Joey's glasses

We recently noticed that Joey would sometimes squint while watching TV, so we took him in to get his vision tested. Turns out he's a bit nearsighted (just like I was before the laser surgery!). So, Joey picked out some frames and we ordered his glasses. They came in last week. He's still getting used to wearing them, but he seems really happy with how much clearer everything is when he has them on. I told him that he looked really mature and smart with his glasses on. He said, "You mean smarter." Stinker.

Chinese New Year

Every year at the kids' school they have a Chinese New Year celebration. It's always a lot of fun. The kids work on decorating the auditorium with all kinds of fun arts and crafts relating to the holiday. 2011 will be The Year of the Rabbit, so a lot of the decorations were bunny themed!
The school set up a bunch of different activities. There was face painting, where the kids could get a little rabbit face on their cheek. They had an area in the gym where the kids could learn and practice using chopsticks. They also had a room where you could learn how to make Chinese dumplings and paper lanterns. In this photo Kristin shows off the stuff she made. We were all really impressed with her dumpling. She folded the edge like a pro!
Joey's friend J gave him a red envelope, which is a traditional for New Year's, symbolizing good luck and prosperity. Inside the envelope, Joey found some candy. Good luck indeed!
Here, Joey and Kristin pose with the Chinese dragon. At one point during the night there was a song and a performance where the dragon danced through the crowd. Gorgeous! I don't know which class made this dragon, but it looked very impressive when it was in action.Xīn Nián Kuài Lè. Nián Nián Yǒu Yú. (Happy New Year! Wishing you prosperity every year!)

Another Night of Mystery & Murder!

Our family just can't get enough of Murder Mystery parties. So, we had yet another one for my and Tandy's combined birthdays. This one was entitled The Chicago Caper, or "You Dirty Rat-a-Tat-Tat." It was set in the roaring 20's in Chicago, where the infamous gangster Hal Coppone was recently released from prison.

We met for dinner (a fancy Italian spread!) at my mom's house and then got started on the game!First there's Joey who played Billy "The Kid" Thrower - pitcher for the Chicago Stock Kings baseball team. We had his hat embroidered with the team name for his costume!
Here's Alicia, playing Silky M. Adam, who runs the local house of ill repute. Ooh la la!
Sean's character was Eddie "Socks" R. Gyle, a professional golfer and gambling addict. Wendy played Molly M. Awbster. Wendy always goes all out with her costumes. I love it. She looked amazing in her flapper outfit!
Next, there's Matt who was playing S. Treighton Harrow, the District Attorney. Got to love that moustache!
Kory played Ernest G. Ambler, and Tandy played Anna Sassine. Kory looked great in his three-piece suit! They made quite the flashy couple!
My mom's character was Malissa F. Orthott, a journalist who went by the nickname "Scoop." She liked this wig so much she said she might try this style with her real hair.
Even Simon was in disguise!
You might notice that I'm not in any of these photos. I dressed up as the bartender: S.P. Keasy. I wasn't an official character. There were only parts for 8 people, and I decide to sit out this one to give others a chance to play (namely Joey). But it was still fun listening to the clues and trying to guess the murderer.

And...we have another Murder Mystery party coming up in a few weeks! Stay tuned!

Joey's Bear Badge

This month, Joey earned his Bear badge in Cub Scouts. This involved working on several projects over the course of the last year. He learned about American folklore, how to plant a garden, the basics of woodworking, and how to be prepared for an emergency. It's quite an accomplishment and we were so proud of him!Joey was pretty proud of himself, too. Look at that grin!Now that Joey has completed his Bear badge, he moves up into the Webelos group. He's already well on his way to earning various merit badges and pins. He learned about first aid, and most recently he'd been learning about fitness and nutrition. I'm the assistant Webelos leader, and it's great being able to work with Joey on his projects!

Joey's 10th Birthday

Hard to believe that Joey is 10 years old already! Since he was finally reaching "double digits" we thought he'd like to have a special party. But what Joey said he really wanted was to go to the Science Center with a friend and then have a family birthday party & dinner later. Sounds good to me! I love that he wanted to keep things simple.

