Christmas Eve 2010

Woohoo, Christmas is finally here! This year, as in most years, we spent Christmas Eve at Nanna's house. The dinner she prepared was very tasty indeed, and as you can see the kids had a great time opening their gifts. Mommy's brothers live in different states but they always remember to send gifts for the kids and this is when they get to open them. Mommy's brother's (and sister) are very generous with our kids.

Because we go to my folks' house on Christmas Day we couldn't sleep over at Nanna's. Instead we had to hit the road and head home. The kids were so excited about Christmas morning that they were still awake when we got home. If memory serves they didn't get to sleep until after 2:00am. Whoosh! Daddy's tired.

Macy's Smurfs

This picture was taken at Macy's shortly after the kids wrote their letters to Santa (see my other post). We were all pooped out and needed a break. We sat and watched the crowds as they hustled past us and wondered if we looked as worn out as they all did.

While we were at Macy's we bought the kids some stuffed animals as mementos of our trip. Ian got a Smurf elf and Cami got a white bear with Christmas ribbons (or bows, I can't remember). Take one guess as to who carried these critters for the rest of the day.

I'm proud of this photo because you don't see anyone in the background. I had to wait until everyone passed and then the kids had to pose (or smile, etc) and then I had to hold the camera steady because the light was dim, and it all came together. I'm a genius. :)

Letters to Santa, 2010

This year we went to Macy's in downtown Chicago for a fun day among the cheerful holiday crowds. Our real goal was to see Santa and get the appropriate pictures. However, this entry is mostly about the letters to Santa that the kids wrote. I'll post an entry with the Santa photo later.

Macy's had a table setup with paper for kids to write their letters and they had a big mail box to post the letters in. I was told by another customer that for every letter posted Macy's would donate a small amount of money to some charity.

Of course, our kids were excited to write to Santa and I was excited to get pictures of their letters. And here they are in all of their glory.

Ian was asking for an art (sketch) book and some crayons and Cami was asking about an Elf named Semore (Seymour?) that belongs to her friend Julia. She also wanted Santa to say "hi" to Rudolf for her.

These letters really warm my heart. It shows that my kids are innocent and loving and are not cynical about life, at least not yet anyway.

Winter 2010

We love Winter! Well, Daddy does anyway. Cami isn't so sure. She hates the cold but she loves the snow. Ian likes winter. He runs around outside without a coat and he doesn't seem to notice when snow gets into his shoes. He just loves to roll around in the snow and I also think he enjoys it when his Nanna is yelling at him to come in the house and get his snowpants on.

Roasting Marshmallows

The kids wanted to start a fire in our outside fire pit, but it was really cold out. Not to be diverted the kids asked if I would build a fire in our fireplace. Of course I will! Within a few moments the kids were roasting marshmallows (and maybe hotdogs, but I'm not sure of that). They had a great time and I got a few moments rest while their attention was focused on the fire.

It just goes to show what exhaustion will do to you. When the kids were younger I wouldn't have taken my eyes off of them while they were anywhere near a fire. Now, just the warning of "don't burn yourself" is sufficient. Well, they are older now and not as crazy as they used to be, and I did monitor them.

Cami's Snowman

Ah, we love that first snow. Cami was determined this year to make a great snowman. Actually, now that I think about it Ian helped her, so they should both get credit. She couldn't find coal for the eyes and a carrot for the nose, so instead she used cheese. Chunks from a slice of American cheese to be accurate.

We Love Pumpkin Pie!

The kids really like pumpkin pie, so much so that I bought some extra ones this year. I thought the kids were going to eat them. Imagine my surprise when I came into the kitchen and they are instead wearing them on their faces.

I was mad, but not mad enough to not take a picture. Not surprisingly, they smelled like pumpkin pie even after they washed it off.

Truth be told, they ate most of the pies. It was that last bit that made it onto their faces.

Doctor Who Convention, 2010

This year Ian and I once again attended the Chicago Tardis Doctor Who convention. We were extra excited this year because Uncle Brian was able to attend with us. He's been ill the last couple of years.

At this convention the main guests were Frazer Hines (who played Jamie MacCrimmon) and Louise Jameson (who played Leela). They are in the photo with us above.

We got there early, went to some of the events, did a lot of shopping in the dealer's room, talked to a bunch of people we know from prior conventions, went to dinner at the food court at the local mall, and then went to the costume contest. As the photo below shows we had a great time.

Halloween, 2010

We love Halloween! This year the weather was decent, but a little cool. People with sharp eyes will notice that Cami is wearing a different "kitty" costume than the one she wore to school. This one was handmade by Mommy. It's made of some thick material that kept Cami warm without her having to wear a coat.

