Christmas in Chicago

Dear Kids, 

If I were to pick one picture to sum up our Winter vacation it would be this: 

Things would be all hunky dory and then Hailey does something like this...

Overall, it was a smooth trip filled with fun events and family time. I've organized the pictures by theme for this post, so I'll start with all the sweet afternoon car nap pictures. Hailey, you are finally at an age where if you miss an afternoon nap here and there, you are still able to hold yourself together by evening. So, this trip, instead of being bound by naps, we were able to pretty much do everything that the family decided to do (except for the Lincoln Zoo one day because your tummy was hurting really bad that morning to the point where you were screaming for 10 minutes in the car and then we decided to turn around).

Sweet sleeping baby. 

Conked out from ice skating. 

We arrived in Chicago on Christmas Eve, so everyone, all 11 of us in Grandma and Grandpa's house woke up on Christmas morning and uncle Tim, who joined us later made 12 people opening gifts on Christmas morning.

 We went to church, and I don't remember much of it because Hailey, you were very restless and so I pretty much walked around the church lobby with you.

Afterwards we went to the great grandparents' house on grandpa's side for the annual Christmas extravaganza. We shared a pot luck, did the usual robber gift exchange, and as the Christmas band was setting up the set, the crowds started to thin out.

The weather was unseasonably warm, so warm that you all were able to go outside and play.

 The highlight was throwing pieces of frozen lake ice back onto the lake.

 The next day, Nathan went to play broom ball with Daddy while I stayed home with the girls. Nathan, you loved the whole experience and would not stop talking about how you almost scored 3 goals!

Hannah, you went with your cousins to Kenosha, and when you returned, you and your cousin baked Frozen cookies kits that you had both received for Christmas.

 We saw each set of the great-grandparents at least twice while we were there. One time Great-grandma even broke out her accordion and played for us.

Hailey, it was interesting watching you play with these classic toys from years past. I noticed you were matching the balls to the same color rings. While you were not looking, I mixed up the balls to see if you would notice. When you turned back, you were a bit confused at first, but then you proceeded to put each ball in the corresponding spot once again.

 The second time we visited the great-grandparents on grandma's side, we went swimming in her building's indoor pool.

 Hailey was pretty excited to run around, perhaps a bit too excited. You were having some tummy troubles, so we kept you out of the pool. I was afraid that you would fall into the water, so I took you upstairs to the game room.

We played a round of pool, which turned into an epic game of find the ball inspired by Easter egg hunts.

One afternoon we went downtown to go skating at the Ribbon. This $10 penguin rental was probably the buy of the year because Hailey, you were able to stand in front of the penguin while I (or someone else) pushed you around. 

 And then when you were ready for a rest, Hannah was able to push it around.

I mainly stuck with you girls and I managed to take a quick selfie of us with the city skyline in the background.

 Once in awhile, Nathan, you would come zooming past us.

 After skating, we walked and had lunch. On the way back, we snapped a quick picture by the Bean.

 Of the 10 days we were there, it snowed twice. The first time was on New Years Eve. We woke up to a thin blanket of snow outside.

 So grandpa capitalized on this and had you guys outside shoveling the sidewalk at 9 am.

 Hailey, you watched through the window, a bit confused at what you were looking at. It was so cold outside, so I kept you inside until it was time to go sledding. You ended up going down a few times with either me or Daddy, but then you were done and wanted to go back inside. I don't blame you, 29 degree weather is cold!

 You all sledded for about an hour and then came back inside.

 The next day, the weather was a bit warmer, so we were able to build some snowpeople in the front yard.

 Hannah, you really were very set on rolling the ball of snow around until you could not push it any longer.

 Hailey, you were so amused that you kept pointing at the snow man and giggling, "Olaf!"

The next morning, we did some more sledding, and when Hailey went back inside, we had some epic snowball fights. I was nice enough to help you each get started with a small pile of ammunition.

The day we had the snowball fight ended up being warm, so by the afternoon, almost all of the snow had melted. A few days later, it snowed the evening before we headed back to Texas. 

We spent a lot of time indoors, despite the mostly nice weather. Hailey discovered an attraction to pin ball machines. Grandpa has this antique one in the basement and you all love to play it whenever you can. Nathan, you were very excited to break a million points for your score. Let's see what you top score will be next year. 

 Another fun place we went to was the Palatine Library. Besides checking out several books and movies, we also went to the Noon Years Eve Dance party where we danced in the new years 12 hours earlier.

