So, the week of Valentine's Day, we were putting together Valentine's for the kids to distribute to their respective classmates. They each wrote on a card - "I MUSTACHE you a question. Will you be my Valentine?" Then we cut out foam mustaches and hot glued them to a chopstick (compliments of Mariano's sushi counter). Will I was tirelessly cutting out 40 mustaches, these two clowns decided to stick them to their faces with glue dots. They laughed like crazy for about an hour, while making various videos and changing their looks by adding foam eyebrows and trimming the mustaches. It was quite hilarious. If I ever figure out how to put a video on this blog, that will be the one!
Monday, February 25, 2013
Skiing!
We took the kids to the Grand Geneva Ski Hill on Feb. 8 for a ski lesson. They spent an hour with an instructor and Jake received the nickname "The Missile" and Megan got rave reviews from him saying, "It's really a pleasure to get a student like this. She's ready to go up on the lift now". She got her turns down with no problem at all. We spent about another hour and a half on the bunny hill that day and then made our way inside for cocoa. They really enjoyed themselves!
Superbowl Party
On Feb. 3, we hosted a Superbowl party and had a pretty decent crowd. The Onofrios, Oakleafs, Tomichs, Jenny, & Cheryl and Brent attended. We had hurricanes and etoufee since the game was being played in New Orleans. Jake happened to win one of the quarters and wound up with $50.00. The next day, he told me "I always win the betting stuff. Pretty cool." Yes, yes it is. The girls put on a fashion show at the end of the evening and the kids stayed up way too late. But, everyone seemed to have a pretty good time!
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Just Jake
Jake lost his first tooth on February 8 at 11:45am. I know this because he had Darin write it down. Darin had picked the kids up from school and before they got home, his tooth came out in the car. Somehow, that tooth was never found. We looked a few times - even with a flashlight, but no tooth appeared. So, about a week later, Jake finally wrote a note to the tooth fairy that said "I lost my tooth in the car. Love, Jake". Low and behold, she left $5.00 for him under his pillow. He was so happy!
Jake has a very quick wit about him. I just found a post-it note where I had jotted down a couple of things he's said that were particularly funny at the time. I'll try to explain the context, but perhaps too much time has passed.
1. "Uncle Scott isn't old. He's just.......mature." This was in reference to who was coming over for Thanksgiving and whether or not it was going to be all old people.
2. "Katy Perry? I hate her. She's inappropriate". No real explanation needed here.
3. "Mom, you should look at your face. It looks beautiful". Not a funny quote - but how could I not include it!!
4. "Time to Dance". This was pretty funny. We were all watching TV and sometimes Darin plays this game with the kids where they say, ' the next person on the screen is....Jake' or whomever. Well, someone particularly undesirable came up for Jake and we all laughed. He jumped up from his chair, walked over to Darin all serious and said "time to dance" while following up with a punch.
5. "It's like a chemical that makes you down to your bones". I don't remember the context of this one, but I do know that he's explaining acid or something similar.
Anyway, there are a lot more Jake-isms. I just haven't been so good about writing them down. Perhaps I will try to blog more!
Famous last words, huh?!
50's Day at School
The new principal at school is really doing some fun stuff. Catholic Schools Week ran from Jan 27 - Feb 2. During the week they had a band perform (Mojo and the Bayou Gypsies) and the kids had a great time. On Feb. 1, they had 50's day, complete with a roller skating party in the gym. I was able to snap a photo of Megan before she headed off to school that morning. I can sure see some of her dad's personality shining through here!
I didn't get a photo of Jake before he left, but fortunately his teacher snapped a few and shared it!
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Disney 2013
We made it back to Disney this year for my ESMG meetings. We stayed at the Coronado Springs Resort and the weather truly could not have been better. It was literally 82 degrees and sunny every day. We arrived on Friday, Jan. 11 and came home on Tuesday, the 15th. Our resort had a great pool with a water slide (M & J spent a ton of time there).
They also had a nice playground near the pool.
The staff offered marshmallow roasting every day at 5:00. I think we were there almost every day.
On Sunday, we made it to the Magic Kingdom. Our kids are at a very self-sufficient age now. No strollers!
We tried to visit Mickey for a photo, but only found Goofy and Donald.
