January 2014

This winter was a cold one! We spent New Year's Day in Wisconsin. The kids always like walking on the lake when it's frozen. Jake really enjoyed ice fishing with Eric in the little tent (it was actually pretty warm in there!). We headed back to Chicago for the last weekend before the kids went back to school and got hit with lots of snow. Boy, did they enjoy that. But then it got so cold that their break was extended and additional two days due to extreme weather. Once they got back to school, it was time for the annual roller skating in gym class. They both really love it. I didn't get a chance to help out with Megan's class (I guess they're old enough that they don't need help anymore!). I did manage to snap a few pics of Jake. We went back to WI on the 11th to ski with the Cleavelands. We had a pretty nice day (really cold early, which maybe kept crowds down, and then sunny by the afternoon). Here they are enjoying cocoa in the lodge. Jake had been asking me if we could make donuts. So we embarked on an adventure to make the real deal donuts....no shortcuts. We prepped the batter in the evening. Then, the next morning, we rolled out the dough, cut the donuts into their shape and let them rise. Finally, we fried them up and gave them a dip in glaze. Some of them even got a double glaze! They were delicious. Megan completed a project on Finland for her class' cultural fair. She presented her project at the school's Open House on January 26. We had to find some Finnish products to go along with her poster board and we ended up discovering these delicious caramels that we found at the Sweden Shop. They are called Dumle. Those were eaten up quickly! We ended the month with a 70's and 80's skate party at school on the 31st. We went with the 80's look. I channeled my mom and made Jake's t-shirt at 10:00 the night before! I think it turned out pretty good! All in all - a good month!