I don't think you understood the previous poster's comment. He indicated to buy a separate ticket MCI-ORD-MCI outside of the original ticket, and not to touch the original. Which I think is the smartest thing to do in this instance, if you can let your kids not attend school in your new town (due to the spring break issues).

Otherwise, as noted, you are pretty much out of luck with respect to the fees. What you could do is 'hope' for a schedule change between now and and a few months. Any schedule change, even a minute, allows you to not accept, and cancel the tickets without a penalty.