Party #2, Santa #3

This week was also the Christmas party for N's little school.  I love his school.  I love his teachers, and by now you all know that I do not love children's Christmas parties.  This one was not my favorite, but I really did enjoy watching my little guy interact with his classmates and his teachers.

These crackers are a British Christmas tradition.  When you pull them, you get a loud "cracking sound" and a cool surprise inside.  N and his little buddy helped each other open theirs!

N's had this little ruler inside.  How cute is this kid?

And he got this tissue crown... it was a little big for him.  Here he is with one of his teachers.  We love her!

Mmm... more sugar.

Here is N getting a cuddle from his other favorite teacher.  He was sitting on my lap, then I saw him eyeing his teacher.  I asked him if he wanted to go sit with her, and he happily agreed.  So much for mom! 

And of course.  Santa.  Or Father Christmas.  Again...  Yes, that makes three.  Anyway, I think we're all done with Christmas parties for now.  But it's been fun, and I think we're ready for the big event later this week!

Little Reaper Christmas Party

So Saturday was the Christmas party for our kiddos.  These are normally not my favorite events.  Lots of toddlers, lots of sugar, and lots of chaos!  But this was hands down the best kids Christmas party we've been too.  We had so much fun and the ladies who organized it did a fantastic job!

Here are some of the highlights.  Before we went, we put up the tree.  This year the boys both wanted "Rocket" for their special ornaments.  If you don't have a preschooler in your house, you probably don't know who Rocket is... but for those of us that do, we are all about him!

N is usually not a big fan of craft time, unless it involves glue and glitter (or crumbs as he calls it!)  Lo and behold, there were ornaments to be decorated with both.  Dad and little e made a nice one, and N did his own... very neatly decorated glitter ornament.  He did a star, and each line on the star had to be decorated with a different color of glitter, no overlaps, no repeats.  That's my kid!

There was also these trees to frost.  Sugar cones to be covered in bright green frosting, and then sprinkled with all sorts of fun sugary delights.  It was a preschooler's dream come true!

Well done there boys!  (Try to say it with a British accent, it sounds much better that way.) Oh the sugar.  They're giddy with excitement and anticipation of the sugar high.  

Mmmm... more sugar.  Instant sugar high gratification.  I think they each ate like four cookies during this particular gathering.  Little e would just walk over and help himself (or con one of the daddies near by with his charming smile, and get a cookie that way... he's a clever one!)

Then stringing of beads.  Again, N isn't a huge craft fan, but this appealed to his sense of order.  Little e couldn't quite string the beads himself, so he would point at either a bead or bell, apparently at random (at least I couldn't figure out a pattern) and I would string them for him.  But not N.  He wanted one (and only one) bell, then a perfectly uniform row of red beads on his necklace.  He was so proud of it.  You'll notice he's wearing it in all the subsequent pictures

Here are all the kids getting ready for a fun game of present opening.  They sat in a circle, passing around a present, then when the music stops the kid holding it gets to open the outer layer of wrapping, revealing a small treat and another present.  This continues until you get to the big present in the middle.  I think it's a British thing.  The older kids got it, but the little ones just kept looking at all the wrapping paper!

N wasn't sure this little girl knew what she was doing and kept offering his helping hand when it was her turn to open!

Finally it was his turn.  

Then Santa arrived.  Yes, that is our second Santa of the year, and no, they look nothing alike.  I thought N might start to figure something out, but he was more than happy to go sit on this very scary looking Santa's lap for a gift!

All the boys got these cars.  It cracked us up because instantly all the boys were down on the floor making "vrooooom" noises and pushing their cars around, while the girls stood on watching!

The next day (after the first sugar high subsided!)  We let the boys eat their ice cream cone and frosting sugary Christmas trees.  They were pretty excited, but we made them stop long enough to take a picture!

N just dove right into his, but little e wasn't too sure how to begin.

He eventually figured it out, and was quite pleased with the result!  Mmmmm.   Food coloring.

Yup, the Christmas sugaring has begun!  Bring on the next party!

