Reigning it in

House decisions for the new year

2012-01-14T16:07:00.002-06:00

So last year, about this time, we moved our selves into the tiny room and moved Sam with all his junk into the master bedroom. I thought it would help keep his toys upstairs and we didn't really need all the space, but then a few things happened:

1) We moved Claire into the big room WITH Sam because Luella became incapable of sleeping with other people in the room, and then...

2) We moved Luella into the tiny room...

3) We moved into the front (medium-sized) yellow room.

We were pretty happy with that arrangement except that I got a hankering to change our tv room into a school room and just move the tv into our upstairs room since we really only watch it a little in the evenings anyway.

So....the new house arrangement is as follows:

The kids are in the front room (medium room) and Mr Tommy built us these fabulous lofted beds (and shelves). We got the idea for these hanging beds from The Bumper Crop blog and Mr Tommy copied them pretty closely!

picture via The Bumper Crop

And as you can tell, we keep our version just as nice and clean and fancy-looking as our inspiration room! (not)

Wella is in the tiny room (with the pink couch since we moved it out of the tv room).

We are in the master bedroom again with a new couch/tv sitting area. We got a tiny loveseat to sit on for watching tv. So far we think it's comfortable and just the right size!

And the old tv room is now a school room! I love it.

The only thing is that the big master bedroom is so big (to us) and beige. There is nothing on the walls, and our bedspread is a butterfly quilt I had left from Claire's bed a few years ago.

Here are my inspirations for new bedrooms. Tell me what you think! I'm getting a real feeling of needing to get away from my beige/earth-tone thing that my whole house has been all these years. I need some color and some white and some blue even? I've never used blue except in bathrooms but it's growing on me.

And I want to do the stencil (below) behind our bed or on the big empty wall of our bedroom. But in gray or something.

Yes? Or no...

Skate boarding: Sam's new thing

2012-01-12T14:38:00.002-06:00

Do you by any chance remember this post from 2009? Sam had just received a skateboard for the first time. He was very into it and even liked wearing all the sweet wrist pads and things that make it a little safer. Of course he just thought they made him look "awesome".

Well, fastforward to Christmas and he received his first BIG skateboard. He rode it a lot in Kansas at this nice, clean, pretty skateboard park. Most of the time he was there alone.

But, when we got back to Chicago, he really wanted to keep practicing. The parks here are a little....

...

...grittier?

And there are a lot of big boys riding dirt bikes around which worried me a little.

But they accepted us pretty quickly (i.e: they stopped riding past Sam quite so closely) and we stayed on one side so they didn't have to get out of the way too much for us.

Logan Square has a covered skateboarding park underneath the highway.

Not exactly like the one in Kansas, but I have a feeling we'll be here pretty often.

Christmas 2011

2012-01-12T14:18:00.001-06:00

Throughout December, we used this beautiful advent circle which we bought from the Voskamp family over at Holy Experience. We used it every night along with a Jesse Tree devotional, which really helped solidify the meaning of the season with the kids. I'm sure we'll use it every year.

Christmas Eve

But we did track Santa online on Christmas Eve too. I maybe should take Santa out of the equation altogether, but there are some fun little Santa things we like to do the night of Christmas Eve. I think it's okay since they are entrenched in the real meaning every other night of December.

Opening ONE gift on Christmas Eve...a family tradition. It's always so stressful to figure out which one they should open that night. Nothing too big, but also nothing too disappointing like socks or anything.

On our way to a candle lighting service.

Wella.

Cookies for Santa. We kind gave him a lot.

Stockings filled to the brim.

Santa's footprint and Rudolph's hoofprint in the fireplace ashes,

Santa's letter to the kids. He always reminds them that the real reason he celebrates Christmas is because of Jesus' birthday. :)

Christmas morning.

Claire got this new reading chair to go UNDER her new bed. (More on the new beds later).

Sam made this little gnome house and the people for Wella.

Grandma and Grandpa's house

The "dad corner" of the room.

Aunt Rebecca.

Grandpa Norton.

Matt's brother, David, got a letter jacket for Christmas so the other Harris men had to go dig out there own old jackets for a photo shoot.

Grandpa's is a little snug these days. Heehee.

The beautiful bird.

The cookbook.

The gravy.

The chef...grandma of course!

The carver. Aunt Sarah.

Grandma Evie (who Claire is named after) gave Claire lots of love.

Christmas night

Grammy and Grandad's house in Kansas

Grandkids.

With the grand dogs: Harley and Beast.

Aunt Katie and Uncle Chance! The cousins love these guys so much because they are the cool, hip, young married people who have things like video games, dogs, candy, motorcycles, etc. They are also just pretty cool and fun in general. :) Sam sat this close to Chance, (when he wasn't on top of him) pretty much the whole time.

New sleds. I'm not going to say anything. You shouldn't either.

Playing battleship with Ms Cathy, the International Student who lives with my parents right now. She's great and taught me how to cook a big Chinese food feast on New Years Eve.

Twins...thanks Grammy!

Grandad worn out after putting in huge full days of entertaining grandkids every day we were there.

Beast.

Sam on his new skateboard at the skateboard park in Wichita. He begged to go every day, and the weather was awesome so we went!

Matt and I also "celebrated" 10 years of marriage on December 29th. Well, we didn't do anything yet, but we said "Happy Anniversary" to each other! Matt's trying to get me to do a hotel night somewhere this month, but leaving all three kids seems like such a hastle! I guess I should....

...since it has been 10 years and we DO spend every waking moment with these guys. :)

Fall home school post

2011-11-11T12:17:00.001-06:00

Finishing the house

After days and days (weeks, I guess) the house was finally finished. Mr Matt helped with the roofing, but the kids really did put the final touches on this house. The painting was done by them as well as the sawing and nailing of the shutters and little window boxes. The little star was ordered by myself, however. :)

Measurement

The 3rd/4th grade girls did a unit on measurement. They learned about some ancient units of measurement (cubits, etc) as well as the necessity for standardized measurements. But the main point of the lesson was to give them a FEEL for measurements. What does it feel like to walk a mile? What does it feel like to hold a pound? 5 pounds? 25 pounds? They made their own rulers with a little burning tool as well.

Cooking

A trip to an apple orchard at the beginning of October merited an apple-themed baking day.

Land of Numeria: Math!

The 1st graders (Sam and Zoe) spent two weeks being introduced to the Land of Numeria, the land where you learn about all things math-related. Roman numerals and secret codes were a big part of this lesson! The quality of the different numbers (1-12) were introduced. What is one? One is myself. What is two? Two is a pair, or opposites. Their next unit in math will be an introduction to all four processes: multiplication, division, addition, subtraction.

History: Story of the World

After lunch every day we read a chapter from The Story of the World: History for the Classical Child; Volume 1: Ancient Times: From the Earliest Nomads to the Last Roman Emperor . Then we do the activities and maps. On this day we were practicing writing cuneiform in clay like the ancient Sumerians!

Crafts

Fall crafts! We had a ton of grape vines in our backyard so the girls wanted to make leaf crowns with them. I made a wreath! Fall is quickly disappearing though. We had our first flurries of snow yesterday!

Watercolor Painting and Lanterns!

Watercolor painting is pretty popular in the mornings, but this time we made them into lanterns to celebrate St Martin! (google it....I didn't know the story either, but it's the story on which the Waldorf school bases their lantern walk).

Knitting

Ever popular. Claire is knitting a triangular scarf since Ms Leslie is teaching her to increase stitches with each row. And Sam is still chugging away on his camouflage scarf.

Violin

Fridays are still our extra-curricular day. Violin in the morning at Bridget's art gallery and swimming in the afternoon at UIC!

Starting off the home school year

2011-10-04T22:41:00.001-05:00

We started the school year off around here excited, but sick. Everyone was sick. It started with Matt and worked it's way through the family until it got to me. I'm still sick! We can't kick it. But we've been going strong for a month now and we're so glad we started. In week one, Sam learned to knit! And he was good at it!

We're home schooling with our friend Annabel this year as well as with the Von Kondrat family who have two girls: Dylan and Zoe. It's a full house of girls for poor Sam, but it's what we've got right now and he's just so happy that there are people in the house....he loves people. He's his mother's child.

We also signed the kids up for music lessons with a nice lady who is also the violin teacher at Urban Prairie, which is the relatively new Waldorf school around here.

And after buying this book as well as Housebuilding for Children (also by Lester Walker) we started framing a tiny wooden house for Wella in the back yard! It's part of our 3rd/4th grade practical work study and it has been great for all the kids.

