Huge Exhale

At 1107 today I finished up my last holiday obligation. And just like that, the migraine I've been flirting with for the past 48 hours lifted. Maybe it's just aging, but I'm becoming more and more of an introvert. I like people, but that time away in silence is my recharge. Anyway, we survived an extremely busy weekend (complete with our first ever stomach bug! Yes, in 4.5 years of parenting we have never had a kid get stomach sick...but Hen succumbed to the nasty germs everyone was so kindly and deliberately sharing, but it was very mild so one and done. Phew!).

First, may I quickly comment on the weather, Seriously, what gives??? It's just now starting to look like October out there, and the forecast is calling for temps in the 60's on Christmas!!! Come February when we're buried I might wish this back, but right now I'm ready for some nasty weather to be my excuse to stay home and read.

What we did this weekend: sleep in until 8 (me: Steve got up with the kids at the usual 6, thanks Babe!), bake an insane amount of cookies, wash dishes 1,700 times, deliver cookies to neighbors, walk neighborhood to see lights, bake more cookies, Henri's dance recital, set up the church for program, bake more cookies, Christmas program at church, clean up church, bake cookies all day Monday, brief excitement with stomach bug, final playgroup at church, experience steam radiator exploding boiling steam all over the church while trying to set up playgroup, cleaning up church from water damage and cookie decorating while herding sugared up kids, deep clean of the house, and now: peace. With a sewing project on tap for tonight and a fun knitting project as a reward for when that's done. I have a few odds and ends I might get to for Christmas, but feeling pretty laid back about it. We can celebrate all weekend if need be, and no one is going to care if I don't make a traditional item except me.

Before I can knit I have to (hand)wind all the skeins. Steve got me this years ago and I finally have the perfect project for it (a simple cardigan for me).

I finally convinced him that baseball season is over so now he's all about football. Here he is trying to punt one of the potatoes I was cooking for dinner.

Lots of crafting. They "repainted" a birdhouse using water. So. Much. Water. 

Henri has been sewing up a storm. I think this is a backpack?

Dad went to a conference last week. Which means random vendor gifts. The huge hit this time was an ice mold that makes round ice cubes. The kids have one permanently going in the freezer so they can lick it whenever the urge hits (which is frequent. And yes, I supplement their iron so I'm pretty sure they're not deficient).

Working on bendy wire dolls for Henri's gifts. They'll be fairies and mermaids once I make the clothes. It's a really fun project and I see her enjoying making them once she gets a bit older. Also, wonderfully inexpensive (especially if you have embroidery floss laying around). 

Showing off her skirt from Aunt Abi

Neighbor gifts all packaged. Sadly the lids fit when the pretzels were plain, but adding all the chocolate and toppings made them too big so I had to go the tacky route with plastic wrap and rubber bands

We made 6 varieties. My favorite were the dark chocolate with Andes mints. Mmmmmm.

Seen on the neighborhood lights walk

The perspective of a two year old. Hudson got hold of my phone, overrode my password, changed a bunch of settings, and took a long string of photos. 

She wanted a braid for her recital, so I did an inside out to make sure it stayed in place.

All ready to go! Adding to the chaos her teacher informed me on Thursday of the need for a dark blue skirt and white shirt for Saturday. Hen had neither because there's no way she'd wear anything not pink or purple, so it was a long night of shopping. Old Navy came through for me (and I found two dresses for me for $8 so there was that)

Reviewing their steps with the assistant Miss Kaitlynn

Hen's class

The saga of the reindeer antlers. Basically, she pitched a fit in class because she couldn't keep them. Then on Sat she refused to wear them on her head, but wanted them around her neck...or waist depending on the dance. She was thrilled when Ms. Clare said she got to take them home though.

The whole school. While small, the older girls have competed at the international level and are pretty good. The little kids were just a hot mess. 

My photos never do justice to the scale of decorating we do at church. But it was impressive (as I pat myself on the back...)

But after 7 years of this, we have a system down that works well and looks impressive. Now, imagine this with an extra table added, and then about 30 platters of cookies, cheese, and crackers, turn down the lighting, and have all the candles lit. It went well.

Some of the vanilla meltaways I made.

The world is seriously confused. Hard to see here, but this is all new growth coming up out of the leaves...the stuff we normally see in the spring. 