Cute pics!

I have a collection of random cute pictures from our trip back home that I thought I would stick together in one post.  

Little e loves animals, and was all about Grandma & Grandpa's dogs.  Here we caught the three of them having a little conversation.  e just sat down and started chatting with them!

A few minutes later, little e disappeared, and when Grandpa walked in the door, this is what he saw!  I guess he thought the dog's bed looked pretty comfy!  What buds.

Yup, he's a ham.

We also took the boys to go see the big guy.  Little e ran right up to him, and cuddled right in for some good reading.  (I love that Santa got right down on the floor with them, he was so sweet!)  N wasn't so sure and sort of looked on from a safer distance!  In the end, they were both talking about their visit for quite some time!

Thanks Grandma, Grandpa, & Uncle T for putting up with us for two weeks, we had fun!

Firenze

So one of the luxuries of living in Europe is the opportunity to travel.  About a month ago (yes, I'm a little behind in my blogging...) I went on a girls' weekend to Florence.  Yes, Italy.  I went to Italy for the weekend.  I am so spoiled!  There were seven of us on the trip, and we had so much fun.  We shopped, ate, drank, and then repeated.  It was fantastic!  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip.

Here's the whole group.  Eating... and drinking.  Wow, two parts down already!

Ummm... I think that's more eating.  Mmmm.  Gelato.

Shopping.  See I told you.

The markets were quite impressive.  Not quite as chaotic as Korea (or China)... but what is?!  I will say, I thought the quality of merchandise was much better than in Korea... although you could still get your fake purses.  You would all be proud of me.  I did not acquire a single purse.  Nope, I think I'm good for quite some time!

It's supposed to be good luck to touch this pig's nose at one of the markets... not sure who for.  The buyer or the seller!

The food market.  Yummy.  I drooled at the produce, pasta, cheese, and wine for quite some time.  If only I was allowed more than 15 kg checked baggage!  Hey, I'm not the pasta princess for nothing, it comes naturally!

Um, I think that would be eating again.  Mmmm.  More gelato.  In three days I had three bowls of gelato and I think six cappuccinos.  Sounds about right, doesn't it?

In the middle of all that eating, drinking, and shopping we did manage to do some sightseeing as well.  Here are a friend and I outside of Duomo, the large cathedral church in Florence.

More Duomo pictures.  (I totally can't take credit for these photos, another friend took them with her nice camera...)

Two of us climbed to the top of the dome.  It was quite the climb, but the views of the inside of the dome, and the view of the city from above made the climb (and the height... yikes!) quite worth it.

We had beautiful weather, especially the last day, so we took a walk along the river.  This bridge is famous for the jewelry market that operates inside the bridge.  It was very cool.

Also on the last day a couple of us went to see the statue of David at one of the museums.  First of all, he is huge.  And ripped.  It was really amazing to think that he was just a chunk of marble, and that centuries ago a man with a few tools carved this amazing piece.  We were the first ones in the museum, so we had him all to ourselves for a few minutes.  It was incredible.  I'm not a huge art buff, but I was truly wowed.  But then, the coolest thing happened!

We were about to leave the museum and were in the gift shop looking for post cards when I heard this voice I recognized.  I looked up and it was L's dad!  My step-grandparents and aunt and uncle were there in the exact same museum as me, half way around the world!  I mean, how cool is that?  We both knew the others were in Italy, but didn't think there was any way we would run into each other.  I mean, Italy is a big country.  It was so cool that God allowed us to meet.  If we had been five minutes later, or them five minutes earlier, we would have missed each other.  So after causing quite a disturbance in the gift shop, we took a couple of pictures.  I said later that it was a good thing we didn't see each other in the actual museum.  We would have been kicked out we were all so excited!  It was so fun to get back home that night and call L to say, "Guess who I saw this morning?  Your parents, in Italy!"  How cool.  

Anyway, it was a great trip.  And it was nice to get a little break from the kids.  I said I really didn't care what we did as long as it did involve pasta and wine, and didn't involve chicken nuggets!  So I was good.  

