Josh , light snow

Christmas with Columbus kin

The Columbus kin visited Rochester for Christmas. The Worthingtonites stayed with us; the Westervillagers stayed at their favorite of the local inns. The latter arrived Christmas eve, late. Here we are, hanging out in the family room Christmas afternoon.

Emily--Stern!

Josh--Stern!

Kevin and Sam sharing their favorite pastime, Smooty , on Unca Stu's ipad

Gift opening!

The visit included a trip to Rooney's on the night of the record-setting (well, 8.5") storm. Amy, elegant

Dad, in front of Rooney's portrait of their wait staff. Really! 

Mom, in front of the fireplace

Sue, same, with aplomb

Tim, almost certainly holding back some smart-alecky remark, and Susan, holding back the appropriate retort

The snowman Em and Sam built the day after

Stu, skyping with us on the drive home to Westerville

So delightful having family visit! Too short, as always.

A tree! A fence! Christmas!

This year's Austrian pine. Drinking and exuding piney goodness. 

Sam, asleep, next to the crocheted Christmas tree made by Susan's grandma Birdie.

Seven is apparently the age when one develops Christmas nostalgia. At almost every ornament we brought out Sam would say with affection, "I remember this one!" He and Josh had a great time. Sam enjoyed hanging ornaments, and Josh enjoyed sniffing around the perimeter looking for a way past the fence.

That sinking feeling

Josh is thrilled to play in the sink. As he should be. Susan's changed his clothes at least once today for that reason, and certainly not for the last time.

From Susan:

I've got a towel under the sink, by the way. Gave Josh a measuring cup to play with and he keeps drinking out of it very sloppily.

Once when I went in there, his little mouth was rimmed with soap!! Poor little guy had bitten the Dove. I tried to wipe it off and out of his mouth best I could. Didn't seem to bother him. 

Thanksgiving in Mitchell, South Dakota

Here, in no particular order, are some photos from last week's trip to South Dakota.

This was our first time playing in a new, nice play area in O'Hare. The boys loved it, and it certainly helped to pass the time.

Josh playing at the Mansons' family-room coffee table,

Okay, this is a holdover from Sam's birthday party

Sam at the play control tower in O'Hare

Sam volunteered that he does an impression of a deer. Here it is. Immobile, of course.

Sam on the plane with his new favorite stuffed animal, Stuffy, so called because until recently he has a hole through which you could see his stuffing. (He's actually Library Lion from the book of the same name.) He remains "Stuffy" although I sewed up the hole--adding a shiny penny to the stuffing first. Sam noticed him when his class had pajama day and everyone brought stuffed animals. Sam's never bonded with a stuffed animal, so it's interesting to see him do so now

Aunt Ruth has a cool new job at a local museum of local history. It's a great museum with a collection of historical building moved to the location (a school, a train station, and old house, etc.) as well as a great collection of art by South Dakota artists, particularly Harvey Dunn, a native American artist who produced some beautiful work. Here, though, Susan and Ruth and Gene are with Aunt Glenda and Uncle Alan and their daughter Liz, son Michael and grandson Bay, with Lewis and Clark in the background.

Katie and Josh playing a game where they push one another over

Josh, flying, courtesy of Katie. Behind are the steps he learned to slide down

Gene and Josh enjoying some breakfast

Katie making paper snowflakes with Sam

Sam in the (unheated) one-room school house moved to the museum grounds

According to Sam the best part of the trip was seeing Jon and Katie. He wondered why they were so unusual, and when we asked what he meant by that, he said kids their age don't usually like to play with kids his age. So true! They were both great. :-)  Good to see Jon's girlfriend Layne again too.

I don't have photos of it, but Aunt Ruth treated us all (sans J) to a performance of the Nutcracker by the Moscow Ballet. Very well done! And that after throwing Sam a supplemental birthday party in her museum, a party complete with cousins Lizz and Michael and Aunt Glenda and Uncle Alan. 

