Double Digits, Baby!

Our baby is 10 years old. Wow. Just...wow. A decade knowing and loving Miss Emma Bloom. What a gift.

Sleepover shenanigans to mark the momentous occasion.

 

 

 

 

And fun times with Every Flavor Beans...

 

Movie trailers, bats, and all other kinds of awesome

We just returned from our annual Ohio vacation with the Dippel family, and as always, we had a blast. We played lots of board games, ate lots of food, and battled lots of bats. Yes, BATS.

In the early morning hours of one fine gaming evening, we endured three separate visits from the flapping little beasts. The kids miraculously slept through the entire thing. The adults each played a role in bat control...some more effectively than others. My Chris stormed right into the fray and caught the little buggers. Claire planted herself on the stairs and protected the children by flapping a pillow maniacally whenever a bat neared. Chris D. started screaming M. Night Shyamalan quotes and flying a toy helicopter into the bat cave living room. I ran for my life and took cover, hiding in the bathroom (bat attack #1), the laundry room (bat attack #2), and under the table (bat attack #3) before finally barricading myself in the bedroom when a bat that looked an awful lot like a helicopter flew a little too close for comfort. After Claire and my Chris chased the last bat downstairs and then actually followed it into the bowels of hell unfinished basement to verify the point of entry, "Mission: Bat Containment" was accomplished with a blanket and lots of duck tape.

I tell ya...we all felt like superheroes after that crazy encounter. (Shut up. Hiding is too a superpower.) So, we decided to make a movie trailer about it.

Luckily, we had movie-trailer-making whiz Charlotte Dippel on hand. An ipad camera prodigy at the tender age of 9 years old, she made two awesome and gloriously creepy trailers featuring the kids: The House of Seacrisy and The Haunted House of Indiana. Charlotte and Chris D. shared directing duties on the trailer that includes all of us, Super, Ohio. Take a gander below. (Watch them on full screen if you can - they are so much better that way.) Enjoy, and be sure to look for all three flicks not so soon in a theater near you!

Photo bombs

Chris and I actually went to a fancy smancy gala a couple of weeks ago. It was really nice to have a dressy, adult evening together, and we are grateful to our friend Robb for hanging out with the wee ones for the night.

I finally got around to downloading the photos of that evening from my camera, and I discovered some surprises. I learned two things: 1) It really sucks to see yourself captured on film during a moment in which you actually thought you looked good and realize that, in fact, you looked the exact opposite of good; and 2) Below is what happens when you leave your kids and your camera with Mr. Robb Rabito.

 

 

 
 

 

(Almost) Middle-Aged Besties

I have a best friend.

That sentence feels sort of silly to write at 37 years old. I mean, I'm not, like, in junior high or something, right dude? Well...screw that ageism crap. I am kinda middle-aged (yikes!), I have a best friend, and I still call people "Dude" occasionally. (Although not nearly as much as my best friend.) Take that, stereotypes!

So, my bestie has this awesome blog called GenwithaG.com. Check it out, if you haven't. It rocks. Today, she wrote a blog post that touched me greatly. It may not be obvious to everyone else, but to me, the post reads like a gesture of love to little ole me from one of the most amazing women I know. So I thought I'd share it with you (just click here), because today I'm feeling especially grateful for all the wonderful friends I have in my life, and they don't get any better than Genevieve. I feel so proud and lucky to be her friend, and I want everyone to know it.

Summer Days

 Sam & Sophie

 Sophie & Sam

 Frolicking

Daddy time

Gen with a G and Me

Hey all! I just wrote a guest post for my friend Gen's blog.

I've made previous appearances on Gen's site. (Click here to read our riveting conversation about typecasting and vagina totes.) But this is the first time I've actually written a post. Check it out! And while you're there, take a few minutes to read through her archive. I think you'll like what you see. The writing is funny and honest...and she posts way more often than me. :)

 

Me and Gen, doing our best to minimize our double chins for the photo. 

Success rate?

Gen: 8.5 

Me: 1.2

Black Eyed Peas...and a Superhero

The girls and I watched the Super Bowl tonight with our friends Genevieve, Craig, Sam & Henry. (Poor Chris stayed home to sleep away a nasty cold.) Gen cooked an enormous spread of delicious food, and we proceeded to critique certain players' hairstyles and each team's unfortunate choice of yellow pants while Craig silently wished for one of us to acquire an immediate and significant amount of testosterone. Here's a video of the kids jamming to the Black Eyed Peas' halftime show, proving that even superheroes get their groove on once in awhile.

