Monday, April 22, 2013

Easter

Easter morning the kids were up early and ready to go downstairs to see if the Easter Bunny came...


The kids checking out their baskets.

Wow, that Bunny sure knows what we like ;)

Then it was time to search for eggs!

Our awesome neighbors left some goodies for the kids outside!

The kids got dressed and then took to the backyard to find more eggs.  On your mark...get set...

Juliette found one!

Good searching Abbey!

Nice job Ben!

Somebody is in her Easter best...

This was the best picture we could get after Church.

Then we were ready to go to Aunt Domi's for Easter dinner.  I made this appetizer (thank you Pinterest) and put spinach dip in the bread bowl.  It was both cute and delicious!

Our annual Easter picture of the kids and dogs!

Love this picture...

Finally, a descent family picture!

Happy Easter everyone!
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Easter Preparations

When we got home from our staycation, the kids were excited to get outside and play on the swing set together!


Then we had some business to take care of...getting the eggs ready for the Easter Bunny!  Nice stripes Abbey!

Cutie pie

Ben took egg decorating very seriously.

Juju enjoyed it too - we have some very creative kiddos!

And loving kids...they each  made eggs for each other.  Here is Abbey's "J" egg for Juliette!

The finished product!
 

The day before Easter we went to our old church for the annual Easter Basket Blessing and egg hunt.  The kids were not thrilled with getting their picture taken with the Easter Bunny and after seeing this picture I can see why...the Bunny looks pretty creepy!  He looks like he is going to attack us!

Then the kids brought our baskets up to be blessed.

After the blessing, it was time for the egg hunt.  And they're off....
 
 Pretty girl.

Daddy helped find eggs too.  Not really sure of the stratgey going on here...perhaps distracting other kids so our kids would find the eggs?  Abbey looks like she is wondering what the strategy is too!

Juliette finding eggs!

As always, it was a very fun event!
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Sunday, April 21, 2013

Staycation Continued

On Tuesday Daddy had to work, so I took the kids to Legoland!  Here they are in front of the city of Chicago replica...all made out of legos!


It's R2D2 made out of legos...

Darth Vader made of legos!

Batman!

We went on the ride, saw the 3D movie, and went into the factory tour.  But after all of that fun stuff, we got to go actually play with legos, which the kids loved just as much as that other stuff!

Abbey made a car and tried it out on the ramp...good job Abbey!

Then we spent the afternoon at the pool in the hotel.

I also took the kids to Make A Messterpiece, one of our favorite spots.  The girls enjoyed the bubble art.

Nice work Ben!

These kids are ready for the experimentation station...

Swirl art.
 
 

And that was the end of our staycation.  It was time to go back home and get ready for Easter! 
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Staycation

For spring break this year, we took a little "staycation"...or a trip to LA (local access)! We booked a hotel in Schaumburg and stayed for a few days. It was a lot of fun.  The first thing we did when we checked into our suite was hit up the hotel pool.  Juliette was thrilled that there was a "hot pool" that she could play in as well.


Abbey was a fish in water with her floatie on.

Mommy also enjoyed the hot pool :)

The next day we went cosmic mini golfing.  We had never been mini golfing as a family before and it was quite the experience...let's just say that next time we do this we will not be using score cards...

Abbey was the only one who actually enjoyed herself, even if her swing might need a little work...

Then we took the kids to Build A Bear.  Ben and Abbey had been before - their respective Godmothers had each taken them when they turned 3 and 4 respectively, but I had actually never been and Juliette hadn't been either and it is quite a place!  Here is Ben putting the heart into his bear (or actually, his monkey).

Juliette picked this princess bear.

All 3 kids (and parents) enjoyed the experience.  Ben's monkey (Darth Munk) had a Darth Vader outfit, Abbey's bear (Heart) had a pink tutu dress with heels and Juliette's princess bear (Princess Hello Kitty) had a Tinkerbell dress with heels as well.

Our suite was pretty awesome - 2 bedrooms and a common room with a kitchen...perfect for family movie night after a fun day!  If you look closely, you can see each kid holding their new bear.

The next day we went to a water park in Schaumburg, which was actually amazing.  It is part of their park district and definitely perfect for our kids.  Look at this water play structure!

And it had a small lazy river that the kids really enjoyed as well.

The kids had so much fun that this little one was quite tuckered out at the end of the afternoon!

The next day we took Ben's friend Aiden downtown with us.  We set out to go to the aquarium, but when we got there, the line was outside and extremely long.  Luckily, we were right at the entrance to the Field Museum when we saw the aquarium line and decided to make a quick change of plans...Field Museum had no line!  We had a good time at the Field Museum - it had been a few years since we had been there and the kids enjoyed it.

We got to see ancient mummies.

They were very interesting...

We learned about how hard it was to move one of the blocks used to built the pyramids...look at all of us trying to move it!

Cutie pie.

Of course we stopped to say hello to Sue.

And we checked out the traffic below from the second story window.

The girls liked the dinosaur exhibit.

It was a very fun day!
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