From Thanksgiving to Christmas

It's almost midnight and I belong in bed. A cup of sweet dreams tea will hopefully prod me along, but in the meantime, a quick post...
Here Eddie is helping to make the Banana Pudding Pie we had for desert on Thanksgiving (and it lasted 3 nights more).

And here he is exercising 'cook's perogative'...

Den says he donned this hat when he picked Ed up from preschool last week and that it got quite a few chuckles...no kidding?

Knowing that Den would be traveling a lot during the month of December, I was determined to get as much Christmas-season related stuff out of the way...and boy this is certainly the way I want it to play out in future years.

We bought our live tree (the first since I've known Den) from a local non-profit community group and the kids eagarly decorated it. I wish I could say Den and I enjoyed ourselves as much as the kids, but neither of us appears to enjoy decorating the tree.

Truth be told, if it weren't for the kids, we wouldn't have much decorations any time of year.

This year I bought 12+ boxes of LED colored lights to decorate the outside of the house with. We put up a couple strands the other night in 60 degree weather and when Den gets home, he grudgingly will figure out how to get them into our 25 foot tall prickly holly. I think that tree will come down in the spring if not before....

We're are pretty much 95% decorated. We have come to enjoy the 4-5 days at home for Thanksgiving as a chance to get a jump start on the Holiday craziness and relax with the kids.

If only we could get 3-4 days at home to just knock out the 'to do' list...

The Gingerbread House

In what has become an annual tradition for us, Den's assembled and the kids decorated a gingerbread house. I will freely admit the parts are store bought. Then I visited Michael's and saw all that could be done without a kit...

Den hot glue guns the house together and then does the detailing before we set the kids free with the candy. Perhaps it was that we have been freer with the candy over the last year, or maybe the kids were really into decorating it, but there was almost no candy consumed...still it kind of wasn't enough candy...

Tonight...

This picture was missing from last night's assortment and Cookie found it this evening. It's quite 3-D and I wish it would last beyond this year, but I don't think it would laminate well.

Eddie and Josie love playing with this orangutan and tonight, Ed decided he needed to go through the mail slot and that the door decoration needed to be recorded for posterity. They just didn't want to hold still long enough to participate.

This was supposed to go with the previous post...

New clothes...

Time for new crocs. These broke on the plane on the way home from Wisc. We've been planning to get him a new pair for some time. It seems depending on where they are manufactured, there is great variation in size. Guess this speeds things along. Course he has 3 other pair to fall back on, including one that is the same color as Josie's (which just happen to be hand-me-downs from Ed). Ed is HUGE into he and Josie dressing the same. It's really cute.



When g'parents Ohio were here this past weekend (and I managed not to get ANY photos as I was busy running around and doing projects around the house), g'ma and I found this sweater and hat I knew Josie would love and some gloves for Eddie (he got a shirt and hat and gloves too, just not hand-knit). I love this photo of them.

Josie wore a nightgown for the first time last week. I worried if she would be warm enough, but she seemed to do just fine. Loving dresses as she does, she thought it was the best thing in the world. She now has decided that loose fitting PJs are the way to go. I think Eddie likes them too, so now we have to switch gears...

Sewing with g'ma

G'ma, ever the smart woman, had a whole list of ideas for projects to keep the kids occupied. One included making little pillows--a W for Eddie for Wisconsin and a flower for Josie. They each helped stuff their pillows...and then slept with them each night.

Taking Meds

Eddie and Josie are really good about taking their medicene and vitamins. I mean *really* really good. As I have used the mask Eddie is using, I can say, it is not the most fun way to do it, as your face gets a little bath, but we put on a 22 minute program and he and Josie hang out. The volume is turned out loud enough to hear three rooms away because the nebulizer is so loud...
These photos just crack me up of Josie and Eddie--taken on 2 separate mornings.

