From Yellow Belt to Orange Belt!

YAY EVIE! Another belt testing "under her belt!"
Evie is climbing up the belt ladder again.. not as swiftly this time, but she is doing it the right way! Above is her essay that she had to write.
We were very excited and proud to have her Uncle David, Aunt Lauren, cousins Di, Zadee, Joel and Rick with us to witness her testing.
She did a fantastic job! Thanks to David and Joel for these pictures!!

Embrace Damnation!

Joe's band, Embrace Damnation played the Central Illinois Metalfest this afternoon.. (in fact, he's still there!) I'm just excited to blog about it!
They've been working really hard to prepare for this gig so I took video of each song individually. I confess, the quality of the vocals didn't work so well in my camera.. I don't know what I could have done differently.. Joe says the vocals sound the best off to the side of the stage and further back.. but then I couldn't have gotten the awesome footage that I got.. so you take the good with the bad, I guess.
I also managed to snap some cool pics!!
Take a look!

And the videos...

Curtis Orchard

It is a HOT steamy day but we went out to Curtis Orchard anyway!
They have made alot of renovations!! The new gigantic chair and the new houses that they built for Munchkinland to name a couple! Not to mention the HUGE new play area that will be open soon in the place where the maze used to be.
Here are some pictures of my kiddos having a nice time!



Can't wait till fall when we can get our pumpkins and apples there! And we forgot to get our donuts today!! The best there is!

Happy Birthday to Evan AGE 3

Our baby boy is now three years old!!
Evan had a lovely birthday weekend filled with friends and family!
We started out the weekend with a friends party at the indoor playground.. his guests were Mommy, Grandma Hoctor, Grandpa Hoctor, sissy Evie and her friend, Grace, Hope and her boys, Melissa and her boys and Mandi with her boys. Evan just LOVES Wow Wow Wubbzy this year so that was the theme. I found some cool edible images online that we used for Evan's cupcakes and for his cake.









Then Saturday (Evan's birthday), we went over to The Hoctor's for a family day!
The entire family was here to celebrate with us! (All but Angelique who is in Florida) The kids had a great time and Evie got to spend time with her cousin, Joel... something that she is always looking forward to.



And here some pics of the family!


The last two pics are of everyone, one was taken by Timm, the other by Theresa, (the reason one of each is absent from the pics)



Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for hosting at the house and to Stephen, Katie, Brianne, Timm, Theresa, David, Lauren, Diana, Rick, Zadee, Joe, Evie and Joel for making Evan's day special!!

Happy Fourth of July!

Hello all! What a wonderful day! We started the day off by having a nice breakfast at home together.. Daddy cooked and it was yummy. Then we went to the parade in Urbana. Sunny as can be with a warm breeze..





But right as the beginning of the parade was getting ready to start coming by us, the clouds came in and it downpoured!!! Sideways rain full blast! The kids thought it was a great time! It lasted about 10 minutes or so, we tried to take cover a little bit in an alley way where the rain wasn't so hard.. I found a nice spot under a tree. Evan used his bucket at the gutter drainspout to soak Daddy with more water! The rain didn't stop the parade from coming, though! The marching band played right by us as the rain was letting up and the sky was brightening again!






The parade lasted almost 2 hours and Evie says it was the longest and best parade she has ever been to! (I'm sure that she doesn't remember the awesome parades at Disney!) Evan enjoyed it as well but managed to plug his ears when he saw firetrucks come by. Smart boy!

The parade wiped the kids out! It was 3:30 before we got home and they both crashed until 5:30!



Then on to the fireworks!! Lake of the Woods in Mahomet does a big display every year, but you pay for parking and wait an enormous amount of time to get in and out of there.. so we go to the one down the street from them at Tincup RV Park.. pull right in, watch from the back seats of the van and a blanket on the ground, bring our own snacks, (this year it was Twizzlers and Popcorn), and when they were done, we pulled right out with no traffic! I'm telling ya, it's the way to go! Their display is somewhat smaller but magnificent nonetheless and there's something to be said for being with your family and not having a ton of other people around fighting for a spot to park or sit. Both kids REALLY enhoyed them this year! Evan kept saying, "This is awesome!" "This is fun!" "Pretty!" Joe, Evie and I were impressed with the adjectives Evan would use to describe the fireworks.





The fireworks at Tincup start and let out earlier than the Lake of the Woods display, so we got in the van and headed home where we saw a bunch of people sitting on the hill at the end of our street, so we joined them and could see and hear the rest of the action going on at Lake of the Woods from there! We got to watch BOTH displays and avoided crowds yet again this year! It's 11 pm and the fireworks in the neighborhood are still going strong.. but the kids conked out about a half hour ago.. everybody better be sleeping in tomorrow!!!

Happy Fourth of July!! Until next year.....