All 4 of my kids woke up sick. Not dying, not throwing up. Just sick. No fever, but upset tummies and sore throats. You could just tell they didn't feel good.
That was a fun call to the elementary school.
"No, really, ALL of my kids are sick. We're not just playing hooky. I'd tell you if we were."
By noon they were all feeling well enough to fight, so I knew they were on the mend. So we decided to go check out some Christmas lights for Family Home Evening. The kids could stay in their jammies, but we'd still be able to get out of the house and have some fun.
As we were leaving the house I realized that we could stop at the gas station on the way and put some air in the tires. They've needed to be filled more for quite a while, but I had been - oddly - putting it off. I've never filled our tires at the gas station before; they've always needed it when it was time to get the oil changed. But the minivan didn't need an oil change and it was getting so I could tell just by the feel of driving that the tires were too low. But for some reason I was just really nervous about doing this chore, which is weird because I'm not usually chicken about stuff like this.
Anywho, this was perfect! Lance could help me with the tires, the chore would be done and I'd conquer my irrational hesitancy (it wasn't a fear), and we'd be on our way.
After getting change from the cashier (because I only had 3 quarters and we needed 4), Lance and I got to work. He did the first 2 tires and then it was my turn. I put the nozzle on the valve, but it sounded like the air was coming out rather than going in. Lance came over to check things out.
That's when the top of the tire valve shot out and the tire went flat.
@#$^@#!!
To his credit, Lance said "Tonight I learned that your fears were not unfounded" before he got to work on replacing the flat with the spare. (No mean feat - the design of our mini van is so stupid. The spare tire is under the mini van and quite hard to get to.)
While Lance had fun with that I took the kids into the gas station. That was about as fun as you would imagine; there was much "Don't touch any of the candy. Ever." and "Get out of the 'Cold Cave', Cole!" (The 'Cold Cave' is where they refrigerate their cases of beer.) However, there was no whining for snacks or treats, so that's how I know my kids were still on the mend. Fully healthy children would've been whine machines over that!
Tess matched the Christmas tree.
Cole could not keep his freaking hands off the freaking candy.
Josh good-naturedly withstood my mocking of him wearing shorts.
And Spencer kept looking outside, declaring that Lance had left without us because he couldn't see the minivan. No matter how many times I pointed it out. (Why would he think Lance would leave us?)
All of the kids complained about how long it was taking. I told them we were close enough to walk home, if they wanted. Fortunately, they're all smart enough to realize that waiting in a boring gas station was far preferable to walking home in 20 degree weather.
We finally made it home an hour after we left. Not the funnest FHE ever, but certainly one we'll remember!
What do you do when you have over three and a half pounds of leftover birthday cake?
First you crumble the cake into your mixing bowl. Then you pour a little peppermint flavored simple syrup over the cake, to give it a nice Christmasy kick.
Then you mix it all up really well.
Then you roll the mixed cake into little balls and put them in the freezer. But you don't take pictures of this.
And then you dip the frozen balls into melted chocolate and put Christmas sprinkles on top. You don't take pictures of this, either.
Finally, you save a few for your family but then put the rest in the freezer because 1) at the beginning of December you are always suddenly in need of various Christmas goodies for approximately 38 different school/church/social functions, and 2) if you don't hide them your children and husband will eat them all and not feel one bit guilty.
The picture above doesn't even show them all. Three and a half pounds of cake makes a lot of cake balls.
Last night was our 3rd First Grade Christmas Pageant. It was also the best. Here's why:
1) We didn't have any babies with us. For Josh and Spencer's we had babies or toddlers. Babies and toddlers in a dark elementary school gym = no bueno.
We did have a grouchy Tess. She wanted to sit on the bleachers and Lance and I refused because we are old and have achy backs and when folding chairs closer to the front are an option you take them. Tess didn't agree. However, Josh has been extra great with Tess lately, so he and Spencer were able to keep her happy and occupied most of the time. Lance and I even got to sit next to each other, which never happens at stuff like this because we're usually wrangling children. A Christmas miracle!
2) It was quick. Cole had to be there at 6:30. The show started promptly at 6:45 and was over 20 minutes later. When it comes to First Grade productions this kind of timing is key. It was amazing.
Their music teacher kept those kids on task, moving quickly from one song to the next. Kudos to her!
Fun fact: I purchased Christmas gifts for 3 different family members on my phone while waiting for the pageant to start. Technology is great.
3) First graders are pretty darn cute. They're not as spacey as Kindergartners nor as jaded as 2nd graders. They're the perfect mix of darlingness.
4) Cole fell of the risers. TWICE. This wasn't much of a surprise since he had mentioned this to me as a problem a few days earlier. As in "I keep falling off the risers during practice."
"How come? Are you being rowdy?"
"NO! It's just too crowded up there!"
"Do you you get hurt?
"No."
"Are you going to fall during the program?"
"Maybe. Probably."
