Winter Wonderfest on Wednesday

Wednesday morning we had breakfast at the hotel then headed over to Navy Pier for Winter Wonderfest. Everyone had a great time and was worn out when we left. Here's the Stanley Family riding the train.

Breezy on ice skates.

Cade on ice skates. I was amazed at how well Cade did skating. He really struggled last year and this year he was great. Maddi did well too. Me, Brett, Breezy, Maddi and Cade were ice skating champs!

Omie and Brett were entertaining the little ones with cotton candy while the rest of us were riding the Hang Glider over and over and over.

Todd, Breezy, and Maddi preparing for take off on the Hang Glider. The kids were too afraid to ride last year so I went by myself and loved it. This year they mustered up the courage to ride and it was their favorite ride and they rode it over and over again.

Todd, Blake and Case throwing snowballs at the SNOW MAN!!

After winter wonderfest and lunch Maddi, Cade and Maison went to Build a Bear at Navy Pier. Todd took the boys out for a walk and they fell asleep holding hands. How sweet are they?!? Blake on left, Case on right.

Omie and the McDonalds walking to the parking garage at Navy Pier. It was time to get home and get ready for Christmas Eve service at church.

It's so crazy cold here in Chicagoland that even Lake Michigan freezes. That's just not right and I wonder why I live in such a cold climate!

After church it was time for our annual opening of one present from our family on Christmas Eve. The kids were sorting through trying to find the best gift to open. Cade picked a big one from Omie and was quite dissappointed to find it was a robe! Everyone else got a toy so we let Cade open another one that was a toy and all the other kids got to open their robes too. Then Cade wasn't so let down because everyone was playing around in their robes.

I was trying to get a picture with Thing 1 and Thing 2 but that didn't go so well :)

Maison is showing off her purse from Maddi and Cade with "lips" inside. Check out her shiny lips! I love my little prissy girly niece Boo Girl!

Maddi and Maison with their pink robes from Omie. They enjoy each other so much, it's too bad they aren't sisters.

The whole crew with their robes! The twins were so excited that their robes had Cars on it.

HO HO HO!!!!

Secrets!!!

Probably whispering about those crazy brothers they have!

Omie with Blake on left and Case on right. Then it was a good night to all...and to all a good night!

More pics of Christmas Eve to come with the Christmas Day post.

Monday and Tuesday

Here is more of our visit with the Stanleys. Monday was quite cold again so we decided to make it an inside day with a trip to the DuPage Children's Museum. While everyone was getting ready to go Cade and Maddi were playing Webkinz and teaching Blake and Case all about Webkinz. Maison was probably on her daddy's computer playing "dot com". She's 3 and she asks Todd to play "dot com on la computer". So cute. She plays noggin.com. It's amazing how young kids are so comfortable with computers.

Here's Todd with the boys playing with the ball maze over and over at the museum.

Me and Maison were building playing with shapes, Cade is on the back left playing with the light machines, Omie is with Blake or Case in the background and Maddi was with one of the boys playing with fish. It was nice to have 4 adults to 5 kids so we could keep track of everyone easily. Maddi is like another adult, so she was a great help too.

I could totally tell the boys apart in person but going back through pictures, I'm having a hard time. I think Maddi is holding Case. It was so fun to see the cousins interact and enjoy each other so much.

Can't see his face, but I'm pretty sure this is Case. He was entertained for a very long time with the air tubes. All of the kids had fun with it, but Case really seemed to enjoy it.

I think this is Blake, the little Billy Goat, as his daddy calls him. Those boys are climbing machines. Look at that smile on his face!

All 5 cousins playing in the light room. We were sad that Cody and family couldn't make it from Montana to visit, but we understand. It was too far and dangerous to make the drive in winter. It would have been even more fun and crazy if we had more Stanley cousins with us.

Cade loves this thing (can't remember what it's called) where you put a coin in and it spins round and round until it falls down the hole.

Omie took Maddi and Cade to build in the tool area which made them very happy.

After the museum we ate some yummy Italian food at Rosebud in Naperville and then headed over for ice cream at Cookie Dough Creations. Blake was my little begger and would come over for a spoon of ice cream and walk around all happy and then come back for another spoon. Notice Maddi, Cade, and Maison are all heads down and serious about eating their ice cream.

Tuesday we braved the bad weather and drove downtown Chicago. We did some shopping on Michigan Avenue. Here is Case playing with Legos at the Lego store.

So serious about building!

