St. Louis Other Stops

The gang also went to the zoo where they got a private show from a peacock.

They went to southern Illinois where Jenny showed them how and where to dig for geodes, then went to Pere Marquette State Park where bald eagles nest, ate fried pickles, and generally had HUGE time.

City Museum Cont.

More City Museum Pics

Epic St. Louis Trip

Jules and the kids too a 3 day trip to see our friend and former nanny Jenny and her boyfriend this week. Amazing chicken. They took Amtrak which went better than expected. Apparently, traveling 6 hours is less painful when there are cool big kids around to play with and potty breaks are no problem. On the down side, nobody slept a wink either way.

The City Museum in St. Louis is apparently insanely cool. A HUGE renovated former factory full of crazy cool art projects, a 7 story slide, old airplanes and fire trucks suspended in the air that you can climb through. Oh, and they serve booze. Lots of pics.

Milwaukee = Actionville

Had an overnight trip to Milwaukee Saturday with Grandma Bonnie, Grandpa Larry and Grandma Sue. Hit the Children's Museum which rocked. (Better than Glenview's Children's Museum according to our family experts.

Lunch at Speed Queen Bar B Q. Awesome ribs and shoulder. Wall to wall ceramic tile and staff behind glass (bullet proof?). The kids got their first slices of white white white bread too. Nata LOVED white bread.

We to Alterra for afternoon treats and spent the rest of the day in the hotel pool. E.B. kept ramping up and was jumping wildly across the pool after a bit.

Dinner at Mader's. Great German food but a bit rich after a pile of BBQ. The kids were great and we got to walk to and from the restaurant in a mild snowstorm. Yeah Upper Midwest spring!!

Bedtime stories from each of the Grandparents.

More swimming in the morning. E.B was loving the goggles and swimming a bit on his own. Tyrone was leaping off the pool edge to Jules.

Exhausted. Pics to follow from Grandma B.

First Blackhawks Game

Sunday we went to Elliot's first Blackhawks' game with Katie and Kara Angelini. We planned to take the bus but were running late so we had to take a taxi ("No car seat, Dad.") Notice in the picture at the bus stop a ghost Dad reflection like in 3 Men and a Baby.

The game was a little loud but generally well received. Lemonade and popcorn have that effect.

Explaining hockey to a kid who has never seen it is a bit complex but he did call a 4 minute major on himself and request I build a penalty box for him on Monday so some info must have stuck. Also, explaining why the Blackhawks fan behind us was so angry at his own team was a bit hard to do. Similarly, when girls in bikinis came out mid period to scrape excess ice up E.B was baffled, "Dad, why are there girls on the ice."

After he got home, he drew his impressions of the game. Left to right, the stadium, the referee (in the striped shirt near the word "Dad"), below that the goalkeeper and two regular players with skates resembling the letter "E".

Better Video from the S. Side Parade

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/video?id=6711111

At 14:45 we appear.

South Side Parade pics

We got to walk in the parade thanks to Annie Coakley. Her Dad and his buddy founded the parade 30 years ago. She, her Mom, and her husband Luke were a super great hosts.

We started the day with the kids' first mass at St. Cajetan's church (totally cool - bagpipes, Danny Boy, the whole magilla). The parade was an awesome example of community organization/mission. Annie's Mom pushed the original float the whole parade route (as she does every year). There was also a HUGE sideshow after the parade of drunken fools peeing in the bushes.

St. Pat's Saturday

We went to Chief O'Neil's with the McMahons, the Zipps, the Mercs, Grandma Bonnie and more.

Killer buffet. Ridiculous weather. Lots of wresting. Morning Guinness. Not much to complain about.

Nata liked riding the garden frog. E.B., Tommy Zipp, and Johnny Merc tried to take the Dads out with sneak attacks. Mike and I got the best of E.B. at least once. (The crouch technique was key.)

Later at dinner at Crust, E.B. bummed some beads off a very over served young lady. Smooove.

South Side Irish Parade!

We were in it today thanks to an invite from Annie Coakley.

http://qik.com/video/1246364

You can see us about half way through this segment (11:15 to 11:09 remaining)

The kids are in a red wagon at the end of our unit (that's technical parade talk).

Still pics to come.

Recent pics

Natalie's hair is long enough for braids. They work great until she decides she wants to wear a turtleneck.

E.B. wanted to be a skeleton with hanging bones to scare Dad. It worked.

We busted out the 1970's legos and created a small army of armor-wearing truck drivers.

Nata loves the "Detroit" shirt when playing skeletons. Thanks again, Sexy Bear.

Egyptians

Elliot and Natalie have fallen in love with the Old Testament. They have a special love of the plagues that befell the Egyptians at the hand of the God of the Old Testament (rivers turned to blood, locusts, the killing of the first born son ("Like you and me, Dad!"), etc.).

Today they made paper sandals, a necklace and a snake crown and eagerly await spring when they can wear their outfits outside like the lady sweeping the frogs out of her house.

Visit to Grandpa and Grandma's

The kids spent the weekend at Larry and Sue's as a birthday present to Julie.

I'm not sure we'd have been happier to have a winning lotto ticket.

The kids had a blast, even kayaking in the backyard.

In which the parents become totally superfluous

A couple of recent pics

January has been pretty darn cold. Even the photo snapping finger has been frozen it seems.

Johnny Merc was less than thrilled with his face full of snow at Humboldt Park.

Nata and Elliot have been loving turning off all the lights and exploring the house by headlamp.

Art projects du jour

E.B. did the mixed media rainbow palimpsest with masking tape and hole punches.

Nata did the "bad guy" with more masking tape.

Maeve sledding

Natalie sledding

Sledding in the garden

Big time powder

After a semi-painful morning trip to Humboldt Park in heavy snows and winds, it turns out sledding in our little back yard is quite exciting enough for Elliot, Nata and Maeve McMahon.

Keep it simple, Dad.