Kirsti, Ryan, Alice and Ivan returned from visiting Julina in Indiana Monday evening. They had a great visit. Monday was an extremely windy day and happily, their drive through Illinois didn't have the issues that occurred elsewhere in that state (the 72 car pile-up just south of Springfield due to blowing wind and dust !!!)
Tuesday, Steve, Kirsti and Ryan went to the temple and I stayed home to babysit. We spent a great deal of the morning outside....the kids playing while I pulled weeds and lay down mulch in my herb garden. Ivan had fun with a wheelbarrow ride. Alice declined. They both enjoyed the plastic baseball bats and balls. Alice has good eye-hand coordination and should do great in T-ball this summer. When we came indoors, and were sitting in the living room, I looked over and, to my surprise, Ivan had crawled into the dog kennel. I'm not sure Sally was thrilled about that and Linus was rather confused as Ivan was on HIS bed. Alice had to join in, too. They also had fun playing the piano and pretending to put Ivan to sleep under the piano bench.
On Wednesday evening, I drove over to Ballwin to attend Quinn's orchestra concert and I brought Larkin home with me to have a sleepover with Alice and to spend the day with her on Thursday. We put the two twin air-mattresses in the living room and they watched a movie way past their bedtime and just crashed immediately after it finished.
On Thursday, while the cupcakes that Poppy/Grandpa/Steve baked were cooling, we took the girls and the dogs on a little walk around the block.
After returning home, the girls decorated six cupcakes each. I had leftover chocolate icing for them to pipe and I had a collection of royal icing flowers that I had made many months ago to put on top. They had a blast.
By Thursday, the wind that had been blowing since Monday finally died down enough for us to have a bonfire/marshmallow roast in the back yard. Alice practiced her batting - she writes with her right hand but bats with her left - and Ivan let me cuddle with him!
On Friday, Steve and I took the day to drive up to Springfield, Illinois, to visit the Lincoln Museum and to hear Emily's choir sing in the rotunda. The choir was on a little tour up to Chicago and they stopped to give a twenty-five minute concert, singing patriotic songs and ending with a beautiful performance of the Gettysburg Address set to music. They had to hop on the bus to continue up to Chicago right after but Steve and I lingered for several hours to look at all the exhibits. It is a very beautiful and well done museum and we enjoyed ourselves. Kirsti and Ryan and kids stayed in St. Louis and looked after the dogs when they weren't exploring the central library or Magic House.
Ivan just LOVES the dogs and they are very good with him. Kirsti snapped this adorable photo of Ivan and Linus at our back door. He is saying "cheese" with his mouth full of apple and Linus looks pretty typical - kind of an Eyeore.
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