Nana and Papa come to visit!

My parents came to visit us at our new home the first weekend in August! We were so happy we could finally show them what our new house looks like and take them into our village's downtown area (it's super cute!). We visited a local park, invited my Uncle Rick to come over and catch up with my dad  (he only lives 30 minutes away!), watched the kids swim in the kiddie pool and ate breakfast at Dunken Donuts. We had a great time and I can't wait for them to visit again!!!

Papa reading a book to the littles.
Yes, they brought Meeka (the German Shepard)- I was surprised that she didn't shed too much at my house

taking a long walk around the neighborhood- had to show them the Clubhouse and Lily's school and tire out the dogs :)

In the school parking lot- the girls love when Marty runs with them in the wagon. Gabe just laughs and laughs- someday he will get his chance to experience this.

Grace and my parents at a Mexican restaurant in our village.
SUPER good margaritas there!!!

bonding time with Thomas the train and Papa

the coolest toy/candy store ever!
We would go there more but it's so packed with stuff and hard to get through with a stroller. 

Ice cream time!

Gabe showed them his tricycle

My dad helped Marty put together this Jeep pedal go cart for the kids

One last picture before saying goodbye!

Gabe and my dad.
He looks like my dad so one of his nicknames is "Papa Clone"

This is Grace's face after my parents left.
Heart breaking.
"I'm gonna miss them, Mama."

Lily saying good-bye

the new zoo

We finally visited our new zoo- Brookfield Zoo! It was much bigger than our zoo back home in Ohio and it has sting rays AND dolphins. Dolphins! In in Illinois! My favorite animal! I told Marty that we are SO having a date just the two of us to sit and watch the dolphins swim. He probably thinks I'm joking, but I'm not :) They have dolphin shows but sadly the day we went they had cancelled the show but we were able to watch them swim in the underwater viewing area. We all had fun at the zoo seeing the animals but the girls probably liked running around in the splash pad area and getting wet. 

BOO! No elephants!!!

Funny sign in the rhino house- basically if a rhino shows you it's butt- run away- it could pee on you! I wonder how many times this happens and could you imagine if it hit your baby in the stroller?!?

Gabe loves spotting Jeeps and yelling "EEEP! EEEP! EEEP!"

another different sign at the zoo

I got the brilliant idea to start doing those penny press things and saving them all from special trips... yeah, the penny got lost in the van on the ride home and I never saw it again. So much for that idea ;) 

Grace having fun at the splash pad.
See that kid in the green shorts behind her? Marty started calling him Gus-Gus from Cinderella since he kinda looked like Gus the mouse and even was making the sounds Gus makes in the movie. 

All wet- ready to go home! 

A Visit from the Tooth Fairy

Lily has had her first wiggly tooth all summer long. She wiggles it all day long and I was surprised one evening while brushing her teeth that her adult tooth was coming in behind that stubborn wiggly tooth. Just seeing that big kid tooth coming up made me realize that yes she is growing up and there is nothing I can do about it. She was SO HAPPY to see her big kid tooth but after I put her to bed that night, I did get a little teary-eyed. This growing up stuff is hard but I couldn't be sad since she was so excited about that big kid tooth. Anyways she kept wiggling her baby tooth and at her dentist appointment the dentist asked if I would want them to "help wiggle it out". They said that they just numb the area and then wiggle it out while Lily would lay there and watch t.v. It sounded simple enough and I wanted to do it since the big kid tooth was already coming in. On the morning of the dentist appointment, Lily's tooth was SO wiggly. I thought maybe she would even lose it at school. She tried eating apples and carrots to wiggle it out but those hurt her too much to eat. I didn't want to pull it myself so we continued on with the dentist appointment. Lily knew the dentist would wiggle out her tooth and as soon as she saw the dentist she opened her mouth wide the entire time so the dentist could get to work on getting that tooth out. She did so well but then when they pulled it out, she let out a little shriek and turned on her side with big tears in her eyes. The dentist felt so bad and after telling Lily that her tooth was the "prettiest tooth she has ever seen" she let Lily pick out TWO prizes out of the prize box, went in the back to see if they had special bubbles to give to her too and then let her pick TWO carnation flowers to take home. After leaving with a bracelet, bubbles, slinky and pink and yellow carnations, Lily left happy and ready to go home to show Grace, Gabe and Marty her baby tooth in the envelope and a little cute gap in her mouth.

one last picture with all her baby teeth
(not that you can see her bottom teeth. LOL) 

Lily brought Baby Jamie to comfort her at the dentist

Ahhh! 1st tooth is out!

holding her baby tooth (and Foxy- our Fox with the pocket for the tooth) 

Such a big girl! 

She put her tooth in her little fox (aka Foxy) that we bought a few weeks ago at a shop in our downtown village and put it in her bed beside her pillow. Lily fell asleep fast that night (due to no naps anymore) but Grace was on the lookout for the tooth fairy and stayed up for awhile searching for the little fairy that would soon take Lily's tooth. Luckily, Gracie finally fell asleep and the tooth fairy was able to take the tooth from Foxy and replace it with $2 (one dollar bill and one dollar coin) and a receipt for Lily's 1st tooth.

Foxy

Foxy, Dollar coin, Dollar and Tooth Receipt 

Lily ran in our bedroom the next morning to tell us all about how the tooth fairy came! Two things have come from this tooth fairy visit (other than realizing she is growing up) 1- Grace claims she has a wiggly tooth too (she better not! I couldn't handle it!) and 2- Lily wants to be the Tooth Fairy for Halloween this year.