44/365 Valentines

Sam's marching machine men valentines.

4/365

Santa has washed his suit and hung it by the fireplace to dry...another holiday season behind us. Every year, they seem to pass by more quickly...

*Santa clothes knit by Laura Kochevar of Felt Inspired--visit her Etsy store at http://www.feltinspired.com/

New Year's Day at Extreme Trampoline

We celebrated New Year's Day at Extreme Trampoline. We bounced for two hours. I thought it was funny that when we got back in the car, Sam said "I still feel like I'm bouncing." It was really fun--the boys are already planning birthday parties for July and next December!

Since I'm still learning my new camera and couldn't figure out know how to take multiple photos in rapid succession, I had to use the automatic "action" mode. As a result, everything was set automatically and the super high ISO resulted in super noisy photos. But these photos capture our bouncy day--this outing is HIGHLY recommended!

Family Reunion

Tradition. It's tradition. My parents, siblings, nieces and nephews gather together in Baileys Harbor Wisconsin every year for the 4th of July and a family reunion.

Everyone wears their red, white and blue.



We toss candy to parade-watchers in an old-fashioned parade while my dad drives his old Ford truck.





This year was Sam's first year walking in the parade (in previous years he watched the parade). We had to ration the candy this year! There were thousands of people!



After the parade, we return to my parents cottage on the lake to play in the water and catch up before dinner, fireworks and s'mores.







According to most of the kids in our family "Fourth of July is the best day of the year after Christmas and my birthday!"

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!



We are going to celebrate at Navy Pier today. They have a cultural presentation with music, dancing, Kung Fu and more.

May your new year be very, very lucky!

Countdown to Christmas

The other day, I was talking to Sam about Christmas. We had a real heart-to-heart about giving, receiving, being kind and spreading Christmas spirit. After our talk, he looked up at me with his big, blue innocent eyes and said "Wow, and I thought Christmas was all about presents."

While I know that Sam is 6 (a somewhat greedy age) and always good for a laugh, it bothered me that he seemed to have no idea about the true meaning of Christmas. I decided it was time for a Christmas intervention.

As a child, I always had an advent calendar to count down the days until Christmas. That tradition has been passed on to my children by my mother, who gives them an advent calendar each year at Thanksgiving.

This year, in addition to the advent calendar, my kids will be counting down to Christmas with a "giving tree."

On the tree are 24 paper bags filled with pieces of paper that describe small ways my boys can take part in the spirit of the season by giving or sharing with others. I tried to make this fun while also focusing on doing for others.

Today, the boys opened bag #1 and were given gratitude journals. On each day of advent (and hopefully thereafter), they will jot down 3 - 5 things each day that they are thankful for. I was surprised when they ran to write in their journals immediately after getting them! Filling in the journal is their "ticket" to take a bag off of the tree.

Each day's "task" is simple, but meaningful. For example, on Day 2 each boy gets a candy cane and one for each of them to share with a friend at school.

Later this month, they will have a chance to order a "cup of joe" for a soldier overseas, make a bird feeder, send a surprise gift to a far-off relative, make a thank you card for the crossing guard, take cookies to the fire station, etc.

There are only 1 or 2 bags that have a little piece of Christmas candy inside--mostly because I was running out of ideas! I really hope my boys enjoy preparing for Christmas as much as I enjoyed preparing for Advent!

Like many moms, I often plan family outings that I think we will all enjoy and that will also add to my childrens' "memory box" of childhood. I always start our family adventure with picture perfect mental snapshots of how these outings will go. My expectations can often cause disappointment later. Fortunately, I'm able to move beyond the disappointment by replacing those snapshots with the "home movies" of how life really unfolds on a family outing--tantrums, bloopers and all.

So yesterday we set out on one of our family outings. Having spent Thanksgiving with my parents at their cottage in northern Wisconsin, we decided to stop to cut down a Christmas tree on the way back to Chicago.

It was cold. It was wet. It was muddy. The kids were tired...dead tired, and yet I insisted and persisted. It could still be a picture perfect day.

The good thing is, there were LOTS of trees to pick from. The bad thing is there were LOTS of trees to pick from.

We couldn't drive our car to the trees because we don't have 4 wheel drive, so we huffed to the furthest corner of the mud pit farm to find our special tree.

