Pirate Ships

Gavin just can't get enough Legos lately! These are twp pirate ships that he mostly built - Francis and I helped a bit. The one with black sails is the "Black Pearl" from "Pirates of the Carribean" (800 pieces) and the one with red sails is the "Queen Anne's Revenge" with 1000 pieces!

Board Games

After we opened presents, we played board games. This is "Ticket To Ride," which Gavin loved!

Grandpa Cermak must have have said something silly here:

Gavin got "Operation" from the Maurer girls (thank you!!). He tried it and did okay, but Nana Cermak was the surprise steady-hand winner of that game!

Enchanted Railroad

We went to the Enchanted Railroad at Morton Arboretum last weekend. They always have a fantastic train display!! It's a bit different each year, but we were glad to see they kept a few favorites from last year.

They kept the Amtrak train and a Thomas the Tank engine, along with a giant Earth with Santa going around it and various freight trains.

As always, a train loses it caboose or some of the cars go off the rails, and the "engineers" have to fix it. The kids love it, and there's always several adults who are anxious to help out.

Gavin was fascinated!

Lego Train Show

Last weekend we went to the annual Lego Train Show at Cantigny. The scenes that these Lego enthusiasts create are amazing.  Now that Gavin is into Legos, he enjoyed it even more!

This scene was his favorite: a Dunkin Donuts truck crashed a Krispy Kreme truck - next to a coffee shop! The street was full of donuts and the Lego police were eating them.

Auntie Clare got to come along, too! 

DuPage Children's Museum

Last week, Gavin's class had a field trip to the DuPage Children's Museum. I was one of the parent chaperones.

To be honest, I was expecting utter chaos, and not from "our" Brookdale students. It's just that we have only been to DCM twice and both times it was crowded and Gavin got sick a week later. But he had a great time while we were there.  I figured as long as his entire class was going, he may as well go, too, since he'll be exposed to all their germs anyway. 

I was 100% impressed!!! The kids were well behaved and the place was practically empty except for our group. I had a small group of five kids (Gavin included) and they were wonderful!!

We started out in a classroom doing math games. Gavin particularly linked these "math lines" where kids have to identify a pattern and sequence the numbers.

Then we got to explore the museum. We did the bubbles and water area first, in case the kids got wet.

They wore smocks but all got a little wet. It worked out great that after the water, we went to the "wind" area and then some other things. So when it was time to leave, they were all completely dry.

Gavin earned a free admission ticket for all the reading we've been doing, and we have to use it by December 30. Anyone want to meet up with us?

Math time

Francis got Gavin two dry-erase workbooks: one for first words and one for math. So far, he has been enthralled with the math one! He calls it his "journal" and wants to do the problems every day. Yay!

Christmas lights

Francis and Gavin managed to get about half the lights up before the cold snap arrived.  Here are some pictures from the weekend that we had temps in the 40's:

Gavin loves helping place the lights, and he gets a little more skilled every year:

Sweatshirt Painting!

It's a holiday tradition at Gavin's school that the kindergartners paint snowman sweatshirts every December. Parents were informed that it is a messy project and lots of volunteers were needed.

I'm always on board for painting, and it wasn't my house getting messy, so I signed up. ;) Gavin loves it when I'm at school and I'm happy to help out.

They started out using sponges to fill in the snowman shape:

Gavin's friend Claire has the same sweatshirt he does!

Gavin and his friend Tristan with the finished products. They used Q-tips for the colored paint to add the details:

It was really fun! The kids weren't too messy, and the sweatshirts turned out really cute. They had to dry in the art room over the weekend, but I will have pics later in the month.

Thanksgiving

We had a busy Thanksgiving weekend. Francis and Gavin took Nana and Grandpa to pick out new reindeer for our yard:

We had Thanksgiving dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Cordes' house.  Uncle David played trains with Gavin:

We started getting ready for Christmas, too - taking advantage of the nice 45 degree weather!

Cantigny

We went to Cantigny the other week - Gavin loves to climb on the tanks. The tiger one is always the first one he goes to!

World Of Brookdale

Gavin's school (Brookdale Elementary) had a culture fair last week. This was at night, so attendance was optional. All the kids present could walk into the gym with their class, waving flags from the country they have been studying.

Kindergarten learned about the USA and made a flag from their own cut out hand prints (below). Gavin was more excited to show me this flag than any other part of the event.

We didn't stay the whole time, but watched some of the cultural dances. The Chinese "drum and dragon" dance was the most fun!

Window Clings

Time to change the window clings! Gavin wanted to skip over Thanksgiving and go straight to Christmas. 

Someone is anxious for Santa!!

Jumping in the Leaves

What kid doesn't love jumping in leaves?? We go to the cemetery often, and there are LOTS of leaves there.

Gavin and Grandpa raked a nice pile:

Then Gavin got a good, long running start...

 And, one jump is never enough: