What a better way to spend a holiday weekend, than with really good friends. Mike and Traci use to live in California, and we would spend almost every weekend with them, but now that they are in Chicago the visits are too long in-between. It is always good fun, but tiring to bring all our kids together. Right now we have four kids under four. A few weeks ago I could have said, four under three!!! So it is chaotic, the parents are always exhausted, but our boys have so much fun.
When we went to Chicago about 6 weeks ago we stayed at Mia and Evan's house so they boys were already familiar with Mike and Traci and their kids. So when I told Erik that Evan was on his way to our house he could hardly contain his excitement. He was running all over, happy and anticipating their arrival. (Elliot doesn't understand those concepts yet) Around 3 pm they got to Burbank and the fun began.
Mike and Traci were tired from a flight with two very young kids, but troupers. Luckily the boys were all able to entertain themselves with very little help from the adults. Good old iPhone, Erik found it and everyone thought it was the most fascinating thing ever.
The next day was our draft party all the following afternoon. We knew we needed to wear out the kids so we headed to the park early, at 9 am, to burn off some energy and make sure all the boys took long naps. Mike and Traci couldn't stay long, because I think Traci HATED the sand, but also Mia was hungry. Luckily I had invited my friend who lives near the park to join us and Erik and Ella wore each other out that morning.
Naps were definitely super easy for Kate during out Fantasy Football draft. I couldn't believe my sitter agreed to watch all three boys and didn't even break a sweat when I mentioned it. All the kids, except Erik were napping by 11:45!! I didn't get to take many pictures during the draft, except this really cute one of Mike and Mia.
By the evening we were exhausted even though we had a sitter most of the day for our kids. Drinking beer from noon to 3 will do that to you. Especially when you have to sober up to be home for the kids. So that evening we just kind of lazed around the house and let the kids play while we sometimes interacted. Uncle Mike learned the hard way he was laying on the book couch, but he was a good sport and read a lot of books to Elliot.
This next series of pictures were in the evening, but I made them black and whites. It was dark in the room, but my flash with upstairs in the room where Mia was sleeping. There were too many cute moments to capture so I kept on shooting. The color balance was impossible to control with this light set up, so I changed it to black and white. With the high ISO I thought they look rather good considering I never shoot like that.
Erik kept asking his daddy to sing him all sort of songs. He got sick later that night so I think he just wanted to sit and rest and sing songs. It was cute watching them do that.
The next morning Mike and Traci wanted to see some friends so we headed to Castaways for brunch. My last brunch experience was a disaster with the boys. Elliot fussed the entire time and I had to hold him and couldn't eat and Erik was terrible at the table, we have since taught him better manners, so I was unsure about this brunch I planned. We got there at 9:30 because you save $5 by going before 10 and what do we care, the kids have been up since around 6. I couldn't believe how smoothly brunch went. We were there for 1.5 hours and the kids did fantastic. I think having food ready immediately really helped, and I'll definitely go to brunch there again. Also we let each of the boys bring a car and they were content to play with cars and eat. When they started getting restless we just let them run around the patio and look at the view. A more perfect meal with four kids and 6 adults could not be had.
That afternoon there was a BBQ planned in Orange County so Mike, Traci and Carl could catch up with some old Illini friends. Since Erik was sick and a newborn was going to be at the party we stayed home. Erik took an extra long nap, but when we woke up I tried to do some special stuff since I knew he was going to be confused as to why everyone was gone, but he was still home. He only asked where everyone was about a million times.
Play dough is special to Erik because he can only use it when his brother is sleeping and lately they are always awake at the same time. Perfect time to break it out.
Last, but not least, today was suppose to be a big day with their grandparents in Ojai since the Kantowski's left early this morning, but with both boys sick and Grandma leaving on a big cross country trip in a couple days their visit was cancelled, but I did capture one moment from this morning I LOVE. Elliot is starting to eat his snacks at the kids table, and although his feet don't touch he is adorable doing it.
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