They have sawed their little hearts out until it's second nature for all of them and they've pounded dozens of nails in [straight!] as well! So Nicky (Mrs Von Kondrat who is the other teacher at our little home school) might have pulled out a drill once or twice, (and nearer to the end there were incidences with nail guns and jigsaws) but MOSTLY it was all done with hand tools. Not bad I have to say!

Gardening has also gone okay this year. We put a little more effort into it this summer and bought raised beds, did the whole square-foot-gardening thing and planted some trees and shrubs.

We just made a pretty great squash soup out of these [butternut?] squashes (we got 3 big ones) and everyone has liked it.

These are delicata squash. They are still ripening.

Wella joins in the picking every once in a while. I'd like to say that our gardening has turned her into a little veggie eater, but it hasn't. She usually takes one bite out of tomatoes and then throws them to the ground.

But it's one of the things we use to keep her busy while we're building...that is, letting her pick vegetables.

Tomatoes did well this year as did basil and the squash. Our green beans bit the dust and we didn't plant nearly enough lettuce. Next year.

Wella has gotten very opinionated lately. I guess she's a real toddler now. It makes home schooling very taxing some times, but she wants to be noticed and heard, that's for sure.

She sat on the counter with me while I made this pie out of squash one day. Granted, she had to empty all of the powdered sugar onto herself out of one canister while I did it, but these days that works for me. I have to cook dinner somehow! Well...that's not always true. We've had more than our share of pizza and tacos this year from mommy being too tired to cook.

But I'm really excited about our school. Mrs Nicky and I have found our grooves as teachers. I like to pride myself on being relatively handy, but she's really an outstandingly amazing builder/worker/project doer. So, I've stepped down a bit and learned to defer to her on most of that. This is her giving the kids a "talk-to-each-other-positively-or-I'm-not-going-to-let-you-touch-my-nailgun" speech.

And she's very patient and good with the kids in that way. I, on the other hand, have become the general curriculum planner and organizer of things. I can't believe that is my specialty because anyone who knows me would think that planning would not have been my forte. In fact, I just bought a calendar for the first time this year! But I guess necessity is helping me to grow a woman's heart.

Look at Claire with the nail gun. I think a little pent-up sibling aggression went into the building of this house. Nail guns are good for getting out aggression...when used properly that is.

And at last, it was framed! I love this picture of Claire lifting the roof onto the house in triumph.

It was a big moment for all of them. I love these kids and I'm so glad I'm homeschooling with a community this year. It makes it so much better. And...it gets me out of my pajamas and makes me brush my teeth in the morning, which is a bonus for everyone. :)

Summer 2011 in review

2011-09-10T09:52:00.001-05:00

Hold on people. I'll try to make it quick, but since I failed to post anything all summer, I'm going to do it all now. Don't worry. I'll go fast.

BACKYARD TENT

Purchased for Father's Day and enjoyed by all...

SWIMMING LESSONS AT THE FARM

Claire and the rest of her West Side Ladies (girl scouts) took swim lessons out at Bridget's family farm in Wheaton. Bridget is Annabel's mom. Come on...keep up.

We hired Ms. Kate, a Wheaton College graduate, to give them their first formal introduction to swim strokes. Sam learned to dive like a champ and Claire has a great back stroke!

BROOKE AND NATE'S WEDDING

I introduced you to Brooke in my first "Summer" post. She was my college roommate and Matt and I got to go to her wedding alone! Only date of the summer so we tried to soak it up.

Brooke used to teach drama at Willowcreek Church and she is a very artistic lady, so her wedding was as well. See the fake mustaches on the grooms? Love it.

One of her bridesmaids was Esther, who I also went to school with. Very fun Wheaton reunion.

And Matt's sister, Rebecca, came too since she became friends with Brooke through church drama team. This wedding was a meeting of many small worlds!

CARL AND ABBY'S WEDDING

Just a week or two after Brooke and Nate's wedding was my cousin Carl's wedding. Carl was my closest-in-age cousin growing up and we were always confidants at family reunions. I love this guy!

Abby is from South Bend, Indiana so the wedding was in a beautiful Catholic church there. My parents came from Wichita, KS to see it. Love these guys.

The rest of my family came, too! Laura's family came from Columbus, Ohio, and Katie came from Wichita (after driving ALL night) with her then-fiance, Chance Haddon. Didn't get a picture of those guys. Poo.

This is the only picture I have of myself. Very flattering. I read a verse in the wedding and I was so nervous that my hands were shaking and I took deep breaths in weird places during the reading, but I made it. Public speaking (of any kind) is not my thing.

These are professional pictures I stole off of Abby's facebook page. If you blow this picture up you can see Claire and her cousins, Ellie and Jane, peeking out their hotel window. They were watching the bridal party walk through the hotel on their way to the wedding!

And look at Sam-Sam trying to get a closer look at the wedding!

It was a beautiful wedding and very fun to see my whole extended Daeschner/Nickoley/Leng family!

PARTY FOR BROOKE AND NATE

Back at home the next weekend we threw a little after-wedding party for Brooke and Nate. They had a few friends that they didn't get to invite to their wedding and they wanted to be able to share the video and memories with those people as well so we had them over for fajitas and mojitos!

The wedding was red and yellow so we tried to have the same colors.

The cake had a little "Brooke & Nate" topper.

KATIE AND CHANCE'S WEDDING!!!!

So the real build-up of OUR family's summer was my baby sister, Katie's wedding to Chance Haddon!!! My big sister, Laura, and I were co-matron's of honor and our girl's were the flower girls! Sammy, of course, was the bearer of the rings. We were so excited when this weekend finally came.

Chance's family through the awesomest (is that a word?) rehearsal dinner in my parent's backyard. Katie decorated for it.

Chance's family are farmers from Ellinwood, Kansas, and his dad also has a restaurant and a catering company.

This is his "Lone Wolf" trailer that he takes to barbecue competitions. The food was awesome.

The tables were sweet.

Matt with all the cousins.

This is Katie's good friend, Amanda, with Wella.

The bride and groom with friends.

Grandad's zip-line was in use during the party.

Uncle Bruce with my cousin Jesse and my dad.

The rehearsal dinner crowd.

Chance's dad with one of his nephews.

Katie meeting her photographer who she FLEW IN from out of state! Very fancy.

Chance...now "Uncle Chance."

This is Randy, Chance's dad, getting popsicles out of the trailer for Sam and the other kids. Huge hit!

Sharing with baby sister.

Girl cousins with Aunt Katie!

My mom and her best friend, Cheryl Cordry, who helped us ALL weekend as we got ready for the wedding and the morning-after brunch that we had at my mom's house. Cheryl actually helped deliver Katie when she was born (long story). We call her Aunt Cheryl.

Katie at the bridal store where they laced her into her dress.

It was quite the process getting into that dress!

The groom's cake.

The cupcake table.

The venue all decorated for the reception.

Wella before we made her put her dress on.

In the dressing room with Aunt Laura getting ready before the wedding. I have only terrible pictures of Katie's wedding since I was in it and didn't get to take many during the important moments. But here's a little behind-the-scenes before the big event got started.

Mom's mother-of-the-bride shoes.

Erin, Katie's friend and wedding-coordinator-of-sorts wearing her bridesmaid dress and telling mom which usher is going to seat her.

Our girls ready for their walk down the aisle.

Sammy ready for his walk. He actually hung out with the groomsmen all day and got VERY attached to one guy in particular who taught him secret handshakes and dance moves.

Waiting....

The kids' garb. Luella was only there for the wedding (we had a babysitter for the reception) and she was so noisy that Matt had to take her out for the whole thing. Poor Matt.

Katie's new family, the Haddons.

Still waiting.

Peeking out to see how much longer.

This is Troy, Sam's new best friend/Chance's groomsmen.

And then the whole thing happened and I didn't get ANY pictures because I was so busy being a bridesmaid, but when Katie's professional photos get posted I'll link up to them! This was the VERY end of the night when they had danced until they dropped and shed/exchanged clothes.

But after it was all over we gained a brother-in-law and an awesome uncle. We love you guys! Have fun in Jamaica!

TANGANYIKA WILDLIFE PARK

Before leaving Wichita and heading back to Chicago we went to this great hands-on zoo called Tanganyika.

We fed tortoises.

And fish...

And hung out with lemurs on lemur island.

There were penguins that must have been hot. It was 100 degrees out!

We fed giraffes, (my favorite part). They are so TALL when you see them up close!

And we fed birds.

We even got to feed a 5,000 lb rhino named Henry!

