the delights of Peoria

A visit to "Oma" and "Poppi" in Peoria (home of Caterpillar tractors!) Is never complete without a trip to visit the tractors at the local community college. Elijah's fascination and excitement has not diminished, but his knowledge has vastly increased. He now names all the tractors, and even spotted a combine we did not see. But of course, he was right, and kept insisting, "I see a combine!" and pointing til we saw it!

Another delight would be lawn-sledding in the grass. He'd grin and laugh til he got to the bottom of the hill when it was always, "Do again!"

Hammock swings are also fun, and if you're a little monkey with no fear of heights, climbing up the side and throwing yourself backwards to be caught by your grandpa is the way to go. Little Thrill-seeker!
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a little lady's tea party

A sweet tradition starting with the ladies of the Voss family is an annual tea party hosted by my niece Renee. In the past they have been mostly makeshift, but our most recent was absolutely elegant. In a lovely tea shop in the quaint downtown of Wheaton, the Voss women enjoyed a tea like none before.

Renee was in her element, pouring sparkling pink lemonade into a dainty china teacup, and serving us Skittles as treats purchased with her own money. We enjoyed crepes and tea and time together. Next year, perhaps another tiny girl will be able to join us!

(Afterwards we spotted the tiniest candy store ever and just had to go in. It was only as wide as a hallway!)

Milk painting

Looking for an indoor activity today (David fixed our swamp cooler, so it is finally cooler than the 97 degrees outside! Yeah!), we decided to paint. A quick Google search for "homemade paint" led to us combining powdered milk and water into a paste, then adding food coloring. We used q-tips instead of paint brushes, and made beautiful art with no outside supplies at all! Worked pretty well. Elijah drew a rocket ship "with fire!" (In case you couldn't tell...)
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Reading with Leah

At our playdate today, Elijah and Leah climbed into a chair and Elijah "read" a tractor book to her, pointing out "backhoe," "bulldozer," and the other tractors in the pictures. He knew them all. Adorable!

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Tractors in the Kitchen

Elijah just told me that his dump trucks were making cookies to bake in the oven. Not sure how that's going to work, but sounds good to me.

He is singing "Tractor, Tractor" to himself as he digs and dumps under his tree. Happy days!
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Boy or Girl? A party to find out!

David and I want to make this pregnancy and baby's story special.  As we considered today's essential ultrasound question of "Do we find out if baby's a boy or girl?" both of us realized that with this baby we did want to find out, but we wanted to do so in a memorable way.  Around this time, I read a blog about a baby gender reveal party and showed it to David, commenting on how fun it would be to have a party like that with all of our family together.  We smiled sadly, feeling the distance, but then realized our ultrasound was scheduled only 2 weeks before our family reunions... we began to plot on getting both immediate families together for a party where we would all find out together if baby was a boy or girl.

The pieces fell together, and a perfect time appeared where the Voss family would be at Hank and Johanna's in Wheaton (incidentally, where my brother lives), when my parents would drive up to pick us up.  We would indeed have both immediate families together, such a rare and special thing, for the first time since our wedding.

So... the plan...
We went to our ultrasound appointment and had the technician write if Baby was a boy or girl, and seal the results in an envelope.  We didn't peak!  Then, after some serious temptation, we popped the envelope in the mail to my mom who brought it to her friend, a baker.  The friend was to open the envelope, and inject cupcakes with either pink or blue icing, depending, then frost over them so you couldn't see what was inside.  We told her to be clear.  No purplish or pale colors for us.  We wanted it obvious!

Inspired by the blog we read, we used a "What are you craving?" theme for the refreshments, with little cards reading SWEET (chocolates), SALTY (popcorn), CRUNCHY (tortilla chips), SPICY (New Mexican salsa), CHEWY (gummies), and SOUR (lemonade.)  We also set up stations for voting, manned by our adorable nephews and niece.

When my parents arrived in Wheaton, bringing the cupcakes (and no, they didn't peak, either!) we had  everyone make a guess of boy or girl, and put on either a red or blue button to make their vote official.  We also had people make name suggestions, predict the birth date, and the birth weight and length.  We took  "Team  Boy" and "Team Girl" photos to make it official, then went inside to read the name suggestions (Some great suggestions, by the way! Our families know us well!)

Team Boy

Team Girl

the Voss and Otten families

When it was time for the Big Reveal, we passed out the cupcakes, had everyone peel the wrapper and counted ONE, TWO, THREE, BITE!  The suspense!  A big bite, then came the screams, muffled, of course, because everyone had their mouthful of cake.  Pink icing!  A girl!

I was shocked.  For some reason, David and I were convinced this baby was a boy.  The pregnancy feels almost identical to Elijah's, I'm carrying the baby the same way, and there are just so many boys in the Voss family... lots and lots of boys...

the proof is in the picture

David and others of "Team Girl" admitted they voted that way because they wanted it to be a girl, not necessarily that they thought it was one, and were just as shocked.

Note: Elijah was right.  He has said all along it was a "Baby Girl" in Mama's belly.

As soon as I took my bite and saw pink, I immediately turned to everyone else as if to ask "Is yours pink, too? Is this for real?"

Pretty Pink

It was just the moment we had hoped for, and what made it sweeter was celebrating with our two families together.  We couldn't have felt happier.

And yes, we are still reeling over the news.  A girl?  Wow. So exciting!