I actually watched him fall each time, but unfortunately didn't get it on video. However, my friend Roxanne (who I have visit taught since Cole was born and who also has a son in the first grade) happened to get it on video. It was kind of in the background, so she had to zoom in and the quality is not that great. But it's good enough for us to keep watching it over and over and belly laughing until tears stream down our faces!
Oh mercy. It's funny because it's Cole and because he just pops right back up and looks around like "Yeah, I totally meant to do that. All the cool kids fall." Good heavens.
5) The music. Okay, so this is not exactly a choir of angels. But it is a choir of around 100 first graders trying their hardest. And there's something charming about hearing classic Christmas songs sung by a bunch of earnest children. So here's a sampling of most of the songs, in no particular order. Cuteness abounds.
Yesterday was my 39th birthday. This year I decided I wanted to something really fun for my birthday. I didn't want Lance to be gone for tithing settlement (which he would have) or do some little thing around town (which is okay, but not big enough for me this time!) or do what we almost always do (go out to eat... and that's about it). Nope, this year I wanted bigger and funner. And that's what I got!
First, on Thursday, I got a major hair cut and color.
Okay, so that really didn't have anything to do with my birthday, but I didn't know where else to mention it. I got a good 6-8" chopped off, made the color a bit more red, and I love it.
Lance took the day off from work on Friday and we FINALLY got to go on the Kokomo Opalescent Glass Factory tour. (We had wanted to go on our anniversary but couldn't because it was the first day of school and there were things... and whatever.) I'm glad we went now, though, because it meant we weren't sweltering while standing by this 2000 degree (not exaggerating) furnace. It takes the sand 36 hours to melt in there!
Someone made a mess. Actually, there was glass and dust all over the place. Glass making is very messy.
So these guys would carry these 50lb ladles of molten glass over to this machine, which flattens it out and turns it into sheets of glass. There were 3 guys doing to the carrying that day because they were doing 3 colored glass.
And then this guy would mix up the 3 colors and then get it to go through the machine. You could feel the heat from the glass even from several feet away!
There were 50 gallon drums of broken glass all over the place; they save the extra shards and recycle them.
We got to see this guy making blown glass ornaments, which was really cool.
Totally living the hipster dream, right? We figured his beard wasn't bigger due to safety reasons.
This is called the Rainbow Room - just a long hallway of huge plates of glass! The pictures don't do it justice, it was so pretty.
I loved these blues.
And the greens. You could buy one of those panes for less than $3, and I was tempted but then wondered what in the world I would do with a 12x12" plane of glass. Oh well, if I ever figure that out I'll know where to go.
The tour was a good 90 minutes long, and by the time it was done we were hungry! We decided to give the local "Hawg Heaven" a try since we didn't want to get fast food or anything that could be found in Lafayette. It doesn't look like much on the outside.
But it was sooo good! And the service was amazing and friendly. This was the only picture I got. I had the brisket sandwich and Lance and had the pulled pork and we were both happy. We smelled barbecue the whole way home and it was a little bit of Hawg Heaven!
Because Lance loves me, we spent the afternoon putting up Christmas lights. Once again Lance cheated death and only slipped a few times while up on the roof. That night we had Spencer watch the kids while we went down to Indy for dinner. We had some PF Chang's gift cards we wanted to use. Guys, it's totally a game changer having a kid who can watch all the other kids!! It made dinner all the better knowing that 1) we didn't have to pay for dinner, and 2) we didn't have to pay for baby sitting. It's a whole new world, my friends.
Okay. Saturday. That was the BIG day. Last month I decided the kids were all old enough to make museums worth going to again. (You can take them when they're little and in strollers, but once they're mobile and get bored? Not worth the effort/money/time. At least for me.) So I picked up a $75 family pass at our little local museum that allows us to go to all of the science museums in Chicago FOR FREE. An amazing deal!
I've always wanted to go the the Museum of Science and Industry - a name that does nothing to really make you want to visit, but trust me, you do. We were out the door by 8am and in Chicago a little over 2 hours later. I used Spot Hero for the parking, which meant we had a spot reserved and it only cost us $22 for a full day instead of $40+. Technology is amazing.
The parking garage was downtown because I wanted to do some things up there later, so we took the Metra train down to the museum. The Metra is a fairly new electric line that only goes north and south. The station at Millenium Park was NOT user friendly at all. Seriously, no signage, confusing maps, a non-user friendly app and website, etc. Lance and I are fairly well traveled and know our way around public transportation, and we were at a loss. And no wonder - a little old lady who worked there was in charge of announcing what track to use. It was very weird. But we finally got on the train and were on our way. The ride was only about 15 minutes, which was just enough time for it to be exciting but not bore the kids. Also, we got to sit on the top level of the train - bonus excitement!
We finally got to the museum, and I was totally impressed with just how huge it was. SO BIG. It took a while to get our tickets and check our coats, but we finally did and made our way up to the atrium where they had a Christmas Around the World exhibit, with decorated trees representing different countries all around and a ginormous tree in the center. It was so pretty!
Tess refused to take a normal picture the entire day.
