Catholic Schools Week

For Catholic Schools week, we got to take a peek inside the classroom and see some of the students' work. Here are their school pictures. I LOVE how they turned out. I never looked this cute in any of my school pictures!

 Caroline's Second Grade Class

Clayton's Kindergarten Class

I love all of the pictures and journal entries displayed for the kindergartners. SO precious to see and read!

 For Valentines day, they had to draw and write 3 things they loved. Yay! I made the list along with his ipod and flashlights :)

 I just love the creative spelling on this one.

 This is SO Clayton. He draws Christmas lights on the Christmas tree and makes sure to include the cord and the outlet where they are plugged in.

Clayton took this picture of his teacher, Mrs Nash (who lives in Winnetka!)

 CLayton has finally graduated from drawing stick figures, to semi-stick figures with clothes, fingers, and toes.

 Clayton and his 6th grade buddy. (All the kindergartners are teamed up with  "buddy" in 6th grade. They sit together at Mass, do special projects together, and write eachother notes. SO cute!

The second grade homework isn't displayed as much, but I did get to see Caroline's classroom and some of her artwork from art class!

basketball

Clayton started kindergarten basketball this winter. It is SO cute to see these little 5 and 6 year olds playing a "real" game of basketball. Some of them really get how to play. Others - just run around with the ball, not dribbling or passing. It is highly entertaining. :)

Polar vortex

This winter has been the most brutal winter. Extreme, dangerous cold (which prompted 4 "snow" days from school), followed by snow, quickly followed by extreme cold so that no one could enjoy the snow. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
We've had a LOT of inside time. The kids have invented numerous ways to make forts (a.k.a. let's drag stuff from every room of the house to the fort, including every blanket and pillow so that it literally takes hours to clean up.)  We've made lots of lego creations and lots of rainbow loom bracelets. (We find little legos and rubber bands everywhere. Vacuuming is nearly impossible these days.)

random pic of Caroline

Caroline's troop leader from Brownies took this picture, and I just love it :)

The American Club

 My sister Meredith and her husband Dan, my brother Taylor and his wife Jess, Kevin, and I all took a mini overnight vacation to the American Club in Kohler, Wisconsin.  It was fantastic! The American Club is steeped in history and old world charm. We got to hang out by the fireplace, drink, talk, and eat in their many restaurants.  Such a treat!

Feed My Starving Children

On January 24th, we volunteered as a family at Feed My Starving Children.  I wasn't sure how this was going to go. The kids are pretty young to volunteer here, and the shift is 2 hours long.  I was totally surprised at how well they did. They jumped right in and did their respective tasks for the whole time without so much as a complaint or a single goofing-around incident! I was SO proud. The volunteers in the room during that shift packed 18,000 meals. WOW! It was such a meaningful experience. We will definitely do this again.

the "wife store"

Conversation at the lunch table a few weeks back: 
Austin -I want to always live here. 
Me - Well, one day, you'll have to grow up and get your own house and your own wife. 
Austin - How can I find a wife? There's not a wife store, is there?

Lobster

Our local Jewel just put in a lobster tank and Clayton is obsessed with it. He always needs to go visit it every time we are grocery shopping. So, one night, I decided to surprise everyone with a live one. I brought it home and instantly, everyone started screaming. They climbed on the counter terrified, eventhough the poor thing just stood on the floor barely moving.  I had expected it to crawl all over the floor while the kids "played" with it. Nope. "What should we name it?" I asked. Austin piped up first with "We should name it "throw-it-away" because I want to throw it away. "  I should have known. The kid has too much of my genes and definitely is NOT an animal-lover.  After seeing that the poor thing barely moved for several minutes, they finally warmed up enough to get on the floor with it.

And the verdict?

No one likes lobster, except for me.  :(

I think this will be the last lobsta in the house for while!

Phantom of the Opera

My parents gave us a great Christmas gift this year - tickets to Phantom of the Opera!
I thought Phantom was stunning - the staging - the voices, the theatrics. I loved it. It was also wonderful to have a date night downtown with Kevin!

Snow fort

Arctic winter

This has been, by far, the most brutal winter I've ever experienced.  It started at the very beginning of December and has been relentless.  Snow - and then extreme cold, like school-is-out-because-of-the-extreme-20+ below-zero-windchill cold. And then more snow. Followed by more cold. It would be one thing if it was just a particularly snowy winter where the kids could be outside sledding, building snowmen, etc. But most of the snow has been followed by temperature plunges that made it unsafe (and downright miserable) to be outside.  We have had FOUR days of school cancelled just due to the cold.

Here are a few pictures from one of the few days that was warm enough to play outside in the snow.