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!

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:

Christmastime at Leisure Dr

I am a bad bad keeper of family memories.  I did not take 1 single picture our entire time in Georgia.  Not for Christmas eve and Christmas day at the hotel with Nana (who paid for the 2nd bedroom upgrade - lovely!), not Christmas day at Leisure Dr, not MeMa's birthday, not even, be ready to gasp at the horror, any during Janneke's wedding weekend (none of the rental house, none of the mani-pedi action for Railey's birthday, no pics of the luncheon, rehearsal dinner, wedding day, dinner reception, and NONE of dance-party USA!!).  So, here are some pics that people who felt sad for me sent my way to help me round out my photo documentary of our lives:

Yannick at the hotel, feeling festive with Nana

Saint Nick??

Art carving the turkey - YUCK!

Yannick ready for light saber battle

Merry Christmas Poppi & Nick

MeMa reading to Zachary

Zachary on the hoppity (check out MeMa in the background w/ the bow & arrow!)

Wyatt in the inflatable R2D2 chair

Aunt Juicenana reading to the big boys

Handsome AS Counts family at Janneke & Thomas' wedding

Poppi holding court with all the "little boys" (ZWY + cousins Andrew, Jake, John) during Janneke & Thomas' wedding

DaU & Yannick being silly

Entire Counts Clan with the bride and groom

Thanks to all those that contributed pictures for me!

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.

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!

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

Thanksgiving - Full House!

We did a very poor job taking pictures during the Thanksgiving trip - probably because everyone else took great pictures.  My Dad sent out a link to his picasa site with pics from the entire visit, so if I can get my act together, I'll see if I can steal those and add them to a general Thanksgiving post.  We did lots of stuff.

Thanksgiving Day, Joanna and her roommate came up from Chicago to spend the day with us.  Joanna stayed with us, but Connie left a bit after dinner.  Art and I like to make a practice of having someone non-family with us for Thanksgiving dinner.  We asked a few people (like our Sr. Citizen Ms. Beanie), but everyone already had plans, so it worked out great that Connie could make it.  We played Scattegories a few times and had a thrown together lunch which was all fun.  We worked on the Thanksgivng meal on and off all day.  Dad graciously bought a turkey from Merle's again, Joy provided the pies, Faye wonderfully brought the green beans, the mashed potatoes and the yummy sweet potatoes!  Easy peasy meal!  Art, per his wishes, made the stuffing - his Oma Sweet's recipe.

On Friday we took a trip downtown.  We walked around, saw the bean, visited the German Christmas market, and then saw a movie in the private movie theater room in Joanna's apartment building (which was super super cool, and I want to do it again!).  Plenty of great pics, so I'll have to get them.  But, here are the very few we have from Thanksgiving day.

Ooo wee, I do love seeing men work in the kitchen!!  Creed helped put the top on the apple pie - made a cute GT.

chatting post-lunch

chatting post-lunch

Thanksgiving - Food Craft

This year, all the Counts extended family were either very busy with upcoming weddings, or newly married, or very very far away....so my entire "Sklar" clan came to us for Thanksgiving.  Everyone wanted to check out the new place.  It was going to be a full house...until the C family informed us they were leaving for Thanksgiving and would love to have a house sitter, so we sent Staci and Creed to stay at their house (4 houses down the street from ours).  Worked out well for them b/c they were not on a mattress in our office floor, but a real bed in a house where there are no kids that either 1) wake up and cry in the night or 2) wake up and play at 6am!!

Still, a full house.

Aunt Joy came over on Wednesday morning.  Her specialty she does with the boys every visit is a craft - usually a food craft.  Mommy is a bit "challenged" with crafts...unless there are explicit instructions!

This year, Aunt Joy decided to make rice krispy treat pumpkins.  So cute (and good - yes, I ate the lion's share of them - It's my house, back off!)!!

They had a great time with Aunt Joy and always love doing crafts with her.  It was fun having a kitchen big enough for everyone to be in.  The big boys like to sit on the counter and be involved with stuff and look out the window.

Happy Halloween!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

We were invited to a Halloween trick-or-treat party, but 1) we did not think that Art could make it there so early leaving work and 2) staying home might give us a good chance to meet some of our new neighbors.

First, before we REALLY got our trick-or-treat on, our family went to a nursing home a block away to trick-or-treat there.  The social director there had asked us to come by and bring other families if possible.  She asked because I had a meeting with her this week regarding our bible study group coming to their nursing home once a week to visit with the residents.  This would be our first glimpse of the place and the residents there.  We asked the C. family to join us as we walked there, and the W family met us there.

Here we are about to leave:

1970s Detective, Baby Puppy, Hershey Kiss, Incredible Hulk, IronMan off to visit the nursing home and prowl the neighborhood.

Looking good.

The C family looked GREAT.  They were dressed as Star Wars characters: Darth Vader, Princess Leia, R2D2, Chewy, Luke Skywalker, and Yoda.  What a fun idea. Maybe next year we will do a theme dress-up!

Our pumpkins waiting for us

Cute little boy as a shark brought back memories of when I was a shark in 5th grade.

Baby puppy kept losing his paws!  Good thing 1970s Detective was there to solve the case!

We trick-or-treated at The Grove, parted ways with the W family, then trick-or-treated with the C family for a bit until they met up with another family and we went on our way.  Zachary was bummed to no longer be trick-or-treating with his friend David, and was pretty grumpy the rest of the time, and finally just started asking to go home.  I was pretty sad that at AGE FIVE, he is already not fun with his family.  Wyatt had a blast and loved being with us as a whole family, but we finally went back home to have dinner (pizza!!) and appease Zachary who did not want any more candy.