Aristocats Live on stage

Tonight was Pleasant Lane's annual Spring musical.

The Kindergarten class sang songs from The lion king

Grades 1-3 performed The Jungle Book

and

Grades 4 and 5 performed The Aristocats

Callahan opted not to audition for a speaking role this year

 (I think he fell prey to peer pressure)

so he just enjoyed being in the chorus

Cal's class singing. You can see his head behind R. (the girl in complete black)

Cal and Ben

The 3 Musketeers

It was very cute and can't wait until Karrick starts Kindergarten 

as the little ones always steal the show

OMG !

This is about the saddest thing I've seen in a while.

This is what is left of my lawn after raking enough

dead grass to fill 8 lawn bags.

The Lime killed my lawn!

I bought the regular ole grass seed from the store,

spread it and watered it.

Hopefully I will have grass in 2 weeks

if not I may have to call in the professionals

It's HORRIFYING

Earth

Today was Callahan's turn to pick the movie

and he chose "earth".

Loved it!

Great scenery.

There was a lot of mama/baby

relationships throughout the movie and it was

as if karrick read my mind. He climbed up on my lap

and put his little arms around my neck. We watched the remainder

of the movie all snuggled together

A Rare Occasion

Today was one of those rare days when we had

 NOTHING at all planned. 

The boys had friends stay overnight after Friday's baseball

game. They woke me up this morning by playing(yelling) in the driveway

I jumped out of bed thinking it had to be noon and staggered down the stairs

just to see 7:28 am on the clock. Are you freakin kidding me?

Not only did they wake me, but the neighbors received the

same lovely gift (sorry Mona)

As I sat on my front porch with my extra strong coffee, I noticed

a single rose had bloomed overnight.

 A sense of calm came over me

I really wanted to enjoy some sun. I

missed most of it yesterday due to work, then 

Karrick's Slinky shoot downtown. By the time we got to TJ's game at 5:30

the wind was a howling

as clearly heard in all my videos

Mother Nature had other ideas

for my Saturday

I alternated between working inside and 

lounging on the deck when the sun did peak out for 10 min intervals

Once the torrential rains came, I packed up the kids and headed to

the health club

Cal and Ben (my 4th son)

running the track

For the 1 st hour we had the pool to ourselves

Who has eyes that big?

I'm thinking the new Morton Salt Boy

Our rainy Saturday turned out to be delightful. It

was a rare treat to just hang with my boys

and have some fun

I get to do it all over again tomorrow

because we have NOTHING planned except to sleep in.

(minus the extra boys)

We won't get another free weekend until Fall

It was a rare occasion

Opening Night

The White Sox played a tough game. We were tied 3-3 going in the 

last inning. Cards had last bats and scored at the last minute 

to end the game 4-3 Cardinals.

It was a solid game with TJ pitching 

the first 2 innings. His private pitching lesson

paid off. He pitched a respectable game

Coach Mike giving TJ a "adda boy" after pitching the 1 st inning

TJ chatting with the 1st baseman...Hello, not a social call

I like this first video because on his

way back to 1 st TJ looks at me and

gives me such a cute smile

He's still my baby

Hollywood

Karrick had a booking today for Leaps and bounds catalog

which required him to miss school. 

He informed me that when I report his absence to the school,

I should just tell them  "that he'll be in a meeting"

Oh Dear...

Karrick played a cute boy walking his Slinky down the 

stairs

Alternative Energy Website

Callahan is in the gifted program at his school.They just finished a block
on Alternative Energy Sources. Each kid had to create their own
website page to be posted on the school district website.
Callahan was assigned Nuclear Power

District 44 wedsite

IT'S RAD TO RENEW!
That is the slogan for this block of study. The students have been asked by our District 44 Technology Coordinator to design a website on alternative energy options that will be posted on our district website. This website is meant to educate the District 44 community about alternative energy resources that will help sustain our environment for future generations. Please visit Pleasant Lane School's website, classrooms, and then Alternative energy website to see the 4th graders' work in progress and completed pages. What a great technological experience, as well as a wonderful research opportunity!

