Monday, January 30, 2012

Be our guest!

On Sunday we took Ava to see Beauty and the Beast in 3D. She loved it! She sat still through nearly the entire thing... amazing in itself! It's just a good movie, and very cool in the theater. 3D didn't make it any better or worse, just a good reason to go see it. As you can imagine, the boys weren't so all about it. So, luckily at the same time, Alvin and the Chipmunks Chipwrecked was playing. So, while the girls (and Dave) watched the princess, the boys watched the chipmunks. Perfect!

Our other favorite pasttime around here on the weekends? Dress up! Abby puts random outfits on Ava on a regular basis. She will certainly be our fashionista! And lucky for us we've gotten enough clothes from others (and Abby's old clothes) to keep her in style. This is all from one day...

Dress 1

Dress 2 

Dress 3

Dress 4

And 5

6...


And by 7 Max wanted in on the action. It looks like a junior high dance!

That's the fun and excitement around our house!

Sunday, January 29, 2012

I learn a lot from Facebook!

I admit it, I do not use Facebook much. Even when I used it "a lot," it consisted of me checking randomly for updates, commenting once in a blue moon, and changing my status perhaps once a year. And now? Checking randomly means I might read the top two statuses that come up on my phone when I get two minutes to myself not consumed by kids or work (which means never). But, one day not that long ago I did read a few posts, and realized what I was missing! For anyone who wants to see more of my kids' field trips, you'll have to friend our Nanny, Alina Ellis (she said it was ok!). But I'm also going to put more stuff of what they do here from now on. We'll see how that works!

They have definitely been having a fun winter, as evidenced by all the winter books they've been reading.


They ate pie with mittens on, like the Three Little Kittens


Max did NOT want to get his mittens soiled


But Ava didn't mind so much.


They washed their mittens...


And Ava too!


And played "You Lost Your Mitten" (kind of like "Go Fish")


They went to the Riveredge Nature Center, where not only did Max get his picture taken with a bat, he also found racoon tracks.


And Ava found Max tracks!


In the Nature Center's library, they read "Stranger in the Woods."


And made Scat Mix! Yum!


At that time, there was very little snow, so they made...

A Snowman on the porch!

Some Stranger in the Woods art...


Animal tracks in the snow dough...


And snowman food!


They had tea, of course...


and cookies!


 While dressed up as animals, they watched the birds at the birdfeeder at the nature center...


and then came home to make their very own birdfeeders. They froze that fruit into ice sculptures...


and made bagel feeders.


What a feast!


We didn't see a lot of birds come, but I think the kids still had fun.


When you feed the birds, they of course need bird houses, too!


After a week with the birds and animals, the kids made snow! (Although, I wish the snow was all pretend!)


Ava loved all the snow designs and was surprised each time.



Winter Wonderland!


Have you ever seen tortilla snowflakes? This was a first for me! Best tasting snowflakes ever!



Thank goodness for Alina. Max and Ava would NEVER get to play with shaving cream snow if it were left up to me!



And what good would snow be if you couldn't make ice cream snow??


LOVE this picture! At least someone has fun in the snow!



And that's what I learned on Facebook today! :)  How much fun do my kids have?? I wish I could join them!

Monday, January 23, 2012

Very proud

Dave had to travel on Thursday, so after I studied for a few hours in an office at work, I came home and Alina offered to spend the night so I could get more studying done. That was a God-send! Considering the kids didn't have school on Friday, I knew they'd want to stay up late, and I didn't think they'd be sympathetic to the fact that I needed to study. So, around 7, I started studying again, and finally around 1:45 AM I figured I might as well take the sample test. Two months ago, I took the pretest to figure out where I should spend most of my time studying. The short answer? Everywhere. Let's just say I did less than stellar on that. So, I was excited to take the post-test to see my progress. I finished around 2:15, waited for the calculations, and...

Failed. Miserably. Worse than I had done on the pre-test actually. At that point I could either stay up studying or get some sleep. I tried to sleep.

On Friday morning, I got up, made some cheat sheets to study in the car, got to the test site 10 minutes early and studied a little bit more before finally going in. They make you take off your watch, turn your pockets inside out and go through a metal detector. This place is serious! I waited for them to call me, and prayed to Jesus, Mary any saints I could think of and my grandma for good measure.

