A MEGA update

Back in January (yes, I know....I know), both kids had an Open House at school. They were happy to show off their work. This is one of Megan's stories that was displayed in the hall.

She had another one that was displayed. This one wasn't really the best photo, but the content is funny. Since it may be hard to read on the photo, here is what it says:

I GIVE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS an A+ for:

I like dodgeball.



Jake was just as happy to show off his artwork in the hallway (his excitement is not coming through in the photo):



We didn't have a heck of a lot going on in the month of January. It was too cold outside. Megan did a little bit of ice skating at the Onofrio's ice rink, but the majority of our time was spent indoors. Boo! I was able to get a photo of Chef Jake, while preparing some little appetizers. (Both kids like to cook)



Moving on to February.......we had lots of fun in the BIG snowstorm. Here's a shot of what it looked like when we opened our garage door:



Here's another one in the alley:



The snow in the backyard made it up to the top of our fence:





We ended up with a series of tunnels throughout the backyard. They really did have lots of fun. The highlight may have been when they would take a break for hot cocoa :-).



The month of February also brought us to the United Center to see Disney's Toy Story 3 On Ice! Aunt Jenny upgraded our seats so that we were in the second row.







Jake was particularly fond of the Army guys who came in with parachutes.



And here's Megan's parting shot next to the ice (as we were leaving):



Speaking of Aunt Jenny, she was nice to enough to join us at our February Daisy meeting. She gave a presentation on China (we were celebrating different cultures and with the timing of the Chinese New Year, we chose China for Feb). The girls loved her slide show. Unfortunately, they were a little crazy by the end of the meeting. Here's a shot from when they were mostly behaving:



We made a trip up to the cottage a couple of weeks ago to check on Darin & Will's work! The place is really looking great. The kids had a fun time climbing around in the snow up there:



And, with the sun shining, it was a pretty nice day. You can see by the lack of coat on the boy:



On March 6, I took the kids to the Polar Plunge for Special Olympics at North Ave. Beach. The weather was cold and dreary, but the kids had a great time. They love watching those crazy people jump into the lake.







I've got more to come (without photos), but I have to go pick up Jake from school right now.......

Happy New Year!

What a Ham
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

We had a lame New Year's Eve party this year. We had some neighbors and their kids come over (since it's especially hard to find sitters on NYE). In all fairness, they all have pretty young kids, but party broke up by 9:30 - which, even with young kids, is a pretty lame event :-)

We got a few of the dads to play Just Dance after the kids had their shot at it. We ate a bunch of food, the kids ran around crazy and everyone cleared out early! Here's one more from the evening:




We spent the next day at Jenny's house - now they know how to party! We got there at around noon and didn't get home until about 11:00. Our kids never want to leave that place!

Christmas Day!

Ben 10!
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

Oh, this was an exciting morning. All Jake had been asking for was "Ben 10" toys. So, he was pretty excited when he opened "Rath". Jake is REALLY into toys and he certainly wasn't disappointed on Christmas morning.

The top item on Megan's list was the "Olivia House". She had seen it on a commercial and figured she could work it into her Polly Pocket set-up. I'll have to do a separate post on Polly Pocket. Anyway, here's her big surprise on Christmas morning:



Santa also brought her "Just Dance 2" for Wii. I'd like to mention that I'm the current undefeated champion. But I digress......

The kids played with their toys for the morning and then I cooked up a "fancy" spaghetti and meatball dinner and brought it to Grandma Helen's house, where my dad, Ruth, Brian, Damien and Ada also joined us. The cousins had a great time playing together. They all ate dinner (Christmas Pizza for the kids & Brian :-), had dessert and then we got to open a few more presents. Here's a Great-Grandma photo (I took about 5 of these, but couldn't get all 4 kids looking my way):



And, here's the Grandpa photo:



After they opened presents, Jake went into the bedroom, got his coat, put it on, came out to where the rest of us were sitting and said good-bye to everyone. Subtle, huh? That kid was ready to get home and play with his new toys.

Christmas Eve

Merry Christmas!
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

Look at those faces - Christmas has finally arrived! Aunt Jenny hosted Christmas Eve and this was taken in front of her showroom-quality fancy Christmas tree. This was a fun night with a big group (Jen and Flip were pretty ambitious, hosting such a big crowd!). Here is the chef preparing his salt-covered fish:







And a few shots from the evening:







The kids were excited to get to the presents. It started with the "Find the Pickle" on the Christmas tree.



Megan happened to be the winner of that and snagged herself a stuffed Rudolph. She's pretty good at those types of tasks. All of the kids got the Wii Gaming System from Jenny & Flip, so that was pretty exciting. Megan was excited to actually "give" a couple of gifts this year. She made Mimi a picture frame with little pieces of confetti that she cut out by hand and decoupaged onto a wooden frame (not sure why I didn't take a picture of that one). And she painted a birdhouse for Papa:



It turned out pretty good!

Jake's Christmas Program

Jake's Christmas Program
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

Jake's program took place on the morning of December 17th. He has a new music teacher this year (Ms. Barth) and he loves her! She's young and energetic and she used to be a character at Disney. Actually all of the kids love her. He turned out to be quite the entertainer. He was placed front and center and he sang loud and did all of the dances.







He even had one line to say with another boy, but Jake was the only one we heard on the microphone. And, this kid is such a ham....there was a musical interlude in one of the songs and Jake noticed his friend's dad in the back of the room and hollered, "Hi Mr. O'Patka!"

This was definitely one of the most lively preschool shows we've seen (out of 4). It was fun to watch :-)

Candles & Carols Christmas Program

M w/Mimi & Papa
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

Megan had her school Christmas Program on December 16th. They gave us 3 tickets per family, so Mimi and Papa came up and Papa was kind enough to stay home with Jake so that the rest of us could go to the show. This was probably a good thing, since the show was pretty long for a 4 year old. The kids did a great job, with approx. 3 songs and the finale. We were in the second row, so Darin was able to get some good video.

Here's a photo of Megan and Mrs. Campanini (Megan loves her):

Winter fun

Winter fun
Originally uploaded by tracyg00

December was a fun and busy month for us. I guess the fact that it's now the middle of January and I'm finally getting around to updating our December news says a lot. We got a couple of good snow falls in December, which meant lots of fun play time. Megan and Jake had a grand old time at our local park when it snowed. It made the slide REALLY slippery!





Megan went to a workshop at the Brickton Art Center and this was her favorite project from that day:



It's called Peace on Earth, but she and Darin renamed it "Pizza on Earth" because it's made on a round piece of cardboard (like you'd find in a frozen pizza package).