More February

fungamesday, a photo by tracyg00 on Flickr.

Megan had Fun and Games Day at school at the end of February. One of the moms who volunteered was nice enough to snap a photo and send it to me. She's here with her friends, Sarah, Logan and Kiersten.

Also in February was Jen & Ben's 80's party. We went with Jenny & Flip and Lisa & Matt. Here are a few photos of the gals (notice the wine cooler):





We made it back up to the cottage before the end of the month and got the ice skates onto the lake. Unfortunately, the lake was pretty bumpy and that didn't work out so well.



One of our last notable activities for February was our big Girl Scout Cookie "Site Sale". Our girls took turns selling cookies at Happy Foods to raise money for our trip to White Pines. Here are some of the salespeople in action:



And the last story worth mentioning......in February, Scott had surgery and was recovering at home when we paid him a visit to help him get milk, etc. that he couldn't carry. On the way there, I was reminding the kids to not be crazy (as they normally are with Scott). I said, "Scott just had surgery so we're going over there to...." and Jake finished my sentence ...."save his life?". Yes....to save his life. That kid is so funny.

February

Cute, a photo by tracyg00 on Flickr.

It's the end of April and I'm writing about February. Geesh. We spent a little time up at the cottage. This was a really mild winter, so the lake was frozen, but not as thick as usual. The kids slid around on the bumpy ice in some areas.



And they threw big rocks into another area that was relatively thin:





They love the freedom of Wisconsin, where they can just run around and explore. Fortunately, Mr. Junge doesn't mind them taking over his yard:



Maybe it's his wildlife that is so intriguing:

January

Ice Skating, a photo by tracyg00 on Flickr.

Over Christmas break, we went ice skating at the Rosemont Ice Rink. We met Sarah and Linda. It was pretty crowded, but fortunately it wasn't super cold. This photo was taken during a Zamboni break - which was exciting in itself. This was also Jake's first time on skates - he did pretty well! We made it around 3 times!



We didn't get a whole lot of snow this winter, but they did have a few days to play in it.



And we made it out sledding one Friday night - we pretty much had the hill to ourselves. Darin would push us down the hill, while I held on to Jake's sled. I tried to get fancy on our last run and give him a push to make him go a little further. Unfortunately, I just pushed him over and he faceplanted. Sorry, Jake. He was pretty mad.



We said good-bye to the big castle that Darin made out of cardboard. It wouldn't fit through any doors, so it made it a little tough to play with. It was pretty cool, though. Here's one last look:



I took the girl scouts up to the Vernon Hills Regional Service Center for a day of "Kitchen Science". They made their own ice cream, bath salts and mud masks. They had a hard time getting that mud mask off - most of them had pretty red faces after trying to scrub it off!



And last but not least.....Megan started taking guitar classes at the Old Town School of Folk Music. She seems to really enjoy herself - she also has a great teacher who makes it really fun for her. Doesn't she look like a natural?

Christmas

Love those kids...., a photo by tracyg00 on Flickr.

Christmas was fun this year. Jenny and Flip hosted Christmas Eve. Since I am typically the one behind the camera, I made a special point to get into some of these pictures this year. So, here is my tribute to myself.....



And, one with Scott:



Jake loves toys and was really excited about gifts this year. And, he was especially excited to have such a big box! This happened to be Mario Kart for Wii:



And here's our family pic from that night. I had a better option where everyone was smiling, but unfortunately it was a little out of focus. Rats.



Christmas morning was fun. Jake was excited to get Ultimate Kevin. Although, in hind sight, he sure hasn't played with that toy all that much. I hope Santa's elves didn't have to search all over the world and over-pay for a toy that is no longer made. But, I guess, that's one happy kid for that moment.



This was an American Girl Christmas for Megan. And she loves to play with that stuff regularly. This is happiness:



My dad and Ruth, Brian, Damien and Ada, and Scott came over later in the day for dinner. Megan and Jake always have a nice time playing with their cousins.



