finally a Christmas update...

Yes its February. I know I'm late with this but better late than never! Here we go!

We built a Gingerbread house for the first time, what FUN that was!

CHRISTMAS PRESCHOOL SING

The girls had their Christmas sing at preschool and sang many songs, including Happy Birthday Jesus, and it was my birthday that day too!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

Yes there were 38 candles on the cake this year! Had fun celebrating at home with the family. Then out with the adults the Friday afterwards to McNally's and then The Bee Hive I think it was... fun being OUT!

GIRLS BAKING DAY

Each year we get all the girls together - no matter who is here for Christmas cookie baking! This year was super fun to have Aunt Hannah join us. We baked our Hungarian Kifli cookies (which is similar to the Klotchky cookies that everyone knows as the polish version. Also made were the famous spritz cookies, Hershey kisses cookies too. Brighid had made gingerbread, snickerdoodles and brought some along to share as well. We had a great day!!

CHRISTMAS EVE

We went to Uncle Ed's house on Christmas eve for a nice visit with Ed, Conor, Brighid, Uncle Mike, Aunt Hannah and the girls. It was snowy and just a fantastic evening. Uncle Ed made special Santa drinks (kiddie cocktails).





Uncle Ed's old fashioned Christmas tree complete with live, shocking tinsel!

Picked out the perfect cookies to leave for Santa, and one final pose in front of the tree before bed: (check out our new Santa PJs from Grandma Ann!)

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas morning the girls were so excited that Santa came and got many games to play together including UNO, a new Candyland, BusyTown and puzzles, along with some new clothes, Rapunzel Barbies, New Princess Nightlights and Minnie Mouse Hats. Big presents from Santa, as the girls wrote letters to Santa for American Girl Dolls this year and they were extra good!


Nora's doll came complete with glasses, just like hers!



Christmas dinner included our standard fare of Standing Rib Roast, Yorkshire Pudding, mashed potatoes Au Jus. Our dinner guests this year included Hannah's friend Julia from Indianapolis. We enjoyed her company as she helped with the girls, made and brought cookies and peppermint bark, and played games with the girls too. Betty also joined us for dinner this year. We brought the kitchen table into the foyer next to the dining room so that we were all together. Later we visited our best neighbors for a cup of holiday cheer. We had a great Christmas.


We missed grandpa this year, he is the one that instilled this holiday feast and traditional Christmas fare, complete with the waterford crystal champagne glasses at dinner. Thanks Dad!

NEW YEARS EVE

It was 50 degrees this year for New Year's eve! How fun the girls got to do some chalk, even though the ground was wet from the melted snow.

Off to the neighbors for a NYE Party: What a fun way to ring in the new year. The girls did get to bed early though with their cousins Conor and Brighid babysitting for us.

here's to 2011

Lots of indoor activities are necessary as this seems like the coldest winter in quite awhile. Tons of snow, horrible temperatures and wind chills WAY below zero. So over the winter!!

FUN WITH FINGERPAINT

we are having to do lots of indoor activities since the Blizzard of FEB 2, 2011. Some blizzard photos are below.

ME BEHIND THE SNOWDRIFT:

DRIFTS OVER THE GIRLS HEADS

FRONT OF THE HOUSE

THAT'S NORA FINDING ICE CHUNKS

Birthdays and Football

Happy Birthday to our daddy:

Everyone gets in on the act of being in the background, even Uncle Mike in the kitchen. For Brent's bday this year we actually headed over to the neighbors for the superbowl. A custom Blackhawks cake was made especially for Brent. It turned out great!


We had a fun day celebrating!

Hello Summer... In FEB

today was 55 degrees. Here it is, the WARM few days we get every February that no one believes me... and its here today, it was fantastic. A bit windy but WARM!!!

Love it!

Girls had a great first Valentine's Day party at preschool, they filled out their preschool valentines and then another batch for their daycare and neighbor friends. They did such a great job writing the names down from the class list and then crossing off each name as they went. Took awhile but they did each one themselves! Was proud of them.

Thoughts of St. Patricks Day are coming. Can't wait for the day O the Irish!

Winter fun

AN ALMOST WINTER DAY

We went to the Almost Winter day for pony rides, hot chocolate and petting zoo in South Elgin.

It was great pony rides were only $2. what a deal, the girls were super excited. Finches met us up as well. They ran out of hot chocolate though. Santa appeared and sang Christmas carols too. Was a fun night even had Bon Fires to keep warm.



Next year we'll get there a bit earlier for some hot chocolate and the free s'mores!

THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving we spent at the Finches house. We loved our turkey and all the fixings. The girls had a great time playing with their friends while mommy and Denise got to sit after dinner and flip through all the "Black Friday" Ads. I think that was the best part!

