Merry Christmas

Well, our first Christmas as a new family is coming to a close. I know I will post much more information about it at a later date. But for now, I thought I would just pause to reflect on my overall feelings.

To be honest, going into Christmas this year was terrifying. Things are a bit tenuous in our family at the current time... which is an understatement, but to put it in perspective... it's perfectly normal at this stage of a family forming with an older child. I didn't know what to expect, didn't know how the kids would react, and didn't really know how I would feel on Christmas as a parent for my first time.

But it couldn't really have gone better. We had a great Christmas Eve, and a wonderful Christmas. We started some new traditions and brought the kids into some of our old ones. We made sure that Santa knew what Lynnae's favorite candy was. The kids got to meet their cousins, except for the three in Belgium, and it is going beautifully... thus far. Lynnae absolutely loves her new cousin Evin... and Charlie has two cousins his age to play with.

I didn't do everything for them that I had wanted, but I am at peace with it. Because I know this is only the first of many Christmases, and next year we'll get to add to the memories. Tonight, I am happy and looking forward to another year with my kids.

From our family to yours, we hope you enjoyed a Merry Christmas and wish you the best of years in 2009!

Charlie's 3rd Birthday

Our little boy turned 3 years old last Tuesday! He was very excited to be 3, although it is true that he keeps telling us he is “actually 8.” We spread his birthday throughout the day. We came in and sang Happy Birthday to him in the morning to wake him up, handing him his first present to unwrap – a pack of Cars stickers. Then we brought him downstairs where he saw his brand new art easel. That thing has been very popular with him, and has already seen a ton of mileage!

I let him open a new present at morning snack, one at lunch, one at afternoon snack, one before dinner... We had a lot of smaller gifts for him to open so that he could enjoy the thrill of tearing paper. To our surprise, he is not much of a paper tearer. He is very gentle when he unwraps gifts, and has to be really encouraged to rip at it. Makes me laugh that he is even methodical about opening his gifts!

Charlie and I went out to Michael’s and Borders in the afternoon. When we walked back to the car from Borders he was screaming to everyone he saw, “I am just so happy! I’m happy!” It was making everyone smile. It was really cute.

Charlie requested hot dogs for his birthday dinner, and then we went in to open the rest of his presents. He got a ton of stuff. Lynnae really wanted to be able to get him a lot to open, and she succeeded. I told her she could spend up to $20, and imagined that she might be able to get him 2 things with that. But, no. It all started when I found a Buzz Lightyear doll at the Disney Store for only $8... Then she still had $12 to go. She ended up also getting him Candyland and 4 Hot Wheels cars. Those presents were among his favorites! In addition he got wooden trains and a book from Grandpa Kovar, a Percy lego set and a book from Grandma Boyce, and a set of books from Great Grandma Hayman. We also gave him stuff to go with the easel and a Little Einsteins drum set... Which he also loves.

Then we had cake. I would love to say that Lynnae decorated it, because the handwriting looks so bad... But unfortunately, that is not true! I bought canned decorating frosting because I was out of time, and found that it is nearly impossible to hold one of those cans while squeezing the tip and trying to write nicely. Poor Charlie. At least he got a bakery cake with better writing for his party several days later!

We had so much fun with him on his birthday, and we are really enjoying the personality that is jumping out of our not-so-little boy. I am pretty sure that this was an excellent birthday for him as well!

Progressive Dinner - 2008

We have a Christmas season tradition with two of our family friends – the Stutzmans and the Zaniewskis. We get together for the majority of one day to do a progressive dinner. It is proving to be a great tradition, and we can’t believe how quickly our families are growing. Last year there were the four Stutzmans, two Kovars and two Zaniewskis. This year we added two more with Charlie and Lynnae. And next year there will be two additional – Caleb Stutzman and Tanna Zaniewski. If we keep going at this rate, we may need to find a new venue for the event. :)

This year’s progressive dinner was on the same day as Lynnae’s dance recital. We started at the Zaniewski’s for the appetizer, moved to our house for the main course, and then the Stutzmans treated everyone to Cold Stone for dessert. For some reason I got it in my head that I really wanted to have prime rib, and that I could make it. Everything was fine until the day before, when I realized that I was slightly crazy. Not only have I never made a prime rib before, but I’ve also never seen it prepared! I was really nervous about it. I read way too many reviews of my chosen recipe on allrecipes.com. Andy had to help so that my nerves wouldn’t take me down... But the prime rib turned out beautifully. (And we had several fantastic prime rib and provolone sandwiches over the course of the next week!) Cold Stone was also very tasty. I think that Charlie was the luckiest there. He ate from Matt, Candice, Lynnae and my bowls!

