Easter 2010

First, the Easter Bunny came bringing stereotypical gender fun!









Later, we got dressed up and had an egg hunt in GG's yard!
Grant ran around seriously looking for eggs!








Brianna could not be bothered with her adorable headband due to the serious competitive streak!











Cooperation was often achieved too!










At the end, everyone had more eggs then they had basket space!








Chase stayed safely out of the way in the arms of Aunt Jamie with and blew raspberries at Grandpa Phil.


After the festivities were over, Silly mommy insisted on a picture with GG... clearly Grant was pleased over this interruption into the candy eating time!

Oh Behave!

I am heading out the the store today to buy something special... Something I hear is the greatest gimmick ever to be invented by parents and the great all-knowing Hallmark.


It is called... The Elf on the Shelf! Have you heard of it, do you know?

The elf comes to your home the day after Thanksgiving. He sits on a shelf in the house all day long. At night, he leaves to report back to Santa in the north pole. When he returns in the morning, he is in a new place in the house! Sometimes he brings a little treat for the kiddies... AND you can't touch him because if you do, he loses his magic and he can't go back and tell Santa how good you are.

There is a book that comes with so if the kids don't believe you, the book confirms everything!
I am excited to try it.

Halloween Parade

Today was the Halloween Parade at Grant's daycare center. I haven't missed one since Brianna started there at the age of 2. I was a little sad that Brianna was no longer there today, I always loved seeing them together. Next year, it will be Grant and Chase!

Here is Superman getting ready to fly! Notice how my excellent photo skills caught him with both feet off the ground! (or it could have been dumb luck!)

















Here Superman is scratching his head wondering where he left his belt and cape. (Well, apparently he left them in the classroom because at 4, the rules say you must refuse to wear at least part of your costume!)




























Here is Superman running away from his kryptonite, the dreaded mommy hug!


















Superman needs a hair cut!

This is normal...

This summer, our plan was to get all these big projects done.
- Redecorate guest room (floor to ceiling) and move Brianna into that room.
- Redecorate Brianna's old room for new baby.
- Sort through a dozen (more really) bins of clothes to get rid of girl stuff we won't need and get boy stuff ready for new baby.
- FIND all the baby stuff I know we've kept, and need, but didn't label well in the many, many bins.
- find time to have fun with kids and not just be TV/auto pilot parents.

I can say we've done really well on the first two and I LOVE the kids rooms!
I'm still working on the many bins but still have quite a bit to do.

The one thing I am getting increasingly disappointed with myself is the last one. My kids are watching far too much TV and not getting out to do enough fun stuff. We've done a couple fun things, and Adam is pretty good about finding ways to entertain them outside or in the basement, but we don't GO anywhere or DO anything. Movies, the Zoo, Splash Parks, the Pool, that kind of thing, the stuff we NEVER do during the school year, it should be the stuff summer memories are made of... and we suck at it!

Sure there are excuses aplenty.... pregnant, tired, projects, cost, etc. Bull****! I need to do better at this! I'm going to work on it!... just not today. :-)

It sings to me!

It is common to find that a particular song brings you back to a time or place in your life. I find that this is never more true for me than with each of my pregnancies. Pregnancy is such a time of confusion, amazement, concern, joy...of every high and low... that music and stories reach out and grab those hormones by the horns and just don't let go.

With Brianna, it was "In My Daughters Eyes" by Martina McBride.

With Grant it was "Godspeed (Sweet Dreams)" by The Dixie Chicks.

With Baby #3, I can't get enough of "It won't be like this for long" by Darius Rucker.

I guess I'm a mellow mama! You should see the whole i-pod playlist, I've titled it, For my kids.

'Tis the Season

My mom always says 'tis. She even used to call us "Tizylish" but I don't really know what that means and it isn't what I'd planned on talking about today...

I love December!

I love the snow in December. (I hate it in Jan and Feb but that too is a different story.) My Birthday is in December, the 22nd, just in case.... you know. But I especially love all the family and decorating and hot cocoa and lights.

