It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

L went off to school today in her sparkly red Santa hat. It's a sure sign that Christmas is just around the corner.

Work of art

L brought home this coil clay pot from school today. The class made them the day she was home sick, so she went in on her lunch hour to make it. She decided the natural color of the clay so chose not to glaze it. She said hers was the tallest in the class.

Decorating

Up went the Christmas tree and the rest of the decorations today. B and L were eager to help me hang ornaments.

Rockin'

On the way home from the farm, we stopped in Normal for lunch at Avanti's (of course!) We stopped at Target to get headphones for E since they were on sale. On the drive between Normal and Chicago, E figured out how to plug the headphones in the Buick so the passengers in the back can listen to something other than what Andy and I are listening to up front. Here's L rockin' to Taylor Swift:

Black Friday

It was dark and it was cold, but off to the stores we went! Cindy went to Wal-Mart at midnight on Thanksgiving and took Mom along, so she picked E and me up from the farm at about 4:30 a.m. Here's E and Grandma keeping warm in Cindy's back seat:

First, we drove to Edwardsville to hit Target (I was lucky enough there to get the iPod that was on sale!), Sears Hardware, McDonald's for a quick breakfast, Michaels, Best Buy and Walgreens. Then we headed to Fairview Heights and went to Bed, Bath & Beyond and Borders before heading across the street to the mall, St. Clair Square. There we went to Sears (the nightmare of my day!), Macy's and JC Penneys. We took a break for lunch at Red Robin (yum!), then went to Kmart and Target (again!) before calling it a day. We got back to the farm around 5:30 p.m.

That night Andy and I took a quick trip to Darla and Darik's house to deliver the cookie dough they bought from E's fund-raiser. What a gorgeous house! I'd love to see what I could do with that much space!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We drove to the farm this morning, stopped at Denny's in Springfield for lunch and arrived to our Thanksgiving destination about 1 p.m. B was so tired he fell asleep on Grandma's couch before the relatives arrived. Fortunately, he woke up in time to have some turkey and rolls.

Get a haircut

Andy told B last night he needed a haircut before Thanksgiving. We got the job done this morning. Here's the before:

And the after:

Turkey of thanks

L made this turkey today at school. This year, she says she's thankful for turkey, Mommy, Dad, Grandma and friends.

Heaven-bound note

L's Sunday School class finished the story of Joseph yesterday. She was told to make a note forgiving someone for something they did to hurt her. She said she's already forgiven everyone, so instead she drew this note for her late Aunt Liz. L said she's going to wait for a windy day, take it outside and let it float to Aunt Liz in heaven. At Liz's funeral, we were told that every day Liz would babysit the kids she always had a funny story to tell about L. L certainly has her Aunt Liz's outgoing personality.

Lake Geneva

Today was my third and final day scrapbooking with my sister-in-law at Lake Geneva, Wis. We stayed at The Lodge at Geneva Ridge, which is actually on Lake Como. We arrived Friday afternoon and started scrapping. Instead of going out to dinner we headed to the bar for a $4.50 draft of Leinie's Nut Brown Ale during happy hour and were delighted to see that they were serving free nachos and chili. I'm not a big chili fan, but it was pretty good, a little spicy. Here was the view from the room where we were scrapbooking:

Saturday we went to the town of Lake Geneva for lunch at Scuttlebut's and did a little shopping. I bought Andy a bottle of Broke Ass wine. Seriously, that's what it was called and it was flying off the shelf. Hope it tastes OK. I updated all four of my albums and even won a raffle prize! That night we headed back into town and ate dinner with a bunch of other scrappers at Popeye's.

Early this afternoon we grabbed a Starbuck's (mine was Peppermint Latte - yum) and headed out of town.

I was home in time for the church's annual Thankoffering dinner. Andy made a big bowl of carrots to take and his holiday specialty, a pumpkin cheesecake. The church provided the turkey and everyone who attended brought a side dish or dessert. E and L went with us; B went to a local music venue with his friend, L, to watch L's brother play with the Julian Jazz Band.

On Saturday, Andy took the kids to the Museuem of Science and Industry's annual Presidents' Breakfast and lighting of the big Christmas tree as part of its Christmas Around the World exhibit. I was sad I missed that this year, but he got a nice picture of the kids for me to see.

So sweet

Every Thanksgiving, L's school sells "Notes of Thanks" which the kids can buy and give to their friends. L brought this one home for me.

