St. Nick’s Day

So this is definitely a Wisconsin thing because until I met Andy I had no idea that this day even existed , much less what occurs. Seems as though on December 5th St. Nicholas visits all the children's homes and fills their stockings so when they wake on the 6th if they have been good they get gift and candy or if they have been naughty they get coal. This apparently is a different person than Santa Clause who I always assumed was St. Nick and is separate from the stocking stuffers given out at Christmas time. Actually I am super unclear of what the whole back story is, but suffice it to say the children’s stockings were miraculously filled with a few goodies indicating they had been more nice than naughty this year. this is also a good indicator for their Christmas time as it serves as a reminder that somebody is watching you to make sure you are indeed behaving nicely.

Alex was super excited to get the gold Batman… because he’s made of gold!

Jack had me wait to take his picture until he was able to line everything up so that it could all be seen. Stocking stuffers Assemble!

So Thankful

We had a really good Thanksgiving as usual. the first thing we did was hang up our Christmas  lights because it was a fairly warmish day and it was only getting colder. Let me tell you, it is no fun to hang Christmas lights in 20 degree weather... at least that’s what Andy says, I wouldn’t know. He he he. We spent the day with Andy’s parents and brother who was so nice to cook dinner. He made this stuffing that was so amazing seasoned with herbs from his own garden.

I had the boys dress up to look nice for dinner being as how it was a special occasion. Alex loves to dress up. He immediately went and put his suit on and was so excited to wear it.

He likes wearing his fancy clothes… Jack not so much.

I managed to coax Jack into wearing the top half of the ensemble with the promise that he could remove it once we were done taking pictures. Not just pictures at my house, but pictures over at Grandma’s as well.

They both packed extra clothes to change into because there was a scarecrow burning to attend to later in the evening when it got dark as well as a little geocaching before the turkey was done cooking.

The first picture I took of both the boys together is somewhat off as Jack refused to smile because he was still angry that I made him put his suit on. Then he laughed because I made a remark about how bad the picture looked without him smiling and I took another one before he could stop. What you don’t see is him being angry that I caught him laughing.

We had a little archery going on in the front yard in which two arrows were mangled. This was followed by some geocaching at Valley View Park as well as a little Frolf which resulted in the loss of yet another Frisbee, but the finding of two arrows to replace the ones that were broken. I call that a win.

We had a very nice sit down dinner with a full course turkey dinner with all the fixings. Following that there was much relaxing while we slowly fell into turkey coma.

 

The scarecrow is just an old scarecrow that Ann was going to throw out in the garbage, but what better way to get rid of it than with a theatrical burning.

Just a few warnings here. The picture above is not how fire behaves in a normal setting. It is actually how it behaves when a bottle rocket has been stuffed inside the burlap clothing of the scarecrow.  This also explains the pyrotechnics shooting out the side of the scarecrow into the yard.

Did I mention there were sparklers, lots and lots of sparklers, stuffed inside the scarecrow as well?

I think it is also worth it to mention here that just out of the view of the shot below and to the right is Andy’s parents house. There is maybe a space of about ten feet from where the end of the fire is burning and the actual house.

And yes, that is my seven year old pretending to fight a dragon with his wood sword and garbage can lid shield.

Luckily, even with the wind blowing the fire in the direction of the house and the massive amount of fireworks involved there were no injuries to either animate or inanimate object and the evening was a success. I was even able to get a family picture in to boot before the children changed.

Aww, such a cute little family. Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and remember to be thankful for everything you have.

Pack 38 Presents the Colors

How cool is Cub Scouts? Not only do the kids and the families get to attend cool little adventures like going to hockey games with their pack mates, but they even got to present the colors during the opening ceremonies and stand and salute while the national anthem was sung.

This is the second year in a row that the kids have come to a hockey game. The kids really do enjoy watching and being out and about with their classmates. The best part is the  fights, but we try not to encourage them to cheer for that kind of thing even though half the time I think they are just for show for the audience.

I didn’t realize Jack knew the national anthem, but I caught him on video singing along to it. That makes for a very proud Momma. Alex got to participate by default. No one in the Pack can say no to him so he does what the Pack does even though he’s not old enough yet.

They even got a few shout outs from the announcer and their name put up in lights.

In the end the Admirals lost 2-1 and there were only four fights, but the kids had fun and it made for a good family night out.

Hope your Halloween was Happy

Our little spooky creatures went out twice for Halloween and provided twice the scare. This has become somewhat of a Halloween tradition for us these last couple of years.

We always start out on the Sunday prior to Halloween as this is when our city designates its time for Trick-or-treating. This was somewhat a new concept for me as I have always celebrated Halloween on the 31st and there was not really a designated time, i.e., 4-7pm, where you were supposed to go trick-or-treating. Weird. Anyhow, that is how it is done here so we went along with it and had our little goblins out from 4-7 doing their thing.

We always start with our next door neighbors house as they are older and really enjoy seeing the kids come over in costume. Every year  since we moved in they have made up special little treat bags to give our kids so we do our very best to spend a little extra time with them so they can enjoy the kids as well as a little visitation because they aren’t able to get out much.

