Long Car Ride to GA

We were dreading dreading dreading this car trip to GA for Christmas.  After Yannick's STELLAR performance in the car in August (he was SO bad that I left Poppi alone to drive ZW back to CHI by himself and took a plane home with Yannick!), we were afraid.  However, Yannick is much older now - at this age, 4 months makes a HUGE difference.  One thing, he can interact with this brothers. Another, with his placement behind the driver (so Z & W can be next to each other to share games & videos) he can see mom or dad in the passenger seat.  Perhaps most importantly, he can EAT.  If he got fussy, no problem, feed him some banana with my finger, or give him some baby puffs!  Easy peasy!  And the big boys?  Easy as usual.  This year brought the arrival of a new distraction: the Gameboy that Zachary got for Sinterklaas.  He has no idea that it is the gameboy I had when I traveled for work 7 years ago or so.  He is SO thrilled with it.  He also does not yet know that there are many games for it. We just gave him one cartridge that has 5 games.  This kept the two boys quite entertained!

The only real glitch of the trip was when I was driving in the late late hours.  We thought we "might" be able to drive straight through and get to ATL in the wee hours and not have to stop for the night. While I was driving, I had 4 asleep boys in the car, and I was listening to my book on mp3.  When the phone rang (POPPI!!), for some reason I answered it.  And loudly (since I had the book playing in my ear, I forgot how quiet the car was).  It woke up Art, and woke up the baby.  Once Yannick was awake, it was all over.  The big boys were awakened and everyone was crying. So we got a hotel a bit out of Nashville.  So close, yet so far.  It was plenty late though - around 11pm.  No problems the next day though.

I feel like I should have some parental guilt that my 3yr old knows how to play video games!

Yannick getting lunch off my finger - where did I pack that baby spoon??

Two boys finally asleep and so cozy!

Sinterklaas 2011

Sinterklaas came a bit late this year.  We explained to the boys that it was because it takes some time for Sint to get from Holland on Dec 5th to America.  That will work for a few years!

This year we celebrated late into the evening, because we wanted to do it without Yannick this year.  He's so little that his presence would be a huge distraction.  We had Wyatt part of Sinterklaas his first year, but he was a bit younger (6 months) and just sat there nicely.  Yannick would be INTO EVERYTHING.  Next year we will have him join in the fun.

We have been singing songs leading up to this day for weeks.  Wyatt knows the songs this year and loves them.  Sings them all the time.  He is very proud of speaking Dutch.  I was the one to knock on the door this year and hightail it back inside.

Zachary with the packages from Sinterklaas, and the sak!

Wyatt in a nest he had to build to get his present - he loves being "baby bird"

Dexter hiding in the wrapping paper

Wyatt showing off his "big" present - a Millennium Falcon 

All of us enjoying Sinterklaas snacks and drinks (no wine for the boys!)

Zachary with his favorite present -my old Gameboy Advance

Zachary listening to Art read his rhyme bf being allowed to open his gift

We did the usual running around the house looking for the present which the boys still love, plus a few other fun physical challenges.

Soccer Stars!

Both boys got to play soccer this season - a first time they allowed 3yr olds to play.  Another family had 2 boys, each one on our boys' teams, which made the 2hr commitment every Saturday morning more enjoyable. While Wyatt played soccer at 9am, Zachary played with Riley, then when it was Zach & Riley's turn to play, Wyatt and Carter played with each other's backpack of toys. It was an enjoyable time for them both, but more so for Zachary.  He and one other boy were clearly the best ones out there.  We, selfishly liked it better when Zach and Jordan did not play at the same time, bc Jordan was clearly gifted and very good.  Wyatt had a less good time.  He played on a pre-K team that was 3-5yr olds not in Kindergarten.  He was just a bit too young. He did not get the ball much, and was not terribly aggressive to get it either.  His shining moment was when one boy was dribbling down the field, fell down, and Wyatt took over and scored a goal.  HUGE moment!

Also fun for Zachary was that this time was the first time his team was assigned a name, and not just a color. Zachary was on the "Fire" team, and Wyatt was on the "Blue" team.

Ms. Beanie even came and watched them play one day, then we went back to the King Home and had lunch with her in the dining room.

Here are our boys with their participation Gold Medals (Wyatt's first)!  So exciting!

Proud, silly boys with their medals

Holiday Train

Last year our family had a great time riding the Holiday Train (an el train decorated to the hilt with Christmas decorations, complete with Elf helpers handing out candy canes and a flatbed car with Santa on his sleigh)  Last year, it was COLD and snowing.  So perhaps that accounts for the fact that the train was mostly empty.  This year, a family in Zachary's kindergarten class put together a little outing for Z's class: a ride on the holiday train followed by dinner at a Mexican restaurant.  The train was PACKED.  It was crazy.  Trying not to lose our kids, while letting them sit with friends was NUTS.  All the while me having Yannick strapped to me in the ergobaby!  Several kids from Zach's class came, including Z's best buddies: David, Eli,  and Vasanth.  The kids all had a great time.  Even better at the restaurant, because they were allowed to sit at a table by themselves with NO PARENTS! :)  I sat at a table next to theirs with Yannick, David's mom and Vasanth's mom.  Art and Wyatt sat at a table with Vasanth's dad who arrived later.  Shemar's family was nearby.

