Why I Oughta...

On Monday, I posted a couple of photos of the Lego City Advent Calendar that we're giving to the Bird and today here is the front and the back of the Lego Friends version of  the 2016 Advent Calendar. This one is intended for the Babe - the older girl - because she already has a few different Lego Friends sets.  Also...if you know them, you know that their personalities are just about right in that the Bird gets the City version and the Babe gets this one.

We were at the Babe's school for new parent orientation recently and as we exited her classroom, we were able to see some of the work that the class had done.  And as I looked for the Babe's paper, I saw this above.  Sure...she gives really good answers for what she needs to do in 1st grade.  But, look at the bottom where the kids were asked to color in their own backpack.  She picked the Fighting Illini and the Block I?!?  Yep.  Not Mickey the Mouse.  Not My Little Pony.  Nor Shopkins.  Or her *actual* backpack - which is cute...but probably hard to draw because of the squiggles and such. Nope.  She went with the orange and blue.  I-L-L! Proud parenting moment for sure.

A trip to Madison - or anywhere for that matter - wouldn't be complete without trying some of the local pizza.  And when you're on campus at U of W, I think that means heading to Ian's for some Mac-and-Cheese slices.  I first came across Ian's when they opened in Chicago back in 2009.   Here's a post from Slice/Serious Eats that talked about their 'kinda-famous' Mac-and-Cheese slice .  First time I'd heard of something like that and ever since, Ian's has been on my radar.   Looks like Ian's in Chicago didn't make it and is now a Dimo's? But, back to Madison.  With some time to kill and a walk around campus towards the State Capitol, we went to Ian's on State Street and ordered a wide range of slices.  Of course, we had the Mac-and-Cheese.  But the girls also tried the cheese.   We also ordered the Macadilla Killa - which has Mac-and-Cheese in it but also buffalo chicken and a weird tortilla top.  Didn't love it.  And I t

Thanks to our good friend Dannee down the block, we were not only alerted to this awesome White House cookie kit - she also gifted one to us after one of her trips to Trader Joe's!  And guess what?  The girls loved putting them together.  Of course they did, right? What's more fun than a gingerbread house?  Nothing, I tell you.  Nothing. This is a pretty fun, seasonal item, that is a great way to do something fun with our kids, but also, kinda, sorta talk to them about the White House and the president and the upcoming election.  Did they listen to any of it?  Probably not.  But, still...frosting!  cookies!  Candy! And, from a business stand point, the person at the gingerbread factory who came up with this idea is pretty clever.  I can hear it now.... "Hey, Bob!  Fire up the ovens!  I have an idea." "But...it isn't Christmastime yet.  We have months to go until the public wants our stuff." "You're right...it isn't Christmas, bu

 Just like in year's past, I took the girls to check out the recently put-up Halloween section at Menards.   Here's the post showing the Babe in the 2015 Halloween section and here's a post from 2012 showing both girls .  They've both grown up a lot, eh? Here's The Bird doing her best 'scary' face and I'm not sure what the Babe is doing on the right.  With Back-to-School out of the way, we are now entering my favorite time of year at Menards: seasonal.  They quickly moved out the backpacks and highlighters in favor of ghosts and witches and it won't be long now for Christmas stuff to creep in.   Last year, we spotted snowmen and Santas as early as October 6th , so brace yourself, folks.  Christmas Creep is coming.

The Babe is just six (going on 16!), but she's way ahead of me with the snaps and the filters and the what-have-yous over there.  I went and peeked at my Snapchat account and my name and photo in the snapcode have been changed to her name and photo.  Sneaky work.  Of course she's all over Snapchat, right? #GetOffMyLawn

Not a better crew to be rolling with on the shopping cart escalator ramp at Menards than these three. I mean....What more could a guy ask for?  And with Momma gone for the weekend, there's no place we'd rather be than Menards early on a Saturday morning.