Normally we would have gone to Andy’s mom’s house and then continued the romp around her neighborhood, but this year after stopping to see Grandma and Grandpa we decided to head back to our own neighborhood and see if it would be somewhat easier on the kids and us as the homes in Grandma’s neighborhood are very spread out and the kids usually give up after about an hour which is usually about one entire block around. Throw the cold in and you can see how the excitement can wane just a bit.

So we came back to our neighborhood and went to the subdivision directly behind our house. It was way more fun if only because we would run into the kids friends from school as well as their parents. It would break up the monotony of just following the children from door to door and the bonus of being able to go straight home when your done was pretty nice too. The kids seemed to enjoy the Trick-or-treating experience a bit more and were pretty happy with their stash of loot. It was also nice to see all the different decorations up in the neighborhood.

Following three days of school, when the 31st actually rolled around, we were invited to our friends house in their city where they actually hold Halloween on Halloween. Something I am a little more familiar with. This time, even though we didn’t stay out quite as late, it was nice for the kids to go out with other children their age and see them literally run from door to door with the excitement of Halloween that only children expecting free candy can have. Follow that with a  little party back at our friends house that had to be cut short because of school in the morning and it made for a perfect evening of haunted fun.

Now all we have to do is figure out what to do with all this candy from two very lucrative nights of Trick-or-treating. I don’t mind letting the kids have some candy each day, but after awhile we try to taper off and put the candy out of sight out of mind. Perhaps I will take some into work and leave it for my co-workers.

I hope everyone had a safe and happy Halloween this year and hasn’t yet overdosed on sugar.

School pictures!

Hurray! I have been waiting for the school pictures to come and they finally arrived. No retakes this year. I am pleased with the results if not slightly amused. Alex has yet to learn how to smile normally. Every time some one points a camera at him he comes out with a super cheesy grin. Jack looks cool as a cucumber and they are both SO grown up!

They are so adorable I can hardly stand it.

Frisbee golf

When mark came down for the weekend, after spending all day shooting off rockets in Valley View Park, they decided to go play Frisbee golf. I have never played before and I don’t think Mark had either, but Andy had in California with some of his friends. It turns out that even though we are completely terrible at it, it was actually pretty fun. the kids had fun learning how to throw the Frisbees and chasing after them. Mark and Andy got to spend some brother time together (I secretly think he enjoys his time away from me, though I have never heard him admit to it). I , most importantly, got pictures of my family enjoying themselves doing something fun all together.

The Frisbee golf course, which for time saving sake we will from here on out refer to as Frolf, consisted of 18 ‘holes’ which are actually baskets into which you try to get the Frisbees in with as few throws as possible. Seems easy enough until you realize exactly how hard it is to make a Frisbee go the direction you want.

Like I said, we were completely terrible at it which was made worse by the fact that we were all sharing two Frisbees.

The kids had fun trying to throw it in and even more fun chasing them down when the adults threw them very hard and they veered off course.

I even got the kids to sit still for a moment and pose for me for about two and a half seconds before they were off and running again.

We had a minor mishap of a Frisbee being thrown very high and sheering to the left into a huge growth of ragweed and other such plants. After much fruitless searching and climbing up a tree with the hopes of spotting said lost Frisbee, we gave up and played the rest of the game with one. 

All was not lost, however, and by the end of the Labor Day weekend, Mark produced a new Frisbee with which to play again at some future point in time. Huzzah!

First Day of School

I can hardly believe the day has arrived when both my babies are getting on the bus to go to all day school. I thought it might be a little harder on me than it was, but I am still a little sad to see them go. There is not going to be a time when I get to pretend they are my little babies again. They are only going to get busier and a little more distant from me from this point forward so I will have to learn to take their love when I can get it, give it when I can, and value the time they let me spend with them. How do you stop them from growing up?

Jack is in second grade now and is an old pro at the whole getting on the bus and going to school gig. Even though it takes a bit to get him out of bed, once he’s up and ready to go he really does like going to school. After the fact is when he gets grouchy because he’s tired and in his own words “just want(s) to relax”. Little does he know that the school day has been extended 30 minutes extra this year. Poor thing. He really does put up with a lot for being so small.

He did promise to help his little brother so hopefully that all goes well. Like any good big brother Jack gets a bit defensive of his little brother so I think Alex will be just fine.

This is the beginning of Alex’s public education career and is he ever excited. he has been waiting for this day since the first day he cried when his big brother got on the bus to go to kindergarten. I think being at school for so long may be hard for Alex as he is so used to doing what he wants  when he wants in regards to playing and going outside. I hope he does well. He is a true people person and that will be his saving grace because if for nothing else he will go to school for the friends.

I had my camera ready and Andy on standby with the video camera to capture this historic moment. I told them to not forget to turn around and wave at us as they got on the bus. I can’t believe they both remembered. Perfect!

Same school bus as last year and appears to be the same driver as well. Jack will teach Alex everything he needs to know and then Alex will also have a sixth grade buddy assigned to him to assist him throughout the year, usually someone on the same bus schedule.

This year they had an extra thing where the parents could meet the child at the school when they got off the bus to say good bye and help them to their room, but I decided it is confusing enough and hard enough to start a new school and year without having to see your mom again at school.

On a brighter note, having both children in school gives me almost three hours of uninterrupted time to myself when I get home from work to do the things I need to get done. It also gives Andy the opportunity to go back to sleep once the kids are off to school and hours of time to get things done around the house. Oh the possibilities are endless with what he might accomplish.