Here's Jake and Damien being boys:



All in all, a happy holiday.

December

Annual Santa Visit, a photo by tracyg00 on Flickr.

Seriously, what is my deal? It doesn't seem all that hard to sit down and type out a few lines right? For some reason I can't seem to update this thing on a regular basis. Actually, to give myself a little excuse.....I sat down and wrote out all kinds of details on the month of December with photos, etc and when I went to post it to this blog, I got an error message and "poof" all of my writing was gone. So, I was mad and had to step away from the computer. So, I'm starting over and this time I'll save it before posting. Lesson learned.

We saw Santa at the beginning of December for our annual photo. The kids were already complaining a little bit about having to take the Santa photo, but too bad. I can't imagine how tough this will be when they're teenagers. Yes, I'm gonna make them do it. They'll thank me someday. Hee hee. Of course, when we go to the mall we have to stop at the toy store to add items to the Santa list. The kids started taking pictures with my phone this year to document the "wants". This was actually nice because when people would ask what they wanted for Christmas, I could just send the photo from my phone. Thanks kids.

Aunt Jenny gave the kids the Elf on the Shelf this year. The Elf is said to hang out in your house all day and then when everyone goes to sleep he flies up to the North Pole to keep Santa up to date with the household's behavior. The number one rule is that you can't touch the elf. He will lose his magic. You're supposed to name your elf when he comes to your house. Somehow, Jake came up with the name Harold Sweetcheeks. So, that's what he ended up with.



There were a couple of mornings that we woke up and Harold Sweetcheeks was in the same place as the day before. Jake said, "maybe we should have named him Harold Lazybones".

Both Megan and Jake love to play on the iPad. Jake has taken a liking to YouTube where he finds videos of video games. Yes, that's right. He also likes toy reviews. One time he came across this video of a reviewer that was comparing the packaging of some toys. The guys was giving these funny reviews and comparisons of something and Jake said, "This is dumb. This is just an old guy talking about the package".



QAS had their annual Candles and Carols program on December 15th. We thought we were so slick with seats in the 3rd row. It turned out that we were in the one and only spot that we couldn't see Megan (due to a post and a music stand). Darin ended up moving the music stand just before the end, so at least I got a photo or two. Here's Megan with her friends Logan and Sarah:



The next day (Friday, Dec 16), we went up to the cottage. We brought a dry-erase board and Megan drew her Andy Warhol inspired Pop Art iPhone.



On Saturday, the Cleavelands came up and Darin and Will began working on the lakefront area. They broke out a concrete wall:



Fortunately, it's been a mild winter so they were able to get to it.

We left that Saturday night because we had promised the kids we'd take them downtown to have lunch by the big Christmas tree at Macy's. So Sunday morning we got up and took the train downtown (this is probably one of the highlights of the day):



We checked out some of the windows outside of Macy's:



Then we headed inside to warm up and shop a bit:





We found the Christmas displays and Jake made a fake salad:



By the time we made it up to the Walnut Room, the wait for a table was over two hours. At least we got a glimpse of the tree:



We decided to head over to the Atwood Cafe at the Blackstone Hotel across the street. It was just as fancy and the wait was MUCH shorter!



And they had a tree, too:



After brunch, we went over to Millenium Park since it was pretty warm. We took a family photo by the Bean:



More Bean:



Megan decided that it would be great if we could just move downtown. This girl loves the city:



On our way back to the train, we made a stop at the Comic Book Store. Jake was pretty excited about this place:



And then we headed home on the Blue Line. Here are my little independent travelers:



Jake's class had their Christmas party on Dec. 20. Santa stopped by for a visit:



Here's the whole class:



Darin celebrated 46 years on December 23. Lisa and Will brought the kids over for dinner and cake.



When our guests left, Darin and Megan exhibited their latest favorite pose:



I'm gonna pause here and then do a separate Christmas post in a few.