Boys' Bedtime

Once, many months ago when the big boys were complaining that it is not fair that they have to go to bed and the adults get to stay up, Art uttered a phrase that became set in stone " one day we will let you put yourselves to bed and mommy and I will go to bed; you can stay up and play".  Today was that day.  Crazy yes.

After the VBS performance we came home got the boys ready for bed, and played for a bit.  Yannick went to bed a bit before 9am, which was plenty late for him.  Then Art played computer games with the big boys while I worked at catching up on the blog, until 9:30.  Then Art and I went to bed and gave Z&W instructions on turning off the lights and getting into bed quietly when they were ready (so as not to wake their little brother).  After being in bed for about 5-10 minutes, I decided I would like to have the monitor on downstairs in case one of them fell asleep on the floor or couch then woke up scared in the night.  As I walked downstairs, they were playing with their sticker books.  They both were telling me that they might go to bed soon. Z: "I'm pretty tired, we'll probably go to bed soon", W: "I've yawned like 3 or 4 times, so I'm pretty tired too".  So funny.  Then Zach mentioned that it was very strange, and not all that good to be up when his parents were in bed.  He asked "Is DaU already fast asleep?"  Neither of them was thrilled with being up when we were in bed, which was very funny to me.  Perhaps they won't ask again!   They came to bed not too long after I went back up to bed.  So funny!  I was not thrilled with this little experiment, but it turned out great really.

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....

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!

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.

He Is Risen!

Praise the Lord, Jesus is Risen!

Two days per year, I get to dress all the boys in their Sunday finest: Easter and Mother's Day.  Today, the whole clan was in blue.  Blue shirts, khaki pants for all the boys.  Dark jackets for DaU, Z & W.  Lucky Yannick has no jacket yet. :)  I even wore blue.  Joanna met us at church and came home with us for lunch and Easter dinner. After church was an Easter egg hunt in the park across the street from church.  A very lovely afternoon. Cheng, Wen, and their two boys came over for Easter dinner.  It was a fun time for all.  Joanna spent the night with us which was great for us.  We played a game w/ the tv - each of us picking a different 22 minute tv show to watch (from On Demand).  Two doozies and one pretty good one. :)  It is fun having Joanna be able to come and spend the night every few months.

Wyatt getting ready for the hunt

Wyatt gathering eggs

Boys opening Easter baskets

Zachary preparing for the hunt

Zachary collecting eggs

Three handsome boys!

Happy Valentine's Day

Not our best day.  Several of us were sick.  Art came home with the dinner (Zoba's), and went to bed.  Wyatt went to bed as well.  While Zach and I eating, the others awoke feeling better and we ended up all eating together.

Valentine's Wishes from all:

We're FREEEEEEEE (mostly!)

Art and I and Yannick drove back to Chicago on Sunday, Jan 2nd, leaving the big boys at Leisure Dr. until Saturday evening, when they will be driven back home by Poppi and MeMa.  It was a mini-vacation for us, taking care of just one.  What did we do???  Mostly work.  I make the 40 minute trip to IKEA to spend all of Art's Christmas bonus plus some Christmas $ on new shelves etc to make a new and improved playroom.  We spent a few evenings putting it all together and getting it spiffy.  We did go out to eat a few times - so much easier with just 1!

Friday night we also went to the B family's house, put Yannick to bed and proceeded to destroy them at first the game Perfection, then Ticket To Ride (train game).  Bob was so furious that I beat him in the first game of Train Game (yes, I MAY have taunted him a bit), that he INSISTED we not leave, and had to play another game.  We got out of there around midnight, but BY JOVE, the won the game!  Granted he had to do it by being spiteful to Lexi, which was also humorous to watch her get irritated at him.  A great evening all the way around! :)  And Lexi made this wonderful brownie pudding thing that was so so so good!

Little Nick missing his superhero brothers is wearing his bib like a cape, which he did himself with no help from mommy!

Partial shot of our new & improved playroom - 2 Expedit cases, 2 green doors, 8 blue pull-out boxes, 2 Billy bookcases, and not shown stuva cabinet ~ $450.  We were still working on this, getting it done just barely before the boys got back home.  They were not impressed.  I had sent a text to MeMa asking her to show them the new playroom so they would not be shocked.  Well, Mommy is thrilled at least!

We enjoyed our little mini-vacation.  Next year, Nick will be old enough to leave also, and then it will be a REAL VACATION!!!!  Oh I am giddy with the thought of it!

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.

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

Pumpkin Time!

We finally got our pumpkins carved!!  Fun family times!

All of us working hard on carving and designing

Looking good!

On the porch

Baby Things!

Just a few little pics for our baby Nick!

Our happy baby!

Taking a little evening nap on DaU, in bed

Hanging out with Dexter

In his favorite place, curled up on DaU

Our active little guy!  It is fun to watch those arms and legs go wild with no control!

Coke Gyser

Poppi read online about how putting Mentos (one type only) into a soda would cause the soda to explode.  He thought this would be a fun experiment to do with the boys.  THEN, after watching a few videos of failures online, he thought "hmmm, this might be a bit dangerous" and decided NOT to do it.  However, the idea seemed too fun, so he thought of a way to do it safely.

He jerry-rigged a safety device that would allow him to drop the mentos into the tube, with the safety panel in place, remove safety panel and run back to safety as mentos dropped into unsuspecting soda below.  A LOT of time and effort went into this little experiment.

Here's where it didn't work.

The safety device was TOO safe, and did not allow the mentos to fall into the soda.

Here is where it DID work

pretty cool!

Aunt Joy's Visit: Sunday - picture time

Now is the time from the visit where we try and get decent photos of the boys and the guest.  So difficult!!

These are the best we got!  Not wonderful, but it will do. :)

Thanks Aunt Joy for coming to visit us!  We love you!

Aunt Joy Visits: Sunday

First off, Father's Day!  Happy Father's Day Art!  We celebrated with breakfast in bed, though Nick will have to wait until next year to eat pancakes and bacon!

 We tried to start off with the boys at a table at the end of the bed

 But they felt they needed to be WITH DaU

I hopped in for a picture too!

In our house Aunt Joy is known for doing crafts with the boys.  They know it and expect it.  This visit, Joy brought stuff to make their own pinatas.  What a super fun idea!  She used paper bags, stickers, markers, and of course put tons of yummy candy in them.  Big boys loved loved it!

Here they are making them

Then outside to destroy them!

Zach first

 A little dangerous standing on the side there

Seems too high to reach

Zachary going to town on his pinata

Zach with his defeated pinata

Then Wyatt.  Art learned that he should use the rope to lower the pinata so they could reach it a little better

 Wyatt giving it his best and finally enlisting the help of DaU

Wyatt with his goodies

So much fun!  Thanks for the super fun idea Aunt Joy!