What are big brothers for????

What are big brothers for besides to show you the ropes. I mean, who else is going to show you how to get into the DVD's and to throw them all over........several times a day.

Who else is going to give you HIS crayon so that you can draw a nice picture on the wall while Mom is making dinner?

Who would go so far as to "take one for the team" by showing you that young kids should NOT have gum (particularly ABC gum)?

And big brothers......they take care of you. They get your milk out of the fridge for you so that you won't be sad.

Or if they can't reach it because it is on the top shelf, they improvise,

by giving you Daddy's Salsa Habanera (which is EXTRA hot) might I add.

Big brothers also have a back up in case you don't like hot sauce,

Looks like this little girl has her mommy's tolerance for spicy food. Not a tear was shed. There was however a lot of spitting and wincing.

Big brothers also hold your hand in the back of the van so you won't be sad.

This unfortunately, is the only one that mommy didn't get a picture of (probably a good thing since I was driving). It also happened to be mommy's favorite of the bunch.

35 and 5

He's happy, because he got to eat steak, shrimp and brownies.

Conal, were you going for the mysteriously handsome look in this pic? Well, you are pretty hot what can I say?

She's happy because she got to go on the carousel (which also made her siblings happy because they got to join her,

and because she got to eat ice cream.

They are both happy because they got to eat some seriously chocolately chocolate cake. Oh and the ice cream for the second day in a row didn't hurt either.

I'm happy because I FINALLY figured out what an omnitrix is and actually found one to buy.

Yes, I know, that looks more like a toy for a boy. That is probably the reason that Garrison and Jackson keep begging Alexia to play with it. Even Hailey (who was the one who informed me that the omnitrix is for BOYS!) has asked to play with it. Don't even ask me what it does---I have no idea. I found it, Daddy can figure out what it does. Not that he would protest too much about that =)

Don't be too concerned about Alexia and her choice of toys though. Her only other request was a mermaid.

Luckily, aunt Mandi figured out that she wanted the Barbie mermaid because I wasn't sure what she was referring to. I guess I can only concentrate on one mystery toy at a time.

Wow, 5 years really came fast.

So did the fact that her hair is almost as long as her sister's.

You'll have to ask Conal if 35 came fast for him. I know that the (almost) 13 years that I've know him have flown by.

Happy Birthday to two of my favorite people! Love you guys!

They had a ball

The game is simple.

1.Jackson haphazardly throws the ball in the air.

2.Macy and Jackson make a run for it.

3. One of the two come up with the ball.
4. Macy hands the ball to Jackson so he can throw it again.

Of course we are talking about a 3 year old and a 1 year old so there are a couple of distractions. A piano break and a doggie break are a must.

But then we are back at it again.

We need to play this game more often. There was no fighting and no tears, everyone was still friends at the end of the game, nothing got broken, and everyone (including Mommy!) was happy at the end.

Sure beats the cleaning that I was considering sneaking off to do.

A clean house isn't everything. It only lasts 5 minutes anyway.

ice skating anyone?

OK, so really the thought of ice skating makes me cringe. Bad ankle. Nuff said.

I seriously think you could have ice skated on my driveway this morning though. Check out this thick sheet of solid ice.

And yes, those are my newspapers for the last 3 days, frozen to the end of my driveway. Apparently neither Conal nor I want to read the paper badly enough to go out and get them.

Good thing it is going to be above freezing again today. You wouldn't believe how many kids I saw biff it while I was driving the kids to school.

The Field Museum

We haven't done anything on "the list" for a long time. Since the kids had a day off and it was "free day" at some of the museums we decided that this would be a good time to get back at it. Conal took a half a day off and we headed to the Chicago Field Museum.

It's getting to be so much more fun to take the kids to museum-type places. The 3 older kids are actually interested in the things we are looking at

and the younger two kids are getting better at entertaining themselves while we look around.

Even the younger kids were mesmorized by the elephants:

but the older two were disappointed because they thought the T-Rex would be bigger. I admit it. I thought it would be too.

The building itself definitely did not disappoint. It's the coolest building.

The Egyptian exhibit was a hit with everyone as well. Too bad the exhibit was way to dark for any good pictures. The mummies were a hit but I'm afraid we are going to have some scared kids in our room for the next week. They were afraid something was going to pop out of this:

Hailey has decided to use this new spelling of her name at school from now on.

Conal's favorite part was this gift to the city of Chicago from the state of Veracruz.

Finally, you can't leave the city without getting a picture:

Lookin on the bright side.

It's January. It's cold. I miss the sun. But hey........we live in Chicago........and there are benefits to that.

One of those is living near my favorite produce store. Maybe I need to be better supervised in Caputos. Here is a fraction of what I purchased .

MMMM. Fresh pineapple, grapefruit, kiwi, cilantro, 3 different kinds of apples, avacados, bananas, limes, and the makings for fresh salsa.

Not to mention one of my favorite French cheeses for a dollar. A dollar? Has the world gone mad?

Oh yeah, I had a great two days of eating mostly fruit and veggies. It was so delicious. The 3rd day.......not so good. My stomach hurt so bad. Guess I need to pace myself. ha ha.

Oh BTW, I also picked up some of these:

and for some reason my kids thought they had died and gone to heaven. Garrison said "we haven't had peanuts in the shell since we went to the circus!" Well, believe me, the kitchen floor looked like it belonged at the circus when they were done.

Oh well.......it's January. You gotta have fun somehow.

This is for Jace........or Jamison.

Jamison and/or Jace, whoever picked out Macy's Christmas present. You rock. She loves her doggie. She doesn't like to let go of it. When she wants it she walks around the house barking. She hugs it. She LOVES it.

Even when she is getting her diaper changed.

Or when I am trying to dress her.

She doesn't even let food get in the way of holding her doggie.

Thanks kiddos.