When you're at a Christmas tree farm, it's hard to have perspective. It's really hard to tell how big your tree (and your space at home) is! We ended up with a big tree...a really BIG tree...so big, it's going to need a serious shearing just to fit through our door!

Of course, we had to haul our tree all the way back to our car through the mud we had already slid through. My muscles still ache from carrying the tree "just 100 more yards." (I kept telling the kids it was "just 100 more yards" to keep them moving forward.)

So my mental snapshot of cutting down a beautiful Christmas tree and lightly pulling it through the crunchy snow will be replaced by a more realistic memory of dragging an oversized, exceedingly heavy tree through lots and lots of mud. But we laughed...a lot. And at the end of our mud-filled journey, we were welcomed into this little log cabin filled with candy canes, hot cocoa and treats for the kids.

I'd say that's one for the memory box.

Catching up

Too many photos of Lily lately, but this one was too cute to forget!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year 2009!

What a difference a year makes!

(The flash in her face is less than flattering.)

Joey and Daddy had fun ushering in the New Year...

Where's Sammy? Apparently, Sammy was working on his New Year's resolution. Here he is doing sit ups (while the rest of us were drinking sparkling grape juice and dancing). Since we did not talk about resolutions until New Year's Day, I have NO idea where he got this idea.

Merry Christmas!

Our downtown tradition...

Yesterday, we took an early evening trip downtown to make our annual trek to Macy's to see the lights, the windows, the trees and Santa. It was LATE, but surprisingly, we didn't have any meltdowns (until we got home that is).



First, we went to see the Jolly Man. Joey even made a friend in the 1 1/2 hour long line.




This was, by far, the BEST Santa we've ever seen. Nonetheless, Lily wanted NOTHING to do with him.

He quizzed the kids..."Are you brushing your teeth?" (An easy one to start with.) "Well of course we are!



"Are you picking up your toys?" (That's a bit trickier.) "Most of the time."




"Are you eating your vegetables?" (Sam's totally busted and of course, Joey's the one who calls him on it in front of Santa himself!) "I eat my vegetables, but Sam's a picky eater!"



So of course, the question to follow...


"Are you getting along with each other? You don't tattle on each other do you?" (Both kids remain silent.)



Then, we went to have dinner in the Walnut Room. Sammy pouted, because 1. it was late and 2 we didn't get to sit by the big tree. Rob confessed he felt the same way.



It was still a beautifully decorated setting for a holiday meal.


A fairy visited our table. Sam was completly into making a wish and getting "stars" blown into his hair.




Joey wasn't having anything to do with the fairy. (I think the fairy should have curled her hair and put on a wee bit of makeup. She wasn't looking very "fairyish.")



After dinner, we went outside to look at the windows.



A lovely ending to a lovely evening!

It's time for a new post

Since my last post caused such a stir within my family, I thought it was time to post something new! (I'm tired of talking about my houligan days.)

I didn't take many photos at Thanksgiving, which is a shame because I think Lily wore one of my favorite dresses yet. However, the few I took are cute.

Joey made a cute little apple turkey with marshmallows, cheerios and other candy. He wnated me to take a picture so he could quckly eat it!

Lily blossomed this holiday and enjoyed being held by and sitting with her aunts and uncles, grandma and grandpa and her cousins

Lily and Jack

Lily and Jenna

Joey enjoying his pie, apparently.

We're looking forward to Christmas!

BOO!

This was our first Halloween in a new house and a new neighborhood. Since Halloween in our old neighborhood was THE event of the year (600+ kids--you would actually get "stuck" in the whirlpool on the sidewalk), this year felt much more subdued. The kids were happy to trick or treat for a little while and then return home to eat chili and watch the movie Goonies.

Sammy started the day with a Halloween parade and party at preschool. (Lily joined in too!)

I think the following picture of Sam singing a Halloween song captures his 4 year old Halloween excitement.

Lily enjoyed Sammy's party and the accompanying sweets.

Ten minutes after slathering Joey with clown makeup, he complained that it was itchy and it bothered him. Perhaps this is the reason they didn't last too long trick-or-treating. He wanted to come home and wash his face.

I think the whole ensemble works though, doesn't it?

Lily looks like she's seen a ghost!

Pumpkins, corn mazes, scary ghouls...Halloween is almost here!

Gruesome ghouls along the maze of maize.

Leaving the pumpkin patch with our find.

This little bit could pull the wagon and the pumpkin all by herself.

I can't wait to try making one of these next year!