Grandma

OK, so it's been a while since I've written.  Part of the reason is that just before Thanksgiving, my Grandmother passed away, so I made a last minute trip back to Iowa (with the boys... yikes!)  I thought I would take this opportunity to write down some of the things I best remember about grandma.  

Grandma loved to cook.  And she was really good at it.  I can't tell you how many people came up to me during the visitation or service and told me how they remembered spending Christmas Eve at Grandma's house.  As a kid I remember her house packed with people for a traditional Swedish meal.  My job was to finish wrapping the presents she hadn't got finished yet, so I spent a good portion of every Christmas Eve afternoon in my Grandparents' attic wrapping while she cooked the feast below.  There was potato bologna, oyster stew, tons of sweets (Grandma was known for her sweet tooth... must be genetic!), rolls, and my favorite, rice pudding.  This has always been my favorite dish from Grandma, and when she taught me to make it, I had to force her to measure the ingredients so I could write it down.  She always just did it by feel!  

After dinner, the adults would take FOREVER to do the dishes, and when the were finally done, we could open our presents.  Not only could Grandma cook, she could shop too.  I always looked most forward to her presents, she had amazing taste in clothes and jewelry, so as a teenager, I loved the complete outfits that she would put together for me under the tree.  One year, I received this very stylish button down jean shirt.  I immediately loved it, but did notice that it didn't have any tags on it.  My cousin (who is two years younger than me - and a guy) said, hey, that's my shirt!  Apparently he left it at her house, and she saw it and thought she bought it for me for Christmas... by then it was too small for my cousin, so I got to keep it.  I wore that shirt a ton!

At the services, people described her spunk.  I remember a time when I was sick and she make me a batch of rice pudding to help me feel better.  Dad was supposed to bring it home from work with him, but forgot.  Grandma made Dad drive back over and get the rice for me!  Also, our family has always been in the food business, largely due to Grandma's drive and salesmanship.  There was a time when I was in middle school when the family business was starting to produce pie shells in addition to pasta.  Grandma ordered a piece of pie in a local restaurant known for their pies, and then because she was curious, she flipped the piece over on her plate to analyze the bottom of the crust.  I was like 13 and mortified that my whole family was flipping their pies over to check out the bottom!  

This is one of my favorite pictures of Grandma (and Grandpa) with N on his first birthday.   She is very missed by my whole family, especially by my Grandpa who I hope will come visit us in March.  Love you Grandpa!

Is your house on fire?

This is the question my neighbor very politely posed to me this afternoon after she rang my doorbell.  My answer was, "I don't think so!"  Now, if you think about it, these are both funny statements, because if I knew my house was on fire, would I still be in it?  And, why would she be asking me this question if in fact, my house was not on fire? 

So yes, my house was on fire... sort of.  Yes, we are all fine, but boy did we have an eventful afternoon.  After this polite exchange of information, I stepped out my front door to see a rather large plume of black smoke rising from the roof of the house.  After a few minutes of panic (the boys were asleep upstairs... closer to the roof and said black smoke,) my neighbor and I each grabbed a very startled little boy out of their bed and ran them across the driveway to her house.  My husband would also be happy to know that I grabbed the computer on my way out.  We're good, kids and the computer.  It's also worth knowing that N doesn't usually nap with pants on, so he made the dart across the driveway pantless.  That only added to the effect.  

Then we called the fire department, which was an adventure in itself.  You see, we live in off base, base housing, so no one really seemed to know who was responsible for responding.  So just to be on the safe side, both the local British fire department and the base department sent at least two fire trucks each.  Yes, count with me now, there were four fire trucks on our street, as well as four police cars, a fire marshal truck, and several others milling around.  I'm telling you, these people weren't messing around.  Well, except for that they couldn't figure out how to get into the neighborhood.  Finally the gaggle of frantic women clued them in.  

