Halloween 2014

Friday I fulfilled my PTA and room mom duties at the school, since I knew I wanted to be at home that day already.  First up was helping in the office as school started by handing out tardy slips for the first half hour of school.  Then I came back in the afternoon with snacks for the kindergarten Halloween party!  William knew I was coming (since he consulted on the snack selection - apple slices and caramel dip) but he was surprised when I brought Grandma Hilary along!  It was a good thing she was there, because we ran a Bozo-like bucket game that definitely needed two adults.

After school, we walked home to get ready for trick-or-treating!  It was a cold and blustery evening, but William was so excited that the adrenaline and running around must have kept him warm!  We got our first doorbell ring around 4:45 as we were still getting him ready, and when we headed out at 5 p.m. most of the little kids in the neighborhood were just starting, too.

 Whoa!  Muscles!

 First house! 

We picked up William's best buddy, Dylan, and his baby turtle - I mean, brother - and parents and headed through the neighborhood.  The 5 adult to 3 child ratio was about perfect!  Those big boys were a lot faster than Tyler (or the parents or grandma) but they mostly behaved and didn't get out of eye sight.   We went a block further than we ever have before and discovered this guy from Ghostbusters!  Shortly after we turned for home and made it back - cold but happy - to have dinner and candy and pass out treats to older kids.  Even with it being a Friday night, there didn't seem to be much traffic after we got back.  I think the cold and the early start both helped that.  Most little kids were inside by 6:30 and the big kids inside by 8.

Kitchen

2014 has been the Year of the Kitchen: constantly in the background of everything else we had going on with work, travel and school, was our kitchen remodel.   We picked out the cabinets in January; received them in February; and finished the last of the install in September.  In the intervening months our formal living room/William's play room was stacked with cabinets in boxes and the kitchen had a combination of old, missing, and new cabinets.  It wasn't as disruptive as it sounds, since a lot of the early work was behind the walls for insulation and lighting, etc, and we were only without a sink and dishwasher for a few weeks waiting for our countertops.  This was thanks to John installing all of the top cabinets, then the bottom cabinets not attached to the dishwasher/sink, and finally the sink section the last week.  We left the footpoint the same, so didn't have much except the sink/garbage disposal to reroute.   New lights, paint, cabinets, countertops, sink, and microwave were all added.  The other appliances had already been replaced by us since we moved in five years ago.  On our 2015 agenda will be new flooring to replace the white tile and probably a backsplash. 

Post-remodel:

 

Pre-remodel: 

The construction:

 We unrecovered two layers of vinyl under the tile that had to be dismantled to get to the subfloor.  The new cabinets are installed on top of a new layer of wood flooring in anticipation of wood floors being installed in 2015 throughout the kitchen.

Wallpaper and yellow paint were behind the cabinets.

We had to start in the corner to make sure the cabinets were level in each direction.  The new wall color is called Patience.  Oh, the irony!

We had 19 boxes total:  18 with cabinets and one large trim piece for the island.

Tourist Fun

We were so excited to host four very special guests this weekend and show them around Chicago!   The days were full of sightseeing and eating!  After lunch at BWW to watch the K-State victory (Go Wildcats!), Cantigny's war museum and tank collection were a huge hit with the kids and the big boys.  We drive by this place all the time, but I had no idea the scale of the tank display (I was expecting four; there were more than a dozen of all vintages) and the professionalism of the museum.  Just a fantastic place!  It was also a beautiful day, if not a bit chilly.  There were at least three wedding parties and a half dozen families getting the beautiful foilage in their photos.

Sunday we filled all seven seats in our SUV for the first time ever.  I'm used to having one child in the car, so hearing three chatting it up, singing, and trying to annoy each other was interesting!  Our destination was the Shedd Aquarium, which was awesome!  Thanks to the noon Bears game, we got to walk to/from the Museum Campus with hundreds of our new best friends! 

 

William looks a lot more at ease on the penguin slide than on the wall in the wind!   I thought this would be a good photo op of the boys with the buildings and lake in the background, but when the wind started howling, I wanted them down fast!  We survived the Shedd and had a tasty dinner of Chicago style pizza at Lou Malnati's before retiring back to the suburbs.

Fantastic Fall

Today is a beautiful, sunny fall day with clear skies and temperatures in the 60s.  My new snow boots were delivered last week, so I know the tide could turn any second, but it's really a fantastic day today!   This past week we have had cool and cold temperatures.  On a cool evening (he chose to stuff his jacket in his backpack; I was wearing mine), I was walking William home from school and we found a hula hoop on the grass outside the school.  Since I told him it had to belong to someone - and, therefore, we couldn't take it home - we decided we'd just practice our moves for a few minutes before continuing on.  I got a picture of him; he didn't get a picture of me!

Soccer was cold again this week.  It was warmer at our house, so I didn't think we would need hats.  I was wrong. . . .Our friends offered him some extra ear muffs but he declined.  At least he has pants now! 

This was our last day of fall soccer, so they got their medals.  Will really did earn his season medal at just this game!  He scored 3 goals; made another 4 attempts on goal; and blocked at least 3 when he was goalie.  I think a lot of the other kids on his team weren't interested in playing in the cold, so he was the only one who wanted the ball!

William, Coach Bobby, and best buddy from daycare, Blake.

