Easter!

Grandma flew out to help us celebrate Easter, and we began the festivities by celebrating her big 76th birthday!  

Then on Friday, we took the kids to Little Beans for pictures with the Bunny.  Finn and Lourdes immediately jumped on his lap, but Sabine was TERRIFIED and stayed in my arms.

After a nice nap for all of us, we made chocolates.  The kids did a great job (and also made a huge mess)!

And, of course, we colored eggs.  We actually got the kits from Build-a-Bear, and they came with stickers and glitter so that you could make glitter shapes on the eggs.  They were super cool and the kids LOVED getting the glitter everywhere (much to their Dad's chagrin).

The Bunny didn't disappoint.  He left tchotchke filled eggs around the house and a bunch of great presents in their baskets.  Finn got a make your own volcano, the Rise of the Guardians dvd, an outfit for his Princess bear from Grandma and a book from Gigi and Papa.  Lourdes got a Rapunzel doll and dress, an outfit for Catso and a cute shirt from Gigi and Papa.  Sabine got a Princess Aurora doll and dress, an outfit for her Princess bear and a cute shirt from Gigi and Papa.  Easter Bunny really stressed about which doll to give which girl and chose to give the purple one to Lourdes and pink one to Beanie, because those are their favorite colors.  Well Sabine immediately wanted the Rapunzel doll.  We were ready for a show down, but Lourdes uncharacteristically caved, let Sabine have her way and switched dolls.  Go Lourdes!

On our way to church!

Brunch at Bin 36!  Amazing mimosa and milk flights.  We ended Grandma's stay with a viewing of Rise of the Guardians.  Great movie, great weekend!

Winter Wonderland play and Weekend with Gigi and Papa

Finnegan's Emerald City class at school put on a Winter Wonderland play at the end of March and Gigi and Papa made it out to watch.  My favorite part is when one or more of the princesses decide to marry the previously mean penguin.  Classic!

Then Rosa took Friday off, so the kids and their grandparents could spend the day together.  Lots of cuddling, dress-up and reading took place.  And we capped off Friday with the kids making pizza.  Saturday, Gigi and Papa got to watch Finn swim and the girls dance.  It was a good weekend.

St. Paddy's Day

Finn and I had tickets to the family matinee at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on the Saturday before St. Patrick's Day.  So I thought it might be fun to get downtown a bit early and check out the river dying and the parade.  I miscalculated two things: 1) how cold it would be, and 2) how drunk people would be, even at eleven in the morning.  On our train ride downtown (at 10:15 a.m.), people were already talking about doing car bombs.  And as we watched the river turn green, the language got more and more adult.  So we bagged the parade and checked out the Hershey and Lego stores.  By the time we got out of the Symphony at 2, the eff bombs were flying and we almost walked into a drunken brawl on our way back to the train.  So I got Finn home and vowed to NEVER go downtown on St. Patrick's Day again.  Newsflash ... I'm not 21 anymore.

Lourdes and Sabine sing and dance

Great Wolf Lodge Redux

We went back to Great Wolf Lodge for a little winter break, this time with the Boxer family.  We had an absolute blast yet again.  The kids LOVE that place.  What's not to love?  There are water slides, a lazy river, a pool, water guns, a wave pool, non-water slides from 1 to 3 stories high, a craft room and story time.  It's a kid's paradise.  Sabine, my little water baby, must have gone down the water slides at least 100 times over the course of the weekend.  She even went down this really fast one that scared Finn and got her going so fast that Joe and I could barely catch her as she shot out of the tube.  Finn, my cuddler, liked laying on us while we floated down the lazy river in a tube.  Lourdes, my crazy baby, LOVED going down the one story slide they have next to the craft room.  They all loved painting.  Finnegan and Emmit got along great, while Ian and Lou flirted with each other.  We will definitely be going back next year.

Sledding at Montrose Beach

Bribery Trip to the Children's Museum and Build a Bear

In January, Sabine started waking up with a dry diaper and asking for a change the second she was wet or dirty.  While Lourdes was doing neither of those things, we decided we weren't potty training twice and so Lourdes would just have to catch up.  Sabine potty trained like a charm.  She barely had any accidents.  Lou, on the other hand, was less motivated to use the potty.  So we resorted to bribery.  First, they got an animal cracker every time they used the potty.  That worked pretty well and soon Lou was only having one or two accidents a day (mostly #2).  So then we upped the ante   If at the end of the day they were accident free, they would get a star.  If they collected 5 stars, we would go to The Children's Museum and Build-a-Bear.  Sabine had her 5 stars the first week.  It took Lourdes about 3 weeks, but finally she got her 5 stars and off to Navy Pier we went.

After having a blast at The Children's Museum, we were off to build our bear.  Here are the kids picking a "heart" for their bear.

Watching the bears get stuffed.

Three happy kids.  Finnegan and Sabine picked out princess bears, which they named Catso and Aurora respectively.  Lourdes picked out a Hello Kitty, which she also named Catso.  F.Y.I. Catso is the name of the villain in Runaway Ralph (clearly Finnegan's influence).  And, obviously, Finn has been potty trained for quite some time, but he still managed to score a bear off of his sister's hard work.  I'm such a softy.