Visit from Auntie T and Uncle Ray

We had a nice visit from Auntie Teresa, Uncle Ray and cousins Zachary and Matty last weekend. They drove all the way from North Carolina to Illinois - it was their first visit since we moved
here almost four years ago. They arrived on Thursday around noon and stayed through Sunday. We had plans to go to the swimming pool, the apple orchard and other local attractions. Unfortunately, Friday was a washout with thunder and rainstorms, Because of the rain, I retrieved the Perler beads and animal templates from the basement (I re-discovered these while cleaning up for their visit). I didn’t realize that this would be THE activity of the visit - Teresa and I had to make a Hobby Lobby run just to get more beads. Of course, we ended up buying more templates as well.
Here are the results of the boys’ work (Erica refused to have her photographed).







The light colored beads are glow in the dark - the kids checked those out by running in and out of the bathroom.....

After the rain on Friday, the hot steamy midwest weather returned, so Scott and Ray took the kids to the new area pool. Saturday night we feasted on fried dumplings. Sunday was a beautiful day - low humidity and sunny. The boys enjoyed playing baseball in the backyard:

Zach tees up:



Matty hams it up:



Brian swings and throws:






We had so much fun and we hope they can come again (or we can visit them)!