Mommy didn't get Ian's costume done in time so he wore a costume that we bought him (the same one he wore to school). His was made of very thin material so he got cold pretty quickly, hence the coat he is wearing.

The kids got lots of candy this year, which made Daddy happy. He likes to eat most of the candy so he's happy when there is a lot to choose from.

Some friends of ours from our ward came and went "trick or treating" with us. They live in an apartment so they come to our neighborhood. It works out well because their daughter is in Ian's class at church and their son is in Cami's class at church.

Pumpkins, 2010

This year, the kids carved their own pumpkins with minimal help from us. I have a bunch of pictures of the kids carving their pumpkins, but because of the mess, they did it while just wearing their underwear. So, I'm not putting those pictures up.

I think they did a pretty good job. Ian's was a spider and Cami's was the cat. In another post you'll see the pumpkins out on our front door stoop.

Costume Day at School, 2010

It's Costume Day at school today! Cami was excited, but Ian wasn't. I'm not sure why. Perhaps he's sick. He's good looking nonetheless. Cami really loved her "kitty" costume, as you can tell by her pose.

Ian Earns His Wolf Badge

After a year's hard work Ian has finally earned his Wolf badge. I think Daddy should get one too, seeing as how he was the driving force behind getting the things done. We're very happy for him that he stuck with it and got it done. Now, he's on to earning his Bear badge.

Ian's 9th Birthday

Is it possible that Ian is 9 years old? I don't know how time has gome by so quickly.

He loves pumpkin pie, so instead of a birthday cake he got a birthday pie. This is a little family gathering that we had for him. His kid party will be later, once we decide what it is we're doing. A movie perhaps, or maybe lasertag? Hmmm.....it all sounds so expensive.

Fashionista

Cami definitely has a style of her own. Today for school she chose this stylish outfit. I especially like the pink tiger-striped leggings, or tights, or whatever they are. The pink flower in her hair and the pink sunglasses are a nice touch, too.

The Kids Are Growing Up

The other day I took the kids to the playground before church. They both decided that they wanted to get into the kiddie swings. What an eye opening experience for all of us. Cami sort of fit but Ian was really cramped in their.

Daddy was nearly in tears realizing that his babies are no longer babies. It is very sad, but fun at the same time. Everyone laughed at how silly they looked.

Crazy Hair Day, 2010

Well, I think Mommy did a great job this year making the kids' hair crazy. Cami's was blue and red and seriously teased up into a mass of hair up on top. It sort of looked like a fountain.

Ian's hair is short so Mommy just colored red, white, and blue, but she was able to use gel to get it spikey on top.

First Day of School 2010

I hate it when the kids go to school. I hate having to get them up in the morning and I hate doing homework at night and getting done just in time for bed. There's never any time to play. Plus, there's the emotional aspect of realizing that the kids are one year older.

With all of this in mind here is a photo from this year's first day of school. The kids were ok with it, but the first day of school is always sort of fun. You get to see your friends you haven't seen all summer, etc. It's the 2nd thru last day of school that stink.

I can't believe how grown up the kids look. This year Ian is in 3rd grade and Cami is in 2nd grade.

Onion Rings

Today we decided that we were going to start the quest for the best tasting onion rings. But, Cami doesn't like onion rings so we also added the best chocolate malts to the list. Here is our kick-off photo.

This photo looks so cute. The casual observer isn't aware of the effort it took Dad for the kids to pose and to basically hug each other. But, the effort was worth it.

We decided to blog our experiences at: http://theonionringdiaries.blogsport.com

At least I think that is the URL. Of course, in our busy lives we have yet to post an entry. But we'll get to it someday.

Camping

Recently the kids have asked to go camping. For one reason or another we were not able to go. Undeterred, the kids set up their own campsite out on the driveway. They did this in spite of the rain and the thunder. At least I got them to make the fire in the lid of our fire pit thingy. Originally they were going to put the fire right on the ground.

I admire my kids ingenuity and sticktoitiveness (new word).

Sidewalk Chalk

A week or so ago I took the kids to see the "How to Train Your Dragon" movie in 3D. It was an awesome movie and well worth the price of admission.

Since the movie the kids have been all about dragons. Tonight they drew dragons on our driveway. I thought they were very cute so I took the opportunity to photograph them before the rain comes and destroys their drawings.

The Kane County Cougars

This year Cami enrolled in Ozzie's Reading Club sponsored by the Kane County Cougars baseball team. In short, if she read a certain number of books during the school year she would be rewarded with a free ticket to a baseball game, a free shirt, and a voucher for a free hot dog meal at the game.

She completed all the requirements and enjoyed the books as she went. She was really excited to go to the game and I could tell that she felt a real sense of accomplishment. Everyone was very proud of her.

