Easter Weekend(s)

This year was the coldest Easter we've ever had here!   The neighborhood Easter egg hunt was the week before Easter, and it was overcast and cold.  Luckily those kids grab those eggs fast and we were in and out in 30 minutes!  

William was on Spring Break for the entire week, but since he's a tax accountant's kid, we aren't going anywhere until the end of April.  Instead, he played at home for the week around mom and dad's work schedules. Since John was traveling, I worked two days at home.  My original plan was to take William into the office with me but I was too busy.  As in, I can't make the kiddo stay in my office for 14 hours - so I worked it at the dining room table and he played all day!  The next day, we couldn't go to the city because he had noon baseball practice.  But that lack of a commute meant we did have time to sneak in an hour for the Easter egg decorating!  

Thursday I got up bright and early and did my usual commute in.  Unfortunately it ended in this walking boot, as I slipped on a piece of plastic littering the steps as I was unloading from the train.  Good Friday was back at home as I nursed my ankle.  

William got two Easter baskets this year.  A Harry & David snack box from Uncle Ryan and Tarek arrived on Friday.  And another appeared on Saturday with mommy's favorite candy and his own iPad plug (so that mommy's iPhone cord can stop disappearing) and his new favorite game, Jenga!

 

Since we didn't "go" anywhere for Spring Break, we booked a room in the city for one night.   We lived it up!  Rolled ice cream, the Field Museum (with lots of breaks for sore feet - me in my boot and William in a new pair of sneakers we didn't realized needed breaking in), Jenga building, pizza and a cold swimming pool at the hotel, Easter brunch at Beatrix, and then a military history museum.

 

 

And when we got home the Easter Bunny had left eggs in the front yard!  He was so excited that one of the eggs was golden! 

Family Fun Weekend

Though I usually blog about our fun activities versus the evenings and weekends we sit around and chill at home, we do a lot more chilling than activities as we regroup from busy work and school schedules.  So it was a big weekend that we had STEM Night at school on Friday evening, followed by a Saturday evening roller skating party.  And the very next weekend we also went to a friend's house for dinner and cards (and to play with their growing puppy)!

Our friends' school had a PTA Fundraiser at the roller skating rink that we crashed.  William had been to one or two skating field trips but wasn't very excited about it.....I think he just needed mom out there to show him the moves!  We had a blast and after a few laps with the skate assist he ditched it and was tearing up the floor like a madman!  He tripped me once for a big fall for me, but otherwise I held my own!  This skating rink was circa 1986 so I felt right at home.  I filled William in on tales of Saturday skate where my mom dropped me and Ryan off to skate and have nachos and dill pickles.

The dog whisperer in action.  William and Herky are sure to be fast friends.  (Herky, by the way, is a very common pet name around here due to Herky the Hawkeye for University of Iowa.   Just like all of our Kansas friends with pets named Willie!)

 

Big Snow and Valentines Day!

We got another big snow, and this time William and I got to play in it a bit since it was cold but not as cold as the last snow.  

For a little Valentine's date, William and I went to see Peter Rabbit at the movie theatre and then met Daddy for dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings.   I also made hearts for William's bedroom door of all of the things I love about him.  A new one was added (more or less) every day.   John's gift to me was a beautiful bouquet of flowers that I enjoyed rearranging three times to make them last longer!

 

Cub Scout Pinewood Derby

After an impressive runner's up finish overall and in his den last year (and the first place kid moving-LOL), William was highly motivated to build a winning car this year.  Success!  William's car was 1st place overall out of 59 cars!   One heat his car went almost 200 mph!  He was pretty sure he had won, since the new timing system showed that every one of his heats was a track record.  But boy was he thrilled to get that trophy!

 

 

The Bears were big winners.  Repeating at best overall design was his den mate, Zac, for a hot dog car!   Zac's car was also the second fastest for the Bears den and fifth overall. . . everyone was calling it Fast Food!  Our pack does a nice job of spreading out the trophies so that each kid gets only one.  Since William won overall fastest and Zac won overall design, they did not qualify for the Bear awards.  Instead, the third fastest Bear won the 1st place Bear trophy.  This is also how William won 1st place Wolf last year, since his den mate was first overall.  This year six Bears got trophies:  2 overall, 3 speed, and 1 design. Here they are pictured with Zac's mom, Kyle, and their other den leader, Matt, and the Cubmaster, Mike.   Kyle and Matt were great to jump in this year to replace the husband/wife duo that did Tigers and Wolves, since the Ks moved to China on an ex-pat assignment.  

 

 

Some action shots:

After the big win, William and I celebrated with some ice cream!  John wasn't able to join us since he was on the clean up crew.   John and his fellow Bear den dads were again the pit crew for the race.  John and Josh run the track while Jay runs the computer.   They were thrilled this year with the updated timing system.  Much smoother than last year.   I think they wrapped up and made it out for dinner and beers much earlier than last time!

 

The Rest of Winter Break

After we got home from New Year's in Kansas City, William still had another full week and weekend of winter break!  It's good they don't have school because it's SO COLD (single digits at best), but I can definitely see how we would have been a little more stir crazy if we hadn't had the roadtrip.

 

William finally finished the Hoth Attack set from last Christmas.  It's amazing what this piece of "snow" (i.e. fabric batting) did to add to the scene and interest!   

 

We went to the climbing wall at our gym.   This is so much harder for adults than children!  Clearly we have more weight to carry, but I also think it's the weight to strength ratio.   I did try it too but didn't make it very far.  William made it to the top of the kid's wall and made great progress on the regular wall.

 It snowed again.  We went sledding.  I also had to take another picture of our house before the lights and decoration went down.   I love all of the weeks leading up to Christmas when I drive into the neighborhood at night all lit up!  It got less and less festive each night after New Year's.   The combination of bitterly cold weather and no lights is just sad.....how many more weeks until spring??

This bottom picture is part of my commute:  the walk across the Chicago River from my office to the train station.  It's very photogenic - even in the winter.