This weekend, we put up our brand new 8ft tree! It looks amazing, and was super easy thanks to the whole pre-lit thing. Even putting on the ornaments only took about 30 minutes. We were lucky enough to have the wonderful help of a 3 year old dynamo and were not impeded too much by the 1 year old fuss-budget. Brianna loved hanging ornaments on the back of the tree. I'm not sure but I think she liked saying excuse me and squezing by her parents as much as possible. We don't quite have enough ornaments for the new, bigger, tree but that was ok because we can't put anything at the bottom anyway. Grant will just break it or eat it!

I haven't yet put out any of the rest of my decorations, but all the boxes are just sitting in my living room waiting for me. I am a little obsessed with snowmen. By the end of this week, every decoratable surface of my first floor will be covered with snowmen, women, children, and families. This really works for me. Adam was raised Jewish, I was raised Protestant, we haven't really settled on an organized religion yet for our family but we celebrate both faiths. Snowmen are religion neutral. And they TOTALLY work in northern Illinois where winters are full of snow.

I do however draw the line at snowman/seasonal sweaters! I'm 30 people, not 300!

For Hannakah this year, my mother-in-law bought me a very nice, soft sweater... covered in snowflakes and polar bears. I love that she tried to buy me clothes. I love that she even remembered the turtleneck to go under the sweater. I do however plan on returning the sweater. Howard, Heather... please don't tell her, it just isn't necessary. I think I'll share more faux Hanukkah info later.

Later this week I'm planning a photo montage of my best and worst things about December...

and where did my spell check button go?

The Halloween Parade!

Brianna, looking all cool, TOTALLY excited to see mommy in the middle of the day:




Grant, totally adorable, at least until he noticed me and started WAILING!!!!

Halloween has been decided!

Halloween... the 2nd most important decision of my month, has been settled.

Luckily, I did not get the Dora dress I was bidding on. Sorry kids, Mommy was not willing to spend over $30 PLUS shipping to get ONE costume! It would have been at least another $30 for the other one.

Really though, it was a good thing. I went home Monday debating on paying too much for the princess Dora costume, or settling on the regular Dora costume. So I asked Brianna which one she wanted... to which she promptly answered... "I don't wanna be Dora anymore, I wanna be a princess! I wanna be Cinereya!" (That's Cinderella for all you people who don't speak three year old.)

SOOOOOOOOO, That actually made Brianna's costume really easy because we already have a Cinderella play dress. The only debate was what should Grant be....
Not Prince Charming, he's way to short!
Not a stepsister because, duh, he's a boy.
Maybe the dog... or the horse...
NO! WHAT WAS I THINKING... OF COURSE HE'LL BE A...... MOUSE!

Tuesday I won a very cute, and very reasonably priced mouse costume on e-bay. I will add a little t-shirt and some booties, and Voila! Cinderella's best friend, the mouse!

It's a little scary how thrilled I am!

Soon to come... the drama of planning Grant's first birthday party....

Halloween Help Needed

Halloween is coming! Mothers everywhere are either working diligently to make their child the best costume ever, or scouring the stores to buy the one costume that will make their child have the perfect Halloween.

My mother made me Halloween costumes every year that I would let her. Some of my favorite costumes are still hanging in my closets in the hope that some year, they will fit my children just right. My mom spent hours and hours, late at night usually, sewing instead of sleeping.

2003-For Brianna's first Halloween, I made her a Tinkerbell costume. OK, honestly, it was just a green sleeper but I made a little tutu and wings.
2004-For her second Halloween, I made her a strawberry costume. Well, really, it was a red turtleneck and sweatpants but I hand sewed little black beads all over the shirt and made a collar out of felt that looked like leaves.
2005-Last Halloween, Brianna was a cowgirl. I bought a little denim dress and added fringe and bandana print detailing. That year was also Grant's first Halloween. He was a cow! I took a white sleeper and attached black felt spots.
2006-I don't know what to do! I love the idea of my kids having coordinated costumes, I think it's very cute and they are too young to protest. I think I will have to give up on making my kids costumes this year which makes me really sad. I just don't have the time and my skills are sorely lacking. My friend is having the same problem... Any ideas for us? Please help me decide:

Brianna- Princess; Grant- Frog... (not quite right because I really don't want the princess to kiss the frog).

Brianna- Dora the Explorer; Grant- Boots the Monkey... The Dora costume would be pretty easy but the monkey, not so much.

Any other ideas?