Today Dan and I got to see two incredible shows. The first, Star Wars: In Concert was absolutly fantastic! It was the music from all 6 movies with movie clips and lasers played by the Royal Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra and Choir! Even if you were not the Star Wars buff that I am, you could appreciate the pure genius of the show. And the show was narrated by Anthony Daniels, aka C-3p0. It was a fantastic experience at the United Center, which you wouldn't think would be a good arena for that quality of music, but it was, oh it was. The stadium rocked to the symphony-just amazing! Yes, my inner geek was out in full force today!
Of course Dan and I got a chuckle about finally being in a place where the line for the men's bathroom was longer than the women's! We would have loved to take the kids with us, but unfortunately we thought they were a bit too young to fully appreciate the experience.
Then we had to rush off to get Megan to her school performance this evening. Her school had a live nativity, cookie walk and Christmas concert that was opened by the Kindergarteners. They said The Five Candles poem and then sang "O Come Little Children," not a song I had ever heard of until this year, but was very sweet. Megan did a great job performing in the cold! She does love to sing!
After her class performed we went in to buy some cookies, and were both happy and sad that all the cookies we made were already gone. Happy that they must have looked appetizing and everyone bought them early, but sad because we were counting on eating those cookies we worked so hard to make this week-8 dozen!
We stayed to watch the 8th graders perform the live nativity-but I tell you that baby Jesus looked like he was about 18 months old! Then we watched the first, second, third and fourth graders sing their songs. That was all the cold we could have, so home we went! But another good night!
Oh, and I totally forgot to mention our evening last night with the Troyers. We went to the Bolingbrook Promenade (a mall). Every hour on the hour they have a Christmas lightshow set to music from the Transiberian Orchestra. We watched the show then headed to Bass Pro Shop as we heard Santa was going to be there. We head to the line, and the girls asks us if we have a Bass Pass. She did not explain well what they were for, only telling us she didn't have anymore, and we could wait, but we most likely wouldn't get to see Santa. Kate, Joe and I take the kids over by the boats, no big deal. Dan goes over to the service desks, asks around, gets a pass, we end up getting in front of all these other people and wait like 5 minutes to get our free picture with Santa! It was great, and mostly a total miscommunication, but it worked for us! Then we did a little more shopping, had a late dinner, and a lot of fun!
Another busy weekend for us! And this week looks to be a busy one as well!
Sunday, December 06, 2009
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Pics of the Parade
Happy Thanksgiving!
He really looks like a boxer doesn't he? I don't know where he gets all the bruises!
The kids got to sit in the trolley for a few minutes to warm up before the parade got under way!
Surviving our busy Thanksgiving weekend!
On Tuesday afternoon we had Megan's parent-teacher conference. She is doing well in school although she still needs to work on some things in the social arena-like not having to be first or the only one who gets to sit next to the teacher or the one with the right answer all the time. Her teacher says that that actually has been getting better over the last few weeks. We'll work on that. The other thing was tying shoelaces. So Wednesday we bought her a pair of tie shoes, and now she is a master! When she puts her mind to something she is incredible!
On Wednesday we put up our Christmas village and of course the train!! The kids were so excited they were really driving Dan nuts!
Thursday morning I ran in the turkey trot as I have been doing for the last few years. Have I mentioned I don't like running in the slush? It actually wasn't that bad, compared to the Shamrock Shuffle, but it was sleeting the whole time during the race and some parts of the street were a little slick, but no injuries to report so that was good. Then we headed off to the Ryan Thanksgiving dinner. As usual it was a great time with great people and great food!
Friday morning I went Black Friday shopping. I got up at 3 and headed out the door. My first stop was Toys r Us-they had door busters at midnight and 5 am so I was hoping to avoid the madness at 3:30, and it worked. I was in and out in about 20 minutes-got what I needed, it wasn't on sale, but it was the last one they had left so I choose to think of that as a victory!