We bought three more tickets and a parking pass so we could all go to the game. The day of the game mommy wasn't feeling well and didn't go to the game. It was just as well because it was very hot and there were a lot of stairs in the stadium. Her knee would have hurt terribly had she gone.

Both of the kids got their picture with Ozzie, the maskot of the team. Can you tell that the t-shirt that Cami got is a large? That was the only size they had. Oh well, she can wear it as a nightie.

The kids got their fill of hot dogs, popcorn, pop, and a bunch of stuff I can't even remember. The kids weren't really into the game that much. There were a bunch of other kids from Cami's class and that distracted her.

After the game was over the kids got an opportunity to run the bases. I could have also but I opted to watch and take pictures as they crossed the plate. Unfortunately some other kid was in the way so my pictures aren't that great.

It was a great time and Cami felt really good about getting her reward.

It's Spring and baseball season has started! Ian is doing a great job batting. In his 2nd game he got 2 walks, a single, and a double. Plus he scored 4 times and batted in a bunch of runs. The fun part is he did this to his former team. In fact, his old coaches came up and teased him that they were going to have to "do something about" him when their teams play each other again.

He enjoys playing first base because he is more involved in the game. He played catcher for a couple of innings and semed to enjoy it. He likes his new coaches and even though his team isn't all that skilled he is still having a great time. And that's what it's all about.

The Last Snowman of 2010

The weather is beginning to get warmer here in the Midwest. The days are getting longer and the days are bright and sunny. But, there is still a lot of snow around and my kids decided to make one last snowman before it all melts. Of course it could still snow before the summer comes.

The snowman wasn't very large but it was cute. We used carrots for the nose and eyes and we used one of mommy's hats to top it all off.

Let It Snow!!

I took this photo several days ago. This is a feeder that hangs outside one of our kitchen windows. It was snowing at the time and it seemed to me that hummingbirds have the right idea about migrating to warmer climes.

It's been a snowy winter here in Chicago but not overly cold. Some people here have labeled it as "brutal", but I disagree. It hasn't been so bad.

Our Diva...

Fresh from her success at last night's talent show our Cami dressed up as a diva. She wore a pink bathrobe, pink slippers, pink gloves, pink purse and accessories, and a pink feather boa. She even had a little pink dog!

Cami's Talent Show Award

About a month ago Cami's Daisy Scout troop (gaggle, herd, flock?) decided they wanted to perform in their school's talent show. Their skit was to sign the words of Louis Armstrong's "It's a Wonderful World" song.

They practiced this whole month at their various meetings and last night they finally got their chance to show off their efforts. Just before Cami went out on stage she told her teacher that she was scared to go out there, but she never said anything to us. She told us that she was really excited to perform. But, in the end she was up there with all of the other girls, and they all did great.

After the show all of the kids that participated received an award. We purchased her some flowers, which she really enjoyed and appreciated. She can't wait until next year.

Father & Son (and Daughter) Cake Bake

Last night was the 2010 Cub Scouts Blue and Gold dinner. This year marks the 100th anniversary of scouting in the United States. That was the theme for the Father & Son cake baking contest. Below is a series of pictures of the cakes that I and my kids made.

Stage 1: Use some black gel icing to draw the outline of our scouting character. This gel never did solidy, so we had to be very careful we didn't smear the black around as we filled in our other colors.

Stage 2: Start to fill in our spaces with other colors of icing.

Stage 3: We've finished filling our spaces, now on to spreading the icing around our image.

The completed cake! Ian won the "Most Artistic" award. They did not have a "Best" award last night, but I choose to believe that Ian's Most Artistic award means the best.

Here is Cami's cake. We used the same technique of using the black gel icing to draw out the earth figure.

After that we filled in the spaces with icing to make the ocean and the continents. Cami made up her own globe by not bothering to try and make actual earth continents (like North America and Africa). After that she wrote "Daisy Troop 663" on it.

Her completed cake! She won the "Most International" award last night.

It was a great dinner and everything went well. The boys' skit was really fun. They "baked" a cub scout by putting all sorts of boyish items into a trash can and stirring with a big paddle. At the end a real cub scout pops out. Ian was the one to pop out of the can. He had a really hard job of hunkering down in the can while everyone dropped things on him.

Ian was also excited that he was awarded his Bobcat award last night. We have a tradition of turning the boys upside down while the Bobcat award is pinned on. He can then turn it right-side up once he does a "good turn".

We had a great time and it was one of our better pack nights.

Free Day at the Museums

Yesterday was free day at both the Shedd Aquarium and the Field Museum. Of course, that did not include the special attractions (like the dolphin show) or include the cost of parking. "Free" day cost me a small fortune, but it was worth it because the kids had a great time.

We went to the Field Museum first and even though it was free day we still had to stand in line for 15 minutes to get our hands stamped. I was annoyed at this mostly because it took us forever to get to the museum because the "expressway" was jammed with cars.

