Happy 7th Birthday O!

Happy Birthday Owen!

A happy, fun loving, mischievous little man with an affection for tacos and ice cream turns 7 today.


It's been a long time since I even considered returning to the blog, but the itch may be back.  No big welcome back post...no recap of what really happened in the past two years (a lot), but just a chance to consider adding a few things from time to time, independent of the Facebook/Twitter social scene that has evolved in the years since we first considered this blog.

Breakfast with Santa

We spent this past Sunday morning for a special holiday gathering at the Brookfield Zoo. The zoo was hosting a breakfast with Santa, and the kids were really excited.
The snow is falling...the stockings are hung...and our last minute wishes have been provided to Santa. Here comes Christmas! Merry Christmast to one and all. Safe travels to one and all.

Cookie Night

We spent an evening last week frosting and decorating a number of traditional cookie shapes and a few new shapes (e.g Owen's Star Wars yoda, darth vader, boba fett, and stormtroopers). The kids were really into the decorating...and took a lot of liberty when it came to frosting and sprinkles.
See if you can find a cookie in the following sea of sugar sprinkles.

Yum! Cookies for one and all.

Jingle Bell...Jingle Bell...Jingle Bell Rock

Owen had a special Saturday morning holiday show at school last weekend, joining his classmates and a younger pre-school class to perform a collection of songs. Owen was a ginger bread man, and he did not disappoint on the level of participation (video may come later).
Here is his "put me in a boy band" pose during a rocking rendition of Rudolph.

Good times for everyone involved. The kids and the teachers did a great job of putting together a fun show. It's very interesting to see how far these kids have come, performing now as 4/5 years olds compared to the original shows when they had just turned 3. The kids are so much more engaged and into participating...along with actually knowing the words to all of the songs.
Way to go Owen!

Let it snow...

A week after Thanksgiving we woke up on Saturday morning to our first snowfall of the year.

While Paxton went to gymnastics, Owen spent a couple of hours in the backyard building a snowfort and an arsenal of snowballs with neighbor Avery.

The same weekend we had the pleasure of welcoming aunt Karis and uncle Don to town for a couple of days. They had the special opportunity to join us for a little bit of Americana with the annual La Grange Christmas walk. As snow fell all around town, we listened to the community caroling outside of the village hall, and we welcomed Santa to town on a fire truck.

Before dinner, the pony rides, and the petting zoo, we actually met up with Santa in the camera shop in town. What a fun night for everyone and another great way to jumpstart the holiday season.

Fresh Cut Trees

As we said a year ago, and as Brecken mentions from time to time...cutting down a live Christmas tree may not go along with our efforts to do our part for the environment, but it's a tradition that we're not willing to part with just yet...

Owen, Paxton, and I packed up the car on the Sunday after Thanksgiving and headed a few miles down the road in search of the perfect tree.

Owen thought it was cool that he was allowed to hold the saw for a moment. Paxton actually took this picture...not too shabby.

If Paxton would have had her way, we would have run through the aisles of trees for the afternoon, and we would have cut down an 18 inch tall tree that she claimed was "her tree."

After a little searching, we found our 2011 tree...a picture perfect standout.

No Owen, you cannot cut it down, and please give me back that saw.

Owen wanted to take a few pictures too, including a shot of me ready to cut the tree, and a picture of Paxton ready to help out.

All loaded up and ready to go....it's time to put Thanksgiving behind us and start to think about Christmas.

A fun tradition together, and we were excited to have Paxton along for the first time this year. The kids also like the drive-home tradition of stopping at Culvers for a milk shake. Yeah...that's festive....tasty.

Another Thanksgiving Tradition

Another fun tradition that we've now had going on for several years is a Thanksgiving weekend visit from Jed, Radhika, Anand, and Vivek. This year we extended the typical stop into an evening, including a kids "sleepover" in Owen's room.

It's really nice to keep the friendship and connection with the kids strong despite the distance and infrequency of get togethers. It doesn't seem that long ago that we were all enjoying ourselves as new arrivals in the city of Chicago without kids.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have so much to be thankful for in our lives, including family, friends, good health, and a wonderful growing tradition of hosting the Thanksgiving holiday weekend at our house.

The mood was set for the weekend by turkey #1 and turkey #2.

One of the great things about the weekend is that our special guests get to generally kick back and relax...er...not have to cook. I'm not sure it is really relaxing when they spend so much time chasing after a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old for 3 straight days.

Paxton got in on the mix of helping to make dessert this year. Her she is pounding down the crust.

...and here she is taking her reward for the hard work. Some sparkling cider.

...and a toast for her brother.

When the turkey was ready (14.5 lb bird this year)...we were all ready to sit down to a comfortable and tasty dinner together.

We were really excited to be joined by aunt Sarah this year. The kids loved the chance to hang out with Sarah, and Brecken and I really enjoyed the chance to take Sarah downtown for a dinner in the city (with built in babysitting from grandma and glitzy).

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Like Daddy, Like Daughter

Brecken often gives me a hard time for having a laptop (or three) around while I'm watching TV or just about anything else around the house. Well...it looks like someone else is taking notice.

Having tucked Paxton into bed for the night a few weeks ago, I was surprised to walk in 30 minutes later to discover the following:

Paxton had snuck into another room to unplug and take Brecken's laptop off of the desk. We have security experts scouring the usage from that period, but it appears that she was simply looking at pictures on the computer and hitting a lot of keys. Hopefully facebook and other related networking does not start for Miss P until much later in life. Sneaky goof!

Thanksgiving Characters

As Thanksgiving approached, Owen and Paxton had a number of different events and themed activities at school. Beware of these two little characters.

A Visit with Mary Jane

Owen and Paxton had a special friend over for dinner a few weeks ago...Mary Jane...along with her parents Julie and Glen. At 5.5 months, MJ may have been as fascinated by Owen and Paxton as they were by her.