It was a great summer that we'll remember for always. But it was so busy that I'm actually ready to get back to boring ol' regular days. I mean how can you keep up with rhino feeding and throwing parties every weekend?! Hope everyone else had equally busy/happy/crazy summers!

Family Camp with the Handies

2011-07-27T23:01:00.004-05:00

Too much to say about family camp. We shared a cabin with Julia and Joel Handy and their three boys. Well, we each had our own side to the cabin and it was connected in the middle by a common area.

There was zip lining, swimming, tubing, special breakfasts (one we rowed a canoe to, one we walked to, and one we got to on a horse and buggy). There was archery, a medieval night (complete with dunk tank that Sam got into) white water rafting, horseback riding, tie-dying, game night, fire-building, and s'more making. There was four-square and basketball and mini-golf, and ice cream night.

Needless to say, a fun time was had by all. And the strawberry patch we hit on the way home was fun too. It made Wella very messy and Sam wouldn't pick any strawberries and had to go potty 5 minutes into it, but whatever! We still managed to pick 10 lbs!

It was fun for all and we love the Handy family. Thanks for teaching us about Silver Birch guys! Hopefully we'll rock that cabin again next year.

Summer...

2011-07-02T02:05:00.001-05:00

One of my college roomates, Brooke, is marrying Nate, a man who used to go to our church. It's a small-world thing. I hadn't seen Brooke, hardly, since college, but this connection reunited us. She came over for dinner the other night on Nate's motorcycle. The kids wanted a ride.

I think the Big Guy was having a hard time letting go of his little girl (who was in her pajamas at the time) when she got on the bike.

He was brave though and finally let her go. She loved it!

So did Sam, of course.

They'll be talking about this all summer.

Claire and Annabel have been sewing a lot lately. They made these beach bags on my sewing machine together, with a little help from me.

They also made napkins. Napkins were much easier and they liked using the zig-zag stitch.

Speaking of sewing...REAL sewing...Claire had a sewing day (2 actually) with her Grandma and they made this dress for her American Girl doll. Wow! I was impressed. And intimidated.

We made a little sandbox and put it in our parkway. It was an immediate kid-magnet and has gotten much use already.

The best part has been that Sammy has picked up a few more neighborhood buddies in the process. Pablo and Isaiah are Sam's new buds.

Something we are very excited and hopeful for is the possible acquisition of a real YARD. Our house is on the left and our neighbor's house is on the right, with a garden in the middle.

This is the garden up close. It's as wide and deep as a city lot and the lady who owns it is trying to get rid of it before she lets her house go into foreclosure. She might even sell it to us for a HUGE steal. So...we are dreaming of all the things we'll do with that space if we get it!!! (chickens anyone?)

Matt's parent's bought this hoop for Sam a few Christmases ago, but we didn't have a backboard and couldn't think of a good spot to mount it. But we finally found one!

This is the front of our house and the steps that lead down to the basement.

We bolted the hoop to this wood and then used industrial strength zip-ties to tether it to the fence. Walah!

We also put up this tiny pool in our backyard. See the funny leaning evergreen tree behind the pool? We attempted to move it from the middle of the yard to the back of the yard, but it's a little, well...unsteady. Haha!

And, we've figured out that Wella's favorite food is corn on the cob! We're trying to eek out every bit of summer fun that we can in our tiny city house. So far, we're doing okay!

Sam's school party

2011-06-30T20:39:00.000-05:00

We celebrated Sam's birthday at school today. City Garden has summer camp for a few weeks and Ms. Hellesoy and I both forgot to have Sam's birthday at school back in April, so she invited him to come have it today. It was Mr Krohl's birthday too!

It was fun. He did his last walk down the rainbow bridge, his last time of wearing the crown and the cape. He's big now. (sob) The funniest part was just how huge he looked doing it. He sits on the teacher's lap at the beginning and walks over to his parents in the ceremony and I thought he was going to squish poor Ms Hellesoy!

They made him a dragon for his birthday. It was to go with his knight (Sir Peter) and his King Arthur puppet. :) He was very pleased.

I brought homemade ice cream and Ms Hellesoy made cookies. It was delicious. Only Sammy and I with our lactose intolerance regreted the decision to eat it.

And Sam made a new friend at City Garden this week (who doesn't usually go to the school but is just there for the camp).

Last time on the tire swing. Sniff.

Then, as we were leaving I realized: we'll be back!!! Wella only has a few years until she's ready for her own little City Garden experience. In fact, she was busy making friends already! :)

Hangin' with the Handy boys

2011-06-27T14:44:00.001-05:00

Matt and I watched our friends' kids this weekend. It's one of our favorites: the Handies! Julia was my college roomate and Joel and Julia met, dated, and got engaged at Wheaton College right alongside Matt and I. Then we had babies at pretty much the same time. So we've stuck together. This is her middle child, Peter, with her baby, Sammy!

Mom and Dad had a wedding in Texas to go to so we stayed with the boys at their home in West Chicago. It was a fun weekend out of the city for my kids and Matt and I made it as easy as possible with frozen dinners and paper plates. We ate wings for dinner!

Thoroughly enjoyed by Peter, who loves chicken I found out.

And we started a little camp out...

...and smores project, but it started raining! So we had to head inside.

The tent also filled up immediately with mosquitos. See the sad faces? Boo.

It's alright though...we moved the festivities inside. Josh said "let's watching Sleeping Beauty!" And all of them cheered. I love homeschooled kids. :)

I realized how you don't really love a person's kids until you spend a lot of time with them. Even though we were there for not even 36 hours, I felt like I got to know them better.

Like Josh really likes to say how to do things. He wanted me to cook the french toast in a certain way (with lots of cinnamon) and he kinda comandeered the situation. He said "Don't worry, all new people love it this way." :)

And Peter is just like Sammy: naughty and sneaky sometimes, but very endearing. And super smart! He kept figuring out things that had to do with numbers really quickly!

And baby Sammy (who MY Sammy adores) is the sweetest little guy who says the cutest things ever. He has to sleep with about 10 stuffed animals and sing "two songs" and read "two books" before bed, but that's about all he requires! Typical third child. :)

We even managed to get the whole crew to church on Sunday. It took two minivans but we did it! The only mishap was that they baptise kids as infants at that church and therefore the entire congregation takes communion together. Our kids haven't been officially dunked yet, so they don't take it yet. Somehow though, they each ended up with a cracker and a tiny cup of grape juice before I could put a stop to it. So, happy first communion Harris kids! :) I guess if that's the worst thing that happened this weekend I should be happy.

We'll miss you Handy boys! Sammy said he wants us to move in next to you.

Father's Day at Grandma and Grandpa's house

2011-06-24T09:40:00.000-05:00

I'm slowly catching up with my posts. Father's Day was last week, but here it is: better late than never. This is four generations of Harris men on a couch.

We were in Glenview at Matt's parents house. My kids love going to Glenview. It's a great grandparent's house. So many little memorable touches.

Like the green door. You know my kids will always think of the green door at Grandma's.

And the plastic green swing on the tree out front that has been there since Uncle David was little.

And the backyard with the fort Matt and his college roomates helped build for Uncle David when he was little. Did I mention that Uncle David, Matt's younger brother, is 16 years younger than Matt?

And the kitchen. The kitchen with the cabinet doors that fell off years ago, but stay that way because Grandma thinks the stuff is more easily accessible that way. The kitchen that always has banana's hanging up, sweet iced tea in the fridge....

...and canisters full of little things kids like to snack on.

She has all these neat little figurines and things from the farmhouse she grew up in.

Her mom's china cabinet filled with generations of wedding china, (which she actually uses...like, often).

Pictures like this.

And the well-loved basket of kids toys. The chewable rubber foot and all kinds of great stuff like that.

Aunt Rebecca loves the piano as much as Claire does.

And there are dozens of pictures of Daddy as a little boy around the house.

There was a Father's Day football game.

It was mainly the brothers.

But Sammy was included as well.

And Aunt Sarah jumped in at the end.

We celebrated Wella's birthday with Grandma and Grandpa and Luella got some fun things.

I just think its funny, both at Matt's parent's house and my own parent's house, to think of all the things my kids are going to remember about their grandparent's homes. I have such strong memories of my grandparent's home in Inverness, IL, and I'm so happy that my kids will have their own as well. It's such a great part of childhood.

Wella is one

2011-06-22T13:23:00.000-05:00

On June 14th, our baby turned one year old!

I can't believe she's one already! She's already so busy and walking and getting a major personality and learning to throw tantrums though, so I gues she is definitely a toddler.We made her an apple cake and homemade ice cream which she loved and she celebrated outside with her little friends.

