Land of Lincoln

Did you ever wonder how you ended up in Illinois? Its not like we have majestic landscapes full of mountains, desert, towering redwoods, white sand beaches, waterfalls, etc. Obviously, I know I'm here because my parents and their parents and so forth were here. But what made our ancestors generations back say, "Damn, this is a good looking place to live." Perhaps it was the lure of the harsh winters or sweltering summers. Ahh, the joys of Illinois (that actually rhymed if you said Illinois like you lived in a different part of the country!) I suppose at least now we can say we are from the home state of our fine President as well as the most corrupt governor ever.

Piper's class celebrated Lincoln's 200th birthday yesterday by dividing up the Declaration of Independence among her 25 classmates and reciting it for the parents, complete with paper plate top hats. Very impressive, I must say. We were invited to listen and then enjoy donuts and juice. Carter and Finley definitely enjoyed the donuts and juice, as was evident by Carter's semi-permanent "fruit punch mustache" he sported the rest of the day. 

I love going to the kids' school, we are very lucky that they plan so many activities to involve the parents. After all, it wont be long before they're mortified by the sight of us at their school. So, I'll take this while it lasts. Today, I get the pleasure of executing my room mom duties at Piper's Valentines party at school. I think Valentine's Day was always my favorite at school. Remember how hard you thought about which classmate got which card. God forbid you gave the icky kid the one that said Be Mine. You could never live that down. I also just wanted to say thanks to all our friends and family who contributed to Piper and Trace's "Kisses from Home" books for school. I was truly overwhelmed at the kind and funny things you all wrote, and am so excited to see the kids' reactions. We are so blessed to have such a great family and group of friends! TGIF!!