Before we got on the road, we went to the open houses at Marcus and Cale's schools. This year, Marcus will be at the elementary school and Cale at the primary school (3rd and 1st grades, respectively). It's the chance to meet the teachers and bring their school supplies in early. Marcus has Mrs. Catlin for his teacher. There will be 26 kids in his class. She seemed nice and after seeing our entourage, said that she also has 5 children-4 boys and 1 girl. In all my anxiousness to leave at an early a time as possible, I totally forgot to take Marcus's picture next to his desk-oops. He didn't seem to care.:-)
Next, we went to Cale's room in the next building. He has Ms. Warning, who had moved to 1st from kindergarten. There will be 17 kids in his class, and Cale is excited that there are 4 other kids from his kindergarten class in his first grade class, including his little buddy Alex. I did remember to get his picture :-).
Then we swung by McDs to get some take-out and started our trip. We had to stop 3 times. The first time: to clean up Liam who got sick in the car. I blame the heat and possible too many french fries after eating apple slices and chicken nuggets. Thankfully, I had the forsight to pack and extra outfit for him. Liam was fine after that. The second stop: time for Kella to eat and to take a bathroom break. The third stop: time to get gas and Kella wanted to eat again. What Kella really wanted to get out of her car seat. She was very unhappy when I put her back in the seat and let us all know about it for the rest of the car ride, about 1 hour.
But, we made it to Decatur! We spend the night with Andy's parents and in the morning, Grandma Jean, Uncle Chris, Aunt Kim and the cousins came over to see us. It was nice to have them all playing together again.
Chris did an impromtu preformance of Bible school songs with Liam. Liam knew all the movements. :-)
After Decatur, the kids and I drove to Grammy Pammy's to meet there before Xander's birthday party. Uncle Joe was there along with Aunt Bitsy, Uncle Eric, Maddie, Abbie and Jacob. Grammy thought it would be fun to go out to eat for lunch. 5 adults and 8 kids-thank goodness it was a buffet. And, they sat us in a room all by ourselves.
Car seats are so handy! Jacob sat in his and Kella slept the entire meal away in hers.
Back at Grammy's, some of the cousins entertained themselves with the leapster/gameboys/ds.
A new picture of the baby cousins-Kella and Jacob
Kella met Uncle Joe for the first time...
...and Uncle Eric, too.
Then, it was time for the party. I missed Andy the most at this time. None of my kids had taken a nap (except Kella). Liam was borderline exhausted at the start. The bowling was fun, but loud. And, I felt like it took forever. I convinced Liam to put on some bowling shoes. He wanted to carry his own ball-8 pounds!
Marcus watching his ball. He warmed up that morning playing Wii bowling.
Ewan choosing a ball.
Cale had a crazy spin on his ball.
Ewan's technique was to go up to the lane and toss/drop the ball.
Pic of the Uncles-Eric, Joe and Jim
Aunt Eileen got to hold Kella a lot, since by this time I was dealing with a totally exhausted Liam. He had at least a 40 minute meltdown and just wanted me to hold him. He eventually fell asleep.
One of me and Joe and sleeping Liam.
Kella also got to meet Gram Cece for the first time too!
We finally left around 530, after cake. I was dreading the, at least, 4 hour drive back home. I broke the trip up in my head into segments: Springfield, Decatur, Champaign (stop to eat/feed Kella), state line, Crawfordsville, Lebanon, Westfield and finally home. Kella fussed for the first hour and a half and then, after our dinner break, she slept the rest of the way. We went through 2 and a half movies (thank goodness for the DVD player-we watched Despicable Me both there and back-Liam's favorite movie) and everyone did pretty well. Ewan and Liam finally fell asleep. Marcus and Cale both got to pee in a cup so we wouldn't have to stop (the joys of having boys). It was 11pm Indiana time when we pulled into the driveway. Everyone was tired. I was glad to be home. I was also happy that we had made the trip. I'll probably do the same thing next year.
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