A little too much time locked in the basement

Joe's mom has been so kind as to spend the week with us so I can get everything ready to go to Tasmania next week. She and the kids have been spending a lot of time playing in the basement doing all kinds of things, from traveling to distant planets to constructing their own cruise ship, while I work upstairs in my bedroom.

When I went down to check on them today, I tried to get a nice picture of them all playing. These are my three failed attempts.



And then at supper tonight, I decided maybe I should let them come up for air a little more often.

Penguin attack

The cousins at Christmas, in their new penguin jammies.

Coke is it!

Today I took Sadie to get her second set of shots in as many days, and she was not too happy with me. (We are still playing catch up on her immunizations.) On the way home I was really thirsty and drove through McDs for a large Coke. I thought I could buy her off with some fries, but she soon let me know she thought she needed a drink as well. I hadn't gotten anything child-friendly to drink, so I held up my cup and said "You won't like it. It's Mommy's." (That approach usually works.) She kept insisting "I like it!" with a louder and louder tone of voice. Eventually, I couldn't take it anymore and gave in.

Here she is, triumphantly holding her Coke.

And she made sure to tell me after she took her first sip, "Momma.....LIKE IT!"

Go Hawks!

Grandmommie is here this week helping with the kids so I can get packed for Tasmania. We get to take a break tonight to cheer on the Hawks - she even supplied us all with new Hawkeye shirts.

A long day of birthday fun

As I put Sam in bed tonight, after he was barely able to keep his eyes open while brushing his teeth, I asked him if he had had a good birthday. "It was a long day," he said. "And it was good."

We started the day off with a round of Happy Birthday and some party hats for the first set of presents to be opened. (Sorry to my mom for the eyes-closed shot.)
The much-longed-for Batcopter!
Yes! It's just what I wished for! (And told everyone within earshot at Christmas that I needed it.)

This Hot Wheel track is pretty cool too!And a castle - I got everything I wanted!
Sadie got to open a few presents early, too. She was very good at baking cookies for all of us.
And then we had the neighbors over for a little party at lunchtime. More Batman paraphernalia - a sure hit!
The boys left the other (still wrapped) presents on the table and started playing Batman - with the toys still in the boxes. Nice.
We drug them back to finish off the pile.
Then they headed upstairs to the "secret castle." (Secret from Sadie, that is.)
On to the cake - blowing out your candle is more fun when you share it with friends!
Then Granddaddy and Grandmommie came. Sam and Granddaddy had fun playing with the superheros and "Ralph" the beanie baby.
We read Birthday Monsters before bed.....Sam barely made it through awake.
And tomorrow - church and a trip to Legoland - could life be any better for this 4-year-old?

T-shirt Tradition, 2010

Each year on his birthday we take a picture of Sam in an old t-shirt of Joe's, a tradition I read about in a magazine (Don't think that I am that creative!) . Here he is this year - 4 years old!

And here are his first 3 years.....

1 year old
2 years old
3 years old

A little catch up

So - I have more Christmas pictures I should post, but those are on my other camera and that would require finding the other card reader and I am just not up for that right now.

The past couple weeks have been a bit crazy. It all started the Friday before Christmas when I lost my van in the mall parking lot. It was just me and Sadie (with no stroller) and we were running a few minutes behind to go pick up Sam at preschool. I walked up and down every aisle in the lot outside the entrance I could have sworn we went in and couldn't find my silver minivan anywhere (amidst the sea of silver minivans that take over suburban malls). I resorted to asking security to try to find it (rather than lug my wriggling 30-pound daughter around the entire parking lot). It seemed like a bright idea at the time, but an hour and a half later I was having some doubts. They did finally locate it, but only after I had called Joe (who was at home post-kidney stone blasting) to go get Sam. Not my finest hour.

Then we headed home to Iowa a few days earlier than planned to try to avoid any weather issues. It was wonderful to be there for the extra time, but it was a bit of an adventure getting out the door with such short notice.

We had a wonderful time at home with both of our families. We came back here Tuesday night so that we could go downtown to the passport agency Wednesday morning to try to figure why Sam's passport that we sent in for 5 weeks ago (and paid for 2-3 week expedited service) had yet to be processed. The trip home Tuesday night included a slight (if you call and extra 100 miles or so slight) through Peoria when I neglected to get on I-80 and instead accidentally was on I-74. It was made all the better by my 2 children in the backseat screaming "I want to be home right now!" and "Can I get out of my seat and just lay on the floor please!? I want to go to sleep!" My poor 6-months pregnant sister-in-law had to endure the kicking of little baby Kowalski (Sam's name for his cousin-to-be) as he was not so enamored with his hysterical cousins.

But we made it. The passport it supposedly on its way. (Someone had set it aside because they thought there was a problem with it and then never seemed to get back to doing anything about it - and there was, in fact, nothing wrong with it.) And then Grandma and Papa came to stay though Sam's birthday.

The kids were delighted when there was sticky snow capable of constructing a snowman on Thursday morning.
And then Grandma stayed up late tonight decorating Sam's birthday cake. She had to help Papa come through on his promise of a race car cake. (Papa did go buy the pan all by himself, so he gets a little credit. Although, he was the one who suggested the car in the first place....)