Happy Birthday, Darin!

Birthday Cupcakes
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

The kids made cupcakes for Darin's birthday last night. If you look closely, you'll notice that Jake's entire hand and arm are covered in chocolate. Megan was neat, and only got it on all fingertips. Megan woke up this morning and stood at the top of the stairs and said, "Hey, Mom....it's Daddy's birthday today". That kid LOVES birthdays. It means there is cake involved. We were gonna go out to dinner for Darin's birthday, but since Megan is so excited to celebrate with him (and he was travelling last week and the kids missed him), we decided to have a mini-celebration at home.

I haven't posted anything here for a while, which is not good since I sent out Christmas cards with the url, so here's a little update. On December 18th, Megan had her Pre-School Christmas Program. Last year, she got weepy when she saw me in the audience and this year she told me she's big and she's not gonna cry. Well, she didn't. And she was great! I was such a proud mom. She sang her songs loud, she knew all the words, and she smiled at the crowd. A very proud moment for me. Santa paid a visit to the school near the end of the program as well:



This particular Santa happens to live on our block and he keeps his beard all year long. In the summer, he rides by on his motorcycle.

On Saturday evening, we visited Lincoln Park Zoo for the Zoo Lights Festival. It was a really pretty night - the snow was falling and there was very little wind. You'll see Jake is still not very fond of these big characters:



So, there you have it. A short wrap-up of the last week. More to come.

Let's Get Ready to Ruuuuumble......

Fight night
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

In this corner, weighing in at 29 pounds and wearing white is Megan "Bring the Pain" Collings. And in this corner in red pants, weighing in at 32 pounds is Jake "The deflector" Collings.

Last night (and of course, it was right before bed), Jake stood up and said, "Megan, let's fight". Actually, it's more like, "wet's fight"....but you get the point. This is not your traditional boxing match. They use all forms of sneak attack moves.

They fight for a few minutes and then someone gets slightly hurt. They take a break for a moment and then get right back at it.



They're pretty evenly matched. Megan obviously has more coordination, but Jake has brut strength and a bit of a mean streak.



Since Megan has a little more endurance, once she starts to dominate, Jake goes limp and lays on the floor and says, "I too tired". Then, she gives him some room and he gets right back up and stirs it up again.

Here's the kicker. I'm trying to get them settled down so they can go to bed and heard Darin teaching Megan some "moves". When I saw them he was teaching her how to interlock fingers and bend someones hands backwards. Previously, he taught her a headlock. Wtf?!! He followed it up with, "Don't use that on your brother". Hmmm. I think it's a little too late for that.

Santa!

Santa!
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

I took the kids to the Winter Wonderfest Preview Party at Navy Pier on Thursday. For some reason, my company still gets invited to this cool event even though we no longer have an affiliation with Navy Pier. So lucky! Anyway, the kids had a great time. They rode the train, the ferris wheel, the carousel and other inflatable things. They ate loads of Connie's pizza, decorated their own sugar cookies --



-- ate those meticulously decorated cookies --



and visited Santa. I was wondering how Jake would react to Santa, since he surely doesn't remember him from last year. We were 4th in line when Santa came up and Jake started screaming, "Santa coming!" They got up there to see him and Mrs. Claus asked the kids what they had on their wish list. Megan told her she wanted dolly clothes and Jake screamed, "RACE CARS!". He definitely wasn't shy to Santa.

Here are some of the carousel shots:



Megan was pretending it was a real horse.

We didn't get home until a little after 9:00 and they didn't get to bed until about 9:30. Unfortunately for me, Jake decided to wake at 5:30 the next morning.

On Friday evening, Jimmy drove the kids and I to pick up the Volkswagen - which my dad had fixed for us. (Darin is in Phoenix, which is why we all had to go). Anyway, Megan fell asleep on the way and was quite crabby when she woke up. I unbuckled both car seats so that I could switch them to my own car, took Jake out of his seat and transferred his first. He was in the front seat of Jimmy's truck while I did the change and Jimmy was outside as well. Jake pressed the button and locked the doors. Did I mention that the truck was running? And did I also mention that it was 17 degrees outside and we weren't wearing gloves? We kept asking Jake to press the button and he was pressing in all the wrong places and finally said, "I can't do it". Meanwhile, Megan was too crabby to help and just sat in her seat with a scowl on her face.