E's prizes

E did pretty well on the band's fund-raiser this year. She sold enough pizzas and cookie dough to win herself a $15 gift card to buy a cell phone skin, two 5-pound bags of gummi bears, a 1-pound chocolate bar and a bag of the biggest marshmallows I've ever seen.

I've been eyeing those marshmallows in the stores all summer long and now we have a bag. Instead of the typical s'more using half a graham cracker and half a chocolate bar, the recipe on the bag of these whoppers says to use a whole graham cracker and a whole chocolate bar. I can't wait till it warms up a little to have a fire and a marshmallow roast!

Also, congrats to E for moving up to yellow belt, one stripe on her karate test!

Turkey Trot

Here's L and her classmates warming up before Irving's annual Turkey Trot today. Students in grades 3-5 run around the school's block three times; the boy and girl winner in each grade wins a $10 gift card to a local grocery store. Not sure what size of turkey you can buy with $10, but L and I joked that you could at least buy a big chicken. In all, the run is about a mile long. That's her gym teacher at right - have to love the turkey hat. Too bad he only gets to wear that once a year, eh?

And they're off ...


Here's L on her first lap ...

L gave it a good shot, but didn't win ... didn't come close ... I was glad she finished. All the participants got a prize; L chose a turkey notebook. They also got juice and pretzels. The whole idea is to promote wellness. Maybe if L takes up running and regularly practices around the school she'll be among the top finishers next year.

High school ... already?

Andy and I had our first of what promises to be many parent meetings at Oak Park-River Forest High School tonight. We saw a gospel duo perform, listened to students answer questions that were asked by eighth-graders when they previously toured the school, heard general information about the registration process, and watched a short video on student life. We did learn the school has 3,200 students (more than when Andy was a student there), covers 1 million square feet and encompasses an entire city block. I think they said the school has 75 activities for students to join. The list of classes is comparable to a small college. E is set on taking Japanese - who would've thought?

Andy and I skipped the tour part of the night (he's an alum, after all, and I saw enough of the school when I was covering it as a reporter) and went for a nice dinner sans kids. E was at home babysitting - working off what she owes me for her Wicked ticket.

E visited the high school earlier tonight with the entire Julian eighth grade. When I asked her how it was, she commented on the pool (she's not looking forward to swimming in gym class) and that she met a junior student who was shorter than she is. E takes her placement exams the first Saturday in November and we'll get her class assignments early next year.

Pastor Sally

Our new minister stopped by tonight for tea. She's asked all the members to invite her over as a way to get to know the congregation on a more personal level than what an hour on Sunday provides. We had a nice talk over tea and coffee.

L decorated the living room with a Thanksgiving chain made of red, yellow and orange paper. Then she drew some Pilgrims to hang on the wall.

Engineer-in-training

E stayed home sick from school today - nothing too serious, just a stuffy nose, headache and general lousy feeling. It did give her time to finish a big school project that due tomorrow (hmmm!) She was feeling better by early evening (coincidence?) and was playing with L and B.


For some reason, she cut up an empty cereal box and made a hang glider. Then she strapped one of the Fisher-Price Little People to it with rubberbands. They've nicknamed most of the Little People; this one is "Mean Boy" because he looks grumpy. I guess I'd be grumpy, too, considering that the little guy was strapped to this cardboard hang glider and once it left E's hands it took a quick nose dive for the floor. Being the science girl she is, she decided to attach another wing to the glider, using straw pieces to creat space between the wings. Guess that's what we get for sending her to engineering camp.

Busy Sunday

Andy took the kids to Sunday School this morning. We skipped church because E had to be at her karate testing by noon. She'll find out at her lesson on Thursday how well she did.

B came home and wanted to rake the leaves out of the yard. Andy gave him a quick lesson in leaf-blowing. I think B was doing more playing than working on the yard, but at least most of the leaves are in the street ready for collection day tomorrow.

Tonight there was a church potluck at a members' house. We made mostaccioli to take along.

Kind of like Christmas

L convinced me to buy her these colorful cheetah print pajamas today while shopping at Target. She's been wanting a pair of pajamas with feet and even though they all get new pajamas as one of their presents on Christmas Eve, she just couldn't wait that long. She put them on as soon as we got home from the store. At least she'll be warm tonight.

