William's Birthday Weekend

William turned four on Saturday. FOUR!!!! Our little guy is growing up. Four seems soooo old.

This past Saturday we took the South Shore train to the "Zephyr Museum" (Museum of Science and Industry). We had such a great time. The kids loved the train ride and the museum is always a treat.

Unfortunately, we didn't get to "ride" the Zephyr due to our poor planning. The museum was closing as we made our way to the exit where the Zephyr was located. William was a bit disappointed but quickly got over it. After all, he was going to ride a real train home.

Once we got back to Indiana, William requested that we go to Portillo's for supper. Since we were all tired, Portillo's was a great choice. The kids loved their hot dogs and french fries. On the way home, William feel asleep and almost missed out on his cake and ice cream. As Brian put him in bed, he woke up and we were able to end our celebration with a round of "Happy Birthday".

On Sunday, we made a trip up to Rockton, IL for Christopher's birthday party. Due to a few stops and traffic, it took us four hours to get there. We were LATE getting to the party. During the trip, we stopped at the Hinsdale Oasis. Once inside, we glanced at the map near the restroom. Claudia decided this was the perfect opportunity to take down William and pin him to the floor. Mind you, Claudia is much smaller than William but has an enormous amount of strength in that dinky body. Once William was free, we made our way to the bathrooms. Claudia (who stills refuses to part with her diapers and normally refuses to use the bathroom) shouts "I have to go potty!". Brian tells her to go with me which she refuses to do and then continues to cause a scene until Bri agrees to take her with him. William insisted on going with Bri because " girls don't have stand-up potties", aka urinals. So I stand there laughing and almost wetting myself during this chaos!

Brian comes out of the bathroom SEVERAL minutes later. William had found the short urinal next to Dad's tall urinal and they were able to potty at the same time while Claud continued to whack them on their backs chanting their names. Then it was Claud's turn to potty. Bri finds a stall, removes her diaper and she makes her grunting noise as if she is trying to rip a mighty one, says "it's too hard for me" and slips off the potty. Bri tries to put her diaper back on while she's standing up- (a difficult feat for a man) while William plays the bongos on his back and Claudia pounds in him in the head.

We actually make it back to the car in time to listen to TWO hours of Claudia crying "I want to go home!!!!". We stop twice to try to calm her down, which she does immediately only to start up as soon as she's back in the car seat. What a awesome car ride! Can't wait to make the trip to the Dells next weekend! Any way, Christopher's birthday was awesome. The kids loved the jumpy house and it was great to visit with John and Holly!

The ride home was quiet and uneventful due to the stop at CVS for emergency nanas (pacifiers). Hated to make the purchase but our sanity was at stake.