Christmas happenings, among other things

It's that time of year again and we've been able to participate in a handful of Christmas activities recently.

Last Thursday I took the kids to Olbrich Gardens to see the holiday train show and visit the warm, humid, and green Conservatory :)  In all of the years that we've seen the train set-up, this year was by far the best.  The theme this year was "Candyland" and the designers did a very elaborate, thorough job.  The girls were so excited to see the two large decorated gingerbread houses, the candy waterfall, and the large candy objects; Ethan was thrilled to see the trains.  We're planning on going back with Matt sometime in the next few weeks.

Friday evening Anna had a birthday party across town at a hotel's small waterpark.  I drove our kids and one of Anna's friends over to the hotel and the friend's mom brought Anna home.  It sounds like Anna had a good time, but she's usually pretty wiped out on Friday evenings and was especially tired at the end of this one.

Saturday morning the girls had their rehearsal for our church's Christmas program.  I took the girls and helped out a bit while they practiced, then Matt and Ethan joined us for the gingerbread event.  For some reason I thought we should switch things up a bit this year with our gingerbread, so I asked everyone if they wanted a train instead.  Of course they said yes.

Well, it turns out that to make a train you need to make three batches of gingerbread and then it takes quite awhile to actually put it together before you can even decorate it.  Oh, well.  The kids had fun just playing around while Matt assembled the train and then Anna and Kate still were able to decorate a car each before we ran out of time.

I'm not sure that we'll do this the same way again.

Saturday afternoon we were able to play outside for a little while as a whole family.

I think we've finally figured out a way for Ethan to stay warm and be relatively comfortable.  Even though he's not smiling in this picture, he really did have a good time.  Still, he doesn't last very long outside yet.

Sunday was our church's Christmas program and fellowship time afterwards, then we had a brief stop at home for Ethan to nap, for the rest of us to eat, and for some of us to change clothes before we went to Kate's preschool Christmas program.

We rounded out the day with a bit of family time watching the Packers before Matt and Anna went to Girl Scouts in the evening.

Before all of the Christmas events, we had a few memorable evenings last week, too!  First, on Wednesday evening Anna lost her first tooth!  The tooth had been slightly loose for awhile, but about a week ago it started to look crooked because it was so loose.  As soon as Anna realized it was really loose, she started wiggling it, and wiggling it, and wiggling it some more.  On Wednesday evening she was rough-housing with Matt when Matt noticed he had blood on his arm.  When we realized it was from the loose tooth, Matt offered to pull it out and Anna agreed without hesitation.  The tooth came out quickly and easily; the tooth fairy came on Wednesday night; and Anna has enjoyed showing off the gap in her mouth since then :)

Thursday evening on the way home from work, Matt's car battery and alternator died.  So instead of driving home without lights or gauges, he called home and we offered to come and rescue him.  Dinner was eaten in stages that night :)

The girls are gearing up for the last week of school before the holiday break and we're looking forward to some more relaxing days.  Hopefully the cold Kate caught doesn't spread to too many more of us!

Updates

Here's a few quick updates and stories from our lives recently.

Ethan had his 1 year check-up last Wednesday.  He's a big guy; we already knew that.

Height - 30 inches (~50%)
Weight - 25 lbs. (90%)
Head circumference - 48 cm (90%)

He's doing great otherwise.  However, he did NOT like being stripped down to be weighed, nor having the doctor check his eyes/ears, nor being set on the examining table.  Silly boy.

Last week Kate said "Mom, I can't wait until Christmas!  Then I get to play with Baby Jesus!"  (In our toy nativity set, we set aside baby Jesus until Christmas since he's too little for Ethan to find and Jesus didn't arrive until Christmas morning anyway.)

Ethan likes to toddle around the house, always holding some kind of car or truck or train.  Up until now we hadn't noticed too many boy-girl differences with him, but I don't remember either Anna or Kate having such a fascination with things that move.

Thursday night/Friday morning St. Nicolas visited our house.  The girls are wise to the whole set-up, I think, but it's still fun.  This year he brought candy, ornaments, and a bigger, family-sized snow tube.  Just in time, too; yesterday we got almost 5 inches of snow!

Friday after school I took the kids downtown to see the Capitol Christmas Tree.  Boy, oh, boy, Ethan is in a crazy stage.  He was so excited to walk, but the Capitol is not exactly a baby-proofed facility.  I couldn't take my eyes off of him for a moment, otherwise we would have climbed under the tree to play with the train set or found his way to one of the many sets of open stairways.  It was memorable, to say the least.

Saturday we did a Christmas shopping day.  The girls and I headed out in the morning to take care of some miscellaneous items while the whole family went shopping in the afternoon for the kids to find things for one another.  This is taking more and more coordination than it has in years past.