But then when Daddy got home from work we did it all over again.

She looks a lot like I did at one year old in this picture.

See? Well, you could see better if I didn't have my hand in my face.

She loved it. She loved using a spoon and eatting all that great sugary stuff.

With her brother and sister.

With mommy.

The baby mommy made her for her birthday. I went to a doll-making class to make this crazy thing. You wouldn't know it cost me about $100 to make this doll, but it is stuffed with real sheeps wool so it smells like a little baby lamb.

She loved baby.

And putting baby to bed.

I love this girl so much. I love both of my girls though. Look at Claire. She's the best big sister ever.

Then Luella decided to stand on top of babies bed. Whatever.

Aunt Sarah stopped by as well. Do you see any resemblance here? :)

Happy Birthday Luella! We love you super much.

Trip to Wichita: part 3

2011-06-22T12:28:00.001-05:00

Saturday night Chance to his bride-to-be and her two sisters out on the town. Poor guy. It was a tough job, but someone had to do it.

I mean, we're hard to keep up with, even for 3 men, but Chance was on his own here! We stopped by a place called "The Pumphouse" but they didn't have food, so Chance went down the street to Old Chicago and brought us food to the club. Wasn't that sweet? Then he took us dancing. Except, he did manage to disappear as often as possible. I don't know WHY he needed a break from us?? ;)

We ended the evening (still before midnight...we're getting old) at a place called The Donut Whole. We tried to get in, but it was closed.

The drive-thru was open though!

We gave poor Chance a VERY hard time about his selections. We all wanted different things. Surprise! He was very gracious though and got us all the kinds we wanted. We even let him get one that he liked. I thought they were dry though. He said he likes them that way. :) It's like we're brother and sister already!

The next day we hit Katie's ice cream store (she manages an Orange Leaf) just to round out the junk food weekend that we were having.

Then we had to say goodbye Sunday evening. We love you Chance! And we can't wait until August 27th to make you an official part of the fam!

Trip to Wichita: part 2

2011-06-21T10:10:00.000-05:00

After the shower we got to go with Katie to see her in her dress!

It was a really lovely store full of the cutest sales ladies ever! They were all in pearls and cute little outfits. It felt very "Father of the Bride"-ish.

We waited a while so that the sales girls could get Katie laced up into her dress.

And while she got ready we looked around. They had really colorful bridesmaid dresses! Katie's colors are more subdued though, and we already have our dresses picked out, so we weren't there to shop for ourselves.

We waited a while longer. What are you ladies doing in there?! I guess there were a LOT of laces on the back of that dress. Is that going to be my job on the wedding day? Dude.

We got bored after a while so we tried some stuff on. Like veils.

And really out-there bridesmaid dresses.

REALLY out there.

This one is SO me.

We did find a picture of a flower-girl dress we'd like to duplicate for the girls.

And here are the cute shoes Katie had made for her big day.

See how they say their names on the back?

I'd love to show you the dress but I'm not allowed. Take my word for it though: it's gorgeous! Chance is a lucky guy.

Trip to Wichita: part 1

2011-06-21T09:52:00.000-05:00

So, last Friday I jumped on a plane with Luella Faye and zoomed over to Wichita, Kansas for the weekend. First time flying without the WHOLE family in a LONG time. But it was for a good cause: it was my sister, Katie's wedding shower that weekend! This is her with Chance.

The three sisters were together for the first time in a LONG time, and with only one baby there between us! It was weird. Nice weird though.

The shower was hosted by Cheryl Cordry, the ultimate giver of showers in my mom's circle of friends.

Cheryl has a lovely home in which to give a shower. In fact, growing up, she was about the fanciest lady I knew.

See? Oooh. Aaaah. Crystal stuff.

And very Kansas! :)

Even her kitchen is great for hosting events.

Katie got lots of great stuff.

And pretty much ALL of Chance's family attended! They live on a farm out in western Kansas. This is Chance's mom. Scroll up again and look at Chance. Then look at his mom. Ha! Twin heads for sure.

Okay, so her eyes aren't open, but this is Tara, Chance's sister. Twin heads again! I bet I know what Katie and Chance's kids will look like!

This was his grandmother and aunt section. They were such nice ladies.

My mom's international student friends all came. They were nice as well.

Old friends came. This is Kirsty who we used to trick-or-treat with as kids.

And this is Robyn, our old next-door-neighbor.

Not a great picture but these are the cute wedding cake cookies Cheryl made.

Mom and Cheryl have been friends forever, and Cheryl ended up being in the delivery room with my mom when Katie was born! My dad was leading a "Holy lands" tour in Israel and was supposed to be home two weeks before the due date, but Katie decided to come early. So Cheryl has always been Aunt Cheryl to Katie.

One of Katie's bridesmaids, Erin, with her daughter, Genevieve.

The bride-to-be.

The practice bouquet I worked on with all the bows from the shower.

Laura's job was writing down the presents for Katie.

But come on, the star of the show was Luella when she arrived at the end with Grandad.

Alright, that's not true. Katie was the star. But Wella was pretty darn cute and I was so proud of Grandad for getting her up from her nap, changing her, and getting her to the party in a little dress! Thanks Grandad! And happy wedding Katie.

Wrapping up the school year

2011-06-09T10:41:00.000-05:00

So, last week we went to City Garden, Sam's school, for one of the last times. He's graduating this week! (sob)

At the end of their kindergarten year, the soon-to-be first graders put on a puppet show with puppets that they have sewn themselves! It's very funny because all the kids just get to pick whatever character they want to be and then the teachers write a show that includes them all.

For instance, there was a "King Arthur" (Sammy) and a mother and a cowboy and a couple fairies and a mermaid. A few other knights and "dragon slayers" were there as well. Sammy was in charge of lifting the rainbow cloth off of the "scene". I'd love to show you the whole thing, but Ms. Hellesoy forbid photography during the show. Boo.

I had such mixed emotions during it (as I knew I would). I'm so happy he had such a great 3 years at City Garden, and it just makes me question whether or not homeschooling this kiddo is wise or crazy! But I tried to stop having a panic attack and just enjoy the show.

Mother Earth tending her garden in one of the many little nature scenes around the room. Oh Waldorf schools: you are such fabulous, crazy, nature-and-gnome-loving-people. I'm going to miss you!

This is a picture of Claire on the day she had HER puppet show....2 years ago!

Isn't she cute with her little friends?

She actually brought her puppet back with her for Sam's show. Look how much OLDER she looks now. Sigh....

This is the kids with Mr. Khrol...he's an icon of the school. And the founder, along with Ms. Hellesoy. Mr. Khrol has been so great to Sammy all these years.

Last year, (or the year before?) during summer camp at City Garden, Mr Khrol let Sammy go with him to the ice cream truck store to buy ice cream for all the kids at camp. On the way home, he ended up bringing a whole freezer cart of ice cream pushed by a bicycle back to school...and guess who got to ride on top of the freezer part and honk a horn on the way back!? It was one of Sammy's finest moments.

Sam's King Arthur puppet.

Claire's best buddy, Annabel, is finishing up school too...complete with a science fair.

Claire was completely intrigued by the idea of a science fair. I may have to have a mini one next year.

Bridget went to Steve Spangler's science experiment site, she says, to figure out how to do it. She says he's awesome, just in case you happen to be doing a science experiment with your child.

Wella is learning a few things too as she approaches her one year old birthday.

Like, for instance, she's still not old enough to use a plate or bowl because she will just throw it on the ground.

And she only likes big blueberries, not small ones.

And she loves french toast!

Here is my Claire working out the notes to her piano piece. I love the concentration!

She's a great little musician. I really need to make sure I encourage this in her because she's a total natural. Next up: Summer!

Sammy's knight birthday

2011-05-16T12:02:00.001-05:00

So, after cleaning up from party #1, we still had to put the finishing touches on Sam's knight birthday. All week we've been cutting out these shields for the boys...

...and painting them!

Every knight had a shield with his name on it, but Sammy requested that his be "special-er". That's a slightly obnoxious request in my opinion, but I put a gold rim around the edge anyway.

These shields were actually really pretty easy to make except that when you are making a dozen of them it does get a little laborious.

We just bought a giant sheet of really thin wood from Home Depot, had them cut it into 12 pieces, and then brought them home and finished off the shield shape with our saw. Since the wood was so thin it was pretty easy. Then, we drilled holes for the rope handles, painted them red, and then painted the lion emblem on with a stencil. I tried to make the names look medieval-ish, but they were actually just kinda squiggly.