Andy came home to find his new floor mats for the Buick sitting on the porch. He's been eyeing them since he bought the Enclave. He found a company, WeatherTech, that makes plastic floormats that fit pretty much over the entire carpet. It's going to help keep the car clean when it starts to snow. Andy also bought himself a nice brown suit at Von Maur this morning. See? Kind of like Christmas in November. I suppose all those Christmas decorations the stores have out do make you want to shop!

E got a postcard in the mail from the district superintendent, congratulating her on the recent band concert. "I was incredibly impressed by the energy, enthusiasm and level of preparedness you and your classmates exhibited during the performance. Thank you for sharing your talent and love of music with the Oak Park community," it said. I'm sure the dozens of other kids who participated in the concert received a postcard too, but it's a nice gesture. The journalist in me suspects the postcard is connected to the upcoming referendum the district is considering.

Colorful turkey

In yet another attempt to avoid doing her homework, L drew me this colorful turkey. It's pretty detailed for a third-grader - with the feather on the cap, the wing on its side and the cool-looking legs. The turkey is saying, "I love you mom. Squck." Apparently squck is what she thinks a turkey says. That's followed by a heart and lots of x's and o's. Aw.

Veterans Day

Today is Veterans Day and it seems a bit odd to have the kids in school. Their school district took last Friday off instead of today for Veterans Day. In honor of the holiday, we were flying Old Glory. This is the view from our living room window.

Last night, E cooked dinner. She made Chicken Cordon Bleu, green beans and noodles in a broccoli cheese sauce. Scrumptious. There were no leftovers.

This is homework?

B has been busy working on his latest project for language arts class. He has to write 11 poems, 11 different styles, to present to his class. B's decided his poems will all be about airplanes and has been folding (too many) sheets of paper into airplanes with the plan that one poem will be written on each plane. I convinced him to convert a shoebox into a hangar for his planes - at least it will make it easier to carry to school. What was fascinating, though, is that he insists the planes must fly. I guess he's picturing his teacher reading the poems then flying the planes across the room.

B's box of paper airplanes.

Comfort

It's kind of sweet when a kid sleeps with a stuffed animal or two, but this is ridiculous. I told L today that she needs to clean up her toy corner in the living room pretty soon to make way for the Christmas tree. She started grabbing armfuls of stuffed animals and after several trips, this was the end result. She's actually lying in the bed, under the cover.

Park memorial

On Sunday, Andy and L went with Andy's dad and his sister A to see the rededication of the World War I memorial, called Peace Triumphant, in Scoville Park. There are two Houhas listed on the monument for their involvement in WWI. The bronze memorial, which was recently cleaned, was first dedicated Nov. 11, 1925.

Here L is with Grandpa, looking for the Houha names.

A winner again!

E and I went to a craft show at the high school today. The crafters didn't have much E and I wanted to buy. However, the reason E goes is because the group that organizes the craft show has a raffle. Each crafter donates one item to the raffle and customers buy tickets, two for $1. E spent a total of $5 and won this cute little birdhouse.

Shhhh!

B was at a friend's sleepover birthday party yesterday. He's been sleeping all afternoon. I haven't even had a chance to ask him how late he was up last night. I'm guessing pretty late.

Halloween bargain

I went to Walgreens to pick up my Halloween pictures today and couldn't resist this light-up Disney pumpkin on sale for $2 - regularly $12.99. I think it will go in L's room next fall.

L's art

L brought this home school today. She said it's people. The first person is diving, the second is cheering, third is doing a handstand and the fourth a backbend. I like that she surrounded her people with hearts.

Election Day

I voted today, but can't say I was excited about it. There weren't any great (or good, for that matter) candidates to choose from. At least the political ads will be gone from the TV and the phone calls will stop.

There wasn't an election, but L was chosen today as one of the representatives from her classroom for Irving's Student Council. Her teacher was thinking of a number (65) and the student who guessed the closest was chosen. L actually guessed 65.


Here's E working on the science project she turned in today. She used fuse beads to create sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks to show the life cycle of rock. She had a volcano has was spewing out magna. Once she glued the fuse bead design to a piece of foam board, she printed out descriptions of each part, mounted them on cardstock and put arrows between them to show the cycle. It turned out great - and it was fun for her to do.

Hard work pays off

L brought home a perfect score on her community project today. She met each one of the teacher's requirements and he loved her water tower, silo and egg-carton houses. Nice to see her days of hard work (and my days of nagging her to get to work on it) paid off.