Winter Celebrations

It may not be evident a few days from now, but each year we are trying harder and harder to make our celebrations more about each other and honoring traditions, and less about presents. Here are some of the things we've been doing....
We celebrated the first day of winter break with snowman pancakes.
We had a tea party and shared Christmas cookies with Anna and Sebastien.
Clara celebrated Grammie's arrival by donning a fancy new coat, hat and gloves (okay, so that was a gift).
We celebrated the Solstice with a lovely party at Sharon's. We made pomander balls.
And wrote wish sticks...
...which we threw in the fire.
We also made some ice bird-feeder/sun catchers, which are still trying to freeze. Photos of those to come. And we enjoyed Sharon's dapper holiday-dressed giraffes.
The kids celebrated the first day of winter and the lengthening of the days by making a snowman with Grammie.

And more baking, of course.
Grammie took charge of the traditional candy-cane cookies this year while Pete and I celebrated his time off work by running some last-minute errands together and having a nice lunch.
Here's hoping your winter days are just as filled with warmth as ours!

Norbert

We got together to celebrate Norbert's first birthday a little early tonight. He turns one next Sunday! Check this little dude out! He's such a great personality.
I made an extra cake to take over to celebrate Helena's birthday, belatedly, also. I'd been wanting to try this cake for a long time. It's the one from the front cover of my favorite baking cook book.
Mine didn't turn out quite as pretty as hers, but it looked okay, and it tasted delicious!

Busy Fun

We've been doing lots of fun stuff here these last couple of days. Here's a picture from Thursday when Anna and Sebby came over to play for a bit. Pete has decided to start buying toilet paper online, and we had just gotten our first shipment, so we used the t.p. and the box and made a little fortress wonderland.
Yesterday was beautiful outside. I didn't want to let the kids get in the sandbox because they had to stay nice and clean for our dinner out (see yesterday's post). So we played out front and did some fancy chalkwork. Don't miss Henry's warning at the bottom of the driveway here.
He's kind of into dinosaurs these days.
Clara decided to chalk up the tree a bit.
Henry's being attacked by a t-rex.
Clara also thought she'd experiment with chalk-on-hand.
And Henry had chalk-on-butt.
They like to stand in this tree.
Later we got dressed up a bit for dinner, but Clara wouldn't let me take a picture.


Today we tried to have a bit of a tailgate, even though the football game is just starting now at 9:35 PM!
It was fun to have our friends over and eat junk food.
Norbert wasn't sure why he didn't get cake.
Here are two very little Hawkeye fans trying their best to stay up late. This was before I put Clara to bed and then discovered the mess of burrs in her ponytail. Oy vey. Fortunately we were able to brush them out without having to sacrifice her hair or pull too terribly much.
Go Hawks!

Clara's Birthday

My sweet girl turned two today. We had quite a celebratory day planned, but of course the universe had something else in mind for us. The trouble started on Wednesday when Henry had to go in for a dental procedure. Pete drove him out to Long Grove when the pedodontist did a pulpectomy, some drilling and put a stainless cap on one of his molars. Now that I type all that it sound more traumatic than I really realized at the time. They gave him nitrous oxide and novacaine and he did very well for the whole thing. He did have a pretty swollen cheek and it lasted longer than we expected. After complaining a bit yesterday, and just not acting quite himself, I called and spoke with the dentist's office and ultimately made a tentative appointment for this morning. He awoke in the night with crying and a low grade fever, but seemed okay again this morning. We figured maybe we had let him be too active yesterday and it just got overly irritated. Plus, the streets were quite snowy and blowy, so I just chose not to take him out. Well, then the morning was very up and down. We let him watch cartoons all morning, but he was still whiny and crabby and weepy. His fever was up and down too, sometimes as high as 103. By early afternoon I was speaking with the dentist's office again and with our pediatrician's office. I decided to take him to the pediatrician. After looking over everything he determined it wasn't a problem with the tooth. Just as a last-minute thing he did a quick strep test. Henry fell asleep in my lap while we waited for the results, which came back positive. Thank goodness! We got his prescription filled and gave him a dose as soon as we got home. After a much more mellow celebration than planned, both kids are asleep and will hopefully wake up for a pleasant day of quiet playing tomorrow.
So, in the meantime, Clara's birthday wasn't a total loss. She (knock on a whole lotta wood) has been feeling well and enjoyed many aspects of her day.
Here she is, shortly after her birthday pancakes, enjoying her gift from me and Pete. I envision many happy tea parties in the backyard this summer.
Henry and Franklin tried to enjoy the tea party as well, but Franklin kept getting shooed from the table and Henry couldn't do much for long today.
Hey sweet two-year-old!!
You might be able to get a little bit of an idea of Henry's swollen right cheek in this picture. He was trying to rest in bed and Clara decided to read to him. He didn't have much energy for telling her she was doing it wrong, so the whole thing went surprisingly well.
Clara enjoyed a morning bath, still anticipating a party this evening, and then spent some time tucking in and reading to her dollies. She also sang Happy Birthday to them.
After Henry's appointment we settled in for a movie. I was trying to get Henry to eat anything and Clara caught sight of Grammie having a little ice cream (she likes to buy Jamoca when she's in town, since there's no B&R in Iowa City anymore) so they decided they wanted an ice cream treat too. Wouldn't you know it? We just happened to have some in the freezer for the birthday party!
And we didn't get our balloon order canceled in time, plus...a girl still needs balloons on her birthday! So the table was very festive.
I went ahead with the elephant cupcakes, as I had already made the parts and baked the cupcakes this morning. There were a couple of trunk incidents, but overall they turned out pretty well. Clara recognized them, so that was the important thing. (In case you don't know- Clara's lovey is a yellow stuffed elephant named Ellie. I bought Ellie for her at the hospital gift shop when she had pneumonia at one month old.) I ran a few of the cupcakes across the street for Anna and Sebby, since Helena had brought Clara's gift over. They were duly excited, so I felt my efforts were not totally in vain.
So, we ordered some pizza, watched a couple of movies, opened a few presents (thanks everyone!) and had a mellow evening. Happy 2nd Birthday to my wonderful, hilarious, happy-natured little girl!
And isn't she a snappy dresser? Check out those bracelets.

