Running Buddies

A friend from my running group shared this on my Facebook, and it is perfect.

Shane and I try not to push our interests on our kids. Both boys play baseball, like Shane did all the way through high school, but they both love it. If they didn't, we wouldn't push it. Luke is in taekwondo and Tommy will be soon--this is something neither Shane nor I have done. Last year, Luke started expressing an interest in running 5ks with me. Like a typical runner, he discovered that he hated the actual running part but couldn't wait to sign up for another race. In his first 5k, he finished in 30:37 and came in 5th in his age group--beaten only by 9 and 10 year olds. In his second 5k, it was a trail race and we finished in 35 minutes--earning him 2nd in his age group.

When a local 5k in support of an abused dog caught my eye, I asked Luke if he wanted to run it with me. He said, yes, of course. I told him that I could get him under 30 minutes if he stuck with me, but he was skeptical. The only running he does is at baseball, so it's not like he's been training. Still, I told him that I knew he could do it.

Race day was perfect--overcast and 60s. Luke was nervous beforehand, but I reminded him to channel those nerves. When we started off, Luke pulled ahead of me, and I reminded him to pace himself, but he remained ahead of me by about 1/4 mile. Although he didn't have a watch, I was running just over 9 mi/mi, so I knew he was hitting sub-9 miles. I was worried about him, but I loved watching his natural, bouncing stride from behind, and I really loved hearing the race volunteers cheer him on. Kids always get more cheers, I think, and it was awesome to hear those cheers for my child. Because this was an out and back course, he turned past me at the halfway point, and I got to cheer for him. The man next to me who told me originally that his 7 year old dog doesn't know how to pace herself (she kept up the whole race!) said, "Man, he is still going strong." At the two mile mark, he slowed to get a cup of water and dumped it over his head. I could see he was struggling a bit, and I caught up with him at 2.1. He started telling me he couldn't do it and he wanted to walk, but I reminded him that we just had a mile left and he could do this. At the last turn with a volunteer, I said, "He's struggling!" and the man started clapping and cheering and saying how amazing Luke was. This got him through a little bit more, then he started to walk. From past experience running with him, I know that if I run ahead, he will use me as a rabbit, but if I run next to him, he'll walk and whine, so I said, "There's no walking--I can see the tunnel to the finish line," and I pulled ahead of him. I kept about 1/4 mile ahead of him but continued to look over my shoulder. At one point, I could tell he was crying, but he was still running, so I kept going and shouted, "Come on, buddy. You can't let anyone pass you!" At which point, he picked it up. I also told him that if he was crying and yelling at me, he wasn't running hard enough. I'm such a nice mom.

The end of the race went through a tunnel on the bike path, and I knew that would be a good place to stop for him. I also knew from looking at my watch that if I kept going, I would get a PR. That thought flickered so briefly in my mind, but it wasn't even an option because getting Luke across the finish line meant more--so much more. I stopped and said, "Come on, come, you're going to cross the finish line ahead of me!" He caught up to me, still crying and yelling at me that he couldn't, but I reminded him that he could and he was. I pushed ahead and he kept even with me, then we got out of the tunnel, and there the finish line was. I dropped back a step so he could cross ahead of me, and then we were done. And the tears really started in earnest because he said his stomach hurt, but they dried up pretty soon when the two adults behind us came up to him and asked what his name was, then told him how he got them through the end because they were focused on him. The one man even brought his daughter over, probably about 12 years old, and asked her to tell Luke what hurts when she runs. She told him his chest, and I said, See? We all have something that hurts when we finish. We went over to the food and water table, where I knew all the workers and they all congratulated him. Some cold water perked him up and then he was all smiles and so proud of himself.

Because it was a charity 5k, the timing was donated so our results haven't yet been posted, and I was so caught up in the moment that I didn't stop my watch (THE HORROR), but Luke thinks he crossed at around 27:27. I know it was somewhere in the 27-minute range, which is quite frankly, so incredible to me for an 8 year old who doesn't really run. When it came time for awards, I knew he had finished in front of the other boys in his age group (yes, I definitely scoped out the competition!), so I was pretty sure he had the first place in his age group. They did females first, and I was surprised that I got 2nd in my age group because it was a ten year split. I won a hat, a $10 g/c to Fleet Feet and a key chain bottle opener (SCORE). Then they got to the males and after overall male winner, Luke's age group was first, and he won! The smile on his face was hard to beat. The man behind us who crossed just after Luke started cheering his name, as did my friends who were working the event, so it was pretty cool to listen to him have his own cheering squad.


(Tommy was jealous because no one was congratulating him for doing a fine job spectating.)

