The Parrillo Family

Merry + Joyful.  Good way to summarize our year.  2019 was a mighty fine year for our family and we were excited to share it with our friends and family.   We were lucky to celebrate milestones and holidays, enhance our traditions and spending some time with the kid's activities.  With a little bit of travel tucked in there, too. As we've done in year's past, here's a little bit of "Year in Review" for the Parrillo Family. Thanks for stopping by (waves hello to Christmas card folks!) and have a look around. Milestones Sadie lost four teeth in four weeks - including her two front teeth this Spring. Eloise "bridged" from Brownies to Girl Scouts this Fall .   SD turned 7 this Summer .  Guess who can do a swimming flipturn?  Our Eloise can! The girls (Eloise in 4th, SD in 2nd) had their first day @ SMG this Fall .  Frankie had his first day of Pre-K at Bethel this Fall . Frankie turned Five this Fall and we celebrated with ...

Natalie and Frankie made a mid-week visit to see Great Grampy at his house in Oak Lawn.  They brought him a little Christmas tree to brighten up his place for the holidays.  Frankie decorated it himself and it is now sitting in a place of honor.  While they were there, Grampy showed him some photos and talked about family.  A really nice visit.

Those of you who are here because of our Christmas card, here's the outtake for the photo on the back!  Merry Christmas from our four savages. 

The last time Eloise put the angel on top of our Christmas tree was back in 2015 when we were living in the Marini house in Elmhurst .  Same angel.  Bigger tree.  And much bigger young lady!

Welp, we have a star!  Sadie was one of the leads in School House Rock Live - as "School House Rocky" in Westmont.  Eloise - as she did in Annie Junior - was part of the stage crew and did a really great job moving things on and off the stage and keeping things moving smoothly.

This sums up their relationship with the big buy.  SD and Frankie are all-in. Trying to make sure he gets their 'list'.  But Eloise?  As uncomfortable as they come.  Take a look at the photo from last year .  She still won't get too close to him.   Same as it ever was.  Here she was giving Santa the ole 'slip' on her second visit .   And b eing unhappy at age 3 .  But then something happened in 2013.  At age 4, Eloise was all smiles and even sat on his lap.  Sadie?  Not so much .  This visit is something we've done for years and I've documented it here on the family blog: Here's the photos from this same visit in 2018 . Here's the photos from this same visit in 2017 . Here's the photos from this same visit in 2016 . Here's the photos from this same visit in 2015 .

What's better than a "Secret Pizza Birthday Party" at a trampoline park?  One that you share with your best cousin.  These two boys celebrated together and jumped around with their family and friends.  What lucky boys. 

Sure, Pikachu looks cute.  And Hermione looks like trouble.  But how about that Presidential Candidate Elizabeth Warren?  She has a plan for that.  (but, umm...can't win! 1 ) We had a great time at Noonie's annual Halloween party.  Eloise - as she usually does - chickened out of wearing her real costume (Mary Poppins) and instead just wore a sweatshirt from Tokyo Disneyland.  She takes after her father in that regard.  1. [Let the record show, this editorial mention is from JAKE. And might not represent the full beliefs of "The Parrillo Family". Not that he's not wrong, though...] ↩

We went out to Heap's Pumpkin Farm in Minooka this year, but the rain (and cold) got the best of us.  All of the activities at the farm were closed for the day, so we just picked from the pumpkins they had out front.  Here's the post from our visit to Heap's Pumpkin Farm in 2017 . 

The Big Beef is F-I-V-E!  And we celebrated with a Pokemon-themed party.  He's a smart, curious and loving little boy.  He snuggles with his Momma more than the girls and he amazes me with his smarts almost every day.  We love you Beef! For comparison's sake, here is Sadie's 5th Birthday post . 

That's our Eloise!  And, sure enough...just like her mother, she's a swimmer.  And at the age of 9 can do a backstroke flipturn.  She's sticking with the team all season and has really improved her times.  I'm really proud of the effort she's putting in with the swim team.  Who knows...maybe like Nat, she'll be on the Benet Swimming Team in a few years! Here's a post about her first swim meet in 2018 .  And she's come soooo far compared to when she was first taking swim lessons here in 2014 . 

We went down to Champaign for the Illini vs. Wisconsin football game and to celebrate the day with the Parrillo family - including the two cousins who are in school there.  What happened in that game?  Oh, you know...nothing big.  Just our Fighting Illini upsetting a top-five Wisconsin football team on a last-second field goal.  Oh...but we left the game going into the fourth quarter to go back to the tailgate.  (Shame.) We enjoyed a beautiful day, indoctrinated the kids into the ways of gameday at Grange Grove and built a ton of memories.  Oh yeah...and we stopped briefly in to Sigma Chi.  The place was a dump!

One of our favorite Halloween traditions is a visit to the Canyon Trail Cemetery up in Carol Stream where a family dresses up their house with some incredible Halloween decorations.  Still scary!  Even as the kids grow.  This is a great way to kick off the Halloween Season!

That's Sadie and her 2nd grade SMG soccer teammates enjoying the fruits of their season-long labor:  Dairy Queen on the curb.  This was SD's first time on a soccer team and she worked hard.  Hung back on defense a little too much, but she was a great teammate, had a good attitude and we had so much fun watching her run around on the field.  Here's a post from 2017 when she was first taking soccer class back in Elmhurst . 

It was just two short years ago that Eloise "Bridged" from Daisys to Brownies .  Today, she "Bridged" to the real thing:  Girl Scouts.  And if there are horses involved, you know what that means:  Grammy should be present!  Congrats, Eloise.  So glad you are part of your troop and working together as a team every month. 

Another annual tradition with Sadie taking part in the Benet in their cheerleading camp - and cheering on Nat's redwings at a Friday night football game.  Here she is with her friend - who is the daughter of Nat's good high school friend. Just like I'm indoctrinating the kids with Illini football , Nat's doing the same with Benet! Here's the photos from 2017 when she did the same camp .

Today was Frankie's turn for his 'First Day of School' as he got all doll'd up in his favorite shirt (a Hawaiian shirt from our trip to Aulani earlier this year) and his favorite hairstyle (a Fauxhawk) and went off to five-day-a-week pre-K school at Bethel in Westmont. Here are the photos from his "First Day" in 2018 - one year ago .  He's grown quite a bit! Of course, he got the whole sidewalk chalk treatment from Nat - to send him on his way!

We wound down Summer at the Lake House in Wisconsin with the Foxes and Morans.  Salad days indeed. 

Too early for apples?  That's ok.  We'll pick berries.  The kids had a great time at the All Seasons Orchard in Woodstock, Illinois.  When it comes to orchards and apples and U-Pick places....Wisconsin (or far Northern Illinois for that matter) is no Michigan, that's for sure. We took the exact same picture two years ago.  Check it out here .  Frankie had some salad!

These two athletes got it done with the SMG 5K and 1 miler race for their school.  The last time I posted about the race was in 2017 with photos here .  

The tans tell the story of a great Summer, but all good things have to come to an end.  And today, that Summer has come to an end with the girls going off to St. Mary of Gostyn school for their first day. Eloise is in 4th grade. With Ms. Zinnie.   Sadie is in 2nd grade.  With Mrs. Nolan - who Eloise had. Here's photos from the same day last year.   What a change! Frankie's turn is coming up soon.