The Baranko Family: Au revoir Downers Grove house!

This week was the big move for Donna and Emil. It was bittersweet for them to leave the house where they raised Ben and Matt and made countless happy memories in for the past 31 years. I'm sure their new home will be very special to them, for different reasons, in no time.

After spending three decades in a home, you can imagine what an undertaking moving was! They were like Energizer bunnies, working day and night for days upon days in the move process. Not counting the packing and prep work ahead of time, the actual move part took about 5 days. Matt and Uncle Mike helped every day, I helped several days, and Ben even flew back in town from Idaho to help, too (he was a Godsend)! We're so glad they are officially all moved and since they closed on their old house they can rest a little bit and take their time unpacking and settling in. Congratulations guys.

Last family picture in front of the old house

We had to rent another truck and Matt & Uncle Mike had to pack and unpack it themselves to get the rest of the stuff that the movers couldn't fit in their two trucks!

Looks so strange to see the house empty

The garage in the old house is finally empty!

Claire was a big help in cleaning the old house

Matt & Ben moving some furniture around in the new house.

Donna and Emil taking a breath in their new family room.

This week was a big week, too, because I think it was the first nice weather we've had all Spring. I was determined to take advantage of every second of nice weather that I could while still on maternity leave, so we did a ton of things outside in between helping with the move. I was so grateful we had opened the pool already, because we got to take advantage of it several times this week. Unusual for mid-May, but awesome. Claire even got to to go in the pool for the first time in her cute little swimsuit outfit. Matt took Luke and I out on our first boat ride of the season, which was really fun. We visited the Botanic Gardens again, and I may have gone a little overboard with the pictures, but the flowers were just so amazing and it was such a beautiful day. I planted all my flower pots and my vegetable garden, which Luke was keen to "help" me do. That consisted of him literally rolling around in dirt all day. I put a whole bunch of dirt in a snow sled that was lying around and he just dug around in it for a few hours.

I mean, come on, this outfit is adorable.

She was so-so about being in the water. She didn't cry, but she didn't seem thrilled either.

First swim of the season!

"I want to get warm on the chair Momma"

Strike a pose

Garden planting, preparing the soil is the hardest part, good thing I had such a great helper.

Boat ride! Now that Luke is a year older he is a much easier to contain boat passenger.

Its a tough life, but someone has to do it:)

From speedboat to beach playground to pool. He's got a tough life, too.

Sleepy boy, he was getting warm again after his swim and fell asleep out there. We were so torn on whether we should let him nap there in the sun since his hat was covering his face and no other skin was showing or try to move him to his room. We ended up moving him to his room, but he was all wet from the pool and did this strange thing where he got out of bed and slept on his chair with his knees under him and his butt up in the air.

Lots of sandbox and playset time every day.

We learned that Claire does not like to be hot. She cries a lot when overheated. We had to turn on the air to get her to cool off enough to go to sleep.

Visit to a new playground nearby.

Friend Kathryn and her daughter Madeline came over Saturday for a visit, we had such an amazing pool day!

Sunday Claire and I had brunch with my friend Alice before heading over to Donna & Emil's.

Claire, again, very helpful with the moving process.

We went to the Botanic Gardens with Isolene and Kirah

Their favorite part is the train garden.

I love those puff ball flowers!

Finally, here are some cute pics of the kids, as if there weren't enough fun photos this week. Claire has learned how to use her legs to wiggle her way forward and backward, so she's officially semi-mobile! She doesn't stay in place where you put her anymore. That was fast! We kind of enjoyed the simplicity of setting a baby down and having her stay put, but not anymore. She is continuing her big giant belly laughs and babbling. She's just so cute, I can hardly stand it. Luke is too, the other day I overheard him talking to his trucks. One truck said to the other truck "I'm going this way. See you later alligator!" Ha! He also likes to respond to questions "No thanks, I'm OK." which I think is such an adult response. Like we'll say "Do you want some milk, Luke?" "No thanks, I'm OK." "Do you want to change your diaper?" "No thanks, I'm OK." Speaking of that, we now have a new tell tale sign that Luke has pooped. We'll ask him if he pooped and if he says "No, don't check!!" we know that yes, indeed, he has pooped.