SNOW MAN!!!! The twins love snowmen and would yell "snow man" everytime they'd see one. Maddi and Cade stopped for a picture with snowmen on Michigan Avenue. I love the city and it's so festive and really gets you in the spirit of the season at the holidays.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OMIE!!!!! Tuesday night was Omie's bday. We had reservations at 2 restaurants (couldn't make up our mind where to go). When we saw the free dinner buffet at our hotel on our way back to the room to change for dinner, we decided to cancel the reservations and eat there at the hotel. We stayed at the Homewood Suites and it was wonderful. They had the nice dinner buffet, a great breakfast in the morning and large 2 room suites. We'll definitely be staying there again (in fact Todd/Breezy stayed there again Friday night). They even had carrott cake for dessert which is one of Omie's favorite desserts, so it was a perfect birthday cake. We love you Omie and are so happy that we were all able to spend your birthday with you!!!!

After dinner we put our kids to bed in our room and Omie stayed home with them (she's old now...so she was tired). Brett and Todd hung out in Todd's room while his kids were sleeping and Breezy and I closed down the Mag Mile shopping. Macy's closed at midnight and we just about closed it down.

Sledding and Cookies

We were so lucky to have Todd, Breezy, Maison, Blake, Case and Omie visit for Christmas this year. These pictures are from the Saturday and Sunday before Christmas. We had loads of fun and were quite busy! Here is Maddi with Blake. Maddi had just gotten home from dance and Blake was very excited to see Maddi again. Blake and Case were always so good about greeting everyone in the morning or when they would walk in the door from being out somewhere. They are such sweet boys! They are very active too, so Brett nicknamed them Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Cat and the Hat because they are always into/doing something. I think he called them that too because Brett couldn't tell them apart for at least the first 3 or 4 days that they were here. As I've said before, I love twins and are glad they are in the family, but I'm so glad I don't have twins. Todd and Breezy are so patient and they were meant for twins.

Friday night Cade and Brett had talked about building a snow fort on Saturday. Brett said he'd look it up on the internet how to build one the right way. I want to know why he can't be a "normal" dad and just build a fort, not have to be the engineering dad. Anyway, Cade woke up Saturday early in the a.m. like usual and got online and googled how to build a snow fort. When Brett woke up Cade told him they can't make it the right way because they needed to dig down in the dirt and there was too much snow to do that. Apparently Cade and Brett watched the same video. I love my little engi-nerds!

Here is the beginning of the snow fort. Cade was super excited to be having some snow time with dad.

My big and little engi-nerds!

Maddi didn't get into making the snow fort as much, but she did have fun with the bottles of water with food coloring in them to paint the snow.

Maddi, Grace, Jack and Cade enjoying their "chairs" around the snow fort. Maison, Blake and Case weren't outside in the snow with them because they were at the doctor. Maison had a bad ear infection and Blake had croup. Poor little kids had a rough first night of sleep but they were feeling better and sleeping better after getting meds.

The kids hiding in thier fort holes.

Later Saturday afternoon the gang headed out for the first sledding adventure. Poor little Blake and Case had so many layers on they could hardly move. They don't ever wear coats in the Woodlands, so they were not fans of the coats, gloves, etc. As soon as they'd see the coat, they'd say "don't want it...jacket".

Cade and Maddi are big enough to climb the hill with their sleds by themselves this year so they were having a blast going up and sledding down over and over.

I think this is Brett with Case. It's too hard to tell the boys apart with their hats and coats on. Blake and Case both LOVED sledding. Maison didn't enjoy it at all!

Here is Maison doing what she liked best...being held instead of sledding.

Omie with Maison, Breezy and Todd with Blake and Case. At this point everyone was cold and ready to go home.

After sledding it was bath time and story time with Uncle Brett. Blake doesn't seem to interested in the story!

Sunday at church the kids got to wear pjs and they sang songs. Even Maison (in the brown and pink dress) and Blake (sitting with the teacher) and Case (standing behind the boy in the blue pjs) went on stage.

Cade had a speaking line in the program. He did so well! He's at the microphone on the right.

Sunday was brutally cold and windy. They called it a blizzard even though it wasn't snowing because of the 40 +mph winds blowing snow and temps that never got above zero. It was a negative 30 wind chill most of the day so we decided to stay in all afternoon and make cookies. Maison and Maddi were great helpers.

Cade was a great helper too!

While the cookies were baking and cooling the kids were attacking Uncle Todd. Cade and Maddi wore their pjs to church and stayed in them all day, even when we went to dinner at Wild Wings. They thought it was the greatest day ever to stay in pjs.

Todd, Breezy, Maison and Omie decorating cookies. Omie brought aprons for all of us to wear. The apron Omie is wearing was actually one she made for my grandmother (Omie) when I was a little girl. Maison and Madd's aprons went around their waists and Cade wouldn't wear his.

3 generations decorating cookies.

Our family decorating/eating cookies.

Some of the finished products.

Todd with Case (left) and Blake (right).

Breezy with Blake and me with Case.

Cade with way too many sprinkles on his cookie. This was the cookie he made especially for Santa. Lucky Santa! Cookie making/decorating was fun family time and a good way to stay warm on such a yucky cold day.

I leave you with a video of Cade saying his lines at church. More posts of the rest of the Christmas visit coming soon....