Bobby is experiencing a resurgence in popularity. Hudson is obsessed with her, he's been mothering her like crazy. Which is cute and all, but he freaks if anything is perceived as amiss, and as he doesn't speak well, I'm left to try and interpret whatever it is that a doll might need. It's getting old. I think a third child would be easier at this point. 

They have their whole room to play in but the kitchen is still their favorite room to set up camp. It made baking rather difficult.

The set up for playgroup today. The house is 8" so you can fit a lot of candy and frosting on it :)

The men are my great-grandma's sugar cookie recipe. The secret is in the sour cream...and the fact that the ingredient measurements are kind of left up to your imagination. They're so good. 

They all had a great time and worked very hard at their creations (they wanted to make sure they fit as much candy on as possible)

The finished products, Hen had already eaten a person

While I vacuumed Henri decided it would be helpful to rearrange her bookshelves. In theory it would have been, but in practice all the books came out, and then she started reading them, and then I had three cases of books worth to sort. We are very fortunate to have such a great library though! Found some old favorites to read after nap.

My decor is minimal, and as I love the Scandinavian look, I'll say it is intentional instead of laziness. 

And just like that, naptime is over and the natives are ready to roam. Looking forward to a more laid back rest of the week :)

VT Thanksgiving and that start of Christmas

On Saturday we traveled to VT from NY so we could see Abi. For the space of 15 minutes the whole family was home and we got an (uncooperative) photo in front of the tree before Meghan and Allie had to head out. Steve took the bus home on Sunday and the kids and I stayed till Thursday. Little buggers were awake of 4:30 most mornings, Hen contracted a cold and was coughing a lot/rolling out of her bed and under mine and then bumping it, so sleep was minimal. But overall things went well and it was so good to see Abi. Now to convince her to move back. Or at least only a few time zones away.....

Sisters!

On Monday Meg and Nate came back up. And we cleared windfalls.

Can you spot Nate? :)

Wednesday afternoon we were all pretty beat from being up since 4:30 so the fire went on and the knitting came out. Abi knit a pair of socks, I'm still plugging away on just one sock, and Mom worked on a scarf.

Thursday morning it was flurrying. Our first snow!

Hudson "helped" wash dishes. I did such a lousy job of taking pictures of Abi and the kids.We were just having too much fun to stop. Not to mention she's terrible about letting me photograph her.

The first half is a pretty drive home. 

Friday morning bright and early the kids and I headed to Russo's to pick up all the greenery for the church. My two cohorts were both stricken with illness, so I crammed everything (including a crate worth of boughs) into my tiny Civic. That car can hold a ton of stuff! The kids are hidden in the branches back there somewhere....

And as a treat (to myself) we went thrifting. Found this cute mini tree and a bag of mini ornaments for the kids. Hen hung one, but Hudson we so particular about the whole thing, and he patiently decorated till all were hung.

I love his enthusiasm for ritual and tradition. Can't imagine who he got that from ;)

Sigh. There was another dress-up purchase. I'm aware it looks like the kids are constantly getting stuff  but I've been studying their play habits, and today a ton of stuff got pitched. Next week, anything not played with is getting tossed too. They honestly don't care. Hudson has a few loved items, Henri has a few, but otherwise they're always crafting and creating with my recycling so why keep corralling clutter? I'm a big proponent of frequent and extensive purges. And encouraging creative play. So, crafting items remain, most stuffed animals and all baby toys were pitched, sets missing any pieces were gone, most everything else boxed. The dress up and kitchen set remain out as that's in constant use. Fair warning has been issued, and anything found out and not in use is getting thrown. Of course, fair play is in effect so the same applies to my stuff. But since I purge every few months it's a non-issue.

The theme this year was stars. I got in a great workout hauling a ladder around all morning and hanging garlands and those pesky stars (scale isn't great here; they're about 10 feet up and hung on fishing line that was determined to tangle every few inches and took literally an hour to erect).

Making this extra big so you can admire my handiwork. Had a great group out to help and everything was done in a few hours. This year we made the guys do clean up and that was a treat!

Just little spots of cheer scattered throughout

Saturday afternoon we got our tree and watched White Christmas, a favorite tradition of ours. 

Somehow Barnabas ended up with my most recent creation "because he is cold" and I think he pulls it off well. Having a camel guarding your tree feels oddly apropos.