Off to Kohl's. I was in line when they opened the doors, and they gave us nice sheets of paper with directions to where all the doorbusters were located and exactly how many they had in the store. Unfortunately one of the items I was looking for said they had NONE in the store, so I went for the other items on my list and I was out of there in less than 20 minutes! No line at all at the checkout. So far, pretty good.
Next stop Sears. Had a little trouble located things, but only because I had no idea what I was looking for, but once I found it, I was set. Got that loaded into my car (and it was heavy!!!!) and headed across the street to Target.
Got in line at Target a few minutes before they opened, got in, and got a few more items off my list. Of course I can always puts around in Target so I shopped a bit, got a coffee at the Starbucks inside the store-mmmm, and then headed to the checkout. I was not as efficient in Target so I did come across some lines at the checkout, but it certainly could have been worse!
At 6 I went to the Learning Express, one of my new favorite stores. The people there are so nice and the items are so cute, albeit a bit pricey, but the things I wanted did have good sales!
Off to Menards. And here is where this pleasant experience began to go awry. My first mistake apparently was not being here when it opened at 6-it took me 10 minutes to get through the parking lot, and I ended up parking 2 lots over. Then I had to wait to get a cart-fat lot of good that got me as it was so hard to manuever through the store because it was jam-packed with people, carts, lumber carts, and the doorbusters. I found a few things then headed to the checkout. I was seriously in line to check out for almost 45 minutes! Insane!
I went home hoping to get in a nap, but that wasn't in the cards so we put up our Christmas tree and the outside decorations! The it was off to the Naperville Electric Lights Parade. Both kids were in it this year with McNulty Irish dancers. They looked so cute, but unfortunately by the time the parade stepped off Ryan was so cold he decided to ride in the wagon. I'll have to post some pictures and maybe even a video or two!
Tonight we have the 9th annual pub crawl. Can't believe we have been doing it for 9 years already! Looking forward to it as usual!
On Wednesday we put up our Christmas village and of course the train!! The kids were so excited they were really driving Dan nuts!
Thursday morning I ran in the turkey trot as I have been doing for the last few years. Have I mentioned I don't like running in the slush? It actually wasn't that bad, compared to the Shamrock Shuffle, but it was sleeting the whole time during the race and some parts of the street were a little slick, but no injuries to report so that was good. Then we headed off to the Ryan Thanksgiving dinner. As usual it was a great time with great people and great food!
Friday morning I went Black Friday shopping. I got up at 3 and headed out the door. My first stop was Toys r Us-they had door busters at midnight and 5 am so I was hoping to avoid the madness at 3:30, and it worked. I was in and out in about 20 minutes-got what I needed, it wasn't on sale, but it was the last one they had left so I choose to think of that as a victory!
Off to Kohl's. I was in line when they opened the doors, and they gave us nice sheets of paper with directions to where all the doorbusters were located and exactly how many they had in the store. Unfortunately one of the items I was looking for said they had NONE in the store, so I went for the other items on my list and I was out of there in less than 20 minutes! No line at all at the checkout. So far, pretty good.
Next stop Sears. Had a little trouble located things, but only because I had no idea what I was looking for, but once I found it, I was set. Got that loaded into my car (and it was heavy!!!!) and headed across the street to Target.
Got in line at Target a few minutes before they opened, got in, and got a few more items off my list. Of course I can always puts around in Target so I shopped a bit, got a coffee at the Starbucks inside the store-mmmm, and then headed to the checkout. I was not as efficient in Target so I did come across some lines at the checkout, but it certainly could have been worse!
At 6 I went to the Learning Express, one of my new favorite stores. The people there are so nice and the items are so cute, albeit a bit pricey, but the things I wanted did have good sales!
Off to Menards. And here is where this pleasant experience began to go awry. My first mistake apparently was not being here when it opened at 6-it took me 10 minutes to get through the parking lot, and I ended up parking 2 lots over. Then I had to wait to get a cart-fat lot of good that got me as it was so hard to manuever through the store because it was jam-packed with people, carts, lumber carts, and the doorbusters. I found a few things then headed to the checkout. I was seriously in line to check out for almost 45 minutes! Insane!
