Fifteen Years Young

Yesterday was the boy's fifteenth birthday. Oh, how fast the years pass!

From this little tyke (at seven days old!):


To this big guy:


The ideal birthday? Sleep in until noon, head over to your friends' house and play Minecraft for an hour, then head home for a round of golf with your Dad. After golf, play football with more friends, then go to dinner with friends.


It's a tough life, isn't it?

My personal highlight of the day - unabashedly singing duets with him in the car after dropping off the last of his friends. It's one of our "mother - son" activities - we cue up the Glee Version of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" and belt it out. He doesn't quite sing on key, and he doesn't care.

And neither do I.

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Random Friday

Since it's Friday and I haven't posted anything since last Friday, I think it's time for some Random Fun.

1. My mother celebrated another birthday, but she doesn't look older at all. My sister sent her a red fleece half zip and I sent her red tulips. We did not coordinate this together, so I call it serendipity.

Forever Young, photo taken by my Dad, using his iPad

2. If you are reading this blog because of its (purported) photographic subject matter, you need to catch The Secret Life of Walter Mitty while is it's still showing in the theatres. I now want to travel to Greenland, just because of this movie.

The projection server room at the new-fangled cinema in town.

3. I signed up with the local marathon training group. I have not signed up for any race, just the training. We'll see how it goes before I commit to a race.

From last week's Saturday run - the snow started to fall as I finished up.

4. I read this article that was shared by a friend on Facebook - The Trouble with Bright Girls. It's worth a read but I won't go into my thoughts on it right now. They would be too deep for a Friday!

5. I learned planes are no longer requiring passengers to turn off their electronic devices during take off and landing. I'm looking forward to my next plane ride so I can take photos out the window using the big camera. No more sneaking my iPhone to take photos like this one:

Arrival into Nassau, Bahamas

I guess it's too late for me to go with my friends to the Bahamas in February. Dang, I could use a break from the cold and snow....

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Birthday Girl | Sweet Sixteen

While we were in London, we celebrated my daughter's sixteenth birthday.

[Last year, she was in France for her birthday. I sense a pattern now which begs the question - where will she be next June?]

She dislikes it when I take her photo, but I managed to sneak one in.


Remembering her as a baby:


As a Little girl:


And some silly moments:


Oh, how fast they grow up!

On her birthday, we enjoyed afternoon tea at the Wallace Collection's Restaurant:


I learned that afternoon tea for one consists of:
A Pot of Tea (of course)
4 finger sandwiches: Smoked salmon, Cucumber, Ham and Cheese and Egg Salad
3 cakes: a filled cream puff, a filled sponged cake and a delicate tiramisu-like cake
1 scone with clotted cream and jam (clotted cream is like butter)

It was a nice, elegant way to celebrate this milestone.

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Happy Birthday

My daughter turned 14 yesterday. I had to use my heavy coercion skills (ie, incessant begging and pleading) and shot one picture of her, and I promised I wouldn't post it on the blog.

So instead, I went into the archives and found this cute picture of her when she was 2 years old, just before her brother was born.



And another recent picture of her


We celebrated with a nice dinner out. No formal party with friends, but I think she is lobbying for a sleepover with friends sometime next week (where they will stay up all night long and sleep all day).

I say this every year, but how quickly they grow up.....

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Day 259 - Soccer, Silliness, Cake and Dating Perspectives from a 5th Grader

Another Saturday in September, meaning another day chock full of activities.

I got up and ran 6+ miles.
Then I cleaned out the pond - I didn’t work on it last week, so this week there was a lot more to clean out.
Scott and Brian went to the football game.
I took Erica to her soccer game. In today’s game, she acted as one of the Team Captains (meaning she and two other Team Captains get to observe the starting coin toss). During the game, she played defense and wing positions, giving her ample exposure to the ball. The team won 3-1 against a strong opponent.


After the game, I vacuumed the basement, family room and kitchen, in preparation for Brian’s big bash later on. Then out to the store to buy treats, food and (most importantly) the cake. I ended up with two cakes – an ice cream cake and a chocolate sheet cake. How I ended with two cakes would take too long to explain – just chalk it up to my poor planning skills and a picky birthday boy.

Before you could say “what time is it”, the doorbell started ringing with parents quickly depositing their kids at my door. The reality chaos of eight boys running around hit me like a tornado. Thank goodness for that bounce house! And the plethora of stuff we have in the basement. At least boys don’t go around screaming like girls do. Sometimes they will even sit still long enough for you to take a serious picture:


As long as you let them goof off, too:

They make the most interesting faces at this age – no “trying to be a cool teenager”. Adorable.

What I enjoyed the most was the conversation the boys engaged in as I drove them to the Laser Tag place.

“I heard that Alec is crushed because Emily broke up with him!”
“Were they going out together?”
“Yeah – for 15 minutes! Then Emily broke up with him…..”
“I would like to go out with Olivia, but I am WAY too scared to ask her. What if she says no? I’m just too scared.”
I, of course asked the question “Are you guys going out on dates with these girls?” and the answers I received: “Oh, we’re not old enough to go out on a date! We can’t even drive! In 5th grade, you get to hold hands and hug. In 6th grade, you might get to kiss on the cheek. I can’t imagine kissing a girl on the lips – I think that’s what you get to do in 7th or 8th grade. Eww!”

Ah, out of the mouths of babes.

As the Laser Tag attendant (a young, cute 17 year old lad) so succinctly summed up, “Things were so much simpler at the age of 10.”

Yes, indeed.