We've had these silhouettes done of the kids over the years and the same woman who did the first ones of just the oldest two, did these three.  If you know the kids in real life ( Is this real life?!? ), you'll note that these are *really* good.  How 'bout those 'lashes?!? We had these done down in Florida earlier this year and I shared them on our family blog a bit back, but figured I should post them here for diary-keeping sakes. How these are done is pretty amazing.  The kids sit for a woman who uses some tiny, super-sharp scissors and she looks at the kid for maybe two or three minutes while she cuts.  And in no time, she pulls one of these beauties out and we're all amazed.  We had the old set hung up in our house, but...since we have no house...these are sitting in a pile of stuff awaiting our next move.  Life on pause is great, isn't it?

I swear I had a strong flashback as I was working to put shin guards and long socks on the Babe over the weekend as she got ready for her indoor soccer practice.  She seems to like playing, but isn't too terribly aggressive when it comes to getting to the ball and winning 50/50 balls and the like.    But the jersey?  She loves the jersey. I spent a good part of my childhood in shin guards and loved everything about it.  But I really loved indoor soccer in particular.  The noise, the pace, the turf, the anticipation of waiting for your team's 'turn' to go behind the boards.  The team stuff was where I spent most of my time and I had a strong nucleus of a team that stuck together for almost our entire childhood.  Loved it all.  Hoping I get one of these kids to dig in and find a team they want to be part of.

 Over the weekend, I took the girls to see the  Lego Train Show out at Cantigny which is put on by the Northern Illinois Lego Train Club .    As you can see from the shots here, it was pretty awesome. Who knew that (first!) Lego trains and (second!) that a club for them even existed? The show took over the biggest room at the Cantigny Visitor's Center and had two big main loops set up.  There were a few guys behind the setup that were members of the club and had built this whole thing.  It was impressive in scope but also really neat with various details.  They had set up little towns/sections like Paris and Springfield. And I'd be lying if I told you that I haven't given a lot of thought about trying to figure out a way to incorporate these Lego Trains into our existing O-Gauge Lionel setup.  Thinking we need to give these a try, right?  Besides the trains, just the idea of the buildings/town structures via Legos seems to be a good gateway, right? The Babe is jus

For the second year in a row, we packed up the kids and took them out to see what is called the "Canyon Trail Cemetery" in a neighborhood in Carol Stream a few days before Halloween. Here's the post from our visit last year . With The Babe and The Bird getting a bit older and more *aware* of things, they started to get a little freaked out by some of the things that jump out!   We picked up a couple of 'kids temp' hot chocolates and watched Hocus Pocus in the van on our way there.  It was a great way to lead up to the big day on Halloween. If you don't know about the Canyon Trail Cemetery, you can check them out here on their Facebook page .  It is a really impressive display put together by a family.  All they ask is for canned food donations for the local food pantry!

This weekend, we went over to Wannemaker's for their annual Christmas season Open House with all three kids and Nat's folks.  This is the second year in a row we've gone and it was a totally lovely experience.  Last year, we got their early in the day and waited for a long time to get to meet Santa and pet his reindeer. This year, we arrived pretty late.  I think it went from 10 am to 3 pm.  We arrived about 230 pm and walked right in.  They switched things up this year.  Last year, it was meet Santa...and THEN...go meet his reindeer.  This year, they put the reindeer part first.  They were allowing groups in two at a time to pet each of the reindeer.  The girls got up close and person with one of them (in the photo above). After that, you went around to the Santa line.  There, they had some cute coloring pages for the kids set up with crayons.  Really great way to keep the kids occupied and give them something fun to do while other kids were meeting with the 'Big G

As drawn by The Babe. This was left for me on my desk at home one night last week.  She taped the little note on top of the drawing on the top left. That's me as a football player, she tells me.  She - on her own - picked out the #50 for my jersey. Not sure where she got that, but it must be in a book around the house.  Pretty great, right?   And that's a football sticker in my right hand next to (I think?) a cat sticker.  I'm (obviously) wearing a football helmet on my face.  And the pumpkins all over the place tell me it is Halloween.

Did the Bird ever have fun.  She was all over all the trucks, but mostly LOOOOVED the 'digger trucks' that the fine folks from the Elmhurst Park District put out at their annual "Touch-A-Truck" event at Berens Park in Elmhurst last weekend. Here's my post from 2013 showing how the Babe - at that time - was all over the trucks .  This year?  Her younger sister was doing the leading.  In 2013, we were able to get in a helicopter.  This year, we arrived about halfway through the event, so I'm not sure if there helicopter left before we got there or if they couldn't book it this year? This is a really great event and the kids all seem to love it.  So much in fact, that the Bird asked if her birthday party (#4 this year!) can be a "Touch-A-Truck Birthday"?!?  Hmmm...that might be hard to pull off, no?