All in all we had a great time, even more fun this year than last... And we can’t wait for next year!

Candice and Matt at Cold Stone... I think they are near food coma. :)

Joe and Jacob at Cold Stone

Candice, Jacob and Carleigh after dinner

Joe after dinner

Jacob was happily playing all night. Here he is torn between taking the handle off of Charlie's plane or drinking from his sippy cup!

Carleigh after dinner - showing Candice how to smile (really smile) for a picture.

Matt showing Jacob how to bounce.

Lynnae's First Dance Recital

Lynnae was so excited to start ballet this year. Her studio does winter performances for some of the junior classes, and this year her class was one of those scheduled to perform in the community. So last Saturday we got her dressed and ready to be at a local community church by 11:45 for their “Snow Day” performance.

Lynnae’s class was toward the end. I had a feeling that this would be interesting, because they had just learned the rest of their dance two days earlier. It was very... Interesting... And cute. Lynnae spent most of the time watching the other girls, who were also watching each other, to see what move they were supposed to do. All in all, I did think it was better than several other of the class performances. Perhaps I am biased? Andy took a video on his cell phone, so if I ever get that, I will send it out!

Lynnae was so nervous before the performance. I have never seen her have nerves quite so strong. She was going from being really, really hyper to being white as a ghost and very timid. She sat still, without moving an inch, for a good 15 minutes when the performances first started. Then, when her class was just two away and they moved “on deck”, she was bouncing all over the place. Andy and I, of course, told her how proud we were of her. And Candice was able to make the performance too. Lynnae had sent her a video message a few days earlier begging her to come. I think that the big step for Lynnae was that she was able to get up in front of a lot of people and perform something she worked on. (I also think she might now understand how important it is to pay attention and practice a little more!) This was just a mini-performance... The big recital will be in June!

Oh Christmas Tree

One night before Thanksgiving I was waiting in the McDonald’s drive thru line with Lynnae in the car. Charlie was at home with Andy. While we sat in the car we were talking about random things - school, and her favorite topic of late... Ryan, the boy that she sometimes really likes and sometimes really hates. (Yes, in 3rd grade everything is already about girlfriends, boyfriends and crushes.) At a pause in the conversation I looked around the parking lot and noticed that they were starting to set-up a Christmas tree stand. So I said to Lynnae, “Look! They’re getting ready to put Christmas trees up soon!”

With the smallest sliver of hope in her voice she asked, “Will we have a Christmas tree this year?”
“Of course we’ll have a tree this year – we always have a tree! We’ll probably put up a fake tree this year, but we will definitely have a tree.”
“Okay.”

I was a little surprised at her response, until she broke the next pause in conversation with, “You know I’ve never had a tree before.”
Well, I knew this wasn’t totally true because I’d seen pictures of last year. “Yes you have! What about the tree last year?”
“Well... Yeah, there was a tree.,” she admitted. And then added in her fast 3rd grade exasperation, “But they didn’t set it up until Christmas Eve and only the parents got to decorate it. It was so unfair. I was so bored!”

Then it was time to order our food, finally. So I did and as I pulled forward I said, “Wow. Well I really need your help this year. I love Christmas so our family does a lot of decorating! I need you and Charlie to put on the first ornament and then help me get the rest on too. AND I have a special decorating job that I was going to put you in charge of.”

“Really?” She was so hyper at this point that I thought she might bounce free of the seatbelt and launch into the front seat to be closer to me. We got our food and started the drive home. Sometimes, in these moments where I can feel that she wants to be closer, I get these little stories out of her. If I sit back and am quiet enough, she will usually follow up the moment with a glimpse into her past. This night was no different. As we drove home, I heard a quiet voice in the back seat...

“You know, once when Charlie was a baby we were at the store. Daniel was trying to get into everything, it was really annoying! Mom was buying food. And do you know what she told us? She said that there wasn’t even a Santa Clause!”
“What?!?!? Why would she say that?”
“I don’t know. She looked mad. She said that parents just made it up.” I saw her shrug her shoulders in my mirror.
“And you believed her?”
“Hey!” With her most indignant voice she said, “I was just a kid!”

I smiled. We made it home and ate our McDonald’s. I didn’t say another word, I didn’t want to press my luck. But later that night, I relayed the whole story to Andy... Who thought it was as funny as I did!

