Maxin' and Relaxin'

The Mom way...

As Our kids played at an enormous indoor playground, Cassie and I enjoyed some down time.

Family Fun Day!

Saturday was National Family Fun Day!  Maybe not "National", but it felt that way to us!

It started out as any Saturday morning...My first coherent thought of every morning is "What day is it" followed by "What do I have to do today", which is directly related to "how urgently do I really have to get up and get going?"  Which is why I love Saturday mornings.  It goes like this.  "What day is it?"  "Saturday."   "Aaaaaah".

My "aaaaaaaahhh"ness was shortly diminished when I realized our gift certificate to a Fun Center would be expiring soon and this would be one of the last chances to use it.  So off went the mental snooze button and on went the showers so we could get out the door to maximize our day of fun.  Yeah, we were gone for 7 hours;  Consider it maxed. 

We started at Mini Golf.

Lots of fun.  Lots of encouragement and cheering on.  And lots of holes-in, say, 8 or 16.  But also, lots of sibling patience!

And we learned lots about our kids, too:

Carter's confidence: (since he's been asking to take golf lessons for a while now):  "See, I told you I am REALLY good at golf!"

Addison's excitement: "WOW!  I DID IT!  YEAH!"  After EVERY Hole!  I never tired of it!  Or his, "Wow!  Good JOB, Mommy!"s.

Alana's pink preference: Nothing new, but still all the more adorable when she only wanted a pink ball and a matching pink club.

Then we moved on to the Go-Carts!  Since we were the only ones there at the time, they disregarded the "have to be 4 yrs old and this tall" rule and let me take the two little ones on a joy ride of our own while Steve and Carter whizzed around the track with all boyhood recklessness.

While Steve and Carter lapped us a bazillion times, 

Addison STILL thought we were always in the lead.

Next, inside for Pizza and Arcades.  DANG, it took a long time to waste 80 tokens!  Arcades are NOT my favorite places.

And after ALL of that, we finished off the day with a game with Lazer Tag (sorry, no pics!)

It was total and complete AWESOMEness!  The room was perfect for our family :)  They gave us the room to ourselves, having the hyper-birthday-party-of-10-yr-olds wait until we were done...I guess they were as worried of our kids being trampled as we were.  They even turned down the music for us, and turned on the lights since Alana was scared.

Not sure there's a lasting effect of teaching our family to shoot at each other (says the Mom who does not allow toy weapons in our house), but pretty sure there IS a lasting effect of the bonding we shared!

Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa, for a GREAT family gift and getaway!

Bishop Carter

Good Job in the Primary Program, Carter!  You rocked your speaking part!

"In 'The Family: A Proclamation to the World' we read: Sacred Ordinances and covenants available in holy temples make it possible for individuals to return to the presence of God and for families to be united eternally."

Quite a mouthful for a 5 year old, but you did it perfectly and confidently, and I had to laugh as you casually leaned on your side arm on the pulpit, just like the Bishop.  And you were even looking side to side as you recited your part from memory.  What a nut!

Our Little People's Preschool

4 Little Learners

Addison, Oliver, Benny, Shayla

 and the Moms Who Love Them

Ashley, Me, Stacy, Marianne

This year, finally, I've gathered my courage and am participating in a coop preschool!  Addison was even accepted into a great preschool program a few weeks ago, but I chose to pull him out so that we could experience this time together.  Courage is the only word I can think of to describe that decision.  Courage to follow my heart.  And faith. 

And today was his first day of preschool!

"I'm just SO Excited!"

Waiting for our Ride
Yes, our ride, since leave it to me to lose my keys on such an important day!

We'll each teach once a month, with themes, letters of the days, numbers of the day, interactive reading, large motor activities and music, crafts and projects.

When the kids arrive, they sit at the table for quiet table activities until everyone's there.

Puzzles Today!

Then they move to circle time, with carpet squares to sit on, and this AWESOME TriFold Display we all worked on .  It has our calendar, weather, letters and numbers of the day, and the job chart!