Sunday afternoon the girls and I went to a performance of the Nutcracker Dream at a local high school.  The dance studio Kate attends puts on this performance every year, but this was the first time we went.  The girls had a wonderful time, with lots of magical moments.  It's fun to experience these things again through the eyes of a child :)

We tried playing outside in the snow before dinner on Sunday, but still have a few kinks to work out with Ethan.  I tried again this morning with him and Kate, but he hasn't quite figured out how to walk around in snow boots, snow pants, big coat, etc.  He kind of reminds me of the boy from "A Christmas Story" who can't move in his snowsuit :)

Thanksgiving and more

My parents came down for Thanksgiving again this year.  They met us at church for worship in the morning and then came home with us for the rest of the day.  My dad and the girls watched a terrible Packers/Lions game while Matt and I got a lot of the food prepared.

At one point, Ethan got to open the dump truck my dad made for him; he loves it :)  It's the perfect toy for a little boy.

My mom took Anna and Kate for a walk outside and explored the field with Anna for a bit while Ethan napped.  Dinner was yummy and we hung out for awhile before my parents left for the night.


Friday they came back and helped entertain the kids while Matt and I worked on the food for the day.  Matt's sister, Miriam, and her family, as well as Matt's parents, came for lunch and the afternoon to celebrate Ethan's birthday.  We had a great time with everyone.

It's always good to see the Navurskis family and give the cousins a chance to make memories together.

Ethan enjoyed the experiences, but didn't know what to think about everyone singing him "Happy Birthday".

Matt's parents stayed overnight on Friday and spent some more time with us on Saturday before they had to make the drive back to South Dakota.

We had a busy few days, but they were well worth the work and preparation.

Saturday afternoon the girls and I worked on getting Christmas decorations out.  We're not quite done, but we're starting to feel a bit festive around here.  The best part is how excited Kate and Anna were to play with the nativity scene.  They must have played for hours over the last two days with all of the characters.  It's been a lot of fun to listen to their imaginations and story telling :)

Happy Birthday, Ethan!

Last Wednesday our little man turned 1.  Wow.

We had a good family birthday celebration.  Ethan woke to Anna and I singing him Happy Birthday. and then he got to check out a few of his gifts before breakfast.

He seemed to enjoy his birthday muffin.

Anna had school all day and Kate had preschool in the morning.  After getting Anna in the afternoon we picked up a couple of pizzas for dinner and then had tasty chocolate cupcakes for dessert.

What more could you ask when you're 1?

As a one year old, Ethan walks, tries to talk (sometimes), enjoys being around people, likes to put things in and take things out of containers, eats most of the food the family eats (hooray!) except meat (we'll work on that), and sleeps decently.  He's a pretty special guy and we're very blessed to have him in our family :)

Shifting gears

The holidays are fast approaching and the cold weather appears to be here to stay.  We've had to shift gears a bit.  The kids and I play a lot more in the basement right now, especially since Ethan doesn't care too much for the cold, windy weather.  Hopefully he'll enjoy the snow a bit more.  The girls do less coloring and drawing because Ethan can reach most surfaces they want to use and he is pretty destructive with their creations.  They can still use the breakfast bar, but that's often cluttered with other stuff.  Oh, well.

I mentioned last week that Ethan could take a few steps at a time; he's past that now :)  He's really getting the hang of this walking thing, but I think crawling will be faster for a little while yet.

He's working on turning, but can't stand up from a sitting position without holding onto something yet.  Once he's mastered that skill, he'll be unstoppable.

 Over the weekend we took all the kids to the McFarland pool for awhile on Saturday afternoon.  The weather was pretty cruddy all weekend so we had to do something to get people's energy out on Saturday.  This was the first time we'd brought Ethan along to swim at the high school pool; he did great.  This boy loves the water :)  The girls have one more week of swimming lessons and then we'll be done with that for awhile.

We're tyring to remember to enjoy the present, but there are so many things coming up in the next few weeks that it's hard for this momma to sit back and not continuously plan ahead :)

A few firsts

Last Wednesday we had Anna's first conference for first grade.  Matt and I were both able to go; our hearts were full as we left.  The teacher's first comments were along the lines of "Anna is a kind, hard-working student.  She listens to directions very well, is liked by her peers, and is a sweet kid."  :)  Whether or not she's a smart kid, (which she is) this is the kind of thing we like to hear from her teachers.  She still genuinely likes school and I think she's starting to realize herself just how much she is learning.

Thursday morning we had a friend come over to play with Kate for awhile - her first "playdate" in what must have been a long time.  She and Joy disappeared into the girls' room for over an hour; I think they both had fun :)  Ethan also had a fun time playing around with Noah.

Friday Kate and I had our first learning playdate together.  She told me a few weeks back that she wanted to learn about "cranes, the animals, not the machine" when I asked her what she was interested in.  So we checked out a few books from the library and on Friday morning played cranes outside while Ethan napped.  We made a crane nest in the field, pretended to lay two eggs, found food for the babies, and then "migrated" to and from one of the field islands.  She had a great time and was able to show Anna all that we did when Anna got home from school.

