A Christmas to remember

So here are the boys going head to head.

Here are the kids on Christmas Eve. We're so happy we were able to see the cousins before the blizzard descended.

So happy and carefree before...

Freezing rain, snow, power outage.  Good times.

Thankfully, Santa still found his way and remembered to bring the poop dog game.

School Christmas program and party

A very special guest came to school this year.

This year's gingerbread house

The biggest difference from last year:  less candy in the mouth and more on the house.  There was a lot of pride in the decorating this year.

Learning about Hanukah

Evan helped Erik light a candle on the menorah and showed off their team colors.

Cookie time

Making cookies while singing Christmas songs, now that's the way to get into the spirit!

Not your mom's Atari

We saw Josh playing some of these games before to the point of getting all sweaty.  Well, his cousin is no different.  He didn't even know he was being taped.  The top one is boxing and the bottom one is sword fighting duel.

The look of total concentration

It's just too cute to keep to ourselves, we must share.

Halloween festivities

 Another year, another trip to the pumpkin farm.  We had a nice day so we, and half of Chicago area residents, went on the same day.  See the stationary line of cars behind us just waiting to get in.

 Costume #1:  the Red Ranger

 Costume #2: Army man.  It should be noted that no one told Evan to pose, just that we wanted some pictures.

 Here is Evan's pre K class.

Here is this year's haul.

When we first heard this song, we thought it was "looking for Jack-u-wah"

Here's the situation:  father and son are doing fall chores which include blowing leaves off the deck.  The son thinks the blower is too loud so mom puts earmuffs on him.  The blower is heavy for the young man but he's determined to help.  The concentration is written all over his face, just watch the tongue working.  Job well done.

A rough weekend

Here's our little dude in perfectly good health but the previous weekend was a rough one.  Evan told us he had some "itchies" at dinner on Friday evening and he had a few bumps that looked like mosquito bites on his chest.  We gave him a dose of benadryl and put calamine lotion on and went to bed.  Well, by midnight he was unable to sleep, thrashing around and the "itchies" had spread to his entire chest, up onto his neck and down on his thighs.  We spent the next 2 hours at the new hospital's ER.  By the time we woke up Saturday morning the symptoms were 90% gone so we thought we were in the clear.  It was not to be because by 3pm, the redness and hives had appeared on the back, the face, more of the legs.  Things changed so quickly that one area would clear up and new hives would pop up.  By Sunday night he was scratching his hands, scalp, and feet (making it painful for him to walk).  Talking about the "itchies" being gone by Monday for school, Evan said "I don't want the other kids to see my red".  Oh, my poor little boy.

4 year old class

Evan was very excited about starting in the 4 year old class.  He will be having lunch there 2 out of 3 days per week so of course, we had to get a Lightning McQueen lunch bag.  Most of the same kids are in his class as were in his 3 year old class last year so he felt right at home.  He should learn some Spanish this year so maybe he can teach his mommy and daddy!

Lots of warm weather fun

"Driving" a car is what boys' like, right?  So here they are driving and bumping at the county fair.

We were lucky enough to do a last minute trip to the Dells.  Here is Evan in the safari themed lobby.

What's wrong with the above picture?

Evan's new favorite thing to do in pictures.  This one is actually not bad, ususally there is head tilting, tongue showing, eye scrunching.

Evan could have stayed at the water park all day, he has to be reminded to eat and go potty.  These slides were just his size.  There were huge slides that require an inflated raft that the whole family went on together. Couldn't exactly get a picture of that.

Fun with the cousins

Here are the cousins getting reacquainted, actually it took all of a few seconds.

These Bey Blades were something Evan first saw at Josh's house so it's appropriate that they do this together.

Museum fun for all.

Grandma and Grandpa are here!

Evan was so excited to see Grandma and Grandapa.  Here we are at the IL Railway Museum.  We weren't sure what to expect but there were many real functioning engines to see inside and out.  Above, Evan is not a fan of the loud engine sounds.