Our Week

Here are some images from the past several days....
Clara helped me do some baking last weekend. We're doing more today...
This is from my first batch of peppernuts this year. Henry likes the "doubles" so I didn't worry when I had to cram one sheet pretty full. I ended up with an interesting variety of shapes. Here you can see a double, a Mickey, a tilting snowman and a giant glob I call The Shopping Cart.
Clara sported pig tails for the first time this week. They lasted about 6 minutes. She and Henry had a visit from Santa at school. Clara told me all about it: "Ho ho. Try? Uh-huh, hunh." This is interpreted as "Santa came. I cried. Like this."
This morning was full of activity including a quick trip to the bookstore and post office and then the library. After lunch we played in the snow and delivered cookies to our neighbors. Now the kids are napping and I'm working on making more treats! We're planning to go visit some friends in Oak Park tonight.
Oh...I had to include this picture. Henry is throwing snowballs at the snowman. But notice Clara's hunch-shouldered cower. She already has perfected the Little-Sister-Flinch.
I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday preparations as much as we are!

Updates

First, the baby news. My friend and neighbor, Helena, had her baby today. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to be there to help out. Clara developed a fever overnight to go along with her nasty cough. Helena's midwife thought it best that I keep my distance. I was very disappointed, especially as I saw the cars gather in front of the house. I actually took this photo for them. Theirs is the red house. The room where I knew she was laboring is that window on the far right....right next to the giant cement mixer at the jerky neighbor's house.
I kept myself busy by baking banana bread, which I took over later. I also got a call to run out for some ice for them, which helped me feel a little bit useful. When I got the call that the baby was here I ran over with the banana bread. I was going to just wave to Helena and Baby Norbert (!!) from the doorway, but they waved me in. We visited for a bit and I got to hear some of the story. I was honored to be there within his first hour! I guess it got a little hard there at the end, as Norbert had his hand up on his head, but they both came through it just great!

In other news: I baked these crazy brownies today for Henry and Pete to take to our friend's barbecue (a real barbecue- not just grilling out). Clara and I had to stay home. These brownies are from a recipe Aunt Nan shared at the wedding shower Aunt Joyce held for me. Everyone brought a chocolate recipe. These are brownies with Fluff and frosting. Wow. I hope they all get eaten, or at least that Pete has the foresight to not bring any leftovers home.
Bedroom update: We finished painting last weekend. This is a nighttime photo, taken on laundry day, so it's kind of hard to see, but we're really pleased with how the room looks.
And finally....Henry's book!! I'll just translate, in case you can't read it.

"Butts"

"Toot tooty butts"

"This is a picture of a penis really! close."

"Nipple. Hairy on boys. Nipple."

"Ear. They can hear."

"Uvula. It's hangy."

"Poop. It's smelly."

"Pee. Fly-y"

The last four pages of the book each contain a heart and then, of course, "the end".