Holiday Magic

Tonight after dinner we bundled up the gang, snow pants and all and went to Brookfield Zoo's Holiday Magic. This was the first time we'd ever braved the cold to go and check it out. It was really pretty and everybody had a lot of fun. There were Christmas lights everywhere and spotlights of snowflakes and candy canes and such projected onto the buildings. Josh didn't want to leave because he liked the musical light show so much. We saw a few animals out, but it was about 21 degrees, so not too many. We did see the male and female lions, the tiger, and some of the animals in the Children's Zoo. Now we're home and thawing out...maybe the kids will sleep in!

Christmas Day

The Photos of Christmas begin...

Family Photo Time

Today we did our yearly family photo shoot...only this year, it actually went WELL! The studio wasn't crowded, the kids didn't cry, the pics came out cute, what more could you ask...?Here are a couple of them courtesy of JCP...

Singing at Church

This morning at church, Hannah, Josh, and Ryan got to go on stage and sing with their classes. They were so excited! Right before we got to church, Hannah said she was scared, but by the time we saw her on stage, she was great! They all did so well. Here's a video...

After church, Hannah got to go to one of her preschool friend's birthday parties at Build-a-Bear Workshop at the mall. She had such a good time being with her little friends and building her own bear complete with ballerina clothes. She named her bear Flowers (because one of her friends name hers Flowers too).

Last night, Pat and I went to a Christmas Party while my friend Ellen watched the kids, so it's been a busy, but fun weekend!

Thanksgiving

We're back from Thanksgiving in Michigan with my side of the family and we had a great time. The kids got to play with their cousins and we got to eat delicious food! We had a good trip on the road both ways and even got to stop at Aunt Debbie and Uncle Ken's to pick up our meat from David. The kids took a look around their farm seeing the calves, chickens, and cats. Ryan said, "that was really, really fun!" We are thankful to spend time with family. Please continue to pray for Pat's dad who is still in the hospital but doing better. Thanks!

Rewind...

So, obviously it's been since August that I updated our blog until today when I added the "ElfYourself" video. Anyway, we did actually do things between August 25 and now, the day before Thanksgiving! In September, we took a family mini-vacation to Wisconsin Dells to the Wilderness, Pat and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary, went boating, Hannah started preschool, and the boys did story time at the library without her for the first time. In October I took the kids on a road trip vacation to Hilton Head Island with Mom and Dad, we had a great Halloween with Hannah as Cinderella, Josh as Mickey Mouse, and Ryan as Thomas the Tank Engine, and here it is November and we're off to Michigan tomorrow for Thanksgiving Day with my side of the family. I'll post a couple pics of the last few months...

The Kelly Family's Singing Debut!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Dinosaurs!!

On Sunday, we finally went to see the "Dinosaurs Alive" exhibit at Brookfield Zoo. It goes until October and we'd been waiting for Pat to go with us and avoiding it on earlier zoo visits. I was thinking the kids might be scared of them too, so wasn't too worried about putting it off before that day. Turns out Hannah and Josh were fine, and Ryan was fine for most of it until the end. He said something like I'm done now, and he wanted me to hold him. As we walked through the exhibit he kept running back to get in the wagon too. It was pretty funny. Josh and Hannah thought it was great and they were pushing the buttons to make the dinosaurs roar and move and the like. It was all pretty cute. Not a very large exhibit, but I'm glad we checked it off. :) We had a nice picnic, and only 1 runaway incident with Ryan, but all was well. It was a beautiful day too, and not too crowded when we were there, although as we left the entrance was packed.

Craft from Barnes & Noble

This morning I had to take the kids with me to go pick up Hannah's medical form from the Dr. that she needs to hand in for preschool, so I found a nearby Barnes & Noble that had storytime at 10:30 so our errand would be more than just an errand. There's a pic of the bug craft that they made in storytime since they had stories about bugs read to them.

Turns out I left a little too early, so had time to kill in between the Dr. and storytime, so we found a park over at the Wheaton Park District, really closeby. We were the only ones there so that was nice, and the weather was so nice the kids had a great time. It was a cute playground too.

More Summer Fun!

This past weekend the kids had a milestone. They all spent the night away for the first time without both mommy and daddy. Grandma and Grandpa Boyle graciously agreed to have Hannah, Josh, and Ryan spend the night with them. They had so much fun and did so well, they weren't even ready to leave when we came for them the next morning. Grandpa got them their favorite McDonald's and they watched a movie, and played. Mommy and Daddy both had a nice time too! Thanks again, Grandma and Grandpa Boyle!!!

On Tuesday night, we went to another Kane County Co

ugars game only this time it was for a Pepperidge Farm outing. The kids had so much fun and it was a really beautiful night. We got to sit in the party area that borders the outfield where they had food for us before the game, and even though we had seats to go to also, we never made it over to them and just stayed at the party deck. The Cougars did not disappoint with the fireworks either, they were great and the kids loved them. Pepperidge had given each child a goodie bag and our kids loved the glow sticks they got in them, plus they got a toy and some snacks. They also had their first taste of cotton candy that they all tried, but only Joshy liked! You should've seen the faces!

On Thursday night the kids and I went back to Splash Country for

a couple of hours with our neighbors Brenda, Jenna, and Joey since it was a hot night. It was really fun and we're sad this weekend is the last it's open :(

This morning, we had my friend Katie and her son and daughter over to play. It was great catching up since it had been awhile since Katie and I had gotten together. The kids all played well together and there was only one injury. Ryan got a little goose egg by his eye when he fell down the deck stairs-poor guy. McDonald's and fun was had by all too!

Whew...I think I too hit a milestone-for longest post!

An Afternoon at Splash Country

This afternoon we went to Splash Country Waterpark to try it out and enjoy Pat's day off outside. The weather started out well with some sun, but went downhill as the afternoon went on. It was okay tho' because we still had fun. We like lazy rivers, so we hit that up pretty quickly after getting there. The park is part of Blackberry Farm's complex, which I didn't know before today. Blackberry Farm is a historic pioneer village that we haven't visited yet. Anyway, the waterpark was fun and the kids loved the zero-depth pool and the playthings. Hannah and Pat tried to do the big waterslide, but Hannah was a little too short. Check out some pics...