End of School

Jemma enjoyed lots of end of 5th grade fun!

Jukebox Time Machine was the theme for their 5th Grade Show. Jemma's class was given the 80's decade!

Her last ice cream social and yearbook signing!

The 5th Grade Celebration which I got to volunteer at!

Last day of school and 5th Grade Clap Out!

Can't forget the last day of 7th grade for Jade! Can't believe she will be a big 8th grader next year!!

Happy Summer!

Meet in the Middle

 Our annual Meet in the Middle weekend happened in early May in the Galena, IL area. This is easily one of my favorite weekends of the entire year! First stop along the way, Starbucks of course!

We had a great lunch at JJ & Freddie's in Stockton, IL. My dad always finds the best places!

Next stop was at Midwest Senior Care Center in Galena, where we got to help the residents play Bingo. It turned out to be a lot of fun!

Next stop was West Side Sculpture Park in Galena for a family friendly photo scavenger hunt contest. Each family member got to submit their most creative picture to Grampy and then the rest of the family would vote as to which was their favorite!

We stopped at Culvers for dinner and spent the rest of the evening together enjoying the amazing house my dad found!

We set out the next morning for the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium in Dubuque, IA followed by lunch at nearby Tony Roma's (a long time family favorite restaurant). 

We then headed back to Galena and spent some time browsing around the downtown area and then watching Murphy's Magic Show! There were only about 25 of us in the show, so the whole crowd got to be very interactive with the tricks!

We finished off the evening back at the house with Subway for dinner, some hot tub time, game room and a campfire complete with smores!

Our final morning consisted of the sculpture scavenger hunt voting and results! The winners were Rowan (1st) Cora (2nd) and Jade (3rd). We took some cousin and family photos and the headed back to downtown Galena for lunch at Durty Gurts.

On our way back home we made a quick stop at Little Cubs Field (a miniature version of Wrigley Field) in Freeport, IL!

Thank you so much to my parents for an amazing weekend. Looking forward to Meet in the Middle 2026! :)

Spring Things

 Jade got braces on April 15th!

We had a great Easter Celebration with my parents, GeeGee and Aunt Mar!

Jemma had her final band concert of the year! She did such a great job playing multiple percussion instruments and bouncing between them during songs!

Nate's Aunt Nancy always likes to do an outing with the girls for their birthday and this year we went for a hike at Ohara Woods to see the Bluebells. They were so beautiful, we couldn't believe how many there were!

Jade played on her school's combined 7th and 8th grade soccer team! This is only the second year that girls soccer has been offered, so it's a pretty short (4 games) season! 

Jemma was Amelia Earhart in her school's 5th grade Wax Museum project. She did a great job memorizing her monologue and staying in character. 

We had a really nice Mother's Day celebration complete with acai bowls for lunch and my favorite, Jackson Ave Pub for dinner!

Jade had her final band concert of the year! This is always my favorite concert out at the bandshell in downtown Naperville!

Jade's soccer team came in first at their spring tournament! In addition to Jade's awesome effort on defense, the coach let her play offense, and she scored several goals!