A few days after Thanksgiving we erected our Christmas tree. The kids were so excited when they came around the corner and saw all the lights. Charlie and Lynnae did put the first ornament on together, although Charlie was way more interested in touching the lights and the branches of the tree. I let them put on all of the ornaments that were not breakable. They had a lot of fun! Ziggy has knocked quite a few down, but every day there are fewer on the ground. It makes me sad to know that they haven’t had the normal childhood Christmases before now... But, secretly I am really happy to be able to share these firsts with my new 8 and 3-year old kids.

Charlie and His Scissors

About a month ago I began handing Charlie a pair of scissors to see what would happen. (Kid scissors of course!) At first he was using two hands to open and shut them, and of course, nothing was cutting because nothing was holding the paper. Finally, he accepted my idea to use one hand to hold the scissors. But holding them perpendicular to the paper still proved to be an issue... So I found myself guiding the paper and righting his hand a lot. For our preschool activities I was even putting my hand in the scissors over his to keep him from veering too far off course... (I still let him do the guiding, opening and shutting unless he was about to cut something in half!)

One day I noticed he had figured out a grip that worked for him to open and shut more carefully. And then, he started cutting in straight lines all by himself... With only about half of the jagged edges as normal. On Thanksgiving morning, he was very hyper, so I distracted him with a pair of scissors and a blue piece of paper. He went at that paper for about an hour, cutting it into ever smaller pieces. At one point he cut out a circle and then held it up to show me... So, it wasn’t a perfect circle, but who cares? Eventually that, too, got snipped into smaller bits. At the end we had one HUGE mess of blue scraps and a giggling little boy that had enjoyed one of the best hours in his memory. Paint brushes and scissors are two of his new best friends!

Some November Crafts

We kept busy in November again with a lot of crafts! I realized at the end of the month that I hadn’t taken pictures of several of our projects... But these are some of the biggest ones we did.

• Acorn Doughnuts – We took doughnut holes and frosted the top half with chocolate, rolled them in toffee bits and then stuck a pretzel piece in the top. And I thought doughnut holes were good by themselves...
• Thanksgiving Wreaths – I got this project from dltk.com. We cut out pictures of foods, turkeys, and other Thanksgiving items and then pasted them onto a paper plate. Charlie did all of the positioning himself... He is getting really good at gluing! Lynnae had a lot of fun with it too. I then mounted a picture of each of them in the middle and hung them on our back french doors for the month.
• Give Thanks Sign – I got this idea from makeandtakes.com. We traced letters with glue and then put different food items onto the glue to form each letter. I think Lynnae had the most fun with this one... Probably because I saw her sneak quite a few mini marshmallows into her mouth! It turned out really cute!

Finally, Lynnae made a cornucopia at school which we hung up for Thanksgiving Day. We are all really enjoying doing our crafts together! (I think even Andy likes it.)

Thanksgiving Day 2008

This Thanksgiving Day we ate at our house and our friends, the Boschees, came to share dinner with us. This is an old tradition for us that started 10 years ago, we’ve skipped a few years but have spent more Thanksgivings together then apart. We were really excited to have them up and to also share our first Thanksgiving with the kids. We decided to eat nice and late, at 5pm, so that there would be plenty of time for relaxing cooking and for the Boschees to drive up. In terms of cooking it turned out to be the most relaxing Thanksgiving I have had.

I searched high and low for low sodium recipes prior to Thanksgiving so that I could enjoy all the food I wanted. I found a really good turkey recipe that was made with rosemary, basil and garlic... And no liquids. I cooked it in an oven bag so that it would still come out moist... It is definitely one of the best turkeys I have ever had. Our leftovers are almost gone! I also did make ahead mashed potatoes, pies, and cranberry salad the night before... So on the day of Thanksgiving, there was very little to do.

I may not have had Thanksgiving with kids in the past, but I have learned enough in the past eight months to know that kids + waiting for food = catastrophe. So I set out some crafts for them to do when they first came. I set out stickers (thank you Mom,) tracers for turkeys and leaves, thankful notes, scissors, crayons, glue sticks – everything I could think of. They made their own placemats and I had a table runner for them to make too... But they never got to it. It was successful at occupying their time. Madison’s placemat turned out the best!
I was really happy with how the turkey turned out and Andy did a great job at carving. The meal was really good, although we had a surprising amount of leftovers. While Angie and I cleaned up and packed away bags for each of us, the kids started playing. Charlie managed to cut his nose while he and Natalie were bouncing... Of course. That kid has to always have some type of bruise or cut on his face! So we put a bandaid on it, and Natalie wanted one to match. Lynnae and Madison played in her room, Andy and Jeff did their video-game thing, and Angie and I sat downstairs talking while we watched Natalie and Charlie play. They were really cute. We ate dessert and the Boschees headed back home to make sure they had plenty of sleep before Black Friday.