So, we began the birthday extravaganza with a trip to the Science Center. Joey invited his friend J to come along with him.
While the boys went off to do their own thing, Kristin had lots of fun showing me around the Science Center. Here she shows how light and shadow work together. Fancy!
And here Kristin shows off the "bowl of clouds." it was a big circular disc that had a tube in the center that piped in water vapor. Soon the "bowl" would fill with "clouds." It was fun to swirl the vapor around with our hands. But what Kristin liked to do best was to blow the vapor into my face, pretending like it was smoke. After our trip to the Science Center we had lunch at a place called The Studio Diner, which is a restaurant built on the lot of a local TV Production company. The food is great and the kids love it there.

Going to the Science Center was on Saturday, and then Sunday (Joey's actual birthday) we had the family party at our house. We had Mexican food for dinner. Tacos, burritos, enchiladas, Spanish rice, refried beans. Delicious! And since Joey is obsessed with Pac Man lately, he asked for a Pac Man birthday cake. I have to say, of all the designs he could have asked for, this one was pretty simple! We made a chocolate layer cake with homemade yellow buttercream frosting - then we just cut a slice out for Pac Man's mouth. Voila!

Joey got lots of great presents as well - including a really cool marble run that was galaxy themed. And we got the Michael Jackson Experience game for the Wii. Joey has been perfecting his moonwalk ever since!

Happy, happy birthday, Joseph Alexander! Now, maybe stop growing up so fast, ok?

New Year's Eve Mystery Party

Matt's birthday is on New Year's Eve. Normally we don't have a birthday party for him on his actual birthday, since people might have other parties to go to. But this year everyone was free, so we had our family party on Matt's actual birthday. We made it a Murder Mystery Party!We've done several "How to Host a Murder" parties over the years. They're really fun! Everyone is assigned a character - usually one with a funny pun in the name - and some costume suggestions. Then everyone dresses up and we sit around sharing clues and trying to figure out who the murderer is. I LOVE mystery parties! The name of this particular mystery was "The Good, the Bad, and the Guilty" and it was set in the old west.

Here I am with the birthday boy. Our characters were Elvira-Lynn Fekshin (the local madame - oh la la!) and Wyatt Hertz (the Sheriff who sadly once shot himself in the tender parts).
Next we have Kory and Tandy. Kory's character was P'elvis Swagarin (described as "Solemn, poker-faced, bowlegged-he's a cowboy's cowboy"). Tandy played Dee Adela Muerte, a thrice widowed Mexican beauty who now works at the town undertaker.
Joey played Elias Truist-Heath, the up and coming heartthrob gunfighter. He filled in for Alicia since she was stuck at work much later than anticipated, and did a really great job.
My mom played Helena Handcart, mother of thirteen sons. ("Unfortunately, she had to bury all thirteen of her sons after they were tragically killed in a shoot-out at a dairy farm. The now infamous gunfight at the Parkkay Corral left her with nothing but memories.")
Wendy played Butch Chastity, the first lady of outlaws. Sean played Chief Breaking Wind, leader of the Cowpai tribe.
Here's the family, gathered around the table and ready for fun!
Simon really liked playing with Wendy's cowboy hat.
"Here, Wendy - YOU wear the hat now!"
Here's Matt, ready to open gifts. Doesn't he look delighted?
Here's his birthday cake. We went with the cowboy theme. I love the fence and cactus around the sides, though they're kind of hard to see in this photo.We all had a great time. Our family rules.

Christmas Lights at the Temple

Every Christmas, the Temple has a special display on the grounds. There are tons of beautiful lights, Nativity scenes, and they have Christmas music playing. It's really beautiful. We've never gone there together as a family, and decided that this would be a good year to start!

Here I am with Joey and Kristin.
Here's Simon. He turned away at the last second, so this isn't a great photo. But it's the only one that sort of captured the lights on the palm trees.