Way to Show your Enthusiasm, Ollie!

That will travel to each of our houses when it's our turn to teach, along with a bin of all our supplies and their progress binders.

After that pic, it was parents' cue to exit so Miss Marianne could start class, with the letter A and her lesson about "All About Me!"  So Ashley and I left our boys there, and with our 3 girls, headed off to -- where else? -- the mall!

When we came back we found 4 TOTALLY happy kids who were so engaged and had a GREAT time together!  They didn't even get to the "free-play"/recess at the end of the schedule because they were so involved in Marianne's projects!  SO EXACTLY what we've all hoped for!


I've admired and envied you moms that are doing these kinds of things, and finally feel like I can try my hand at it :)  I'd love your tips and ideas along the way!

Storage--Moving--and Restrooms!

While driving by this Uhaul Self-Storage center the other night, those orange indoor storage doors were really well lit...so much that we laughed hard when one of our sons piped up from the back seat,

"Wow!  Look at all those restrooms!"

Happy Labor Day!

Nope, Still doesn't have the ring to it to qualify for a Hallmark Greeting Card.


But an old fashioned 7-mile bike ride does!

It was a PERFECT bike ride with our friends Dean & Marianne and their 3 boys.  With 4 adult bikes, 2 trailers, a tandem kid's bike, and Carter's bike, we were SET!  

32 Geese crossing in single file; really?  Come on, now....kinda like being stopped at a railroad crossing!

"No really, take your time..."

Our bike ride started in a forest preserve and wound our way along the river until we arrived at this little piece of Holland...or Germany...or many of the other places around the globe with working windmills.

We all LOVED the destination, the tour, and the break!  And it's a GREAT place for family pictures (though maybe next time, not so sweaty!)

The Treuhafts
I'm not a photographer by any means, but I love how this one turned out!

In the end, 7-miles was a GREAT workout, not only for our 5 year old who rode the whole way,

but apparently even for those who did no work at all!

ONE last day of summer

When the weather hits 80 degrees for one of the LAST days ever, you bet we're going to treat it right!!

 Yes, this head-first dive WAS on purpose, as were the 10 before.  

Oh yeah, this made me LAUGH!  We had a delicious BBQ with all the usual fixins.  And, as is usual, the kids would eat some, then get up, then come back for more, then leave again, etc.  You know the drill.  So at one point our friend Ollie had been gone from the table for a long time, and we all thought he was done.  And Alana, sweet Alana, was grazing.  He came back and in what to us sounded like a disappointed and accusing voice he said, "Ohhhh, Alana!  You ate all my corn!"  


I was bracing myself, ready to help a 3 year old through this 2 year old's obvious blunder with a whole string of "sorry"s and "it's okay, don't worry about it"s, and "here, have mine"s, when instead he turned around and hugged Alana so tightly, and in the most excited and grateful tone exclaimed "THANK YOU!!!"

Guess he didn't want to finish his corn after all!

Mr. Birthday visits Alana

Ah yes, then there's Alana's big day!

Happy Birthday, 2 Year Old!!!

What a nut she is!  She is the greatest 2 year old!  She is so alive and sparkly happy!  She has a new fascination with princesses, with no influence at all from us!  When picking out her clothes she loves picking out frilly tutus and dresses and goes around spinning and twirling, "Princess, Princess, I Princess!"  And we love that after her outfits are complete, she runs to Daddy with "Ta-da!"


For her birthday party we went to Petland, an amazing local pet store with tons of kittens and puppies that you can take into little rooms to play with.  It is a DEFINITE favorite thing to do for Alana and she is so tender and nurturing to the animals...

 ...well, most of the time!

This year's cake was more of about the flavor --YUM-- than the decorating, but we didn't care!  I made a layered blueberry cake with strawberry filling and vanilla icing, topped with strawberries and blueberries.  

Oh yum, I want some more!!

