Zachary Kindergarten Picnic & End of Year Show

Today Zachary had a special end-of-year show for Kindergarten. Poppi and MeMa were here during this time.  Zach had a picnic with his class then back to the school auditorium for their presentation.  Lucky for us, Joanna (aunt Juicenana) was able to join us.

We stopped by Subway and grabbed lunch to take with us to the picnic, not knowing if the kids would eat lunch there or not. We met at Zach's class to "assist" all the classes to the park.  I did not know the park they were talking about, and it turned out to be pretty far away.  We walked them out the school, then crossed Demptster, then walked all the way to the playground through some HORRENDOUS pollen spores.  So awful.  I don't know if I have ever seen anything that bad.  It was difficult to even walk through.   Turned out that the kindergartners had already eaten, so we (me, Wy, Nick, Poppi, MeMa, and Joanna) found a table a little out of the way and had our lunch while Z's class, plus the two others, played.  Then we played and watched all the kids.  The teachers passed out Popsicles to the kids, and Wyatt was granted one.  Yannick spent most of the time walking across a bridge and putting his sunglasses on and off.  Special thanks to Aunt Juicenana who was happy to oblige his sunglasses obsession.

Entire Kindergarten (3 classes) Zachary back row, far right with a stick, leaning on the grass

 Then long trek back to the school where the families went to the auditorium and the kids back to their classes to prepare for the show.  We were not sure what it would be besides singing.  Turned out they all sang songs they learned during their weekly music class.  Art was able to leave work to come watch the show with us.

Zachary in the purple shirt behind his friend David in orange

Zachary in the middle singing

The three Kindergarten classes.  Z's head is in the middle row, middle, to the right of the girl in the pink shirt, and above the girl with the white shirt.  He was not so into all the singing really.  But he did participate some.

video of Kindergarten class singing

After the performance, all the kids came down to sit with their parents to watch a slideshow of pictures taken of the kids throughout the year.  They said they would send home a copy of the picture slideshow at the end of the year.  Here we all are watching the performance:

Quite the audience to support Zachary!

Little guy doing some good clapping - a favorite past time at the moment

Best audience ever!

Afterwards, Art had to go back home, and we collected Zach and brought him home.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

Invasion by Poppi/MeMa
Body Snatchers meaning they took over our kids - YEA!!  Given the amount of stuff that went on, I will attempt to keep the verbiage minimal.
Poppi MeMa arrived Monday May 21.

Tues May 22
Jump right into Grandparent role.  MeMa stayed home with Yannick while Poppi, Wyatt and I went to go have lunch at Z's school.  Lunch being at 10:30am for the Kindergartners, Wyatt got to eat his snack.

Zachary is in the red shirt w/ the baseball on the far left.  Wyatt is wearing a red jacket on the far bottom right.  Z is sitting next to his bestie, David.

Back home for lunch and playing. Joanna was planning on joining us in the afternoon, but not sure what time. I had an outing planned, but it didn't go off without a hitch.  We wanted to go to NWern to feed the ducks and the fish (which who loves more, Poppi or the boys??) and while there take advantage of their "Friday Crepe Happy Hour" and get a Nutella Crepe for $1.25.  But we got to the lake late (around 5pm), after picking Joanna up as she walked from the El stop towards our house.  But the feeding of the ducks/fish was fun as always, though Yannick kept eating his bread.  I remember when Wyatt would do that with bread or raisins.  Then Poppi and Joanna take the big boys back to the house while MeMa and I go to Dengeos to get dinner.  King Lab was having a fundraiser where Dengeos will give 20% of your order total to King Lab if you give them the paperwork.  We had never eaten there, but it sounded pretty good.  There were a few Gyros ordered, a few Greek salads.  Joanna stayed and had dinner with us.

Aunt Juicenana reading to the big boys

Wed May 23 - stuff happened that I don't remember.  Except I DO remember that the grandparents babysat for me so I could go get my eyes checked.  I knew they were getting worse since having had Yannick (EVERYTHING swells during pregnancy, and some stuff doesn't go back, like sometimes eyes), and I suspected that I would need to start wearing glasses full time.  Sure enough, my eyesight has changed quite a bit in one eye, and a little in another eye.  I defin need new glasses.  I asked the Dr. if this was the type of prescription that meant I needed to wear them every day all day.  He said about 50% of the people w/ my prescription would.  So I think I won't.  So there.

Thurs May 24 gets its own blog entry: Zachary's kindergarten picnic and performance.

In fact, oddly, I have decided to give the rest of the events their own entries as well, which will make it easier to search for them later.

To be continued....

