Early St. Patrick's Day

On Saturday we went downtown with friends to see Chicago's St. Patrick's Day festivities. It had been five years since Ben and I went down (pre-Eli) to see the river turn neon green, and our kids are at decent ages now to attempt the crowds with them. We decked them out in green and tagged along with John and Krista and their kids. John's brother lives near Millenium Park with a great view of the river and Lake Michigan, so we were lucky enough to go hang out at his place for the first little while. 

Seriously, watching the river turn green, 30 floors high in the sky in a warm, comfortable place beats standing at the freezing, windy bridge any day. Our kids were spoiled and loved looking out the floor-length windows with their friends.

The river starting to turn...

That was interesting for little bits of time, so the boys entertained themselves with other things around Bobby's place. They loved these glass miniature chess pieces and board.

Charlie loves the LeBarons, if you can't tell... :)

Eli was having time with Ben...

After a while, we ventured outside and braved the bitter wind and cold to see some of the parade. Our kids were happy for about 15 minutes maybe??

Maybe not even that long. Here's Eli's grumpy face :)

Back to happy.

Eli got upset when his green hat kept flying off. We chased it a few times and he finally resorted to just holding it because the wind was too fierce.

Now this guy. What even to say about him?? Other than that he called himself St. Patrick and was HILARIOUS. And friendly. 

Those last pictures of the river are courtesy of Krista. My kids were melting fast and we had to get out of there before they totally fell apart, so I didn't get close-up shots of the river, but I loved these that she took. It was a fun morning with lots of great people watching. The masses of people who are already drinking by 10 a.m. is pretty crazy. And the outfits, the green hair, the accessories... always over the top but lots of fun. It was a great morning. But SPRING - where the heck are you??? We're cold over here. The highlight of this upcoming week's forecast is it's supposed to hit 60 on Thursday. Whoo hoo!

Downtown Chicago with the Reeves

This is posted a little out of order, but last Wednesday I took the Reeves (Ben's sister and family) on the el train and into downtown Chicago. Ben had to work, so it was Heather, Rob, and me with the five kids. We got all kinds of funny comments when we would walk into a store - you really don't see many families walking around with that many kids ages 8 and under in Chicago.

We went up to the top floor of the Hancock Building and saw the great views, then spent lots of time at the American Girl store. The girls had such a fabulous time seeing the dolls and getting the whole experience there. It was pretty crowded and I feel bad because I didn't take a picture! Oh well. We stopped in a few other stores along Michigan Avenue, including the Disney store - here is Eli playing with a soccer ball and a huge Bolt stuffed animal. He would carry Bolt around, talking to him and showing him other toys. It was pretty funny.

We also spent a good chunk of time at the Lego store - it has all kinds of cool displays made out of Legos, like this huge spider:

And this giraffe (here's Rob holding Hannah in front of the store):
Here's Eli in front of Santa and a lego display (he loves saying "Santa!")
Here we are with R2D2 made out of legos:
Abbie and Emma in front of a Lego version of the Hancock Building:
Hannah, Emma, and Eli playing at one of the lego tables - they had so much fun playing with these:
Outside the store, the Reeves family posing with the lego man:

Me and Eli with lego man:

Later we walked down to Millenium Park and saw the "Bean" - Abbie and Emma had fun running under it:

Eli watching the people ice skating at Millenium Park:

Me and Eli in front of the Bean:

We were gone the entire day, and finally made it home a little before 6 p.m. I was SO tired and the kids were cold, but all in all it was a fun day in the city. I will say, it's stressful keeping track of that many little kids in the crowded downtown area! They were all really good though and it was fun to show them some of the sights. I even ran into a few people that I knew at some of the stores, which was pretty random in such a big city!

Today was low-key... we went to church in the morning, had a big lunch when we came home, then Eli and I took naps while Ben and the Reeves drove out to see the temple. There was some difficulty because Ben forgot his keys and I had locked the doors after they left. When they came home, rang the doorbell and tried calling the phone, I was so sound asleep that I heard none of it!! (and amazingly it didn't wake up Eli either) The phone was turned off upstairs and I had my bedroom door closed, but I can't believe I didn't hear the doorbell ringing. They ended up going over to Northwestern's campus so the girls could use the bathroom and to see Ben's old building, where they tried calling again - this time, I woke up to the very soft sound of the phone ringing downstairs and checked the voice mail.

Tonight after we put the younger kids to bed, we hung out in my craft room in the basement (more like a craft cave - it's pretty small, but I have space for two tables and lots of shelves filled with paper/cardmaking supplies - I love this room!!). Abbie and Emma had a blast using my paper punches and other tools to make pictures, cards, hats, etc. They are the sweetest kids and both made me the nicest cards today. It's a treat to get to spend time with them!

Museum of Science & Industry

We skipped Black Friday shopping today and went to Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry instead. Here's Eli with his cousins Hannah, Emma, and Abbie.

He loves playing with his cousin Hannah, who is 2 years old.

Emma
Checking out the U-505 Sub exhibit (that was Rob's favorite)

Ben and Eli peeking through a simulated sub window (the sub in the above picture is real though)

Abbie and Emma practicing driving a sub

Can you tell we spent a lot of time at the sub exhibit? Eli had fun.

Me and Eli taking a rest while the others were still reading about the sub.

Eli loved exhibits with phones...

I realized when I got home that I ran out of steam for taking pictures after the sub exhibit. But we saw a beautiful Christmas tree display with 50 trees decorated with ornaments from various countries around the world, a cool train exhibit, a baby chicks exhibit, a fairy castle, etc. Ben, Eli and I were done after 4 1/2 hours at the museum and headed home, but the Reeves family stayed almost until closing time! They have impressive stamina :)