Pinkie Tuscadero!

 

Go ahead and admit it:  I'm the coolest!

Choir!

I don't expect her to follow in my footsteps.  In high school, I did dance, choir, theater, etc.  She hasn't proved to be a dancer yet (she did one year of it in Kindergarten or first grade) but she does seem to like choir.  I suspect it's because her best friend is also doing choir (this is the 2nd year in the row the girls are doing this...).  Anyhow, she did practice at home which is a first for her so I think she must like it a little bit.  She performed with a community wide group of 750 singers from the local school districts.  It was pretty cool!

We take on the Capitol for Spring Break!

Steve and decided to pile in the car and drive to Washington DC for spring break. Once we told the kids, Gretchen wanted to visit Jamestown since it's something she studied in school.  Steve was happy to oblige for her!  It was quite the trip.  We drove to Pittsburgh and spent the night before rolling into our Nation's capitol.  We spent three action packed days in DC checking out the Air & Space Museum, the National Natural History Museum, the US Capitol where we met our congressman, the National Zoo and as many monuments as we could see.  Then we drove to Virginia and spent one very lovely weather day at Busch Gardens Williamsburg.  We spent our last day at Jamestown seeing both the historic site and the living museum where the kids could go back in time to that era. They we stopped on the way home for a visit with our friend who lives near Cincinnati (perfect resting spot before the last six hours home).  I think the girl like Jamestown the best!

Bridge to Cadettes

I thought she might not make it this far since we're in the age where girls start to quit scouts to do other activities.  My troop bridge to Cadettes and I am so so proud of them.  Especially of my girl, who despite all of our ups and downs, loves girl scouts especially the time she spends at camp.  We're already signed up for 2 girl scout camps this summer plus I'm sure we'll camp with the troop as well.  In this picture she is holding up the key each girl received when they bridge symbolizing their venture into "older girl" scouting where they can do more mature things... now they want to go sky diving!  Yikes!

Blow that Horn!!

Gretchen is doing band this year and so far has had two concerts.  The second concert was considerably better than the first.  What a patient teacher her band teacher must be!  Anyhow, it sounds like she likes it even though she finds it challenging!

Happy Holidays!

Water Park Fun

Our annual trip to Wilderness was a lot of fun.  We outran the snow storm that hit northern IL to enjoy chlorine goodness in WI.  The kids had a blast and didn't want to leave of course.

Fall Fun

 Hayrides and farm animals abound....

Dragons Love Tacos! And Halloween!

As a surprise to the boys this past Saturday, we took them to a play in the city based on the children's picture book Dragons Love Tacos! by Adam Rubin.  The play was good - Sean was really engaged. Gretchen acted like it was beneath her but I think she liked it too.  She likes the book but acknowledges that it's for "kids".  She's ten going on twenty. 

 After going to the play, we enjoyed some Lou Malnati's before heading over to Maggie Daley Park for the Inaugural Chicago Halloween Gathering event.  The kids got to be in a children's costume procession on the ribbon and then afterwards we hit the stations and played in the park.  We had time to kill before the evening Halloween parade so we went to Gretchen's favorite place in the city:  Crown Fountain. The parade was good but we had exhausted all of our energy reserves by the time to got going.  We'll have to head out later next year.  In general it was one of the busiest weekends I've planned in a while.  I need a vacation from my weekend!

Fifth Grade Music Program

The girl is playing trumpet this year in band but before she's ready for a band concert, her grade had a singing program.  Gretchen sang, danced and played a drum.

Chinatown Tour

I took Gretchen's girl scout troop to China town this past weekend through our local council.  Apparently, even though I've been to Chinatown a lot, I did not know that tours of Chinatown are a thing - something you can do as a tourist.  I shouldn't be surprised but it would be cool if every neighborhood had this!  The girls enjoyed it a lot - the tour was walking and only an hour but afterwards we had lunch at a Chinese restaurant.  I was so impressed that the kids who came with us were not picky eaters.  They mostly tried everything and enjoyed it.  It was a nice day and a great cultural opportunity.  Our council has been really good at offering things to do in the city so I try to take advantage of it as much as possible.  Next month we're going to see a play!

Besties

Gretchen's best friend from Kindergarten moved away a few  years ago to a suburb closer to the city.  We don't see her very often but Gretchen insists that she is STILL her best friend.  While I am dubious about it, I will say that whenever these girls are together they just seem to pick up where they last left off.  That is true friendship in my opinion so I hope they keep it up!  The party was ice skating which Gretchen had never done before but she was so determined to skate the whole night that she kept at it.  I was really proud of her!