"Chocopalooza"

Dressed in her peanut butter cup t-shirt, Megan and I went to "Chocopalooza" at Adrian High School. A fundraiser that is based around chocolate...awesome! It didn't take us long before Megan found the games. First stop, to play a little golf.

Then Cookie Monster was hungry, so Megan had to feed him some cookies. AKA beanbag toss.

Here is Megan's idea of ring toss. She walked down the row and placed each ring very carefully on the cupcake. Then she went back and picked all of the rings back up. It was very sweet.

Now this is my kind of fishing! Megan, with help from Grandma, caught a Hershey Kiss! It took Megan about 10 seconds to eat her catch.

As you can see, Megan had a lot of fun and was too busy to look at the camera. Each year Chocopalooza gets bigger and better so I'm sure Megan will enjoy this for years to come. She is still talking about it and remembers that she got brown balloons at the end of it. She is cute and she loves her chocolate!

Making Applesauce

Megan was able to stop peeling her apples long enough for me to get a picture, cheesy grin and all. While we were grocery shopping I asked Megan if she wanted to help me make applesauce. Of course because it was kitchen related she said yes! She was an apple peeling machine! I couldn't get the apples on the peeler fast enough. I think she peeled a bag of apples in about 5 minutes!
Do they have professional apple peelers? Watch out Uncle Jason, at the rate Megan's skills are progressing, you might be out of a job come September!

"Wow, that really big." She liked unraveling the peels to see how long they were.

While she was peeling the apples she noticed the squirrels outside and she thought the squirrels would like some apples. I told her we could take the peels and cores out to them. She went and found a bowl in her toy room to put the apple cores in. Then we took the peels and apple cores outside and put them on a tree stump that just happened to be in a perfect positions to watch the squirrels eat. It took about 5 minutes for them to find the apples. Megan had fun watching the squirrels guard the apples from each other. Plus I think she like seeing how many windows she could watch out of, upstairs, downstairs, dining room, kitchen etc.

Back to the applesauce. Here is Megan sprinkling in some cinnamon. She did an excellent job making sure to get the cinnamon on all the apples.

Next a little liquid, some apple cider, to help the apples cook. Megan got a little too excited and spilled some cider, but I guess that is what happens when 2 year old cook. Notice Baron behind her, he did the clean up for me. Oddly, he is never to far when Megan is cooking!?!

Jungle Java

Since we are in the middle of winter, Megan was starting to miss playing outside. Our friends, the Harringtons, mentioned a fabulous place called Jungle Java. Basically it is a indoor playground on steroids and a coffee place! Yes the perfect combination. So off to Jungle Java we went to watch Megan and Alex play.

Megan wanted daddy to go in with her first. They are in the middle of the picture, Megan wouldn't stand still long enough for me to try and get a good picture.

They finally got to a spot where I could stand under them to get a picture. Megan still wouldn't look at me, but I can't really blame her.

My turn to go in with Megan. I was told to take advantage of any space high enough to stand up. Good advice! Lots of crawling, squeezing and awkward positions. The "jungle" was designed for small children and they can move very fast in some portions. However for full grown adults, you can easily fit, but you can't move quite as fast. At one point Megan was moving so fast I had to yell at her to have her stop because she easily could have gotten lost in the maze.

I made it!!!

Megan and Alex going down the slide. It took Megan forever to let go. Too many things to look at and lots of kids made her a little nervous.

I think Alex LOVED the slide! So cute. It was the perfect end to our day at Jungle Java.

"Pink the Rink"

A couple weeks ago, "Pink the Rink" was held at Adrian College. My Dad had read about other teams doing similar events to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. He liked the idea and thought that it would be perfect for Adrian College. Both hockey coaches thought the idea was great and here it is. This year raised over $3,700 for the Hickman Cancer Center. ALL of the money will stay local and everyone is working on making next years event bigger and better!
Megan not really wanted to get kissed by Bruiser, Adrian College's new mascot a 4 month old bulldog puppy. He is adorable!

Grandma Berthold out on center ice with other survivors to drop the puck.

Co-captain, #25 Mike Towns, this is the jersey I bought during the auction.

Bruiser, in his Pink the Rink shirt.

My parents hanging out behind the auction table trying their best to get people to bid higher and higher on jerseys, but that really wasn't that hard. Lots of people wanted shirts and jerseys!

The Harrington's and the Schutte's just watching the game. For those of you that don't know, Michele had breast cancer and kicked it's ass and is now a survivor as well :)

The men's hockey team doing their normal thank you to the fans at the end of the game. It just looked extra special in the pink jerseys.

My Dad on the mic, thanking everyone for coming and supporting the hockey teams and Pink the Rink. He also had to announce who had the highest bids for the pink jerseys.

#25 just waiting for me to get there to hand me my jersey. He even folded it for me, granted it was soaking wet and smelly, but it was folded!

Shawn Skelly #20, posing with my mom, she bought his jersey. It is hard to see but he is wearing a breast cancer bracelet on one wrist and a "Live Strong" bracelet on the other wrist. That made me smile, knowing that he really did appreciate the event.

Random Megan cuteness

About a week or so after Christmas, Megan decided that her monkey towel is not just for bath time, but it can be a robe too. She walked all around the house while I was eating my breakfast but then started playing with her kitchen. I thought I was adorable to see a monkey in the kitchen!

