Christmasy

We kicked off the season with a visit to the big guy himself. Myka knew the drill and told him just what she wanted. When Santa asked Eli what he would like, however, he said, "ummmm...cake." I had no idea where that came from and couldn't stop laughing, but luckily his big sister knew the importance of the opportunity and covered for him by asking if Santa would please bring him a ball since "that's what he really loves". We realized later that a three year old we were with had asked for a "cape" and figured that's where he got it. I just couldn't get over the fact that the boy who won't eat asked Santa for food for Christmas. He will hear that story many times in his life I'm sure...

Kurt and I took turns taking Myka ice skating to use up the free passes she received from taking lessons during the fall. It was a fun date every time and Myka really did seem to get the hang of it by the end. I will just let you believe that she is whizzing around the ice here and that that's how fast she went all the time...

Preschool put on a nice holiday program on the last day before break complete with a potluck lunch afterwords. This was the first program of any kind where it seemed like she actually knew what was going on and was not just fascinated with the audience member in a wheel chair or the baby crying in the back of the church or the girl standing next to her glaring at the strange woman with the camera.

However, I think the candy cane at the end still was her favorite part.

We followed up that show with the church program. Because of the lay out of our church and because I have no one to save me a seat while I dropped her off in her classroom, I was in a place where I couldn't see her. Kurt was on the other side and has no idea if she actually sang either. But I got a nice big grin from the little ram at the end of the show, so I guess it went all right up there.

And this week, to celebrate not having school and the fact that I really didn't have anything else to host at my house this year, we threw together a little gingerbread house making party for 11 kids ages 1-5.

I swear they were so into the houses no one even thought about eating the candy...

Our village.

And this poor guy just gets drug around to all of it. But he is a great sport and will be more than ready to be a part of all the action by the time next Christmas rolls around!

Lions and Children and Bears. Oh My!

If you happen to be a realtor, or are planning to become one, I have a bit of advice for you. Please give all of your "new to the area" buyers a family pass to a local attraction for a year as your thank you to them for giving you thousands of dollars. (Do not give them a $20 gift card to Olive Garden, but that is another story for another time...)

Our realtor gave us a very generous gift after we bought our house here and we have had so much fun going to the Brookfield Zoo in the last 10 months. And I'm pretty sure we will buy our own family pass for the next 5 years at least.

And the best part is, the fun never stops. The zoo puts on a pretty amazing light display in December that all four of us were able to enjoy during a steady snowfall on a cold Saturday evening. The lion, however, did not enjoy the cold. Or the snow. Or the fact that his only way back to his warm shelter involved walking his giant paws through the cold, snowy grass. We only headed his way because we heard his roar from a half mile away in the park and wondered what was going on. Especially since I have been to this zoo at least a dozen times and the lion has been sleeping EVERY TIME we have been there.

He was not happy.

Especially when he was having his picture taken.

On our way to visit the bears, I snapped this wonderful picture of my children all bundled up in the snow. I swear there is only hot chocolate in that mug.

Kind of like Myka above, the bear was not picture worthy on this trip. But on our trip in November with some friends (10 kids 5 and under, 3 moms and a grandpa) the bear was putting on quite a show. He kept coming up to the window and greeting anyone who was waiting there. I love how Myka's hand compares to Mr. Bear's paw in this picture.

Thank you Bonnie and the Brookfield Zoo! We'll see you next year!

Sorry for the absence

So you may be wondering what has been up with us lately.

This pretty much sums it up.

Will you play with me?

Eli is a ball player.

Any kind of game with a ball and he is all about it. (This will make my brother very happy). He even invents his own games with cups and buckets or even arms to make a "basetballhoop". We make an effort to play a ball game with him every day because if we don't he will finally ask in the saddest 2-year-old high pitched boy voice you have ever heard, "Mommy, will you play baseball wis me?"

It guarantees us a happy boy.


And Tetley gets so excited that we have come out to play he gets in on the action.


Which Eli can deal with just fine. But if this one wants a turn...


Then we get this.


Which, close up, looks like this:


Until it is his turn again, and all is right with the world.

Octoberween

Halloween 2010 has been declared a success! We had some fun holiday traditions in Cedar Falls that will be missed, but I think we definitely found a few new Halloween activities that will be anticipated each year for many to come. And really, with all of the candy and parties, how can Halloween NOT be fun wherever you are, right?

We started with a "carnival" put on by a friend's five and three year old daughters a couple weeks ago. It was a lot of fun and very impressive for a handful of games put on in the driveway. It was also our first chance to try out this year's costumes. Myka was excited for her "blue princess" (Cinderella) dress that I found at a garage sale, and Eli, king of hand-me-downs (especially from the Bathans), borrowed Sam Bathan's Elmo costume from last year. Eli's excitement did not quite match his sister's the first time we got dressed up.