A great time thanks to the great hospitality of the Mansons! Really good to see Gene again too, who kindly treated us to breakfast, twice. Need to go back soon, and not just for the food. :-)

Josh says "Katie"

Last week in South Dakota, Katie taught Josh to say her name. She was very clever about it--distracting him with her phone (he's a phonaholic), getting him talking with a favorite word (E-I-E-I-OOOO) and then slipping it in. 

Thanks to Katie for posting the movie!

An unconventional way to descend a staircase

J. in Chicago

Susan's made it to Chicago! Two-hour flight which she says went well. Phew. Josh is in her lap. Above, Josh waiting in Chicago to board. United overbooked the flight and we were unable to confirm a seat last night, so were very grateful when the gate agents managed to move people around to make room for them!

Hoping Josh naps during the 1.5 hours to Sioux Falls...

Pre-birthday Birthday Party

Saturday we had Sam's birthday party. Last year, after having it at a party facility with 15 other kids, we decided to have it at our home and have only a few kids.

This year we managed one of those two goals; we had it at home. (No facility fees! An excuse to clean house top to bottom first!)  But despite much effort we ended up concluding that it was worth it to call upon ourselves a plague of seven-year-olds rather than exclude old-school friends, new-school-chums, Church friends or neighborhood friends. 

All went well. It was a simple schedule: (3:00) Win It In a Minute; (3:30) Storyteller; (4:00) cake & pizza.

WIIAM is three games in which each kid tries to do something tough in 60 seconds:

Stacking spice container using chopsticks

Stacking dice on a tongue depressor

Blowing white ping-pong balls--but not the red one--off a pizza sheet. (Josh is helping one of the contestants.)

The storyteller is the husband of a teacher at Sam's old Montessori. He works at a Barnes & Noble and does this on the side. He's a real natural and did a good job controlling such a large group of kids. 

He told two stories. At Sam's request, one was spooky, the other funny. He had the kids in stitches.

Susan baked two cakes, one vanilla, one chocolate. She put on them these little plastic figures called "Go-gos". They are collectables, popular with the elementary set.

Sam and his posse eating pizza.

Susan with cake #1 and the birthday boy.

The photographer was Aunt Amy, to whom a great deal of credit goes for not only helping us get the house ready, but doing crowd and toddler control during the event.  It's unlikely we could have pulled it off without her. Thank you, Amy!

Next year: a small party plus movie evening with two friends. Really!

Happy Hallowe'en!

Halowe'en!

Sam was a dinosaur, and Joshie wore a glow-in-the-dark skeleton sweatshirt. Cool night, but no wind or rain.

Dianka babysat Josh and handed out candy while Susan and Sam went out trick-or-treating. Quoth Dianka, "Watching Joshie the almost two year old put candy in his little bag ad the take it all out only to do it again. Lol very funny!"

skype captures

Skyping from Providence...

Josh is tickled. Shortly thereafter tries to grab the screen. Susan convinces him to wave instead

Sam is an old hand at this

Sam playing with his ears unselfconsciously. Have to have at least a few photos he'll be embarrassed by when he's older.

While Susan's putting Josh down Sam and I chat--which means Sam describes to be in detail all  his recent Pokemon trades

Skyping with Susan later, after (we thought) the boys were down: Susan models her reward for a harrowing 48 hours!

More to come...

Pre-Sandy

Sam and Josh on the fold-out bed in the family room (one floor safer in case the giant oak out back decides to donate some large branches) watching Shawn the Sheep as the storm bears down on Rochester

Notice that Rochester is unnervingly close to the center of the projected hurricane path as it tromps across the Northeast

And here's the view of downtown Providence from my hotel room where I sit, wishing I were home with the family!

Breaking news: Now forecast to go directly over Rochester on Hallowe'en. Fortunately by then it will have weakened to a Tropical Depression (aw) and will have much slower winds