Pancake Breakfast

Charlie entertained some folks eating breakfast this morning~
His band (that he plays in through the public school) had a fundraiser today. Pancakes and sausage for all~

Here Come the Hawks!

The Blackhawks are trying to make their way to the Stanley Cup. We've got some pretty big fans in the house~

Beam me up, Scotty.

No, we weren't at a Star Trek convention.
We got to explore a quarry this afternoon~

One of our homeschool groups set up a really cool field trip~

After hearing about the history of the quarry and learning about the rocks and stones found there, and in other parts of Illinois, we took a bus down into the belly~

It was very cool! Turns out the foreman is also a homeschooler~

This was a real treat. It was fun to see a quarry from the bottom up, rather than just passing by, looking down, from the expressway~

I was blown away by the fact that this service was free to the community. Vulcan supplied the school bus and gave goody bags to all the kids. It's not as if this generates business for them. What a really interesting way to spend a Friday afternoon!

Sandhill Cranes

Sam met with the pianist to practice for his recital next Sunday. We were very near Willowbrook Wildlife center, so we stopped in a took a short walk. The sandhill cranes there are always fascinating. When we first got to their habitat, Mary and Sam were walking back and forth along the fence, while one of the cranes trailed them. By the time I got my camera out, Mary was the one doing the trailing~

Feed My Starving Children

We packed food again today. This time for Haiti. This is such an amazing program!
We had about 20 of our homeschool friends join us~

Grandpa came, too~

It was great having Grandpa there (I thought I was going to have to stay home with Mary, but a friend watched her for me) ~

I really believe we get so much more out of doing this than we could ever give~

City of Chicago Pipeband

Charlie has been taking bagpipe lessons for almost 2 years. About 9 months ago, he started receiving instruction from members of the City of Chicago Pipe Band. Amie has been his teacher since before Christmas. Our whole family loves her~
We finally got to see the band in action tonight. They had their Spring Dance/Fundraiser at the Irish American Heritage Center. We had a blast. Charlie took this video~

Charlie's friend Charlie was supposed to go with us, but he got sick in the car and had to go home. It turned out okay though -Charlie and I had a fun time together, just the two of us. On our way home (almost midnight) we drove by the house Charlie first lived in. We even saw our "friends" - the deer Scott and I used to see on our way home from bowling in the big open field down the street from us.

The Easter Bunny Came!

Mary (when she finally woke up) was delighted with her Easter basket. The boys were up at the crack of dawn (following a late night at Vigil), but the princess slept in. She's at a great age for anticipation and excitement - happily "oohing and ahhing" over each new thing~

After going through the loot, waiting for our Babka to come out of the oven~
After church we went to Pam's brother's house, where there was another egg hunt~ We had to find the eggs between the rain showers~ Mary's on a mission~ The only picture I have of the three of them - it's so hard getting them to stop what they're doing long enough to pose~