She LOVES Disney's Little Einsteins.  On her birthday we checked out a Little Einstein's dictionary, and that is her favorite bedtime story!  Every night we read a few pages and she repeats every word.  SO CUTE!  And she's hit that landmark that her vocab and speech are TAKING OFF!  It's so fun to hear these little words come out of our little person!

Mr. Birthday Visits Steve

When Steve turned 30-something-else this year, I knew it was another cause for secret celebrations!  He surrendered all planning energies to me, *enter coniving laugh*.  First, the night before his birthday, I arranged for Gma to come watch the kids and I caught the train midday to surprise him at his office.  It was great timing since I caught him making last minute copies before packing up his briefcase to run to the train home.  Sneaking up behind him at the copier and watch him clear 15 feet in startlement was worth it.  *Click. (mental picture).  He was so surprised that I was actually down there that the rest of the evening didn't really matter, he claimed.  Until he found out what was planned.  

We spent the majority of the evening atop the John Hancock Tower in the Signature Lounge.  


Chicago Trip Tip 586:  For anyone wanting to do the famous Observation Deck views at either the Sears or Hancock Tower, take it from me, the Signature Lounge at the Hancock Building is the way to do it.  

• The view from the Hancock is SO much prettier than the Sears and 
• You can go to the Signature Lounge for FREE AND you can treat yourselves to an amazing chocolate mousse cake instead of paying the $18/person admission to go see the same view one floor up, sans the chocolate cake.  Survey says Signature Lounge.

       Funny Lucky story.  Can't decide if it was funnier or luckier.  Probably just luckier.  We arrived at dusk, the busiest time, and saw a looooooong line to go up the elevator.  At least an hour.  We were undeterred, however, and were happy to wait in line.  But, the Madura Magic was at our service.  This guy just started talking to us and when the elevator came down he bursted out "They're with me" and escorted us on the first ride up.  Wow.  Head of the line.  And one of the best tables in the house.  Turns out he was a wedding crasher.  HA!  What a life!

       We arrived to watch the sunset and stayed to watch the city lights come on.  It was beautiful.  


Oh yeah, and Chicago Trip Tip 587:

• Ladies:  The best view of the city is found none other than in the women's restroom in the floor-to-ceiling windows.  I'm not kidding.  When I went in to check it out, NO ONE was using the restroom for what it was meant for.  We were ALL pressed up against the glass with our cameras! 

After walking around the city on a very romantic and picturesque stroll, we ended our evening at a very nice hotel called the Omni Hotel on Michigan Avenue.  Thank you Business Perks.  When Steve did a charity auction for one of the Bears Players, he was thanked with a gift certificate to this place.  Awesome!

The next morning we walked through the city, grabbed breakfast at the Corner Bakery where he ironically ran into an old high school friend (totally odd at 10 AM on a Saturday morning, 2 hours away from where they grew up).  We headed over to the Museum of Science and Industry to see the Body Worlds Exhibit...and the Tornado Alley Omnimax movie...Couldn't help it....I'm somewhat of a covert storm chaser myself...or, so I wished.

Chicago Trip Tip 588:

• The undeniably best seat in an omnimax theater is the one right above the projector.  It just is.

We came home Saturday evening and celebrated with cake and ice cream with our kids.  And LOVED that we introduced the Trick Candles back into the 21st century.  

HA HA HA!

Happy Birthday, Steve!

Our Little Friend named Birthday

       Once upon a time there was a Birthday.  He was a wonderful Birthday, dutiful in every way, and always showed up on time. 

Birthday was adored by everyone.  Sure, some people try to deny his very existence, and some others get busy with life and simply forget about Birthday.   

But the greatest trait of Birthday's is that he never holds a grudge.  He shows up every year!  He stops by to let you know you're loved and special, and dag nabit, we're happy to have you in this world!  He's always happy to celebrate to your content!  If a quiet evening at home is what you want, he's by your side.  If you want a rockin' houseboat party, he's calling the DJ.  Somehow he coordinates with your favorite restaurants to give you free desserts and silly songs, too.  What a friend!  We Love BIRTHDAY!

