Weekend Family Fun & First Snow Fall

I made taco salads for dinner Friday night for the kids and I.  The kids eat the shell with mass quantities of cheese. It's parenting at it's finest.  Cate takes her taco shell eating serious.  

I needed to find ways to keep the kids busy to limit the amount of screaming and fighting. The time change is still killing me b/c when it gets dark at 5pm it feels like it's 9pm.  The little two took a nap Friday which means the kids are up later than usual.  We received our family Christmas cards and they needed stuffed into envelopes and address stickers applied.

I apologize to anyone who gets a card that looks a little bit like it was licked by Cate.  It was. She took her envelope licking serious.

 Willie was also responsible for licking envelopes.  We got him a wet washcloth and he created a method of his own and turned the envelope over and ran the sticky part over the washcloth.  It was so smart. I was so proud of it for thinking of new ways to do things.

Saturday night we went to Naperville to celebrate the holiday season and catch up on life with great friends.

Sunday morning it started to snow around 10:00am.  The kids wanted to go out and play in the snow. They were thrilled with the amount of snow that was on the ground in the picture below.

And in just a few hours we had so much more snow. It is the wet and heavy snow. I started shoveling to get a start on it but by the time I finished it looked like I hadn't done much of anything.

 Miss M worked really hard on her snowman.  She even got him an umbrella to help keep him dry.

I wish we had a mudroom or area of the house where we could drop all the wet clothes when we walk in the door.  Four sets of gloves, hats, coats, boots, snow pants is a mess.  The mess takes up the entire kitchen and leaves water everywhere for the kids to slip on.  

Napa

We took a girls family trip to Napa to celebrate Aunt Nessie's 40th birthday! We flew out on a Friday and came home late Tuesday evening.  Grandma D drove to our house to help Andrew with the children for the long weekend.  Thanks for making it possible for me to go celebrate Grandma D.  

Annessa taking the bull by the horns, literally. 

I made Jessie take a lot of selfies with me.  I think it drives her a little crazy but she obliges me and this is why I love her. This was before our guided tour day started!

Our first winery, Artesa

My favorite winery that we went to. The outdoor seating was so comfortable, cozy and beautiful.  I could have hung out on the porch all day.

Aunt Sally joined our selfie!

Still at my favorite winery.

This was the third one. Regusci.  They had beautiful gardens. The wine was just okay.

My favorite selfie I took all weekend. 

Facetiming with Craig while waiting for our driver, Stacey, to come back and pick us up.

In an effort to not drink from sun up to sun down all weekend we went on a hike at a local park. We all thought we were going to be hiking on paved trails around napa.  We hiked up rugged semi-muddy trails which were very steep in many locations. Jessie didn't join the festivities b/c she only had flip flops.  Flip flops would have been a disaster of a nightmare. 

I love Jessie's hat.

Annessa's cousin, Melissa, lives in San Diego and joined the party. I want to be her when I grow up. I think she's such a beautiful person in every way.

Summers Winery.  The owners are family of one of Annessa's friends.

We visited Summers on Annessa's actual birthday.  Thus the tiara.  Happiest of birthdays to the birthday girl.

Such serious business to taste wines.

So many pictures but so many great memories and laughs.  I hope to remember them all for years to come.

Random Pictures from November

After returning from Napa, we were able to celebrate Aunt Nessa's birthday with a cake and some decorations.  

And with all cakes come candles.  This year we lit 40 candles.  There were some who were concerned about needing the fire department or fire extinguisher ready!

Andrew giving the kids a geography lesson.  They love to learn and they love when Andrew engages them in his life lessons.

Oh Cater.  The two big kids take swimming lessons on the weekend and Cate refuses to be left out.  She gets to swim with Andrew (b/c I refuse to get in the pool when I am not swimming laps) and loves it.

My Govember friends!

Willie had a Thanksgiving Feast at school where each kid brought in a healthy snack and they shared all the snacks provided and got to bring home the left over.

For Thanksgiving we went to Indiana to visit friends.  We set up a kids table and the kids went around and said what they were thankful for. I took a video of it. I hope to be able to repeat the same experience in the years to come and watch how the children grow and evolve.  The adults then turned on the tv and ate Thanksgiving dinner quietly.

Friday is for Football.  Clearly.  Steve smoked various meats while we were there and so the guys set up a heater and a television.  They stood out there for hours without coming inside.  I was jealous they were able to escape the noise level of six kids but someone had to make sure the kids didn't get themselves in trouble!

Baby Nate and I were best friends. He was so much fun to hold and be around. He did not make me think I need another baby. Babies are a lot of work even if they are "good" babies.

Slumber party!

We drove home Saturday afternoon/evening and then worked to set up the Christmas tree first thing Sunday morning. Miss M couldn't wait one more minute.  I had brought the tubs of Christmas stuff upstairs the night before which I was so glad I had done but there's still so much work to get everything out.  Tiffany was around while we were setting up the tree so her and Miss M worked to put all the ornaments on the tree. I set up the more breakable things and Andrew and Willie and Cater raked leaves.  It was a win for everyone.  Sitting in the front room each evening with only the tree lights on is so pretty.

Attempting to top the tree with the Santa topper.  It was a failed attempt but we managed to get the topper on with no injuries.

Random Pictures from November

The best of friends.  Willie has learned how to antagonize her on purpose by calling out and showing her what he has that she will inevitably want with screaming to ensue. It's awesome.  

Bat Cate.  

Willie happy to hang his W flag every day. 

November around here is known as Govember b/c we run all the streets of OP.  This year I was able to run with my friends Bekah and Jessica.  We had to start planning our running routes around parks so the kids wouldn't revolt against another morning in the stroller.  The kids are easily bought with snacks and parks!

So many nice days this fall.  We played outside all November.  Willie even wore shorts all through November without too much shivering. We like to build towns and roads with chalk on the driveway.

There are some days when Miss M has an entourage at the bus stop to welcome her home.  The twins in Miss M's class (our neighbors) love getting home from school in time to help get Miss M off the bus. They think it's awesome.

Group hug!

We discovered a new area for the kids to play. It's apart of the forest preserve. It was a great outdoor nature area for the kids to safely jump, play, and explore.

Willie's school has recently talked a lot about fruits and vegetables and they have been trying new foods for snack time. They are currently trying to root a turnip.  We had to go to the store one day and Willie told me he needed to pick out some fruits and vegetables. I let him pick what he wanted and he picked grapefruit and a turnip.  We also found gigantic carrots and since the kids love carrots we had to buy it. I peeled the carrot and handed it to the kids to nosh on.  The gigantic carrot was a hit.  The turnip wasn't really well received and the grapefruit was way too much work to peel for kids who didn't love it.