Our ride in a caboose.

Here's Evan showing Grandpa how to play Playstation.  Notice how he has to sit in the same chair, there is a loveseat, couch and another chair, all empty.

Off to the races.  Look who got the best seat in the house?  Evan was surprisingly interested in cheering on his horse and when his horse won, it was like he won the lottery even though Daddy only won a few bucks.

Here he is checking out his winning horse.

MN visit

Evan really liked visiting his auntie Suzie and "that man".  It's so hard to keep everyone's names straight.  Evan wanted to do everything Reid and Suzie did from cooking, pulling weeds from the garden, letting the dog out.  We also got to visit Suzie at work.

Independence day 2012

 Getting into the spirit of the holiday.

 Here we are at the parade with our friends, ready to collect candy.  Note Daddy and Evan's matching hats.

Evanisms

Evan has 2 classmates who are twins, when we asked him if he knew what twins are he answered "Its's when they sometimes where the same clothes and sometimes they don't".

According to him we recently ate an "articho" dip with our crackers.

In the last few weeks, Evan had picked up a small metal gadget and a broken zip tie from the sidewalk and each individual thing is his "collection".

The thing you knock down from the tree to get the candy inside is a "pin-yasta".

When we dim his bedroom light for night nights, we almost always count to "firteen" and when he wants a drink, he's "firsty".

Lately, we've been Mama and Dada for some reason.

Apparently we're in the question phase.  Sometimes reading a book involves very little reading but Mommy or Daddy answering a lot of inquiries about  the pictures.  A recent screening of Ghostbusters (still funny after all this time) included questions about what the ghosts do to people, why the boy and girl turned into dogs, why did the girl float up over her bed, why are the ghostbusters driving an ambulance...

Summer storm

We had a daytime storm that only lasted about 45 minutes but Evan got to see and feel hail for the first time. We lost power for about 12 hours which gave us time to have fun with the flashlight.  We couldn't tell Evan when the "wreck-tricery" would come back on.

Just for fun

We're not sure exactly what he's saying but it serves it's purpose.

Evan's new talent.

Carrie's boys.

Party fun

This was the birthday party of Olivia, a friend from school.  The top pic is the big kids lining up for the sack race.  The pinata was not Evan's first but the first one that Mommy had the camera ready.  The footage was cut off early because you can only see the beginning of the candy pounce.

St James Farm Family Day

A local forest preserve that was formerly a functioning dairy farm had their annual Family Day.  We got to see several horse riding and dog demonstrations.  A favorite part of the day was the hands on archery activity.  Mommy didn't get any pics because Evan needed just a little help with that.  The top pic is Evan's first real life fish catch.  Good thing there were volunteers because Mommy really didn't know what to do.

Big boy bike

This was his first day on the new bike.  He's still getting used to having to make wide turns, the training wheels catching on things, how to brake, etc.

Open house

The preschool open house was more like a school singing program.  Enjoy.

Yet another egg hunt

Happy Easter 2012

Jackpot!

Underwater egg hunt

The pool that Evan took swimming lessons hosts special events and this one is called underwater egg hunt. We did it last year and had fun so we did it again this year.

Easter parade at school

4th Birthday Boy

Thank you to cousins Josh and Kinsey for the Lightning McQueen racetrack above and to Grandma and Grandpa for the very nice clothes. We wish you were here!

Our official year 4 stats are 41.5" (75th percentile) and 36 lbs (50th percentile) which keeps in right in line from where he was a year ago. This is also no surprise because his pants often need to be cinched in, they are never too tight.

4th birthday party

Cousin Erik was a big hit, especially with the boys. Here they are taking a breather from all the running and jumping.

Evan had a small but great group of kids at his party.

Running around for 3 straight hours will tire a boy out.



Thank you to cousin Erik for the really cool new Hot Wheels racetrack.