All About Him

A while back I posted about Henry's All About Me week at pre-school. Here he is with his board all set up. He took along Monkey With A Tool Belt and a couple of monster trucks as his favorite book and toys. He's such a big boy!

Play Date

So....Henry had a play date today. He and his friend Gabriel had been talking about playing together, and so we finally had him over. (I wasn't too keen on just sending Henry off to his house, since I've never been there and hadn't met his parents, but his parents didn't seem to mind. We must just exude trustworthiness.) Gabriel was here from 10 to 1PM. It was about 10:30 when he said "I think I have to go home pretty soon." But he actually did very well and was a nice boy. Here they are eating their lunch while Clara tries her best to get a little attention.
For the first half hour that the boys played I cleaned out old paint cups. I was tired of Clara painting her hands every morning. Here's how the sink looked when I was finished, just in case you wondered.
Back to the play date....Gabriel brought along these toys to play with. I'm not certain if one was supposed to be left for Henry, but fortunately he took all 3 back home with him. Also- at one point I asked the boys if they would like a little music while they played with Legos. Gabriel said "How about some Lady GaGa?" I told him we didn't have any Lady GaGa and Henry suggested maybe The Wiggles. Pete ended up playing The Pixies for them, and also Van Halen and Beck. I ended up feeling a little bit unsure about how equipped we're making Henry for dealing with his peers, but mostly I'm feeling glad that he still is who he is and that he can play happily without the need for video games.
All that said, he did bring this picture home from school the other day.
And this one: "taournatoes".
And, I can't quite think of any explanation for this one, other than the influence of his Uncle Will.
I'll end with this cute picture of Clara negotiating a banana.

Go Hawkeyes!!

We'd been thinking about going to the Northwestern vs. Iowa basketball game, but hadn't gotten tickets. My friend Dave even called a couple weeks ago to tell us about a reduced price, but we weren't sure about taking Clara. Then this morning Pete got an email from his mom that they knew someone who was giving away 4 tickets for the game, which was tonight. So we went.
First we had dinner at Noyes St. Cafe. This is the picture I got when I asked Clara to show me her shirt.
Basketball at Northwestern is sort of half high school, half big University. We were very lucky to have these seats instead of benches. Henry and Clara were excited to have big foam thingies to wave in the air. I told Henry to ask the lady if she had any in black and gold. She didn't. She did offer to give him two white ones instead, but Henry still wanted purple.
The kids were very well behaved, even though the game didn't start until 6PM. Unfortunately, the Hawks didn't quite get the game won. They couldn't seem to land a 3-point shot to save their lives.
Henry started to get a bit restless by the end. M&Ms helped, as did a story about Curious George and a skunk (always Henry's request). Clara started to claim that she had a poopy diaper, but it was just a ruse to go for a walk. Still, the kids did great and we had a lot of fun. It would have been nice to have the Hawkeye pep band, but there wasn't an absence of black and gold.
Finally, Clara's absolute favorite thing was Willie the Wildcat. When she first spotted him she started pointing and said "mouse! mouse!" After explaining who it was she kept saying "Wally?" and looking about for him. She tried to keep her eye on him at almost all times. Also, after putting her in her crib tonight she said "Go Hawkeyes? Moon. Funny hair." Summing up her evening of basketball, a lovely moon and a young fan with a fuzzy purple wig.

Night Out

A few months back Jeff told us he was planning a trip to Chicago for Amber's birthday, and invited us to spend an evening with them. We decided to reserve a room for the night as well. Last night was the night! The kids stayed with Pete's parents overnight and we took the train downtown. After checking in to the Hotel Allegro (and getting that free upgrade we inquired about!) we met Amber and Jeff and had a quick snack at Petterino's. Fortunately no taxis drove through the windows while we were there. Then we went back to the hotel and tried out their hot chocolate. It was not nearly as good as the hot chocolate at the Monaco, where I stayed with Amber and Ellen in Denver. Still, it was nice to have a hot beverage.
In the elevator Amber tried Pete's hat on. She had trouble believing his head was actually so substantial.
Later we met up with another couple, friends of Amber and Jeff who live in Chicago. We had dinner at Adobo Grill. The margaritas and guacamole were very good. The entrees were fine. Then we went next door to Second City where we laughed until our stomachs hurt.
After that we went across the street to a bar Jamie knew of. It was a cool place, but we didn't really need the beer at that point.
Snacks were desired before heading back to the hotel. I like this picture of Pete looking nervously at the Peeps display.
Amber settled in on some pretzels while Jeff mulled over a $5 t-shirt.
I was appalled by this:
Unfortunately, by the time we got back to the hotel we didn't have much energy for more hanging out. It would have been fun to stay in the bar a bit and watch some Olympics. As it was we went to our separate rooms and, by all accounts, fell asleep pretty quickly. We met up again this morning and while Amber and I waited in the lobby the boys went to fetch the car. After getting us and driving past the parking garage again Jeff said "wait! Where are the donuts?" Apparently the boys had stopped for a pre-breakfast snack. The donuts, however, had been forgotten atop the ticket-paying machine in the parking garage. After a spin around the block Pete ran in to liberate them.
We went to the closest Nookies location and filled up on delicious breakfasts.
And then Amber and Jeff dropped us off at the train station so we could come back home to see our kids! Hooray for a great night away with great friends!

