Some Bathroom Humor

Here is a new fun Zach thing. He names his poops. I kid you not. Last night he finished in the bathroom and then sized up what he had done and difined them as snake poops!

The Star of the Show?

Today Meg's kindergarten class performed some christmas songs at the school mass.

Here are the pictures

Taking it to the next level

In swimming Meg is moving up to the next level. She is excited because the teacher wont be in the water with them as much. She is a confident swimmer. Now if we could only get her to stop playing around with the goggles.

She is also moving up in gymnastics. she takes after her mother.

What Zach is thankful for

Thank you for buzz light years. I have 2 buzz light years. My dad buyed me abuzz light years football to play with.

Love,
Zachary

Meg's Birthday Morning

Meg Turned 6 today. She was really excited to finally get an iPod shuffle (brought dad to tears :). Our family is incharge of snacks this week at school so Meg picked out GoGurts for her Birthday school snack.

Zach's Marble painting

Zach's class used marbles to paint last week and this is the result. Zach had such a great time that he wanted Meg to try so this weekend Zach led us in marble painting. It was a lot of fun.

Great Meg Quote

"We'll eat like they did in old times before they had tv!"

We do pizza and a movie nights on Saturdays but this week ordered a pizza during the week. This Meg quote happened after we told Zach we would not be watching TV during dinner.

That's my girl the cup is half full.

Snap Painting by Zach

Today in the art studio the children had the opportunity to explore "snap painting" in the Art Studio today. They used old picture frames, rubber bands , and paint to complete the project.

The rubber bands where stretched across the frames, then each child coated the bands with paint. The students snapped the rubber bands over a piece of paper to create a snappy masterpiece!

Future Chess Master?

Both Meg and Zach have really gotten into chess. Almost every night Zach wants to be a game night and his game of choice is chess. He knows all the pieces and can set up the board. He is usually god for the first 5-10 moves, but then his attention starts to taper off.

We have been using a game called "No Stress Chess" where game play is more like a card game. You flip over cards which have a picture of a piece and how it moves. It helps a child start to understand how the pieces move. Zach is getting good at this game. He even beat dad last night!

Ice Cream makes me mad

This weekend we headed downtown for a fun night at the Hilton Towers. After hiking around and doing a little swimming in the hotel pool we went ot Grant Park for Jazzfest and ice cream. While we were there Zach gave us this beautiful shot.

Meg's shoe was eaten by an escalator

Meg almost had her foot ripped in half when she was wearing Crocs on an escalator this weekend. She was tapping her feet on the side of the escalator and the Croc gots caught between the wall and the stair. It chewed up the shoe and and ripped it down the middle. Meg was screaming bloody murder when Elizabeth swooped her up and took her down the stairs. I yanked the shoe out of the escalator and after seeing the shoe thought that her foot was ripped in half. We got lucky. She walked away with a little bruise but from what the security guard said a lot of kids have had their ankles broken.

All this reminds me of a scene from Mallrats with this line from Broedy,
"Listen, not a year goes by, not a year, that I don't hear about some escalator accident involving some bastard kid which could have easily been avoided had some parent - I don't care which one - but some parent conditioned him to fear and respect that escalator."

Parents teach you kids respect for the escalator!

Meg's First day at School

Meg had her first day at kindergarten today at St. Cletus. Her friends Ryan and Kyle joined her from Little People's so she wont be to lonely.

Zach Reflecting

We went to the Niki in the Garden exhibit at the Garfield Park Conservatory with some family visiting from way out of town. Both Meg and Zach had a great time running around and climbing on all the sculptures. This was the perfect art exhibit for Zach because it was art he could touch, climb and in many cases jump off.

The only trauma came when he slipped in the mud next to a lion sculpture. He didn't like that and let us all know. Click the picture below for a slideshow.

Meg's Shark

We did some water color painting this weekend. Meg is so careful when she paints with water colors. This is a strong contrast to her favorite artist and style, Jackson Polack and splatter paint.

Face painting

At Summerpalooza they had a very impressive face painter named "Sparkles". She gave Meg easily the coolest face painting she has ever had. Meg reward sparkles with a huge smile.

Rid-em Cowboy!

Seriously, the boy could not stop smiling. Both Zach and Meg waited patiently for 15 minutes while they set up. It was good thing they did because just a few minutes after they were done with thier rides the heavens opened up.

Yuck Zach!

You gotta love little boys. We took a trip downtown this weekend to explore and to let the kids pay in crown fountain.

Zach had fun playing in the water.

Zach had fun splashing in the water.

Zach had fun stomping in the water.

Then Zach drank that water... yuck!

Sick little guy

This week Zach got Croup and was sick. One thing that made him happy was putting a wet rag on his head.

I am Superman!

During our vacation to Michigan we had ice cream almost everyday (some days twice). Zach has left no doubt in our minds that Superman ice cream is his favorite. He was never able to finish the whole thing but the boy knew what he wanted.

Meg's first cast

OK, so here's the story...

Sunday morning we went to the playground. The monkey bars at the were too high for Meg to reach standing on the platform, so she climbed up to get higher and then jumped off trying to catch the monkeybar in mid-air. She missed, obviously, and fell to the ground pretty hard, fracturing her wrist. Meg will be in a cast for 3 weeks. She gets it off July 30th.

Zach is bouncing once again

Zach has had a phobia of balloons and inflatable jumpers for a while now so the big news from this weekend is that he got in a jumper and had fun!

I think the little girl to his left talked him into it.

Meg's Gets a Break

This weekend Meg fell off the monkey bars and fractured her wrist. When she landed it buckled the bone. She is in a cast for the next few weeks while the bone heals.

She is in remarkably good spirits about the whole thing. My guess is the cool bright pink cast she got has something to do with it.

Mr. Stud Muffin

This weekend we did some playing in the sprinkler to beat the heat. Zach was happy because it gave him a chance to show off the guns.

The Graduate

Zach Turns 3... again

We celebrated Zach's Birthday while on the group trip to Starved Rock State Park. The parade of Buzz continued. Also he was given an ele-fun game and Wedgits. He was very excited for hte Buzz and game but the wedgits didn't capture his imagination. They did keep other boys on the trip entertained for a long time.

Zach is going toTexas?

At Zach's school they have been practicing singing the alphabet backwards. The ending is them saying (or in Zach's case screaming) "Next time we will go to Texas". The little guy is so happy at the end that he just laughs.

You gotta love this kid.

Meg the Photographer

Meg is definitely our little photographer. On a recent trip to the Botanic Gardens she was ran around taking lots of pictures. She enjoys the Fisher Price point and shoot that she received for her birthday but she still likes to take our camera and take some shots as well.

Meg Self Portrait

Photobucket Test

Meg's Artwork

Check out Meg's art gallery on Flickr! (click here)

Zach's Art Gallery

You may not realize but Zach is a famous artist. Check out his art gallery at Flickr (click here)

New Fish

This weekend Meg and Zach got goldfish. Zach named his Nemo, Sherbert, Herbert, and then settled on Mr. White. Meg's is Rose. They got there fish because they both earned 10 happy faces.

Welcome to the family fish and good luck

Sick Zach

Zach has strep throat . Here is a great shot of him looking miserable.

Meg the Builder

While we were waiting for Grandma and Grandpa Meg built this very tall and colorful tower. Zach enjoyed getting to tear it down soon after this picture was taken

Snow Fun

A note from Zach's Teachers
" The children were able to go outside and have fun in the snow! They had a blast! Some of the kids were making snow angels and others were eating the snow! Overall they had a great time and we just wanted to share these pictures w/you! have a great day!!!

Thank you,
TTT "