Oh Christmas Tree

Somehow I did not take one picture at Thanksgiving.  Thursday we were in Osseo and my camera sat in my purse.  Saturday we were with The Letts's, but I ended up home with Evan who had strep throat.  I did take one photo, though it was not of Thanksgiving. 

This photo is taken at 11:55 on Thanksgiving night outside the Target in Eau Claire.  The line wrapped all the way around three sides of the Super Target.  You may be wondering what in the world could I possibly need so badly from Target, of which there are no less than three within 10 minutes of my house, that I would go out in the middle of the night and stand in line for 20 minutes?  Ibuprofen.  Yep.  That's all we really had on our Target list, but all the same, we stood in line with men and women of all ages.  We were the very last people in line at midnight when the crowd broke into a cheer as the already weary employees must have opened the doors. 
Inside we wondered around picking up $5 CDs and DVDs, browsing toys, avoiding droves of obnoxious college students, watching person after person load gigantic TVs into their carts.  When we reach the back of the store, a woman asked us if we were in line.  We asked, "Line for what?... check out?"  Well, we weren't in line, but now we were.  We didn't want to spend all night in line for a couple of CDs and some batteries, but we hadn't even gotten to the Ibuprofen yet!
The line wasn't moving much, so mom and I decided to take turns standing with the cart while the other browsed.  As I was debating over a gift for one of my nieces, I got a text from my mom: I'm Moving!  I skirted through the clothing department towards grocery to find a line of cart filled shoppers weaving in and out of the aisle with chains blockaded the ends.  I grabbed the Ibuprofen and texted mom to find out what aisle she was in.  As I waited for her to round the next corner, a couple of kids waiting for their mom joined me with their purchases.  Darn! This was not the nonchalant cover I was hoping for, but who could deny a group of young kids to get in line with their bill paying mother?  I'll tell you who.  The overwhelmed Target employee sporting a walkie and dark bags under her eyes.  She got on her walkie to confirm with some unseen comptroller that we were not to be let in line, but there was no way I was going back to stand in sporting goods for Ibuprofen, so I made an exec. dez. (executive decision) and jumped in line as mom rounded the corner.  The employee, in no mood for an energy sucking quarrel, pretended not to see me.  Mom and I walked out of the store within 5 minutes. It was then that we realized that we didn't really even get to look around because we were in such a panic about the length of the line. 
We headed to Quick Trip for a bathroom break, a car wash and some coffee.  There we met Todd who should be Quick Trip employee of the year.  I'm not sure I've ever met anybody as nice as this guy. He really didn't do us any favors.  He was kind of a homely figure who perhaps either lives with his mother or a slew of cats, but he turned our night around.

So, anyway, I was saying.  I didn't take any photos of Thanksgiving this year.  But the Sunday after Thanksgiving, we decorated our Christmas tree.  Owen, like his mother and grandmother, loves to decorate for Christmas.  He arranges and rearranges my Dickens people daily.  When we open the ornament box, he puts each kid's ornaments in order.  He wants to find the perfect place for each one.

The boys helped me start decorating while Mia was napping.  Evan's ornaments, like his Halloween costumes, are always a hit.  When he was two, he had a recordable one on which he sang "Santa Baby."  Last year he had the Polar Peek Patrol squad car with a motion sensor that would cause the Penguin to yell things at anybody who came near the presents or the tree for that matter.  This year his ornament sings "Hot, Hot, Hot" and features a snowman sitting in a hot tub.  He thinks the singer is singing in Spanish, but actually he is just singing with a Jamaican accent.

It was so fun setting up our tree for the first time in our new house.  I just love how the lights reflect on the windows and make the whole room sparkle.

Mia was so excited when she got up.  She jumped right in and started hanging ornaments too.  I was worried that it was going to be hectic decorating the tree with three kids, but they were very gentle with the ornaments.  The nice thing about a fake tree is you can bend the branches around the hooks to keep ornaments from slipping off and breaking.

Jim didn't help decorate.  He's not really into Christmas.  He's more of a ... um... I hate all the excess of Christmas kind of person, but he did take my camera outside to take some photos through the windows for me.  Can you see how the lights are doubled?

I like this one because you can see the tree's reflection in the windows opposite.

I love this photo because we were having so much fun, but it's also super creepy because I had no idea he was taking it.  It was so dark out, I couldn't even see him standing there until he tapped on the window.  I will now be working on making sure those motion sensor yard lights are in working order.

