Thanksgiving 2012

Our Thanksgiving was filled with blue skies and bonfires and hayrides and great food and plenty of r and r with family.  I hope yours was too!

I have plenty of pictures to share but I have to figure out how to upload everything.  Picasa handles the photo side of Blogger and now has a limit on the amount of pictures it will store free of charge.  Hopefully I will have it all figured out soon...stay tuned!

Holiday Time

I love this time of year - cooler weather (usually), vacations, and visits with friends and family in town for the holidays.  Luz and James have a total of 2, yes, 2 cousins (I was one of 21 very close first cousins- we grew up like brothers and sisters - so this is so strange to me).  They do have quite a few second cousins (or first cousins once removed, I forget which is the correct designation), but they all live out of town.  Consequently, the kids are always looking forward to the holidays so that they can spend time with their cousins.   This weekend they had a chance to play with Jack and William from Virginia.  The weather was incredible so we spent Saturday morning at the zoo and Sunday at City Park and Storyland.  It is always heartwarming to see the kids pick up right where they last left off and to see them enjoying each other's company.  

The kids on Gaston the Gator's lap (Lucy - 7.5, William - 20 mos, James - almost 4, Jack - 3.5)

Soccer Season 2012

Saturday marked the finale of the 2012 Fall soccer league for Chicago Fire.  The Superkids wrapped up a stellar season of mostly cat herding and snack eating.  Overall, James was thrilled to hear that, for the remainder of 2012, most of his Saturday mornings will be spent in pajamas watching cartoons and lounging around.  And this is coming from someone who scored 5 goals on his last day of the season.  Sweet Luz, on the other hand, was sad to see it end and even played through a low-grade fever to finish strong.  All she wanted was one goal, but it was totally elusive (and not for a lack of trying - there were only about a dozen goals for the Firecrackers all season).  I loved watching her develop over the season.  It was incredibly competitive for a team of 7 year old girls and I even caught myself holding my breath and closing my eyes and crossing my fingers and hoping that just maybe the goalie would slip or the wind would be behind her on those very close calls, but it never happened this season.  She has the right attitude too though...try and try and try again and take a deep breath and get out there and try some more.  She was thrilled to get a medal and a post-game donut and is already looking forward to next season with her eyes still fixed on the prize. 

James, psyched out of his mind that soccer is over:

Sweet girl, all heart:

Luz, last shot on goal for 2012:

Meanwhile, James was inspecting his battle scars and waiting (in fairness, VERY patiently like he did every Saturday) for Lucy's game to end:

Halloween 2012

Inspired by an entire extra hour in the day today I cooked and cleaned.  Ok, well, cooking really involved heating a few things up and making some oven-baked chicken tenders (and the kids actually did all of the work), but the cleaning was involved.  What do those of you out there with kids and no housekeeper do to keep things tidy around your homes?  It is enough to make a borderline obsessive-compulsive person like myself suffer with panic attacks.  I can handle the routine tidying up after a long day of work (and that is work - the kids 'play' all over the house - and we have a dog now).  It is the more involved cleaning that gets me.  I just don't know how people fit it all in.  I spent the better part of the day today (even with the extra hour) changing and washing sheets.  And does anyone loathe washing and refitting duvet covers as much as I do?   Getting the duvet cover on the king sized duvet is akin to wrestling an alligator or baby tiger.  I don't like it.  Writing all of this seems incredibly shallow in light of everything else going on in the world right now - I mean it only as a cry for help to those who manage to do it without help - tell me your secrets!

In addition to the chores I found some time to download the pics from Halloween.  This year the kids had half days so I ended up taking the day off of work and it was the right idea.  The day was busy and filled with fun.  Christian found a VHS copy of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and I showed it to the kids (in his classroom since nobody seems to have a VCR these days, understandably).  I loved this cartoon when I was little and was thrilled when C finally found a copy of it.  They were not as amused and when it ended Lucy offered a simple "that's it?"  Oh well, maybe I will try again next year.  

We spent the afternoon with friends visiting while the kids played (and ate candy), stopped at G.G.'s for some trick or treating, checked out the entertaining and ever-expanding "skeleton" house on St. Charles, and made our way down to Aunt Margot and Uncle Walker's for the annual Halloween party and trick or treating.  It is the best way to celebrate Halloween!

Dressed and ready to go, Little Red Riding Hood and Anakin Skywalker:

With GG:

The "skeleton" house on St. Charles Avenue:

Luz, finally wearing her 'real' costume:

With the Barnes kids, ready to trick or treat:

This was the gang last year...time continues to fly:

With sweet Miller, the mummy:

OMG - I just 'published' this post and realized it is my 1,000th blog post.  I cannot even imagine that I have had 1,000 things to share. I suppose I should have approached this post with more care and come up with something memorable, but I am lucky just to get the photos downloaded and a few quick sentences about the activities.  It is sad to say, but I just do not have the time to devote to blogging these days (or the brain capacity for good writing and/or entertainment).  And, honestly, as the kids get older I worry about 'over' sharing.  What are the implications of all of this information being out there and accessible on the inter-webs.  Is it fair to future, teen-ager Lucy and James?   Will they be mortified?  Maybe it is time to consider wrapping-up NOLA baby until I am otherwise inspired.  1,000 posts is plenty!