The only problem came when our 80-degree weather week turned into a 40-degree-and-raining weekend. So the 25 kids that were supposed to come to our "park" birthday party all ended up in my living room.

We gave the boys their shields (and foam swords) in the dining room and that was a hit.

See my six-year-old knight? He was pretty cute. You'll have to see his knight shirt from Aunt Laura in a few pictures down.

Then we left the parents at the house with lots of food and drinks and took the knights on their cold and rainy quest to the park.

I think the neighbors really liked seeing these little crusaders charging down the street.

Once there, Matt sent them on an obstacle course. "Run up the ramp, charge down the stairs, jump over a swing..." etc. Except the knights kept slipping and wiping out on the wet equipment so we quickly changed directions.

There was jousting. I held a metal ring tied to a broom stick up high and they had to run the "lance" (mop handle with foil at the end) through the loop. It was harder than they thought it would be. I love Charlie's concentration face in this last picture. See his tongue? Haha.

Then they played "attack the evil knight" (Matt) and all the boys killed him with foam swords.

The last game (before everyone's hands started freezing and we had to run back to the house for warmth) was catapulting 100 water balloons over the fence into the bad knight's "castle". I didn't get a picture of the catapult but it was just a long board, painted red, with a coffee can nailed to one end.

Then we headed home because the knights were starting to defect from the cold. I didn't get any more pictures for the afternoon but that was because I was busy shoe-horning 55 people into my teeny, tiny house. We actually ended up moving Sam's bed out of his room to make room for all the boys to play up there. Crazy! I haven't even mentioned the girls, but there were about a dozen little girls there as well and they mainly hid in Claire's room for the afternoon.

Here was the aftermath...

...empty pickle jars, half-eaten hot dogs...

...leftover beer. Leftover beer? How did that happen? :)

Abandoned princess cone hats. I ran out of time and didn't make a strap for the hats that would keep them on the princess's heads, so they weren't very popular.

LOTS of half-eaten cupcakes. I used cream cheese and cocoa (along with butter and powedered sugar) in the frosting which I think the adults liked, but I got a few "faces" from the kids. Maybe I should stick with canned frosting for kid parties.

This morning I went outside and discovered this. I forgot that at the end of the night when all but a few friends had left, I agreed to let Sam and his church friend, Josh, paint our outside fort. Anything to get the boy energy outside!

So they did. Blue!

They also, apparently, put a roof on the fort with the leftover wood from the shields.

These stairs used to go out straight from the fort, (and there was a slide) but a few weeks ago Josh decided the stairs should go up sideways (and the slide should be removed) so now they go like this. And they are blue. And a complete safety hazard.

I had told them to paint it gold because I thought that would blend in better and I wouldn't have to look at an abnoxious bunch of painted boards in the backyard. But I think they forgot what I said and decided blue and green would be better.

This is what that charming little fort looked like this time last year.

But the dishes are done now. And the living room has been vacuumed.

And the kids are busily assembling a lego firetruck so I'm not complaining. It was fun. But I'll never have another indoor party for Sammy again. And as luck would have it, it's about 20 degrees warmer and sunny today. Go figure.

Matt's small group party

2011-05-16T11:25:00.001-05:00

Matt loves games. So every once in a while we invite his small group of guys (and their wives/girlfriends) over to our house for a game night.

This night happened to be Saturday night, which was the night before I had to throw Sam's birthday party, so that was kinda crazy. But still fun.

Babies roamed the living room, little boys watched videos with Sam, and the grown ups ate and drank and played pictionary.

Pictionary is actually NOT Matt's favorite game, but he'll play anything with these guys.

Lots of gesturing was involved, which I'm not sure is allowed, but it was done anyway. :)

Matt takes games very seriously, which is why I never play them with him. He's super-duper competitive.

So his team did their best.

I think they still lost though.

It was fun to see him so happy.

And it was REALLY funny when John Piercy drew this version of the phrase "model train". :)

He is risen! (But Sammy has not)

2011-04-24T21:45:00.000-05:00

The day after our throwing up in the bookstore incident was today, Easter Sunday. I did my best to nurse Sam back to health, but there isn't much you can do to stop the pukes. So I decorated in hopes that he would be better by Easter morning.

I put out my lemon trees (stop laughing Laura. They're awesome).

And I Eastered-up my house plant.

And I got out our resurrection eggs from Grandma.

I even turned the Bible storybook to the right page.

Luella got an empty plastic egg and baby goldfish.

Claire got the regular stuff.

And so did Sam...along with some encouraging "get better" notes from big sister.

But, alas, Sammy did not arise. So we got left behind while Claire and Matt went to church for Easter service without us! Matt even had to teach my Sunday school and take them the cinnamon rolls I made them (but didn't get to eat myself. Boohoo).

We did get to keep Wella with us though, which helped cheer our spirits. :)

But Sammy's hardest part was that we were supposed to go to grandma's for Easter lunch AND to celebrate all the April birthdays in the family. And he had to miss it. Boo. They celebrated Uncle David though, who is 15 now.

And they celebrated Grandma Evelyn who Claire is named after. I love Grandma Evie and Grandpa Harris.

And they love each other, which is fabulous after having been married for something like 65 years.

Grandma even made her red velvet cake, which Sam loves. BUT, they did send home a HUGE gift for Sam which we knew was coming and would fix everything once he saw it. You'll have to wait for the big reveal though. It requires a video for sure.

Happy Easter!

Sammy turns six

2011-04-24T21:19:00.002-05:00

Sam turned 6 on April 22nd, which happens to be my dad's birthday as well.

Wella was very excited for him. She ate more sweet potatoes for the occasion.

Sam ate the watermelon that came in our fruit box from our co-op this week. He ate a LOT of it.

He also had his friend Josh from church over for an all-day playdate on Friday since they were both on spring break. I jigsawed them both some swords. Well, Sam wanted a dagger instead of a sword.

My mom and dad got him tons of knight books and a Robin Hood book. He hasn't stopped reading them yet! My friend Julia recommended the titles to us as she has 3 rowdy boys of her own.

Sam and his friend made plans to add a drawbridge to the backyard fort. And remarkably, they did! I didn't get a picture though.

We went to McDonalds to get ice cream...

...on the way home from the Berwyn train store where Sam and Josh both got to pick out bow and arrows (Sammy has a great wooden one but has been begging for a plastic one for years. Haha! So we got him the cheap $6 one he's been wanting).

Finally, we ended up at Subway for lunch. These boys can eat!

I need to really start disciplining this kid for ruining EVERY picture we take of him.

The NEXT day we took a family adventure and rode the metra train out to the suburb of Glen Ellyn.

Tickets!

Welly.

Serious Welly.

It was a beautiful sunny day. This is where you get off the train in Glen Ellyn...and that little building in the background is a restaurant called 2 Toots!

It's a cute train-themed restaurant (I've posted about it before).

And it happens to be in darling downtown Glen Ellyn that has shops like THIS to walk into! Who buys this stuff!! Fun to look at though. Claire thought it was fabulous.

Here's the counter where you order your food.

The train that brings your lunch.

It also brings you a birthday cupcake if you happen to be a birthday boy. And it comes with a train whistle.

What does everyone else feed their 10 month olds when they go to restaurants??? The only thing I can figure out to give her is french fries. Terrible, I know.

We also took our time and walked past the fire station.

Claire on the pole. Oh my!

Sammy...who, by the way, brought his cap gun from Aunt Katie.

We also walked to Lake Ellyn park and checked out the beautiful homes in the area. Claire said this one looks like her friend's Callico Critter mansion! :)

They are really stunning homes. Matt and I used to walk around this area when we were in college and pick out the home we were going to buy someday. Until we realized they cost infinity dollars.

Sam tore up the park.

They are getting so big. Her feet touch the ground!

Wella slept, luckily, because she skipped both her naps.

****OH, wait, did you think there would be a few more pictures of the way home??? Well, unfortunately, as we walked into a cute little Glen Ellyn bookstore on the way back to our train, Sammy decided to start puking his guts out all over the carpted floor. It didn't make it better that the nice bookstore lady had just released 10 four-year-olds to run around the store looking for

Easter eggs. You wanted eggs with candly little girl? Surprise: puke. I felt terrible and we had to do what we could to clean up and then politely excuse ourselves to run our poor sick kid back to the train to get home.

Terrible. He's been puking and recovering since. Poor guy. It's hard turning 6. Happy Birthday Sammy. You aren't our baby anymore!

a random tuesday

2011-04-19T21:26:00.002-05:00

Today it rained. And Sammy is on Spring Break which means we have to have boys over to play or he gets mean. So we did and Sam and Damon water-proofed the backyard fort with a giant plastic tarp.