The Swiss Family Treehouse was one of our earlier stops.
And, Jake had been waiting and waiting for his favorite ride!
I got Megan to go on Space Mountain and she wasn't too happy. It was a bit darker and faster than I remembered. Oops. Here is the "before" photo....not great as I took it with my phone.
She enjoyed the other roller coaster with Darin. If you look closely, you'll see Darin with his hands up.
We ended our Magic Kingdom visit with a front row spot at the parade.
That night, my little artist decided that there was good lighting for a photograph, so she had me snap this one.
On Monday, Darin got in a round of golf in the morning while the kids and I hung out at the resort. We found the sandy beach area where Jake played with his action figures in the sand for a couple of hours. He and Darin ended up making a huge fortress with sticks, etc. I wish I would have gone back to take a photo of it.
And finally, Jimmy, Michele, Dane and Wrigley came to visit that afternoon.
The kids had more pool time.
This one of Dane looks like it should be an ad for fun.
Even Uncle Jimmy got in on the slide action.
Dane found a snake in the pool that the staff had to come and remove.
The boys practiced cannonballs.
Megan's highlight was definitely her baby cousin, Wrigley.
Had to get a group photo.
She sure loves this baby!
On Tuesday, we headed back to chilly Chicago!
All in all, a fun trip!!
January 2013
Even though January was cold, we found our fun! We went ice skating in Rosemont on January 2. Megan had a fun time - Jake.....not so much. Ice skating is not his thing.
The kids had roller skating in gym class in school this month. Perhaps skating is my theme for this post! Here's Megan.
And Jake.
Those pics were taken on their first day of skating. They got more comfortable as time went on.
At our scout meeting this month, we had representatives come in from Canine Therapy Corps. They explained the jobs that the dogs perform and had them do some tricks. Look at who is standing up there with the group.
Jake had a fondness for that big, black doberman named Jemma.
Each of the kids got to give some signals and have the dogs perform tricks, or walk them down the hall.
It was a great meeting and the kids all LOVED it!!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Christmas, New Year's Eve and all in Between!
We spent Christmas Eve at Jenny's house. It was a really nice evening. We were able to get the whole group looking at the camera AND smiling!
The kids always have a great time playing together. The Tomichs joined us and our kids happen to love theirs. Here are all of them in the movie theater.
They went on a hunt for the pickle (which is a real stress-inducer for most of them).
Megan found it, much to Jake's dismay.
Here's the hostess whipping up her famous green beans.
And the guys, before dinner.
We had some pretty excited kids once we got to the presents. Megan got the American Girl wagon from Mimi and Papa. Definitely a highlight!
And Jake received the Lego Palpatine's Arrest set. Although, it should not have been a surprise since he assigned that gift to Papa in early December. It was still a great moment!
This story goes back a few years. We had gone down to Scott's for his birthday a few years ago. I stopped at the grocery store to pick him up a cake on the way. While we were in the store, Megan saw some Cheese Whiz and decided that she wanted to get him that for his birthday. He made her feel good about it when he opened it and remembering that, she wanted to get it for him again. I guess you can't go wrong with cheese in a can, right?
And, here's a token photo of me with Jake.
On Christmas morning, the kids woke up to see that Santa had been good to them.
More Legos for Jake!
And I liked this fashion photo of Megan!
She also rec'd the American Girl bathtub set (which you can see in the background). That was probably her highlight.
While the kids were on break, Megan made chocolate chip cookies for us. They were delicious!
We had a nice, snowy day at the end of December, so I took the kids out for a hike in the woods. The loved it.
Here is Megan acting like a sloth.
I was able to get them together for a nice photo.
And Jake got Megan to stand next to this small tree and started shaking it to make it snow. It kind of caught her by surprise, they had a blast out there.
We went to the cottage for NYE with Jenny and the Tomich family. On New Year's Eve, we went to the Grand Geneva resort for sledding. The snow was packed down and just perfect for sledding. Here is Megan getting launched.
And a little bit of a different style of launching for Jake.
It was pretty cold out there, so we didn't last super long.
It was nice to go back and have cocoa! That evening we were at Jenny's cottage and they stayed up until midnight!
Here are the gamers waiting for the ball to drop.
Happy New Year!
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