Disney On Ice

February 6:  For Christmas this year, Trista asked if she could get the kids "Disney on Ice" tickets instead of gifts.  I didn't have to think about my answer to that question!  I love experiences over "things" any time.  We picked a date and made plans for them to come for the weekend so we could all go together.  They arrived Friday night (with Krispie Kreme Donuts for the morning!)  On Saturday we went to basketball games, ate a quick lunch, and headed to our show.  This year's theme was "100 Years of Magic" so they had LOTS of different characters.  It was a fun experience and we ended the night with a trip to the Rainforest Cafe--a first for our kids.   

The show was in the United Center so during intermission Kinnick and I had to find the Bulls Championship trophy case.  It's so crazy during Bull's games you can barely get a picture so this was the perfect opportunity!

This was Carver's first show!

 

100th Day of School

February 1:  Macey got to celebrate 100 Day this year in Kindergarten.  She had to make a shirt to wear--something with 100 things on it.  Here's how it went down in our house...  1st Child:  Spend time planning shirt, go shopping together for shirt supplies, spend multiple nights creating the shirt.  2nd Child:  Browse Pinterest for a few Ideas, Pick one we both liked, Made shirt from Supplies we already had.  3rd Child:  THE NIGHT BEFORE--"Oh no, I forgot you needed a shirt!"  Run to closet to see what shirt we can decorate, Run to basement to see what we have, Frantically search for an idea that we can do without going to the store,  Tell child to start counting sequins while I frantically start hot glue gunning everything to shirt...  Well, we didn't do too bad considering.  Good thing we have a mini art supply store in our basement!  I have a feeling I should keep track of this shirt because child #4 might have to wear it... he he he.  

Winter Jam

January 29:  This year we took the kids to Winter Jam!  I'm not sure who was more excited... me or them!  I have been wanting to attend Winter Jam for the last several years, first without the kids, and more recently with them.  Winter Jam is a HUGE Christian Concert--10 Bands, $10 at the door.  They always have a Chicago area show.  They do not sale ($10) tickets ahead of time, so you have to go early and wait in line.  Being our first time, we were not really sure what to expect so we got there about 45 minutes early.  We packed hot chocolate and bundled up.  There were multiple lines (to 2 different entrances) and the lines were REALLY long already.  We saw some people we knew who had already been waiting in line for over an hour (and they were not too close to the front!)  You do the risk not being able to get in if they reach max capacity but we decided to chance it.  

After much waiting the line started moving.  When we made it through the doors, it seemed like the first level was starting to get pretty full so we headed to the 2nd level (out of 3).  We were in the first wave of people to make it to the 2nd level so there were lots of seats.  They had a couple bands playing for the pre-show as people were finding seats.  Overall, it was as awesome experience!  The kids had a blast and Marc and really enjoyed it also.  Unfortunately we did not make it to the end (to see "For King & Country" who I was really excited about it) but it got so late.  We left around 10:30 and there were still 2 bands left.  We had to make it home to pick up Carver from a friend's house and get our kids to bed for basketball games in the morning.  Some of our favorites of the night were Lauren Daigle, SideWalk Prophets, and Matthew West.  We also got to hear some rap and heavy metal (which the kids thought was cool).  Great night of worship and entertainment.  We can't wait to go back!

Daddy Daughter Dance

January 21:  Macey was excited to join Sadie & Marc this year for the annual Daddy-Daughter Dance...

MSI Day

January 18:  We have loved having a membership to the Museum of Science & Industry this year!  This was a Monday with no school (which we quickly realized was a crazy idea because it was PACKED!)  We made the best of it doing a few ticketed exhibits to avoid the crowds.  We used some of our free tickets (included in membership) to see a space movie in the omnimax theater.  This also proved to be a great time to check out the Space Center--it is in a separate wing (with the theater) and we hadn't made it there before this visit.  We bought some freeze dried icecream from the gift shop to try.  After getting our fill of space, we went through the coal miner exhibit.  This was one of the very first exhibits created when the museum first opened!  It was a fun experience to simulate going down into a coal mine.  After the coal mine, we checked out a temporary art exhibit.  We stayed at the museum until closing time and stopped at Chick-Fil-A on our way home.  It was a good family day! 

Girl's Day

January 17:  The girls needed new dresses for the Daddy Daughter Dance so we decided to make a date day out of it... Old Navy and the mall, complete with some frozen yogurt--I love spending time with my girls!

Iowa Girls' Weekend

January 8-10:  We worked really hard to plan a girl's weekend for Lindsey during her Chemo treatment.  After much corresponding we worked it out to spend her birthday weekend with her.  It was a perfect mix of laid-back, relaxing, indulgence!

Liz drove to Dwight to meet Sarah & I and the 3 of us drove over together which gave us a few extra hours of talk time.  We got into Cedar Rapids around dinner time so we stopped at Freddy's to pick up burgers and shakes and took food to Lindsey's house.

Prior to our weekend we knew we wanted to do something fun to surprise Lindsey.  We worked with Jade to set up appointments for mani-pedi's at a local nail salon.  We didn't tell Lindsey until we showed up.  We started our day with sleeping in and breakfast.  Next we headed to Newbo (a big city market) for lunch.  We of course had to pick out some cupcakes for later.  Next stop was the nail salon for some much needed pampering.  We had our own private room complete with wine.  It was fabulous!  After that we headed back to Lindsey's.  (I forgot to mention that Andy took the kids to visit family for the weekend so us girls had the whole house to ourselves!)  We enjoyed our afternoon watching lip sync battles & Pitch Perfect and eating cupcakes. 

When we decided to was dinner time we didn't feel like going out so we picked up food... pizza, sushi, chips & salsa, sangria.  We enjoyed our dinner while watching Pitch Perfect 2.  It was such a good day being together and doing stuff we never get to do as moms.  I love these girls!