February Fun

Last weekend we took the kids sledding at the big hill. Anna came along with us, while Sebby stayed home with a tummy ache. The kids had an awesome time, but I think the most fun of all was had with all 3 being in the back of the car together.
I'm sharing this picture as an example of Clara's little miss "I do it!!!!"
The other night the kids were running around the house "shooting" things with Crayola markers. Henry told me they were playing Army. I suggested maybe they play Firefighter instead. When they turned around to pose for me Clara mimicked everything Henry did.

And then they sat and wore their helmets at the dinner table.
This morning we decided to get up and go somewhere. We wanted to go to the nature center, but remembered that the indoor part is closed on Fridays. So off we went to the Botanic Garden.
And then we ran into our favorite neighbors.
It was fun to hang out in the greenhouses today, but guess who wouldn't give me a normal face for a picture.
Tomorrow Pete and I head downtown for an evening with Amber and Jeff. It will be lots of fun to have an adults-only overnight! We're meeting up with some other friends of theirs and going to dinner and Second City. We'll spend the night down there while the kids party it up with Grandma and Bampa. Woo hoo!!

My Valentines

Last night we had a family date at Dave's Italian Kitchen. It was delicious and fun as always.
This morning I got sandwiched between Henry and Clara in bed and got to listen to them sing Old MacDonald to each other before we came out to the kitchen for some gifts.
Here's Clara with her Valentine's tiger to add to the Lego zoo.
Henry was very excited to get his own low-tech robot pinball game.
And my biggest Valentine got a very romantic book about sex, drugs and rock & roll.
The rest of the day holds a haircut appointment for me and a nice dinner and maybe a movie for Pete and I tonight. Hooray for Valentine's day! I hope yours is just as full of love as mine. Xs and Os to you!!

Love

A friend on facebook had a status update which said he told his son he loved him more than anything and his son replied "I love you more than meatballs". I thought that was pretty good. So I asked Henry what he would say if I told him I loved him more than anything. His reply was "I love you way more than you think I do." I'll take that!

All About...

Amber wants to know why I never blog anymore. Hm. Busy life and Facebook, I suppose. So here are some updates from our past week. Joyce came in on Wednesday. I think this photo was taken on a movie night. Franklin is surprisingly calm.
I love this one of of Clara snuggling up to Henry.
On Saturday night Dad showed up. He and Joyce overlapped by one night. We had a nice dinner with Mary and Peter that night too. Here's Dad playing some sort of bear hug game which Henry found hilarious.
Henry is "kid of the week" at preschool this week. We took some new photos for him to take in. I found this one to be particularly nice.
Here's a shot Pete took of Clara with her new Minnie Mouse. He brought it for her from Anaheim.
Sunday night we went across the street for Anna's birthday party. We bought her a sock-puppet making kit. She thought it was lots of fun.
Norbert was also amused.
Here's the birthday girl with her cake.
Back to the kid of the week....Henry had to fill out a questionnaire.He also drew a self-portrait. Note the fly on his pants.
Monday night and Tuesday we got quite a bit of snow, as I'm sure you have heard. Here are the kids checking out Grandpa as he shovels us out for the third time on Wednesday morning.
I included this one so you can see Henry's new rock and roll sheets.
The window boxes made for nice snow catchers.
And here is a picture from tonight. Henry set up his race car track and then created a tunnel for Clara to sit on over the track. They found it to be great fun!
And now I need to get the little girl to bed.