I went home hoping to get in a nap, but that wasn't in the cards so we put up our Christmas tree and the outside decorations! The it was off to the Naperville Electric Lights Parade. Both kids were in it this year with McNulty Irish dancers. They looked so cute, but unfortunately by the time the parade stepped off Ryan was so cold he decided to ride in the wagon. I'll have to post some pictures and maybe even a video or two!
Tonight we have the 9th annual pub crawl. Can't believe we have been doing it for 9 years already! Looking forward to it as usual!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Lose vs. Loose
Ok people, I am not the grammar/vocabulary police, but I have come across this mistake at least a dozen times this past week alone, and it is just plain making me crazy!
Lose-verb It means misplace something, no longer have it
Loose-adj It means ill-fitting, too big
Please STOP mixing them!!!
You may lose weight which will cause your pants to fit loosely. But you cannot loose your mind, of course at this rate, I just may!
Lose-verb It means misplace something, no longer have it
Loose-adj It means ill-fitting, too big
Please STOP mixing them!!!
You may lose weight which will cause your pants to fit loosely. But you cannot loose your mind, of course at this rate, I just may!
Saturday, November 21, 2009
I love my son...
I love my son, I love my son, I love my son, I love my son...
I need to keep reminding myself of that! Today is one of those days his three-year-oldness is really getting to me!
He was sent to his room because I got tired of him throwing things in the house for the last time even though he was reminded gently and then even not-so-gently that we don't throw things in the house.
So a few minutes later I go up to his room to talk to him about why I was upset. He was smiling the whole time as he said, "I was frowing fings 'cuz I really like to frow fings!" Then he says, "Do you like my stickers?" as he points to his decals that he had taken off his wall, stuck to the carpet and tehn to each other. So I am concentrating on unsticking them from each other and removing all the little hairs all over when Megan comes in and starts asking about what smells. Now, I had noticed it, but couldn't place the scent, and thought it was some kind of cleaning product in the air since we were cleaning downstairs. I put down the decals and really start to concentrate on the smell. It almost smells like something is burning. But what? Nothing is on the stove or in the oven?
Then Megan says, "It's his light!" I turn around and sure enough there are 3 more tiny decals stuck to his lightbulb, starting to smoke! Another minute, probably 30 seconds, and they would have started a fire. I am quite sure! Luckily this was a safety issue, so I had to direct my focus to the lightbulb and burning stickers rather than his hide or he wouldn't be sitting for a week!
After I cleaned it up he came up and said, "Sorry Mommy," with his head hung low.
Yes, girls have their issues, but I am quite sure they would not BURN MY HOUSE DOWN just to see what would happen!
I just have to remind myself:
I love my son, I love my son, I love my son!
I need to keep reminding myself of that! Today is one of those days his three-year-oldness is really getting to me!
He was sent to his room because I got tired of him throwing things in the house for the last time even though he was reminded gently and then even not-so-gently that we don't throw things in the house.
So a few minutes later I go up to his room to talk to him about why I was upset. He was smiling the whole time as he said, "I was frowing fings 'cuz I really like to frow fings!" Then he says, "Do you like my stickers?" as he points to his decals that he had taken off his wall, stuck to the carpet and tehn to each other. So I am concentrating on unsticking them from each other and removing all the little hairs all over when Megan comes in and starts asking about what smells. Now, I had noticed it, but couldn't place the scent, and thought it was some kind of cleaning product in the air since we were cleaning downstairs. I put down the decals and really start to concentrate on the smell. It almost smells like something is burning. But what? Nothing is on the stove or in the oven?
Then Megan says, "It's his light!" I turn around and sure enough there are 3 more tiny decals stuck to his lightbulb, starting to smoke! Another minute, probably 30 seconds, and they would have started a fire. I am quite sure! Luckily this was a safety issue, so I had to direct my focus to the lightbulb and burning stickers rather than his hide or he wouldn't be sitting for a week!
After I cleaned it up he came up and said, "Sorry Mommy," with his head hung low.
