Happy Easter!

Well, it is time for the annual Easter photos.  My children are being so disobedient by continuing to grow up despite my repeatedly telling them to stop! And I know that I'm biased but I think my children are quite cute! If you disagree, please keep it to yourself.  (Now, if you want to agree, feel free to fill the comment box with those type of comments! :) )

And I'm sorry about the photo quality.  We got a new camera at Christmas time to replace our old (at least 5 years old one that was temperamental, but took good quality pictures when it worked, plus big and clunky) one.  The new one is, uh, new and much smaller, but the photo quality leaves much to be desired.  We will eventually replace it, but for the near future, it will have to do. 

In the back.  I take pictures here every year at Easter and when there is lots of snow! We planted the tulips last fall.  They are so cheery!

The kids and Grandma S.  It was really bright outside, so everybody is a little squinty.

Flower by the tree in the front.  (The dress, of course, thrifted.  $2.50.)

Jelly Bean.  Can you tell she swims year round? (Her dress was bought new, but was on clearance for $15!)

Super.  (Wearing his outfit from last year.  Yes, he is missing his two front teeth.  Yes, that is grass stain on his knee.  LOL)

All three of them. 

A more typical pose for Super. 

Peace out!

Finally - 2011 in Photos

January 2011 - After the HUGE blizzard.  We were snowed in for 3 days.

February 2011 - Random phone pic of the kids

March 2011 - Jelly Bean at one of the exhibits at The Magic House in St. Louis

April 2011 - Mr. Simple does does the radio broadcasts for the local arena football (and basketball!) team.  Here is a picture of the team in action. They are the red/white and blue blurs. :)

May 2011 - Flower bridging from Juniors to Cadettes.  These girls have all been together since they were Daisies in Kindergarten! Jelly Bean also bridged from Brownies to Juniors.

June 2011 - Super diving in at one of his first races of the Swim Season.  2011 was the first year that all three kids did Swim Team and they had a great time.  Go Sharks!

July 2011 - Jelly Bean acting silly at one of our many summer backyard cookouts.

August 2011 - The kids getting ready for their first day of school.  First time they have all gone to public school too! Flower started 6th grade, Super started 1st grade, and Jelly Bean started 4th grade.

September 2011 - At Bass Lake, IN.  They always have a costume party for the Labor Day kids party.  This year, Super was Batman and the girls were cowgirls.

October 2011 - At Sugur Creak Nature Center.  We have been to their Autumn Festival for the past 4 years, and I hope we continue to go.  It makes me feel like Fall has really arrived when we go here.

November 2011 - Well, this picture was actually taken in October, but I wanted to include it, so here you go. :)

Christmas 2011 - The three cool kids

Homecoming 2011

We live in Normal, Illinois (yes, I've heard all the jokes.  Yes, we allow abnormal people to live here too.)  Anyway, Normal is home to Illinois State University. ISU is also the university where I got my bachelor's degree and my masters degree.  And the university that I worked at for 5 years.  And the place where Mr. Simple got HIS bachelors and masters degree.  AND we also had our wedding reception in the student center ballroom.

So yes, we have lots of ties to the university.  We used to take the kids to the Homecoming Parade when they were small, but we hadn't been back for a few years until last year, and then I took the kids to the parade, and then I took them on a tour of campus, and then we even went to the Homecoming game! It was really fun.

This year, we didn't have time to attend the Homecoming game, but the kids all wanted to go to the parade again.  So here are some pictures of ISU Homecoming 2011!

My little Redbirds! They are spelling ISU!

The ISU Marching Band.  They always win lots of national awards.

The Homecoming King and Queen at the top of a fire engine.

Normal, Illinois is also home to Mitsubishi Motors US plant.  This is a picture of the Mitsubishi Electric car - called the Mi-EV. 

Oh, and a tractor.  You can't have a parade in Illinois without having a tractor in it :)

The Prairie Pipes & Drums band.  This was SO cool in person.

I have almost my whole life in college towns.  I've lived in THIS college town off and on (mostly on) for the past 20 years.  I must say, I do prefer living in a college towns too.  And it is weekends like this that make it really fun to live in a college town too.

Halloween 2011

OK, I know that it is December, and I'm posting about Halloween.  What can I say? I had a huge backlog of pictures and I wasn't able to blog that much this fall.  Anyway, most years, we do a bunch of Halloween activities, and this year was no exception.  In fact, this year, we even added one. Often, the kids change costumes for the different activities, but this year, Super was the only one who changed his costume, and he only changed it once.

