Labor Day Weekend

Labor Day weekend is the first weekend that we have ventured back to Illinois since moving to Iowa. We stayed in Litchfield and had a whirlwind trip of 2 parties and one baseball game. The drive there is long for adults (about 4 1/2 hours) so you can imagine how it is for small kids! We have yet to join the ranks of people buying portable DVD players for the car, but this may force us to reconsider. Joe and I still aren't sold on the "necessity" of owning one.

Olivia and grandpa in the garden. Toward the end of the summer season quite a few weeds do begin to pop up, but there are still veggies in there!


Our first party was a pool party for the families in our Springfield playgroup. Luckily, almost all were able to attend for a great time. I think that every imaginable activity was crammed into this party - pool fun, tee ball fun, feeding the fish at the pond, washers, running in the field, and lots of eating (mainly on the adults' part).

Griffin, Kellan, and Olivia towards the end of the party. I must admit that Olivia is the one who started the trend of taking off clothes to swim in underwear.

On Sunday we continued our tradition of taking the kids to one ball game at Busch Stadium each year of their life. This made Olivia's third game and Ethan's first. Both did very well during the game. Olivia even managed to eat an entire bucket of cotton candy without getting too sick. As you can see, we had great seats for the game.

The family with the Cards' World Series trophy.

After the ball game was the 2nd party at my sister, Rachel's house. This picture shows Olivia's love of the Cardinals!

And, like Olivia, Ethan doesn't have a chance of escaping baseball in this family. He had better grow up to be a Cardinals fan or we have failed as parents!

Ethan and Aunt Rachel.

Olivia showing the last remains of her chocolate ice cream. She was certainly on a sugar high this day - an entire bucket of cotton candy and a big bowl of ice cream!

Just a cute picture of Ethan before we left again for Iowa City.