I've been hearing - virtually - ALL summer from The Babe that she desperately, desperately wants to run a Lemonade Stand.  Over the weekend, we finally caved and helped her fulfill her vision.  We only had a few stipulations: 1.  She had to give the lemonade away for free but ask for donations to a charity of her choice. 2.  When we were out of lemonade, that was it.  No whining about wanting more. Well...I'm happy to report that The Babe picked " Give Kids The World " as her charity of choice and we set up on the corner of 3rd and Indiana where there was a bit more traffic than out front of our house.  We listen to a lot of Disney podcasts in the car and the guys on The Dis UnPlugged talk a lot about "Give Kids the World" and after asking Nat and me about it, that's the one she picked.  We wrote up a little sign on the money jug that said 'Donations for Give Kids The World Accepted'.   For those of you who don't know, Give Ki

The Babe says...it isn't over until she says so.  And there's still plenty of watermelon and corn on the cob to eat before we move on to pumpkin spice this and pumpkin spice that.  Labor Day may be here, but we're still in shorts and t-shirts (at least most of us are....the Babe...for some reason is going all long-sleeves-all-the-time) so just hold on for a second, Fall.  I'll take your college football, but let's just hold tight on those leaves falling and cold mornings.  Sound like a deal?

The Babe *soooo* wanted the Halloween scary train from Menards.  She was like, "Daddy!  Take my picture by the train!" Alas...this is NOT the year for it as we're in transition between homes and stuff.  Hate to disappoint her, but....maybe next year?

It can't all be Joy, amirite?!?  After watching the Disney - Pixar movie Inside Out, the Babe wantedwantedwanted Joy the doll.  So...we got Joy the doll.  She had her arm broken off by a restaurant chair incident and that caused all sorts of pain and agony and handwringing. But, we promised the Babe that we'd replace Joy.  But being a savvy terrorist, she up'd the ante:  she not only wanted a new Joy, but she also wanted Sadness. Sadness was - besides BingBong the #2 character in the film.  ( Don't ask about our family and  BingBong and his cotton-candy-smelling-belly.... ) Being a softie, I picked up a new Joy and at the same time bought a Sadness doll and hid her at home.  It took...maybe....45 minutes before the Babe figured out where she was and got her little hands on her. So....now, emanating out of the top bunk in the girls room as they fall asleep, we get to hear Joy AND Sadness having little funny conversations back and forth.   Isn't movie marke

The girls are really into 'blind bags'.  You know...those toys that come in little packages and are part of a series but you don't know which one you'll get until you open it.  Between Shopkins ( which I've talked about here ) and My Little Pony, they like to open the little bags and get surprised.  Kind of like toddler gambling or toddler toy roulette. Recently, we were at the Toy Store in Elmhurst and they spotted these Simpson mini figure Lego blindbags .  The Bird got Hans Moleman.  The Babe got Groundskeeper Willie. They've quickly fallen out of grace in favor of ponies and unicorns with both girls.  Too bad for them.  Good for me I guess, as they're now adorning my desk. I was saying "Boo-urns....".

These two birds are hanging out together on The Babe's Disney pin board.  They're both 'Hidden Mickeys'.  She arranges the board to build little 'collections' and because these guys were about the same size and both birds, of course, they'd go together, right? The guy on the left is "Orange Bird" is a guy you see around the area where they sell Dole Whips in Adventureland and he appears to have a very fervent fan base/following.  I didn't know the history of him, but it turns out, Disney created this creature for the Florida Citrus growers.   From DisneyWiki : The Orange Bird was created in 1970 as a mascot for the Florida Citrus Commission in exchange for them sponsoring the Tiki Room attraction at Magic Kingdom.   Accompanied by singer Anita Bryant , the two appeared in ads for Florida oranges and Bryant narrated a record album telling the character's story. After the Anita Bryant ad campaign was dropped in the late 70s, the Or