That was good because it took them a while to do it, but man were they muddy when they finally came in.

Soldiers/army guys.

Luella Faye eatting in her big-girl high chair which we got her at IKEA this weekend. It's the best high chair ever. It's all smooth...no fabric or icky weird cracks and crevices that are impossible to clean out. You can clean the whole thing with one baby wipe!

She's very into sweet potatoes. VERY. Green beans, not so much.

My friend Bridget had a birthday this week and she left town for a while shortly afterwards so I got to take care of her birthday bouquet. Nice and cheery on this struggly rainy day.

Many stacks of new library books. The neighborhood librarian chuckled as I was checking out. I know she was thinking: this is going to add up to about $38 worth of fines before you finally get these suckers back. It's true, too.

Wella's toy cabinet. Only funny because this used to be my grandmother's fancy bar in her fancy dining room. Now it holds pull-toys.

I got these macaroons at Whole foods (along with some other Passover-acceptable foods) with the hopes of throwing a little mini-seder for my family on Thursday. The macaroons are like crack. I can't stop eatting them. The bitter herbs I'm not chowing on, however.

Sam's room at the end of his playdate. One of many signs of a good time....

...along with abandoned bowls of maccaroni on the dresser...

....and a castle with a moat,...

...and an impromptu nap for Sam. Maybe rainy days aren't so bad afterall.

This video is nothing but Luella eatting for 30 seconds. I just thought my mom might want to see her for a minute (in action, haha) so don't watch this with any expectation. She just chews her food. ;)

Untitled from Susan Harris on Vimeo.

Colorado 2011

2011-04-05T22:28:00.001-05:00

So, at 3am on March 24th our alarm clocks went off to wake us up for our ski trip to Colorado. Our plane left from Midway airport at 6am. Grrrr. Believe it or not...everyone was a total trooper on the plane. And Wella slept almost the entire 2 and a half hours to Denver.

And it was totally worth the struggle because the moment we got to my Aunt Marty and Uncle Bruce's house, we were greeted by these elk in their yard!

They are not afraid of you at all!

The Nickoley family has a lovely mountai-y home, but this table is absolutely my favorite part.

Look at that base! Stunning.

Well, the fire place, the view, and the mass quantities of leather furniture are also my favorite parts. :)

We hiked and hung out in Evergreen for a few days.

Wella even went with us on a little hike around Evergreen Lake!

The kids were so excited for the outdoors.

But we didn't hang out in peace for long. It was off to the slopes on Friday night for our trial-run in Keystone. Last year Sam wouldn't get on the chair lift at all, so we scheduled a few days in Keystone first because it has a gandola...which apparently doesn't bother our afraid-of-heights man.

He was a total trooper and both kids whizzed down the mountain as if they'd been doing it all year.

Keystone has this sweet "magic carpet ride" on the kid's hill as well.

Hot chocolate.

Soy hot chocolate. Poor guy...he's on a gluten/dairy-free diet right now. More on that later in a much more boring post.

They loved it! Even with the blizzardy conditions.

And on the second day, Wella and I ventured out in her carrier to see the kids do their thing on the kid hill.

There was a tiny chair lift and Sam did it just great.

That chair lift never hot higher than maybe 15-20 feet in the air so I think it got him over his fear of the lift.

So the next day we left for our ultimate destination: Breckenridge. And Sam didn't miss a beat. He jumped right on the big-boy chair lift and rode it right up.

I didn't ski at all because I was home in my Aunt Marty's time-share condo with the baby. On the 2nd or 3rd day Matt and I were discussing which hills the kids were going to go down and when he told me about one of the hills he was taking them on I yelped: "Oh no...that one is big and scary. They can't do that one!" (thinking that would scare them to death because it sure scared me). Matt said, with all due respect: "well...honey...they've done way scarier ones than that".

So there it is. I'm the non-skier in the family. ;)

But that's okay. I'm just glad the kids get to share their dad's passion for this crazy sport.

Matt didn't shave for the entire week. It was very mountain-man-ish.

This is one of the only pictures of me on the trip. Haha! I think Sam took it when I met them for lunch one day.

But there were more surprises in store. Guess who showed up to surprise us one day!? Grandad!!! He came the 9 hours from Wichita, Kansas just to hang out with us on the slopes. He was super helpful to me while I shuffled the kids to and from the base of the mountain and picked up skis and returned skis and met the crew for lunch and put Wella down for naps, etc.

Luella was especially surprised to see him I think.

So my dad and I met the crew for lunch on their last full day of skiing.

Did I mention the great accomodations Bruce and Marty provided for us at their time share!? They got us a GREAT rate which allowed us to stay in a WAY nicer place than we usually do.

It was luxurious.

This is the SECOND kitchen.

Our king-sized bed.

The jacuzzi tub.

The fort we made on the day we let the daddy of the family ski by himself on the "really scary mountains".

The view. There is an indoor-outdoor pool that we frequented as well.

We got tons of snow that week.

Claire, in particular, loved the tub.

And Sammy and Grandad pulled in a 4-foot-long ice cycle!

Thanks for coming up dad!

You can't tell unless you blow the picture up, but that's Matt and the kids on the lift over dad's right shoulder.

See?

Then, when Claire got tired of skiing she left with my dad and I and we rode the gondola for a while.

That was really lovely and made me feel like I got "on the mountain" a bit.

Wow.

Wella was stunned by the beauty as well.

Somehow, I lost the pictures of Marty, Bruce and their kids, but I'll find them one day. Because on our last night, before heading home, my Aunt Marty hosted a big dinner for our family and her kids (who live away from home now) and we all stayed up late and talked theology and politics while drinking wine and eatting delicious food. Thanks for the great week Nickoleys! Please accept our reservations at your house for this time next year as well. ;)

A birthday party for Claire

2011-04-05T21:30:00.001-05:00

Well, we scrubbed the the Wella-Wella. Note that she is in the BIG GIRL side of the sink now.

Because it was a big day.

A big enough day that Sammy needed a new hat (and a patch from Officer Eric which he wanted to sew to his favorite sweater).

My favorite part is how his ears crinkle down when he wears this hat.

It was the big sister's birthday party day!!! And she wanted a tea party. A doll tea part to be exact. In fact, it was to as-closely-as-possible replicate an American Doll Store tea party.

So we rounded up the usual suspects, poured some pink lemonade,....

...planted some silk flowers in ice cream with oreo cookies on top....

....and made some tea sandwiches (served with peppermint tea on the side).

It was a hit! Well....I might have added the ever-popular pigs-in-a-blanket to the plate as well. After all, there were a few brothers invited so hot dogs seemed imperative. But we kicked the brothers out of the house after they had their hot dogs with Mr Matt. He took everyone with testosterone pumping through their veins to the park.

And the girls ate in peace.

Doiles, place cards, and all.

It was fah-bu-lous.

The birthday girl was wearing a red dress that we found in size 12 at the Salvation Army the day before. I took it in the best I could and she had a lovely ball gown for the occassion.

The cake complete with trick candles.

She loved it!

Making a wish.

The cake was pink, green, and yellow....per request.

Wella with Mrs Keyonda!

Pretty, huh?

Oh, and then we played a game where you have a bag with things in it and your team has to come up with a skit that includes those items. This is Lucy being a Christmas tree.

The girls had a good time I think. They really got into their skits!

Here is Mr Neal on the left narrating Claire's team's skit. Mr Neal is the best.

Ceclia was "Mary"...a beggar.

These girls have been coming to Claire's birthday since she was a wee one. We love these girls!

Claire's 8th birthday

2011-04-05T21:10:00.001-05:00

I'm really late with this post.

Like really late. Because Claire actually turned 8 on the 14th of March (before Matt's birthday which is on the 17th). But I posted Matt's first because Claire has two posts coming up in a row. Post number one is her actual birthday DAY and post number 2 will be her birthday PARTY day. So.....this is her actual day. She woke up to Aunt Laura's gift of paper doll-like things.

And to her little brother's present of a new shirt/dress.

And the really fun part was her present from Grammy and Grandad who had JUST left a few days earlier...

....her own CD player!!! I know, I know...we're super technologically advanced. But it was what she wanted. Actually, thanks to Grandad, who wanted to bring us up-to-date, this one actually has a plug-in for MP3 players. Woohoo!

Sammy rocked out to it hard-core. Beach Boys....all the way.

And then around noon we went to pick up Daddy Harris and went downtown to the American Girl Doll store.