After they left we gathered the kids to talk one more time about the purpose of Thanksgiving and how important it is to be grateful. Prior to this year, Lynnae had no concept of why we even celebrate the holiday. She definitely does now! She read a book to the family, “Thanks for Thanksgiving,” and we headed to bed. All in all, this Thanksgiving is one to remember!

Self Portraits - A New Realization

About a week ago I was in the kitchen with the kids... and, can you guess what I was doing? Taking pictures of them. I'm not sure if it was a diversion or a genuine tactic, but Lynnae stopped and asked me if people can take pictures of themselves. So I turned my camera around, and discovered that it is actually very easy to do this with my digital SLR because you can see your reflection in the lens. So I smiled and pressed the shutter button. Lynnae asked if we could look at it, so I turned the camera back around to preview the picture, and voila...


This is not the first time I have taken a picture of myself with a camera. Although it is the first time I have taken a picture of myself since I got my Rebel... which I've had for 2 years. Why don't I take more pictures of myself? Because I hate looking at myself. But when I looked at this picture I had a realization that has been hitting me in small waves over the last 3 months. I don't hate the way I look anymore. Am I still self conscious? Of course. But, I don't feel like a fat blob when I look at my picture. So I kept snapping photos when Lynnae and Charlie started yelling out things like, "Make a funny face mom! Make a happy face mom! Make an angry face mom!" They were laughing so hard and having so much fun, and I was so happy for them to be so engaged. Plus, as parents of adoptive children we are always working on our feelings - so this was a great way for me to engage in that play too.

So here are some of my faces... and, this is what I look like 58 pounds lighter then my starting point... hoping to get to 60 before Christmas.

Coloring Fun

In the past few months one of our favorite activites has been coloring, in all of its simple glory it really keeps the kids' attention. Especially if I sit down and color with them. I usually find coloring pages online and print out 3 - one for each of us to complete. Sometimes I make up projects or just hand them a blank piece of paper. I keep teasing Andy that he should join us sometime. Actually, by doing this I am trying to help both kids a little with their coloring skills... and I'm starting to see some improvement! This is just one of the pictures that we colored during November. I hope you can tell who colored which picture! (I did NOT color the one on the right!!!)

Lynnae's First Decorated Cake

A couple of weeks ago Lynnae had the opportunity to decorate a cake, for the first time ever. I sent her off with my decorating tips, of course she chose to use them with blue frosting, and this is the result. She was pretty proud of her cake!!!

We Are Thankful For...

At the beginning of the month we made a turkey to help us countdown the days to Thanksgiving. I believe my sister, Daja, found the project and suggested it from another blog... But I’ve forgotten where it came from. The turkey’s body was easy to make, and then we traced and cut feathers to place around the turkey. Each of us had a different color so that we could take equal turns filling out the feather with something that we were thankful for. Most days we were able to discuss this after dinner as a family... It was a great exercise for us, and it was neat to see the full list of things that we are thankful for as a family. I’ve listed them all by color below – can you guess which person came up with the items for each color?

Teal:
Family
Mom and Dad
Food
My BFFL’s (Best Friends For Life)
Paints
Holidays
Air

Pink:
Friends
Rainy days
Music
Technology
Quiet moments
Good deals
Sleep

Green:
Buzz Lightyear
Cookies
Books
Dancing With The Stars
Letters (abc’s)
White shoes
Buddies

Yellow:
Nice house
Tasty water
Lazy days
My pets
Good humor
Warm slippers

We hope that you all had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Letters to Santa

We are sending off our letters to Santa this week. Charlie drew Santa a pretty picture. When I asked him what he wanted from Santa, he simply said, "Christmas!" He does not yet understand the concept of Santa!

Lynnae's was a bit more interesting... I'm not sure if the picture will be legible so, here is what she said:

Dear Santa,
How are you? Are you having a good year? I've had a long year and I'm trying to be good. I hope I have been good enough to not to get cole [coal]! Here are things I want for Christmas: A ceabord [keyboard], my [birth] mom, sheaky dinyks [shrinky dinks], a happy Christmas. Horeses [horses], dolls, to meet my cusans [cousins], Spongebob vidoe [video] games, Spongebob The Movie, a kitten, my tooth to come out.

Isn't it interesting what kids come up with?