Evan's Up North Birthday

Owen had off for Veteran's Day - or more likely a teacher comp. day from conferences - so we took advantage of the long weekend and headed up north.  While there, we celebrated Evan's birthday with Ya-ya & Bumpa.

Ooh!  What's in this big box!?

It's a Moose sleeping bag!  It's unbelievably soft.  Guess who else loves it?

Oops.  That's what I get for naming the boys names that sound so much alike, right?  Although, my Great-Grandma use to call me Brock (my cousin's name.)

Waiting for cake

The Twin Cities hasn't had snow yet.  After cake, Mia and Evan went out and threw some snowballs.

Unfortunately the snow didn't last up north either.  Saturday was a beautiful day.  We took our family photos in Minocqua.  Then Jim took the boys to Powell Marsh to run around.  Powell Marsh is a state wildlife area that is just down the road from my folks' place.  While they released their energy, Mia napped back at the house with Bumpa and Mom and I went bumming around Minocqua.

 

After nap, Mia had Bumpa read the book Thank you Pooh! no less that 20 times.  This has been a favorite of all my kids up at Ya-ya and Bumpa's house.  By the end of the night, we were all reciting the book from memory - even Mia.  Sort of reminds me of Dr. Seuss's ABC's which was the book I requested so many times as a child that my dad and I can still recite it from memory.

Happy 5th Birthday Evan

 After a really exciting day like yesterday, we needed a more mellow day.  Today is Evan's actual birthday.  We spent the day reading books and washing windows.  Fun, huh?  Well, in all honesty, I also got my hair done.  I noticed my first gray about two weeks after Evan was born.  I like to think that today I celebrated 5 years of gray, by getting my hair cut and colored.  Maybe I shouldn't have told you that.  Did you think I was au naturale?  Yeah.  I didn't think so, but one can always hope.

We saved our family gifts for the actual birthday.  Mia gave Evan a pink Power Ranger which was the one thing he asked for.  Owen gave him the Angry Birds game called Knock on Wood.  And Jim and I gave him the Imaginext Mega T-Rex.  Have you ever seen Evan's impersonation of a T-Rex?  It will scare the bejeezus out of you.
Note: There is that banner I was telling you about in the background.

In efforts to get Evan to eat a few more things, I have started letting Evan cook an item once a week.  Week 1 was OK.  Tonight, to make the point clear, he wouldn't even try it.  So after dinner, we indulged in some leftover cupcakes.  Ya-ya & Bumpa joined us via Skype to sing Happy Birthday.  Isn't that just the coolest?  Gosh, the world is changing so quickly.

The Not-So-Angry Birthday Party

 I can hardly believe my little guy is turning 5.  It seems like only days ago that I first gazed on that amazing smile that love so much.  It must have been only yesterday that I was wondering how in the world I was going to take care of two little boys.  And it couldn't have been more than an hour ago when I was shocked to find out that a baby can fall asleep on his own.  But here he is; somehow five.  Here he is - a builder of amazing block castles, a number whiz who is learning to do math in Spanish, an actor who can impersonate just about anything animate... or inanimate, the one who can be counted on to diffuse a conflict, put a smile on your face.  Even Steven, as his auntie nicknamed him.  He evens the mood and is the balance to his much more serious older brother.  He quickly masters video games like Mario Brothers and Angry Birds, thus the theme of this year's birthday party.

I wanted to make a life sized Angry Bird replica for one of the party games.  Five year old boys like physical activity.  I thought a supervised giant sling shot would be right up their alley.  My plan was to collect boxes and spray paint them to look like rocks.  Well, the spray paint didn't stick and it only covered a few boxes and even that was sparse.  Then I decided to wrap all of the boxes in construction paper.  That took FOREVER since I only had 8 1/2 x 11 sized construction paper when I made that decision*.   Next to fail was my sling shot options.  I had two sling shots, neither of which worked with the stuffed Angry Birds.  Then I bought a three person sling shot, which would have been perfect except that ours happened to be defective and snapped the first time we used it**.  Feeling frustrated, I delegated this game and all it's troubleshooting to Jim.  

