Drat

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Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone!  The Bergs had a quiet but nice one … Elsa really got into the “holiday” this year, which was fun to see.  I’ve refused to give Valentines on my child’s behalf for a few years now (much the same as refusing to throw her a “real” birthday party until she can write a guest list), but this year, because she could a) remember who her friends are and b) write their names, we bought Valentines!  She actually worked really hard on them, over numerous nights, and was borderline OCD this morning about where they were (“They’re in my bag, sweetheart, I promise.”).

This morning I dressed them in all shades of their favorite colors and sent them off to be sugared up and loved down.

Sadie’s teachers invited the parents for lunch (chicken nuggets and tater tots, anyone?) so I headed over to see the hearts of my heart.  I obviously see them in their classrooms every day, but there’s something fun about visiting when they’re not expecting you.  I love to see them light up that way, and they light me up just the same.

Happy Valentine’s Day to all those we love – you know who you are!  🙂

 

 

Passing the Winter Weekends

So it goes without saying that winter kind of sucks – winter is even less fun when you’re cooped up with two kids.  And while Mike and I aren’t the most creative when it comes to filling our free time with said children, we have done a few fun things since the holidays came to a close!

So New Years Day was a bit slow, ahem, but after an afternoon nap for all, the proverbial ants-in-pants did creep in.  So my “crap, they’re running wild, I have to think of something” gene came out and we made some play dough!

We were able to tuck in a few other fun outings the following weekend, thanks to some warm(ish) weather.  On that Saturday, Oak Park welcomed a new fancy-pants bakery, and they welcomed us with a free cupcake.  The first 1000 customers got the freebie – we were 994, 995, 996 and 997.  That was the approximate calorie count on those bad boys too.  We chose Pink (can you guess who chose that one?), Elsa got the Chocolate Snowball, Mommy got the Grasshopper and Daddy picked the Baba Booey (chocolate and peanut butter).  Fan-friggin-tastic.  Look at this menu, y’all!

The next day, welcoming additional warm weather, we decided to indulge another of Elsa’s requests and get on one of those choo choo trains she sees so often (but is never allowed on).  We took the El downtown just to see what we could find.  First we found a drunk Veteran who reminded Mike how beautiful his wife is (about two dozen times – I am THAT beautiful, people) and then we found pretty skylines.

We ended up at the Chicago Cultural Center and it goes down as one of my favorite memories with my family, bar none.

 

After our cultural exploration, we headed over to Millennium Park, just to run a bit and see what we could see.  We headed to the Bean, anticipating some preschool self-admiration (“Well, hello there beautiful…”), however it garnered very little interest from the chitlins.  I begged Sadie to take a picture with me and that is the only evidence that we were at the Bean.  We spent WAY more time watching the zamboni and the would-be skaters milling impatiently below.

After the Park, we headed over to Starbucks for a snack and then got back on the train.  The girls were so tired they just zoned the whole way home, which made it a lovely train ride.  🙂

A couple weeks later brought our first real snow accumulation, and we spend about 13.2 minutes outside to “enjoy” it.  We met our neighbors outside and whined about the cold, took some pictures and headed back in!  Oh, we also daydreamed about July.  Meeting back outside on a glorious, hot day in July.  Sigh.

Aaaaaand, we quickly revisited “grown-up fun” at the end of January to celebrate our neighbor Sara’s birthday.  Her husband arranged a surprise dinner out with friends and some family, and then we retired back to Enlow basement for some more Rock Band/”impromptu” dance party (quotes, you ask?  Well, I may have begged for the dance party – that said, it was no less successful than the last, and THIS time our other fantastic neighbors [Sarah and Jerry] joined in).

Happy birthday girl gets dessert.

Happy birthday girl dances.

ROCK BAND.

Anxiously awaiting spring’s arrival, but we’re making do with winter!  🙂

Found this

This goes out to Grandpa Randy!  (Click that link below, I don’t know why it’s not embedding a youtube picture!)

Elsa’s first drum session

New Years/Christmas Part Two

Because we couldn’t spend Christmas with the Bergs, and the Berg/Griffith family couldn’t travel to La Crosse for New Years, Grandma and Grandpa Berg made their way to us.  It was fun to have them!  We attacked presents as soon as they arrived (of course) and then just hung out the rest of the weekend.

Chillin' with Gramps.

Elsa talks often of making special treats, and she wore me down on New Year’s Eve!  Luckily I had stores of pre-mixed sugar cookies and neon food coloring, so we were in business.  They tasted pretty meh, and we probably ended up throwing about 95% of them away, but it was a spectacular way to break up a day indoors on New Year’s Eve.

We were lucky enough to be able to have Grandma and Grandpa stay home with the girls on New Year’s Eve night and we headed over to our neighbors’ house to let loose a little.  There was Rock Band and an impromptu dance party – so inappropriate for thirty-something moms and pops.  Actually, not at all.  It was awesome.

This involved alcoholic whipped cream.

Dance party, y'all.

Here’s to a very happy and exciting 2012!

Christmastime!

We headed up to Grandma Sue and Grandpa Randy’s for Christmas this year.  We started the holiday with some cookie decorating with the girls and for the second year in a row, my mom botched the frosting!  Picture about four times as much Crisco as needed… I’m not sure I need to say much more than that.  Well, maybe just that my girls loved it anyway. Narsty.