Dear Mama, by Lynnae

[In answer to the question of whether I'm going to get one... lo and behold, I did. These letters are so cute and inspring me to think up a new plan for the next FHE...]

Dear Mama,

I love you and thank you because:
Your helpful!
Your helping me on the United States test!!!!!!!!!
Your nice and caring!!
Your antelagent [intelligent]!!
Your smart!!
Your loving!!
You show that you love me!!!!!!
Your always helping the family!!
You like mosic [music]!!!!!
You play with me!!!
Your a good leter [leader]!!
Your always helping me, you, Charlie, and dada!!
You spend most of your time with me!!
Tern [turn] over...
I've never epresheaded [appreciated] someone like I do in this family!! [awe... this one surprised me]

Love you with all my heart,
Lynnae

To Daddy, by Lynnae

Dear Dad,

I love you decause [because] and thank you Your helpful!!
Your antelagent [intelligent]!!
You like since [science]!!
You work Microsoft!!
Your smart!!
You helped me with Ziggy, tiger and boone!!
You play with me!!
Your nice!!
Your loving!!
You teech [teach] me!!
You so [show] that you love me !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your helping the family!!
Your a good leter [leader]!!!!
You've always deen [been] nice to the family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love,
Lynnae!!

Dear Charlie, by Lynnae

Novemder [November] 17 2008
Dear Charlie (age almost 3),

I love you becouse [because]:
Your the sweetest boy I've ever met!!!
Your a reily [really] sweet and caring doy [boy]!!
Your adorable!!
Your funny!!
Your playful!!
We're family!!
Your always thair [there]!!
Your the only one from are [our] rele [real] mom!!
Your yonger [younger]!!
Your always coping [copying] me!!
Your able to be with me!!
We have stof [stuff] in comin [common]!!
Your entellegent [intelligent]!!
Love,
Lynnae

[isn't that sweet?]

Skate America

I have never been a huge sports fan. In fact, one of the things that I love about my husband is that he is also not a huge sports fan. There is no football season in my house... we only watch the Superbowl. We don't worry about basketball, and while I like baseball - we aren't fanatic about it. The sports we do like are a little off mainstream... Andy is into golf. And me? I am into figure skating.

I have been following figure skating closely since about the time of the Harding/Kerrigan scandal... which is also the first year that I watched Michelle Kwan skate at nationals. She took 2nd place behind Tonya Harding, who was later stripped of her title. I remember being enthralled with Michelle and annoyed that she was lost in the whole scandal. Anyway, at that point I was hooked and I have been a big fan ever since. At one time, my TiVo was so full of figure skating that all of our other shows were being deleted.

I have always wondered if it is any better to watch a competition in person. Watching on tv you get to see everything up close, and filming is so good now that it always looks so crisp. I just wondered what it would be like to actually be there. This year I got an answer to my question.

One of the huge annual events in the international skating world is the Grand Prix. It is a series of competitions that start with Skate America and then travel to Canada, Japan, China, France and Russia. Each country can send their top skaters to compete in up to two competitions individually. The skaters in each classification that earn the most points get to go to the Grand Prix Final. It is a great competition that usually gets me really excited for the rest of the season.

Skate America is usually somewhere on the East Coast, but this year it was in Everett - about 20 minutes away from us. Andy, knowing how much I love this sport and how much I have wanted to see it in person, bought us tickets and gave them to me for our anniversary. He bought tickets to the ladies short program and the mens long program. This was a perfect choice because the mens competition included Evan Lysacek and Johnny Weir... two US skaters that have a bit of a rivalry. He got us great seats that put us right by about 50% of the jumps... if you happened to watch the competition on tv, you might have seen us in the crowd.

I did not think that we'd be able to use cameras, so I didn't bring mine... that was a mistake. I did manage to take a few pictures with my cell phone that weren't too horrible. I also took a couple of videos on my cell phone... sorry for the poor quality.

Was it better in person? Absolutely! When Evan Lysacek took the ice as the final skater of the evening, the feeling was electric. When he skated, you could tell in person just how strong of a skater he was. His skates did not make the noise that most of the others did. Although he was gliding just as fast as the rest, his technique made it seem like he was floating. He didn't bob up and down like the others either. The crowd, including me, was up on its feet from the middle of his footwork pass until the very end of his program. It was amazing.

Did he win? Nope. Neither did Johnny Weir... Takahiko Kozuka (Japan) did. Oh well! I will definitely take the next opportunity I have to see figure skating in person... and in 2010, US nationals are in Spokane!

