Catching Some Air

At our friend's third birthday party, they had a bounce house. Joey wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. Wouldn't go anywhere near it, especially with all the other kids in there. There was a small window later in the afternoon, when it was practically empty. I had to literally carry him into the bounce house, and stay there myself to convince him to try it out. Once he got the hang of it, he didn't want to get out.

 Sheer Joy

 Catching Some Air

The next day, the families got together again for a little Sunday brunch. At least one parent of each kid went to St. Ignatius. Family names from left to right - Offutt, Olech, Offutt, Olech holding a Stupka (Jawidzik) and Burger holding a Burger. We've already got a co-ed hockey team with a two-deep bench. When you add the other four Ignatius kids that live in Chicagoland, we can field a full soccer team. Craziness.

Little Piggies

Identical Brothers

(This time I'm serious. If you don't believe me, look at old blog posts from 2008 of Joey. Like this one. IDENTICAL.)

Bigger Every Day

So I really tried to use the carseat as a guide and scale both pictures the same. Wanted to give you a little idea of how much bigger Jacob is today (well, yesterday, really). The picture on the left is from the car ride home from the hospital, so three days old. The picture on the right is yesterday, at seven weeks. He's getting so big!

A Morning at the Beach

We met up with our friends at the beach on North Avenue on Saturday morning. In the ten years I've lived in the Chicago area, this was my first trip to the beach. I mean, there's no ocean, so how much of a beach could it be?

Here's the whole crew taking a little snack break. We bought the sun shade the day before, and it was a little bigger than we expected, but it worked out great. Kept Jacob out of the sun completely.

This is the view from the beach. How cool is it to see the skyline like that? Not something you see at the Jersey Shore.

Tano had lots of fun playing with this beach ball we found.

And Diego and Joey had fun playing with the sand. All said, I was pleasantly surprised at how much fun I had at the lake beach. There were even some waves that were just big enough for the kids. Joey went in the water when I dragged him in, but maybe next time, he'll go in on his own.

Random Fun Out East

A few more images from our last-minute weekend trip to Pennsylvania.

Going for a walk with Nana.

Joey going down the slide on his belly.

Makayla going down the slide "on her own" (with Nana close behind).

Cleaning the windows at Nana Mousie's - because what's more fun than cleaning?

Pop-pop and his babies - at least the younger two.

Amazing Spiderman face painting at the Sacred Heart Church picnic.

I swear, we spent lots of time with Shae, too. I know Rachel took some pictures, so you'll have to check her blog to see all the shenanigans (and pictures of all the cousins).

New Besties

Jacob and I visited Mommy's friend (and ex-college roommate) Laura and her new son Owen yesterday. Jacob is sixteen days older than Owen, so I'm sure they'll be experiencing lots of new things together - including their first side-by-side babies shot.

Paul (Owen's Daddy) pointed out that the best part of this picture is that there are four feet and only one sock in it!

When Joey got home from school, he had fun showing Jacob all the cool features of his bouncy chair. Not sure who had more fun with that one.