Al was able to get a rod into the window to reach the button, but when he got close, Jake kept grabbing it. He was going to try to lower the window, but I had put the lock on. Jake had also cranked the heat all the way up and increased the volume of the radio to a level of serious rockin-out. Jake finally pressed the unlock button by accident and we were able to get in. Ugh.

Forunately, it's warmer today with a nicle layer of snow on the ground. We're gonna go outside to play and burn off some of this crazy energy.

Thanksgiving Report - and other stuff....

No TV rule
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

I have a rule in the morning that the kids have to be dressed before we turn on the TV, otherwise I'll never get out the door. Last Wednesday, the kids took it upon themselves to take out the mini DVD player and set themselves up with a show. They found their own little loophole.

Now....onto Thanksgiving. We had a smaller group than usual, but it was quite nice. After dinner, we played a little Left, Right, Center and a good time was had by all:



Here's Scott winning a round:



Jake practiced his dice throwing a little bit with Darin:



Then, the kids all went a little crazy before the evening ended:



On the Friday after Thanksgiving, we opted to stay away from any shopping entity, and instead brought the kids to the Children's Museum. Jake had a great time in the water:



The artist got herself all set up for battle with her war paint:



And then, I had to add this because I thought it was a cool photo. It's Darin and Jake on the other side of this thing:



After the museum, we came home and put up the Christmas tree. When Jake got up from his nap, he was loving it and after taking a little while to warm up, he was shouting, "Yay, Christmas!"



That evening ended with a movie and popcorn in their sleeping bags on the family room floor. The funny thing is, Darin told them they could have a sleepover down there. After Rudolph was over, Megan was ready to go upstairs. Of course, we didn't say anything to remind her that she could sleep downstairs. So, then the next night, she said, "I wanna sleep in the family room for the whole night again". Apparently, the whole night to her is merely an evening. How great for us!!

Funny Kids

Sketi
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

On Saturday, I was making dinner - which happened to be a rigatoni dish. Jake was all excited to eat until it was on his plate and then he was just mad that it wasn't spaghetti. He kept saying, "Nuther one. New one. Sketi". So, we made him traditional spaghetti noodles and he ate two huge platefuls. I guess he knows what he wants!

Darin and I were going to the movies that evening and we were telling the kids that Uncle Jimmy was gonna watch them. And Megan said, "Oh, so you can have some time?" Not really sure where she came up with that, but it was pretty funny.

On Sunday, the kids (& Darin) were doing some "tricks" in the family room. Jake got his legs much higher than in this picture, but I thought his face looked cute here:



Then, here are the tricks with dad:





Followed by a fun bubble bath. When I took these photos, Megan said, "Can we send those pictures to Aunt Jenny?" I'm not sure why she thought these photos, in particular, would be of interest to Jenny, but here they are:

Inspiration?

Inspiration?
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

A few years ago, Jimmy bought me a DVD box set of Pee Wee's Playhouse. I think it was meant to be a sort of gag gift, but it turns out that my kids absolutely adore Pee Wee. They could watch it over and over again....and admittedly, it is pretty darn funny. In one of the episodes, Pee Wee is brushing his teeth with a huge toothbrush and he's got tons of toothpaste foaming out of his mouth. Ever since then, Megan has been inspired to brush her teeth like crazy. She'll spend at least 15 - 20 minutes at the sink, just brushing away. And, she'll do this 3 times/day. Amazing.

The (belated) Halloween Report

Meow.
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

Here is Megan's kitty cat costume. She had such a great time this year. She ran around the neighborhood with her group of friends and loaded up on the candy. Jake had a tiger costume that he wore at all the wrong times. He had it on the day we brought it home -- then he wouldn't wear it to the Boo Bash at Megan's school. He wore it to have portraits taken -- and then wouldn't wear it trick or treating. But, I have to say, he got just as much candy in this outfit as he would have in the tiger.