Now, before I tell you how that all went down, let me preface by setting the scene.  11:00 Sunday morning rolls around and the doorbell starts ringing.  It was a small party, but all in all there was 12 kids expected: 6 boys and 6 girls, including our own kid and my three nieces.  My nieces were running a little late, so the party began heavy on the boy side of things.  Even when all the guests had arrived, you would have guessed it was more like 10 boys and 2 girls.  An interesting thing I've come to learn about boys is that they don't need to bother with formalities.  When four boys who do not know each other are in a room together, you will not hear, "Hi. My name is Henry.  Do you want to play?"  Or maybe this is the fault of my own parenting.  Regardless, there were no introductions done today and the fervor for which activity began did not allow time for such niceties.  The boys entered, removed shoes, looked at each other, smiled, snickered, ran down the stairs, and immediately began to wrestleing.  It was total insanity.

I had warned my dear  husband that this was a kids party and there would have to be continuous structure.  He argued this point with me, but I think when he saw the look of shock on the girls' faces, he realized that I was right.  Jim recruited his brother and they began to stack boxes for the first game right away.

There are no clear shots of the boys taking their turns.  There was no time to lift the camera.  If I wasn't trying to give a boy directions, I was trying to keep the rest of them calm in the line that grew behind.  The girls in the room shirked to the corner and took their turns last.  We gave up on the sling shot right away and just tossed the fluffy Angry Birds at the structure.  I do think, if we had had the three person sling shot, that would have occupied three kids at once and may have helped focus some of the energy - just in case you're thinking of trying this.

The energy level was still fairly high after the simulation, so next up was an Angry Bird Balloon Pop.  I downloaded the templates for balloons from this site.  I stayed up late (after I finished wrapping the boxes) to cut out and tape the templates on 15 balloons.  Most of the kids had no problem popping the balloons, but Mia and her new BFF struggled a bit.  Thanks to her help, though, Mia eventually got it.

I also made an Angry Bird ribbon banner from some clip art I found on-line.  After the party, I hung the banner in Owen & Evan's room.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of it during the party.  I'll have to catch one some other time.

Considering our experience with the games, I thought it would be best if all the kids sat on the couches and let Evan open his gifts in the middle.  Selfishly, I wanted to see the gifts he opened and I wanted him to get to open them himself.  Silly me.

The kids tried really hard, but how could we possibly expect them not to get down there and check out all of this cool loot?  And once one kid was down there, how could we say no to the others.  So, once again, chaos ensued.

Auntie Gina must have felt sorry for Evan having to live in a household with two very serious Packer fans.  She bought him a Vikqueen jersey to match her own.

Having all of one's favorite people together in one room could be really overwhelming, but Evan did a great job of spending time with each guests.
(One little boy told me that Evan & Addie look more like siblings than cousins.  Yeah.  They're both stinking adorable, but I might be slightly biased.)

And finally, the cake.  I got the idea from YouTube.  I am no baker.  That's for sure.  All of that dark green icing is to cover up my mistakes but, I thought the cake turned out alright.  I made a 9 x 13 cake from a mix.  After it cooled, I sliced it vertically and put the pieces end to end.   I used KitKats and Tootsie Rolls for the fort.  I made the sling shot out of KitKats for lack of a better idea and tied them together with Pull and Peels.  It was actually nice to have something to do with all of our Halloween candy.  I didn't have time or the patience to try and figure out cake pops, so I used some little plastic toys.  The nice thing about that is that now Evan can play with them.  This cake was not an actual game simulation, but since we did the life sized one, I figured that was OK.  I never thought that this cake would feed 12 kids and 10 adults, but it did.  I had back up cupcakes just in case and I didn't even need them.  Guess we won't be making zucchini cookies at preschool this week after all.

 

 Happy 5th Birthday Evan!

*Decision being made at 4:00 p.m. the night before the party.

** Again, at 4:00 p.m. the night before the party.

Fall Leaves

I don't know if I told you this, but years ago we were driving around this neighborhood browsing for houses.  There was a house for sale down the street.  It was good in many ways, but it wasn't right for us.  As we left he neighborhood, we drove past this house.  As I gazed down into the yard from the street above, I said, "I wish that house was for sale." As many people have said of our new home, "It looks like us."  I could picture the boys playing football in the yard.  I could see us here.  Sometimes I feel like I just know things.  Some people call it love at first site or intuition or the power of positive thinking.  I can't explain how or why these things happen, but somehow we ended up here.  And when I saw the boys playing football in the yard today, it was like deja vu.  I had seen that moment before in my own mind's eye.