Yes, girls have their issues, but I am quite sure they would not BURN MY HOUSE DOWN just to see what would happen!
I just have to remind myself:
I love my son, I love my son, I love my son!
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Still riding my Bon Jovi high!
OK, so I am SUPER excited! I am going to see Bon Jovi next year. TWICE!
A group of us were really jazzed about getting tickets for the Soldier Field show on July 30, then we got even more jazzed since we got tickets to see them in Vegas on March 6. Vegas baby Vegas! We got a pretty decent price for airfare, and we will be gone less than 24 hours. Of course the prospect of pulling another all-nighter is a bit daunting, having just come out of one a few days ago, but I would do ANYTHING for Jon!
For those of you who are still following DWTS, I am very disappointed in this season. So much so, I may have to stop watching. Really, Kelly has NO business being in the finals, and while I really enjoy watching Donnie, he is not finals material either. The crappy thing is I don't actually like Mya, but she is the only one left who can dance, and if she doesn't win, this popularity contest is OVER in my house!
A group of us were really jazzed about getting tickets for the Soldier Field show on July 30, then we got even more jazzed since we got tickets to see them in Vegas on March 6. Vegas baby Vegas! We got a pretty decent price for airfare, and we will be gone less than 24 hours. Of course the prospect of pulling another all-nighter is a bit daunting, having just come out of one a few days ago, but I would do ANYTHING for Jon!
For those of you who are still following DWTS, I am very disappointed in this season. So much so, I may have to stop watching. Really, Kelly has NO business being in the finals, and while I really enjoy watching Donnie, he is not finals material either. The crappy thing is I don't actually like Mya, but she is the only one left who can dance, and if she doesn't win, this popularity contest is OVER in my house!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
I'm exhausted
We survived another Girls Night Out last night. Many of my cousins and sisters, Amy, Dawn, Marybeth, Molly, Annie, Kate, Jen Holly and I had a great night at my house relaxing, drinking and playing games. As usual we had lots of laughs and lots of fun.
We started our evening with some homemade chili made by Amy and lots of chocolate. We played a conversation starter game, flippy cup, drinking jenga, more flippy cup and a little Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii. We even had a blind taste test between Miller Lite, MGD, MGD 64 and Old Style. We were surprised that none of us got them all right! Somehow it ended up being 5:30 am, and some of us just decided it was better to stay up all night than get a bit of shut eye, so we did. In all today I squeaked in about an hour and a half of sleep all day. I plan to go to bed momentarily!
My parents were kind enough to take in Dan and the kids as they were evicted from the house. The kids had a great time at their sleepover with Mimi and Papa. Ryan crashed at about 5:00 this evening and appears to be out for the night. We are all in rough shape and in need of a good night's sleep!
We started our evening with some homemade chili made by Amy and lots of chocolate. We played a conversation starter game, flippy cup, drinking jenga, more flippy cup and a little Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii. We even had a blind taste test between Miller Lite, MGD, MGD 64 and Old Style. We were surprised that none of us got them all right! Somehow it ended up being 5:30 am, and some of us just decided it was better to stay up all night than get a bit of shut eye, so we did. In all today I squeaked in about an hour and a half of sleep all day. I plan to go to bed momentarily!
My parents were kind enough to take in Dan and the kids as they were evicted from the house. The kids had a great time at their sleepover with Mimi and Papa. Ryan crashed at about 5:00 this evening and appears to be out for the night. We are all in rough shape and in need of a good night's sleep!
Monday, November 09, 2009
Yikes...it's been a while!
Hmm, quick recap...
We all celebrated Halloween and Erin's first birthday last week, lots of fun. Megan was a bride-she was inspired by all the weddings she went to this year, ironically all Uncle Drew and Aunt Jenny's! Ryan was Buzz Lightyear and Dan and I were Woody and Jessie from the Toy Story series as well. It was lots of fun to see Dan really getting into the costuming. He made both mine and his from various treasures found in a couple of goodwill/resale shops. We'll have to post some pictures!