I started the test... 3.5 hours, 225 questions. I went through all of them, marking what I knew, marking for review what I wasn't sure of. There were a lot to review by the end. I went back through those, and then it asked me if I wanted to review everything. After about 2 questions, I realized I just couldn't reread each one, so elected instead to hit "END". But it took me at least a full minute before I could hit that button. Too nervous! When I finally hit it, a pop up comes up, "Are you sure you'd like to end this test? You will not be able to review any further questions." UGH! YES! They make me hit the button again.

Then it's "Please wait."...  "Please wait."... I nearly puked And then a pop up! Asking me if I'd like to take a survey. Ugh. Sure, why not. Were the testing facilities quiet? Yes. What study method did I use? SHRM Self-Learning (or at least I attempted to use it). Submit survey.

"Please wait."...  "Please wait."... Nearly puking again. And then a pop up! Saying "I Passed!" Me, now nearly crying and laughing out loud. I just sat there and read it over and over. I truly was shocked and thrilled. No way could I have faced taking that test again!

And so, that's it. Months of studying (kind of) and I now have my Senior Professional of Human Resources (SPHR) certification. Just don't ask me what it can do for me... I'm really not quite sure!

Saturday, January 21, 2012

More celebrities!

I've written a lot about Dave's parents' village for Christmas. They only put a portion of it up, and it takes up their entire front room. And now, they're famous in the Orland Park Prairie newspaper. And, by extension, since the paper mentions the grandkids, Abby is convinced she's famous too!



Monday, January 16, 2012

My celebrity

In one of their many, many field trips, Alina took Max and Ava to Riveredge Nature Center. I'd never heard of it, but it has lots of trails and other nature center-type things. The kids (and Alina!) had a great time, and Max even got his picture taken, and now published. Check him out here!

Coffee, Cola and Love

I have a test on Friday. I don't think I've had an actual test since college. Medical tests, yes. Life tests, of course. But not actual tests that I can study for and pass/fail. And pay nearly $500 to take. The test is for my HR Certification. Usually you would sign up for a study group and, well, study. I signed up late in the game and so no study groups were available. In my infinite wisdom, I purchased a self-study program. When I purchased it, I was worried because I only had two months to study. Then I proceeded to procrastinate on studying for 6 weeks and then cram this weekend.

I got a lot done, but not enough. Out of 6 modules, I've just cracked open #5. I took the entire weekend, living at the gym, the library, McDonald's, my mom and dad's, to try to absorb information. I'm doing ok at learning it all... not great by far.

But, the best part about it all is the support. Everyone at work has been supportive of me taking time to study. My mom and dad were more than happy to let me sleep in their bed and use their spare room for quiet. And Dave... on Friday I got a big bag called "Late Night Study Survival Kit." It had coffee and Diet Coke, warm socks and deodorant, bugles and fritos. And my favorite rum. I'll have to wait for Friday for that.

At any rate, wish me luck. One more week and I'm done with it... good bad or otherwise!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

Invention

Abby would like to invent a toilet that doesn't make any noise when you flush.

Huh. Never thought about that! I wonder if it exists??

Monday, January 2, 2012

It's Christmas!

Ok, it's not Christmas anymore, and, in fact, our Christmas stuff will likely come down today. But, it did snow last night, making it look more like Christmas this week than it did last week when it was actually Christmas, so, to celebrate, I'm posting Christmas pictures.

But, before I do, I just have to note what a strange day it is... kids have school today, but we don't have work. I don't remember a time that has ever happened before. Feels very odd!

Jake and Nolan in front of the village...
 Abby looking so grown up!
 I LOVE this outfit, and am sad she can't really wear it anymore after Christmas.
 All the kids!
 All the girls...
 What's Christmas without a visit from Captain America??
 Not positive what they were so intent on, but whatever it was, Ava certainly wanted in on the action!
 The boys were connected to DSs, iPods and iPads... I think Nolan will go through withdrawal this week!
 Grandpa even got out his accordian. Yikes!
 And Megan played us Christmas carols.
 And when we got home... we opened all of the Santa gifts!
 And to round out Christmas, we celebrated on Friday with my family... everyone got hats! (And gifts...)

 Cole got a helmet he didn't take off all day... with the gap in his front teeth, it just cracked me up!
And I think that concludes our Christmas season. I still can't quite believe it's been here, and that it's done, but we got to spend a lot of time with family and friends, had some downtime, and are looking forward to a wonderful 2012!