Saturday, February 27, 2010

Friend

A & C were asked by their friend Audrey to play today. It was very fun for them because they got to go to the Children's Theater and they went to a class with her. I thought it was a great chance for them to do something different and be with their friend too! It was so cute because the 3 of them walked in together, holding hands.
The whole idea of going and doing something on their own is new to me (and them) because I'm so used to being with them and their friends together. It's not often that they get to go off on their own!They had a great time making shadow puppets and playing!

Kids Feeding Adults

One of my most vivid memories about the kids as they were growing up (because they're oh-so-grown-up right now!) is feeding them. We have pictures of the kids eating their first bowl of cereal; pictures of them eating their first bites of baby food; pictures of them with "solids" all over their face and hair. (I'll try to insert some pictures here) But, do you have any pictures of your kids feeding you? Me neither. But the thought did cross my mind tonight as we were eating dinner. Here's why...

As you feed/fed your baby(ies), think about what you're doing: lifting the spoon into your child's mouth and opening your mouth when you expect or hope they do too and closing your mouth to help them close it too. Well that's what happened tonight at dinner. I asked for a bite of ice cream from C and he scooped up a bite for me. As he brought it up for me to eat, his mouth went open as mine did and closed as mine did. I thought it was so cute! But, I'm his mom, so it's supposed to be cute, right? Of course I did it again so I could see it. I felt like the roles were reversed from about 3 years ago! Then I tried it with A, which was a little more difficult-she's not as willing to give up her ice cream-and it was the same with her! It was my own little experiment.

Oh how the roles get reversed! Has this happened to you?

Next year, last week, this year...

This is time in a 3 year old's world. It usually comes from A when it comes up. For example, just today A was with a friend and said, "Can we have a playdate this year?" When she probably meant today, tomorrow, or next week. Another time today was, "Remember when we had cupcakes yesterday?" when in reality they were cupcakes they had at their Valentine's party 2 weeks ago. I just find it so funny when the kids are trying to figure out when things are happening or have happened because to them time doesn't make sense yet. It doesn't even make sense to the kids I teach and they're definitely older than our kids!
So, hopefully you are enjoying your evening and that we will see you next year, this year, yesterday or tomorrow-whatever may be the case!

Monday, February 15, 2010

Love is in the air!

So Valentine's Day was yesterday, and our kids rose to another unofficial holiday. How is it that they learn that at such a young age? It happened with Halloween, too. I thought it was funny that with today being President's Day, J said to the kids, "Do you know what day today is?" They said, "Monday!" "Yes, you're right, but it's also President's Day!" A: "What do we pass out on President's Day?" Funny...

Don't get me wrong-I love Valentine's Day with all of the love. I got flowers-my favorite-from J. It's just so commercialized. There are so many things to buy for your Valentine...luckily J & I have decided against getting "official" gifts. Flowers and cards are the norm!
The kids already had their party at school where they got valentines from all of their friends. That was pretty fun, seeing them open their valentines. They're pretty good at recognizing their friends' names, too, so they knew who they were from. C didn't care for the princess valentines and always thought they were for A. And of course all they wanted to do was eat the few pieces of candy that came with some of the cards. We've battled that on and off all weekend. Oh well-Mommy & Daddy can easily make the candy "disappear."

But, with yesterday being Valentine's Day we started off with heart shaped toast. We made valentines for the Mammas and the Papas before church. Then it was onto a lunch with my mom & dad. The kids ended up with an ice cream treat from Mamma Jo while we were at their house. Back at our house we ended the night with a heart-shaped pizza and making brownies.
I asked C & A who their valentines were before they went to bed last night. C said Daddy was his valentine and A said I was hers. But then they both said that Mommy and Daddy were their valentines. It was pretty cute. I hope that whatever you all did you enjoyed your day with people you love!

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Eating Our Way Through Chicago

So it didn't start out this way...me taking pictures of everything we ate on our trip to Chicago...but that's kind of what it turned into. So, after much good food, here it is-
Our first stop was to find a place to eat lunch, so we found our way (by chance) to Giordanos. This was a recommendation from a friend, so I was glad we had found it when we decided to go there. It was also because it was the first place we found after leaving our hotel!

Our next food stop was Ghiradelli for some ice cream. Are you surprised? I think not! I got the chocolate ice cream with dark chocolate fudge and chocolate chips. Yup. All chocolate. It was the best.
Dinner took us to Adobos (thanks Lisa!), which I wrote about in the last post. Mexican which was great! We also went to The Fudge Pot and got some chocolate. It was this cute little chocolate place that had chocolate in all shapes. I just couldn't resist! These restaurants were in Old Town which is a very cute urban neighborhood. Definitely a place J & I loved being.

