Monthly Archives: November 2022

It was Thanksgiving week and we have a lot to be thankful for! The boys skipped school on Tuesday and we jumped in the car and headed to Galena, Illinois. We decided to break our drive to St. Louis in half, and Galena had a pool with a good waterslide. Last year, when Christine and I went to Dubuque for Abby’s baby shower, we also went to Galena, which has the best bakery in the whole world and a whole street of cute shops. I was very excited to return to such a cute town! We got to the hotel in the afternoon and immediately headed for the pool. We swam until dinner and then again until bedtime. On Wednesday, Nate and the boys went swimming all morning, and I went to the bakery and did a little bit of Christmas shopping.

We got back in the car and headed to Kara and Jud’s house in St. Louis, arriving just before dinnertime. The boys were SO excited to be able to play with their little cousin. We spent time crafting, playing, eating, drinking and enjoying being together. Grandma Renee had several fun crafts for the boys.

Thursday was Thanksgiving and Kara had the most gorgeous table, amazing food, and it was a great day! KT got to experience a traditional American Thanksgiving meal. Afterwards, we played the “dice game” and everyone got to open a gift. The boys were absolutely thrilled!

On Friday we went to the Transportation Museum and walked through old trains, saw model trains, and many other transportation related fun. Afterwards, we took some pictures in front of the Arch.

In the afternoon, we opened early Christmas presents which was a very fun kickoff to the holiday season! Everyone welcomed KT into the family and I think he was a little overwhelmed to be included. Based on some of his stories and things he’s said, I am getting the sense that his life in Japan is a bit more formal than our lives here. He asked me when the boys will stop getting Christmas presents (for him, it was 8). So he seemed genuinely touched to receive gifts and be part of everything. I really appreciated everyone including him and I am glad he was able to be with us for our trip.

Our trip was so great, but for me, my mom was the MVP of Thanksgiving. Not only did she stay at our house and watch the dogs, she also cleaned my house, even scrubbing the inside of my refrigerator. I was so grateful to be able to take a fun trip and not worry about the puppies, and also come home to a clean house!

The trip was much too short and drove home on Saturday. Xander was very sad that we don’t live closer to Baby Nell and complained for the first hour of the drive home. We powered through the entire 8.5 hours and even though it was a long day in the car, it wasn’t bad. The boys napped, watched movies and were mostly patient. Sunday has been a day of playing with Sam and Abby, a day for video games (KT is very patient with the boys and they all played together for over an hour this afternoon), a day for grocery shopping, laundry and snuggling puppies.

After a fun week, we’re back to regularly scheduled programming!

November arrived and brought with it THE SICK. Oddly enough, Nate was the first to go. He gets sick the least of all of us, so it was odd when he started coughing. Xander was next, followed by Augustus. I resisted for a full week, feeling superior while I downed multivitamins and echinacea, until yesterday, when I finally succumbed.

On Thursday of last week, school called at 11 to say that Xander was in the nurse’s office with a 102 degree fever. Yikes. Nate picked him up and he spent the day resting and then stayed home on Friday as well. He had a cough and a little bit of a runny nose, but didn’t have covid, the flu, strep or any of the big ones, but he was definitely miserable. We jumped into sprite, chicken noodle soup, snuggles, relaxing, reading, and baths.

On Saturday, Augustus and I headed to a very fun birthday party at Zero Gravity trampoline park. There was climbing and jumping and so many fun things to do. Augustus had a great time for about 45 minutes and then my incredibly social, incredibly active child snuggled onto my lap, complaining that his arms and legs hurt. UGH. We said “happy birthday”, collected a fun treat bag and headed home, missing both pizza and cupcakes. More naps, sprite, chicken soup, baths, snuggling, reading, relaxing…

KT spent last Saturday at his second debate tournament. Debate class has proven to be a challenge for KT. Part of the class is taking part in 2 debates. He was very nervous and not excited at all. But when I picked him up, he proudly held up his third place medal! I screamed with excitement! Japanese people tend to be pretty reserved and he’s not quite sure how to handle my enthusiasm. But it was only his second debate and he did so well!! I was even more excited when he said, “I wish you had been there at the award ceremony- no one was even taking pictures. You can take one when we get home!” This is a kid who does not get excited about about anything and doesn’t like having his photo taken- apparently it has only taken me 2 months to bring him over to my side! I was really proud of him and happy for him and he was in a really good mood.

