I've been waiting . . .

. . . for five years for Luke to be old enough to understand and enjoy our Fontanini nativity set. We set it up today and he loves it. I am learning to let go of my perfectionist tendencies and not sneak over after he's done playing to put the figures back in their "proper" places. It's really ok if Jesus is on the roof.

Michael as human train wreck

Geez--he's croupy, snotty and he faceplanted at a friend's house yesterday resulting in a giant goose egg on his forehead. Still cute, though.

Blue Thunder

We are now the proud or, in Matt's case, resigned owners of a minivan. Luke has named it Blue Thunder after a monster truck, don't you see the resemblance?

Thanksgivings

I didn't take pictures today, although usually I'm pretty good about taking pictures of the boys on Thanksgiving. I was thrown off by an early morning phone call from my aunt. We lost my Grandpa, S.T. Anderson, this morning. Grandpa had been having a rough time for a few weeks, battling pneumonia and he had taken a turn for the worse a couple of days ago. He passed away peacefully in his sleep early this morning. He would have been 103 this December.

On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful. I am thankful that Grandpa went peacefully. I am thankful that he didn't have to spend Thanksgiving day in a nursing facility and instead spent it in Heaven with my Grandma Annie Lou and my dad. I am thankful that my stepmother Carole was able to visit him yesterday morning when he was still lucid and that my aunt Loura made it into town in time to see him last night. I am thankful that we will be postponing the funeral until late next week, so that my cousins and I can get to El Paso.

I am thankful for my wonderful husband and my beautiful boys and the baby in my belly. I am thankful for my wonderfully supportive mommy friends are our great friends from ODU. Truly, we are blessed.

Random things

The boys just finished watching half of the Wizard of Oz (we discovered it was on halfway through) and they LOVED it. Flying monkeys for our little monkey and Luke was enchanted with the whole thing. Guess that will be a dvd purchase soon!

We put the boys to bed late with just enough time for prayers. Turns out Luke knows the Our Father. All by himself with no prompting. I don't think I knew it by heart well until I was 5 or 6. Pretty amazing.

We also went to the zoo today and the weather was beautiful, the animals were out and the kids were great. What a great day!

Climbing Trees

We're having some late Indian Summer weather. Yesterday, Matt took this picture of the boys climbing the pear tree in our backyard. Crocs and no coats in mid-November.

The Wedding

Well, chasing after a toddler and a preschooler does make it hard to take pictures during a wedding. It also severely impacts one's ability to eat, drink and be merry. But we had a lovely time overall and the kids were surprisingly good, especially once we got settled at the reception. The biggest surprise of the night was that exhausted Michael crashed on his daddy's lap at 8pm and ended up sleeping in his cousin Jacinta's stroller for the rest of the reception (well at least until we left at 11pm, the reception went on without us until 2am).

From left to right (I'll try to swap in a brighter pic later): Jon (eldest), Matt (second born), Stephen, Katie, Chris (youngest) and Greg (third born).

The wedding pictures were taken in the quadrangle at Trinity College at the University of Toronto (where Matt and I went to grad school). It's beautiful and a great enclosed place to run.

Best Man Uncle Greg and Uncle Chris as photographed by Luke.

Luke and his cousin Claire the flower girl. Luke told me he would like to marry Claire. They are adorable together, but does anyone else hear the banjo theme from Deliverance playing?

Poor Michael, all these pictures of him sleeping lately. Can you tell someone has recently dropped his nap?

chillin' with the groomsmen

Granddad's house was the staging area for Uncle Chris and his groomsmen. The boys loved getting on their suits while all of the other groomsmen were getting ready, too. It was a beautiful day, very warm for November, and we all waited outside for the limo to arrive. Then we waved goodbye to Uncle Chris and the guys and headed off to the wedding.

The Fam

More wedding blogging and pictures to come, but I wanted to get this one up right away. I stole it from my SIL's facebook site. I think her mom took it.

thoughts on Chris's upcoming wedding

We leave tomorrow for Uncle Chris and Auntie Katie's wedding on Saturday.

Luke is very excited. "I get to wear my wedding costume! And my shiny shoes! And my tie!"

All Michael heard was costume. "Michael wear monkey costume!" Oh my disappointed little moo-bug.

Wish us luck, it will be a long day in the car tomorrow and a very long day and late night on Saturday. I'm hoping for no major meltdowns from the kids and no major puking episodes from me!

