We may not have it all together, but together we have it all.

I saw a flyer that a local high school was putting on a production of Beauty & the Beast, and I thought that Madelyn would enjoy that.  She is getting older and more fun to hang out with, she will talk your ear off and ask you the most random questions. She is a total delight when she doesn't have to compete for your attention!  We had so much fun together.  She dressed up in her best princess attire since we were going to see a show about a real princess we thought it would be appropriate.  As we were waiting in line to get in people were stopping her and telling her that she looked pretty and that she must be a real princess. During intermission as we were making our way back to our seats after a potty stop, one elderly gentleman bowed at her and yelled, "everyone make way for the princess" as we walked down the aisle! Madelyn was on cloud nine! She sat perfectly still during the whole performance and was mesmerized by the singing, acting, special effects...

Living near the city has its perks!  One of my Christmas presents from Scott were Phantom of the Opera tickets at the fancy Cadillac Palace theater downtown.  My wonderful friend Jacquie insisted on taking our kids not for just the show but for the whole day!  We dropped them off in the morning and headed downtown and did a bit of shopping at Macy's, had lunch, then went to our show. This is inside Macy's, the biggest department store I have ever seen!  They were having a great sale on winter coats and since we were in the middle of the coldest winter ever we justified getting me the plushest, warmest, most elegant down coat, I love it!   Walking to the theater. . . It was gorgeous inside with red carpets and gold accents and tapestries along the walls.  The show was amazing, I had grown up listening to songs from the play but had never seen it before.  Scott was such a trooper, there were a couple tim...

Rylan has been doing so much better in school lately, we have been so proud of him.  He is acting more responsibly and studying on his own for tests.  He plays the trumpet in his school band and is enjoying that as well.  We have to remind him to practice but once we do he is always willing and seems to like it.  His band teacher gave the kids a challenging piece of music called "Dansberry Run." It is a real piece of music not "Mary Had a Little Lamb" or "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" which is what he has been playing.  He has been working hard on it, and one day he came home from school a upset to the point of crying because the kids in his band were horsing around and the teacher said that because of their behavior they would not be ready to play this piece at their concert. I thought it was so cute that he was upset about that because he was really looking forward to playing a real piece.   They are still working on it for their concert in May but in...

This winter was cold, VERY cold.  Chicago hit all time highs and records for snow fall and cold temperatures. School was closed for 4 days not because of snow but because it was too cold to leave your heated house!  Near Lake Michigan the humidity froze onto everything near the water.    Luckily we are about 30 minutes from the lake, but we still felt the cold.  On one particular day when Rylan was home from school, we tried an experiment in the -40 wind-chill temperature. We boiled water in a pot then threw it up in the outside air. It evaporated instantly as it hit the air into a cloud.  We also tried to blow bubbles, but they popped before getting off the stick.    The temperature was mostly in the negative teens but the wind chill is what was the killer, that wind was piercing! We were advised to not go outside unless you had to, which was hard on the kids, so on days when the air wasn't bone chilling the...

January 11th 2014, our little Ian turned 3!  He woke me up, announced it was his birthday and said that he wanted candles in his oatmeal.  I found him a birthday hat and he wore that for half the day.  We took him to a fun train restaurant for lunch  They bring out your meal on a train! Where is that train?  Here it comes! When he was done eating they sang to him and gave him some ice cream on the house.  That evening we opened presents                                              He has been asking for a fire truck for a while and we found this fun set that had one, a rescue boat and helicopter with guys.   It was a big hit!  Then Barbie's dream vacation hou...