 

MY Jersey is better than YOUR Jersey

My friend Gen writes a wonderful blog. Seriously, you should check it out. In fact, she recently dedicated an entire post to yours truly because she loves me THAT much. (And...well, okay...maybe because I also semi-browbeat her into it. But anyway, click here if you want to find out exactly how adept I am at wasting time with friends on email.) In Gen's latest blog post, she has thrown down an internet drag queen challenge. Now, anyone who knows me should be well aware that I take challenges very, very seriously. Particularly challenges in which someone is claiming they can look more awful than me. So, of course, I accepted her dare. Here is my drag queen entry, and for the record, I think it is HAWT:

Oh, yeah. Snooki, watch out. If you think you can do better, click here and go to town. But be warned: I. WILL. WIN.

Geneva, OH

Ah, vacation. We have been blessed twice this month, and it has been glorious.

Just returned from Geneva, Ohio, where we spent a fantastic week with the Dippel family. The town is almost exactly halfway between Chicago and New York, near the Pennsylvania border. This is our third year meeting up for a week of fun, and we all agreed that this house and location were definitely our favorite. The house was all one level, so no steep stairs for the kids (or slightly inebriated parents) to navigate. The layout was very open, complete with four big bedrooms, a nice kitchen, comfy living room, and a large square table perfect for gaming. But the best part was the backyard, which had tons of running space for the kids, a covered picnic area, large grill, fire pit with lounge chairs, and gorgeous trees (even a little peach tree) made for climbing. To us city dwellers, the yard was a slice of heaven.

The towns of Geneva and Geneva-on-the-Lake were small but charming. We went to the beach at Lake Erie; took the kids to Adventure Town for a day of arcading, merry-go-rounding and go-karting; checked out some of the local shops, including a great ice cream place (caramel cashew! dark chocolate peanut butter!) and a candy store filled with obscure treats and treasures from our childhood (slo pokes! goo goo clusters! bb bats! charleston chews! clark bars!); and devoured a yummy meal at the Honeybee diner for the unbelievable cost of $45 for all eight of us. The Mathews family discovered the ipad (thank you Claire for sharing), Sophie and Maggie solidified their friendship, and Emma and Charlotte deepened theirs. Mostly, we relaxed during the day and played games late into the night. We tackled Agricola, 1960: The Making of a President (my favorite), Puerto Rico, Age of Steam, Battle Line, No Thanks, some Hollywood game that was really fun but whose name is escaping me right now, and many hands of Tichu. Favorite memories include:

• Watching the kids just be together - from tree acrobatics to picking peaches to water gunning to watching "The Brady Bunch" (which Em kept calling "The Bratty Bunch" by mistake) to snuggling in the same bed with the Nintendo DS to running around the house playing hide n seek and monster and anything else that popped into their heads. My absolute favorite memory is of listening to the oldest three snoring quietly together after finally giving in to sleep. Very few disagreements + lots of giggling = total lovefest.
  
• Claire running madly around the carousel, trying desperately to keep up with the girls and looking absolutely adorable.
  
• PIE! Apple crisp, very berry, peach, apple cinnamon. All homemade, and all divine.
• Listening to Chris D. read the Powerpuff Girls comic book as a bedtime story and sing the theme songs to "Eight Is Enough," "Family Ties" and "Alice" as lullabies.
  
• Claire and I doing our we-just-won-Tichu! happy dance while the boys glowered.
• Watching Chris D. proudly play with his pieces.
• Claire judging a beauty contest for the girls' My Little Ponies.
  
• The boys going out for supplies and returning with fake mustaches on.
• Claire's odd, frequent and hilarious use of the word "awkward." (ie, "My [insert body part here] just fell off." "Oh. That's awkward.")
• Sharing stories and advice about the joys and challenges of raising feisty, bright, emotional, independent, complex, radiant girls.
  

Chris and I gained at least five pounds (oh, who am I kidding? it's probably closer to 10) and are totally sleep-deprived, but we had a hell of a time. As always, it was so hard to say goodbye. We managed to hold our emotions in check, but I was pushed over my edge upon returning home after seven torturous hours on the road and hearing Sophie utter simply, "I need Claire." I promptly went upstairs, shut myself in the bathroom and had a good little cry.

