Fun with family, friends, and neighbors

There's been a little delay between installments of my moving update because, unfortunately, it seems my camera may be broken. I was unable to retrieve photos from it until I ordered a new USB adapter. My dad currently has the camera and I'm hoping he'll be able to figure something out, but, as silly as it is to feel this way about an inanimate object, I kind of feel like a part of me has died!

In any case, the adapter arrived, so I thankfully have my pictures. And so begins Part 3: Fun with family, friends, and neighbors.

Drew's birthday snuck up on me only 4 days after moving in. He kept telling me he wanted to play with his friend Ben (from home in Georgia) for his birthday, so, knowing that wouldn't be possible, I wanted to make the day fun and distracting. So, even though I sort of swore off themed birthday parties after his 2nd birthday (until he was in school and really cared about it), I decided to make his birthday kind of fun by surprising him with a "Paw Patrol" party. Paw Patrol is a cute show he likes to watch about puppies that help "save the day" in various ways. (P.S. We did have a fun play date with Ben before we left to sort of celebrate Drew's birthday, but how quickly we forget).

Birthday present from Nonny and Poppy-
lots of work to put together!

As we settled in, we got a chance to meet a few of our neighbors. First we were surprised to find a sweet welcome gift on our doorstep from neighbors across the street.

After some of our last experiences with neighbors, it was definitely refreshing. (And please know, we actually had some awesome neighbors at home, too- they weren't all bad! But having flowers stolen definitely left a bad taste in our mouth).

Later that week we made our way over to say thank you, and Drew hit it off immediately with their 7-year-old son. Even more exciting is that they have another little boy who is only a month younger than James. Though they're not quite at the age where they can play together, I foresee many happy play dates in the future.

Drew playing with his new friend.
Photo taken from our inside our living room

During our chat, the neighbors informed us that the next morning, July 4th, there would be a neighborhood parade. We thought it might be a nice way to get to know the neighborhood, so we decided to join in the fun. We definitely enjoyed the walk around a few blocks while chatting with many other neighbors who have children Drew and James' age. My parents happened to be working at our house and snapped some photos of the parade going by...

Oh hai!

James in awe of the fire "f***"

Look how big the wheel is!

All the kids

July 4th was certainly a busy day because shortly after our parade we had our first "guests"! Friends of ours from Georgia moved to Michigan last winter, but ended up moving from there to Chicago the same weekend Jason and I arrived! Kevin and Chrissie (and their 1.5-year-old daughter) live only 30 minutes from us now, so we thought it would be nice to get together with some familiar faces. They came to check out the Naperville "RibFest" for lunch with us- an annual festival where contestants compete to serve the best ribs.

I didn't get any pics of the delicious ribs,
but here are cute kiddos waiting in line

They stayed through dinner and fireworks. We had plenty of fun in the backyard, enjoying Drew's birthday trampoline. Adults included! Fireworks weren't so much of a hit- James screamed until we hid inside, and their daughter fell asleep within the first few minutes, but being able to view them from our front yard made all of that so much easier!

Adult fun until the kids crashed our party

Though we're still working through unpacking (and missing our friends back home), having so much fun with family, friends, and neighbors has really helped us to feel at home quickly here.

Since it took me so long to get this part posted, I've built up another stash of photos to share. Next up will be our adventures exploring what Naperville has to offer.

A perfect Mother's Day

Given the way things have been going around here lately, I was surprised when, at the end of the day today, I thought to myself, "today has been a perfect day!" By perfect I don't necessarily mean there were no tears and both children did exactly what we asked/expected. That wouldn't be a perfect day, that would be more like something from the Twilight Zone. We still had tears, and time-outs, and cranky babies with runny noses, but overall today was the kind of day you envision when you start thinking about what you'd like your Mother's Day to be like.

My first "gift" was getting to sleep in. James woke up even earlier than normal this morning, and thanks to his new-found ability to take bottles easily (one day at our preschool was all it took!), Jason was able to get up with him and feed him while I continued to sleep.

Then we were off to church for the morning, with a quick stop at Panera for me to get one of my beloved Cinnamon Crunch bagels (I eat those things like they're dessert). I had nursery duty at church, but I only had Drew, James, and one other little sweetie, so it was nice and easy. Drew and the other little boy had a great time playing with trains together. :)

Lunch was my next "gift". On a particularly rough night this week I told Jason, on my 87th time of getting up to refill a glass of milk/rinse off a dropped spoon/grab a knife/grab the butter/ketchup/salad dressing I forgot from the fridge, that for Mother's Day all I wanted was to SIT STILL FOR AN ENTIRE MEAL! A few moments later I went on to add that I'd also like a meal with no whining or crying, and I'd like to be able to eat with BOTH hands. Jason's response: "you realize that means you'd have to eat alone, right?" So off to Burger King went Jason and the boys while I happily enjoyed a lunch at home while reading the Sunday comics!

