Bouncing Babies

The winter blues have set in and while we enjoy being home, we are just tired of being there. It's little you know, so.....after looking and calling around the various bouncy houses in the area, there was only 1 that had open bounce today with no parties. Of course it was not my favorite one and the most expensive one but oh well, we needed to get out and have some fun.

So to the bouncy house we went.....

Gracie was so excited and after just finishing up tumbling for the morning, she was already bouncing and ready to hit the slides.

Grandpa came along for the fun too. One adult per child is easiest you know.

Gracie found the spot with all the balls and camped out there for awhile.

The static was fun though!

My man Presley, remember him? The wuss of the bunch? He wasn't too sure about this bouncy house thing. This was his second time at one and he would rather hang out by Grandpa.

But Little Miss Evie couldn't get enough. She was off and bouncing around and keeping up with her big sis. I will have to keep an eye on this one when she gets older.

Eventually, we carried Presley over and placed him in the ball pit but he still wasn't having it all that much.

And Grandpa wanted to hold Evie and she wasn't having any of that either!

We will have to toughen this big guy up!

Daddy tried but wasn't having much luck.

But Gracie was off and playing with Evie. Ah sisters.....

She couldn't get enough of the big slides. They did some at tumbling today too but not this big!

Evie and Presley discovered the beanbag sets and decided to play that instead.

This was much more up Presley's alley.

But then Evie decided she wanted to be a daredevil like her big sis and go down some slides. She went with Daddy.

And then again with Mommy.

Great bouncy house fun. Whoever invented these things are geniuses! Why didn't I ever think of this? I could be rich!

Toy Story on Ice

Not even the cold was going to keep Miss Gracie away from seeing Toy Story on Ice!

She has been looking forward to this for a long time and was so excited to go. So Grandma, Grandpa, Gracie and I headed up to the United Center to see the gang.

Gracie loves Jessie and was so excited to get a new Jessie hat complete with red braid!

Oh, and don't forget the magic wand too!

She waited very patiently for the show to start and kept asking when it would.

Grandma was so excited to go too. She couldn't go last time when we saw the Princess on Ice show.

And Grandma and Grandpa also got her the program book, a coloring book, and a new Woody and Buzz Lightyear doll! Gracie was in heaven.

Here we are waiting for the show to start.

Gracie sat so well in her seat. She stared at the performers and when Jessie came out, she shouted, "There's Jessie, my favorite!"

We had great seats and the show was so cute! The first half was wrapping up Toy Story 1 and 2.
Even Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy came by to say "hi."

Gracie even made sure she had her hair done like Jessie too.

All the Barbie's were there too. Believe or not, I totally had that exercise Barbie as a kid. I'm sure my mom still has it somewhere too.

The show was so super cute and if you have ever seen the last movie, I even teared up a little at the ice show. Those Toy Story guys really are our friends!

Winter in Snow-cago!

Well, they had been predicting this for awhile and it hit.....

The Blizzard of 2011!

For starters, this resulted in a snow day!

Last night the storm hit around 2. I'm glad everyone was safely at home. I went outside to video the storm and Gracie was ready inside with the flashlights just in case.

They were predicting 16-24 inches over Chicagoland and this morning there is was.
On our kitchen window,

on our back porch,


our backyard,

blown up against our front door,

up against our basment windows,

covering our little tree in the front yard,

consuming our court, burying the little tree in the middle,

blown up against our garage door,

blown up on our front porch,

and covering my litte gnome.

So what did we do today?

Well, Gracie hung out in her ballet gear today practicing her moves because her dance class got canceled last night.

Presley had fun practicing his swings with the princess baseball bat.

And Evie wanted to snuggle and read books!

After naps, I decided to bundle up the kids and take them outside for some quick pictures.

You will have to ignore Presley's silver boots. I don't have boots for him yet.

This was actually Evie and Presley's first time in or near the snow.

Presley loved it!

Evie didn't know what to make of it and stood frozen still, afraid to move. Also, maybe because she was wearing Grace's old boots and couldn't walk too well in them.

Gracie loveed it of course and wanted to stay and play in it.

After a few minutes, Evie was ready to go back in and stood by the door.

But I had to talk this one into coming in....

And here is some video of the storm from standing on my back porch last night.