The Beutel Blog: Tirzah's Birthday, the Museum, and a Flood Tour

I kind of fell down on the blogging job by not putting up a post on Tirzah OR Max's birthdays...but rest assured, they were celebrated all the same! :) Tirzah's birthday, of course, was also a joyous day as it marked the END OF TAX SEASON! on April 15th. We didn't really do much that day, but we had celebrated March/April bdays with our Rassi family the night before, so she had a jump start on her birthday. :) Oh, and also at Rassi birthdays Tirzah walked in front of a swing...that was swinging...with someone in it. :P She got two pretty good cuts on her left eye, which you'll see in a later picture.

Anyway, the night of her birthday, we went out to eat at Monical's with Mom Beutel and Nate/Elena/Annika. After supper, we came home and had cupcakes.

She was pretty excited about her cupcake with candles!

Attack!

As usual, she ate the frosting and called it quits. I don't have pictures, but she got a couple of presents and we all had a good evening. Happy 2nd birthday, Tirzy Tunks! We all love your spunky personality and you are clearly doted on by your brother and sister! I'm not sure what they are going to do when you aren't their 'baby' anymore! :)

That same week (on Wednesday when Max was at preschool), Sheila and I took Nora and Tirzah to the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Steph and her girls met us there. We thought it was pretty cool, but were disappointed to find out that the CAT museum is totally separate and they don't offer any combined entrance fees. Oh, well. Another day!

They have a toddler area right inside the first exhibit, and the water table was much loved.

Tirzah is saying, "Ball!" You can kind of see her eye here.

This was one of those tables where you use magnets to move the boats/animals around. I don't think Tirzy or Anni quite got the hang of it like the big girls did!

Sheila and Nora at the magnet wall

We spent quite a bit of time in this area, not surprisingly! :) After going through the museum we ate lunch at Rhythm Kitchen (which was delicious!) and even made it back home before the rain started!

And that's another story...Greg and I planned to take the kids to Peoria for one night to celebrate the end of tax season, so we got reservations at the Embassy Suites for Wednesday night. We were all packed and ready to go as soon as Greg got home from work since we also had reservations for supper at Biaggi's. It was pouring rain as we drove to Peoria, and Greg and I both knew it was supposed to be pretty stormy. As we were headed north on 155, there were a few lightning strikes and some very loud thunder. Then, just as we passed Morton, there was a strike close enough that the thunder was nearly simultaneous! It was a little bit freaky to me! The whole rest of the drive, I was just praying that we would get to Peoria safely! Thankfully, the girls were pretty unfazed by the whole thing and Max (who hadn't napped that day) slept until we got to the restaurant! Anyway, we had a great supper and then went to Barnes and Noble and let each kid pick out a book. From there we headed to the hotel, Greg took the kids swimming, and then they got to watch a movie before bed. We planned for them all to sleep on the pull out couch in the room, but Tirzah had too much sugar or something (or maybe Max wouldn't leave her alone to go to sleep!) so she was in our room until she finally went to sleep around 11:30 or something crazy like that. (Not so crazy a bedtime for us, but she usually goes to bed MUCH earlier!) All in all, it was a good night. In the morning, however, Greg woke up around 6:00 and was checking things on his phone quietly since he didn't want to wake up the rest of us. He saw on Facebook a video someone had posted of an East Peoria street flooded with water and started wondering if we were going to be able to leave! We turned on the news, but all they talked about was the flooding in Roanoke and Chicago. I think we were both relieved after breakfast to get out of Peoria!

Anyone reading this probably already knows about the flooding that followed that weekend, the record levels of the Illinois River, etc. That next Saturday morning Greg took the kids out to see the Mackinaw and take some pictures.

Whoa.

I couldn't believe some of these when he brought them home!

They also stopped at Koch's to see the animals...I love the look of delight on Tirzah's face as she looks at the cat!

According to Greg, she was less impressed by the goats, though.

This is the Springfield Rd. bridge over the Mackinaw River...pretty amazing! Oh, and two cute kids, too. :)

This...is a field/pasture that is not supposed to have any water in it! Back in the center of the picture you can see the white fence disappearing into the water. I could not believe how flooded it was.