I have a feeling that if he continues running, I'll be seeing more and more of the back of his head, but it is right now so cool to share this common interest, to be able to cross a finish line together. It's something I never imagined when I held this little guy in my arms, but seeing him do this is the coolest thing ever. Mostly what impresses me is how he pushes through the mental part of it, which is honestly the toughest part of running for me. He wanted to stop. He was hurting. He was yelling that he couldn't do it, but aside from five steps walking, he ran the whole thing. I can't wait to see where this takes him.

Castaway Bay: Our Favorite Winter Escape

Two years ago, we went to Castaway Bay and the boys have been asking to go back ever since. We intended on going back last year, but there was the whole thing where I drove an awful, unreliable Ford Focus that broke down on a moment's whim and we didn't go anywhere for awhile. So, I was definitely excited when we received an invite to this year's mom blogger event at Castaway Bay. Almost as excited as Luke and Tommy, but it was hard to match their excitement! As soon as they found out about the trip, they immediately began discussing their favorite parts of the waterpark. Since it'd been two years since we visited, Tommy wasn't old enough to do everything that Luke did, so Luke begin filling him in on all the things he would be able to do now. Needless to say, it seemed like February 7th would never arrive.

For us, Castaway Bay is the same driving distance mileage-wise as the Dells, but we avoid Chicago traffic. This is a huge perk, especially with recent weather conditions. The interstates have been awful, so going just a straight shot on the Ohio turnpike was a welcome, easy relief. When we arrived, check-in was quick and simple, and the boys were thrilled to find these goodies waiting for us in our room.

They changed into swimsuits pretty much right away, and we headed to the waterpark before I even had a chance to look around, but I did a quick moment to notice what a nice view we had.

I can imagine the water view and balcony our especially nice during the summer, but it wasn't all bad during the winter. There was just no way I was venturing out on the balcony with single digit temps!

We headed down to the waterpark, where the 82 degrees was honestly the most welcoming temperature ever. I don't think I've felt that warm once this entire frigid winter. Tommy played it safe and went on the smaller slide in the toddler pool, but I told him he was now tall enough for the Rendezvous Run which was Luke's favorite ride two years ago and convinced him to go on it with me. Since it's a water coaster, I thought he might feel more comfortable on that than a waterslide right away. As we went down the first hill, then into a dark tube, he was quiet. Then he started yelling, "This is awesome!" Then he made me go on it seven times in a row, and I regretted suggesting it and passed him off to Shane.
Luke, meanwhile, discovered that he is now tall enough for the Cargo Crossing and was busy making his way across the rope over and over again.

What I love about this is that there's a lifeguard posted at the entrance and only one kid is allowed in at a time. We've been at other waterparks where they don't limit the number of kids and the rope/float area can get kind of frantic and hard to watch. He also discovered that he is now tall enough for the biggest tube slides, so he drug me down those a few times. They are definitely fast!

After a few hours of play, it was time to get dried off and head to dinner (this was accomplished with the promise of arcade and more waterpark time later). Dinner was all-you-can-eat pizza and salad, both of which were delicious, but the highlight was obviously a guest appearance by Snoopy.



After dinner, we headed across the hall where the boys got to do some really neat crafts. They were able to decorate their own beach towels, paint picture frames and meet Lucy!


Peanuts Meet-and-Greet and Castaway Crafts are all fun activities offered to Castaway Bay guests (some crafts may cost extra). My boys definitely love the ability to meet and hug the Peanuts characters. And of course, the crafts were a blast. They always want souvenirs everywhere we go, so it's nice to have souvenirs that they have put time and effort into creating themselves.

After crafts, we headed to the arcade, where Tommy either wanted to play the games with the giant guns or ride on anything that moves. Of course.

The boys managed to win a combined total of 550 points and scored themselves a bunch of fun goodies. Like everyone else in the resort, the girl at the arcade was incredibly helpful and beyond patient as the boys took approximately 800 years to choose how to redeem their points. We let them go back to the waterpark for another hour or so after the arcade, then they were good and worn out for bed. And I got to head out to taste some local wines, which made my husband jealous.

