Weeks of Birthday Partying and Other Happenings

The girl's 6th birthday was a little weird this year.  Camille got that flu bug that everyone got on her birthday.  So we cancelled the party.  Then the rest of us got sick.  Then there was Thanksgiving.  Then an awesome party!  But I didn't take any good pictures.  Behold:

 Camille got stickers!

 Paul was gone, so Camille took her turn talking on the phone with him while Grace blew up a balloon!

 I improved upon the internet recipe for darling acorns made of nutter butters and hershey's kisses.  That's right- now is my moment to shine!  Poll:  What looks more like an acorn to you?  Hershey's kiss, or Reese's bell?  I'm kind of torn.

 Our babysitter's windshield got smashed by a huge fallen branch as we were headed out for the night.  It sure has been windy here!

 What you can't see in the picture are 8 little girls having a lovely time at Camille and Grace's glow in the dark party.

Here they are, opening presents!

I was worried that the party wouldn't be very cool- Lots of people around here go all out on birthday parties. But, despite my pathetic favors from the dollar store (clip-on flashlights that promptly broke in everyone's hot little hands), everyone had a great time.  One girl said, "this is the best party ever!  A small party {wistfullly}." And my girls, when asked, said that their favorite part of the party was "everything".  When asked what part she didn't like, Grace said, "do you not understand what 'everything' means?  It means I liked all of it."  Ah, 6 year olds.

I was telling Paul last night that I really like this age.  He said, "Oh, I don't know- remember all of the fun things that they used to say and do?"  But I had to cut him off.  Because I remember all too well the fun things that they used to say and do, but like the old ladies in the grocery store keep telling me, they grow up too fast.  And I have to enjoy it while I have it.  Gee whiz, those old ladies are right!  And I'm turning into one of them- which is only fitting, I suppose, as I have two beautiful girls who are six.

A Little Too Smart for Her Own Good

The girls have been working on writing and spelling in their kindergarten class.  This evening they were doing a writing exercise with Sarah; she was giving them words and they were trying to spell and then write them.  Partway through the exercise Sarah told them to write the word "ship".

After a bit of back and forth, they decided to guess that "c-h" should be used to write the "sh" sound.

"No," said Sarah. "Can you think of any other words that start with a 'Sh' sound?  Maybe that will help you to figure out what letters go together to make the 'Sh' in 'ship'."

After a moment of reflection Camille said, "How about....chandelier?"

Sarah Supermom

For the past couple of days I (Paul) have been afflicted with a stomach flu bug that has been going around.  Tuesday afternoon was especially miserable.  However, one thing I have been reminded of as a result of the stomach flu is how super-duper my wife is.  All of the rest of the family got the stomach bug last week at the beginning of the week when I was away on a trip to Washington D.C.  Sarah had to take care of the sick kids all on her own while she was sick herself (At one point, from what I hear, she tried "delegating" a few tasks to Camille; Camille responded by building a nest on our living room sofa and falling asleep).  Honestly, I can't imagine how she possibly did it. 

So one thing I am thankful for on this holiday is an amazing wife who is a super-duper mother!

Newsies

My little economist has been quite busy the past few weeks and hasn't been able to create his first "Ask the Economist" post.  But, perhaps this article in today's LA Times will satiate the thirst of those waiting for Paul's views on economics as related to crime.  Nice work, Dr. Heaton.  I'm proud of you!

Disneyland: Or, Things May Not be as They Seem

We went last weekend to Disneyland for the girls' birthday.  Their birthday is actually next week, but this weekend worked for us, so we decided to go then, and we're happy that we did.  Although we missed out on some of the Christmas "magic", the lines were short, the weather was great, and the kids were happy all day until they asked to go home.  That's right, the kids wanted to leave Disneyland of their own accord.  It seems that we are not very good Disney goers.  I like Disneyland personally because of the memories that I have there of my childhood.  So, as an adult, I feel that I want to let my children have similar good memories.  I think that my kids had a good time, but I wonder if they feel the same way about it that I did as a child.  It's okay with me if they don't- honestly, I would rather have them love stuff that is "real" than an entertainment experience.  Does that sound Scroogey or what?

This day at Disneyland was a little funny.  We got there just as they were about to start filming the ABC Christmas Day parade.  That's right, when you think that you are watching the Disneyland Parade live on Christmas morning (because that's what you do with your Christmas morning, right?)  you're really watching something filmed over and over several times over a month before!  And later that night a huge "new years" party was staged in front of the castle with a band playing (One Republic) the same song with multiple takes and varying degrees of direction and audience support.  So, the New Year's Celebrations that you see on Dick Clark's rockin' new year's eve are filmed months in advance too.  In some ways I like that, I mean, then everyone gets to do what they really want to do during the holidays (be with their families, or watching other people celebrate on TV) but in other ways, it's kind of disappointing to realize that it's not real.  And that is the magic of Hollywood, I suppose.