Here she is in front of her favorite doll: Josephina. She has Jospehina and a "Just-like-you" doll.

She got money from Aunt Laura, Uncle Ben, Ellie and Jane to spend at the AG store and she went straight for what she wanted: Josephina's goat. :)

And then we went upstairs to the Just-like-you doll section for an outfit.

The doll she has is the one with no bangs just over her left shoulder. She picked out an outfit from mom and dad.

Then it was on to the Water Tower food court for lunch with the fam...including Wella-Wella of course. Claire picked out a stuffed baked potatoe for lunch.

Sisters.

And a smoothy for dessert. Sam got in on that part.

Yum. Isn't she so 8!

Daddy and Wella.

Driving home (dropping Daddy off at the office).

Checking out the dyed-green river (St Patrick's Day festivities). Happy Birthday Claire!!!! We love you and can't believe you are 8. I thought I was 8!

Big Guy turns 31

2011-03-20T09:37:00.001-05:00

Matt's birthday was on St Patrick's day. It always is, of course, so we always make him green pancakes for breakfast.

This year the kids served him his breakfast wearing the ties we got him for a present.

But the REAL present was that we cleaned out the garage for him. It took ALL day the day before his birthday. We never cleaned out our garage before we even moved into our house and the previous owners had left behind some real trash. Add to that all the junk we've thrown in there over the last 2 years and we hardly had room to park our one car in our 2-car garage! So, it was an epic day. Cleaning it with me actually wore Samuel out which I didn't think could happen. He kept saying to me: "can't I even get a REST!....ANY kind of REST!?"

So then the big guy put on his new greenish tie (for St Patty's day) and went to work.

And then the real fun began.

I cooked for about 8 hours that day! We started with my mom's recipe for Oreo Ice Cream dessert (Matt's favorite). You mix a can of evaporated milk with 4 squares of baker's chocolate and a cup of sugar until it's boiling. Then you boil it for 8 minutes stirring constantly. This is the top layer.

Then, while that is cooling, (and it MUST cool all the way) you chop up (or bang up in a bag) an entire bag of oreos. This is for the first layer. As in, it is the crust. You mix that with a stick of melted butter and then press it into the bottom of a 13X9 pan.

I happened to get OREO brand but you can use the store generic and it's just as good.

Then you take a BOX of vanilla ice cream (1/2 gallon) and slice it into 1/2 inch slices until you have covered the oreo crust in the pan. Mush it up until it's one smooth layer.

Then, after freezing that for a while (to keep the ice cream from getting too melty) you put your TOTALLY cooled chocolate topping on the top and then cover in peanuts if you so desire. I forgot to take a picture of the end result, but I found this one online. This is pretty much what it looks like except that this one seemed to use a peanut butter ice cream or something.

But that was just the beginning of my cooking. I then attempted to make Julia Child's beef bourguignon which is an epic recipe apparently. It took forever and had about 18 steps. I won't give the whole recipe here because if you want to make it, you can see it here: http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/beef_bourguignon/. But really, don't do it.

This was cooking the pork belly.

Then there was browning the meat.

"Searing" it, to be exact.

Then, things just got out of control. There was tomato paste and wine and cognac and tiny chopped carrots and large chopped carrots....

...and pearl onions which had to be blanched and then peeled (after soaking them in ice water)....

....and mushrooms to be chopped and sauteed, (except, after that I removed them altogether...we just needed the "essence" of them because Matt doesn't really like mushrooms).

And then it boiled and simmered and it went on and on....

....until it was done.

And then we ate it with friends.

And then we had the dessert. Happy Birthday Matt! We love you. And next year, I promise to go grab a sack of White Castle hamburgers for your birthday instead so you don't have to watch the kids for 3 hours after work and listen to me cry while I finish "surprising" you with this fabulous dinner.

Grammy and Grandad were here...and Luella was dedicated

2011-03-15T15:14:00.001-05:00

This was a big weekend for us at the Harris household. My parents were here. They were in Ohio last week visiting Laura's family, but they came home by way of Chicago to see us. Yay! My kids love their Grammy and Grandad very much.

Sammy is Grandad's buddy and they spent a lot of time together.

For instance, my dad spent a few hours a day in our basement doing a band with Sammy and Claire. It's really cold in my basement so that accounts for Grandad's quilt. Haha! He also buys things off of Ebay that he thinks the grandkids would like and brings them with him when he visits. This time he brought a microscope so Claire looked at things under the microscope for about 4 hours a day....that was right up her alley.

On Friday we got to see my cousins and Aunt and Uncle from Barrington. I didn't get any pictures that night, but this is Carl with his fiance, Abby. They are planning their wedding and are getting married 2 weeks before my sister, Katie, this summer.

We also saw my cousin Hilary and her husband Mark.

And of course they brought their baby girl, Leia, who, as you may remember was born on Luella's due date so they were very cute together! My Aunt Becky and Uncle Rich were there as well but I can't find a picture of them. Regardless, it was great to see everyone and we all stayed up late and partied together. Good times.

But on Sunday morning, we had Luella's dedication at church. It was neat because both my parents and Matt's parents were able to be there along with Aunt Rebecca, one of Matt's sisters.

I wanted to cry when they asked us if we would commit to bringing Luella up in a home where her faith can flourish. Yikes! It's such a big job being a parent. What a heavy responsibility we bear.

Then it was over to our house for pizza. This is grandma and Rebecca with the newly dedicated Wella Wella. Does she look any brighter or shinier? :)

The dads (grandpas) had a great time discussing teacher's unions....

...and Grammy held Luella who suddenly burst into fever halfway through the afternoon.

Thank goodness Grammy was here to rock her back to health. :) We miss you mom and dad! Thanks for coming.

Make this on St Patty's day

2011-03-15T10:42:00.000-05:00

I stole this recipe directly off of a different blog so just know that I'm not claiming any responsibility for the fabulousness of this food, but I DID make it and it's good in my opinion. A few people have asked me about it, so I'm posting it here.

It's a recipe for corned beef that is baked and not boiled and I definitely prefer it to the boiled. It's all about this sweet hot mustard recipe that you put on top. I couldn't find the mustard sauce at the store, so I googled it and then WAY downscaled it from THIS recipe.

You start with a scant 1/4 cup of dry mustard and mix it with about 1/4 cup of sugar in a sauce pan.

Then, you whisk in an egg yolk and about 1/4 cup of vinegar until it's well blended. Finally, turn on the heat and cook this custardy mix, whisking constantly, until it is smooth and thick, (about 5 minutes?). Remove it from heat and whisk in about tablespoon of honey. Save it for later.

Now, get yourself a really good, uncured piece of corned beef (I got mine from my meat coop and it was awesome. Then, I got it from Whole Foods when I made it again for my whole family and it was too salty, I thought, but everyone else said it was okay still).

Then, just follow the recipe for the baked corned beef from Simply Recipes and it will be divine. It basically involves poking cloves into the meat, slathering on the sauce and baking it in tin foil for 2 hours on 325. Then, at the end, you take off the foil, cut off the fat (well, I did) and then reslathering it with the last of your sauce and broiling it for a few minutes. Let the meat rest and then slice and serve.

Dont' forget some kind of potatoes and sauteed cabbage. The first time I made mashed potatoes and sauteed purple cabbage. When my extended family came over I made the crispy potatoe galette from Taste the Love and they were pretty good and fun to make.

*Even Luella loved the corned beef! Which may account for the wicked diaper rash she has had this week. Oops!

The Little Red Hen

2011-03-07T00:06:00.004-06:00

Claire's "troupe" has been working on practicing the play "The Little Red Hen". This weekend we had them perform the play for their moms and dads (and a few others) at Bridget's gallery on south Halsted street.

This lovely lady and her husband (Nicky and Eric) were kind enough to paint a backdrop and sew costumes for the kids LATE into the night before the play. When she said she was making costumes, I was planning on a few paper ears taped onto a headband or something, but I should have known.

She went ALL out! Look at Talia, our cute Little Red Hen!

And the cats!

And Talia's little brother, Ellis, was the frog. But wait for it. I know Ellis is cute, but wait....

Look who was the pig!

Holy Shamoly. Ridiculous amounts of cuteness. Look at the ears. The best part is she kept crawling around and making little grunting noises the whole time like a real little piglet. Haha.

We couldn't really talk most of the big girls into being the animals (I guess I should have thought about the fact that 8 year old girls don't usually want to dress up as pigs and frogs)....

so the rest of the girls were our "narrators".

We let the little brothers and sisters be the other parts. Like, Sammy, who was a stellar "Miller".

