Nora had a birthday, shout HOORAY! March

 The day was all about her- PURPLE, princesses, and fun! We spend the day at the Bounce House gym with friends and enjoyed a quiet night at home.  Cousins were coming in town for spring break, so we invited them to join in on the fun!

 

 

 Stacking blocks with his brother.  She is a great sharer (when she wants to be)

 We had to bust out the Rapunzel wig from Auntie Katie (Christmas) to complete the look.

 Birthday cupcakes with cousins

And Spiderman helping to save the princess.  Nora is a great damsel in distress!

Chicago Getaway- March

Our friends were in town for a dental convention.  We visited in Milwaukee earlier in the week, but wanted to get away to enjoy a night in the big city.  Good food, swimming at the hotel, and enjoying a little quiet time to talk and catch up with old friends.

After a lot of work to get kids covered overnight (my parents had commitments both in the evening and morning, but they were happy to have them sleep overnight if we could get sitters for when they were busy) Nora ended up being sick.  Not bad enough to cancel our trip, just bad enough we couldn't leave her behind.

What was planned as a quiet getaway with eachother, turned into a family affair.  We don't seem to have great luck when we plan to go away for the night.  

I spent the evening at the hotel swimming with the kids, McDonalds for dinner, and a movie.  Dan went out to dinner, and came back to the hotel with our friends.
One thing we know how to do, is make the most out of a crummy situation.  We still had a great time and loved our little family getaway to the BIG CITY!

DISNEY ON ICE- February

I have been *hinting* at going to Disney with the kids for quite some time.  Dan wants to wait until our kids will remember it- understandable- but when Disneyland (in CALIFORNIA) opened a McQueen/Radiator Springs section of the park I really tried to sell the idea.
Still a FAIL- so I bought our family tickets to Disney on Ice!  The kids loved it and I got just enough of the Disney Magic that we can hold off a little longer before planning  a big trip to Disney.

We went downtown, found our seats with friends, and LOVED the show which featured many of our favorite movies.  Both kids wore their Mickey Mouse sweatshirts, and I was almost brought to tears just watching them and their excitement when Mickey and friends took the ice the first time.

The great news- Disney on ice comes every year!  I can't wait for next year!

4 Year Old Birthday- FEBRUARY

We finally got there- 4 YEARS OLD!  Jack looks forward to his birthday starting the day after Christmas each year. This year he was especially excited to have Mario Brothers/Luigi birthday party with his one big kid friend.  We babysitting swap with our friends, so it gave us the perfect opportunity to PARTY!
Grandparents, cousins, parties, and plain old fun always make birthdays something to remember!

 Mario figures I bought for his cupcakes (didn't ever actually make it on the cupcakes.  Just more toys- but I liked how he matched them up to dance/kiss.)

 Our date babysitting swap/ birthday party for Jack.

 We made fire and ice-balls to kill the mushroom guys and turtles  (they do have real names- I know.)

 Cupcakes!  Favorite color- green- frosting!

 Angry Birds games from friends

 McQueen shirt from cousins  (still LOVES McQueen!)

 A Birthday morning hug

And the big deal- his Mario racetrack that comes with his favorite Luigi car, "Wild Wing."  This was a HUGE DEAL! 

It was a great WEEK LONG celebration! 

2012 extras

Just a couple extras from 2012

(SUMMER)

THE MONTH LONG Christmas Celebration

  It seems like Christmas is the season that keeps going and going and going.  When we hit January we are always exhausted from all of the "FUN" we make happen for our kids. 
We, as parents have fun too!  Especially this year when both of our kids were old enough to really get into CHRISTMAS, both the fun and spiritual parts of the season.  It was a great year for making new traditions for our little family. 

12/1/12 Going to cut down our Christmas tree  (VERY EARLY in the season- we had a very busy month and it was our only available Saturday.   Funny thing- we searched 2 lots and couldn't find a tree we both liked.  In the pre-cut area of one of the tree farms we found a beautiful tree!  So, this year we attempted to cut down our own tree.)

 

St Nick brought new pajamas, a Christmas Ornament, and 2 new houses/accessories for our Christmas Village

Christmas Eve in Naperville, IL  with the Holladay Family

and Wilson Grandparents

 Ice skating at the neighbors backyard rink and Mary and Joseph in our Family Nativity

Grandkid picture- and a realistic view. 

 Thanks Grandma and Papa Russ!

 DANCE PARTY before we head home

 Christmas Morning at our house

Grandma and Grandpa Boston come to visit

 Nora got her favorite Rapunzel Pajamas and a Rapunzel Wig and  Jack (not pictured) got his last two rescue bots he was missing- Blades and Bumblebee.  He still talks about how Grandma Diane got him the girl RescueBot (Blades).

And our self-taken Family Christmas Card Picture 

HAPPY 2012

A Long Winter Ahead

 It seems as though we are always anxious for winter to start- for the snow to fall so that we can build forts, and snowmen, and have snowball fights.  Winter in Wisconsin was no different than usual.  We loved playing outside, building snowmen with our new "Snowman Building Kit" that Dan got for Christmas.  I HIGHLY recommend getting one for your family- the kids loved it and it made my job of collecting things for the snowmen SO EASY!

Sadly, our family seemed to miss out on sledding this year- maybe we were just having too much fun in our own yard. 

 Our first snow- playing in our front yard waiting for piano lessons to come. 

And when it was too cold or crummy outside we enjoyed doing big kid things all together. 

Making McQueen Cutout Cookies In Jack's favorite color- GREEN

Cake Pops

Painting on big paper Dad brings us home from work

And a night with a babysitter, so mom and Dad could go out and celebrate Birthdays with friends.