The boys were under the weather, but I’ve been feeling good and have been so busy. It is end of the year giving time and for a professional fundraiser, it means I’ve been HUSTLING! Lots of calls, emails, work work work! And in every spare moment, I’ve been baking like it’s my job. Thanksgiving is a very popular holiday for me. By the time Thanksgiving comes, I will have baked, packed and sold 45 DOZEN macarons. That is a lot of cookies. I have a tiny St. Paul kitchen. I have a full time job, a husband, 2 dogs, 3 children… it’s a lot of cookies in my “spare” time.

On Tuesday, I celebrated one year at the YMCA. I emailed my boss to congratulate him on having such an awesome employee for a whole year. Then I shared this photo on social media because one of the first things I learned in my new work from home role was how to muffle background noise when I’m online. It was my third day when my boss said, “I’m hearing something like snoring really loudly in the background, do you know what that could be?” and I had to turn my computer and show him my co-workers. I’ve learned a bunch of other stuff since then as well. This year has been awesome. I LOVED my last job. I was really nervous I would never be happy at work again. But this new job is fantastic. I really enjoy the work I’m doing. I have an awesome boss and team. I love working from home with these monsters at my feet. I am so grateful to be in this role and happier than I ever could have imagined. I’m very very lucky!

Friday was Xander’s first fencing class after school. He’s been very excited for it and I was happy Nate got there early and could take some photos of him in action!

The weekend is here and the boys are feeling almost back to normal and finally, after almost 2 weeks of being healthy despite 2 sick boys and a sick husband, I have finally fallen… I thought I was going to avoid it. But no. I am coughing and sneezing and miserable. Saturday, the boys headed to Grandma Debbie’s house for a sleepover. I spent the entire day either napping or just sitting on the couch being miserable. Nate took good care of me bringing me ice cream and tea.

Sunday has been a day of rest. The boys were busy with Grandma this morning, but the rest of the day has been for snuggles and relaxing. We’re hitting the road for Thanksgiving and we all need to be healthy for our trip next week!

I hate when I don’t update for 2 weeks- there are so many photos to share this post. Like always, we have been BUSY.

Gussie was at Grandma Debbie’s house last Monday and when they were at the park, his tooth fell out! This is his second lost tooth and he was excited for the tooth fairy to come. She brought him a gold dollar coin and a tiny glass pig.

We had a pretty normal week- cookie orders for me, Nate went to a Timberwolves game, Augustus had his last swim lesson of the session (and swam all the way across the pool without stopping!), Xander has been obsessed with reading. The weather was pretty nice so we spent a lot of time after school playing outside with our friends.

Friday of last week was the Halloween party and costume parade at school. Xander was a scientist and Augustus was a character from the video game “Among Us”.

The PTA set up a very fun party in the gym. There were crafts, games, bingo, and a huge obstacle course that they got to play on. Each class got to come in for a half hour and it was fun to watch them play. Augustus spent the entire time on the obstacle course jumping off the giant mats over and over. At the end of the day, the whole lower school got to parade through school showing off their costumes. It was a fun kick off to several days of Halloween celebrating.

Saturday was day 2 of Halloween fun. We signed up to trick or treat at the businesses in Highland Park. The weather was warm and breezy and gorgeous. The kids had a blast. They collected a ton of candy and goodies. One of the candy locations was half price books, and we ended up stopping for some quick shopping. This ended up being a good move because when we decided to sit down to lunch for 12 and put all the kids on one end of the table, they quietly read and entertained each other for a good amount of time. Lunch out with 12 is literally my worst nightmare, but it actually went so smoothly, was fun and we spent the whole time laughing hysterically.

When we got home, it was a short rest and then down the block to our neighbor’s house for their annual Halloween party. Heather plans an amazing party with a costume contest, games, a seasonal cocktail, and so much fun. We started with a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood. Last year, Xander and I won, but this year, he wanted to be with Sam and Augustus, so I joined with Kelly and we tried to beat the children. Heather had a list of things around the neighborhood and we had to run and find each one and take a photo with it (for example- an animal skeleton, an orange flamingo, a pumpkin painted like cookie monster, etc). Kelly and I could NOT find that stupid cookie monster pumpkin and we ended up losing to our children!

The next game involved paper, rock scissors, jumping in circles, and running back and forth. While that game was going on, a group of adults was busy hiding candy all over the backyard. The kids got to run around and collect candy (like an easter egg hunt).

Xander came in first in the costume contest for kids. There were snacks, delicious seasonal cocktails, chatting, relaxing, and the weather was perfect.