Once we were stamped we headed to the wildlife area where we looked at a lot of stuffed birds. I was really pleased that the kids recognized many of them. Perhaps our trips to the various forest preserves have paid off by increasing their knowledge of nature.

After the wildlife area we went to the McDonalds restaurant that is in the basement of the museum. Thankfully there were no school field trips in the museum yesterday so there was plenty of seating available. The food renewed the kids' spirits and they were eager to go look at the dinosaurs. But, before we did that the kids got a couple of those wax / plastic figurine things out of the molding machine. I loved these things when I was a kid and I was happy to see the kids excited about theirs.

The dinosaur area of the museum is scaled down from when I was a kid. It has been changed to "The Evolving Planet". It starts with meteorites with amino acids on them and moves on to single cell creatures, and then moves through the dinosaurs and ends with mammals and the obligatory "diversity" talk and how humans are awful and have gummed up the whole works. I was amused to see an electronic sign, sort of like the deli signs that displays the number being served, that had a "28" on it and above it said "The number of species that have gone extinct since 8:00am this morning". How do they know? Is there someone standing there counting and then phoning in? It's all hooey.

After that we went to the museum's "Sue Store", which is a gift shop that focuses mostly on dinosaur-type gifts. The kids were excited when they each bought a saber-toothed tiger plush animal.

On to the Shedd aquarium. The cashier at the Sue Store told us the best way to get out of the museum so we could walk over to the Shedd. Here's the fun part. Cami had to go to the bathroom and on our way there we found the coelacanth display in the bathroom hallway! Woohoo! I've been looking for this fish display for 10 years. About a decade ago I read a book called "A Fish Caught in Time" that discusses the rediscovery of this living fossil. This fish was supposedly extinct millions of years ago until some turned up. Anyway, the back of this book lists the Field Museum as having one. I've never found it...until yesterday. I was very excited.

The Shedd Aquarium was fun but it was more crowded than the Field Museum. We were lucky that we were at the huge "reef" aquarium at feeding time. This involves a diver that swims around inside the aquarium while someone else talks to the crowd and to the diver. She explained the various fish as the diver fed them and she would ask the diver questions while he was in there. Ian asked a question that she relayed to the diver. He asked why the big fish don't eat the little fish. The answer was that they keep the big fish well-fed. Way to go Ian for not being shy to ask a question.

I was hoping to take a lot of pictures of the fish but the aquariums were so dark it was almost impossible. Someone needs to turn the lights on in there. At one point the kids were talking to a worker there who was giving a demonstration about snakes. I was taking pictures of her and the kids and at one point she asked me not to take flash photography. Oh well.

The kids had a great time. I had a great time, but I'm pooped out today. And my legs hurt from standing all day. In a couple of weeks Ian is going to the Museum of Science and Industry and hopefully I will be able to go as a chaperone.

He's growing up...but he's not there yet

Ian is growing up, and I think he's really getting big, but last night he put on my pants and he looks really small in them. Of course, when he was born he weighed only 3 pounds and his whole body would have fit in one of my shoes, so I suppose that he really is getting big.

Cami is growing also, but her growth is not so much in size but in her face becoming less child-like. She's becoming a real cutie.

Hungry Hungry Ducks

The ducks are back in the lagoon on the Northwestern campus, and they seem to be very hungry. My kids came with me to work the other day because the schools were closed due to snow. We went to the lagoon to feed the ducks and to my surprise the ducks came up out of the water and came on to the sidewalk and ate right out of my kids' hands.

I'm Sleepy....

The other night I just could not get Cami to bed. No matter what I did she would not settle down. She was bouncing around like crazy and basically being really loud...and then all of a sudden it stopped. I looked at Cami and she had completely pooped out. Phew!

A Fun Primary Activity

This last Saturday morning there was a Primary activity in our ward. It was a "get to know your new teacher" activity. There was a light breakfast of yogurt, apples, and muffins along with OJ.

The kids sat with their new teachers and talked about this year's upcoming class rules and what goals they want to set for the new year. My son's class decided that their goal would be to memorize the Articles of Faith. I wasn't sitting at my daughter's table so I don't know what their goals were. After that there were some games and they learned a new song.

Our Primary leaders are great people and I really appreciate their efforts to teach our children the Gospel.

A Fabulous Wedgie

The other night I was working in my basement when my son called out for help. "Yep, I'll be there in a minute", I said. He started to whimper a bit so I decided to see what he needed and this is what I found. Somehow he had gotten his pajamas caught on the handle of my exercise bike. The more he would try to wiggle off the deeper the wedgie would go.

Being a kind-hearted dad I decided that I would grab my camera and take a picture before I helped him.