Anyway.  It's fall.  And I swear peek came twice this year.  The colors right now are fabulous and we are just losing the bulk of our leaves.  Tomorrow is Evan's birthday party.  I should be baking a cake, wrapping presents, and cleaning the house, but I walked outside.  It's gorgeous!  It's almost 60˚ and sunny.  The wind is a bit nippy, but the leaves were calling to me.  They were whispering, "Erinn.  Erinn.  Remember when you're dad use to make huge leaf piles that you would jump in for hours?"  And just like that, I was adding to a pile I had already made at the end of the deck.  And then I got a better idea.

If jumping off two steps is fun, what would it be like to slide into a pile of leaves?

I raked half the yard up as tall as I could.  Evan tested the pile for the fun factor and gave it an A, so we called Owen and our neighbor outside to join us.

 

YIPPEE!!!

Eventually I had to get focused back on the party.  Evan is having an Angry Bird party so I decided to build a live set with a life-sized sling shot.  I've been collecting boxes for a month.  I planned to spray paint them today, but 1. the paint didn't stick and 2. it was so windy the boxes kept flying away.  As I went inside to get supplies for Plan B, Evan and our little neighbor buddy came up with a typical Evan/Dom plan.

Wouldn't it be funny to run around the yard as fast as you can with a diaper box on your head and somehow try to catch Owen that way?

Yeah.  I mean, who wouldn't think that was fun?

Apparently it's not only fun, but exhausting.

Music Together 2011

 I have been attending Music Together classes for 6 years now and I still love it as much as I did when I first started.  I love watching kids express themselves musically.  I love watching them develop physically from infants to crawlers to bouncers to walkers to dancers to spinners!  I love watching their cognitive differences.  Some kids (like my boys) sit back and listen to all of the music, but never sing.  Some kids sing all the songs and know all the words on the second day of class.  Some kids show their brilliance in their movements.  It's just really cool to sit back in a class, as a teacher who is not teaching, and take in all these beautiful kids and their amazing gifts.  I watch them and I wonder how they will make their mark in the world and how their years in this early childhood class will effect their development as a person.

 I know for sure that all of these kids will go to school knowing how to pick up after themselves.  Music Together has taught my kids how to clean up like I never knew possible.  If I need a room cleaned up, I just break into song and suddenly everyone around is chipping in and the room is clean.

There were a couple of years where I struggled bringing the boys to music class because they rarely participated.  They weren't disruptive at all, but they didn't sing, do the gestures, or dance (unless I was spinning them like a top.)   Now Owen goes to a school that doesn't have music or art.  (Yes.  It's VERY sad.)  But I now know that he makes connections back to his music class.  When we're in the car, he might bust into, "Zoom, Zoom Driving in the Car."  Or when I'm trying to get Mia to eat, he might chime in with "Open and Shut Them."  And although he didn't participate all those years, I now know he was listening.  He was taking in all aspects of the lessons.  Those experiences are in his knowledge base.  He pulls them forward.  He sings the tunes with other words, he connects music to his environmental surroundings, he uses music as a mnemonic device in his lessons.  And thank goodness I took him since St. Paul Public Schools doesn't seem to think it's important enough to include music into the regular part of elementary students' school day.

 Sorry for the soapbox.  So, Evan.  He's my sometimes participator, sometimes wallflower, but most times dramatic.  For example, here we have him pretending that sticks being rubbed on your head by a girl two years younger than you is extremely painful and frightening when in fact he is loving every second of the attention.

 Lullaby time.  After we "get our instruments and play along," we always have a lullaby followed by the "Goodbye Song."  I love consistency in the classroom.  And I love all the lullabies I have in my repertoire now.  Lullaby time is the best.  It fulfills that part of my life that I never seem to find time for - relaxation.

 The kids' favorite part of class is the "Goodbye Song."  Linda lets the kids strum her guitar as she sings their name during this last song of class.  Even the babies get to feel the vibrations on the strings.

 After our music class, I rush home to get the kids lunch and then rush off to get Evan to preschool.  As I we were driving into our neighborhood, I saw this huge red tail hawk fly across the road in front of me.  It was as big as an eagle.  Since I had my camera still from music class, I pulled over and clicked this picture.  I mean, even though we were in a hurry to get to preschool, you have to make time to stop and appreciate nature, right?

For days I've been wanting to snap a shot of these trees too.  This is outside the library in West St. Paul.  I just love how these three trees blend into a rainbow of color and complement the red brick library.  It's so nice to see such bright colors this late in the season (even though it was a cloudy day.)