Merry Christmas!

We're decorating!

And now the Tired Portion of Our Show

Elena had a really, really good time with her cousins...case in point...the ride home...

More Pics!

You can see the "sweet couples", some pretty decor, and all of us getting ready to watch the show! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

We traveled to hometown Danville for some time with Eric's siblings for Thanksgiving and had such a good time together! (The neat thing about getting together here, is that this is where they all grew up together, and where all of us girls spent "date time" with our boys and their Mom and Dad! The white house on the hill!) Although, every time with them is wonderful, so this was one to add for the books! I have the best sister-in-laws and brother-in-laws in the world!

We enjoyed gourmet cooking from Heather and Chellie (despite her injuries, no less) Beef House Rolls, which that in of itself is the end all be all for food! And desserts from Lovin' Oven, who was the caterer for our wedding almost 10 years ago!

We also had a mini-Christmas exchange and a movie viewing of "How to Train Your Dragon", which was so much fun! What a sweet story!

We love and miss you all, Meidels and Duensings!!!! You are such great family! Blessings!!!!Can't wait to see you all again!

It's a Thanksgiving Beast!

Not really...it's a Thanksgiving FEAST that was celebrated at school today, but Elena has been saying BEAST all week, which after being with 500+ Kindergartners, I could see that...HA!

The kids got to travel to different rooms for crafts and games, then six classrooms grouped together for a feast of snack food similar to a Thanksgiving day spread. Very cute! And Elena had earned "ROAR cards" (kids earn roar cards for good deeds and behavior, then they are entered into a drawing at the end of the week for each class) that ended up helping her get drawn the winner. She was so excited about that, especially when her class took time to applaud her efforts. I've never seen such a big, proud grin!

I was a helper in the Turkey Bingo room...try imagining 5 year olds hollering "BINGO!!!" a bazillion times. I have such utter admiration and respect for Kindergarten Teachers.

Pictures are of Turkey Bingo, "Line O' Turkeys", and gathering together. Elena is leaning over telling her friend Michael that she is thankful for snacks - they usually don't have snack time - and asking him if he is thankful, too. His response was that the dried cranberries reminded him of bird poo...niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. :)

ROAR Kid of the Week!

Elena's school has a special program that assigns each week to one of the children in the class as the ROAR Kid of the week (we are the Wildcats). Elena gets to take something special for show and tell, a special book, and make a poster to talk about her family and favorite things.

So we put together the poster filled with photos and pictures, packed up her special Frog to share, and she chose to bring her own special storybook written for her; "Lost Frogus - A Journey Through the Villages," a little tale made up when her frog was tossed in the lake and essentially lost. She was pretty upset, so she was comforted when we told her that different animals (buffaloes, egrets, lizards, etc. in The Villages) help get the frog back home. We always travel with a spare frog - or 3!!! - and so by the time we got home, her frog was waiting for her. We wrote it down and had it published for her to have as a keepsake someday. She was pretty proud to share that this week!

So here's to our ROAR Kid...we are proud of you and love you, Elena!

Cocktailin' for the Cause for MS

This weekend was spent in downtown Chicago with dear friend, Loni, and a great girl's evening at Cocktailin' for a Cure at the Hard Rock Hotel benefiting the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Greater Illinois Chapter.

We listened to great music and enjoyed terrific food and drinks, and met and spent time with the lovely Michaele Salahi, who has suffered from MS for over 17 years, along with many others touched by the disease (Michaele is a very sweet lady!) One especially inspirational young woman was beautiful 26 year old who was just diagnosed 2 months ago. She was in attendance ready to raise money and awareness, and help others immediately, and was a real treat to get to know. I really enjoyed listening to her story and all she had to share with us, as well as how positive she was about her situation.

If you'd like to help or be a part of the event next year, go to:

http://www.multiple-solutions.org/

Loni, I had such a great time with you and can't wait for our next time together! Breakfast was amazing, and the "quaint, but charming" bookstore was so cute! Can't wait to explore more!Love ya, Dollie!

Flashback to Sesame Street

"Share the chair"...NOPE!

Trick or Treat...Muahhahaha!

We had a good time Sunday trick-or-treating and spending the evening at Six Flags for the last night of Fright Fest. A little cool but a lot of fun! :)

Eric and Elena both got the airbrush touch, although a little quickly done since we were a bit behind...and I am not even going to get into that craziness...all I have to say is beware of Metra on Holidays...

Elena just wanted to wear her wings and antenna with a pretty airbrushed face...Eric had a skull face...you can imagine the two of them walking down the street together! ;) Elena thought it was pretty nifty...some other little kids did not...one mom with her kids thought it was so neat, though, that she had her kids pose with Eric for pictures! HAHA!

We changed hoodies for Six Flags on Eric...still not perfect, but a lot creepier! ;) And the septum is obviously non-existant because of my rush...but we'll perfect it! ;)

More Photos

Beautiful London....

and comparison shots...

along with our Hollywood Stairs shot...

Believe It...Or not....

Muahahahhahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!

Underworld!

This Saturday I got to spend some quality time with dear friend and Mrs. America class of '09 sis, Loni...we enjoyed an amazing Italian dinner and then put ourselves and our group together- hair, costume and airbrush makeup-to recreate part of the cast from" Underworld" for a costume party in Chicago. We had a blast getting ready and it was pretty cool not only to get to see all the amazing costumes as well as the place itself - movie production quality, right down to the food! Literally, from door-way to door-way, this place oozed Hollywood Talent!

I'll have a couple posts and some comparisons...let's see what you think! ;)

Loni is the spitting image of Kate Beckinsale so this was a cinch for her!

Note - my necklace is a replica of Erika's for the Vampire Ball in the actual movie, Loni's outfit was almost carbon -copied, and the official Viktor costume was custom-made according to the movie!

PS - I totally fell in love with London, her beautiful and "OH!-so-LOVING" cat...darling! ;)

Halloween Party!

Elena had her first class party of the school year...Happy Halloween! We had games and fun food, and a costume parade to kick things off! Elena was a beautiful butterfly and even had her face airbrushed for the costume, glitter and all! Good times! Now if we could just come down from that sugar high! ;)