Typical Saturday

Try to sleep as late as possible
Eat "fun" breakfast of pancakes, or biscuits or muffins, bacon, eggs, etc (not cereal)
Play
Shower
Yannick morning nap
**atypical moment:  Go to "adoption fund" garage sale at Mangrich's.  We score 2 giant super soakers (wedding presents for Ben and Steph), 2 Xbox games (which we later found out do not work on our Euro Xbox), a soccer ball for Art
Visit Ms. Beanie

Yannick with Ms. Beanie in the swing

Go home for lunch and naps

Play outside at park

Play inside

Eat dinner

Play

Clean up dinner

Get ready for bed

Finally warm enough for the boys to sport their FULL new jammie outfit they got for their bdays from Aunt Joy.  Always such great smiley boys. :)

Read bible stories

Pray

Hallelujah kids in bed

Party like it's 1999

PIcnic at Our Park

Finally...spring is here!  After our freak early summer in March, it's been decidedly chilly here.  To celebrate, the younger boys and I had a picnic at the park behind the house.  Yannick's first ever picnic - at least his first where he was expected to sit down and eat food.  I was very curious to see if he was going to be obedient and sit on the picnic blanket or take off for the playground.  I was pleasantly surprised that he stayed put, after just a brief struggle!

Yannick and Wyatt mid-eating

Wyatt so wants to be a sunglasses wearer, but they never seem to work for him.  He has several pair and none have made him happy...for unknown reasons to me.  Yannick however LOVES sunglasses.  Unfortunately for any adult present, what he loves about them is having them on for 5 seconds, taking them off, giving them to you, then whining until you put them back on his face, which he is thoughtfully leaning forward to help you out.  This does not get old for him, but it does for me.  JUST KEEP THEM ON OR OFF.  Alas, I spend a good portion of time humoring him.

Short note - that is not a picnic blanket we are sitting on.  Instead it is an old fabric shower curtain which I thought might keep us dryer if the ground was wet, and help repel the inevitable spills.

Horrible Trauma or Bad Eater?

Yannick got a cereal bar for snack. Somehow he ended up smooshing it on his face.  It looks so awful, like a horrible accident has occurred.

I quick glance looks like he's bloodied himself badly.  Upon closer inspection, it's the inside of  a cereal bar on his face.

Art was on the phone with his parents.  I took a picture with my phone of this, and held it up to him while he was on the phone, just to freak him out a bit (no, I'm not the best wife there is!), which he did.  Though he was not terribly alarmed since I was pretty calm.  If this was a real trauma, you can bet Art would have heard his name yelled by a crazy lady.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my 3 Moms!  I certainly did not know the enormity of your job description, sacrifices and love until I became a mom.  I am so grateful to all my Moms for their love, support, guidance, and example.

 Today I got to sleep a bit late, then got breakfast in bed, which I enjoy both of those things!  Kiddos wanted to be in bed with me, and how can you say no to that?  Zachary had a great present he made at school which was also a "breakfast in bed" theme.

Not our best picture, but there's a lot of love there! :)

Of course church, where Jason's sermon was about the Proverbs 31 woman.  Seriously?!  Who can live up to her...not the best encouragement on Mom's Day. :)

After lunch I got to take a little movie outing as my mother's day present to myself.  I saw Hunger Games and bought a snack pack.  Happy Mother's Day to me!

New(ish) carseat

Finally, we have moved Yannick out of the ever-convenient-for-car-sleeping infant carseat into his convertible carseat.  Big move.  Takes some serious freedom away from us in the morning (during naptime). It's time though.

Chillin' in his new carseat.

The big boys like the new seat - it gives them a bit more room near the seatbelts so they don't need help unbuckling.  Buckling the seat belts will continue to be an issue - just not enough room in the Fit for them.

Yannick seems happier facing forwards.

Long Ride

Today Wyatt rode his bike to Walgreens and back, while I pushed Yannick in the stroller.  It's a good ways if you're not conditioned for it.  About 6 or so blocks one way.  1/2way home, Wyatt got a bit tired of riding and decided he needed a little break, so we stopped while Wyatt rested in the grass and Yannick watched him.  Yannick watching him prompted Wyatt to want to play with him, so instead of riding the 2 blocks back home, he decided he wanted to ride in the double stroller to play.  Lucky me, I got to balance his bike on the handle of the stroller while pushing the two of them while they were playing.

Wyatt resting and chatting with Yannick

Hup Holland!

A nice present from family in Holland.  Yannick is the only one who hasn't been to Holland yet, not that the other boys remember going.  We will have to change that!

Looking a bit tight around the middle!

On a side note, our friends, the W family, who are missionaries in Slovenia are here again for 2 nights.  Our Wyatt is happy to have baby Wyatt in the house again.  However, Wyatt is not a huge fan of baby Wyatt's head adjusting helmet (he had surgery in March to correct his lack of soft spot) b/c he said it looks like it hurts.  Which is doesn't, and does not affect baby Wyatt's disposition at all.

Normal Wednesday Morning

Just some stuff that happened this morning that got captured on film to be forever remembered.

Zachary building a Duplo ship - taking a break from regular legos.

Yannick appears to be reading here, which we think is super funny!  Lots of chaos going on around him : Art trying to get ready for work, Wyatt doing something.

This one is a bit dark, but it's a video of Nick toddling about

PIzza Night!