And in a sign of things to come, SIGH, I didn't manage to get a picture of Flower in her Halloween costume because she didn't come to a couple of the things we did because she was at other activities, or she was off with her friends. I suspect that next year, she doesn't even dress up.  She is growing up so fast.  Anyway, this year, she was dressed up as a diva.  She had a sequined dress and she wore a long blond wig and boots.

Anyway, this year, the kids dressed up for Trunk or Treat, Farmers Market, and on the 30th, we did something new and we did trick or treating at the downtown businesses.  On Halloween, I went out trick or treating with Super and Jelly Bean.  Mr. Simple handed out candy, and Flower went with 3 of her friends.

Oh and this year, Mr. Simple and I went to a costume party too! It was so fun!

Here are some pictures:

Super at home after Trunk or Treat.  A knight with his sword!

Now you can see the knight's face.  The sword and helmet were from his dress up bin, and we got the knight outfit from the thrift store for $1.

Super at one of the local business.  He decided to wear his helmet down for this shot.

Jelly Bean.  She was a skater girl.  We bought the wig for $4, but the rest of the things we already had or got at the thrift store.

Jelly Bean and Super in front of the house on Halloween.  Super changed his costume for Halloween Night.  He is a storm trooper.  He got the helmet for his birthday, and the costume was from his dress up bin.

And here I am in my mask.  I was a butterfly and I had sparkly butterfly wings too.  Mr. Simple was a butterfly catcher.  :)

It just isn't Fall without THIS festival!

OK, I had to update to Google Chrome to post now, and I'm SOOO not used to this interface. Anybody else recently update to Google Chrome?

OK, back to "regular" posting. The third weekend of October, we went to our FAVORITE autumn celebration. We have been to this festival every fall since 2008. It is at Sugar Grove Nature Center, which is about 20 minutes from our house.

Flower drinking cold apple cider.  It was fairly warm this year at the festival.  Some years it is  hot, some years it is cold, last year it was wet.  I'll take fairly warm.

Super and Jelly Bean decorating our pumpkin.

Our Pumpkin "Nerd" He has a bow tie, braces, and  glasses.

My three cuties! I love Fall!

Super on the covered bridge.

Super and Jelly Bean walking over to the Imagination Grove area.

Super climbing up to fort.

Super up at the top of the fort.

Another shot of the three kids.  (That sweater that  Flower is wearing? Ithas been in numerous fall pictures on either Flower or Jelly Bean for the past 2-3 years.  I love clothes like that!)

Jelly Bean starting Flower on the zip line.

That is Super hanging at the end of the zip line and Jelly Bean is watching on the left.

Jelly Bean heading down the zip line.

This is the end of the "festival" pictures.  Don't fret - I still have pictures to share here of the Walk To Remember and Halloween from this past October, and then maybe, I'll go back to more writing and less pictures.  Or maybe not.  It is certainly faster to post pictures than having to think and write about something :) No, I will get back to writing more soon.  I miss it.  Plus I have some news that I haven't shared over here yet.  It is a little exciting too.  Keep watching here.  Hopefully I'll let you in on my news before the end of December.

Ropp Road Roundup - Part 2!

On the same day that we went to Ropp Cheese Farm, we went down the road (they are both located on Ropp Road, hence the name of the round-up!) to Radar Family Farms. Like I said in the last post, we had heard that they had changed it since we had last been out, but we didn't really know what to expect. Part of why we hadn't gone back out was that when we last went out in 2008, it was free, but now they charged admission. Well, once we got there, I understood why they charged admission. Since we were last there, they have added a much larger pumpkin patch, and a retail store, and lots of things for the kids to climb on/jump on/slide on, etc.

Here are some of the pictures from the rest of our day:

A quick photo before we went in

Flower doing some practice roping

Here is what she is was trying to rope. Jelly Bean is pointing them out to her.

Jelly Bean was slightly more successful.

Then the two of them tried it together to see if that helped. It didn't, but I had to take a picture of them cooperating. :)

The huge tube slide

My kids were too big for this ride, but I thought it was so cute that I took a picture of it. The corn bins are in the background.

Flower waiting at the top of the tube slide.

The kids spent the longest time in the corn bins. Here is Flower in one.

Super being buried in the corn.

The girls together again in the corn bin.

Super jumping on the hay bales.

Flower at the top of the hay castle.

I love this picture. Flower mid-jump on the jumping pillow.

And Super mid-jump.

We had a good day at both Ropp Farm and Radar Farm. We are looking forward to next year's Ropp Road Round-up. Maybe we will even try the corn maze next year!