 Paul and Camille on the Nemo ride.  During part of the ride that was slightly scary, Clark said, "Um, maybe we should get off?"  That Clark is our comic relief every time.

 Happy Grace

 Happy Camille

 Happy Clark

 On the Winnie the Pooh ride (we rode this three times because there was no line and it was not scary, especially after I made the girls ride on Splash Mountain right before.  They will probably never trust me again.)

 New Year's Eve Show

Complete with New Year's Eve fireworks.

We had a really great day, despite all of my nay-saying above, and were really excited to get to spend it with my parents- especially my dad- a Disney expert supreme.  Hoorah for Disneyland!

Happy Halloween!

 The 2 year-olds ended up being a kind of zoo!  Piratess is a type of animal, right?

 The wings

 Fun running into friends from the neighborhood,

 and church and school.

 Having 2 kids in the same class at least creates symmetry with the decor.

 The hill we climb up to and from school

 My little monkey- hopped up on goofballs.

I just love my girls.

Ask the Economist

We're starting a new series here on the Happy Family blog called "Ask the Economist".  Do you have a question about economic terminology?  Perhaps you took Econ 101 three times and failed- surely all of those terms are stuck somewhere in the back of your head- but what exactly do they mean?  Our in-house economist has the answers to all of your questions, and will explain them in layman's terms.  Leave a comment or shoot me an e-mail and we'll get our new series under way.

Jonathan

"Whenever friendship depends on some selfish end, when the end passes away, the friendship passes away. But when it does not depend on some selfish end, it will never pass away."

                                                            --Avot 5:16

Seattle

I totally never blogged about my trip to Seattle. It really was next on my list of things to do, especially after visiting Chicago, and then today I got a set of pictures in the mail that my friend Sarah (half of the amazing sister duo of Emily and Sarah) took. Kick in the pants to blog about this great trip.  I started getting to be friends with Emily when we were juniors in high school.  Correct me if I'm wrong, Emily, my old brain gets a little hazy when it goes back that far.  Sarah was her fun and precocious little sister.  And then there was my little sister (so so little!  ha ha, 20 months between us) Rachel who completed the deal.  I could go on and on about how much I love Emily and Sarah and their family.  They are great people and taught me a lot about how to be an adult functioning around normal people which helped me a lot.  If you think I'm a spaz now, you should have seen me before the C family got a hold of me.

Emily lives in Seattle, and for my Christmas present Paul got me a trip to Seattle complete with dinner out for the 3 of us.  Emily graciously provided excellent lodging and amazing tour guide skills.  Below is a collection of some of our exploits.

This is Sarah and Emily on the ferry.  They are smart and are staying inside.  I am out in the rain.  It rained almost the whole time I was there.  Was I surprised?  No.  Was I slightly annoyed?  Perhaps.  Did I suck it up and never use my umbrella so I would look like a local?  Occasionally.

Seattle is a gorgeous place.  Seriously, if you love lush greenery, trees, moss, and water all over the place, you will love Seattle.  It is refreshing.

This is the sea salt superstore near Emily's house.  We had to visit at my insistence.  It was a little crazy how many different types of salt they had.  You should go sometime.

Here is the restaurant that Paul got us a gift certificate for.  Tasty tapas not too far from the theatre that we went to downtown.

We had way way way too much food.  We finished most of this off.  Warning to anyone that ever eats with me- I can out eat you, and I will not be very shy about doing it.  I think that Sarah and Emily were shocked at how much food I ate that weekend.

Here is the theatre where we saw a musical about mental illness.  Thus proving that you really can make a musical about anything.  It was actually a really interesting show and the set was amazing.

 

Outdoor sculpture by the locks and I'd love to have in my backyard.

Here is part of the locks that were being serviced.  Perhaps if I had paid better attention to the video presentation I would be able to tell you now how the locks work.  But, it was quite the feat, as are all of the water works and city structure of Seattle, it seems.

A totem pole I'd also love to have in my backyard.

Obligatory shot of the Space Needle

Emily eating her famous ice cream while driving me by the troll sculpture under the bridge.  This is a piece that I do not need in my back yard, although I wish that my kids could climb on it.

A picture of me eating my famous ice cream just so Emily won't feel singled out.