Rachael Flatt (US)

Tugba Karademir (Turkey)

Johnny Weir and Evan Lysacek warming up

Evan Lysacek

First Parental Trip to the ER

We have officially marked another parental milestone... Our first trip to the ER for a child’s injury. Charlie, as I’ve mentioned, is all boy and all acrobat. Sometime on Friday night he got out of bed and started playing with his train set... Which is right by his closet. He has also learned how to open and shut his closet, and has played in there a bit. We, unfortunately, had never noticed a jagged corner on a wire shelf near the bottom of the closet. I went in to check on him before going to bed on Friday and found him asleep on his floor... Which is not that unusual. He got up and wanted to go potty, so I took him to the potty. While he was sitting there he just started sobbing. So I went to go rub his head to make him feel better, and lo and behold, I found a huge mass of blood in his hair. Yes, I freaked out. Turns out he managed to gouge himself pretty good on that wire shelf.

After a call to the nurses line, Charlie and I took off for the ER. I told him that we were going to go on a space adventure. We brought Buzz Lightyear and Curious George along with us. On the ride there I told him that he was going to be a space ranger like Buzz and that he had a special mission at the hospital. When they put his identification bracelet on his ankle, I told him that was his space ranger tag and that it was all about him. Hours later he told me, “I am never, never, never going to take this off Mommy!” (I actually had to coerce him to finally take it off on Sunday.) He did excellent in triage and cooperated with the nurse very well. In the waiting room he made best friends with an elderly woman who was there accompanying a neighbor that had had a seizure. He was being very lively. It didn’t end when we got back to his room. I put on tv, the only thing on was Kim Possible, and he continued to be very happy and cooperative with all of the nurses. There was a slightly crazy person next to us, but I actually think Charlie managed to block that out. There was some debate over whether they would staple his wound or glue it, and in the end they decided to glue it. He was very still and didn’t cry at all as the doctor worked.

Three and a half hours later we were leaving the ER. They gave him a teddy bear, to which he promptly replied, “Thank you for Cuddle Bear!” And now, its name is Cuddle Bear still... It is his new favorite stuffed animal, even eclipsing Curious George. Six nurses came in to say goodbye to him and told me that he just might be the most happy and cooperative 2 year old they have ever seen. I told him how proud I was of him and he looked at me and said, “I’m proud of you Mommy. Can we go home Mr. Mommy?” (That is what he likes to call me now... I’ve been working on the differences between Mr. and Mrs... But he hasn’t gotten it yet!) We got into the car and I fought to stay awake until we made it home... At 4am. (I woke up at 6:30 that morning to prepare for a school festival for Lynnae, so I was beat!) I honestly could not believe how well he did during the whole evening.

Two days later he got frustrated while he was sleeping and pulled all of the hair out from where his scar was. Luckily the wound did not reopen... But now he has a nice bald spot. And, the offending corner is blocked with a baby gate and two boxes until we can repair it!

Halloween

Halloween was a very fun, and very packed day for our family! We started out the morning at Lynnae’s school helping the kids assemble their skeletons. Charlie actually had a lot of fun during that too, the teacher let him play with a huge tub of blocks... And since it was mass pandemonium, it was a 2-year-old boy’s heaven.

After school, we had lunch and the kids put on their costumes so that we could head out to the children’s museum. My awesome employees gave our family a membership to the museum when they found out about the kids, and we hadn’t had a chance to activate it until recently. Both kids really enjoy it, and they had a cute set-up for Halloween. Charlie’s favorite was the sticky bubbles, which they had made with dry ice. Lynnae really liked making bright blue slime... Although I was very nervous about it in her white angel’s costume! Both kids had fun playing pumpkin and ghost bowling, and throwing spiders onto a huge web. After we were done in the Halloween room, we headed over to the construction exhibit, and then into the art room. They had several art projects set-up. Charlie made a 3D pumpkin, which he promptly destroyed within the next half hour, and a clothespin bat. We are still playing his favorite bat game, which is to attach it to his shoulder, and then have conversations with it... It is very cute! Lynnae made a smaller version of the skeleton, a necklace, and a bat for herself. We spent so much time in the art room that it was time for us to head home afterward!

At home we ate a quick dinner and then got ready to head out for trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Originally Lynnae wanted to be a mad scientist and Charlie was going to be her experiment... But then a couple weeks before Halloween she started telling us that she really wanted to be an angel. So, we let her... And she was really proud to wear her costume, even when her friend Tori ended up having practically the same one! Charlie’s favorite character right now is Buzz Lightyear, so of course he was Buzz. He was going around saying, “To infinity and beyond” and shooting his pretend lasers all day.