Columbus Day Staycation

School was out for Columbus Day, so I took the day off and we had a mini getaway after weekend soccer and tennis were done.  First up was Sunday lunch at 2 Toots Whistle Stop Grill.  In addition to receiving your food from a train, the restaurant was next to the train tracks.  We saw a freight train on our walk from the car and two more from inside the building.  Each kids meal came with a whistle shaped like a train.  We made sure William got all his toots out before he got in the car!  

Our next stop was Key Lime Cove, a nearby waterpark hotel.  We enjoyed a few hours of water slides and play before cleaning up for dinner at an Irish pub.  After a bad start where William got his hand caught in the door to the restaurant, we settled down to a tasty dinner.  John was so excited to try this crazy-named beer.  He said if Big Bang Theory had a beer, this would be it. But now I don't remember if he liked how it tasted. . . .

Back at the hotel, William was excited to crawl into his sleeping back on the couch for the night.  I've learned traveling with him that it's a better idea to book the king bed plus couch instead of two beds.  Otherwise I have to share a small bed with one of those guys and don't get much space!

Monday morning, William and I headed back to swim for a couple more hours while Daddy worked.  We enjoyed many laps in the lazy river and wave pool, as well as more trips down the big slides and little slides.  There was some great people watching there, too!  We got home right before the downpour started that has now lasted more than 24 hours.   Good thing our next vacation is on a boat!

The Week in Pictures

A few pictures so I don't forget the memories and experiences we had this week:

 

After putting it off for more than a year, we finally had a dying tree in our front yard cut down before winter.  We didn't pay extra for the debris removal, so someone enjoyed the post school mulch pile jump into the remains of the stump grinding!

William's first homework assignment was given this week.  It was sent home on Monday and required to be returned on Friday.  We didn't have a chance to get to it until Thursday night, so we decided to start on it outside while waiting for Daddy to leave for Reading Intervention Night. 

Saturday was a beautiful day at soccer - 60 and sunny - and I got a good action shot of the goalie!  He also made some great offensive moves.   It was fun to watch him!

In the afternoon we needed to get out and get some more sunshine, so we went to a park to play in the sandbox and on the equipment.   I got my second pumpkin spice latte of the season on the way over. If you want to delicious version, I recommend one pump pumpkin syrup and one pump white chocolate mocha instead of three pumps of pumpkin syrup.

Back to School

We have had two opportunities recently to go to kindergarten - Curriculum Night and Reading Intervention Night - and took this photo of William that he drew of his favorite thing to do.  He wrote PLAY and drew a very realistic version of his Angry Bird game which he does, in fact, love to build up and knock down! 

Curriculum Night was a chance for all parents to hear from the principal and then attend a break out in their child's classroom.  Reading Intervention Night was for parents of kindergarteners who need extra help with reading.  We were told that what used to be the first grade requirements are now kindergarten programs, so about a quarter of the kids are working with the reading teachers.  Our school has four teachers dedicated to reading improvement, which impresses me.   One lesson we have learned is that letter sounds - rather than letter recognition - (i.e. the sound "ah" versus recognizing the "A") is what they are taught for reading, so they can sound out and read words.   Will spends 30 minutes every morning working in a small group with his reading teacher.  She said she'll work with him until he doesn't need it - whether that is a few months or beyond this year.    

Random Weekend Pictures

After our beautiful Saturday last week, we woke up to freezing rain and wind this weekend.  We made it for about 30 minutes of soccer before the wind made it too miserable.  Since William doesn't own any sports pants, we just pulled his soccer socks all the way up.  I think today we'll swing by Target for an emergency pair of sweat pants, since we still have a few more weeks of soccer.   

After we got home from cold soccer, we transitioned into our tennis gear and went to practice for awhile at the indoor courts.  I had so much fun playing with him!  His skills are slowly improving, and he has a good attitude about it and enjoys playing.   Then it was time to get ready for the debut of our new kitchen, since we were having a few friends over for dinner.   William and I collaborated on Dirt Cake with Worms.  Here he is with a deconstructed version for snack before we assembled in a parfait version. 

I let baby Tyler lick the seving spoon when we were done.  He thought it was awesome; his mom wasn't as impressed! :-)

Phoenix

Last week I was in beautiful Phoenix, Arizona, for a mutual fund industry conference.  In addition to spending 12 hours listening to technical presentations while sitting on uncomfortable hotel conference center chairs, we had a few fun activities!  One night at the resort was an outdoor desert event.  Corporate sponsors provided different parts of the food/drink/entertainment.  Two of my Denver co-workers and I are showing off our Deloitte margaritas.  The hats were provided by a fund administrator. 

 

Another afternoon the sessions wrapped up early, and we had a desert jeep tour in the Sonoran Desert between Phoenix and Scottsdale.  We had five or six jeeps full of co-workers and clients.   Although we were all warned ahead of time to beware of the cactus, there were a few of us who "caught" jumping cactus on our shoes.   A guy from the Denver office ended up with a dozen needles in his ankle that my jeep driver had to pull out with pliers! 

My New York co-worker and I took a picture to send to our mutual client.   They thought the desert was a pretty extreme length to go for team building! :-)

My flights each way were delayed around 90 minutes - presumably carryover from the air traffic control fire last week.  I got the bulkhead seat on the way home and was chatting with the flight attendant and co-pilot while putting my bags away.  Somehow in this one minute exchange, my lack of knowledge of physics was discussed, as was my son's fascination for all things that fly.   And with that, the co-pilot invited me for a photo op in the cockpit to impress my kindergartner.  When I got home and showed off this picture, I got lots of "cool!" comments.