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270/365 - Party Down

Brian's birthday party started out at the local pizza palace, complete with games and prize tickets.



Tokens are used to earn tickets:


The tickets are redeemed for prizes:


The boys collected over 1400 tickets, enough for lots of little trinkets and the "big prize" behind "Door #1":


Back at home, the boys played Ghosts in the Graveyard, opened presents, ate cake, popcorn and watched a movie before hunkering down for the sleeping portion of the sleep over party. A fun time, for sure!

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266/365 - 10 Candles

How can my "baby" be 10 years old today?



I remember 10 years ago, a crisp fall day with a stiff breeze. At 11:00, I decided to clean the windows in the house, including taking out all the screens and washing them outside with the hose. Brian was born three hours later, a scant 20 minutes after we arrived at the hospital. Yeah, no time for drugs.

I haven't cleaned windows since.

Happy birthday, Brian!!

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170/365 - On the Fringe

Of official teenage-dom.


It's Erica's 12th birthday today. I can't believe this time next year, she will be a teenager (and worse, I'll take on the role of Mom of a teenager).

We had a low key day - Erica's BFF, Kathleen, slept over last night and they both stayed home, sleeping in late, hanging out, relaxing and whatever 12-13 year olds "do" during the summer.

Brian had a baseball tournament game this evening (they won!) and after the game Erica chose Chinese takeout as dinner.

Of course, we finished the day with birthday cake.


Happy Birthday Erica!

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167/365 - Bob and Jeanne's 50th Birthday Bash

50 is just a number, not an age.

Our neighbors, Bob and Jeanne celebrated their joint 50th birthdays with an all out bash tonight, complete with a rocking band, dancing, lots of food and drink. The venue - their own back yard, a perfect summer night with friends.

The band, Candy Foster and Shades of Blue




The young couple and guests of honor:


Some of our other friends / neighbors:

Dancing the night away:

Libations (and there was a keg, too - when was the last time I had beer out of a keg? That would be about 20 years ago in college.....)


The band (very loud, by the way) played until 11:00pm. We found out the police cruised through our cul-de-sac around 10:30pm, but since Bob and Jeanne had an Event Permit from the city, there was no unwanted visit. Who knew a simple permit would allow you to blare music until midnight on the weekends?


We all had a great time, and Bob and Jeanne certainly don't seem like they are a pair of 50 year olds!

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149/365 - It's my Birthday!

42 years old.

Do my kids think my memory is starting to go bad in my old(er) age?

made by Erica


made by Brian

Regardless what they think, I LOVE their hand made presents. I do need to be reminded every now and then how to spell my name. And MOM upside down spells WOW!

I took several self portraits, but they were all SO bad. I'll try again in a couple of days. I need a haircut, so it will serve as a before picture (getting my hair chopped next week).

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140/365 - More Legos! And a Birthday

Today is Scott's 42nd birthday, but as he has requested that we "not make a big deal about it", I only took one picture and it came out terrible (major back focus problem).
So instead, I present the alternative - Brian, again, piecing together his new Bionicle lego man. Or ship. Or both. All I know is this one is a big Bionicle (read - more $'s), with sections that move up and down, in and out.

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Erica's 11th Birthday!

As if three baseball games and a garage sale in two days wasn't enough, add in Erica's 11th birthday party - a sleepover with 5 of her friends. This party materialized at the last minute - Erica decided the who and when details on Tuesday evening, leaving me the task of inviting her friends (calling and leaving lots of messages on answering machines - amazing that mode of communication does work!). Normally, there would be formal invitations (with an RSVP by date!), balloons, a custom cake, party favors, etc. Well, none of that this year.....no time.....I was lucky that the grocery store has pre-made cakes and decorators on hand - we picked out this chocolate cake for the party:


Even details of what we would do during the party were sketchy - I suggested swimming [NO!], and a movie [nothing good is playing], going to the park [it will be TOO Hot and BORING - no LAME {LAME is this summer's catchphrase}]. OK, I thought, we'll just run this thing by the seat of our pants. They can always just "hang out" and generate their own drama.

But Mom comes through in the clutch - I suggest Mini-Golf - and the suggestion is accepted! It was the perfect night for Mini-golf - we were even allowed to keep the 6 girls together. After Mini-golf, we went to a new park in town and the girls ran around until sunset:


Back at our house, settled down to popcorn and a movie - Nancy Drew:Get a Clue. Lights out at 11:30 and hopefully they got enough sleep. All I know is I certainly slept well - I was exhausted!

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Catching Up - September

Yes, I know this hasn't been updated for over two months, so I will play catch up.

September was very busy. In addition to getting acclimated with Hannah, Brian celebrated his 8th birthday - a sleepover party with six of his friends, here giving me their best Silly Pose (really, not too different from their Non-silly pose).



In order to wear them out, I took them rollerskating at Skateland for several hours. Not sure how effective it was, but they all did fall asleep around 11pm. I have now survived 3 sleepover parties - and the main difference between girls and boys is that when boy cry, they cry for a couple of minutes and then are OK. Not so much with girls. And at Brian's party, each boy had some sort of incident (mainly some physical altercation) that caused them to cry.

Scott and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary with a weekend trip to Chicago, where we attended the musical, Wicked. We stayed in the Hampton Inn, about 4 blocks from the Oriental Theatre.



We also walked around Millennium Park where the "Bean" sculpture resides. It is a fascinating piece of art. This is our reflection from belly of the Bean:



And I couldn't resist a self portrait from behind the lens of my camera:




More updates are coming shortly (I promise!!)

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