Moraine Hills State Park

We went back to the state park for a hike/walk last again last weekend. We love it there!! I promised Cam I wouldn't bring my camera every time:) You never know what you will see though! We saw some beautiful birds and deer! The kids love going too!!

These birds were huge. Not sure what they were though.

Up close to the birds

See the deer starring back at us?

I promised Kaitlyn I would take some pics of her favorite flowers(aka weeds) at the park:)

We have a certain spot where we let the kids get out of the jogger and walk. They would never make it up and down the hills for the whole walk so we wait til the last 30 min and let them jump out.

This was too funny....Kaitlyn and Colin were running and trying to keep up with this jogger!!

Heading uphill

The kids were watching this fisherman

Cam and I stood back(but not too far since the water was right there:)) and listened to the kids have the cutest conversation!!

We had another great trip to the start park...and a great work out too!!

Lee DeWyze Concert

Last week I read in the newspaper that Lee DeWyze would be having his homecoming party at Arlington Race Track on Friday if he made it to the top 3 on American Idol. Lee is from our area so I thought it would be fun and I was determined to get tix!!! And I was lucky enough to get some. They were free and so was parking....so I figured why not! I love Lee!! I took the kids and we went with our neighbor and her 3 girls. We had an absolute BLAST!!!! I am so glad we had the opportunity to go. There were 42,000 people there!! It was a beautiful night for an outdoor concert! Sorry some of my pics are blurry....I zoomed in so much that they became blurry.

Rose and I:)

The kids entertaining themselves while we waited. We got there 2 hours before the concert so there was alot of waiting around.

We even got to see some of the last few horse races of the day. The kids loved that!!

When the cameras were over our heads we had the kids hold up our sign so maybe we will all be on tv tomorrow night:)

Kaitlyn and Lauren:)

Here is Lee on one of the balconies before the show. He was in tears!!! Lee seems like the most humble guy! He was so overwhelmed by the support!!

Here he is waving to me:) Just Kidding!

Colin, Maddie and Kaitlyn

Look at the crowds!! You can see the camera on that long arm....it spanned the audience all night so maybe we will actually be on tv!!!

Maddie and Kaitlyn being silly!

We were the 3rd row up from the track so the kids went down to watch Lee sing on the jumbo tron screens.

Yes, we acted like groupies and waited to watch Lee come out to his limo. No luck:( We are all in love with Lee now. He is an amazing singer and great on the guitar! We cant wait for tomorrow night to see him sing again!!

Lee DeWyze concert videos

Here are a ton of videos from Friday night(I am bummed because there were lots of better videos but if they are over 1 min long I cant put them on the blog).....we had about 50 short video clips:)

Here he is going through the crowd to get to the stage.

Colin's Date with Grandma

Colin went on a special date with Grandma Friday morning. I thought they were just going to the golf range but Grandma surprised him with a lesson from a golf pro at Prairie Isle. Santa brought the kids real golf clubs and they love hitting whiffle golf balls around the yard but havent been to the range yet so this was a huge treat! Then they went out for lunch and then to Toys R Us to get a Playmobile Skate Park that he has had his eyes on. Cam said that they called him at work to tell him all about it afterwards and Colin was beaming while he was on the phone...Cam said it was too cute!! Thanks for taking Colin for such a special day mom!!!

Look at that swing!!!

Kaitlyn's Date with Grandma

Last week Grandma took Kaitlyn to her nail/hair salon in Barrington. Grandma wanted to show off Kaitlyn and Colin to her Ella who has been doing my moms nails for 15 years. Colin and I dropped off Kaitlyn after I picked the kids up from school and she stayed with Grandma to get a manicure and then go out for lunch. As you all know this is right up Kaitlyn's alley:) She had a great time...thanks mom for treating her to a special day!

Playdate

Friday morning Kaitlyn had her friend Madilyn over to play. Colin was here for a little bit and then my mom took him on a date. They had a blast playing and were so cute together!!