A Special Day in the City

Last Saturday, Wally, Luke and me spent the day in Chicago to celebrate Luke turning 5!  When I asked Luke the night before if he wanted to spend the day with just the 3 of us, his response was "Why?".  I always hope for a great reaction, but this kid is so even-keeled!  Hopefully we get a little more excitement out of him when we tell him we are going to Disney.

In any case, we went and he did end up having a great time - we all did!

We parked at Water Tower Place and walked about a mile to our first stop. It was chilly, but Luke didn't seem to mind and we just had fun walking along and looking at the buildings! Our first stop was lunch at Rainforest Café.  This was Luke's first time there and he loved it!











Cha Cha!



My cheeser!



They even sang Happy Birthday to Luke!



Nothing like some dirt & worms!



He thought it was cool to wear Daddy's scarf!



Our next stop was a walk through the Disney Store and then we headed to the Broadway Playhouse at Water Tower Place to see Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer the Musical!





The show was so cute - even Wally and I really enjoyed it! The theater is just perfect for little kids - not a bad seat there! After the show, we made one last stop to the Lego store.





It was such a fun day and I think we all needed a special day with just the 3 of us!

5 Year Old Interview

Click here and here to see the last couple of interviews!  You will notice a trend with the Turtles below!

1.What is your favorite color? Red
2. What is your favorite toy? Ninja Turtles
3. What is your favorite fruit? Apples
4. What is your favorite tv show? Ninja Turtles
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Peanut Butter & Marshmallow Sandwich
6. What is your favorite outfit? Ninja Turtle Shirt
7. What is your favorite game? Jake & The Neverland Pirates
8. What is your favorite snack? Ninja Turtle fruitsnacks
9. What is your favorite animal? Giraffe
10. What is your favorite song? Any Polar Expresss song
11. What is your favorite book? Ninja Turtle books
12. Who is your best friend? Jackson
13. What is your favorite cereal? Apple Jacks
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Make a snow angel
15. What is your favorite drink? pink lemonade
16. What is your favorite holiday? Halloween
17. What is your favorite thing to take to bed with you? Bubba the Parrot
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? poptarts
19. What do you want to have for dinner on your birthday? pizza
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A police officer

Happy #5 to Luke!

Today our baby boy is 5!  It's hard to believe how quickly time has gone by. 

I always get super nostalgic as my kids' birthdays approach (as do most parents I'm sure), but Luke's birthday is even more special because of the time of year. 

There is just a magical feeling around Christmas time and I remember how special December 2008 was for us.  Everything felt "extra magical" that year! 

Christmas songs would bring me to tears as I sang them to my new baby boy, going to Christmas Eve mass for the first time with my new family of 3 brought me to tears, knowing that our lives had changed forever in the best way possible during the best time of the year made me cry happy tears! I know it was also hormones, but you have to admit that this time of year just "feels" different and I feel so blessed to celebrate our sweet baby boy at Christmas time!

This little boy made us Mommy & Daddy and we love him to the moon and back a gazillion times!

Happy 5th Birthday Lucas Walter! 

Random Picture Catch Up

I haven't posted in awhile and always have a bunch of cute pics on my phone so here is a phone dump for you that covers the last couple of months!

Luke's Preschool Picture



Hot chocolate lover!



Luke wrote his first bad word! Obviously he didn't know he did, but we were dying laughing!



Movie night!



She just can't make it without at least a little catnap!



Silly boys!



Haircut!



My little fox!



Checking out the first snowflakes of the year!



Cheese!



Who me?!?!



Luke completed his first 100 piece puzzle all by himself (and rather quickly I might add)!



We made candy necklaces for Friday night movie night!



Sometimes Luke doesn't make it through Friday night movie night!



Our little teacher!



My baby girl :)



Their first sleepover!



Silly kids!



It is so hard for him not to smile :)



Little mama!



Paigey cam!



St. Nick came and brought these cool pajamas and ornaments!

Thanksgiving 2013

Our Thanksgiving kicked off on the Tuesday before with Luke's Thanksgiving Feast at school!

Luke was looking handsome as usual that morning!





Buddies!



Wednesday we headed to Grandma & Grandpa Zukowski's house to celebrate Thanksgiving!

This picture is hilarious!



And this is the "smile" I get from Paige a lot these days!



Who doesn't want a cookie as big as their head?!?!



We had a great evening with the Zukowski's!

The next morning we watched the parade on tv and then headed to my grandparent's for some more Thanksgiving feasts!



And sadly, that was the last picture I took all day. (November seems to always be a light month of pictures for me.) We did have a great rest of the day though. After my grandparent's, we went back to my parents' house to celebrate with the Kohr side. This is always crazy as every year there are more kids and they get bigger and louder! Always a fun time though!

Madison

In early November, my whole family headed to Madison, Wisconsin to visit Carly.  We were all getting together to celebrate our parents 35th wedding anniversary!

We left bright and early Saturday morning and everyone met at Carly's apartment. We got the tour, met Eddy the Dog and then we headed downtown to the Farmer's Market and Capitol.















There was a Wisconsin football game going on so the downtown was bustling before the game between that and the last day of the Farmer's Market.











That night we headed to the bar/restaurant that Ben works at. It was huge and had tons of TV's and sports memorabilia. There were volleyball and basketball courts, darts, pool, air hockey - plenty to keep the kids occupied!







We headed back to our hotel for a nightcap and went to bed.  The kids did some swimming in the morning and then we headed back to Carly's.

Our hotel had a little park in the back so we hit that up too!





It was a great weekend! We were so happy to FINALLY get to Madison to see Carly and Ben and meet Eddy!