Cake Time!

The kids have finally learned to like cake - it only took 4 years. So this was the first year with real cake and icing at their party. Here they are blowing out the candles.

Listening to the singing

Here we go

Blow!

Now that's a goodbye hug. :)

Cycle Blast

At our Pump It Up the birthday kids get a turn in the cycle blast for free. They were allowed to bring in a few friends, but no one else wanted to try it. This is basically a tube that blows strong winds around you.

Clearly, they had fun.

Pump It Up Party

For the kids 4th birthday they wanted to go back to Pump It Up. When we got there we were told we could pay $10 and get a CD of photos of the party taken by our party helpers. This seemed like a good deal. Then we learned that the helpers were having a contest to see who could take the most photos during a party. So we ended up with over a hundred photos. That made it a really good deal. I try to avoid posting many photos of other people's kids so here are just the best photos of ours.

Sweet Daughter sliding

Sweet Son sliding

Sliding together

How would you get off the slide?

Climbing up the slide

It's fun when you go so fast you slide off the end.

They want to go in different directions.

Yes, batman attended the party.

Hi!

I might have gotten in on the fun just a bit.

You never know where kids will pop up.

Racing down the slide

Monkey see, monkey do...

One last race before pizza and cupcakes.

I will share a couple of other things they did at the party early next week. We ended up with tons of great photos.

Family Photos

Along with their 4 year old photos, we took a few family photos. I love these.

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my sweet 4 year olds.

Sweet Son

Sweet Son is an incredible kid. Intelligent, creative, silly, curious, musical, and caring. You are the perfect fit in our family and you enjoy keeping us on our toes. We love you. Now stop growing up so quickly.

Sweet Daughter

Sweet Daughter is a bright light in our lives. Happy, caring, a natural leader, sweet, and a hard worker. She wakes up with a smile and tries to make those around her happy. We love you!

(This is why we insist every dress/skirt have shorts underneath.)

Chicago O'Hare Playground

We always try to let the kids run off some of their energy before any flight. Different airports have different options and O'Hare has a really cool looking playground. This was a great way for the family to wrap up the trip and come home to me!

Update on me: While the family was on vacation I sat at home with friends and did pretty much nothing. Then I went back to the doctor and things had gotten worse. While I wasn't in pain, my kidney function was decreasing. I was scheduled for surgery the next day. I need to say a special thank you for the help of one awesome friend who took me to and from the hospital and another friend who came to stay with me after the surgery when I was on medications. My family came home to find me on the couch recovering from surgery and in more pain than when they left me. A week or so later I was up and around and a few weeks later I had lithotripsy on the other kidney. That recovery was fast and I haven't been back to the hospital since!

Around Chicago

Here are some photos from around Chicago that didn't seem to fit in any of the other posts.

Wordless Wednesday

Science museum in Chicago

Remember yesterday when I explained that we had a lot of photos from the Science museum in Chicago. These are some of the interesting photos I found that didn't really fit into any category. I'm not even sure what is going on in many of them. If anyone has been here and can let me know, please leave a comment. Thanks!

milking a cow

stopping for a nap???

My kids call this "the big scary man"