4 McIntosh Apples

Spring Break 2010

With Ean being in preschool in the North Wells school district, we got our first taste of Spring Break this year.

Although, it was cold, we decided to head up to Chicago for a visit to Ikea and Legoland Discovery Center. Ean had a pretty good time, however Ella wasn’t really interested in being couped up some building as you can tell by the tears in her eyes in some of the pictures.

Once we got to open play area, Ella really started to enjoy herself. Ean says that his favorite parts were the 4D movies and the Dragon ride (which was similar to a carnival haunted house with the fright).

Here are some of the pictures of our trip in Legoland Discovery Center:

From Spring Break 2010

Yo Gabba Gabba Live!

The kids went to their first “Rock Concert” yesterday. The Yo Gabba Gabba gang came into Fort Wayne for a party in our city. Never heard of Yo Gabbba Gabba? Check out this wikipedia link then: Yo Gabba Gabba wikipedia entry.

Ean, who normally is frightened to death of people dressed in costumes, actually enjoyed himself very much. There was one scene when the special dancey dancey person came out and it was the Tin Caps mascot that Ean absolutely started getting squirmy asking when he was going to leave.

Ella, on the other hand, who we thought would be dancing all over the place sat more frozen just taking everything in. After the intermission, she started warming up and doing a bit more dancing and seemed to enjoy herself more. But we got the impression that she was just thinking – “What’s going on here – These people aren’t on my TV”.

Layna and Amanda joined us as well and they both had a good time as well.

In the end, it was a very good show and we thank Mike for driving us up there in his limousine. I truly believe that older girls (April and Amanda) had the best time out of all of us as they sang and danced the whole show. I wonder how they would have been if it was Kenny Chesney up there.

Anyways, here are some photos of the event and the complete album of pictures as well.

From Yo Gabba Gabba Live

We love spring

The thermostat almost cracked 70 degrees yesterday. So while April and Steve worked on the living room, I toon the kids outside.

Ah they love playing and it was hard to get them back after seven when all of tummy were growling.

Here are a couple photos as we ran around in the backyard.

Happy New Year! Goodbye 2009

Although 2009 may not have been as good to some people, we came away with several firsts and many positive things in our life.

Ean started school (which he loves), April reconnected with old friends, Dylan connecting with some gaming friends, Ean’s first dentist trip, Ella walking/running/eating/getting into everything/talking/laughing/feeding herself, Ean letting us eat at Rainforest cafe, Cocoa Beach, Ean riding a bike, Dylan working 120 hours a week to start up a major project, and April trying and liking sushi, which has become a regular item on our menu now and many many more things.

So as much as we enjoyed 2009, we also look forward to 2010. We get to work on Ella potty training, Ean and homework, getting the house ready to sell and many other projects.

For those that were in our lives this past year, we thank you and we appreciate everything that you have done to enrich our lives and our children.

For those that were not in our lives this past year, we wish we had more time together to share our lives with you and learn from yours. I hope that 2010 brings us more opportunities to be together.

Here are just a few major moments from the past year in pictures.

2009 Christmas Videos

I know – crappy home videos that people dread watching, but I wanted to share them anyways.

Christmas 2009 Photos

Well, our Christmas holiday is wrapping up and we are working on retiring the old stuff (clothes and toys) and moving the new toys/clothes into the rotation.

Other than the snowy and cold weather, our holiday was a good one. Ella wanted nothing to do with unwrapping presents, but loved pulling socks from the stockings. Ean, on the other hand, loves opening presents so much so that he was unwrapping his presents and not waiting for anyone to watch him.

We still owe a couple of gifts and should get them out hopefully by the beginning of the new year.

I hope everyone had a great holiday as well.

Merry Christmas from the 4 McIntosh Apples

While there is not a creature stirring in the house, we wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and safe holidays!

4MA Tree

Good food

It’s funny – the kids never eat all of their food in one sitting. However, we discovered a place that the kids not only eat at all of their food, but they ask for seconds. Sakura’s japanese restaurant, which was previously a date night eatery,has been put on the lunch rotation. It has also been placed on one of the Fort Wayne favorites.