Trick-or-treating was pretty fun... It took Charlie awhile to get the hang of it. At first he was stepping into the people’s houses and saying, “Can I come on in?” Then, once he realized they all had big bowls full of candy he started saying, “Give me my trick or treats!” Finally, he seemed to get the concept of staying on the stoop, saying “Trick or Treat” and waiting patiently, finishing up with a “thank you”. Next year I will be practicing before going out!

When we got home we watched the Charlie Brown Halloween special again... Twice. It was a great first Halloween for our family. Charlie fell asleep downstairs with the hugest smile on his face. Lynnae is still telling us how it was her best Halloween ever. As a parent, that is really all I could wish for.

Congratulations Andy

Andy has worked at Microsoft for the past 10 years and has been fortunate to have a great career, a ton of opportunity, and an overall good working experience. (A lot of it has to do with all of the work he has put in, of course!)

This past week Andy started a new position in a new group that he had worked with briefly a few years ago. He is very excited for this job, which will let him tinker around with hardware as much as software... a perfect mix for him!

To congratulate him the kids and I made a sign for him and put it up so that he would see it when he walked in the door after his first day in his new job. We cut the letters from construction paper, glued them on regular copy paper and then I let the kids color them... Yes, the t is glued backwards, but that just makes it more precocious! They had a lot of fun and Andy says it is the biggest sign he has had in a long time.

We are proud of Andy for landing the new position!

Sidewalk Chalk

This fall has been absolutely beautiful in Washington. We have had a ton of sunshine, much more than I can remember for the past few years, and the leaves have been beautiful as a result of it. The kids have also been able to do a lot more outside play then usual, which is nice for them and for the moms. :) Of course, this week we have had torrential rain, but you can't really complain after the beautiful weeks we had before!

During the week of Halloween the kids had early release at 11:30 every day to accommodate parent/teacher conferences in the afternoons. This, coupled with the sun, gave everyone in our cul-de-sac a lot of time for creativity. The day before Halloween Lynnae and her friend Courtney wanted to go outside and use some sidewalk chalk. We had a whole bucket that we had barely touched from the summer... so I handed it over to them. As soon as they started, the rest of the kids in the cul-de-sac came out to join them. Within two hours our street had some of the most coverage in chalk that I have ever seen! They used over half of the chalk and had so much fun doing it.

The rain came the next day, but it took 2 days for the chalk to fade away. It was a really fun day for everyone on the street, and it was fun for me to see them out there again like they were during the summer!

October Food Crafts

We had a lot of fun during October this year! We didn’t just make paper and nature crafts, we also did a couple of food crafts.

Near the beginning of the month we made caramel apples. I decided to do it the long way and bought a bag of caramel, (instead of the wraps.) We had a lot of fun unwrapping all of the caramel... It was a race between Andy and Lynnae, Andy won. Cooking the caramel was another matter. I did not realize how messy it would be and how difficult it would be to clean it up! So, I hope the kids enjoyed caramel apples this year because we will probably not be making them this way again... From now on it is the caramel wraps for us!

Then during Halloween week we made sugar cookies in the shapes of a pumpkin, witch, ghost, witches hat, haunted house, and cat. Charlie and Lynnae each got to decide which cookies they wanted to cut and push them into the rolled dough. (I am saving the rolling out of the dough for Christmas... I thought we would just start with letting them cut it!) They both did really good. When we frosted them we made purple, orange and white frosting. We also used candy corn and gummy worms to decorate them. I was actually very surprised at how good Charlie did on this... All of his cookies were very symmetrical. Lynnae also did a good job, although we have more work to do in learning how to spread the frosting!

All of our cookies

Lynnae's cookies

Charlie's cookies

Pumpkin Carving at Home

Finally, after all of that pumpkin hunting and buying, we were ready to carve our own pumpkins at home! The Monday before Halloween we decided to devote the evening to our carving. Lynnae and Charlie were very excited! I was wondering how much of a mess this was going to be...

We started by cutting off the tops and scooping out the innards. Lynnae was having a hard time figuring out how to separate the seeds from the strings, so we had to help her with that!

Andy and I chose the fast and easy method for carving our pumpkins... We used templates! Lynnae really wanted her name on her pumpkin and we decided to let her do it all herself. So she drew her name and then cut it out without our help. We were actually very impressed with how well she did, for an 8 year old we weren’t sure if it would turn out. The big gaping hole under her name is supposed to be a mouth. That one threw me into fits of laughter. Charlie colored his pumpkin, and had a great time doing it! We were all laughing and having fun all night.