Our three. I can't believe how big they're getting. And I can't believe they were all basically smiling and behaving for this photo!

Here's Matt and the kids. At this point in the evening, we're all freezing since it's about 40 degrees outside (and was threatening to rain, if I remember correctly) so we headed home for warm cocoa and a Christmas movie!

Christmas 2010

Here are a few quick snapshots of Christmas. As usual, we had Christmas Eve at my mom's house where we ate "snacky stuff" and then opened gifts. In our family, we open all our gifts on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas morning.

Here is Simon opening his gifts with Grandma. He still doesn't quite get the concept of ripping apart the wrapping paper - which is probably a good thing, since otherwise he'd probably unwrap every gift under the tree!

Kristin got a new book all about Princesses, and she started reading it right away!

Wendy got a fun geeky sweatshirt. See, it looks like just a hand - but when you unzip it, it becomes the Vulcan "Live Long and Prosper" symbol. Subtle geekery is awesome.

After opening gifts at Grandma's house, we all went back home and unwrapped the gifts waiting for us there. Here Joey unwraps a gift from Grandma Lynn: a 4x4 Rubik's Cube!

Grandma Lynn also gave both Joey and Kristin their own umbrellas. They were so excited! And I was excited, too - at last, they won't keep stealing mine!

And here's Joey checking out a quilt his mom made him. It has pictures of planets, rockets, and astronauts on it. And the back is orange, his favorite color. Can we get a WHOOP WHOOP for mom?

Catching Up: December 2010

Oh, we're getting close to being caught up!

December is always a whirlwind of activity. Christmas shopping, cookie baking, and birthdays! First up was Wendy's birthday. On her actual birthday I had my office holiday party, so that evening while I joined my coworkers, Matt took his big sister out to dinner and a movie. Awww, siblings who like spending time together! The next night, we had the family over to our house for dinner and birthday cake. And, of course: presents! Here is Wendy opening a shiny wee gift from her mom:

And here is Wendy behind the GIANT box from her brother. What could it be?

Why, it's 40 individual presents! Oh my! (I will spare you the photos of her opening them all. Suffice it to say, she got lots of fun stuff!)

And one of the gifts was The Macarena Monkey. (Though, I think it's more a gorilla, which is NOT a monkey...but whatever. Point it, it sings The Macarena.) It's been a proud family tradition since 2001! We pass it around from family member to family member on various holidays. We usually try to disguise it so the person doesn't know what they're getting. We hid it in a Zappos box this year. Since Wendy has fallen in love with shoes lately, I thought it was fitting!

And here the birthday girl makes her wish!

Hope you had a great birthday, Wendy!

Kristin Loses a Tooth!

The weekend after Thanksgiving, we took another trip to the Van Omering dairy farm. They have a pumpkin patch there for Halloween, and then they switch to a Christmas tree lot after Thanksgiving. It was quite a change from when we went there for Halloween - and not just because there were pine trees everywhere! In October, there were tons of people. But Thanksgiving weekend, there were only 3 or 4 families. It felt like we really had the place to ourselves. While we were at the farm, Kristin pointed out that she had a loose tooth.

When I told her it would probably come out at some point that weekend, at first she was scared. But then we talked up the Tooth Fairy, and she calmed down. We had a great time playing on the farm. We discovered some new things we hadn't noticed the first time we were there - like the football field! Joey and Matt had a great time practicing their field goal kicks.

Joey was also excited because there was a ping pong table. He figured he'd be an expert since he plays so much Table Tennis on the Wii. He soon found out that video ping pong and the real life version are not the same! But we still had a good time. Kristin had a great time playing in the hay maze.

After playing at the farm, we then went out to dinner at a place called The Studio Diner. It's a cool old-fashioned diner on the lot of a local TV production company. While we were there, Kristin complained that her tooth hurt. It was clearly ready to come out. So, Matt grabbed the tooth with a napkin and out it came! Kristin was so excited!