Bulls Game

Our Pastor at our Church knows a guy...he used to work at a Parish/school in the city and knows someone who works with the Bulls. This guy helped his old school get a lot of basketballs because they were an inner city school and couldn't afford them. So while he worked there, he got to know him pretty well. Apparently this guy gave our Pastor a bunch of tickets to the PreSeason Opener and the Pastor offered them out to the school. We got an e mail saying they would have a lottery because there were a limited number of tickets. I wasn't really sure how it would work, so I went ahead and put all of our names in, thinking maybe one or two would get chosen. Turns out he had 100 tickets and not many people put in for them, so we all got to go! It was a school night and kids had activities, but we felt like it was a good opportunity (that doesn't come around often) and would be fun, so we went for it. The kids got excused from school around noon, so I picked them up and they ate lunch in the car while I drove downtown. We picked up Paul from work and headed down to the United Center.

They had open court from 2-4.  We sat in the stands and watched the older kids play scrimmages for the first hour.

People thought we were crazy for bringing Matthew, but he was a champ!  We like doing things as a family and this would have been too long to leave him with a sitter anyway.

After the scrimmages ended, the little kids got to run around on the court for about 20 minutes.

We had to tear Ben away from playing basketball with his friends to grab a quick picture of all four of them in center court!

Matthew goes in for the dunk.

After that, we got to watch the players warm up and the dancers warm up from the first row, which was pretty neat.  Matthew decided this was a good time to take a quick snooze.

Then we had to clear out of the stands.  I wasn't sure what we would do until game time, but there was actually a lot to do.  They had a really great face painter.

And balloon maker - nice Bull horns Ben!

Even Matthew got excited!

We walked around the whole United Center and found the trophy case showing the 6 Championship Trophies the Bulls have won (remember back to Michael Jordan).

Game time was approaching and the kids were getting excited!

Super fans!  Our seats were close to the top, but we had a whole section of seats for our school, so it was fun to sit as a group.

Game time!  Look at how intensely the boys are watching the game!

We had dinner there too.

It started to get pretty late and Matthew was getting antsy.  Luckily, the way our seats were situated, I could stand up with him and not block anyone.  And Paul took some cute shots of Matthew at his first NBA game.

It was getting late, but the best part about sitting with everyone from school was that everyone was in the same boat.  We had told the kids we would stay until half time.  As soon as the half time buzzer went off, a ton of people from our section got up to leave.  Walking out with a bunch of kids from school made leaving a whole lot easier!  It was a really fun experience and if they offered it again next year, I would surely put in for it again.  I think more people will put in for it next year though!  I snapped this picture about 5 minutes after we left the parking lot to drive home!

Matthew was such a trooper - what a great fourth child!!

Go Bulls!

Apple Picking

It was fall time, so we got to enjoy one of our favorite fall activities...apple picking!! We headed up to our favorite place in Wisconsin (which reminds me that we need to update Matthew's state map on this blog) and planned to meet Aunt Domi, Uncle Brandon, Hunter and Caroline there. We got there early, so we had some time to take a few cute pictures while waiting. This was Matthew's first time apple picking and he was very excited.

My four kiddos filled up the entire picture set!

It was a beautiful fall day.

We got to see how big everyone has gotten since last year.

And we had some fun with Matthew in the apple bucket.

And then we tried to recreate this picture, which is one of my favorites.  It is of Juliette when she was a little over a year old, taken in 2010.  She was so cute and happy in the basket!

 Matthew was pretty cute and happy in the basket too.

He's a happy baby.

Acuff's arrived and we got on the wagon for the hay ride up to the orchard.

Matthew picking apples!

But he was more interested in Daddy.

Ben

Mommy and Matthew

Abbey climbing high to reach the good apples!

Juliette looking for good ones on the ladder.

Sweet Caroline

A few more cute ones of Matthew in the basket.

I love this one!

Uncle Brandon, toss it down to Ben!

Hunter and Matthew

Juliette way up in the tree!

We had such a heavy load of apples that it took Caroline pulling and Uncle Brandon pushing the wagon and Juliette pushing Uncle Brandon for some added help!

Cousins!

That's a nice load (of kids and apples!).

Required silly picture!  Love Abbey in this one...

Ben and Caroline

Once we got the apples loaded into the car, we headed over to the store and had some fun on the wooden rocking horses.

Another successful apple picking trip!!

With the start of school came another birthday celebration for Juliette. Since her birthday was the day before school started, we decided to go ahead and do the class celebration the first week of school instead of wait until the end. So, I came in and read a story to the class and passed out her choice snack, ice cream sandwiches.

She got the special birthday crown, sticker and book mark!

And with the weather so nice, we stopped at a park on the way home from school and Matthew enjoyed the swing.

This is Juliette on her first day of getting to wear spirit wear instead of her uniform.  So cute!

First Day of School

Happy 2015! One of my resolutions is to be more current with the blog, which means I need to catch up! Let's go back to August and the first day of school. These kids were ready to get going! They looked smashing in their uniforms on the first day of school. Juliette was very excited as she entered kindergarten this year and got to wear uniforms - she was adorable!  Look at my little Catholic school girls...

All 3 of them ready to go!

Ben started third grade and it seems like such a leap from second grade.  He seems so much older now and even his teacher told the class that they are no longer the little kids at school :(  He gets real letter grades now and has more responsibility at school.  This is the first time I have felt like he is getting to be a big kid and is no longer my little boy (sniff, sniff).

Abbey started first grade and I was very worried about her transition to full day school (as opposed to half day kindergarten).  But she is thriving and loving school.  Her reading has taken off and she loves her teacher and is doing awesome in first grade. 

And Juliette started kindergarten.  She was so excited to be a big kid going off to school like Ben and Abbey.  She takes kindergarten very seriously, loves loves loves her teacher, and is doing great in school.  I was actually very sad about her going off to kindergarten, even though I still have another baby behind her.  But these three are so close together it truly feels like all of them are getting so old with her starting kindergarten. 

First day of school and first time Juliette got out of the car on her own without me walking her to the side door for preschool.  She got out like a pro and although we had planned for Abbey to walk her to class the first day, I don't think she needed it.  And when the door closed after all 3 got out, the car felt eerily quiet and lonely.  Yes, Matthew was still in the car, but it was a weird feeling to drop them all off at school together.  My babies are growing up.

I had to take a picture on the second day of school today because the girls get a choice of skorts or a jumper and Juliette chose the skort the first day and the jumper the second day.  The jumper is so cute!

Big girl!