The German's come for a visit

This past week we were able to host Ben's mentor from Germany, Tobi, and two of his traveling buddies. Now some of you may not know, but we live in a one bedroom apartment, so hosting three grown men was a little tricky but so worth it. (And, when I say tricky, I don't mean troublesome, I just mean space was a little tight.) We made it work and had a blast!!! (I'm so glad our house is a blessing to others) Emma loved her "friends" and stayed up WAY past her bedtime most nights. She was great and LOVED the extra attention they gave her. We are looking forward to a trip to Germany next summer some time; it'll be great to experience this as a family, especially since Ben lived there for 5 months right after high school and still keeps in touch with a lot of people over there.

Ben took these AWESOME shots on a trip they all took to Racine. He let me stay home (what a doll...of course, I mean this in the most manly sense) to get some MUCH NEEDED rest.

Dancing Queen

Emma loves to sing and dance, in fact here's some documentation. Unfortunately, I was unable to get photos of Ben getting up on the stool to dance as well. I thought he danced pretty well; Emma on the other hand saw some thing wrong with his moves. She kept instructing him to get down from the stool and "Do it like this, daddy!". Too funny! It looks like dance classes are in the future for both Ben and Emma.

Are you ready for this?

Gettin my groove on.

Watch out!

How low can you go?

Grandma brought BUBBLES!

Grandma came into town to watch Emma and she always comes with little gifts. No surprise, grandma's love spoiling their grandkids! Emma loves blowing bubbles, but some times can be frustrated with blowing them. Grandma brought a motorized bubble blower and Emma LOVES it!

So we blew some bubbles; some small, some HUGE, and even some inside the others.

And BLEW some MORE....

And MORE.....

And MORE.....

And, took a break to refill so we could blow some more!

Non-naptime

Lately Emma hasn't been taking naps for me (Jess). She roams around her room, dumping things (if she's upset), and showing me toys at the door. Most times it's hard to keep a straight face with all her persistence, however today I'm frustrated she won't nap. I know it didn't help bringing out my camera to show evidence of non-naptime, and sure, her lack of sleepiness could be from not getting up until 8:30am. But still I need a few minutes to gather my energy, so she should give me that. It'll make both of our days continue to run smooth without any meltdowns from either party.

Riding on the train with strangers

Jess' mom was in town this past week to watch Emma, so we could work. We thought it would be nice to head to the zoo on Saturday, however the forecast called for rain pretty much all day. Instead of potentially getting caught in a monsoon, we thought we should head to an indoor location. Unfortunately, there really aren't any close museums around Elgin, so we looked up the train schedule and headed downtown to the Shedd Aquarium.

Emma loves riding the train, so we thought it would be a fun little adventure there and back. After eating some lunch and finding a nice comfortable spot to sit, Emma looked around at all the strangers and discovered this one girl sitting right behind her that kept closing her eyes. Of course Emma, being curious by nature, couldn't help asking what the girl was doing. We told her she was resting, etc. Then, the girl started talking to Emma; this was VERY exciting for our curious little one. No one could have prepared us for what questions came out of Emma's mouth, but they made all of our day. Emma asked the girl "Where is your daddy?", then asked "Where is your sweetheart?". The girl couldn't help but laugh at these questions for an almost 3 year old. We are astonished and always amazed at the questions/sentences Emma puts together. We're also glad the girl had a sweetheart because you never know what that question will do to someone.

The Shedd Aquarium

Playing in the Rain

Emma was in a really silly mood tonight; well most nights actually, tonight I was able to capture some on my camera. She had a blast running in the rain and feeling the sprinkles on her face. Out of nowhere, she started looking up into the rain and thought it was hilarious when it got in her eyes. She kept doing it! We, of course, just laughed at her. I love that she was having so much fun discovering rain; some thing we take for granted, but brings a whole different world to kids.