The busy month of November 2008 - Week One

The month of November started off to be a busy one. Sam left on November 5th for his teaching trip to Hong Kong. He would come home on the 17th for one night then leave on the 18th for a workshop (conference) in Minneapolis through the 21st. So, I tried to prepare myself for about 2 & 1/2 weeks on my own with the 3 kids. However, I didn't quite get mentally nor physically prepared by the time Sam left that Wednesday afternoon.

Thursday, Novemeber 6th: I had just finished a simple dinner of noodles with the kids when the doorbell rang. I opened up to find my dad, mom and brother standing at my front door! They'd come for a short yet surprise visit! What perfect timing!!!

An added surprise came Friday night when my Aunt Livia from Bakersfield, CA came for one night! She was in Bloominton, IL for a State Farm function and had an extra free night before flying back to California out of O'Hare. Driving alone in the unknown was a big deal for her, so I really appreciated her bravery and efforts to come out to see us! I helped ease her nerves by describing highway driving through Iowa similar to country driving. Mind you, she is from California where highway traffic is of a different world!

It also turned out to be the first weekend of snow in Iowa. It wasn't much but for my family from Georgia, it was a nice rare sight, especially for my brother who misses snow so much! We stayed warm at home for the most part, which was nice to just spend family time together. Peter, Natalie, and Elaine enjoyed the extra company. As always with my family, there was a lot of action in the kitchen and we had some delicious meals that could only come from "Home." Best of all, we had great memories that could only from from FAMILY:

Like Peter giving Gung Gung a kiss goodnight...

Elaine getting face time with Cau Cau Anthony...

Natalie giving Po Po a goodnight kiss...

Gung Gung meeting his 5th grandchild Elaine...

Great Aunt Livia reading to Peter...

Our family group picture...

All smiles and fun with their uncle...

and finally nap time with Po Po.

Sadly, everyone had left by Sunday afternoon, all was "quiet" again, and I had to prepare for week two alone at home with the kids.

Blog interrupted...

Sorry to those who've wondered where I've been and why there's been nothing new on my blog. It's been a crazy and busy month of November, from which I don't think I'll ever fully recover from. Once I get my blog updated of all the events, you'll soon understand the absence of new reading/viewing material in the peapod.

Our silly silly girl Natalie

We love our little Natalie. She's a complex little two-year old. She has her quiet moments when she keeps to herself and her wild moments when she expresses her silly side. I was able to catch of her wild moments while getting ready for bed, before she got her night gown on.

Side note: I did NOT prompt her to do ANY of this!

Natalie starts singing "I got a silly [hat]" then realizes that's not what she's got, continues with "I'm in my birth[day suit]" then, again, realizes that's not right, and finally gets her groove back to sing "I'm in my diaper suit!"

Then, as always, she wants to see the video of herself! Do I smell actress/director?!?

Does teleportation work this way?

It's pretty amazing and confusing how international travels and time zones work out. For Sam, it's almost like he experienced teleportation.
He left Hong Kong on November 17th at 11:42am and then arrived in Chicago on November 17th at 1148am. Only took 6 minutes, not bad. I guess his baggage might have slowed the process. :)

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

Happy Halloween from

Glinda the Good Witch, Dorothy, Cowardly Lion, Tin Man, and the Scarecrow!

It turned out to be an extremely warm day for Halloween - getting up to 72 degrees! This made Halloween night absolutely perfect for trick or treating!

We went around the neighborhood with our next door neighbors (Mark, Donna, Lily, and Abby). Lily and Peter lead us to most all the houses while Natalie did her best to keep up. There were a few houses that Natalie wouldn't go up to - the ones that were "too scary". A piece of candy just wasn't worth the scare for her! Luckily, not every house was too spooky and the kids got their treats.

Elaine seemed to enjoy her first Halloween as the Lion (despite her unhappy face in the group picture). Her costume kept her nice and cozy while she liked being strolled around and looking up into the stars!

Unfortunately, we have quite a bit of leftover candy. I can never get it right. We either run out or have too much! I guess it didn't help that we went trick or treating for about an hour before getting home to hand out our own candy. I'm sure Peter and Natalie aren't too upset with the excess of candy. They had lots of fun sitting on our driveway eating their candy with Lily and helping hand out candy to trick or treaters. It was obvious that Natalie had too much candy tonight. She was getting all silly crazy while getting ready for bed, giggling and running around in just her diaper. It was very amusing to watch, and know every sugar high will have a crash. Fortunately, the crash happened right when we finished our bedtime prayer and songs. Next time, we should probably put a limit on candy at night. It was just hard to say no to my little cute "Dorothy".

Sorry if I'm repeating myself, but I am so proud of our costumes this year. I surprised myself that it all came together. Most of the items got done last minute - literally, as my crown was made 5 minutes before we hit the door - but we got nice comments tonight about our costumes. Althought I'm happy never to wear that pink dress I made ever again (it makes me look 20lbs heavier), I'm a little sad that Halloween is over because I really enjoyed seeing Natalie in that Dorothy dress...maybe I'll let her wear it around the house just for fun!

Gearing up for Halloween!

It's due time for us to dive into holiday decorating. With the exception of Christmas, I've been a minimalist when it comes to holiday decor around the house. I feel the need to get into all the holidays for the kids to enjoy them and get that experience.

So, here's it starts with Halloween! I was inspired by the ghosts hanging in the windows at Peter's preschool to do this craft project with the kids at home. It came together really quickly. I just grabbed some white, black and orange paper from my plethora of paper supplies, made some cut outs, and handed out the school and stick glue to the kids. Look what we made!

We made a pumpkin and a ghost for each family member, including Sydney. I then let Peter and Natalie put them up on the windows around our dinner table. I think it adds a lot to the room and they love them!

Notice how Sydney's pumpkin and ghost got whiskers and ears!

Peter made Elaine's ghost and Natalie made Elaine's pumpkin.

Finally, from left to right, we have Natalie's, Mommy's, Daddy's and Peter's!

ZTA 5K Walk/Run (or stroll)

We participated in the ZTA 5K Race today. Our babysitter Dominique's sorority was putting it on, and it was for a good cause, Breast Cancer Awareness. It turned out to be a beautiful and very windy day, perfect for the race - especially since it'd been raining for the last couple days.

Here we are waiting for the race to start. We got our numbers 76, 76, 77! For whatever reason, Peter was being anti-camera for this shot and Elaine is in the single stroller.

I was overly excited to get my "Think Pink" ribbon pin.

Luckily, Elaine slept through the entire race...all nice and cozy warm in her car seat.

I didn't get to catch Peter crossing the finish line because he'd ran off quicker than I could keep up, but he did get a lot of cheering to finish off the race, just like Natalie's reception to the finish line.

Here's their finish photo with the finish line of balloons behind them. It was sort of cute that each thought they won the race - as we told them, they did win...in their division.

Peter's favorite part was the race. Natalie's favorite part was 'the wind blow [her] hair away'.

It was a nice run and we had a great time doing the race as a family. We got a lot of props from other runners and organizers for bringing out the kids for the run. We felt happy that we did it...and now my legs are SORE!

As promised after the windy day out, we had hot chocolate back at home

...through a straw, nonetheless!

Whatever makes them happy!