Joel & Silas come to town

Today Annikah's cousins Joel & Silas came to visit (along with their fabulous Mama Jorie). It was a last minute "play date" mostly initiated by Joel, who upon seeing Annikah's Weeble Castle on this blog insisted that "Mama, we need to go to "cago" (Chicago in Joel speak) to play with weeble castle." I applaud Joel for his brilliant idea! It was great to see Jorie and catch up (in between chasing kids, making lunches, and cleaning up after them) and as always Joel and Silas were bundles of energy and as sweet as can be. Anni is so lucky to have such fun older cousins. We decided to check out story time at Loyola Park. By the time we got there Jorie and I were covered in sweat as it was so humid but we enjoyed the break of sitting on the blanket with the kids. The story time was really cute with costumes and actors to tell the stories. Annikah mostly enjoyed watching the other kids and the snacks (she is sooo like me). The video illustrates her love of story time with her cousins. On the way back Silas and Anni were so cute flirting back and forth and they also held hands (really, does it get cuter than that?).

After lunch we of course had to take Joel and Silas to the beach. Anni showed of her love of the water and even did the splits to show off (see photo). I think cleaning up after the beach took more time than actually being at the beach but it was worth it. The Weeble play date was a success with weebles everywhere as Jorie brought their famed Weeble Treehouse (see video of the hard core Weeble Par-tay).

As Jorie was packing up to leave my RPM group was arriving and Anni managed to squeeze in a nap. We hung out with her RPM buddies (minus Francie- we miss you and yo' Mama). Jason walked in the door soon after everyone left and just as Anni finished dinner. I finished my night by running 4.5 miles in the pouring rain with the dedicated and fabulous Beck. Sitting and writing (ok, typing) tonight is the first chance to catch my breath today but it was a fun, busy, and blessed day spent with dear friends and family. Lucky us!