Too Much Halloween

Matt and I are not big fans of the Columbus tradition of moving trick-or-treat night and we couldn't stand the thought of not doing anything on the "real" Halloween. So tonight, we drove into Westerville for more trick-or-treating. There weren't many kids out at all where we went, so we didn't feel bad for imposing ourselves on the neighborhood. After all, somebody had to collect the candy! We only went for about 40 minutes, then the boys tuckered out. "Tuckered out" is an understatement for Michael, as the picture shows. He fell asleep on the way home and didn't wake up when we moved him, took his picture, took off his costume or brushed his teeth.

violin lessons

We have been trying to get into a Saturday violin lesson routine with our friends, but managing our schedules has been tough. We're finally getting into the swing of things. Luke and Malcolm have real violins and are learning to play such classics as "Mississippi Hot Dog"--it's really more of an exercise than a song, but they love it. What we didn't count was the little ones wanting to join in. So now Quinn and Michael are also "playing." Matt does all the work, while Karla, Pete and I sit upstairs, eavesdrop, giggle and marvel at how well they are all doing. Here they are, all holding the violins in the proper position.

Beggar's Night

I'm not sure we'll ever understand why Columbus doesn't do trick-or-treat on Halloween if it falls on a weekend. Oh well, the weather was beautiful for Beggar's Night last night and the boys had a blast.

This morning, Michael was hung over from staying up late and too much candy. Here he is with a much needed sausage fix, still wearing his costume, which he wore all day again today.

Apple Picking again

We made a quick trip out to Lynd's for our second 20lbs of apples this season. It's the only time Michael ever eats apples! We were supposed to go this weekend, but the weather is looking nasty. We still hope to get to the pumpkin patch on Sunday, but I didn't want to risk not being able to get my Winesaps and Fujis. So we made the trek today, met some friends and got a huge bag of apples and a couple of squash for good measure.

Pigeon Roost Farms

I love all of the fall activities in Central Ohio. On Monday afternoon, we took the kids to Pigeon Roost Farms. So many great "low-tech" activities. Poppy and Nan, I think you should buy a little piece of land and start building your own slides, obstacle courses and spooky tunnels. You can probably do without the obnoxious goats, though.

Michael loved the "corn box."

Most of the slides are just this black tubing, Michael couldn't get enough.

Luke's new best friend, a fuzzy caterpillar.

Climbing the obstacle course in the "enchanted woods."

Love the tire dragon!

And we finished with about a hundred slide races down the hill.

Boo at the Zoo

You know Halloween is close when it's time for Boo at the Zoo. Cold this year with temps in the 40s. It didn't bother Michael in his super warm monkey costume. Our Transformer Optimus Prime didn't last too long before he needed to take off his mask and put on his jacket. I hope to get better pictures of him at one of our other Halloween events.

There's a superhero show each year. This year's featured Luke's favs Spiderman and Ironman fighting the Green Goblin. Luke is the perfect audience member. He cheers and jeers at all the right spots and laughs like a hyena at all of the jokes.

Back home, there was just enough time to play with their loot, one plastic dolphin and one plastic squid from the zoo and two monster trucks that came with their Burger King dinners. It was a good night to be a kid!

Chilly morning

It was rainy and ridiculously cold this morning. What else to do but sit on the coffee table and eat little chocolate donuts?

More Practicing

I've been on a mission to get Luke's winter gear without spending a fortune this year. I finally finished the ensemble. New coat, snow pants and snow boots in the much requested black, all found at Once Upon a Child in perfect condition. Luke wanted to put everything on yesterday and then he tromped around the living room for a while.

Home Visit #1

One of the best things about the boys' school is that a teacher comes for a home visit each year to get to know the children better. Michael's teacher Molly came on Friday. Molly and Michael raced cars while I packed for Toronto. Molly was Luke's teacher when he was 2 and she came for his home visit that year, too, so it was really neat to have her here to visit Michael this time. Michael had a great time. It will be Luke's turn in a few weeks.

Canadian Thanksgiving

We spent last weekend at Granddad's cottage outside of Barrie, ON. There was a huge gathering with 15 adults and 7 kids on Saturday night. It was great to see the boys play with their cousins Talia, Claire and Jacinta and they also got to see Grandma Sylvia's grandchildren Luke and Caitlin. The kids were adorable and there would have been lots of cute pictures except that stupid me forgot the camera!!!! After taking a couple of very lame pics with the cell phone, I gave up. I'm hoping somebody else will eventually post some pictures that I can steal.

Chris and Matt played bocce ball in the drizzly cold.

Claire and Luke really hit it off and played all weekend. Grandma Sylvia has a painted stool that says "Grandma and Grandpa's Cottage: where cousins go to become friends." How true.