With good reason… I'm still thinking about the smoked salmon and cream cheese. Being from the Northwest Indiana area, I'm mostly familiar with Southwestern Michigan wineries. However, it appears that the Lake Erie Shores and Islands area is not without its own celebrated wineries, either. We were able to sample several different wines and choose a bottle of our favorite to take. Second to spending time with my family, of course, this was definitely my favorite part of the weekend. I love the celebration and highlighting of locally owned businesses and while we pass signs for wineries on our drive in, it's not easy to stop with two small kids in the car. So to get the chance to sample these wines was really unique and a lot of fun. I chose a bottle of riesling from Firelands Winery and after looking at their website, I hope to get there someday soon to sample more! Although it was a family event, I liked that an adult event was planned after bedtime--it was definitely nice to get out and chat. It's hard to talk to other adults when you're helping your kids with crafts or dinner, so this was a nice way to make it work out so the attendees could visit with one another. I had a great time meeting a few new people and stayed out a little later by the fireplace in the lobby, chatting with and getting to know Theresa of Theresa's Mixed Nuts. It was definitely a fun night!

Saturday morning, the boys slept in a little, then Tommy and I went to get donuts (and coffee--Starbucks!). We ran into Snoopy in his nightshirt on the way to get breakfast. While we were waiting for our coffee, the girl at the register overheard me talking to Tommy and addressed him by name, asking him to come back and let her know how much fun he had at the waterpark. Again, I can't stress enough how great the staff is at Castaway Bay when it comes to dealing with children. After eating breakfast, we packed up, then headed back to the waterpark as soon as it opened. Tommy, of course, wanted to ride the raft over and over, but I convinced him to try the slide at the top of the Lookout Lagoon funhouse by promising him I would go down first and meet him at the bottom. Despite recently being terrified of even getting bathwater in his eyes, he loved it!

After about five times of my going up with him, he told me could do it by himself. What I like about Castaway Bay is that most of the areas are wide open so that you have the ability to stand and observe without losing sight of your children. So while Tommy went all the way to the top, I could keep an eye on his bright red swim trunks from the bottom of the slide and see him every bit of the way. Of course, he was moving so fast that he was pretty much a blur until he got to the top of the slide!

I lost count of how many times he went down the blue slide, but it must've been close to 20. Suffice to say, by the time we got him out of the park and into the car, he was exhausted. Happily exhausted.

Neither boy wanted to leave, but we've promised we'll go back--sooner this time. Of course, about two hours into our drive, we were headed back into more of our lovely Indiana winter, so we were missing the waterpark more than ever.


On the drive home, I read through some of the information that Shores&Islands left in our hotel room and realized that this area has much more to offer than we've realized. The Blind Perch is a new gastro-pub that specializes in local farm-grown meats and produce, as well as Lake Erie fish. Volstead Bar, housed in an old winery and brothel, and crafts classic cocktails hearkening back to the Roaring Twenties. I could go on and on, but suffice to say, between the list of unique restaurants and wineries, Shane and I are definitely considering the Lake Erie shore area for our anniversary get-away this June. I mean, provided we don't have any more snow days and we're actually out of school by June 25th!

As always, I can't say enough good things about Castaway Bay and would definitely recommend it as a fun, affordable family vacation. My kids would agree!



Although Castaway Bay provided us with this visit, all opinions are my own

Crayon Art

Luke's 100th day of school is coming up--I think, anyway. With all of the delays and snow days, I'm not quite sure where we are, but his teacher sent home a note saying that students needed to create a project involving 100 something. Truthfully, I am not crafty. At all. I am definitely not a crafty mom. I wish I was, but I pretty much fail at it which is where I'm thankful for Pinterest. My idea of a project involving 100 of something would be spelling Luke's name out with 100 Cheerios glued onto a piece of paper. Certainly fine, but I wanted us to do something more fun, so I searched around and came across quite a few really great ideas. The one that really struck me was crayon art, specifically this tutorial. I showed it to Luke and he agreed that he would like to do that, so after his Saturday basketball game, we headed to Michael's to purchase supplies.

Although I followed a tutorial, I also altered it slightly, so I thought I would share what we did. First of all, I didn't buy a canvas because I'm cheap, canvases are expensive and I'm always slightly suspicious of Pinterest projects. Instead we bought foam board, which is much cheaper than a canvas. Since this is a school project, it isn't something I expect to display around the house, so foam board was okay with me. I also wanted to have the number 100 white-d out in the center, so I bought masking tape and applied that to the center. I used two layers of masking tape because I thought that would be easier to peel off, but I'm not sure it was in the end.

Since this was Luke's project, I let him sort the crayons by color order however he wanted before we started. I bought a pack of 120 crayons at Michael's and just set 20 aside. He chose to sort by color groups and chose what order he wanted them to go in before we started.

I used a hot glue gun to put the crayons on the board. It was kind of a learning curve at first, especially with a six year old helping. A thin strip of glue straight down seemed the best, easiest way to affix the crayons to the board. I will be honest--this part takes awhile. If I was doing this just for something to display around the house, I would've just done the crayons around the top. However, since the theme was 100, we wanted to have 100 crayons across the board, so we continued the line of crayons across the bottom to get to 100. (And yes, I could've done 50 across the top and 50 across the bottom to make it even, but no. That wasn't happening.)

