My little fish

I finally broke down and bought the biggest box of gold fish I could find. My kids eat these like they are going out of style. Reece likes to pick up the big box herself. It's almost as big as her. I told her if she doesn't stop eating goldfish, she might turn into one!


Some things Reece is really into these days is playing dress up, watching videos/movies, and talking...and talking...and oh, talking. She is quite the conversationalist. She often gets in her dress up gear and tells me she is going places like "sales", "church", and the neighbors. She is fascinated with pregnant bellies and God/Jesus. Two funny conversations that happened recently...in the car on the way home from Target (where she saw a pregnant lady) she says "mommy...lady gonna poop out that baby and it's gonna hurt". This is when I realized I probably tell her too much, that she remembers everything, and that she MIGHT repeat things like this in public. Glad this convo took place on our convoy home. She also got all dressed up in her dress up gear...you know the usual stuff like a hat, heels, 3 purses, and an old pearl necklace. She put her baby in the stroller and said "bye, mom, leaving". I said "where are you 2 off to?". She said "church...gonna hang with Jesus 'day". I was floored and also proud! She is very independent and even goes potty all by herself - at this point it's not really a good thing since she takes enough toilet paper for 5 people wads it up as small as a pea and then tries to wipe. When I ask her to go potty before we leave to go somewhere or before she goes to bed says "don't have to...just went". I am just surprised at how much she can say and understand.
As for the little man...

He is standing and pulling up on everything...got his 7th tooth this week...and turning one in a week and a half. I can't believe it. He's so big! He loves playing ball and being outside. He's a momma's boy too. He is starting to not like being dropped off places like the church nursery. I have already been paged a few times. We'll update his b-day pics after the party next Saturday.

Park #11 - PJ Irving Park

PJ Irving Park is located on McKay Drive just off of Six Points Rd on the south side of Bloomington. It's a quiet little park of 16 acres. It has an 18 hole frisbee golf course, pavillion with picnic tables and a port-a-potty. It has a nice playground area with a "woodsy" theme which is different than I have seen before. It had a lot of mature trees with lots of shade and grassy areas. It was pretty clean and safe. It did have several climbing options which were rather tall and challenging for my 2.5 year old. We give this park 4 stars.

Fun times!

This is the basket that goes in her pelican bath toy box thingy. What an imagination...


Brody...pulling up on everything.

Just rockin in the rocking chair.

CHEESE - literally. She loves cheetos (like her mamma). Is anyone surprised to see her on my couch with this mess? Trust me, I was sweatin the whole time. And she was threatened the whole time as well.

Park # 10 - Forrest Park

This week we visited Forrest Park which is located at 1813 Springfield Road. It's just south of Miller Park. On our way to find a decent park, we tried to visit 3 other parks, but those ended up being just drive bys (no pun intended). It is worthy of noting at least so that you don't attempt to go to these. I had never heard of them and they were somewhat close to my house so I figured I would give them a try. We'd never heard of them for a reason...I had a feeling based on the addresses that these might not be the best parks for our family to go to. So here's a few parks that I feel are a "waste of time (based on safety, location, and not sure you call it a park) parks":
Alton Depot Park - 101 S Western Ave (located behind Project Oz)...not even sure there was a place to park.
Sunnyside Park - 407 East Erickson (off of Euclid on Illinois Street - Behind Cargill - located within a certain type of housing known for causing trouble)
Buck Mann Park - 116 Weldon (one street east of Euclid) ...one little slide and maybe a swing.

Forrest Park is 20 acres and has a ton of mature trees for shade. It has 4 pavillions, grills, and a restroom. The playground equipment is only 4 years old. This park was not very clean. There was a lot of litter on the ground. It had such a huge deck area (with not a lot of open spaces) that my little crawler was able to crawl around after his sister. Lots of fun slides, rock walls and things to do. It's a nice park but I was still leary of it's safety. There was a lot of suspisious cars driving through. So...we give it 3 stars.

Park #9 - Miller Park

We were finally able to get to another park! This summer has been crazy as far as weather. We are hoping to be able to visit a few others before it gets too cold and we are stuck inside. Last Friday we visited Miller Park. This park has had some major rennovations the past year or two. I am happy to report that Bloomington Parks and Rec also made major updates to their site . Check out all the park info at http://www.cityblm.org/parks/VW-Systems/Map/map.htm
Miller Park is located at 1020 S Morris Ave. Miller Park hands down has the most things to see and do. It is 67 acres filled with 2 large park areas, sprayground, zoo, mini golf, war memorials, the pavillion, and lake with paddle boat rentals. It has some other anmenties too including concessions, drinking fountains, fishing, football, softball/baseball fields, grills, picnic tables, lots of shade, restrooms, shelters, and Bandstand. When we went on Friday, we only went to the sprayground and newer play area.
It is definitely clean since it is so new. The restrooms were right next to the play area. Although Miller park has had a bad reputation in the past, it felt pretty safe to me. Although the playground is huge and dangerous for most of the littlier kids. I think the bigger areas are for ages 5 and up. It had nice tented pavillions with lots of picnic tables. There were a few benches and tables that surrounded the park as well. One thing I loved is that it had that soft rubber material to walk on as opposed to the mulch. This was excellent for my little crawler. I think it will be the only park I will go to until he learns to walk. We give this park 5 stars!!!!

Big slides!!

Spray area

Reece and Brody on the swings.

Let me take a ride on your big green tractor

Pa-pa bought an old JD tractor and now we can go on rides whenever we want.

Pa-pa and Reecey going for a ride.


Mi-Mi, Pa-pa and all the grand kids


Hayrack ride not complete with out chewing on some hay

Our very own "Brady" Bunch...In the back - Gracie, Reecey, Tate; In the front: Bo, Brody, Kennedy

Gettin' Ready!

Getting ready for football season...

Getting ready to go somewhere...this is how we roll...

Getting ready for church