School Picture 2008

School Picture
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

There's no story to go along with this one. We got school pictures back, so I thought I'd post it for all to see!

The Weekend Report

Boo Bash Buddies
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

We had a busy weekend. It started on Friday night with the Boo Bash at St. Cornelius. Jake wouldn't wear his costume. They had snacks, danced a bit and enjoyed the craft table. Here is a photo of Megan and her friend, Tony.



Jake was especially fond of the glue. I think he used this whole bottle on his Frankenstein foam craft.



On Saturday morning, we went to Oak Park so that Darin's parents could get a portrait taken with all of the grand kids. Getting 4 kids under the age of 5 to cooperate is a little like herding cats. Diana seemed to handle it with ease.




Afterwards, we went to lunch at Tasty Dog, where Megan and Lili got to sit at their own table like big kids.




By the time afternoon rolled around, Jake was tired and ready to just hang out on the couch with Dad. He likes for me to take pictures of him while he makes funny faces.



On Sunday, we went up to the Chicago Botanic Garden. The weather was a little chilly, but it was sunny. The kids had a good time running around. They made us pay the toll on the trail:






The main purpose of our visit was to check out the model railroad exhibit. Both of the kids seemed to enjoy it -- but, it was a bit crowded.



And, one more shot from the end of our visit:



After all of that, I'm not sure how they found much more energy, but somehow they seemed to rally enough for some good jumping right before bed. I thought these photos were kind of funny.








Next up - Halloween!! Woo hoo.

Happy Birthday, Damien!

Happy Birthday, Damien!
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

Damien's 3rd birthday was Saturday, Oct. 25. We went to visit on Friday and I meant to post this on Saturday, but time got away from me. The kids all had a great time playing together - we've got to do it more often.

Happy Birthday, Uncle Scott!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Scott!
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

We visited the south suburbs today. It's Scott's birthday, so we had to bring him a chocolate cake. Everyone has to have cake on their birthday, right? The kids went a little crazy while we were at Grandma & Scott's house. For some reason, Megan wasn't reserved at all. Although, Scott is too fun so they couldn't hold back. Thankfully, they both slept well on the way home!

It's Back!

The Return of the Big Red Wagon!
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

In one of my earlier posts, I complained about some thieves breaking into our garage and stealing our wagon. Lo and behold - it's back. On Sunday evening, Darin took the kids for a walk while I made dinner. I was on the back porch finishing up with the grill and here comes the family walking down the alley, with Jake sitting in the wagon. Megan came out of the garage and announced, "We got our wagon back". Apparently, the thieves had left it in a neighbor's yard about a block away. We don't usually walk that way and when Darin passed, the woman asked him if he had lost a wagon. He explained that it had been taken out of our garage and they rode happily back. Woo hoo!

Buddies

After School Snack
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

Sometimes these two get along so well. This photo was taken one day after school. Jake really misses Megan while she's there. Whenever we drop her off, he's a little bummed that he can't stay with her. But, then he's so happy when we pick her up. They're enjoying an after-school snack on the stairs (er, I mean bus) here. They always pretend they're riding the bus for some reason when they sit on the outside of the rail.

Last week Megan found the biggest leaf ever. Check it out:



She kept it for 3 days until it finally started falling apart.

Megan saw an episode of "Goosebumps" at Debbie's house. Apparently, it's a kid's show with some scary themes. She seemed to enjoy it until recently. Now, when she's going to bed she says, "I'm afraid of Goosebumps". I don't know if this is a stall tactic or if she's really scared. The other morning, Megan woke up in tears and Jake came into her room and said, "Megan goosebumps?". What a good little brother - showing concern for his crying sister.

Most of the time, Jake is pretty good. Lately we've referred to him as the deflector. If you say anything directed toward him, he turns it right around. For example:

Darin: "Jake, you look tired"
Jake: "YOU look tired"

or Jimmy's favorite.....

"Jake, you're cool"
Jake: "YOU're cool"
And, he certainly says it with attitude. Maybe he'll be good at sales.