 I wanted to go back to Rockford at some point to go to their amazing children's museum once again. Last time, I was kind of stuck in the infant play area with Hailey, but this time, we got to explore it all in its entirety. I'm just so impressed with the quality of hands on exhibits and I think I am going to say that it is probably the BEST children's museum that I've been to.

Giant Bubble Station

Making Vapor Filled Bubbles

I snapped this picture because I just loved the wonder on Hannah's face. 

Making Corn Husk Dolls!

Nathan you probably spent an hour and a half total between building his own paper rocket and folding various oragami things. In your own words, "I'm pretty interested in paper crafts now." 

There was so much stuff for Hailey to do. 

Hannah loved the make-believe area. 

By mid afternoon, I found you just hanging out. I think at this point, you were exhausted, overwhelmed and ready to just rest. 

We mostly enjoyed spending time with all the family that we don't usually get to see. I'm so proud to see how you guys have grown over the past few years and I'm even more excited to see what is to come. 

One last picture from our return. We were taking a walk outside today and you wanted to push the stroller. You insisted on pushing the stroller through the grass, which reminded me of the Robert Frost quote, "I took the path less traveled." You are this kid. 

 If you didn't take the path less traveled, you wouldn't have found all the amazing acorns that were on the ground!

Well, that's all for now. It's 12:19 pm and Hailey, you are crying. I'm going to stop here and will probably update this post with some of Daddy's pictures, but school starts in 2 days so we'll be back on schedule before we know it.

Love,
Mommy

School is Out. I Can Finally Breathe...Maybe.

Dear Kiddos, 

The past 2 weeks have been just a slew of events one after another. While it makes for busy times, I can't really complain because they have all been awesome things. 

Let's kick off with Hannah given the opportunity to dance at the Spurs' halftime show with her dance group. The whole experience was exciting. The vastness of the arena, the basketball game and then there's the dancing on the floor. 

 The following weekend, Hannah had another recital, this time you performed your hip hop routine.

Somewhere between the 2 dance recitals, you two were a part of a church play. Nathan had a speaking part as Sheep #2 and Hannah, along with all the other kindergartners, you were one of the angels.

 Hailey, we still go to gymnastics once a week. You are slowly getting the hang of jumping on a trampoline.

 You still refuse to bear crawl across the parallel bars and insist on simply using the bars as a handle rail.

 The weather has been nice, so one afternoon, we all went to the school to practice some skating. I had just gotten new skates and you two wanted to join me to practice.

 This past Wednesday, Hannah, you and I had a date to go see a friend perform in the Nutcracker. You being my foodie child, I decided to extend our date by going out to eat first. You made an excellent choice by selecting Poke.

 I accidentally left my phone in the car during the show, so I tried to snap a quick picture after we got home. You were sleepy because it was 2 hours past your bedtime and you had fallen asleep in the car.

 I've also been volunteering at school quite a bit lately. Last week I volunteered the entire morning to help out with Kinder's holidays around the world event. On Tuesday, I went to Hannah's class to help out with gingerbread house building and on Thursday, you both had your class parties at school.

 Hailey's been loving raspberries and blackberries. I kind of have a hunch that grapes just don't sit well with Hailey because the next day after eating a handful of grapes, you kept complaining about wanting to go "poo poo potty."

 Thursday evening, you two pretty much made dinner for the family. Ya'll helped cut the chicken, fill and wrap the chicken pockets. I simply seasoned and made he chicken filling. It was quite delicious.

Today we had a gingerbread decorating party at our house, so yesterday, we made gingerbread houses. I had each of you draw what you wanted your house to look like and I did my best to create a pattern for the cookies. 

The completed basic house.

As people began to arrive with sweet treats, we loaded up the candy table. As you can see, there's a plethora of candies. 

 You each grabbed a plate of candy and went to town decorating.

 Even Hailey you decorated your own house, however, something tells me that you had a lot of candy today.

The finished products 

 After everything was said and done, I caught these 2 sneaks picking out candy from the buffet table.

 And we couldn't have ended the event without getting a good group photo of the kids. We started taking pictures 7 years ago and we plan on keeping the tradition alive.

 After everyone left, Daddy and I let you all go to town with your gingerbread houses. I'm surprised that you all showed relatively good restraint.

 I'm hoping you all don't get tummy aches.

It's been a long day for Hailey... 

As I'm typing this, my eyelids are drooping down heavily. I'm going to have to stop here for now and possibly come back later with a story. 

Until next week, 

Love, 

Mommy