Surviving the long Chicago winter

It's friggin' cold around here. It's the kind of cold where if you breathe in too quickly when you go outside it feels like your lungs just crystalized into icicles. And, for that reason, we are all experiencing various forms of cabin fever...except Claire of course, who could sit quietly inside for the rest of her life happily, if her scrappy little brother would just leave her alone.

So, in order to keep the natives from killing each other, we have had to make up some post-Christmas festivities. One of the things we did was to host a small tea-party for a few of Claire's friends and her old teacher. We had apple cake, whip cream, fishy crackers, animal crackers, and peppermint tea, which Claire picked out. Claire and I even made a last-minute run to the Salvation Army for a set of tea cups since we only had the very very tiny kind.

There is a Michael's craft store across from my new gym, so Sammy and I ducked in there for a few craft ideas for the party. We found these cool gingerbread kits for $1.99 on clearance, so we got some for the girls to make. We also bought tiny wooden treasure boxes for everyone to paint. Sammy picked out tiny wooden airplanes for the 2 boys to paint. They never got around to painting them though, because they had eaten so much of the candy off of the gingerbread houses that they were pretty crazy and unable to sit still by the middle of the party. The girls did the craft though, of course. Nice sweet little girls. The girls above are our favorite little curly haired sisters from Claire's school.

A tea party isn't enough to keep the boys occupied though, of course, and Sammy has suddenly had a renewed interest in his instruments: particularly his old guitar which has but two strings left on it. Claire and I came home from Trader Joe's one night, though, to this scene of the boys jamming to Beach Boys songs that Matt had gotten from YouTube. His favorites are "Surfin' Safari" and "Barbara Ann". He particularly thinks the line that goes "bushy bushy blonde hairdos" is hilarious.
Last night, we went out to our friend Julie and John's house in the suburbs and they had bought tatoos for Claire. Sammy had to get in on it to be even more "rockstar-ish". He said "mommy...put it on my muscle." Haha.

Then Matt decided he wanted one on HIS muscle. We're seriously getting desperate for entertainment around here. Well, as long as he uses those big strong muscles to unload the dishwasher, he can decorate his body however he wants. And I have to admit...it's kinda cute.

Here's to staying sane for a few more loooooooong winter months in Chicago.