Isn't that amazing? Every time we walked through the kids were split off into different directions, distracted by different things. It was like herding cats. Blind cats. Blind and deaf cats. What I'm saying is that it was hard. But can you blame them? It was amazing!
We spent a lot of time in the weather section. There were all sorts of neat experiments and exhibits. The one on tsunamis was great. And the kids really liked this color room.
These things are always fun!
There was a huge Tesla coil on the ceiling, and the first time it went off Cole just stopped in his tracks, mesmerized by the electric tracks, and said resolutely "We HAVE to go up there." And so we did.
He pretty much loved the idea of being able to make lightening indoors. That kid's a super villain in the making...
I had brought a backpack of food but didn't feel like lugging around drinks. So at lunch time I popped over to the vending machines with Josh to grab everyone some sodas. There were no prices posted but you could use your credit card... auspicious. Yeah, $2.75 PER 20oz SODA. Good night. Who knew the most expensive part of the trip would be a Coke?
After lunch we meandered some more. There was this incredible doll house that some 1920's actress had owned. I thought Tess would love it, but I was the one more interested. Trust me, it was cool.
We also got to play and dance with some robots.
This screen displayed confetti falling down and had sensors to know where you were so that the confetti would pile on your arms and such. Pretty cool.
I love this picture. Our family is a circus.
One of the biggest exhibits is this German Submarine from WWII. As in, a real, full-sized submarine. Had I known a bit more about it and how cool it is I would have paid extra to go on the tour inside. (But in my research I didn't know how cool it was and decided it wasn't worth the extra money for all 6 of us... oh well. We'll just have to go back another time!) Spencer must be growing up because he was quite disappointed we couldn't go in the submarine, whereas the other kids didn't care.
By this point the younger kids had had enough. So back to the train station we went. The brisk temps outside perked everyone up and we were able to get a few pictures in front of a small section of the museum.
Charming as always, Tess.
We got back to Downtown and worked our way over to the Cloud Gate, where you MUST take a picture if you're in Chicago. Pretty sure it's the law or something. The kids complained about walking there but were pretty impressed with it. (As I knew they would be!)
Here's the 69 foot tree at the entrance of the park. I'm sure it's even prettier when it gets dark.
I had grand designs to go to the ChristKindle Market (a German outdoor market held every year at Christmas time), but once we got there it was TOOOOO crowded. Seriously. You could barely move for the crowds. Nope. So my dreams of a German ornament and giant pretzel were dashed.
But that's okay because we got to see the Macy's picture windows on the way back to the car. They were really cute, but it was super crowded and we were all pretty tired by then, so no pictures.
We piled into the car and snarfed down some snacks because I had forgotten to pack them in my backpack. (Oops. This turned out okay, though, because then we didn't have to stop for dinner. Lance and I then had PF Chang leftovers after the kids were in bed. Score!)
True Story: Josh had to pee pretty much the entire afternoon. That's because we let him have a Coke Zero at lunch. Rookie parenting mistake, I know. So he peed all afternoon, and when he wasn't in the bathroom he was complaining about having to go. And he decided he had to go once we left the market. We decided to see if there were bathrooms at the parking garage. Nope. So we got in the car and due to traffic and bad neighborhoods and such, poor Josh had to hold it until Merrillville, which is about an hour away from downtown Chicago and in Indiana. Which totally reminded me of the time we went to Chicago with Dad and Susie and Kevin and Josh was a baby and he had this awful diaper blowout in South Chicago. You can read all about it here. Full circle, people. Fortunately, Josh's bowels are now fully under his control and we didn't have to stop in the ghetto. What is it with that boy and having to go to the bathroom at the worst/most inconvenient places? (In the middle of the Old Faithful trail in Yellowstone, for example. Or right before a movie. Or right as we're sitting down to dinner... the list continues.)
Sunday, my actual birthday, was actually pretty low key. Which is just how I planned it! We had to go back to the church for tithing settlement,which wasn't that great, and Lance was gone pretty much all day, also not great, but it could've been worse. I even got my act together and wrapped some Christmas presents. (I know! I'm even surprised! I usually wait until the week of Christmas and then regret it.)
I have a firm rule that no one should make their own birthday cake, but this rule does not mean you can't buy your own. And this year I did something I've always wanted to do: buy one of those ginormous chocolate cakes from Costco. You know the ones - they weigh a whopping 7 pounds!
Yaaaassss.
As Josh said, we could each have 1 full pound of cake with one pound left over! In the end we ate 1/4 of the cake. Pitiful. But we'll have more tonight for FHE and then I'm turning the rest into cake balls. Because I'm resourceful like that.
Anywho, I had 9 candles and they sang (or, in the kids' case, shrieked) Happy Birthday to me.
And we ate delicious cake with even better coconut ice cream on the side. (So yummy.)
Here's my birthday haul. Can you tell that Lance and I have big plans for next year? I'm all ready to start planning, which is just as much fun (if not more!) than the actual trip itself. Woo-hoo!
This was a great birthday. Let's hope my 39th year of life is just as exciting, happy, and fulfilling!
