ALL ABOARD!!!

I ADORE The Polar Express ever since my second grade teacher read it to my class I was head over heals. It's a beautiful story. When I was fresh out of college and living in New York I got to see the movie in 3D Imax, it was a huge deal back then. The snow, the train careening across the ice, it was all breath taking. I worked for Santa at Macy's 34th street that holiday season and they played The Polar Express soundtrack pretty often. I loved that music and it became forever tied to those wonderful weeks working for Santa, in my memory.

Needless to say, when my father-in-law acquired the Polar Express train and invited us over to play with it and watch the movie I was super excited. My kiddos grow up into between each visit to the rails.

2009

It was more for Isaac's benefit back then, but Riley liked the light and movement.

2010

By this year Riley was 18 months old and had the most adorable indignation about the train. She chased it and yelling and gesturing. I think this was the year Grandpa let Isaac drive the train too. So much growing up that year.

2011

We took a year off from the trains for a trip to Ice & Snow! My amazing father-in-law invited us to an amazing adventure with snow, ice sculptures and ice slides! We had a blast. Isn't Roo's tiny (s)no(w)man adorable?

2012

By 2012 it was my turn to grow up or at least that's how it felt. This was the year they brought the polar express to our house. I put out appetizers in my Christmas apron, Mike made the grown ups chicken bryan and the kids wore jammies. It felt so grown up to host my in-laws. This was the first year Riley remembered the previous train night. We enjoyed Polar Express in 3D, talk about warm fuzzy memories! Isaac was a much...more careful engineer too.

2013

This was the year Isaac got his own train! Here's the story of Isaac's train, it's a good one. It was the second year in a row Roo informed me which pajamas she was saving for train night because by now it was an important event in her life. The train was beautiful all set up around our tree. I love the idea of all the happy childhood memories a passed down toy has already been a part of before we start making our own. Can you tell I cry after all the Toy Story movies?

2014

This year we were back at Grandpa's for train night. He remarked how Isaac has matured and is a lot more trustworthy on the train controls. I think Riley will be ready to try her hand by next year. On the flip side Isaac was far to cool to observe the traditional Hot Chocolate song dance break. What can you do? They just keep growing.

Happy Hanukkah!

Things we learned:

1. The first day of Hanukkah and the first night of Hanukkah are not the same thing. This year the first night was 12/16, but we celebrated the first day 12/17.
2. Proper dreidel spinning technique
3. That Mommy likes latkes, but Riley is not a fan
4. That there are several different verses in the dreidel song
5. One of the acceptable spellings of Hanukkah
6. The candle used to light the other candles is called the shamash
7. You light the candle at night then blow it out and relight it the next night
8. Hanukkah being way less commercialized than Christmas is part of what makes it fun!
9. The first female rabbi was ordained in East Berlin in 1935, but female rabbis have only been ordained since 1972 in the US

Chag Urim Sameach!

Thanksgiving

I am so grateful I was well enough to participate (and grateful I went to the doctor soon after). Grateful we didn't have to travel to see our loved ones. Grateful that at least I got to listen to the parade while I cleaned. Grateful there was laughter! Grateful the food was done on time. Grateful for everyone who came. Grateful everything was delicious! Grateful for left overs. Grateful for some quiet moments snuggling with the kids while we digested. Grateful no one had to leave the house the next day. Grateful for traditions. Grateful for family.

Halloween 2014

It FINALLY came! Costume-wise it was more of the same: Roo's request was easy and ready by September and Isaac's was complicated and we were working on it up until the last second. That being said, I think we super nailed it. I'm proud of the teamwork that produced that amazing, one of a kind costume. Go team! I dressed up, of course. Mike bought all the fabric and even hair dye to be the Kristoff to my Anna, but work got crazy so he never even started working on it. I was 100% fine with that. It was a nice thought, but I told him many times the kids costumes were highest priority. We had to hand make Isaac's enormous hat so it would be accurate and fit on a giant squid head. I also made all the barnacles out of paper mache. I even printed an image of carvings that look like tentacles surrounding a heart to put on Isaac's treasure chest. If you haven't seen the movie Davy Jones is so heartbroken he tears his heart from his chest and locks it away in a chest to keep it safe. It all came together so well!

I stocked up on way to much candy. I enlisted the kids for help with some last minute huge spiderwebs and a few other decorations, but costumes (mostly Isaac's) were the first priority. I didn't feel up to trick-or-treating with the kids this time. It's weird because Mike and I usually fight over who is going to go around with kids and this year we both felt less than enthusiastic about it. Even with my wheelchair it's a serious workout. My neighborhood doesn't have sidewalks so it's up and down driveways and rolling along the gutters. A workout that I have never minded paying for the next couple days, but I opted to pass out candy with my mom. After pictures, they were off! We didn't get even half the trick-or-treaters we got last year, but I had fun looking at the costumes and making stupid jokes ("Oh you better eat some candy, you're bones are showing, etc). Mike and the kids were back after a couple hours and there were so few trick-or treaters it was safe to go inside and wait for the doorbell.

