3 kids in it and 2 dogs.  Our plan was to be in it for 3-5 years...11 years later, we were finally in a position to move to something bigger.

It was sad to leave the house.  I think I would have been more emotional about it had the process been smoother.  There was so much stress about the closing on both houses and the delays and last minute issues that I just wanted it all to be done.  In a way, that made leaving easier though!

Time to go!
 
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Field Trip and Memorial Day Parade

Ben's class went on a field trip at the end of the year to Blackberry Farm. It was a confusing name to the kids because there were no actualy blackerries to be picked at this farm. It was a historical farm where they learned about life on a working farm in the time before electricity. It was very interesting all the facts that we learned and the kids seemed to enjoy it!  Here they are on the train ride.


After a morning of learning, we had lunch and some time on the playground too.
 

Ben's class

We also got to participate in the Arlington Heights Memorial Day Parade!  The kids' school marched and they asked the cub scouts to march as well.  So Ben put on his uniform and the girls put on some spirit wear and we marched in the parade throwing candy to those watching.  It was actually really fun!  Love this picture, you can see the girls on the right up ahead skipping!

Walking along with their friends

Cuties showing their school spirit!

Ready to throw some candy!

The hardest part was trying to keep the kids from going too far up and from lagging too far behind.  It was a constant struggle of "slow down" and then "speed up"!

It was a fun parade though and we were glad to be part of it!
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