Megan taking a picture of me while I was shoveling snow. I would come check on her through the window and as soon as I walked up she started taking my picture. She still needs to work on her aim.

Megan couldn't wait to get outside to play in the snow. I told her we would go out after we were dressed but she kind of misinterpreted what I said.

Megan enjoying her first cup of hot chocolate! I kept telling her that now she is big enough that when we play outside in the snow once you come in, you get to drink hot chocolate to warm up. She thought it was "yummy" and kept asking for more.

We just finished painting our kitchen/family room and Megan has fallen in love with the window seat. She hangs out there all the time. As you can see she makes it nice and comfy. I has since bought some foam to make a cushion for the bench, and the second the foam was in place Megan climbed up and said "I like this" I have a feeling that once the cushion is done and the pillows are in place, she will spend many hours reading books on this window seat.

Coming soon: "Pink the Rink" photos!

Chicago Children's Museum Part 2

Onto building snow forts and playing with "snowballs" I feel sorry for the people that had to build all of the cardboard snowflakes, but they were fun to stack and knock down! As you can see there were hundreds of them to play with!

Megan hiding behind her fort trying to throw snowballs at me! The snowballs were balls of yarn, fun to throw, but hard to aim. Megan thought they were fun.

Megan was very excited to "ice skate" in her socks. We talked about it when we were at home, so she more then ready to try and skate. They were very organized and had about 10 kids come on the "ice" at a time. They had to sit and listen to the rules so everyone had fun and no one got hurt.

Once they got used to "skating" all of the kids sat down and each of them had their turn to do whatever they wanted on the ice. As you can see Megan was just a little too young to understand this. But she still had a smile, so I guess that is all that matters :)

Megan was one of the smaller kids on the ice and she wanted me to come skate with her. But Mark was closer to the door, so she got to skate with her Daddy.

Just a little more skating, or running into other kids.

Just acting like a flower!

Digging for some dinosaur bones at the archaeological dig. They even had little vest and gloves for the kids to wear...so cute!

She found something! Actually she found a lot of things, but when she uncovered something, she would pick it up, look at it and say "It's just a bone." and throw it down. It was fun, but it was lunch time so we didn't dig for long.

After lunch we went back to the last few areas to find some more fun. It didn't take too long for Megan to realize that she could play in a huge room devoted to water! She put on a rain coat and was off to play with boats.

After playing in the river and adjusting the flow of the current, Mark and Megan pulled on some ropes to get the water wheel turning. Mark being Mark, found that if you just hold one rope for a long time the wheel will spin like crazy and send water flying everywhere! Notice I'm taking the picture from far away.

At the end of the water area, they had lots of different flowing water, buckets that could be moved and dumped by more ropes and lots of other fun things that could move water. You could even build your own fountain by connecting tubes in different directions. What a fun place, especially for a kids that love water!

Last stop was at a construction zone. Megan really liked filling the dump truck with bricks and then using the bricks to build a wall. I think by the time we left 95% of this wall was filled.

After making sure we stop at all of the areas that Megan could play in, it was time for us to go. Nap time was calling and the museum was starting to fill up with older kids. We highly recommend The Chicago Children's Museum as a must if you are in Chicago with any little ones. Great fun, can't wait to go back on our next trip!

Chicago Children's Museum Part 1

The first full day that we were in Chicago we decided to spend the day playing and learning with Megan at the Chicago Children's Museum Since the weather forecast called for cold and windy (really windy) Megan got all bundled up for the 4 block walk to Navy Pier. For the record she could move her hands but she could not put her arms down.

The first exhibit we visited was "Forts", to be honest, this was the exhibit that got my attention while researching the museum online. The purposely used everyday items that kids could find at home, but made it super easy to build forts. Every furniture item had knobs attached and every blanket had loops sewn in so that they would hook over the knobs. So much fun!

Grandma Berthold helping Megan create the perfect fort.
You could even build a fort up high in a loft (for the urban kids)

This fort our group built after we disassembled a pile of stuff. Mark was excited because behind the orange door, he built a fort within a fort! Good times for all ages.

Onto fire safety. Megan was too young to absorb the fire safety tips, but she liked playing with most of the props. She liked driving the fire truck, although Grandma had to pick her up so she could see.
Wanting no part of dressing like a fireman, Megan went straight for the steps to get to the fireman's pole. She didn't know what to do at first, but caught on very quick! She was the only child playing on it she she got her fill, but soon as more kids heard our laughter, a line started to form. But we already had pictures and video, so off to the next exhibit.

She loved this.

Next stop was a building area. I think Megan was trying to show Daddy what kind of play area she wants in the back yard. This area was very fun and organized. All of the pieces and parts were in a tool box or on shelves, so you could easily grab the correct piece you needed for your building.

How about a little fishing!?! Megan had to match a picture to the type of fish she was trying to catch. But she really just wanted to play in the water. I liked that any area that involved water, the museum provided raincoats to keep the kids dry. Even it it was just washing a baby, they had raincoats.

Megan picking some plants in her garden. She couldn't get enough of the real life play areas. She loved them! It was so much fun watching her play in the kitchens, houses, gardens etc. It's got me excited to start thinking of how we can organize our new yard for her to have lots of areas to explore, learn and play in.

More fun museum pictures will come soon. Too much fun for just one post.