The new face of Kellogg's Froot Loop's

Forget the Wheaties- Frootloop's has an all new cover child! This is what happens when you turn your back on a toddler with a box of cereal in reach! Should I send it in? :0) LOL

Speaking of snow-Todd's trip to Canada

Not your local Days Inn! The reception was here at The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
If you're looking for a luxurious get away visit: http://www.Fairmont.com/banffsprings

As most of you know, Todd's brother Bob got married this January in Banff, Alberta, Canada. (the next best thing to Switzerland- and a little more affordable!) Here are just a few of the pictures Todd captured of this beautiful part of the world. It wasn't a "traditional" wedding as you'd think, Robert and Lori were married mountainside on Lake Louise. The kids and I stayed home as it was too much to take them out of school and travel for a week- especially with Gavin. We were happy to make "Aunt Lori" officially a part of the family- she's a wonderful person and the kids just love her! Welcome to the family Lori!!

Enjoying all the snow!

We even had our picture taken out in the snow at our favorite park!

We enjoyed a sleigh ride at Danada
Gav loved the horses!

We built the neighborhood's biggest snowman!

Gav got a ride on the sled!

It's been said that we've had more snow this year than we've had in 124 years! Here is the Knill family enjoying all that snow! I remember one year I looked out to see all the snow falling and I thought "oh yuck- we've got to drive in that mess". At the same time, the Knill kids were joyfully skipping around waiting for it accumulate so they could go out and play. It was at that moment that I remembered the magic of being a kid and the magic of snow! Since then, I haven't grumbled about the snow once! We sieze the opportunity to get out and enjoy it- one day I want to get the kids to Villa Olivia and get them up on ski's! I was Hunter's age when I first learned to ski and I remember clearly how fun it is! Never forget to take time out from your busy day, your hectic lives, and remember that magic of being a kid!

Getting back to January

New year, new blog- so let's just take a quick step back to January where we celebrated 2 very special birthdays- our Lauren turned 9, and Kamryn turned 3! Lauren's celebration seemed never ending. We celebrated the previous Friday with a "volcano" from Rainforest Cafe (a volcano is a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream surrounded by slices of rich chocolate cake with chocolate drizzle, and a sparkler on top), the Saturday before we celebrated with family, and Kamryn, at Aunt Julie's house with rainbow angel food cake. On Lauren's actual birthday we went to her favorite restuarant, Portillo's. And the following Saturday we had 12 kids over for a "prehistoric" birthday party- the kids made erupting volcano's (aka baking soda and vinegar), a dinosaur pinata, and ice cream sundaes complete with pop rocks, gummy bears, nerds, cherries, chocolate, caramel or strawberry topping, and whip cream of course! Lauren got many wonderful presents from her friends and family who proved to know her well by giving her some of her favorite things! Thank you to everyone for helping to make Lauren's birthday so special!

Gavin turns 2

Happy Birthday to a dear sweet boy who turned 2 already! Gavin's the biggest sweetheart in the smallest body (okay- he's not so small :0) but he is a darling! He talks and talks all day, and it's no wonder Curious George is his favorite- he's just like that little monkey, getting into everything! One minute he's there, next he's gone and mom's putting out an all points bulletin that entails Lauren going upstairs, Hunter going downstairs and mom covering the first floor until we find him. We find him in the usual places: big brother or big sister's room. Hunter is the most caring big brother and Lauren makes a great playmate. If we didn't have Gavin, she'd have no toys to play with :0) The cutest thing about Gavin right now is that he can't fully verbalize what he wants but he somehow gets it across and when I put it into words ("do you want to build with blocks?") he says "okay", as if it were your idea! He talks very well, and very often! I'm good until the "why" phase starts! We had a party here and also celebrated my nephew Brendan's 10th birthday! The family that once consisted of mom, dad, Julie & Melanie has grown to include 13 people now! We welcomed Aunt B officially last June :0) - that makes for quite a party. Brendan chose "Pirates of the Carribean" on his cake while Gav went with none other than"Curious George". Happy birthday Brendan and Gavin! Next up, Kevin and Grandma!

Lauren's day downtown

Lauren and the world's largest candy bar!
Funneling for some chocolate!
Lauren's girlscout troop at Eli's- she's back there in the left hand corner!

February 15, 2008

Lauren spent a very busy, very exciting day downtown earning her "Discover Chicago" badge for girlscouts. Our troop started out at the Hershey Chicago company learning all about chocolate! Lauren then spun the big wheel while the girls cheered her on. A loud rumbling roared through the store to reveal a downspout of Hershey's chocolate miniatures followed of course by the thunderous explosion of little girls screaming and clapping (and rushing like mad to collect the chocolate that had fallen on the floor!) When the excitement was through we made our way to the Eli's Cheesecake Factory- not the restaurant- the factory, where we learned they make between 12,000 and 25,000 cheesecakes a day! The girls learned all about Eli Schulman and what exactly goes into one of the world's best cheesecakes! (except for mine, I do make a rather delicious cheesecake :0) They then got to go into the back to see the machines and decorate their own piece of cheesecake with chocolate, sprinkles, what have you. As if this weren't enough, they then got to taste test 5 different cheesecake samples- strawberry, rasberry swirl, chocolate, caramel and chocolate chip. Lauren and I agree that the strawberry was the best! The factory sells many cheesecakes at a discount-they're called "sweet imperfections"- they may be too heavy or too light, or just otherwise not up to Eli's standards to serve at a restaurant. Sadly Eli has passed away but his legacy lives on through his cheesecake, his restaurants and many charities. If you're a big cheesecake fan you can learn everything we did by visiting:
http://www.elicheesecake.com/ravereviews.aspx



Thanks to mom and Aunt Bernice who babysat Gavin so I could attend this special trip with my special girl :0)