The Brown Family Adventures

Wednesday, February 28, 2018

February 2018

This month, we took advantage of a long weekend and went up to Great Wolf Lodge in Wisconsin. It's a giant indoor waterpark, along with a large gameroom and other activities to entertain the crew. Of course the kids loved every minute of it and would love to go back someday! I never took my phone to the waterslide area since there would be no good place to leave it, so I don't have many photos to share. But - lots of fun was had!

Also, with Tyler going only half days in junior kindergarten, we have almost daily afternoon playdates with our great friend James, who lives on our street. They get along so well and are the best of playmates!

Gavin and some of his buddies from his winter basketball league got together and took in a Northwestern basketball game with all the dads. It's impressive to see those college players on the court and perhaps will serve as inspiration for these boys! Either way, they had a blast.

This month we had the Father/Daughter dance for Cassie and Erik! This is always a sweet evening that they both look forward to. The danced the night away and had a great time together.

Saturday, February 3, 2018

January 2018

We are in the dead of winter here in Wilmette, but finding ways to enjoy the outdoors and keeping busy as usual. We've had plenty of snow and hot cocoa, and lots of wintertime sports to keep us active. We've made snow forts, gone ice skating and enjoyed sledding with friends. Cassidy is in the midst of basketball season, and Gavin has started his winter workouts with his travel baseball club. Cassie also learned this month that her yearbook cover design was chosen from all the student entries, so her design will be on the cover of the school yearbook that comes out at the end of this year. That news made her day, and we are proud of her for putting forth the effort! She also used her creativity to design her own valentines to deliver to classmates next month - she used an animation app on the computer to complete the design, and printed out copies for Valentine's Day. We love her creative spirit. Erik and I enjoyed a fancy night out for our school's annual fundraiser, titled "Showcase." It was an Oscar's theme, so they rolled out a red carpet and had us pose for a paparazzi photo. All good fun!

Wacky dress down day at school!

Cassidy with the school principal, Colleen Barrett, just after she learned over the loudspeaker that her drawing was chosen. They very kindly had a copy framed for her!

Monday, January 1, 2018

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

We had a wonderful time celebrating Christmas with family! We awoke early to a beautiful snow-covered Christmas morning. The kids had fun opening presents and playing with new toys. We had some breakfast and eventually made our way over to Grammy and Grandpa Brown's to celebrate with them as well as the Tieman crew. Don always has a nice fire going and we all caught up over coffee. We exchanged gifts and had a delicious dinner (Swedish meatballs of course!). Grandpa was a little under the weather, as were some of the Tieman crew (boo, sickness!), but we all did our best to enjoy the special day despite having folks not feeling well. The cousins always enjoy seeing each other - they played with toys, played games in the basement, did puzzles - and it's just nice to all get together. From there, we drove down to Brown County, IN to celebrate with the extended Reder family. Once again we stayed at Big Sky cabin, the same one we rent each year that fits us all so well. We spent time catching up with everyone, and enjoyed relaxation - jigsaw puzzles, coffee, reading books. The day after we arrive, we always do our Christmas gift exchange. The cousins open gifts in the afternoon, and the adults open in the evening after dinner. It's always fun to sit around together and see the surprises people find for one another! The kids had fun taking a dip in the hot tub outside, too. We are so thankful we can get such a big group of 16 together for the holiday! We made it back home to Chicago and got ready for the new year. We got together with a couple other families for New Year's Eve and had a wonderful time ringing in 2018! Cheers to a happy, healthy year ahead.