Gifted program

last practice game

Today was the White Sox 4 th and final practice game

We played the Mets which is coached by

TJ's travel team coach, Ross. So the pressure to do well was on.

There are no guarantees that TJ will make the team again

(99% he will) but you want to have a stellar game in front of this coach anyway.

TJ was walked twice and had a solid hit to right field that brought in our winning run

Our coach, Mike was saving TJ's arm for Friday's opening game, so he didn't pitch.

Not a bad idea since TJ has been throwing a lot of balls. He has a private pitching lession tomorrow at the DuPage training academy to get him back throwing strikes.

A little tweak is all he needs. I was thrilled when the Mets coach, Ross

told me he couldn't belive TJ wasn't pitching!

A blessing in disquise

No need to share our little secret of a pitching slump

by the time we meet again, TJ will be that OMG pitcher

It's great to see the team together having fun on and off the field

What do you mean we can't beat the crap out of each other

with our brand new uniforms?

Karrick and his new buddy.

 A dream come true that a new player on the team has 

a 5 year old little brother

So our ride home conversation went like this:

TJ- "mom, did you hear those girls on the soccer field

yelling at me?'

mom- " no, what were they saying?"

TJ- "they were yelling, hey TJ you look hot in your uniform,

you are so hot..."

mom-"they were not! really?, No! do you know them?"

TJ- "yeah, really mom and yes they are 7th and 8th graders

from school that like us"

mom- "Us? who is us?"

TJ- "well, me and Trevor and Trevor and Dean"

Mom- "are they cute? Are you going to ask one out?"

TJ- "yeah, they're cute and No"

Thank God!

Stick with baseball, kid

Creativity x 3

After dinner the boys each went their separate way.

Much to my surprise, not to a video game!

TJ has decided to teach himself to play the electric guitar

using online lessons

Karrick is obsessed with R.O.B. from

Super Smash Bros

and made a play doh model in addition to a portrait 

pretty darn impressive

Karrick is trying so hard to read and he may succeed before kindergarten

Today was his school book fair and we got 3 early reader books

He has already mastered addition and subtraction and some 

multiplication...in his head

Callahan's class each picked a state from a hat to do an

oral presentation. Cal got North Dakota

and he is alway enthusastic when it comes

to school projects, because they are open ended

and he's not bored to tears

Just a Great Day at Chez McGinty

We finally got the weather we have all been waiting for.

On a weekend too! While the boys were busy with friends I

tackled some much needed lawn work. Our poor poor grass is dead

from the  Hydrated Lime powder that the Village had to put on our lawn after

Watch What You Wish For

I Guess This is it

The deck got a good scrubbing and I even planted some flowers

Excellent night for a sleepover, we counted on 8

but only have 7

The 3 Musketeers

Wipe out...OUCH

trick water gun

Friday fun in the sun!

Christine your nephew has on his staple...

The Corporate X  t-shirt

sometimes I think he doesn't take it off for days

Pitching Practice

come on TJ, throw a damn strike!

My boys are garbage pickers!

now I can have even more crap in my garage

"mom, it was just laying in the street"

That's because it's JUNK!

My First Library Card

Helen  M. Plum

Library

Lombard

And the Winner is...

PATRICK!

Callahan did what any 10 year old boy is suppose to do when he gets up
in the morning. He let his dog out, forgetting the Easter Bunny
hid the eggs outside

Patrick spent the day outside for
obvious reasons
Today he is inside due to inclement weather
I hope he finished his colon cleanse...

Easter Pictures

Easter was wonderful.

 Egg hunt in the morning then we all went out to Long Grove

to spend the day with grandma and  grandpa McGinty.

Grandma hid the boys baskets in the house

while grandpa was in charge of hiding the eggs outside.

Not real eggs, but plastic eggs with monetary

amounts posted on them!

When all eggs are found you bring your bag to grandma and

trade them in for cash.

We enjoyed the traditional Easter ham dinner. Had a wonder fire

and good conversation.

This year I decided to post pictures I took while outside

their home