This year, as is tradition, everyone potty-ed and shed unwanted costume pieces and then we took pictures of their haul. I turned on Monster House and since it was a Friday and they're older I gave them a time limit for candy eating instead telling them how many pieces they could pick out. It worked out great and no one got sick. In a perfect world Mike would have finished his costume enough to at least take a picture with me and his beautiful (lit with animated lightening) Ursula pumpkin wouldn't have been to rotten to lift off the table, but it was a fun Halloween. I am totally ready to get back out into the neighborhood with the kids next year! It figures the year I stayed home to hand our candy was slow trick-or-treat-wise and no family of friends dropped by. I hope both kids still come out next year. I've already told Isaac he's old enough to be taking a much more active role in his costume next year!

Easter

Our Easter party was a big success, as always. You can't go wrong with a house full of excited kids. The pancakes were yellow (bananas foster), blue (blueberry) and my favorite, pink (chocolate raspberry). This year we didn't have a single pancake left by the time we were ready to find those eggs. Lot's of happy full bellies after Mike's pancakes and all the yummy breakfast foods family brought. The Easter bunny had four dozen hard boiled and 173 plastic eggs to hide so it's a good thing Roo left him a snack. I let the kids out into the yard in 3 waves: babies/toddlers, preschoolers and then big kids. In years past I had big kids wait on the patio, but this time I kept them inside the house until Mike signaled me to send the next group. We get a little bit better at this party every year.

Happy Easter!!

Easter

My lovely little egg hunters! It was a wonderful occasion as always, but extra special because of all the friends and family that came out this year.

Here's the Easter attire for 2013. Smashing, no?

With bellies full of festive breakfast they hunted eggs. There were four dozen hard boiled eggs and over 100 plastic ones. We filled the plastic ones with small toys, fruit snacks or yogurt covered raisins. I was proud of my candy alternatives, but upon reflection it may have been a bit too hot for the raisins.

Here's my stolen moment to eat (in my awesome Cinderella apron!)

Not to worry, I did not host a party and then cook an Easter dinner. I got an email that kids eat free on Easter at Outback and we walked over to take advantage. It was so novel for the kids trotting along in their Easter clothes. Dinner was wonderful too.

My dinner.

It was a lovely day start to finish. Happy Easter Everyone!

Update on Halloween & Birthday Prep

First, I'm relieved to tell you that we found an Alice dress for Miss Roo! Mike will not have to make one after all. When she was leaving school today Riley told Mrs. D. that she'd be getting a pink Bumbo in the mail. This was an odd and untrue bit of information, but I used it as a segue to remind her that her Halloween costume would come in the mail. When Mrs. D. asked what the costume was Roo answered enthusiastically:

It's "Aah-wis". It's going to come with instructions! First we'll put the black ribbon in my hair. Then the white apron. Then the bwoo dress. We put on tights and black sparkly shoes. Halloween is coming soon after my birthday.

Luckily for us older brother changed his mind(phew). He no longer wants to be a realistic looking machanical man. He decided a squid would be better. That's more like it. I'm completely confident that Mike and I can make an awesome squid. I will say however that I greatly miss the movie character costumes (Ghostbuster, Marty McFly and Anakin Skywalker) these creature costume are trickier.

Here's some of our favorite inspiration shots.

Needless to say, Mike is on the case hardcore. We've been discussing suction cup options for the tenntalces. I've seen bubble wrap, buttons, cut up bath mat, Nerf darts and plain old paint. LOVE the creativity you find image searching squid costumes.

I've got everything for Riley's party except food and balloons at this point. It's gonna be a great party. Here's what we've got so far on the Minnie Mouse front:

My photographer friend gave me a roll of pink fabric with white polka dots. I used it to cut flags for the Circus baby shower invitations. I'm going to hang some as a backdrop and I got Riley a giant Minnie Mouse. The guests will pose against and with those when they enter (hopefully in their Minnie bows/bowties they got with the invitations). Bless my sister-in-law for happily accepting that job. I'll keep a set of "photo booth" pictures to make album for Miss Roo and send the rest with thank you cards.

I got plain colored paper bags with handles for favor bags. I wanted them to look like boutique bags. I'm going to glue paper bows on them and write Riley's boutique in pretty font. As for filling them I really liked giving all the kids a book last year. So, I picked up some Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse paperback books. There's the usual goodie bag fair as well, minus candy or whistles. It's parent friendly swag. Everyone also gets a Minnie or Mickey cup too.

I was going to paint cups, but I decided I had alot on my plate with cup cakes and decor. More updates to follow. This is such a fun marathon-of-events time of year!