We had 4-5 minutes after disembarking at the last stop to go check out Santa on the flatbed car before loading back onto the el and heading back to main st. stop for dinner.

Zachary with is buddies David (next to him) Vasanth (across), Eli (diagonal).

It was a fun, albeit chaotic and a bit expensive (that restaurant is not playing around!) evening.  However, I do prefer how it was last year with just us, and much less chaos!

EBF Children's Christmas Program

My boys, up on stage at church, singing songs that we did not do a great job of teaching them!  Bad parents.  Still, they look so cute I can barely stand it!

Wyatt looking dapper in his sweater vest

Zachary wearing a suit!

Here the boys are in action for "Go Tell it on the Mountain"  The entire thing was super cute as usual!

Yannick preparing for crawling!

Oh no.  It's begun.  Yannick is starting to push up... that will only lead to crawling.  YIKES! :)  We have some time, but it is approaching quickly!

Our little handsome guy!

Zachary Playdate

I hate playdates.  I really do.  I know they love to play with their friends yada yada yada.  I don't like them because Zachary has been gone all day at school and then I don't get any time with him after school because of a playdate.  So we don't do TOO many of them.  Today, Zachary had his good buddy and neighbor, David, over to play.  After they exhausted themselves with light saber battles, football, and wrestling, they decided to take it down a notch and do some intellectual activities.  So so odd to me to see my 5 year old playing chess with his friend.  Seems surreal.  They both love the game, and we're all playing quite a bit now.  David goes to chess club after school on Thursdays and is therefore better than Zachary, though he holds his own.

Boys playing chess after their snacks

Tree decorating - 2 days later

We did win after all...but the tree put up a big fight.  At one point on Saturday night, we were trying to get the tree up, and thought we had everything tightened.  I was holding the tree, wearing my leather riding glove (I'm allergic to tree wax and will break out), so, thinking we were set, I let go.  The tree fell on Art.  Yannick had been screaming his head off, hungry.  I finally had to go take care of him and LEAVE ART UNDER THE TREE for 10 minutes or so.  :) :)  He was in a GREAT mood. :)  Then, Art takes the tree back to the garage, chops off the bottom bough, and once the boys are in bed, we try again.  This time, no problem.  The tree went up, stayed up, and seemed quite happy in our house.  We even used the cheapy tree stand we've had for 10 years.  We put the lights on the tree, to prepare for decorations on Sunday.

So today, we had family church at home (for several reasons) so we could spend some time together as a family.  While Yannick took his morning nap, the four of us decorated the tree.  It was fun that they remembered some from last year.  It was an enjoyable time.  Of course, with the boys in charge of where they want to put the ornaments, it was a bit lopsided, but that is part of the fun (or so Art tells me.).

Mommy and Yannick trying for a Christmas self portrait

Zachary raided our Christmas boxes looking for more decorations.  he came out of the office wearing this lovely ensemble!

Everyone doing their part putting ornaments on the tree

Visiting Ms. Beanie

We try to visit a Sr. Citizen, living at the King Home, every Saturday for an hour.  Ms. Beanie adores our boys and they seem to really enjoy being with her.  She does provide snacks for them! :)

Zachary eating snacks, Wyatt listening intently to the Clifford book she bought for them at a thrift store.  She now has a drawer filled with books and toys just for the boys when they visit.  She is also enamored with Yannick and calls him "baby Nicky", which Wyatt has started emulating.  She is a great fit for our family.

Christmas Tree!

Last year we found a splendid little tree lot on Howard, tucked away by the Fish Keg.  We got a great price last year, and thought we'd try again this year.  We ended up paying a bit more than we wanted and more than last year, but to be fair, our tree this year is much bigger than last year's.  Much bigger than any tree we've ever had.  It's still small, but a bit taller.  And fat.  We got a fat tree.  The boys had a blast playing hide-and-seek in the trees and generally running around like crazy.

Counts Family photo with our 2011 Christmas Tree

Wyatt hiding in the trees

My big guys warm and toasty

Zachary in a great hiding place

We did not have the opportunity to put the tree up tonight. By the time we got home, Yannick was LOSING it big time, so I put him to bed, then put the big boys in bed.  We brought the tree in to put it up, but it was having "issues" with our cheap tree stand.  Art got fed up, and took the tree out to the garage, for us to tackle tomorrow...possibly with the purchase of a good tree stand.  Baby steps.