Spring Fun!

Chicago Wolves Game

Our family was invited to the Chicago Wolves game a couple weeks ago to celebrate a friend's birthday. The kids had fun decorating signs to hold up during the game. Truthfully...we spent a lot of time doing all sorts of things to keep them entertained but watching the game didn't really hold their attention. It was still a fun experience for them and they had a blast. 

 Lost Teeth
Jordan lost his two front teeth! He was so excited! He lost one after school and then the other in the car on his way home that very same day. It's hard to tell just how toothless he is, but he's got a pretty wide gap in the front there. It's super cute. There aren't really signs of the next teeth growing in yet so he'll be missing those teeth for a while!

 Dog Sitting
Last weekend, my parents dog sat for my sister's dog Xena. She's the white dog in the picture below. Danny is holding my parents' dog, Daisy. They've only had Daisy for a few weeks. The kids love her so much. It's sweet to watch them interact with her. She has quickly found a place in their hearts.

 Silly Fake Mustaches!
Jordan went to an 80's themed birthday party! He was one of only a few boys there. Here he is with his cousin, Alex, being silly. It cracks me up how these kids can't just smile...they have to get goofy. It's fun!

 Park! Park! Park!
It was finally warm enough for a trip to the park! Since this first time, we've been to a few other parks but this was my first trip to a park this spring with the kids. It's fun to see them run around outside again. It's just been too long of a winter!

I'm so excited that the weather is finally warming up. We've gone back and forth between warm and cool days but we've been in the 50's a few time sand that's awesome! We've even had some sunshine and that's the ultimate best. 

Valentine's Day 2012

It already feels like Valentine's Day was forever ago when it was only last week. Somehow February feels like it should be short but drags on! We had fun designing Valentine's this year. I persuaded Jordan to let me make Valentine's instead of buying Valentine's and Danny has no choice, so that makes things easy (for now). I owe my inspiration to eighteen25. Those girls have some great ideas over there!

Jordan loves Star Wars so I asked him to find his most favorite Lego Star Wars toys and we took pictures of them, then I did my Photoshop (basic) magic to come up with this:

I love the irony of the hearts on their armor. Star Wars is awesome.

For Danny, I got to use my even more sophisticated (but still waaaaay basic) Photoshop magic to cut Danny out and then add text to come up with this: 

Even with my basic Photoshop skills, I was pretty proud of what I was able to do. Of course, the kids had these ultra-cute Valentine's to take to preschool and daycare and I bought them each a shirt and an activity to give from Chad and I and I thought I was doing really well until Jordan's shirt was way too big for him and he couldn't wear it right away. He was so excited and then so upset when it didn't fit. And then, I took Danny to daycare in his own new shirt that was super cute on him only to have the sitter cry out in shock when she saw his shirt wasn't red, pink or white. I had to tell myself that I did my best and that they did have nice cards to give to their friends but sometimes I am overcome by how much I want to be the best mom I can for my kids and what that means. I know they are going to have to deal with disappointment at some point in their lives but I hope and strive to be the one to disappoint them the least.

Shields and Armor

I thought it would be fun to have Jordan blog with me. I showed him the blog and explained how I write about the pictures. Then I let him pick a picture to write about. We started writing and I had to help give him prompts but this is what we got:

"On Saturday, we went with Shawn to the Art Institute in Chicago, Illinois. 

We made a project called a garland."

And then he didn't want to do any more!

Here's the picture of him with his garland:

It was neat to let him choose colors and then to cut and put them all together. I love letting kids just go wild with being creative. He was proud of his garland!

Afterwards, we wandered around the museum, slowly making our way to the armor. Shawn had told Jordan she wanted to take him to see the armor so that was our main reason for visiting. 

It was neat to see how intricately the armor was actually crafted. I can't imagine putting all of that on and then not really being able to see out of the helmets. Jordan thought it was very cool.

