Video's from Santa

Chase's Video:
http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/gbNAGmRjnwIPckL-SJfmklw


Luke's Video:

http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/watch/g6CrDSAraq0tIHiJPzbtd9w

Luke's Thanksgiving Feast

 The performer before show time

 Grandma Eilleen came to the performance too

Luke singing "Hello Mr. Turkey, how are you?"...I must have had this song in my head for 2 weeks straight with all of the singing that he was doing in the house!

Luke's Thanksgiving Feast was very cute this year.  The kids started with 2 songs and were SO quiet since there was a live audience.  After their singing the kids ate their "friendship mix" and wished everyone a Happy Thanksgiving, a priceless moment!

Chase's Soccer

I'm a bit behind with this one considering soccer ended months ago, but I actually captured Chase in action on the soccer field and had to post this.  He'll start soccer up again in January but it will be indoor, looking forward to another fun season!

Fall Hayride

 Roasting hot dogs

 Tyler & Chase

 Ryan & Luke

 On the hay ride

Being silly once the ride was over

This fall we once again decided to go on a hayride through the park district.  They provide the fire, hot chocolate and hayride, you do everything else.  Our neighbors were in a pinch for a sitter for the evening so we brought Tyler and Ryan along too. 

The boys had a blast playing football with some "big boys" that were there with their families.  We ate up our dinners quickly and then headed out into the woods.  The boys had excellent behavior on the trip and were big troopers, it was one of the first "cold" nights of the season.  We ended the night with s'mores cooked over the fire, delicious!  We're looking forward to doing it again next year! 

Trick or Treat?

 Buzz Light Year...To the Rescue!!

 Cathy and all of Luke's friends there

 My 2 favorites!

 Our trick or treating crew, it was a pretty big group at first but we quickly separated the big kids from the little kids!

 Buzz & Woody aka Ryan C. and Luke

 You can see the energy level has dropped quite a bit, the candy containers

are full and the kids are tired!

 A quick rest to count the candy, they all look so cute!!

 Officer Casey taking Luke by the hand, unprompted, so sweet!

 Checking out the goods!

Luke's parade at school

Halloween this year was on a Monday but that didn't stop us from going out and having a great time.  We invited the Geers, Browns, Chrustowskis, my sister-in-law, and the neighbors from across the street.  Needless to say the kids loved their adventure trick or treating, I was amazed at how much Luke was into it this year.  Last year he cried and demanded to be carried the whole time.  This year he was really excited, probably because he has a total sweet tooth!  We came back to our house to eat and inspect the loot.  The kids were wiped and so were we but everyone had a good time!!

Pumpkin Time

 Before

 Artists at work

After

Once again this year the boys were anti-carving and all they wanted to do was paint.  In the end, they had a great time and loved being creative.  It's fun to do something like this instead of our usual rough and tumble play!

Fall Fun

Leaf Jumping

Hockey!

At the pumpkin patch

I wish I had taken video of this, Luke couldn't control his laughter

All 3 of my animals :)

Lukie loved this chick, he was talking to her so sweetly

So, it has been a long time since my last post and now I realize that I'm so far behind!!  We've done a lot of fun things this fall, the pictures above are just a few of them.

Soccer Party

 The team (minus several players!)

Showing off their medals with the coaches

To wrap up the boys soccer season we had a party at our house the afternoon of the last game.  The boys had a great time playing both inside and out.  The highlight was definitely the boys vs. the Daddies.  I think the Dad's won...

Blake's Urbanathalon

 Rob, Kevin & Blake before the race

 After...proudly wearing their medals!

On top of one of the many cabs that had to be climbed over

Let the race begin!

Over the taxis and buses

 

On Saturday Blake and our friends Rob & Kevin completed Chicago's Urbanathlon.  It was a 9.75 mile race through the city and along the lake front with 7 obstacles throughout the race.  The obstacles varied from climbing through tires, going over marine barricades and under nets, doing sets of monkey bars, as well as some of the obstacles shown in the videos.  The most difficult by far though was climbing up and down the stairs & ramps inside of Soldier Field.  Blake and Rob even finished in 2 hours, a shorter time than Blake had expected.  I was so proud of his hard work and for finishing the race!!

Chicago Marathon

 Our friends before they started the race

 The Geers are so talented they were able to do so many things while running the marathon, they started on the "l".

 Posing with the infamous kite that we carried around all day so that they would see us up ahead.

 Kevin took some time to smell the flowers.

 Allison was thirsty so she stopped for a drink.

Terry, Kevin's dad, being the marathon pro that he is even stopped for a bite of pizza!

Kevin & Terry running

Allison running

Last weekend we headed out with the Browns to support the Geers in the Chicago Marathon.  The day was gorgeous for watching a marathon, a bit warm for running in one though.  However, all 3 of our marathoners did an amazing job, it was so inspiring to watch all of these people accomplish such a huge goal.  We're so proud of them!!