The next day I made pumpkin seeds. Since I watch my sodium, I try to stay between 1600-2000 ml a day, and most pumpkin seeds are drenched in salt... I searched for a pumpkin seed recipe that would be different. I found one on allrecipes.com that was really good, and a third of the sodium in most pumpkin seeds. First I roasted the seeds in the oven, then I pulled them out and fried them in olive oil and sugar. Finally, I tossed them in a mix of sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and a tiny bit of salt. (I cut the salt in the recipe in half to reduce it even more.) They were very tasty!!! I thought they were very similar to kettle corn.

This year was so much fun that I am already looking forward to pumpkin carving next year. And the mess was not too bad!

Pumpkin Carving Party 2008

Did I mention that neither Lynnae nor Charlie had ever been to a pumpkin patch before this year? They also had not contributed to carving in the past. In the words of Lynnae, “I ooooonlyyyyyy got to watch!!!”

This year was extra special for her because we actually got to go to two pumpkin patches. We went to The Farm with the Boschees, and then a week later we attended a Pumpkin Carving Party at our friend’s the Stutzmans. This pumpkin carving party is a huge deal... It starts with appetizers, leads into a trip to a pumpkin patch where everyone chooses their pumpkins, then goes into an early dinner. But that’s not all... It then goes into pumpkin carving itself and wraps up with dessert. They had a pretty big crowd this year!


We decided to pick out one pumpkin at the party to be our family pumpkin. Andy got the idea to find a nice green one and carve it upside down to look like an alien head... I think it turned out pretty good! (Although Lynnae has incessantly called it scary ever since that night.)


The kids had a lot of fun, they really, really like the Stutzmans and the Zaniewskis... who were also there. Lynnae also enjoyed spending time with Candice's parents, who were in town visiting.

Here are a couple of pictures from the pumpkin patch, I just wish I could include ones of Charlie and Lynnae!



This trip concluded our pumpkin patch visits for the year. but we still had four pumpkins to carve from the week before...

The Farm 2008 - Pumpkin Patch #1

Can I tell you how nice it is to have some time to be at the computer now that the Halloween activities are over? Tonight we start in on Thanksgiving... hopefully it will be a little more contained!

Finally, we get to some pumpkins! As I mentioned earlier, in the Sit and Spin post, we reignited an old tradition with the Boschee family this year... An annual trip to the pumpkin patch. The Boschees made the long drive up to Snohomish and we all went to The Farm, which is a neat pumpkin patch just outside of downtown Snohomish on the side of the Snohomish river. The Farm has everything you could want in a pumpkin patch... A Washington State corn maze (that actually has our interstates and things carved out,) a hay maze for little kids, a petting zoo, a kids play area, hay rides, a putting course, a restaurant, food stands – including the important kettle corn, and I’m sure there is more that I am not thinking about.

The Farm's "Directory"

When we got there we decided to wander around for awhile. The kids saw the petting zoo right away, and they needed to spend some time there! There were goats, puppies, kittens, and lots of other animals to look at. Then we headed over to a fishing place they had set up, but we decided just to watch that one. After wandering some more and checking out the gift shop we finally headed over to the pumpkins.

Madison petting a goat!

It was some work to find a wheelbarrow, but when a family that was leaving gave us theirs, Madison and Lynnae had fun trying to steer it. Once we got into the actual field they gave up, and Jeff and Andy took turns maneuvering it around. Charlie found his pumpkin right away, showing a determination to get it off the ground. I was surprised when he actually was able to lift it up and hand it to Andy! Then I found mine, Andy’s was right behind... But Madison and Lynnae were being very picky. They really wanted to find the biggest, most perfectly round and orange pumpkins that they could. This was slightly an issue because we went early in the season and many of the pumpkins were still green. They finally found theirs, and Lynnae actually managed to get her monstrous pumpkin off the ground too. She held it just long enough to take pictures and then started saying really fast... “Take it, take it, I can’t hold it!” So we took it out of her hands and added it to the wheelbarrow. Once the Boschees found all of their pumpkins too we headed back out... Muddier and ready for dinner!

Andy's Find

Before leaving we actually stopped to take some pictures of the families... So once we can get this adoption finalized, I will be able to change our main picture to one of the entire family!

The next week we headed to the Stutzmans’ Annual Pumpkin Carving Party and picked out one last pumpkin from another patch for the whole family... Stay tuned!

The view from the Farm