Shawn had lots of great stories to tell us about the artwork and the artists. She was the art teacher at Chad's school for a very long time. Jordan was especially thrilled when they found a knight, a horse, and a dragon in the gift shop that Shawn wanted to buy for him. He was so excited. Shawn told Jordan the story of Saint George when we found the painting at the museum. He was hanging on her every word as she told the story. After she was done, he said, "Is that really real?" He was so curious about dragons and if they were real. The painting was absolutely stunning. I'm so glad we got to see that after we saw the knights. I can't wait to get books from the library to read more about knights and dragons!

None of the images on the Internet do the artwork justice, but you can visit the Art Institute page that talks more about Bernat Martorell's Saint George Killing the Dragon to see the painting.

Danny was a champ for a 1 1/2 year-old at a museum where you have to be pretty quiet and not touch anything. It was great when he feel asleep. They do have a great play area for kids and he loved all the blocks!

 Chad and Shawn got to catch up a bit as they watched Danny play.

 Jordan helped me find the Thorne Room that matches the cover of Stealing Magic by Marianne Malone. It's the sequel to The 68 Rooms. I was lucky enough to get an ARC and am hoping to read it before it's out on the 24th. We were having fun looking for a white room with a chandelier and yellow chairs! We found it!

 The real Thorne Room and the cover of the book!

It was such a fun trip! 

Bloggy Friends Forever

This weekend I think I had the most fun I've ever had as a blogger!  I got to meet up with Emily Jane and some of her other bloggy friends downtown.  Emily and I started e-mailing and reading each other's blogs when we found out we both shared a love for The Time Traveler's Wife.  (You know it's my favorite book, so someone else who loves it as much as I do is basically my book soulmate!)    

It was cool to get to meet her in real life and to hang out with new friends, too.  Blogging and e-mailing has been like a new and improved version of having a penpal.  I love the idea of knowing people from other parts of the world and being able to connect with them.  Now though, I realize that it's also a bummer to have friends in other parts of the world who are so far away.  After meeting Emily it's like she's here, but then I have to remember she's not.  It's kind of like when family or friends are in town from far away...it's a blast for a few days...until they leave and then they're just not here any more to hang out with.  I guess if we can't be neighbors at least we can still keep in touch.  Horray for blogs and Facebook and Twitter! 

I have to give a shout-out to Ashley over at Sound of Silent for making Jordan this paper crane!  I somehow managed to keep track of it and not squoosh it on the way home so I could give it to Jordan.  He had fun saying the word "origami"!!!

Stranded at the Drive-In

Our friends invited us to go to the Drive-In on Friday night.  I was nervous to go because it has been sooooooooo hot lately and let me tell you, breastfeeding when it's hot, outside, under a hooter hider is not really my idea of fun.  Chad convinced me to go though and I'm so glad we all went.  I would have been sad to have missed it.  

On the way, we stopped at the cutest little candy/chocolate/ice cream shop.  It was great.  I remember having passed it before but I had never been inside.  It was awesome to see Jordan's whole face just light up at the sight of all the candy...but it was even more fun to see how excited Chad got.  (Not that I was completely giddy myself...)  We loaded up and then headed over to the drive-in.  

It took a while for the sun to go down so the movie could start but the kids had fun playing in the back of one of our cars.  Jordan has been getting together with Alex and Maddy almost weekly for two years now I would say...it's crazy now that I think of it, but it makes sense when I think about how close they are.  It seems like every time we go somewhere Jordan asks if Maddy and Alex are going to be there!  

They wouldn't smile for a picture but I think this is just about equally as cute!

Chad was teasing them and giving them high fives through the window and acting like they were killing him.  He is so fun to watch with the kids, he just cracks them up every time.  It's kind of hard to see Jordan, but he's there, too.  Love it!

Jordan and Alex

My sweet Peanut!!!!

My little string bean was there, too!!!!!!  He slept the whole time!  (...but I did have to feed him once and everyone was lucky it cooled down so I wasn't too cranky about it...)