We might be biased, but we think that we are some of Birthday's favorite people.  We ADORE Birthday, and we try to do all we can to make Birthday feel loved and important and that we REALLY remembered him.  We take him anywhere and everywhere and pretty much stop all that we are doing to show him that he is important!  With that said, even though it has been a month or so since Birthday came to our house-- TWICE -- I'm finally going to write about it and can't wait for Birthday to come again!


So for the next 2 days, you're going to read about how we celebrated Steve and Alana, with Birthday in town!

Today's To Do list

...and every day after that, for that matter.

Listen More, Lecture Less.

Question More, Nag Less.

Praise More, Nitpick Less.

Seek Suggestions More, Give advice Less.

Just Stopped By

Today was a cool day.  Four times today, I was the lucky participant in some "Just Stopped By"s.

First I just stopped by a friend's house on my way home from Carter's school.  It was unexpected, but so fun!  And she assured me she didn't mind hanging out, despite her PJs!

Then right when I got home, another friend called and asked if it were okay if she just stopped by.  No reason.  Just to talk.  Sure, we could have talked on the phone, but why not just stop by!  So she did.  So fun.

Then, while she was there, that first friend decided to return the favor and just stopped by for her kid to play at our house this time.  So fun.

Then after naps, another friend just stopped by with her kids on a friendly neighborhood walk.  Loved it!

Just Stopped By.  I'm not sure they happen as often as they used to.  Is it possible that the accessibility of cell phones, texting, and such have decreased that element of surprise, just thinking of you, just stopped by-ness?

How do you feel about it?  Do you love it?  Love knowing that someone was thinking of you all of a sudden?  Or does it embarrass you because they may catch you in more of an unprepared state?

There's something special about that personal contact.  A shared moment.  A closeness in offering a glass of water and a conversation on your couch, even if you have to move your laundry.

We all understand it.  We do laundry on our couches, too.

All these just stopped bys today uplifted me more than the individual phone calls would have separately!

So to borrow a tagline of a dear friend, don't be afraid to just stop by.  Live a tactile life.  Be a tangible friend.

First Day of School -- a mom's perspective

Acknowledged:  this post is a week overdue.  The moment may be overwith and gone, but the memory's still there, so I still have the right to blog about it.  Booya.

August 23 
       It was 6:17 AM.  I yawn.  I stretch.  Then I pause.  I notice my stomach is tied in knots.  Why? I ask myself.  Where is the peace and calm I felt last night as we all got ready for the first day of school? 
       Perhaps all parents feel some anxiety on that first day.  Especially kindergarten.  This marks the beginning!  The beginning of the rest of their 18 years with school routines, teachers, and peers.  Sure, it's exciting, and sure I realize that I'm soon going to join the entourage of minivans doing carpools and soccer pickups and running forgotten lunches to school with heartshaped I Love Yous embarassingly scribbled on brown paper bags. 
       But this day also marks the end...The end of the "formative years" , as experts calimed the first 5 years of a child's life are the most important.  But now they're over.  Today's the first day of school.  I had my chance to teach and mold, and now I'm sending him off.  Perhaps the knots in my stomach at 6:17 AM that morning was my secret plea for more time, wondering if I had done enough, if I had done my best, if I were ready.
       But, as it was, today was THE day, so I got out of bed and left to begin getting ready.  True to my 5-yr promise, I would start making hot breakfasts as soon as my kids were in school, and I had full intents to follow through.  It was now 6:20 AM.  A tiny sneeze outside my bathroom door let me know I wasn't the only one awake. 

       I opened my bedroom door to discover Carter standing there, bright-eyed, and with a huge smile on his face!  He was all dressed in his school outfit picked out the night before, back pack on, hair combed.  He, for one, was Ready!
       I knelt down and gave him a BIG HUG!  I knew we had nothing to fear!

   So, off we go on our new life.  Our new routine.  Our new phase of Mom with school-aged kids.  Off we go.  And if anyone knows how to renew more time on those formative years as if renewing a late library book, let me know.