Does anyone see a resemblance to Heath Ledger in this picture? "Why so serious?"

We celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve, as we always have, though we did go to church in the middle of the day, which was a break from tradition.  That was a stroke of genius, though – everyone knows that if you bring mogwais to church earlier in the day they don’t turn into gremlins before the food gets put out.  Wait, what?

After church came pictures, grazing and presents!

Triumph. My hubby bought the bag I yearned for!

Christmas morning brought more presents for the girls… from Santa… that they have by this point already forgotten about.  Learn when to stop – that’s my resolution every December 26th.  Maybe some December 23rd I’ll actually remember it.

Christmas Day was a trip to Sheboygan for brunch and hanging with Granny and the rest of the fam.  Not much white stuff for our California relatives!

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas!

Pre-Christmas Cheer

December was a fun month for us, as it is for most – sometimes I think I like the time leading up to Christmas more than Christmas itself.  It’s all cozy and nostalgic and full of reasons to eat stuff I won’t otherwise.  Plus I get to redecorate for a month, which flips my switch, I’m not gonna lie.

We started the month by having Grandma Sue and Grandpa Randy visit – and we got to celebrate Grampy’s 63rd birthday!  We ate Thai food (Grandma and Grandpa’s favorite), had yummy cupcakes from Bleeding Heart Bakery, and then the girls got to help Grampy open his gift (a robe and pajama pants)!

Helping Grampy open his birthday gift.

The next day Mommy got to go out for a proper ladies afternoon for tea at the Drake.  My dear friend Tracy joined me downtown – we dressed up, we ate finger sandwiches, we solved the world’s problems.  And it was all sparkly and Christmasy… and full of Tracy – so excellent!

My mom wanted to visit the famed German Christmas market in Chicago, the Christkindlmarket, so I met her right after my tea.  It was kind of a nightmare, to be quite honest – it was worse than Disney World in March, it was so crowded.  So we settled on pushing our way to the pretzel stand and snapping one picture (to send to my cousin who’s living in Amsterdam and got to go to a REAL German Christmas market… grumble grumble grumble).

At the end of the weekend, we even got a cute Christmas picture off!

Beyond that December was your typical decorating, baking, shopping extravaganza.  And we took our own pretty Christmas pictures!

Making peanut butter blossoms.

O Christmas Tree.

At the Optimus Christmas Party!

Santa!

And what came of it - Merry Christmas!

And the award for worst parenting technique while potty training goes to…

Mike and Erica Berg for enslaving potty trainee on toilet with TV.  And it didn’t even work.  Either time.

June 2010.

January 2012.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Elsa’s 4th birthday/Sadie’s 3rd Halloween

Had to give the Sadester a little shout-out.

Sorry this is so late – I was so pleased with getting the last post done that I just sidelined blogging all together.  Time to get Elsa’s birthday post done before Christmas is upon us!  You should see that post some time in February, I’d imagine.

We headed to La Crosse for Elsa’s birthday weekend (for a wedding, actually), but not before we got some trick or treating done at my work.  The girls loved it probably more than the real deal – indoors (warm), office-to-office (near instant gratification) and loads of fawning women (loads of fawning women)… they had fun, and what mommy doesn’t love showing off her little fairytale characters?

Elsa showing off her booty on our drive to La Crosse.

Grandma Cindy threw a lovely birthday party for Elsa and we had lots of fun!  She asked for purple and pink cake, macanony and cheese, and some balloons, so Grandma did her best to acquiesce.  She was a happy birthday girl.

Cooper helping Elsa play with her princesses. Macy had school so unfortunately couldn't join us for the wedding/birthday weekend. 😦 But we were only too happy to shower attention on little Coopy.

Saturday night was the wedding – it was gorgeous, and really fun.  This picture pretty much sums it up.

And just a couple more cute pictures from the weekend – we had fun, I’m glad we got to go celebrate Michelle and Dan’s wedding, and Elsa’s birthday!

We headed back to Oak Park on Halloween and straight into naps and THEN into trick-or-treating. We joined our neighbors Sara and Jed and Sarah and Jerry (and all the little kiddies) and trolled the neighborhood for candy.  Success!

Our neighbors made an ice cream truck and dressed their little girls as ice cream cones. They drew a lot of attention!

Pretty Little Red Riding Hood.

We headed home for a little birthday party for Elsa after trick-or-treating – it was brief but fun!  We love our neighbors and Elsa is obsessed with Will and Ella.  🙂

Ice cream cake and recycled balloons.

Friends.

Jackson, Sara and Jed.

Sarah, Vivian and Jerry.

Neighorhoodlums! (Starting with Elsa, going clockwise: Vivian, 18 months, Ella, almost 4, Jackson, 20 months, Will, 4, Sadie)

On Elsa’s actual birthday I got to bring treats to her friends and read her new book (Goldilocks, of course) to her class.  It was really fun to be a small part of her day, and she was thrilled that her mama came to spend time.  And do you see her new purple Crocs??  🙂

And what better time to put up her Class picture?

Phew – just under the wire – now on to Christmas!