Saturday we had the first day in awhile where no one in the family had to be anywhere.  (This picture was taken at the end of a very active day at home, thus the disheveled appearances.)

In fact, I don't think we left the house/yard at all that day (except to play in the field for awhile).

Ethan got his first experience with the leaf vacuum.  This boy certainly loves his loud machines!

It was a great day, filled with time outdoors, playing around, working hard collecting leaves, leaves, and more leaves, and crashing hard that night.

To say that our leaf pile is big this year would be an understatement. These pictures were actually taken before we hauled about 10 tarp loads over from a neighbor's house and before another neighbor used his lawn sweeper to clean up his yard and dump the leaves on our pile.

Saturday was also the first day that Anna got to drive around the go-cart that Matt built for the kids.  Kate still doesn't want to drive it, but Anna did a very good job driving all around the yard :)

Monday Ethan had his first haircut ... or trim, if you could even call it that.  He was developing a bit of a mullet in the back and the top was starting to get shaggy.  So we got out the clippers and trimmed him up a bit.  He didn't like it very much.  In fact, it was a two parent job; Matt held him down while I buzzed him as fast as I could.  The pictures didn't turn out very well, but I don't think anyone besides us would really be able to tell if he had a haircut.

Before:

After:

Monday we also had our first snow!  Kate didn't want to play in it at all, but Anna was all geared up for playing in the snow after school.

The snow is still around today, at least in the front yard.  Maybe the girls will want to play out there this afternoon.  If not, I'm sure we'll have plenty of snow in the months to come ...

Halloween and more

The night before Halloween, I came down with a cold.  By cold standards, this one wasn't too bad, but I felt the worst from about 2 p.m. until bedtime on Thursday afternoon/evening.  Partner that with a rainy evening for trick-or-treating and Matt getting a flat tire on his bike on the way home from work, and you get a mom who wasn't too enthusiastic about Halloween.  Oh, well.  We did it anyway, with umbrellas.

Anna and Kate had decided earlier in the month that they wanted to be ghosts.  No problem.  Ghost costumes are easy :)  (Kate's the first picture, soaking wet after trick-or-treating; Anna's in the second picture, a week or so ago when it wasn't raining.)

For Ethan we pulled out the baby pumpkin outfit, even if it was a little small for him.  (He's not actually walking, but can stand for long periods of time more and more now.)

Maybe next year we'll do a bit more for the holiday, but it's just never been a big deal for us.  We hardly get any trick-or-treaters at our house and our kids only visit about 10 houses anyway.  They certainly get enough candy at those few houses to provide us all with dessert for several weeks, though!

Saturday was a nice day at home when no one had to go anywhere.  We treasure those days.  Probably the best part was going to explore the field with the girls in the afternoon while Ethan was napping.  The four of us had a lot of fun :)  Kate and Anna have names for the various "islands" and they've collected all sorts of things ... corn cobs (full and empty), cool rocks, cockleburrs, deer bones, etc.  On Saturday afternoon they developed a way to grind the corn that they had gleaned.  Probably not every kid's idea of a good time, but our kids certainly enjoyed it.

Sunday after church we headed as a family up to the Wisconsin Dells for a trip to the Kalahari Resort.  The McFarland Girl Scouts (have I mentioned that Anna's in Girl Scouts?) had reserved a bunch of rooms and had a package that was too good to refuse.  We decided that it would be best if we all went up for Sunday afternoon, but then I would bring the two younger ones back home that evening while Matt and Anna stayed overnight.  (Anna didn't have school on Monday, but Kate did.)  Although the check-in process was less than ideal, we think this plan worked out best for all.

The kids had a great time at the waterpark.  Anna was pretty adventureous in terms of what kinds of waterslides she would do on her own, but was still aware of her limitations.

 

Kate wasn't quite as brave as Anna, but still tried all sorts of new slides.

Ethan amazed us all.  It took him a little while to warm up to things, but by the end we had to keep an eye on him so he didn't crawl into water that was too deep for himself.  His two favorite activities were crawling through a tunnel and climbing up a few steps, then sliding down one of the little slides headfirst into the water :)

Kate, Ethan, and I had a fun time on Sunday night and Monday, with Kate getting to call a lot of the shots.  It's too bad that I had lost my voice with my cold, otherwise I'm sure we would have stayed up late reading loads of books together.

Matt and Anna had a great time, too, with Anna getting to call a lot of the shots for the two of them.  Matt said it was freeing to see how fast things could go when it was just he and Anna (instead of all three kids) and Anna commented to Matt how she liked getting to do whatever she wanted to do :)


When the two of them got home Monday afternoon, Anna chatted with me a bit and then curled up in bed and fell asleep.  We had to wake her up when Kate got home from school and Anna was a bit of a bear for awhile.

Somehow I was thinking that with this trip we had dodged the bullet in terms of the time change, but alas, we didn't.  The girls were both up around 5:15 this morning.  At least now I know it will only last for a few days before everyone's body's adjust ...