Confirmation

On May 15, eleven 8th graders were confirmed as church members at our church. I was a mentor during the confirmation process this year, so I met with one of the girls each month throughout the school year. We did a lesson each meeting, read the book of Luke together, attended worship together, and participated in a service project. I really enjoyed my experience as a mentor and even learned a lot from the lessons!

The confirmands with their mentors

Jessica (who I mentored) and I

18 months old

Cara turned 18 months old yesterday! She had her check up today and she is doing great! She is 30 inches tall and weighs 22 lbs 11 oz. That means she is 14th percentile for height and 25th for weight. So, she is still rocking the short and round look!

She is still obsessed with dogs and would spend the majority of her day looking out the window for "woof woofs" if she could. She is doing amazing in her swim lessons and can now float by herself for 10+ seconds without anyone holding on to her. As soon as there is space available she is going to move up to the next class and graduate from parent/child class! Out of the water she is running everywhere and still loving accessories. She asks to wear her tutu almost every day in addition to picking out her own shoes and hat/headband. She adds new words and phrases every day - today she said Bible.

I am behind on getting Lila's 4 year and Cara's 18 month pictures taken. I hope to get that done next week and get them sent out to everyone.

Mother's Day

The kids and I on Mother's Day

Elayna's Bridal Shower

My cousin, Elayna, is getting married next month so Mom, Katie and I hosted a bridal shower/shopping weekend for her. She and her fiance are buying a house so she spent most of her time at IKEA and other home stores. On Saturday we had a brunch at my house.

The place settings and centerpiece.

Future Mrs. banner

Elayna in her bride shirt and veil

Opening presents.

Nana and her Velcro baby

Just for Fun

Lila and Cara dressed up for a parade. We have a parade, festival or picnic almost every afternoon at our house.

"Can I have a banana?"

Last Weekend

Erin had to come to Chicago for a work training last week, so she decided to take advantage of the opportunity and extend her stay for a few days to visit us. And, as an added bonus, Joe, her fiance, came out as well. Chris had met him before, but the rest of us met him for the first time.

The visit was very low key, but we had pretty good weather, so we did make it out to the park one day and the zoo the next. Erin and I also Tivoed and watched the Royal Wedding, of course!

Ian, Joe, Erin and Cara with the polar bears. Lila was being stubborn.

Because everything happens at once, I had signed up to run a 10K in Champaign last Saturday so I had to miss part of their visit. It was a really nice race though and ran through campus, downtown Champaign and Chris and I's old neighborhoods which made it a lot of fun. And we finished on the 50 yard line of Memorial Stadium and they showed the finish on the scoreboard! Plus, I had a personal best in the race finishing in 56:59! I finished 23rd out of 206 in my age group, which is clearly not amazing, but since I was the slow girl in softball it makes me pretty happy.

Lila is 4!

Lila turned 4 last Wednesday! After what seemed like a week of parties and celebrations we kept it pretty low key on the actual day. She did talk to my mom and Momoo and Popoo on the phone and Face Timed with Gary and Sue. She had a shirt with the number 4 on it, but she changed when she opened her present from Gary and Sue and I never got a picture.

Wearing her new dress from Gary and Sue and holding flowers from Chris.

We opened presents as soon as Chris got home from work.

And after supper we had a big cookie for dessert.

Lila is 28 lbs 12 oz and 39 inches which makes her 5th percentile for weight and 25th for height. She has gained a whopping 6 oz since her last check up. She is a very fun, sweet little girl. She is very into princesses and playing dress-up. She also likes to quote Disney movies saying things like "It's a wonderful dream come true!". She can write her name and recognizes all of her numbers and letters as well as identify many letter sounds. She is also a little GPS-- she knows how to get everywhere in town and knows if I deviate from a route at all. She also loves babies, real and pretend, and told me last week that her job at Kids Club (the gym daycare) is to take care of the babies.