One princess down, One to get ready for kindergarten!

Peyton returned to Michigan City with Grandma and Papa last Friday so we could have a bit of one on one time with Kylie and get things done before the "Big K" starts in a few weeks. THANK YOU Grandma for all of your time with Peyton! We were able to get so much taken care of and a lot easier too with only one princess to manage!

We checked lots of things off of our "pre-kindergarten" to do list and had some fun too. Kylie is now armed with a Disney Princess backpack, Barbie lunch "purse", all of the school supplies on "the list" and back to school clothes and shoes (including bright pink Converse tennies!). Most importantly, all of the eye/teeth/physical exams are all done and signed off on!

Yesterday we attended a kindergarten picnic/playdate at our neighborhood park organized by one of the moms for the kids to be able to meet each other before the start of the school year. A bit shy at first, Kylie joined in playing with the 4 other girls in no time forming a "no boys allowed" team! The remaining 30 kids were all boys! There are 5 kindergarten classes this year at the school Kylie will be attending, so odds are there will be at least a few more girls to join their team :).

Kylie had lots of fun with a little girl named Nikki who lives only 3 houses from the park and would be a perfect playdate. Nikki's mom and I hit it off too and she also has an 18 month old little guy that would be a great playmate for Peyton. Hopefully they will be in the same class and this could be the start of a great friendship for Kylie!

Although we had a fun and busy week of shopping, playing and just being together, I've missed little Peyton and will be so happy to see her tomorrow and have her join back in the fun with us! It's just not the right level of chaos in the castle if there's only one little princess to keep track of!


Heading to the park for the Brooks Kindergarten Picnic

Enjoying an ice cream break from shopping- cotton candy flavor topped with gummy bears!

Having fun on the "Fun Bus" ride at the outlet mall!

Having lunch after the eye dr. at Kylie's favorite restaurant- Sweet Tomatoes!

Kylie all smiles after a successful "take 2" of the eye exam required for school! She even got cool stickers to show for it!

Ready to see G Force on Sunday afternoon with Mommy and Daddy- something we definitely can't do as a family yet!

A visit from Uncle Mark

Uncle Mark was in Joliet for work last week and it was great to be able to get together a few times in the evenings and catch up! Grandma and Papa also made it up to see him and we were all able to go to dinner one night. Mommy and Cousin Paige also met up with Mark and the guy he was up here with one night and we had a great time out at the bars in downtown Naperville. It was just like old times! Well, but I didn't exactly bounce back the next morning like old times :).

Great seeing you Uncle Mark! Next time Connor will have to join the fun and we'll head down your way!

Catchin' Up

My apologies to the readers of The Zerbes Zone for being a little blog lazy lately! We've just been having so much summer fun with SO many pictures to go through that blogging about it all seemed a very time consuming task!

But tonight on this eve of heading to Grandma's tomorrow to pick up our second little princess of the castle after the week, I'm going to take advantage of the quiet and try to catch up a bit on July's happenings before the month itself comes to a close in just a few short days!

Happy reading!

An afternoon visit from Peyton

When something's funny, ya just gotta giggle!

Bienvenido Sparkles!

Welcome Sparkles!

We hope you love your new home and all of the fun times to come!

Our sunshine girl

casting her rays throughout the park this afternoon!

Good food, good wine, good family!

Last night was cousin Paige's final send off to her new apartment in downtown Naperville. After helping her move Tuesday night when Uncle Mike and Aunt Helen arrived in from Dahlonega GA, last night was all about good food and wine and enjoying each other's company!

It was great having you with us Paige but I guess if we have to, we'll let you go :)! Great to see you Uncle Mike & Aunt Helen and we hope you had safe travels on the drive back today!

A new twist on an old favorite- the chicken dance!

Now that's a 3 day weekend!

With Daddy off for the July 4th holiday on Friday, our weekend could begin! After working tirelessly on the deck all day Daddy joined in the fun from dinnertime on! With Bass in hand Daddy grilled up the steak and bbq chicken kabobs cousin Paige had brought from her store and then it was time for he and Kylie to head off to the neighborhood fireworks. After essentially crashing the country club's 4th of July party :), they were front and center on the 18th hole ready to take in the show! After the fireworks and a quick bike ride home, Daddy & Kylie were both ready for some zzzs.

Saturday was a cloudy, cool, rainy and pretty typical 4th. We headed off to Legoland in Schaumberg for a few hours in the afternoon as Daddy wasn't with us when we went once last summer. There were a few new things this time around and the girls of course had fun playing in all of the different areas. Surprisingly a few hours after returning home, the skies cleared and the sun came out.

Since Kylie had such a fun time Friday night seeing the fireworks, I decided she and I would go to the Naperville fireworks at Ribfest. Daddy stayed home with Peyton this time (who slept from our return from Legoland until Sun morning!!). Kylie and I had a fun girls night out sampling some fare at the fest and enjoying the awesome fireworks show. After almost a 45 min stroller walk back to where we had parked we were both more than ready to call it a day :)!

Sunday was a sunny 80 degrees so we took the girls to one of the local outdoor park district water parks- Splash Country. It was a great place with lots of different water areas perfect for Peyton's age, Kylie's age and even Mommy & Daddy! We slid, tubed and splashed for about 3 hours before calling it an afternoon. Then it was back to the grill to throw on some chicken, brats and dogs. Paige was home from work so we all wrapped up the holiday weekend together by enjoying a great dinner of the grill items, fruit salad, potato salad and good old apple pie!

Whew! I think we better rest up for next year :)!

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend too!