The Baranko Family: Rendezvous-ing with the Richardson's

We said goodbye to Kristin & PJ and just a couple days later welcomed more Tucson-ers with Katie, Joe and Isabelle's arrival. They were in town doing a similar tour of duty with family and friends, and we were grateful for our day and a half visit. I hadn't seen Isabelle since Christmas and she had changed so much! She turned into a little girl somehow! It was so fun to get to spend time with her and see for myself the things that Katie describes to me across the miles. We had an awesome visit with our friends, cramming in a lot of activities for a relatively short time period and kids involved. Love them!

One quick Luke update is that all of a sudden he has started to speak with a British accent. He is allowed to watch 20 minutes of iPad before bedtime, and lately he has chosen the British cartoon "Kipper" every night (he picks anything he wants from Kids Netflix). I think it is such a strange cartoon, it is very slow paced and not what I would expect a 2 year old to like. It is about a dog named Kipper, and Luke loves it. He cracks up at the littlest things that Kipper and his friends say and do. For example, one of the recent episodes has Kipper giving his pig friend Arnold a balloon, and Arnold floats away holding onto the balloon (seriously, that's the whole story line). Luke laughed so long and hard at that, like it was the funniest thing he had ever seen. No accounting for toddler tastes! Anyway, Luke has started to end his sentences on an uplift and just sounds British. His gymnastics teacher asked Isolene if one of his parents was from England, unprompted. I'm sure it is just a phase, but boy, does that tell you how impressionable kids are and that we need to watch what we do and say around this sponge! Just 20 minutes a day does that to him, imagine what constant examples will do to his little psyche? Better be on our best behavior...forever.

Cheerio until next week!

Hydrangea!!

Luke "harvesting" from our yard& garden - tomatoes, beans and mulberries

We met some friends in downtown Lake Forest for one of the weekly concerts in the park. Claire has a new friend in little Helena, a baby just a few weeks old than her, who lives down the street from us.

Becca and baby Helena (Helena's Mom Cate isn't pictured). Becca and I met at jury duty last summer, and we discovered that her daughter Eloise and Luke were in music class together. What a small world!

Luke liked the snow cone part of the evening. He picked his own two flavors - which I think were root beer and bubble gum. What a combo!

Friday the Richardson's came! Here is Luke & Isabelle getting reacquainted and sharing snacks. Love those tiny pigtails on Isabelle.

Peek a boo!

Isabelle wanted a seat on Mom's lap, too, when Katie was holding Claire

Isolene watched the kids during naptime so the 4 of us could take a boat ride. So fun!!

The guys went swimming - a little chilly still!

Pizza dinner - Dads and gals. I feel like you can totally tell who goes with who!

Smiley girl!

Can't get enough of this girl! Wish we were still back at 320 West Oak, W. Lafayette, IN sometimes.

Riding a scooter like a big girl!

Luke investigating a beetle

How cute is this picture of Joe and the kiddos? Hitting the beach on Saturday before they headed to the airport.

Matching babies!

Coy smile

perfect day at the beach

Content to lay around under the umbrella

Holding hands....awwww!!!

Building/knocking over sand castles

Big hugs until next time!

After the Richardson's left, we headed over to D&E's house for dinner. Claire wore her new "C" hair bow from Kathleen Orr & family:) Thanks for all the fun bows, guys!

Donna and Emil just had this deck built, it is awesome!

They also got brand new windows. It makes all the difference, it looks transformed!

Huge mutant wasps have invaded the patio area and Matt had to do some extermination.

We went for a hike in Open Lands on Sunday morning. We hadn't done that as a family for a while, Spumoni was so excited.

Claire fell asleep about half way through, even facing out in the Baby Bjorn.

Sunday after our hike we went to Kenosha to see Justin & Sara's new house and visit with Jenae & Jeremy, in town from Ft. Collins, CO. J&S's new house has this awesome tree house in the backyard, which all the boys loved!

Super cute Jenae with Claire - their first time meeting her!

Luke & Grandpa playing this hockey game thing.

So many little boys! Luke, Orrin, River & Lennon. They were playing hide & seek and other games. Lennon, the oldest at 7, is so sweet with the younger kids.