Evan's first day of school!

I officially have a pre-schooler!
Evan started school two weeks ago and so far, he loves it! He walks up the steps by himself and tells me that he loves my before he walks away. *tear*

I can see a huge difference already in the amount of words that he uses daily. He wants to talk more, although at his open house he was the quiet boy who just wanted to play on the floor.. you could tell that he is still behind the other children in a few areas.. but that's why we've strted him at age 3.. he'll catch up!

More info as he progresses!

A weekend at the Sangamon River Festival

Last weekend was a great time! Every year, just as school is kicking off, in Mahomet downtown, the roads are blocked off for the Sangamon River Music Festival. Bands all weekend, beer tent, parade, good food, and this year carnival rides! We missed all of the fairs this year but that didn't matter.. all of the fair rides came to us! The kids had so much fun riding all weekend!
We stayed late the last night with the kids to watch a band.. they ate funnel cakes, elephant ears and danced to the music under the stars.
This was also Evan's first time riding rides.. he was so good!!
Here are the pics!

Evie's in the very back of this ride.. "It's faster in the back, Mom!"

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...

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.....

Look Mom! No Training Wheels!

She's finally done it!!!
Evie kicked the training wheels on her bike today! She attempted with our help yesterday.. got mad and gave up about after 5 minutes.. today, she hopped right on and insisted that she was going to do it alone.. and within 10 minutes, she was doing this!



YAY EVIE!!! Mommy, Daddy and Evan are so proud!

The Spaceman himself!

So we had the chance to see KISS again last weekend...which was amazing... but we were very fortunate to get to see ACE FREHLEY at our local club here in Champiagn!
It was quite the spectacle for Joe and I since we have both idolized the man since childhood. Never in my life could I have imagined seeing him up close and personal on a small stage without KISS...


Ace's signature song, in my opinion..
SHOCK ME!


And Ace's closing number..COLD GIN! Another classic!


Still in awe.....

You Wanted The Best, You Got the Best!

The HOTTEST Band in the WORLD.... KISS!

Hey all! November 6th was the KISS concert in Chicago. Joe and I went along with Stephen and Catherine and we had a blast! Buckcherry was the opening act.. fantastic! And KISS never fails to amaze me with their spectacular show! Be sure to read through this entry and pics to see the videos that I took! (If you have high speed)

We stayed at the Fairmount Chicago and it was sooooo nice! Our view from the 12th floor was astounding! We were in the middle of the city but could also see Lake Michigan wonderfully!
Here are pics of us checking into the hotel and our walk through the city to eat.
Thanks Katie for the pics!






Here we are waiting for the show to begin..





Here's a pic of the stage taken by my camera phone and a picture of Paul Stanley from the little stage close to us..




And here are a couple of awesome viseos that I took..
the first is the opening.. NOT TO BE MISSED!


And this is of course "Rock and Roll All Night Party Every Day". This video is complete with confetti and a good span of the crowd so that you can see how sold out it was!