And then another food shot. My diet has been horrendous for.....months, so yesterday I'd finally had enough and it's back to tracking bites and  meal planning (for everything, not just dinner). Kale was a big feature last night in smoothies and raw and steamed. It's fortunate to be healthy AND taste so good!

Tons of baking and more church decorating in the plans for this week. I let some of my normal Monday chores slide because it was so nice out and Hudson and I played instead (Hen opted to stay inside and sew) but I'm sure they'll still be there when I get to them :)

NY Thanksgiving

We had an extended holiday as we went to NY for the actual event, and then headed to my folks for another week to enjoy Abi being home from Guam. Maybe it's all the being gone, but wow is December already flying! The next two weeks are packed solid, and I haven't even begun to schedule the usual events like making cookies for the neighbors or taking the kids to shop for each other. But we got our tree today, and decorated the church, and watched White Christmas, so we're off to a good start :)

He's starting to play independently (of Henri) and with deep concentration with stuff that interests him.

The past two playgroup crafts

OK, huge excitement/free entertainment. The house at the bottom of our driveway finally came down. Fortunately all the workmen were amused by their fan section and didn't mind that we set up camp (complete with coffee) every day to watch the minutae. I made them maple apple caramel bars as a thank you.

The unloading of the enormous excavator was a bit too much for Hud

TWO excavators!!!! Little guy nearly stopped breathing he was so excited. Turns out they really did need the second one as the house came this close to tipping into the street...

Pretty much the best day of his life. Until the owner of the job arrived, chased us off the property, and hung up No Trespassing signs and caution tape. Killjoy.

Dad "playing" with the kids

And it's down! Our neighbor Lou had us over for an impromptu viewing party and I didn't have my phone on me. But we were a few feet from the action and it was a lot of fun. 

The next morning we headed to NY, and decided to stop at my alma mater to visit Anna. I hadn't been on campus since graduation, but nothing (except a new gym) has changed. Even the dorms smell exactly the same. 

Making the trip into a 9 hour one, we stopped at Sue's workplace (library) to say hello since she wouldn't be home till late. They had a huge chess set which the kids loved. 

And then we decided to paint all the trim at her house. Which led to painting the bathroom a new shade. Which led to a lot more work than I'd expected. But it's a lot fresher, and the trim looks great!

Attempting to throw leaves and get a good family photo while using a self timer, haha

I'll go on record as stating that trampolines are extremely dangerous and irresponsible to have. However, there happens to be a large one at Grams, and try keeping kids off it if their cousins are on it. Fortunately the kids are all really small so not much force is generated. And they really love it.....

And one of the days they were on it for a solid 2.5 hours and slept awesome that night. Also, easy containment in a small area so the adults could play bocce ball and have golf ball hitting competitions (Melanie was the most accurate with her drives)

I think this was the best we got....hard to see with the light, but its crazy how much Hen looks like her cousins. Also crazy how hot the weather was. We had the house windows open it was so warm.

Poorly staged food shot, it was just so yummy (leftover cornbread stuffing I fried with a poached egg and avocado) that I had to commemorate 

Park play

Look reeeeally closely, and you will see a tiny worm on the tip of the leaf. He was carefully carried for the duration of our walk.

Cool grasses. We went to a new park that had a path that led to another one. Along the way we found a ton of golf balls someone had hit there. You never saw so much excitement hunting for more.

This sign...I looked up all the news for Big Flatts but despite the sternness of the wording there was no public record of what this is all about. Dying to know though!

It's a special gift to have cousins so close in age that love you and just assimilate you into their routine. The girls sort of charged about the place and we really only saw them at meals and when they sent the youngest to ask if they could do something normally not allowed. 

Also? Unlimited dress up. Hen was in heaven, I think she had on a different princess dress for each hour we were there. 

And then we went from shirt sleeves weather to snow and mid-20's in VT

Hud was soooooo excited about the little shovels. 

Checking out the beginning of the annual bonfire (which Henri has claimed as her log cabin like Laura Ingalls and it's going to be a sad day for her when it gets torched)

Abi brought her some skirts from Guam and they were a huge hit. Making her wear a jacket was a huge miss (it was 27 degrees!!!)

Dropped Steve off at the bus and took (major) advantage of Mom watching the kids to hit up Trader Joe's and Pier One. And drive in my first snow of the season

I was attempting to get a decent one of him in front of the tree.....

More phone photos to come soon :)