My big sewing contributions were these little chick marrionettes, (in this play the Little Red Hen has 10 chicks that eat the bread at the end).

And I made the sacks of flour and grain. Woohoo! I have wicked sewing skills now.

They were super cute. Are you seeing the backdrop that Mr Erick painted for us?

It was heavily attended by moms and dads and a few friends of the families.

And the bonus was that they had worked hard on an original play entitled: "Sammy and the Six Princesses". Sam was a knight who had to win the love of the princesses by doing "challenges".

Mainly they sent him to find certain treasures that he had to bring back to them.

The main point of this play was the costumes. The girls wanted to wear dresses and Sammy wanted to be a knight.

This is Zoe (Sammy's favorite)!

After the play we served fresh homemade bread, (you know, like what the Hen would have baked). And bread pudding. And tamales. And salmon. A slightly odd combination of foods that came together out of our unorganized potluck, but they were all delicious! At the end we gave the girls (and boys) their "performance" badges. They did great!

Weekend project: patches

2011-02-26T16:23:00.000-06:00

Claire is sick now. So is Wella.Last night was really bad. Fevers of almost 103 for both girls. Sammy finally got better from both the stomach bug and the cold/virus thing, but now his sisters have the congestion/sore throat/fever thing. So I am STILL hanging out at home most of the time. No cabin fever. Not for me. I'm cool.

Well, I'm basically fine with it. Except that since Sammy isn't sick anymore he's completely and totally stir crazy. So, on Friday, when Matt worked from home, Sam came with me to run some errands while Matt stayed with the sick girls. We went to JoAnn fabrics to buy some patches for his pants. We came home with more than patches. We also found this sweet duct tape.

Duct tape is cheap entertainment for sure. He duct taped some of his cars, a few skateboards, and started wrapping all his blocks in tape as well before we stopped him.

But, while I was there, I might have picked up this sewing machine. I know, I know. If you know me well you may remember that I bought a sewing machine a few years ago, made one thing, and promptly sold it on Craigslist because I could never figure it out very well. But this is DIFFERENT. I promise. The lady at the store told me it's a great sewing machine for beginners with lots of automatic features (like automatic tension, which is what I could never figure out on my old, cheaper machine).

So Sammy and I decided to go a little crazy and design our own patches. Afterall, I realized that the patches that you buy and iron-on were kinda expensive! Especially when you need about ten pairs of them. And we could make our own for way less! I mean, that is, if we just bought the $300 sewing machine.

So we did. We bought this heat-bond stuff that lets you make any fabric into iron-on fabric, but then I reinforced all the edges with stitches from my new MACHINE! See? If you don't get to leave the house for a long time, sometimes you have to buy something really crazy for yourself when you do.

But I will say that part of the appeal to patching Sammy's pants is that we were given TONS of hand-me-down, perfect-condition Hanna Anderson sweat pants...which just so happen to cost $30/piece. And Sam ripped the knees out of ALL of them. All. I would never pay t$30 for pants for Sam, but if someone gives them to me, I'm not going to complain!

Incidentally, Hanna Anderson is a wonderful store (with clothes that make kids look like kids...not Hannah Montana/Justin Bieber fanatics) and I do buy all Wella's little pilot caps there. I think the store is Swedish-inspired or something.

So Sam picked out pilot/airplane material for some of the patches.

They were BIG patches because they had giant holes in the knees.

He also picked out "Indian" material (I tried to teach him to say "Native American" but he's reading Peter Pan right now so he's stuck on Indian).

But his favorite was this camo/army material.

It says things like "Boot camp" and "basic training" on it.

There were 6 sweat pants and then I also did his jeans.

I thought they turned out kinda cute.

He picked out these trucks too.

And then, Claire decided to get in on the sewing machine action so she maade this little pillow and quilt.

She really did! She quilted this! It's only about 12" by 6" but I thought it was good.

See the pillow?

I think she's starting to feel better! The doctor said no one has the flu or strep, so I'm comforted that they may recover after all.

When you can't leave the house for weeks at a time

2011-02-23T09:55:00.000-06:00

Matt was gone last week, as I've said in previous posts. He got home on Friday and I literally hadn't walked out of the house all week. Sammy had been sick all week and I just couldn't bring myself to load up a sick kid and go anywhere. Incidentally, I STILL have hardly left the house 5 days later because Claire and then Luella also got sick. BUT, I've realized that if the daddy is home and you can't leave the house, you can get a LOT done.

This is what our house looked like when Matt got home on Friday.

And this.

And this. Nice dining room table!

But on Saturday morning, I got it cleaned up!

Aaaaah.

Much better.

And the kids broke in the new chalkboard wall with the new chalk Matt ordered.

Now, a woman can't get a house cleaned while her children are home. Especially if one of your children is this little worker man pictured above.

So Matt took him to Home Depot Saturday morning to buy this composter for the back yard.

Since we joined that farm share and are getting vegetables weekly, we realized we were wasting tons and tons of organic vegetable peelings every week that we could use for our garden next summer.

And we started the compost with the peels from a butternut squash, a few potatoes, an onion and some carrots because I made this butternut squash soup for the family this weekend. It ws pretty good and super easy. It was something like THIS recipe, but with modifications since I didn't have everything.

I also carried the TV that we used to have in our bedroom into the basement and set it up so that I could start doing my Jillian Michael's 30-day Shred video. I finally did it yesterday. And now I will spend 5 days recovering from that.

At Home Depot Matt also picked up this board.

Then he cut it with a jigsaw into this shape so that we could turn it into a headboard for Claire's room. We just staple gunned foam onto it and then batting...

...and finally some material I had picked out.

I used a LOT of staples trying to get it all smooth. I used a slightly stretchy fabric which may have been a bad idea in terms of getting the design on the fabric to line up smoothly on the front.

It turned out like this.

And I put it in Claire's room which now has a twin bed in it instead of a queen.

Here's her room without the headboard. I think I like it better without (don't tell Matt). I picked out stupid material...that's the problem.

We put the queen in Sammy's room because he actually has more room in there since he doesn't share with the baby like Claire does. I don't have bedding for a boy's queen sized bed yet so it's blank.

Finally, I ate the last of the Valentines chocolates. Sob.

And I kissed this baby a lot.

And you would too.

Because look at her legs! Chub rolls with pulled up socks and no pants are awesome.

I'm IN!

2011-02-20T17:40:00.000-06:00

So my sister, Katie, sent me a surprise package. This is Sammy's surprise face.

It came in a fancy-shmancy looking chinese takeout box.

When I opened it, it said "open to find your fortune" on the top.

See?

And inside was a little origami-like fortune cookie!

See?

And it said.....drumroll please...

"Your destiny is to be in Katie and Chance's wedding on August 27th as a matron of honor!" (well, something like that). It even said my lucky numbers: 8 27 11 (very cute). And, just to be fair, I am a co-matron of honor with the other "matron" of our family, my big sister Laura. Thanks Aunt Tater! I accept!!!

Matt has been gone

2011-02-18T01:10:00.000-06:00

Matt has been gone this week, and it pretty much went as I expected. Bad. Well, not entirely, but it didn't help that it started with Sammy puking on Sunday. He stayed up kinda late because his tummy hurt too much to sleep.

I didn't watch much of the grammy awards, but I turned it on for a minute and Sammy was really into watching Mick Jagger perform. Then he got a HUGE kick out of this lady. He said: "wow! Her whole body is fancy!" :)

So, due to sickness Sam stayed home Monday through Wednesday and we canceled everything because of germs. Claire and I actually had a bit of a honeymoon period with Sam there for a day or two because he is really sweet when he's sick!

But then I let him stay home ONE day too long and we realized that he wasn't actually sick anymore. NOW, he was just stir crazy from having layed around for 4 days. He also managed to fall off a coffee table and cut the skin on his boy parts. How do you bandage that?! So, he laid around for another day.

By the next day, he was well and playing, but we were ALL really cabin-fever-ish from having not gotten out of the house in days. And of course no daddy was walking through the door to help lessen the tensions, so I got a little crazy. Sammy was super disobedient and picked on Claire all day until I really lost it on him. A low point. I think I yelled something at him like: "I don't even KNOW anymore Sam. You tell ME how I should get you to obey!" Awesome parenting skills.

So I suck. Luckily, our West Side Ladies (scout troupe) came over tonight and that eased a lot of tensions around here. Having other people in these four walls with us was very nice. But then Claire stepped on something and hurt herself. Seriously. This week just needs to end. BUT, on a much nicer note: HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT KATIE! I still remember when you were born. You smelled really good.