Now for the fun part… the actual crayon melting! Luke took this picture, so it's a little blurry. First of all, make sure you put down a lot of towels or newspaper because the wax will splatter. I put down towels, but still ended up having to scrape some off the bathroom floor when we were finished. I started out with the hair dryer on high heat but low blower setting. This seemed to not be melting the crayons and I was thinking, "Pinterest fail," so I bumped it up to high blower. Then the crayons started melting. I had Luke tilt the board to direct the wax run off in whichever direction he thought it should go. Since we had crayons on the top and bottom, we did the top first, then moved on to the bottom. The wax dries very quickly, so you don't have to wait long.

After about twenty minutes of blow drying, we had this. I've seen a few tutorials where people melt the crayons completely, but Luke preferred the splatter effect to the caked on wax effect, so we stopped with some of the crayons still intact.

The wax dries very quickly and we were able to peel off the tape after only about two minutes, so very quickly, we had our finished product!

Although gluing the actual crayons the board is time-consuming, we had a lot of fun doing this. I would love to let each boy choose an assortment of crayons and spell out of their name on canvas to display in the house. It's simple art, but it allows kids to take a major role in it and honestly, I had fun doing it, too.

Boys of Summer

Our summer is officially over. We said goodbye to it with a full day at the beach yesterday. As I tucked Tommy into bed, his hair still smelled like the beach even after a shower. If I could bottle up that smell and keep it with on long work days and long winter days, I would.

August-June

As a teacher, the 180 days spent in school span out so differently each year. There are some years that each day feels like a lifetime. There are some years that they fly by and suddenly it's Christmas-spring break-hey, it's May! That was this year.

As a parent, the years always fly by and Luke's first year of Kindergarten was no exception. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was taking a photo of this nervous little guy with his seemingly too big backpack and wondering how on earth I was going to put him on a school bus and send him off into the world.


Somehow we did and somehow we blinked and it was the last day of Kindergarten. The backpack shrunk and the smile wasn't really nervous anymore.

He came skipping home from school with a backpack full of papers, an award certificate for Analyzing Appetizing Avocados, and a report card full of S+'s. He had such an incredible first year of school. He's reading above grade level and has grown so much socially. I could easily brag on and on, but suffice to say, we had an excellent first year of school and while I'm hoping the summer goes by slooooowwwllly, I'm also so grateful for a good year for him and looking forward to many, many more.

Bunny Pox

Remember that one time that even though Luke is always healthy, in spite of the petri dish that must be a kindergarten classroom, he got super sick on Christmas Eve (resulting in the worst Christmas break EVER)? Since then, he's been remarkably healthy. He had one tummy ache and a random throw up, but managed to survive the stomach flu that knocked the rest of our house down. In fact, he has perfect attendance and at this point, with two months of school left, I thought that perfect attendance award was in the bag.

Friday, we were all off school. We stuck around the house and cleaned to get ready for Easter, which we host every year. Friday night, we went to the park and then Dairy Queen. It was finally warm enough to be outside without coats, although we were a little chilly. In short, all was right with the world.

See? Tell me that isn't the most right with the world picture you've ever seen.

Friday night when I was tucking Luke into bed, I noticed two little bumps on his shoulder. I brushed it off as bug bites because we were outside playing a lot, he was out in the woods with my parents a lot that week, as they watched him since he was on spring break. And hey, what else could it be? Until the next morning when he woke up and the two bumps had spread from one shoulder, across his chest, to the other shoulder. And they were itchy. In my heart, I knew what it was, but I told Luke that we needed to go get it checked out because if he was contagious, we couldn't see his cousins and hunt Easter eggs with them that day as planned. His youngest cousin is only 8 months old, so I knew we couldn't risk passing anything on.

So instead of spending a beautiful Saturday outside, we spent 2.5 hours at Urgent Care. Yes, the wait was that long.

The whole time, Luke kept saying, "We should've been hunting Easter eggs an hour ago!" Multiplied by however much time had passed. And I kept thinking, "Why does this place sound like a TB ward? I wonder what other diseases we're picking up?!"

