Lourdes is a walker!

Lourdes has been so close to walking for several months now, but just last week she finally put it all together.  Here's a video I took of her showing off her new skill!

Halloween Week

We had a week-long Halloween celebration here at the Manning & Kline household.  It started with the school-wide party at Alphonsus.  I was actually a co-chair of the event and, though it took a lot of preparation, it turned out really fun.  We hired an awesome balloon maker who made Finny a balloon rocket.  He was really talented and made another kid an octopus with 8 legs and all these little girls fairy wings that they could wear over their costumes.  Very cool.  There was also a bounce house, face painting, and random games like bowling, pick-a-duck and a bean bag toss.  A professional photographer also came to take family pictures in front of a Halloween backdrop.  She gave a portion of her proceeds back to Mother's Club, which sponsored the event. I had low expectations for my kids' picture because she took it at the very end of the night and they were all beat, but it actually turned out quite cute.  A few days later, we carved pumpkins.  We got a template this year for the big pumpkins and they turned out awesome!  We decided to do a 1 and 2 pumpkin for the girls in reference to the their costumes.  Then on Halloween, all of the kids at Alphonsus were allowed to wear their costumes to school and they paraded through the halls for all the parents to see.  So cute!  Then later that morning, each of the classrooms had their own little party.  Finny's class made a Halloween necklace and picture frame before playing pin the tail on the cat.  Then around 5 that night, Joe and I took the kids trick-or-treating.  Unfortunately, for Lourdes and Sabine they were confined to the stroller this year, but they will definitely get into the action next year.  We live two blocks away from a section of Paulina where all the houses get into Halloween hard core.  All the adults were out drinking wine and passing out candy.  They close the street so all the kids can run from house to house.  And since the houses are so close together, we hit like 40 houses in 30 minutes.  Finn got TONS of candy.  He was psyched.  Thankfully, he ate two pieces that night and then assumed it was gone and hasn't asked about it again.  This is probably the last year that will happen.  So all in all, it was a very fun Halloween.  Now on to Thanksgiving!

The kids at the Alphonsus Halloween party.

Finny was a big help and scooped out all the seeds from his pumpkin.  Then he picked the ghost design for me to carve.  I picked the forest scene and Dad had the scary face.

Finn was very proud of his pumpkin!

The Halloween parade!

Decorating Halloween picture frames at his classroom party.

The necklace he made.

Pin the tail on the cat.

Cute picture of some of his school friends.

Ready to go trick-or-treating.

Lou would not wear her wig, but Sabine kept hers on the whole time.

When we got home, Finn's friends Arden and Gunner stopped over for pictures.

Cutie Girls

Sabine is so cool in her shades!

The girls wearing the awesome hats they got for their birthday from Deb Mitchell.  Thanks again, Deb!

Randomly after the circus, they were handing out Peoples Gas hats to the kids.  What a cute little gas girl our Sabine makes.

Poor kids!

I had a lot of activities planned for the weekend of October  22.  Saturday night we all went to Circus in the Park.  I'll admit, my expectations were low.  It was only $15 for people over the age of 3, free for those under 3, and it was at a local park under a tent.  But I was totally blown away.  The acrobats were VERY talented and they played good music.  The kids LOVED it.  It was two hours long so I thought Lourdes and Sabine would revolt half way through, but they hung in until the end.  At one point, Lou was so into the hula hoop woman that she was literally bouncing up and down on my lap!  And then the next day, Finn and I went with Mae and her parents to see the Broadway production of Mary Poppins.  Again, vastly exceeded my expectations.  The only bummer about this weekend of fun, was that Finn was feeling under the weather.  He was running a 101 fever both days, which I was able to control with Motrin.  So I assumed it was just a bad cold.  But after Mary Poppins, he just looked miserable.  That night he slept with us and literally coughed half the night.  I immediately called his pediatrician on Monday and it turns out the poor guy had pneumonia!  I felt terrible!  While he enjoyed the circus and the show, he would have had an even better time if he wasn't so sick.  The girls, on the other hand, were able to enjoy the weekend, but by Tuesday were also at the doctor with pneumonia.  Poor kids!

Here's Finn putting on a brave face for the camera.  His friend Mae looked cute as a button!

Rocket Run

One of Alphonsus Academy's big fundraisers each year is Rocket Run.  For us St. Peter's alums, it is a lot like Spartan Walk.  Basically the kids get pledges from their relatives, and then the older kids run laps around the school block while the preschoolers run laps in the school parking lot.  Here is Finn's class getting ready for their big run!  

Warming up.

And off they go!

To keep the kids interested, they varied the laps.  In this one, the kids were supposed to pretend to be airplanes.

All of the participants got a "medal," which consisted of a pin with a picture of a rocket on it.  Finn was SO PROUD of his!

Didier Farm

The first weekend of October was so warm and beautiful, that we decided to take the kids to Didier Farm for the day.  Unfortunately, all of Chicago had the same idea, but it was still a lot of fun (even though the lines were a bit ridiculous at times).  Finn had a blast.  He went on several amusement rides, an awesome bounce house, and even rode a pony!  It's amazing the difference a year makes.  I would have never gotten him on that animal last year, whereas this year he was all for it.  The girls had fun too.  They checked out the animals in the petting zoo, went on a tractor ride and even helped pick out the family pumpkins.  

Grandparents' Day!

On October 6th, Finn's school held its annual grandparents' day activities.  Gigi and Papa came out and were able to spend an hour in Finn's class meeting his teacher and checking out Finn's daily routine.  Then after school let out, Gigi and Papa took Finn to the Adler Planetarium.  They spent about 3 hours there checking out the Sesame Street space show and playing in the kid's area.  It was such a great day for Finn.  And when Gigi and Papa came back home, Lourdes and Sabine got some grandparent lovin' too.

Finn in his police outfit at school.

Finn wearing a sweet flight jacket at the planetarium.

Loulou and Papa surfing the net.