Wisconsin Part 1

We visited g'parents Wisconsin last weekend. It was a direct flight on Thurs. and direct back. Detailed, I know, but Den bought his ticket because he had a voucher to use up and then we used miles for the kids and me. They were supposed to link the tickets together and I think we had them do it at least 3 separate times.
Yet, they weren't and so Den got upgraded. On the way out, it was a larger plane with seats 3 and 3 and so we ususally stick both kids with one parent (ususally Den) and then I sit across the aisle. Otherwise we wouldn't get access to a window. Well, I took advantage of the upgrade and was treated to a 'real' meal with silverware and the whole bit. Things went well in the back of the plane if you don't count Eddie rearranging all the icons on my iphone...at 4 years old. The way back the seats were 2 and 2, so I didn't take the upgrade and instead gave it to the guy who would have been sitting next to Eddie. Think the guy was pretty happy as he apparently would not have otherwise been upgraded.
So about the photos. I like to shop when we visit WI. It's not like there are huge outlets and lots of National stores, to the contrary, they are local or regional stores and I love that I don't see them anywhere but here. However, my 'never miss' store is this giant warehouse that sells everything from craft supplies to tools to housewares and food. They buy giant shipments of basically overstocks, or un-needed stuff and while some of it is real junk that won't last past the first day, their scrapbooking area is unbeatable (as far as I have seen). I always tell myself I wished I'd thought more about my scrapbooking needs before going, but as I seem permanently stuck on scrapbooking our 2006 Alaska trip, nothing else comes to mind...
Anyway, there are about 4 or 5 rows of paper just like in the picure and about that many again in stickers. Then there are other pre-packaged sets of papers and all kinds of gadgets and gizmos...

I think if Den and Eddie could have figured out a way to pack this circa 1960s hotwheels track in our suitcase, they would have. Both Eddie and Den played with this thing pretty much all day every day, with slight reconfigurations. But I guess it's nice to have at the g'parents.

Josie loved this red pillow. Cracked me up. Eddie is taking his meds and Josie and g'ma are keeping him company.

So we gave the g'parents a webcam for Christmas--a bit early. This prior to opening. I think it's such a nice photo...to be continued.

Pictures at the Park...

We have a playdate every once/week with 4 other boys who are 4 years old and their younger siblings who are 2 years old. Eddie is not as into socializing with the other boys all the time, despite them asking and while this bothers me that he won't play with them, I keep taking the kids with the hope that someday he'll change his mind. Josie likes to hang with the other kids her age and I definitely enjoy talking with the other moms.

A local preschool redid their playground 2 years ago and we went for the first time the Monday before we went to Wisconsin (so nearly 2 weeks ago). It was phenomenal!! Easily the best playground in the City. We will be going back again and again!

The kids especially loved these 'tire' swings. Josie wasn't always thrilled to be pushed by Eddie, but then Eddie isn't always thrilled to be pushed by Josie...

This was a balance beam of sorts and they had monkey bars that Eddie could just about reach and just all sorts of cool features. I'll have to take more photos of the equipment next time.

And then this picture was taken before we left for the park. I had to do a little scamming to get them to leave the house, but I really wanted to go. We had a great day, even though daddy was out of town...

Talking with Daddy

The kids wanted to draw pictures for daddy this morning whilst they talked on the phone with him. Not sure how J ended up with orange paper and Eddie pink, but there you are. Eddie went downstairs himself to get the paper and I think the crayons and got them all set up while I cleaned up breakfast dishes.

The second picture cracks me up, as Josie is leaning way in to talk. Eddie had me spell out: To: Daddy From: Eddie (course I didn't need to spell 'Eddie') so he could write it on his picture and J was upset she couldn't write the letters. If I'd been more awake, I would have helped her write the letters, but at 7:15 in the morning, I'm happy the camera is facing the correct direction.
Eddie commented that both 'daddy' and Eddie had 2 'd's.

Dairy Challenge

We started out with a medicine cup and worked our way up to a pint glass. My iphone has the photos of the chocolate milk. She was quite the trooper. Didn't realize how engaged Eddie had gotten in the process until the end when he was racing around the house, trying to get her to finish the milk before he got back. It was really cute.

Not thrilled with our allergist at the moment who is trying to get us to come into the office for an in-office dairy challenge...