I guess Burger King wore them out because the boys then surprised us both by taking excessively long naps. Drew has been fighting naps for the past few months, but he went down fairly easily, as did James. And usually James wakes earlier than I'd like, but not today! They both slept over TWO hours! I got to take a lovely nap myself. :)

Dinner wasn't as calm and peaceful as my lunch, but it was great to spend it with my boys and it sure was delicious! Grilled burgers using the meat from our freshly purchased quarter of a cow, fresh corn on the cob, and salad and peaches provided by our weekly box of organic goodies! I might have to admit that I ate 3 whole peaches! They were actually quite small, but oh my gosh they were fabulous!! James munched on some peaches too, though he wasn't as much a fan as I was. Actually, I guess that means I ate more like 3 and a half peaches as I finished off what James didn't eat.

To wrap it all up we headed to Bruster's for a treat I haven't been able to enjoy in a long time: ice cream! With the discovery that James is actually not allergic to dairy, but to eggs instead, I've been allowing myself to eat some dairy again. Would you believe that once I started eating dairy again, his rash came back?? So I've only been eating dairy in small amounts until we see the allergist and figure out what's going on, but today called for a special treat.

Drew's favorite is now Mint Chocolate Chip. Why?
Because his favorite color is green. :)

My gifts included my new garden in the backyard (yes, that's what I asked for. It was a bit pricey to get it all started. Pictures to come when things are actually growing well. I hope that means you'll get to see pictures this year!), and this beautiful bag Drew made for me at school. It's perfect for my return to work this week.

The only other thing that could have made today more perfect would have been spending it with my mom. But we did get to video chat via FaceTime! I hope all of my other mommy readers had a wonderful day as well!

Monday Minute: Holiday fun

It returns! For this week at least...

Here are some (longer than 1 minute) videos of holiday fun!

The first isn't really anything to do with Christmas, but it was with the rest of the videos, and it's cute. :)



Here Drew is actually singing for me! This NEVER happens! (Seriously. He will sing songs while he's playing, but anytime anyone asks him to sing a song, he won't.)



See? This is his school Christmas performance... he wouldn't even ring the bells! (He is in the front row, far right).



We got a little bell ringing here...



Last year Stacey bought Drew a book called "Twelve Elves". Each night for 12 days before Christmas you read about an elf, then the elf "magically" pops out of the book over night and hides. Each morning you search for the elf using the hints about what he/she likes to find him/her, then you put the elf under the tree. The more elves you have under the tree, the sooner Santa will come! Here he describes his elves a bit (between being silly, of course)



I was impressed how easily he memorized all their names!



Finally, Christmas morning. Stockings! Sort of boring, but I saved you from the even more boring actual gift opening. ;)



I love how he says "as well"! :) "I got a toothbrush as well."



And I tried to get a video of Rico actually being active and playing with his Christmas present. Instead Lucy took over! She is such a cat!



And here's James enjoying a toy from Grandma and Grandpa (from the UK!)



And just a few fun pictures from Christmas morning if you aren't able to see my Facebook albums. :)

Santa came!

My two boys on Christmas morning

I have a worried expression because...

Thanks Nonny and Poppy

Me and my boys

ALL my boys with their new Falcons hats

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I've been going kind of crazy taking tons of fun Christmas pictures of my boys, and little miss Alyson. Yes, most (though not all) were Pinterest inspired. What did we do without Pinterest? ;)

Enjoy!

How I wish I had remembered to turn on the flash

Mesmerizing lights

Thanksgiving

There won't be many words because my brain is too tired for that, but here are some pictures from Thanksgiving. We were so happy to have my dad and sister in town (and of course my mom, but she's been here since James was born)!

First, Drew had a Thanksgiving Luncheon at school.

These cuties greeted us like this as we walked in the door

It's hard to get 10+ 2-year-olds to stand still!

This is the best family portrait EVER!

That's a little better

All the kids LOVED Jason

Meeting Bad Awnt Laura!

This horse was handmade for me when I was little!

Bath time!

Grandma provides the best naps!

I have so very much to be thankful for this year... for our new bundle of joy, for my happy family, for those who love and care about me, for God who is the rock on which I stand, and for this amazing life He has blessed me with. Happy holidays!