Birthdays, Grandparents and Giant Baby

Well, it is Birthday Season at our house! Sam was the first up and we celebrated his Seventh birthday on September 11th. I can't believe how big his is getting!

Sam decided to celebrate his birthday with some of his awesome friends here at home. We had a fun "Phineas and Ferb" party (many of you probably have no idea what that even is). I figure it was a success because the kids were smiling and happy when they left, and I was exhausted.

Here is his cake, I painted it all by myself (okay, not really) and yes, they are odd looking individuals, I feel grateful that I do not have a triangle shaped head like Phineas...
Tyler is next up on the birthday agenda and turned the big 10, double digits! So, this is what a ten-year old looks like at our house...
Tyler was lucky because Grandma and Grandpa were here visiting during his birthday (somehow I missed documenting that in pictures). He got to choose to go out to dinner anywhere he wanted, and, much to Gma and Gpa's excitement (I'm sure) he chose McDonalds.
Tyler and his birthday cake (it's a fish if you can't tell)...

Tyler is never short on enthusiasm, you can always count on him to be excited and also grateful. Here is a picture of his gratitude for Spencer's gift... :)
Anyway, Happy Birthday Tyler and Sam, you are incredible boys!
As I said above, Grandma and Grandpa came and spent some time with us a few weeks ago. It is always so exciting to have them come. I made the mistake of telling Sydney they were coming about a month before they were actually scheduled to arrive, it was very hard for her to wait that long. Every day she would ask how many "sleeps" it would be before Grandma and Grandpa came. She even painted a picture of them in anticipation of their arrival...


Carter and Grandpa really hit it off. They seemed to understand each other and had many deep discussions that usually went something like this:
Grandpa: "Mwah"
Carter: "Bah
Grandpa: "Mwah"
Carter: "Bah"

Grandma spent much of her time here reading to Sydney. She was very patient as Sydney would bring her book after book, many of them the same stories she had already read several times before.

Grandma also let Sam teach her how to play Stratego, his favorite game. He won the first game in a matter of minutes, but only because he didn't explain any of the rules to her first (or the object for that matter). Grandma was a very good sport.
Grandpa was also a good sport and spent some time playing with Sydney and her dollhouse (believe me, that has a set of rules too). He got to be the Daddy, of course.

Carter also enjoys playing with the dollhouse. His favorite roll is as the Giant Baby who comes and reeks havoc and destruction, carrying off helpless babies in his massive jaws of terror...


I guess it is good that he is understanding his role as a brother even at his young age.

Thanks Mom and Dad! It was so fun to have you come, and so hard to let you go!

Summer II

I haven't been very good at keeping the blog updated, so I am going to attempt a little catch-up, starting with the rest of our summer activities (yes, I realize it is October).
Shorewood has a fun little festival, "The Crossroads Fest", at the beginning of August every year. Five years ago as we were moving into our house the Crossroads Fest was going on. In fact, the day after we moved in they had a fireworks display which we watched right from our front lawn. We were quite impressed that they would have fireworks just to welcome us to town. And, in commemoration of our arrival in Shorewood, they have fireworks every year at the beginning of August, that's just the kind of effect we have on people.
Anyway, we can't let a year go by and not walk over to the Festival where we spend lots of money so each of the kids can go on one ride, spend lots of money so they can each throw a ball into a hoop and get a dinky prize, and spend lots of money so we can share a couple bags of cotton candy. It's all in the memories, right?
So, (this story is getting longer than I intended) Sydney was the first up to go on a ride, which she had to go on alone because none of the boys wanted to use their tickets to go on a baby ride. She chose the helicopter ride. Here she is waiting for it to start, looking a little nervous, but happy that she can push a button and make lots of noise...

And then they get started, around she goes, and we are all standing at the side cheering her on, and I am wondering what her reaction will be. I see her come around and think, "Well, she looks happy, she even looks like she is cheering too..."


"Wait a minute, is she cheering? She is definitely yelling something..."
"No, no, definitely not having fun anymore."
Well, she survived, but when I asked her if she had fun all she would say was, "I was so dizzy."
The boys decided to use their tickets for the ferris wheel. I just hoped they wouldn't get to goofing off with each other and send someone over the edge.
Carter and Sydney watched from the stroller.
I kept wondering if Sam would get scared and want to get off halfway through. So on their way down once I asked them how they were liking it, and this was Sam's response...
Just some cute pictures of Carter from this summer...

One of our last excursions before school started was a trip down to the river in Morris with some friends. The kids loved looking for seashells, and wading in the water. This was a great outing, and fun for picture-taking too.

This is Karalynn and Rachel, and their pet snail, found in the rocks...
I tell ya, nothing better than rocks and dirt to keep kids happy for a long time...







And what did Carter do while the kids played...
And, a few pictures of Carter enjoying the great outdoors...



Well, I think that takes care of summer, maybe I can get back on track and stay a little more current.

Ah Summer, Where Have You Gone?

I can't let summer go without posting some final pictures of good old summertime fun. Back in August Carter had the privilege of getting his head examined (they must have figured with me as his mother they should just start early) so we took him to the Children's hospital in downtown Chicago. While he was being poked and prodded, Steve and the kids decided to catch some rays on Lake Michigan's North Beach. (By the way, Carter is fine, even with me as his mother :)) I thought Steve took some great pictures of their activities...


There is nothing quite as good as plain old sand and water for entertaining kids...

Love this one! Cute little bathing beauty...

We had never been to this beach before, but Steve said it was great. Lake Michigan on one side, Chicago Skyline on the other.


There are three boys in this picture, can you find them?

More summertime fun to come...

Sydney's Tonsils

Sometime in February, Sydney started snoring. Not cute, soft snoring, but full-blown, "is there an old man in that bedroom?" snoring. We kind of laughed about it until we spent a night at Jenni and Jim's and had to share a bedroom with Syd. Not so funny when your three year old sounds like she is working hard just to breathe. So it was off to the ENT she went and home again with a date scheduled to have her tonsils removed.
We tried to prepare Sydney for what to expect without freaking her out too much. We got some books from the library, her favorite being "Curious George Goes to the Hospital". We bought a bunch of jello, ice cream, and Dora Popsicles and saved them for after her surgery. The night before the big day, we had a "Good-bye Tonsils" party complete with a cake. And where there is a party with a cake, there should be candles as well, right?

That night she crawled into bed and when I went to tuck her in she said to me, "Mommy, my tonsils are all gone, they squiggled away." It was really hard to see her so scared.
The next morning she was very scared and Steve had to coax her out of the car when we arrived at the surgery center. The amazing thing was that we were only there for about an hour and a half before all was said and done and we were on our way home. Once we got home all she wanted were Dora movies and Dora popsicles...
The next day Steve went to work and came home with a little bear which one of his friends at work brought in just for Sydney when he heard she was having surgery. This bear turned out to be a life-saver! One of the hardest parts of this whole ordeal was trying to get Sydney to take her medicine, it tasted yucky and it hurt to swallow. But, if the bear cheered her on, or was just nearby, she would take the dreaded medicine. I was very grateful for such a sweet and thoughtful gift!
The other thing that was indispensable was Sydney's Dora couch (do we see a theme here?) which was also a gift (thank you Parker) and which made recovery much more comfortable. I began to wonder after a week and a half if Sydney would ever eat with us at the table again, she was quite the spoiled little girl for a time there, as her brothers pointed out every time she got to eat ice cream for dinner.

I am happy to say that Sydney is quite herself again! It is so good to hear her singing everywhere she goes again and to have her sleeping peacefully at night... without shaking the rafters!