OUR CHRISTMAS TREE
(GIGGLES)

CHICAGO WEEKEND

The following weekend we went to Chicago for our weekend get away. We took a half day from work, picked the girls up from preschool and off we went to the city! The girls were very excited. They fell asleep 5 minutes before we got to the hotel, and yes we actually got there in record time in like 45 minutes! We stayed at the Marriott, using our gift card finally from our 10 year anniversary. Friday we went to a late lunch at Bubba Gump (Nora especially loved the name of the place, as it sounded like bubble gum).



Then to the Childrens museum at Navy Pier. After that we went to look at the Macy's windows, spend a little bit of time at the Christkindlmarkt in Daley Plaza. There was hardly a line to see Santa so we did that, and then bough the girls the heart shaped German Cookies.

GERMAN COOKIES

After that we went to the "Bean" at Millennium park to hear the carolers at 6pm.

From there we met Uncle Mike and Aunt Hannah at Pizzeria Due for dinner.

PIZZERIA DUE

WINTERWONDERFEST

Saturday we went to Winterwonderfest at Navy Pier. Was a lot of fun riding rides and enjoying all the decorations. Next we went back to the hotel to swim in the pool and hot tub and relax. We met The Dorns at Rosebud for dinner and then back to their house for a bit to relax and catch up. Sunday was our last day and we went to The American Girl Store to have a look around, then to the John Hancock tower to see the city from way up high. After that we went to visit Uncle Mike and Aunt Hannah as they are only a 10 minute ride from the city -- on a Sunday!

What a great weekend, we did it all! And had a great time. We got our first snow while we were in the city and it was so magical with all the twinkling lights!

Disney /Florida Trip September 7-14

Our first Disney Trip as a family. How exciting! We went the day after labor day, for 4 days. Stayed at the Polynesian Hotel. Right on the monorail (a must for families with kids in strollers!). We told the girls we were going to Disney world about 10 minutes before we boarded the plane. All along they thought we were going to visit Grandma Ann (that was only partially true).

We expected the girls to be more excited, but they had never been there before so what did we really expect...

DAY 1
On the plane, Erin threw up, poor kid. below a pic before she got sick.

Not sure if she really was sick or nerves or airsickness. Just as the flight attendant was next to me serving drinks. I already had the sick bag in my hand, but the first instance got all over her. A planner, I had a ziplock bag in my carry on and a change of outfit for Erin. No one knew she got sick on the plane since the drink cart was next to me--hiding it!





We left our house at 4am for an early flight to Disney. If my dad taught me something when traveling it was "be at the pool at noon". We checked into our hotel expecting our room to not be ready, but it was so we dropped off our bags, and picked up 2 autograph photo books for the girls, rode the monorail to Epcot.

It was super hot in early September, as we walked through to head to Germany for lunch. There we found Snow White.

We got in line right away and were SO excited to see her and be able to take a picture and get her autograph. After that we ate lunch and then walked around the park, after we got rained on of course! We also waited in line to "Meet all the characters" where Mickey, Minnie, and all we got autographs and got to see them up close. I was worried about Nora as she had started to be afraid of "Large mascot/characters" from parties at Chuck E Cheese and parades that we attended only a week before. As long as mom or dad were close by, she was ok with it. She just ADORED the princesses, as they weren't wearing giant heads or costumes that were freaky. -least not to her. After Imaginarium tour and finding nemo ride we were ready to head back to the hotel for dinner and to recoup. It was super hot and humid.



After dinner we went to our room and changed into our bathing suits. The pool/beach at the Polynesian overlooked the lagoon and Cinderella's castle, and they piped in music from the magic kingdom for their fireworks show. Also there was a lights parade on the lagoon itself. Nora -- not a fan of fireworks was pleased to watch the show from farther away. The pool was great with the hawaiian theme of the hotel and the sand/beach was where we sat on lounge chairs to watch the fireworks. After that a few more minutes for a swim, then off to bed to dream of Mickey.





DAY 2
Woke up and met Grandma Ann at the hotel, she had the room next to ours we were super excited! She brought lots of goodies for our trip especially for the girls such as fruit snacks, juice boxes, bottled water that we loaded up the stroller with our goodies and headed to Magic Kingdom.



The girls LOVED the Dumbo Ride and the Large Merry Go Round right by Cinderella's castle. At around 11am we went to the Bippity Boppity Boutique where I told the girls that daddy called to see if we could have lunch with all of the princesses, and would they like to do that? Yes!! Then said daddy arranged for the girls to have their hair and makeup done to be princesses for the fancy princess lunch. I pulled out the Snow White and Cinderella dresses we brought from home, they escorted us into a fancy changing room, then waited our turn.