Myka, however, had no trouble getting in to the spirit, or her character. There was a lot of impromptu ballet dancing going on between games.

One of my favorite things is watching two toddlers have a conversation, especially if their vocabulary is quite limited. I'm pretty sure he is telling her about his black kitty named Puddin', or saying "Look, it's a pum kin!" And she, being an older woman, is probably saying, "Yeah, that's great. Now give me all your candy."



Following Myka's Halloween party on the 29th at preschool, the church had a "Trunk or Treat" event that was a huge success. Around 250 people showed up to play games, go on hay rides, jump in jumpies, and then go from car to car trick or treating until everyone ran out of candy. I will know, for next year, not to bring quite as much so I can be done a little sooner...
This time Eli decided it would be OK to leave the Elmo hood up for the night. He seems to be getting the hang of it all.

And then on the actual day it was a trip around the neighborhood, followed by Chili with great friends. The kids made quite a haul, and Kurt still wonders how he gets roped into taking them around every year while I get to sit in the nice warm house by myself for a couple hours passing out candy...
I guess some traditions just remain no matter where you live! :)

New tradition

Pumpkin farms abound in the Chicagoland area. There are websites dedicated only to finding one at a location near you. Of course, those websites also let you know that you need to take out a small loan to afford to walk through the gate. Luckily, there is one farm somewhat near us that does not charge admission, and the church happens to be on the way, so on the last nice day of the season (my prediction anyway) we picked Kurt up and headed to Dollinger's Pumpkin Farm for the afternoon.

What we discovered was that while this farm is pretty popular on the weekends and therefore has extra activities like face painting, hay rides, train rides and a haunted barn, it is pretty quiet during the week. We made our way over to the corn maze because we wanted to be sure to get through it before they closed the entrance for the day. It was the one attraction we had planned to pay for while we were there, but there was no one taking tickets, giving advice, or making sure those who went in also came out. So we wandered in on our own and spent a half hour making our way through the corn. It was fun and a little eerie since we never saw or heard another person the whole time we were in there. Myka informed us she was good at mazes and led the way.

Eli brought up the rear,

and made sure we weren't being followed.

Not staged at all...

They also had a free petting zoo. Kurt made good friends with a calf, but since he was holding the camera we don't have any pictures of the cow saliva all over his pants. We all had a good time with the goats,

even the ones who didn't want to be bothered anymore. I'm not sure but I think this goat's name might have been Eli.

We also had a great time playing in the miniature village and play area. And now that we know their official heights, we will have to go back each year to see how they've grown.

Sounds like a great idea to me!

Old tradition

We celebrated year 4 of the Bates/Hoover pumpkin carving extravaganza last weekend. It is always fun to see how Myka reacts to the pumpkin guts, as each year has been different. This time we started off pretty repulsed by the whole thing...

...but decided it had to be done and dug in anyway.

Eli's reaction surprised no one, as he wasn't having any part of touching the guts or seeds but reluctantly held on to a perfectly clean gourd for one picture.

And shortly after those three pictures were taken, this is where they happily spent most of their pumpkin carving time.

The creative carving crew.

Get that guy a tissue!

Can you tell which one is Kurt's?

Happy Halloween!

Little Fish

I took the kids swimming this morning and was reminded of just how much Eli loves the water-- when it is just the right temperature and the pool isn't crowded and he isn't running a fever that no one knows about...

I realized I have blogged about Myka's swimming many times but haven't mentioned Eli too much, and the truth is he is much braver in the water than she ever was at this age. At my aunt and uncle's house this summer he went off the diving board with me several times, something Myka did for the first time at the end of last summer. He also doesn't mind going under and could jump in over and over for hours if all the conditions are right. This morning we were the only ones in the pool other than a lap swimmer and two people doing some sort of self directed water aerobics workout. I think they expended more energy giggling at my children than any exercising they were doing, but who am I to judge.

So here are some pics of Eli and his love for the water from this summer. Enjoy!

Dressing Up

Bet you didn't know Dominick's started selling children's clothes, did you?


Not ready yet, but getting closer...


I have no idea. This was just on my camera when I got home from swimming one night.


And sometimes we actually do look nice. Here is Myka on her third (and final!) first day of preschool.


These are the very fun friends I have made here in Joliet. This is how they look all the time...

A well-timed time-out

We have had an incredibly hot summer around here. Somehow we managed to miss all of the rain that Iowa received and just hung out in the 90's with a lot of humidity for the better part of July and August. Therefore, most of our days were spent like this:

And this:

And even this:

Until last Sunday, when she did this:

And we were almost forced to have a week of this:
Which almost always leads to something like this:But Summer decided to take a break for a week and we had a wonderful 5 days of cooler temps, air conditioned-free living, walks, bike rides, zoo trips, and other events that don't involve soaking one's chin unnecessarily.

And this weekend, within hours of having the 7 stitches removed, the sun came back with a vengeance and we all went back to doing this...