Then in an odd sense of irony, just as all the firemen in Suffolk showed up at our house, the smoke stopped.  Just stopped.  That's when I realized it must be the heater, and as the heat clicked off, the smoke stopped too.  It turns out that the flue from our boiler was almost totally stopped up with soot.  When we opened the boiler closet (I waited for the firemen to do that one - I personally am not a personal fan of heavy black smoke) I could see the soot pushing out the seams in the flue pipe.  So needless to say, the firemen turned off the main switch to the boiler and told me in no uncertain terms to not turn it on.  No problem.  Again, not a big fan of black smoke coming from my house.  

Housing office was called, and the heating contractor said they couldn't fix it until tomorrow.  We were given the option of taking some electric space heaters and turning on the emergency electric hot water heater, or taking a room in billeting.  I opted for the heaters... I'm starting to think that may have been a poor choice.  I'll be carting these things all over the house with me until it's fixed!

So in the middle of all of this, I thought it was important to let my husband know that our house was spewing thick black smoke and every fire truck in East Anglia was here.  When I called he was a little busy, and the guy that answered the phone said something along the lines of, "he's briefing, is it important or can he call you back?"  I think I stuttered something truly cohesive like, "um, our house is on fire," which did seem important enough to interrupt said briefing.  Later he asked me if I took a picture.  Nope, with two kids without shoes, one without pants, literally every neighbor on the street (many of whom I haven't met before - hello, nice to meet you, I'm K, my house is on fire), and a million firemen walking around, I didn't get to a photo.  But I will say, great minds think alike, I did wish I would have grabbed the camera!  

I will say the boys were troopers and were more than happy to watch the action in the arms of neighbors they don't know all that well... again without shoes, or pants.  Classy.  

So it's been a busy afternoon.  I'm off to bed, I'll be carrying my electric space heater upstairs with me!

Now I know my ABCs!

Little e's version.  Enjoy!

Three cool dudes...

Happy Halloween!

The boys had so much fun trick or treating this year, it was the first year they really got it.  They dressed up as fighter pilots... I know, please try to contain your eye rolls, and they looked pretty cool I might add. 

 

At the end of the night, getting ready to check out all the goodies in their bag.  This was also the first year I let them have any of their candy... one bag of m&ms each.  I hid the rest (from all of us!)

And of course, it wouldn't be complete without the pumpkins!

We tried to get N to help carve them, I wanted that picture of him with his hand down inside the pumpkin goop, but there was no way were going to get him to stick his hand in there.  I kept asking, and he kept replying, "no thank you!"  Well, at least he was polite about it!

Go Bears, beat the Bruins!

Ah, feel the blue and gold.  Since we were in California, there is no way E and I could pass up seeing a Cal game.  It would be unheard of!  I was so excited because I have only been to like three games since I graduated, and it's been since before N was born that I sat in Memorial Stadium.  It was good to be back... especially since the Bears won!

Here is one of my new favorite photos of our family in front of the Campanile before the game.  That is one good looking blue and gold family!

  

We attended the Cal Band's pregame concert on Sproul Plaza as a family.  The boys loved watching the band.  They were especially mesmerized by the drums, and even did some dancing.  We taught them how to say a proper "Go Bears!"  And they kept repeating it throughout the day, even later when we were watching Penn State and Ohio State on TV... hmmm, we'll have to work a bit on context!

The Cal Band's pregame show.  I may be a little biased, but I think there are the best band in the land!

Hard to believe it's been as long as it has since E and I graced that field.  See that little tail at the top right of the a in the script Cal?  That was my spot, just a few years ago!  (Insert all your comments about our dorkyness here...)

It was insanely hot out.  Like unseasonably warm.  I was glad that this time I was in shorts and a T-shirt instead of a black wool band uniform!

L, Dad, and T came to the game too.  Cal fans by association!

Two generations of Cal grads.  Actually, E is a third generation Cal grad, his grandfather attended Cal as well, along with various other aunts, uncles, and cousins.  No pressure N and little e!

Anyway, it was a really fun game, and to make it even better Cal actually won by a substantial margin!  Why couldn't they ever do that when we actually went there?