Sunday was brunch at the Grand Lux Cafe. We had these unbelievable beignets, which were new to me. I love my husband for the fact that he referenced "The Princess & the Frog" movie when talking about where he had hear that word before. Beignets are a donut-type pastries that come with dipping sauces. We had a custard sauce, syrup, strawberries, sugar and chocolate. Delicious!!

Of course we made our way back to Ghiradelli for more ice cream. Enough said.

Joe's Stone Crab was another recommendation from our friend Em.We didn't go all out for dinner, but if we would have, I'm sure we would have loved it! Instead we went for the appetizer/sandwich route and had wonderful peanut butter pie!

After 2 days of constant eating, we needed to take a minute in the morning on Monday to give our stomachs a break, so we went for Jamba Juice. Tasty.

Our final meal in Chicago was at Gino's East. J had eaten there before with the boys, so we decided to try it. I liked it, but likes Giordanos better. It was the crust-but still good!

And that was it for in the city! We had a great time eating and trying to get to many of the places people recommended, so thanks! And when I mean "in the city," well...we were delayed by 3 hours getting home, so there was some McDonalds to be had at the airport, but that doesn't really count in my mind.
If you are going to Chicago any time soon, hopefully you can try some of the places we liked on our trip!

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Chicago

is definitely the Windy City! J & I just got back from a long weekend in Chicago. I love Chicago! We had been there previously, but only for about 24 hours, so this weekend was the real thing. Luckily we got back when we did, because the snowstorm that just hit us moved into Chicago today and they had already cancelled all flights out of Midway. Phew!
So Chicago is a great city to go to, even in the winter. Yes, it may have been cold there, but there was hardly any snow! Plus, all you really do is eat your way through the day, so there isn't really a reason to plan any real activities. Ok, maybe there is, so we did...
Saturday we went to Zaines comedy club which is a great place! It's in the Old Town neighborhood, and thanks to my friend Lisa, we experienced a "neighborhood night out," if you will. We ate at Adobo, a great Mexican restaurant and shared some food there. After that we made our way to the John Hancock Building. This was our view from the 96th floor...
Pretty incredible, right?! We thought so too.

Sunday brought us to brunch and then to The Art Institute of Chicago. We spent a few hours there (with free February admission!!), seeing so many incredible pieces of art like this one:
and this one, too!

I didn't even know they were all going to be there. After the Art Institute, we made our way to Millennium Park which was fun, but would be better to visit any time other than the winter. I go for the green and flowers. We still had a fun time getting pictures like these!
Then it was off to find a place to watch the Super Bowl. Of course I was most concerned with being able to hear the commercials. I think I caught most of them.

On Monday we went to the Lincoln Park Zoo. Let's just say that the zoo isn't the best place to go during the winter, but we still saw quite a few animals. Most of the animals were inside. We found a few of our favorites...

Then it was off for some lunch with more stuffed pizza. The airport called next as we tried to get out before we were snowed out of home! Luckily for us, we made it.

We had a great time-thanks to the grandparents for watching the kids-and would love to go back again when it's a little warmer. Not that we aren't hearty people...because we are! But you know it's cold when you need your hat every time you walk outside!

Thanks, Chicago for a great weekend!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Feed My Starving Children

This weekend we had a wonderful opportunity to serve. We went to our church to pack meals for Feed My Starving Children. We went with our Dinner Club, which is with 3 other couples. We did this last year, too, but this year was a little bit different. All of the 1.5 million meals packed will be going to Haiti. Yes, that really is 1.5 MILLION meals! Crazy, huh?! Actually, I just checked and to be specific, there were 1,527,768 meals packed in 5 days with 7,000 volunteers. When we went on Saturday, they told us that the first meals packed by our church on Wednesday were already on a semi truck on the way to Florida where they would be put on a ship to Haiti. Now that's making an immediate impact!
A view of half of our church set up with all of the supplies for packing meals-
There was even entertainment with Beatles music sung all afternoon!
What a bag of 6 meals looks like. This could either feed six kids for one day or one child for 6 days. One cup of this mixture is considered one meal. Think about that today...
The chicken flavoring contains 20 vitamins and minerals essential for survival. Dried vegetables... Soy... and Rice. This is the mixture that is in each bag.

Nothing compares to the feeling of serving others. Although there is no direct contact with the people of Haiti, just doing what we were doing was a great feeling. We definitely look forward to doing it again next year. Check out Feed My Starving Children to see what you can do too!