Visit From "Mickey and Drew"

Abby calls my sister and her husband "Mickey and Drew", it is cute. This weekend Nicci and Andrew came to Chicago to visit the city and come see their favorite niece and nephew! Alex was super excited to have them get him off the bus on Friday after school and we had fun hanging out with them. Andrew tried to show Alex a few food experiments from his cooking classes, but Alex was hesitant to try apple juice flavored spaghetti :) I did, however, get a solid primer on proper scrambled egg preparation and I think with some practice, I will be successful.

"I Hurt"

Abby got a boo-boo outside last week when she was running too fast down the sidewalk. It scabbed up pretty quick but she insists on showing anyone that will look at it. She'll sit right down, pull up her pant leg and say "I hurt", or "boo-boo". Sometimes I'll hear her downstairs saying "I hurt!" so I come running, only to have her show me the little scab on her knee :)

Visit From Jess and Family

My good friend Jess and her family came to visit last weekend from North Carolina. It was great to meet her son, Noah, and catch up while the kiddos played. We took the little ones to the Children's Museum while Alex was at ice skating class, then to the park in the afternoon. As you can see it was still a bit chilly but we persevered and played outside anyway. Sunny days are fair game as long as you can tolerate the wind chills!

St. Patrick's Day

Last year, my friend Jeannine hosted a lovely clover hunt for the kids at her house. Alex was sad that we couldn't attend this year so we opted for our own version of the clover hunt in the playroom. I cut out a few green "clovers" from construction paper and hid them around the playroom. This was so much fun that we took turns hiding them over and over again. In fact, we played a few rounds of clover hunt this morning before going to the Children's Museum.

Shh, don't tell Alex, but he's started wearing shirts with buttons at the top once in a while again. I kind of snuck them back into his wardrobe and he has yet to protest. He may have gone almost a whole year without wearing them to school or otherwise.

Snacktime With The Sillies

Time for afterschool snacks with the cowgirl (yes she came to the table like this) and toothless Alex.

Two Peas In A Pod

Early March Visit To Cincinnati

Abby always has fun visiting at Gigi's house! Alex was busy playing Tinkertoys while Abby found all sorts of things to keep herself busy.
Alex all snuggled up in Grandma Kathy's supersized version of Abby's favorite blankie.

"Hey Grandpa, do you have the Angry Birds game on your IPhone?"

Abby, stacking blocks at Grandma Eileen's house.

Cousin (ok, my cousin Amanda's son so whatever that makes him to Abby) Aiden's 2nd Birthday party was a blast!

Alex had a long weekend in early March thanks to Casimir Pulaski Day so I took the kids to Cincinnati to play. We had fun visiting the grandparents, great-grandmas, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends. Alex and Grandpa bonded over the game Angry Birds on his phone. He and Grandma Eileen had fun playing Wii. While at Grandma Kathy's he sorted through many of Brad's old toys from when he was a little boy (way back when!). She even came across Brad and Jackie's tooth fairy pillow and passed it on to Alex for future use. The car ride was long, but we kept it entertaining with movies and snacks. We were all happy to make it back to see Brad on Monday afternoon!

One Tooth Down!

Last night I volunteered at the Daddy-Daughter Dance at Alex's school. While I was gone, I got a text from Brad that said "Are you busy?". I was, so I told him we had a great turnout and then a little later he wrote "Alex lost his first tooth". I think there was some concern here at the house once it really got wiggling and the blood started flowing. Brad still has an aversion to teeth/blood ever since he broke two teeth at a picnic in college (the reason you'll never see a moon bounce at any of our parties). Brad is so calm though that I did not get the feeling of worry through his texts so I went right back to making punch and refilling cookie trays. When I got home, Alex was still awake and told me all about the drama that unfolded at dinner time. He proceeded to stay awake very late in his room, trying to catch the tooth fairy in the act :)