Nate put the kids to bed at 8pm and I continued to drink seasonal cocktails. The sun went down and we switch to a campfire, which eventually progressed to tequila shots, which led to flip cup, and finally a 1am bedtime. I like to be in bed by 9pm and I rarely drink more than one drink at a time, but I didn’t feel as bad as I expected on Sunday. And when I think about Saturday, it was, start to finish, the most fun day I’ve had in a long time. It was the kinda day that when someone asks you how you would spend your last day on earth, I would describe THAT day. Friends, laughter, gorgeous weather, good food, fun… perfection.

Sunday was day 3 of Halloween fun. I was less productive than I’d planned to be, and the boys were moving slowly too. We spent most of the morning just hanging out. We’d been invited to a party by one of the friends we met at Family Camp. We’ve had a few play dates since the summer but we don’t know them super well and during our slow moving morning, we weren’t quite sure we would end up going. But we decided to at least go for a little while.

We got there and there were good snacks and lots of kids running around. Pretty soon, it was time for the pinata… ok, this party was getting more interesting… and then the host said, “we’re going on a quest! Everyone is required to participate.” You’ve got my attention.

She broke us into teams with kids and adults. We had to knock on the front door and the side door and ask for a secret pass. I had NO idea what was going on, but I was intrigued! I am usually the person who plans the fun- not the one who participates and I was so amused!

We ended up going into the house through the back door and down the basement steps. The lights were off and there were sheets hung up obscuring the view. There were twinkle lights to guide the way and spooky music. I was LOVING it. We wound our way through the basement, through a tunnel of sheets, until we go to the entrance, where we entered into the main part of the basement where a magician was waiting for us! A professional magician! And instead of saying, “hey, go to the basement for the magician”, she made it into an adventure! I loved every second!

It also turns out, I love magic! My children were super into it and I was trying to figure out how the tricks worked and I couldn’t, so I just gave up and agreed that he was doing real magic. It was amazing! I was not expecting that level of halloween party!

On Monday, the boys had the day off school and we were onto day 4 of Halloween fun, with actual Halloween. We had a low key day of playing, some crafting, carving pumpkins with Sam and Abby and then pizza skull dinner with the whole neighborhood. Last year was the first annual pizza skull dinner and it was back by popular demand! I made 54 pizza skulls and everyone in the neighborhood joined in the fun. Dinner went pretty fast as trick or treaters started showing up, so we hurried up and got costumes on and headed out. I tried to take some photos, but none of them captured the spectacle that is the block over, known as halloween street. Xander said, “this is like going to the state fair!” It was incredible and so fun. We didn’t even knock on any doors- everyone was just out in front of their houses and we walked by, collecting SO MUCH CANDY! Grandma Debbie and KT held it down at our house, handing out candy. KT was a funny teenager- too cool for halloween, but my mom made him help hand out candy. Then she told him he could go inside, but he stayed outside with her until they ran out of candy.

After 4 days of fun, I expected Tuesday to be a disaster, but the kids were in good moods. Kelly was taking family photos of Blake, Steph and Ashton, and all of the children joined in to help make the toddler smile. They also posed for a few test shots so she could get the lighting right. Wednesday afternoon is when the Halloween hangover finally hit and there were nonstop meltdowns and early bedtime for the kiddos. Nate and I did not have an early bedtime as our neighborhood happy hour was taking advantage of the amazing weather.

Thursday was KT’s jazz band concert. He plays the piano and is amazing. It was very fun to see the band perform and he was so good! The concert was 7:30-9, so the boys missed out, but I think they would have really enjoyed it, so hopefully the bands plays again at an earlier time.

Friday was also a day off school and so the boys went to my mom’s house. She took them swimming at the Shoreview Community Center and to the indoor play place. There was also a trip to McDonald’s, so basically a perfect day for 2 little boys.

On Saturday, Augustus and I started the day at Pinz Bowling alley for a birthday party. There was bowling, pizza, donuts, arcade games, running around with buddies and a goodie bag when we left- is there anything better?! While we were gone, Nat4e and Xander went to half price books to buy more Dog Man books. Xander has been obsessed with reading and when he found out Gussie was going to a party, he decided Nate should take him to buy books. This kid always has a plan!

The boys spent the rest of the day playing with Sam and Abby.

Today has been another busy day. We all went to our friends’ house to watch the Vikings game. The grown ups watched and ate snacks, the kids ate snacks and played. When the game ended, I met up with a few other host moms for coffee and chatting. Being a mom of any sort (mom of babies, mom of toddlers, mom of kids, host mom) is hard and I function best with a community around me. I was super happy to connect with other host moms to share our experiences 2 months into the school year. It was interesting to compare notes and I was surprised at how many similarities we shared. It made me feel validated and reassured.

November is here and we’ve got a full week ahead.