It has been a long time since we have made our own pizza.  Art and I used to do it regularly, making the sauce from scratch as well.  This week, for reasons unknown, Zachary decided he would like to make his own pizza.  So I went and bought the pizza crusts and all the makings for pizza.  Turned out he mainly wanted to throw the dough in the air like a pizza maker, not just put sauce and toppings on it!  Oh well. next time.  Each person got to choose what toppings went on their 1/2 of the pizza.  Wyatt did the sauce and all the cheese for one pizza and Zachary did all of it for the second.  Here's what we got:

Left: Shayna pizza - ham and pepperoni Right: Wyatt - ham

Wy proudly making his pizza

Zachary carefully adding the yummy sauce

Left: Zachary's pizza - cheese & green peppers Right: Art's - peppers, mushroom, onion, ham, pepperoni

Two pizzas in progress

It was a fun time making them - both boys agree with that.  However, they did not love the Aldi pizza crust and said it wasn't great pizza.  Perhaps we'll try it again next month with a different crust.

Aunt Joy Visits!!

Yea!  Aunt Joy came to visit for a bit of family togetherness and some R&R!

I was super warm last week, and we were expecting more warm weather for Aunt Joy, but NOOOO, a big cold front came through (thanks Chicago!) leaving Joy's summer clothes lacking!  Poor her, she had to borrow sweats from us!

She arrived late Friday afternoon and met up with Joanna.  Art and I waited for the sitters and drove downtown to meet them at a Korean BBQ restaurant.  YUM!!  It was so so cold in there though, and we had to take our shoes off.  But worth it!

Art Shayna ready to EAT!

All 4 of us enjoying appetizers - notice everyone still has their coats on.

Joy and Joanna preparing for some good meat

After dinner we bid Joanna good night and took Joy back with us to Evanston.  On the way home, Joy gave me my present- my beloved Doubletree cookies!!  Oh Joy you are too good to me!!  Dropped Joy off and said goodbye to the sitters.  Successful fun evening!

Saturday started early as most days do.  I held the boys off from waking Aunt Joy until 8am...and that was tough for them!  Then just a regular Counts saturday.  Lazy breakfast, visit to Ms. Beanie, lunch, nap for the boys and Aunt Joy (playing is tough business!).  After naps for all, Joy made cupcakes for the boys to decorate later.  She wanted to celebrate the boys' bdays early and give them some presents.  We wanted to celebrate her birthday as well and decorated her chair.  Here is the proof of fun brownie decorating:

Wyatt decorating

W icing face

Wyatt lovely icing smile

Wyatt licking a knife??  Good idea??

Wyatt, how did Mommy not steal that knife

Zachary decorating cupcake

Icing face

Zachary icing face

Aunt Joy with her two oldest nephews, all happily sugared up

While I worked on getting dinner ready, DaU and Joy worked on turning the playroom into a giant obstacle course.  I went down to watch during the last few minutes before dinner.

Yannick and I watching the big boys run their obstacle course

after jumping off couches, slam into Buster, knocking him over

Roll over the cushions, crawl under the pillow

Zachary doing a forward roll

Z watching as W jumps off the couch and heads for Buster

Dinner time!  We all just get through Asian chicken noodles so we can enjoy the cupcakes Aunt Joy made with the big boys.  Happy Birthday to Aunt Joy, Zachary, and Wyatt all coming up...plus a happy 1st bday belated to Nick.

Getting ready for birthday dinner

Singing Happy Brithday 

Yannick getting the Heimlich or being jollied out of a temper tantrum?

Boys opened their presents - superhero jammies for the big boys (Batman for Zachary and Spiderman for Wyatt), and an Avengers shirt for Nick.  All so cute.  Because it is still so cold here, the boys could only wear their jammie shirts, and not the shorts.

Good superhero poses

And one more turn with the rocker walker for Yannick before bed

Sunday

View from Aunt Joy's bed as she is awakened  by her nephews!

Sunday - off to church - the boys wore their superhero jammie shirts under their sport coats for church.  Art rode his bike so Joy could ride with us .  After church I had to run to the store for supplies for tonight's Ethos meeting.  Joy waited in the car with the boys.  Apparently they listened to a lot of music and also, threw paper airplanes around!

Action shot of the airplane

Wyatt getting ready to launch his airplane

Zachary being a good big brother and helping Nick with his milk.

After lunch, Joy and the boys made jello jigglers before their naps.

I am not sure the boys had ever had jello jigglers before, and I can say they were not thrilled with the taste, but they enjoyed the craft time.  Aunt Joy is always fun for a food craft.

Aunt Juicenana came by as well, and we all sat down to chat while the boys napped.  Zach's one-hour nap time goes by pretty quickly when you are just chatting.  After naps, it was crazy in the basement time with Aunt Joy who attempted several times to get some pics with her nephews who can't be bothered with looking good for pictures

Some good attempts, and WOW what a mess!

Not to be forgotten:

Yannick dressing up for the occassion.

Sadly it was then time to take both Joanna back to her apartment, and Joy back to the airport, leaving Art in charge of getting all of them to bible study.

Joanna, always exhausted with her MBA studies/social life catches catnaps whenever possible...like in the car

Nighty Night Aunt Juicenana!  Even though it is 4pm!

Come back soon Aunt Joy!!