Last week we had a busy week with parent-teacher conferences. Several long days with the kids going to school then off to Gramma and Grampa's for the evening then back to do the same thing over again. Luckily for us Dan, Ryan and I had the day off on Friday to relax! Poor Megan still had school. Mmmm, just think, next year BOTH kids will have scholl and Dan and I will have 1 whole day to ourselves, oops getting ahead of myself, that is a whole year away!
On Saturday we celebrated Dan's birthday by taking the kids bowling. It was cosmic bowling and we had bumpers, and not to brag but I DID have the highest score, of course i won't say what my score was because we did have bumpers and that was still how bad I bowl! I was really pushing to do something outdoors since we had a surprising 71 degree afternoon in November, but the rest of the gang wanted bowling so I was outnumbered. Just for the record, I am not in favor of everyone getting to vote when they are not voting with me-I really don't think my family is a democracy, clearly I am the monarch!
After bowling we headed to the kids' favorite restaurant, Chili's-the Red Pepper, as that is how it is known in our house, for a little dinner. Apparently the kids were starved before we even put in an order Ryan kept flagging down the wait staff shouting "Over here. You forgot to bring our food!" We ordered an appetizer plate and they both inhaled the chicken. When it was gone, Ryan continued asking the wait staff when he was getting more chicken and why they didn't bring his corndog yet! The natives were getting really restless and Dan reached to grab something from Ryan and totally knocks over his giant beer glass which shatters on the table and spilled all over Megan. The poor girl was soaked in beer! If we weren't living it, it would have been hysterical; at the time we had only a mild case of the chuckles! We DID survive and came home with a few laughs and an adventure! We'll have to think of a way to top it next year...
Well that was a recap, I guess it really wasn't all that brief.
Looking forward to Girls Night Out on Saturday right here! I am sure we will have many laughs and a few good stories!
We all celebrated Halloween and Erin's first birthday last week, lots of fun. Megan was a bride-she was inspired by all the weddings she went to this year, ironically all Uncle Drew and Aunt Jenny's! Ryan was Buzz Lightyear and Dan and I were Woody and Jessie from the Toy Story series as well. It was lots of fun to see Dan really getting into the costuming. He made both mine and his from various treasures found in a couple of goodwill/resale shops. We'll have to post some pictures!
Last week we had a busy week with parent-teacher conferences. Several long days with the kids going to school then off to Gramma and Grampa's for the evening then back to do the same thing over again. Luckily for us Dan, Ryan and I had the day off on Friday to relax! Poor Megan still had school. Mmmm, just think, next year BOTH kids will have scholl and Dan and I will have 1 whole day to ourselves, oops getting ahead of myself, that is a whole year away!
On Saturday we celebrated Dan's birthday by taking the kids bowling. It was cosmic bowling and we had bumpers, and not to brag but I DID have the highest score, of course i won't say what my score was because we did have bumpers and that was still how bad I bowl! I was really pushing to do something outdoors since we had a surprising 71 degree afternoon in November, but the rest of the gang wanted bowling so I was outnumbered. Just for the record, I am not in favor of everyone getting to vote when they are not voting with me-I really don't think my family is a democracy, clearly I am the monarch!
After bowling we headed to the kids' favorite restaurant, Chili's-the Red Pepper, as that is how it is known in our house, for a little dinner. Apparently the kids were starved before we even put in an order Ryan kept flagging down the wait staff shouting "Over here. You forgot to bring our food!" We ordered an appetizer plate and they both inhaled the chicken. When it was gone, Ryan continued asking the wait staff when he was getting more chicken and why they didn't bring his corndog yet! The natives were getting really restless and Dan reached to grab something from Ryan and totally knocks over his giant beer glass which shatters on the table and spilled all over Megan. The poor girl was soaked in beer! If we weren't living it, it would have been hysterical; at the time we had only a mild case of the chuckles! We DID survive and came home with a few laughs and an adventure! We'll have to think of a way to top it next year...
Well that was a recap, I guess it really wasn't all that brief.
Looking forward to Girls Night Out on Saturday right here! I am sure we will have many laughs and a few good stories!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