Chris, Claire, Charlotte and Maggie: dear friends, we will miss you more than you can know.

And now...back to the real world. But first, some pics.

Please Don't Stop The Music

Our friend Henry came to stay with us today, and he and Sophie got their groove on...

Happy Birthday, Emma

My baby is 6 years old today. Can't believe it. Can NOT believe it.

We had a party at Go Bananas Friday night. For those not familiar, Go Bananas is basically like Chuck E. Cheese, except they also have rides...bumper cars, a huge train, and even a roller coaster! The kids had a blast. Plus, the place provides everything for you - food, drink, entertainment, cake, pinata, goody bags - so the planning and implementation is totally stress-free. Considering I still have traumatic flashbacks to last year when we crammed 70 people into our apartment at the last minute because of rain, no stress was just what the doctor ordered. Emma had about 12 friends there, which was the perfect amount because the only real challenge of the evening was keeping track of them all. Except for one split lip (Callie), one temporarily lost child (Olivia). and one panic attack (ME...because we'd lost Olivia!), the night went off without a hitch.

Emma, Callie & Olivia ready to GO!

Olivia and Emma gearing up for their first roller coaster ride...first of about 25.

Blowing out the candles in her princess seat.

This is the face of a very happy girl.

Today, Sophie and I brought cupcakes into school for Em's class and her whole class sang her Happy Birthday (see video below). Very sweet. Of course, Emma sobbed as I left because she didn't want me to go, and Sophie sobbed as we left because she didn't want to leave Emma, but I've come to realize that no undertaking can be dubbed a true success unless someone ends up in tears. So...mission accomplished!

Center of attention as her class sings to her.

With two friends from her class, En Joli and Genelle.

Happy Birthday song on video.

Tonight, I will tuck Emma into bed and tell her the story of her birth. I also plan to write the story out on this blog later, so I have it recorded before my memory completely goes. Six years...wow. Still can't believe it.

Memorial Weekend

We had a truly lovely Memorial Day weekend, most of which was spent with our dear friends Craig, Gen, Sam and Henry. Saturday night the four adults enjoyed a night out. Imagine! No kids! We ate yummy Italian food, saw a hilarious improv show and talked about our children as little as possible. :) Sunday morning, Gen and I got matching purple toes while dissecting the movie She's Just Not That Into You. And Sunday afternoon, we grilled out at a nearby park. Here are a few pics from our city picnic!

Craig and Chris, a.k.a. the Grill Masters

Gen and I show off our matching toes.

We asked the kids to give us their nicest smiles. This is what we got.

However, the most exciting part of the weekend was the Soldier Field 10 Mile. I'd been training for the race since February, and early Saturday morning, I went for it. 10 miles, baby! And I did it! I was slow as molassas, but I finished. The race was intense, and probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. I even ended up jogging closer to 11 miles than 10 because I ran right past the entrance to the finish line and had to double back! (After 2.5 hours on my feet in the hot sun, I was pretty dazed. I'm surprised I still realized I was in Chicago.) As hard as the run was though, there were some definite moments of joy. The path along Lake Shore Drive and Lake Michigan was truly beautiful. At one point during mile 7, I distinctly remember looking up at the skyline and being blown away at the breathtaking beauty of our city. (I think that was the only time in the race that my mind was focused on something other than how much my body hurt.) The coolest part, of course, was finishing on the actual 50 yard line of the football field and hearing all the people I love screaming for me from the stands. As exhausted as I was, I couldn't keep the smile off my face. I am so grateful to have a body that works, and to have so many people in my life who love and support me. Crossing that finish line, I felt so alive! What a great kickoff to summer.

I am somewhere among these 10,000 racers, chomping at the bit to begin!

And...we're off!

10+ miles and 2+ hours later, here I come toward the finish line!

The end is in sight!
(And no, it didn't take me 3:02:20 to finish the race...I'm not THAT slow. We started in waves and I was at the very back of the pack, so I didn't start running until long after the race had begun.)

This is the face of one very proud - and very tired - woman!

My cheerleaders. Whenever quitting entered my head, the thought of all these beautiful people waiting at the finish line kept me going. Thanks guys, I love you all so much!

Photos

A few photos from the last couple of weeks...

If one girl gets a snuggle from Grandma...

...then of course, so must the other.

No words for this one, really. It leaves me kinda speechless.

Goofing off in our bed.

Meg's daughter Izzy came to play today. Seriously, how cute is this child?