The fairy godmother in training each did Nora and Erin's hair and makeup, complete with Fairy dust, a princess crown and sparkling Mickey Barrette. They were so excited and felt like princesses. Outside we found the official Fairy Godmother and the girls just were thrilled. Cinderella's Castle lunch was great. A wait in line for a picture with Cinderella, then at lunch each princess came to our table to talk to the girls and give an autograph. Erin was especially excited that Snow White gave her a kiss with her red lipstick and wouldn't let me remove it. The food was really good even the sprinkles on the kids' sundaes were in mickey mouse shapes.

Arial and the girls at our table at lunch

After our lunch we went back to ride all the fun rides, They Just LOVED The teacups! Peter Pan's flight, Dumbo, Merry go round again, haunted mansion, enchanted tiki room, pirates of the Caribbean. Everyone in the park loved the girls' dresses and hair that we had people ask if they could take their pictures.



On the way back from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride the person working there a pirate said, "Welcome back Snow White and Cinderella" the girls were just thrilled.

It was super hot that day we kept trying to find air conditioned rides. The people mover was good, Monsters Inc Laugh floor was nice and cool.. the buzz lightyear ride was the best!




For dinner that night we were late coming back from the park it was too late to get a table at our hotel, so we went to the Grand Floridian for dinner. Excellent food, very fancy. we got to watch the fireworks during dinner this night (yes we were eating dinner at 9pm!). After dinner we rushed to catch the last monorail back to the hotel and right to bed...




DAY 3:
Magic Kingdom again for us as the girls really did love the merry go round, dumbo and Peter Pan rides. Grandma Ann opted to stay at the hotel pool to relax this day. We did our usual rides, and snacks, saw the occasional character - after the magic carpet rides and jungle cruise we waited in line to meet Jasmine and Alladin. It was SO hot for us that at 2pm we opted to head back to the hotel pool to cool off ourselves.



The girls LOVED the pool. They got to wear their swimmies and were very brave little swimmers. It felt great to cool off and relax a bit.

Then we had to get ready for dinner at Chef Mickey's - it was very good. They had great kid-friendly food, again very disnified (even the noodles were in mickey shapes!) We went to leave the hotel and the monorail was not working... so mom drove us to the Contemporary hotel for dinner. All the characters came to our table during dinner. Nora did well but kept her eyes on them like a hawk. She could barely eat, she didn't want to be taken by surprise! On a trip to the bathroom, we missed Donald Duck coming to our table. we had to wait longer for him to make a trip back to us.. thank goodness!!



After dinner we went back to our hotel, the monorails were working again, and at about 8 or so we headed back to the Magic Kingdom for the fireworks show. This time we were going to watch it right there. It was truly amazing. So wonderful to see the girls' faces so happy and full of wonder.

waiting for the parade to start:

After the fireworks they had their electric lights parade which was amazing. We left and headed back to the hotel with lots of other people! It was pretty crowded, I couldn't imagine going during the summertime where crowds were even larger.

DAY 4:
This is our last day at the Magic Kingdom. We checked out of our hotel, headed to the park and enjoyed the favorite rides. We even got to meet Woody and Jessie today the girls really loved that, especially Nora who decided to be Jessie for halloween this year.


We watched another parade during the day this time was really nice! An early dinner for us and we headed out to go to Grandma's house, about a 1 hour and 30 minute ride. A long ride, the girls fell asleep in the car, for a bit, Erin stayed awake the longest, I thought for sure they would both be out like lights. Finally made it to Grandma's and off to bed we went.



DAY 5:
Beach today.






Being so tired from all the running around it was nice to head to the beach and SIT DOWN. Of course the girls wanted to go in the ocean even with their lifevests daddy had to take them in as there was a huge drop off and undercurrent. I was so happy that he obliged on more than one occasion! A great beach lunch that day was fantastic with a beautiful view. What a great day! Pizza for dinner was good - love the NY Style dough. shhh.. don't tell anyone!



DAY 6:
Today went to Ken's for a pool day and bbq. The girls loved swimming in the pool with their lifevests on they gained lots of skill and courage! We were proud of them. We had a good day visiting.

DAY 7:
Back to the beach!


Aunt Charlotte came to visit the girls and we had a nice visit with her. She spoiled her grand nieces with books and toys. We girls go to sit at the table and chat it was so nice! Back to Mulligan's for dinner with mom and Ken. We really liked that place it was super close and thought the food /view was great. We were sad that we had to leave for home the next morning.

Back home the plane ride home was better than the ride there. I was at the ready with Erin and the sick bag but she was just fine this time. Thank Goodness! Our disney trip was really wonderful, the girls had a blast, it was so worth it to spend the time with our girls with undivided attention in the best place on Earth.