Great view.

Emily.  Sarah.  Thank you so much for an amazing trip.  I was surprised a little by how much I loved Seattle- it felt like I could fit in there.  A good feeling.  I'll be back!

Little Mom

The girls love to watch Sarah, and fortunately they have a great example to learn from about how to be a good mother.  This evening, Camille decided that she was going to be in charge of getting Clark ready for bed all by herself.  She put on his diaper, put on his pajamas, helped him brush his teeth, and even flossed him up.

At this rate I am hoping that within a year or so we can have Camille trained to drive Clark to his play dates, cook his dinner, take him for immunizations, etc.  And then Sarah and I can blissfully retire.

I Went to Chicago and all I Got Were These Crummy Pictures!

So, my friend Cami organized a girl's weekend to Chicago and mentioned that I could come.  I mentioned to Paul about the mention.  But didn't expect to go.  You see, I have already gone to Seattle and Mississippi all alone this year while my dear Paul watched our kids, and I thought that was enough use of his vacation time for babysitting.  A few months later, though, Paul said, "so, when is your trip to Chicago?" as if it were a done deal.  So I made it a done deal and had an awesome time.

I ended up not hanging out with the group of girls so much (hard to cram all of the fun all in one weekend!) but I got to stay with one of my best Chicago pals, Sarah S. and her wonderful family.  And my friend Andrea who recently moved from here to Boston met me there.  We all had an amazing time.  I forgot to take pictures, but here are the few that I took.

When Paul and I were dating we would go to the Art Institute and hang out by these Chagall windows.  It is my favorite place.  It's in a new place at the museum, and was out of sight while they built a new wing there for the last few years that we lived in Chicago, so I was excited to go back and see them again.  Only thing that would have been better would have been to have my Paul with me!

I liked this painting because the goofy and curly Christ-child and young John the Baptist look like my goofy and curly Clark.

Andrea at the Point in Hyde Park with the Chicago skyline behind her.

Me in front of the townhouse where we lived with our darling baby twins.

Poor Andrea had to put up with my nostalgic talk the whole time... "this is where our kids first swung in the swings... this was our favorite Thai restaurant... this is where we kissed by the Chagall windows... this whole dang city is where we fell in love and got engaged and had our little babies and it was so cold and so great and so wonderful."  She was very patient with me.  A little too patient, perhaps.

And then I didn't take any pictures of Sarah and her family.  So I stole these off her blog.  Above is Asher, the smiliest chunk of love you will ever meet.  Below are Lauren and Autumn- a great sister pair.  Also, I maintain that Autumn is the missing triplet from my group of twins.  It was so so so nice hanging out with Sarah and her family.  I feel like they are an extension of my family- even though we are far apart and hardly ever talk with each other.  Isn't there some way that all of my favorite people can live in the same city or something?  Although if we did that, who would let me stay so graciously at their home?

I can't tell you how nice it was to have this trip.  Getting to see the old place, but realize that I've moved on and it has moved on was really nice for me.  And getting to see old friends and realizing that we can still be great friends even though we've moved on was also great.  To all my soul mates out there- I love you!  (Chicago, the city, you are included in this.)

My Cute Kids

Surreal but Nice

We were playing at the park with our group of friends and their kids and Julia Roberts came to the park and played with her friend and their kids. 

That is all.

So Bereft

Yesterday when Clark and Paul came home from dropping the girls at school Clark came and cuddled into my arms.  "I took Camille and Grace to school," he said sadly.  "Yeah?" I said.  "Say, 'poor thing'," said Clark as he snuggled closer.  "Poor thing," I said, and grinned as I held him tight.

'Twas the Night Before School Started

 I've always been inspired by the back to school feasts on the nie nie dialogues (check out her post from August 23, 2011 I can't make it link right for some reason).  So I copied her.  We had a nice dinner (breakfast for dinner) honoring the girls and talking about our family theme for the year.  Then Paul gave them a father's blessing.  What a blessing to have a blessing!

 The girls were so excited to see the table fancy and thie little crowns.

 Our family theme

Clark is afraid of the flash

As an aside, the girls and I completed our goal of getting through the hooked on phonics program by the end of summer.  Here they are holding their favorite books.  I'm happy to have them on their way to reading.  And I'm solid in my knowledge that I am no more patient a reading tutor now than I was during my first job at the tender age of 12.  The girls across the street that I tutored was so trying that I smashed a piece of watermelon in her face.  She got me back.  I guess I've gotten a tad more patient- no fruit was harmed in the process of teaching my darling girls.  I'm so proud of them.