Winter Fun

One of the best ways to enjoy winter is to go outside (as Bec says "Embrace it!") and enjoy it with children. I've had a number of opportunities to do that lately and mother nature has certainly cooperated by providing lots of snow and winter weather. We closed out 2009 by visiting Lincoln Park Zoo and the Peggy Notebart Museum with the grandkids. Jane and I were joined by Andy and Sarah and my brother, Chris, who taught O, Charlie, and Sully to throw snowballs and also taught them some sneaky snowball fighting strategies that I'm sure will serve the grandkids well later in life. But most of all we made some wonderful memories together. My New Year's Resolution is to make as many memories as possible and to get back to sharing them regularly in my blog. I hope 2010 is filled with amazing adventures and memories for the whole family and that we get to experience as many of them as possible together!

Even More Pix!

More Christmas Pix!

Merry Christmas!

All of our children and grandchildren got together to celebrate Christmas Eve. It was a bit chaotic but lots of fun nonetheless. There's nothing more fun than seeing the grandchildren ripping open the presents and just enjoying being with each other and horsing around.

Carving Pumpkins

One of my favorite Halloween traditions is carving pumpkins. I'm now having just as much fun with my grandchildern as I did with Laura, Sarah, and Bec when they were growing up. Trevor and Abby helped clean out the pumpkins and design and carve the faces. They are both creative just like their mom. It was a bit messy cleaning out the seeds but definitely worth the effort. Jane cooked up a batch when we were finished and they were as tasty as ever.

Dollinger's Pumpkin Farm

One of my favorite Pumpkin Farms is Dollinger's, not far from where we live in Joliet. This was our second year to go with Trevor and Abby. It was cold and windy but we still had a lot of fun getting lost in the corn maze, playing "King of the Haystack", petting the baby rabbits and choosing pumpkins to carve for Halloween. Abby enjoyed getting her face painted and Trevor spent some time building dams in the stream on the Dollinger's property. The pumpkins we chose were so big we had to use a cart to get them to the car!

Bengston's Pumpkin Patch

I'm embarassed to admit that these pictures were taken October 4th, but better late than never I guess. Jane and I met Matt and Bec at Bengston's Farm for a visit to their pumpkin patch. We had lots of fun. O was amazed at all the pumpkins (no pumpkin shortage here). Matt and O had a lot of fun "Pumpkin Tipping"and o ended the day by picking out pumpkins for herself and little brother Alex. Although this picture doesn't show it, O's favorite pumpkins were the green ones. Can't wait to do it again next year!