Oh boy.....here we go again. So much for that resolution of staying on top of my blog posts! It's now mid-February and I'm trying to catch up on last year.
This photo of Darin and I was taken at Jenny's house. She hosted a tree decorating party in early December. I think Darin might have been the only one working on this tree. :-) The rest of us were there for the party!
We had a particularly warm start to the month of December. On a number of occasions we were able to take the kids to the park without bundling them up. Here's my cute Jake:
Speaking of warm weather, Jake had a field trip on Dec. 7th to the Botanic Garden. It was literally almost 70 degrees. Unbelievable that we had no need for coats! He had lots of fun on the bus with Michael, where they proceeded to work out a play date for the following day.
On the 11th, the Hennings invited us to the Bulls Game. Unfortunately, Darin was in St. Louis for work and it was a Tuesday night. But, we couldn't pass it up since they had a box.
Jake decided at that game that he liked basketball. I think they most enjoyed the freedom of being able to jump around in there!
And have snacks:
And of course - the dessert cart!
Even Megan did a lot of cheering and ended up in a tank top because she was too warm!
We got home pretty late that night and Jake didn't want to take off his jersey. As a matter of fact, I think he came home and changed out of his uniform and into that shirt all week.
The following Sunday, we had our Annual Yuletide event at school. Here is the Santa picture for this year:
We bought Boojie a little outfit for Christmas. As you can tell from her stance, she must love wearing it.
Megan and Jake loved having her around!
Creative dad decided to make robots out of misc. stuff one night. They always love doing this kind of stuff.
On the 18th, I took the girls and Mimi to see the Rockettes in Rosemont.
It was Girl Scout night, so we were able to go early for a Q&A with a couple of the Rockettes. It was pretty informative. When they had a short intermission, every single young girl in the theater decided to practice high kicks in the aisle. It was pretty cute.
On December 20, Megan and Darin had their guitar concert at the Old Town School of Folk Music. They only played one song (Shortnin' Bread)....but they rocked it!
On Dec. 23, we took the kids downtown for our Annual Christmas train ride and breakfast.
We were able to get into Macy's this year.
It was a pretty chilly day, but I was able to get a couple of good photos outside.
Mimi and Papa wanted us to get them some Garrett's popcorn, but the line was all the way down the street. We took a picture to prove it!
After that, we made our way home.
Aunt Jenny came over to join us for dinner at Club Lucky to celebrate Darin's birthday. Here are the presentation of the cards:
And Jake and Jenny at dinner.
And Megan with Mimi and Papa.
And, a sibling shot outside the restaurant before heading home.
We ended the long day with cake, of course!
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
December 2012
Monday, December 10, 2012
November 2012
November was yet another busy month for us. Fortunately our weather has been really mild, which makes it easy for the kids to burn off that excess energy outdoors! We've had lots of park time this fall.
Mimi came in for the holidays on November 10th and we met her at the airport with a sign. Note the limo drivers standing there along side Megan!
We stopped for a group shot at baggage claim.
I rarely take pictures of down time, but how cute is this?!
More mild weather outdoor fun:
Papa showed up on the 17th with their dog, Boojie. Fortunately, this dog doesn't shed and Jake seems to be doing really well with his allergies around her. I think Megan is going to use this against me at some point to get a dog.
My girl scout troop wrote letters to various companies on behalf of our local dog shelter and were able to collect over 500 pounds of dog food, along with various gift cards and products. Here's the photo that made the local paper:
This is just a fun photo from the shelter tour. This big dog in the back kept popping his head over the wall. He was super friendly.
My company produces a 5k on Thanksgiving morning in Evanston. Megan worked with me at one of the pre-race packet pick-ups and decided that she likes to work and earn money. She also joined me at 5:00am on race day! Darin came out and ran the race. I have this photo of him after crossing the finish line.
We also hosted Darin's family for dinner on Thanksgiving -- but I totally cheated and ordered half of the meal!! I don't feel the least bit guilty because I was super busy and the food turned out to be quite good!!
On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Megan and I took Ada to the American Girl Store to pick out a doll. It was her first visit there, so we went all out and had brunch in the cafe.
I think she had a really fun time. It was a nice, bustling day in the city!
We finished off the month by putting up our Christmas tree. This is the only photo I have of the 3 of them at work!
Thursday, December 6, 2012
October 2012
October brought us my 40th birthday - yikes!! There's no way I can be 40! The kids had a nice time celebrating with cake on a stick from Mariano's.
Jenny was so nice to plan such an extravagant birthday celebration for me. We did the spa thing an Nordstrom, dinner at RPM, tried to go to a club but ended up at a dive bar and stayed at the Peninsula. Wow, what a gal.
We spent a fair amount of time at the cottage in October. In case you're wondering, THIS is how you jump into a leaf pile:
And Jake's version:
We love sitting around the campfire in the fall. I had to add this photo. Perhaps my kids think I take too many pictures. I see this look a lot!!
Here's a happier version.....cooking up her own dinner:
And, Jake would kill me if he knew I posted this photo, but I couldn't resist. He's really a very sweet kid.
They seem to get along pretty well when we're in Wisconsin. Maybe it's the fresh air, or maybe it's that they only have each other to play with. Either way - I'll take it. This pic made the Christmas card, but I'll share it again anyway.
And I absolutely love the genuine laughter and happiness that was caught in this image:
I made it to Megan's class Halloween party. They had a fun mummy-wrapping game and she was on the same team as her teacher.
Here are their costumes. Pretty self-explanatory:
And, boy, did they score on the candy. It's December 6th and we still have a ton leftover.
This girl loves her chocolate:
