making a run for the border

We made a Chick-Fil-A run just across the border in Toledo

There is a restaurant in the food court of Westfield Franklin Park Mall and they do quite the business. 

They were the only place with a line and it was lunch time! 

On the way back, we stopped at Cabella's in Dundee

The girls were busying keeping the boys in line while the boys themselves were so excited by all of the life-size animal displays. 

They have what looked like a very neat restaurant with all sorts of game meat on the menu

A very cool aquarium!

They carry my friends line of specialty foods CHeRiTH VaLLeY

The little drummer boy

The main reason we started this blog was (among other reasons) so that we could remember cute stories about the kids years later. So here is another cute Mateo story. Of course he still has this love/fear thing going on with trains. We'll watch videos of trains and he'll pretend to be scared and then he will pick another video afterwards. The next suggestion was of drumming and he loves music as well so when he watched this video he sat mesmerized for a bit then he started to air drum. The next thing I know he grabs the small metal tin that we are using as a trash can, flips it upside down, thus dumping the garbage, and starts drumming. It was so inspired! And so cute!

first day of school...

The ones I took of Isabel were blurry and I didn't want to interrupt first grade, so you'll have to settle for just the big kids individual photo shoots.

2012-13 brings a new teacher for Carmen, Miss Weber. Maria gets to spend another year with her favorite, Mr. Miller. And Isabel and Mikey have two of mommy's favorites for 1st and 4th, Mrs. Hayward and Miss Sabga, the same teachers all the older kids have had for the same grades.

I made the mistake of bringing Mateo with me this morning, even though I had meetings to attend to. He spent all of Mass wandering the halls. Then during the second of my meetings, I lost him. Another mom was going to check on him, but he snuck away as he is want to do and after 5-10 minutes of semi-panic, I found him...in a 4th grader's locker. Yes, inside. Door shut. And happy as a clam. Good grief. This is episode two in as many days at school where I have lost a boy. Friday, at school supply drop off, I lost Peter. It was about 15-20 minutes of looking for him before I started to really panic (I knew he was smart enough not to walk down Joy Road unlike Mateo.) I knew Peter would be sad though because he is a shy soul. Finally, my gut told me to check the girls' bathroom. Sure enough there is Peter, head to toe in poo, with a lovely mother trying to reason with him and asking him to let her help him....sigh. After about 40 baby wipes and a lot of Formula 409 later, all was restored to normalcy in the bathroom after Peter repeated over and over during clean-up "How could this happen, mommy? Why did this have to happen?"

So as not to end on a poopy note, here's another little Mateo story from today. Later in the parking lot waiting for daddy, he's walking through cars and I see him squat down and say hello to what looks like a rock. But the way he is waving and cooing, I can tell this is something alive (or at least he thinks it is). Sure enough he found the cutest little baby snapping turtle that looked just like a half-dollar size rock in the parking lot. Mike took him home in the car and all the way over to grandma Paula's while dropping off Isabel for her big NYC trip for Liliana's first birthday before releasing him (or her, I'm not that up on my turtle anatomy).

I wish I had thought to take a picture of him in the parking lot. His tail was wrapped around his body and his head and feet were all inside the shell and he was the exact color of the concrete so he really looked like a large stone. I think he was much happier once we got him wet (and he doesn't know it but probably grateful I saved him from being tossed down the storm drain as Mateo likes to do with his "rocks"...sigh)

Never a dull moment as mother to six...never a dull moment.

Another week of photos

Mikey is going for long bikes rides downtown now! 

Here we stopped behind the ice rink to check out a pile of snow. 

Grandpa Bob had us over for hot dogs, Polish sausage and brats

Then later we went across the street for ice cream

Italian ice cream

It sure melted fast!

Mateo stopped to eat the sprinkles off the ground

Hey, It's Grandpa Bob

School starts tomorrow!

Sunday

Maria has been working on this scarf on and off for a few days

Maria's broccoli cheese with mashed potato

Grandpa Bob also joined us for lunch after Mass

Bless us, O Lord, and these, Thy Gifts

Salud!

An after lunch walk