We got great spots and were pretty close to the screen.  We saw Despicable Me which I loved.  I didn't take any pictures of the concession stand but it was built low into the ground and it reminded me of the movie Grease.  Love that movie!

I just have to add that if you haven't been to a drive-in movie recently...or ever...or ever that you could remember (like me) then I definitely recommend searching out your closest drive-in and heading over there.  While you're searching, see if you can find a chocolate/candy/ice cream shop on the way!

37 Weeks

Sheesh, I haven't posted lately...I've been in a funk in general.  It's weird to think that being home for the summer and having nothing to do makes it hard to get things done.  I do much better when I'm on a schedule.  I think it's one of the reasons it would be hard for me to be a stay-at-home mom.  I realize it's a hard job and it's just not for me.  

I love that Chad and I are both teachers and we get to stay home together all summer, but it does make for some long days sometimes...especially being pregnant and with hot weather.  The rain has been crazy lately and we haven't been to the water park because of all the rain we've had.  We have had some nice days.  

Last week I hit 37 weeks!  Here's a picture in the morning before we dropped Jordan off at camp:  

Me and the hubster

Jordan - he's looking more and more like a big boy lately!

After camp, I picked Jordan up and we met our friends at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.  We went to see their outdoor train exhibit.  They loved it!  See, Jordan is all smiles!!!

Alex, Jordan, and Maddy

Jordan, Maddy, and Alex - I actually got a picture of the all looking and smiling! Go me!

BFFs!

All my fun baby shower craftiness was for Emily this weekend!  Emily and April are my two bestest friends from college.  It was fun to get my belly together with Emily's belly.  I just had to post this picture.  I feel like I don't get to see these girls enough!

Emily, April, and Jen

Lee DeWyze Live!!!!!

I still can't believe I actually got to see Lee perform live on Friday night!  I was frantically trying to get tickets on Wednesday after he made it through to the top three.  I actually never got through to get tickets, but luckily my friend did and he got me and Kathy tickets!!!!  It was so cool to see Lee live and to see how emotionally overwhelmed he was from the whole experience.  I thought he was awesome before but he was great live and I just think about how much it means to him.  It was very fun and I can't wait to see him perform tomorrow night!  He's definitely my number one pick for Idol!!!!

A Day Out With Jordy

Yesterday Jordan got to spend the day with me. It was fun to hop in the car just the two of us and go off on our little daily adventure. We headed to meet our friends Kathy and Maddy. Jordan and I got to the restaurant a little early so we took a walk over to the train station and were there just in time to see a train go past. It kind of freaked Jordan out but we were still excited to see the train and to wave as it zoomed past. We met our friends for breakfast and then were ready to paint at Color Me Mine. After we went to see Santa this year and Jordan was upset that he didn't get the train he asked for and had to wait until Christmas, I was prepared and made sure to tell him we would paint our dinosaur and then pick them up later. Luckily, he had no problem with that. Phew.

Jordan looked at all the cool things to paint and chose a really cool T-Rex. Then he picked out his colors. Of course, black had to be one of his colors. He had fun painting the dinosaur...and the table!

Here's me with my munchkin...please ignore that I forgot to put makeup on...Jordan just looks so cute I had to post this picture despite my horribleness.
Roar!!!!!!
The kiddos having fun!
I also sponged up a tile so Jordan could put his handprint on it. (I helped Chad out here...this is my yearly Mother's Day present...but it does mean he can now get me something else...wink, wink).
Jordan playing with all the stamps that were up on a magnetic wall. Super smart...
Next up, we went to the Kohl's Children's Museum. I love to see the chicks and Jordan got to see them, too. (Although it did have me thinking in light of all the reading I've been doing about how animals like cows, chickens, and pigs are treated...)
After that we were super pooped and ready to head home. Jordan fell asleep in the car after a few minutes but woke up when we got home. We watched Alice in Wonderland until Dad came home and the boys played outside. It was such a fun day!