Finally, it was our turn. After reiterating that we hadn't used any new laundry detergents or tried any new food, I also reiterated that I normally wouldn't come in for itchy red bumps, but we were seeing family and I didn't want to pass anything along. The doctor looked at him, left and came back with a dermatology textbook and flipped right to the chicken pox section. Which I already knew, but I really, really wanted her to say, "These are mosquito bites. Are you stupid?" She said they don't really see chicken pox much anymore, so they have to look it up to remind themselves of what the first stage even looks like, but it was textbook perfect. At that point, Luke's face crumpled and he said, "So you mean we can't see anyone this weekend?" and he broke down in a way that I've never seen him break down, like huge sobs. Thanks for nothing, chicken pox. You're a huge jerk. The doctor tried to console him, I tried to console him, but he was just sobbing. She showed me a few other things that it could be, but it was pretty obvious from the pictures that it wasn't any of that and that it was chicken pox.

I carried him into the bathroom, washed his face and got him to stop crying with the promise of a Happy Meal, but he was one seriously sad kid. He'd been looking forward to hunting Easter eggs with his cousins and having them over to our house Sunday all week, so this was a tough blow for a six year old.

Fortunately, my parents opted to still come over to Easter dinner the next day, so Luke didn't feel like a total leper. It wasn't the Easter we had planned and not all of his pox have scabbed over yet, so as of today, his perfect attendance is null and void. I just can't believe we avoided the multiple rounds of strep throat and stomach flu that swept through his classroom only to get hit with chicken pox, of all things. Just like I wanted to return our Christmas plague from Santa, I would like to return this pox from the Easter Bunny.

This Christmas

If you follow me on twitter, you know that our major Christmas gift this year was some strain of the bubonic plague. Our first inkling of the sickness was Christmas Eve. Luke fell asleep at about 3pm, which is unusual because Luke doesn't nap. Hasn't napped for about three years, but I figured, hey... Christmas miracle! Truthfully, we'd had such a busy weekend that I thought he was just worn out and got ready for Christmas Eve church. Time went on and he kept sleeping. My parents came over for dinner and to go to church with us. Luke was still sleeping. I finally nudged him awake and he said he wasn't feeling well. I carried him downstairs, put him on the couch... and he promptly threw up all over the carpet. This is the kid who, by the way, aside from one minor ear infection early on in the school year has been healthy all year. So sick on Christmas Eve? Major insult, universe. My parents said they would stay home with the kids so we could go to church, as Shane and I do the reading at church every year. We headed out and told the pastor we would need to leave as soon as we did the reading, since we had a sick little guy at home.

After the reading, we came home and Luke was up and running around the house, which gave me hope that he was feeling better, that maybe the sick was just a fluke and he'd eaten something that didn't agree with him. We had all of our fingers crossed and kissed him and tucked him into bed and told both boys they had to get to bed for Santa.

The next morning, both boys catapulted out of bed at 6. Both seemingly healthy, both overjoyed that Santa came.

Santa doesn't wrap presents, by the way. Santa is lazy.

Unfortunately, we quickly learned that the fluke was not Luke being sick the night before. The fluke was Luke somehow feeling better long enough to unwrap presents at our house Christmas morning and head to my parents' house to unwrap presents over there. I have no idea if he somehow managed to power through because it was Christmas or if there was a lull between the sicknesses, but by afternoon he was running a 103 fever and passed out on the couch.

There's really nothing sadder than a kid who is too sick to play with his new toys on Christmas.
We headed home and put him to bed. The next day, I took him to urgent care where he was diagnosed with a bronchial infection and given antibiotics. By that evening, I was throwing up. By the next morning, Tommy was, too. Unfortunately, my stomach flu wasn't as quick as Luke's and I was sick for 48 horrendous hours. By the time I stopped with the stomach flu, I was already congested. You know how after you have the stomach flu, all you want to do is rest? I couldn't lie down because I was so stuffed up and couldn't stop coughing or breathe through my nose. It was miserable. Tommy through this ran a 103 fever. Once his stomach flu passed, he was congested, too. Back to urgent care, where I was diagnosed with a sinus infection and Tommy a double ear infection.
And we had another kid to sick to play with his new toys.

The wait at urgent care, by the way, was over two and a half hours because everyone in the whole wide world is sick.

In short, this Christmas break was not the Christmas break we'd planned at all. Thankfully, Shane managed to stay healthy. I don't know what we would've done if he'd been sick, too. All I would like now is for the three of us to get over the last of this congestion (oh, and for my feet to heal, too, because I would really, really like to run again) and salvage our last few days of break. Today we actually left the house and went somewhere other than the pharmacy and urgent care! I hope your Christmas was much healthier than ours.

A Date Weekend

Life has been very busy lately. I haven't been able to run as much due to some random, stupid foot injury that I'm going to get checked out this week (please let it be minor and quickly healed), so I've had more free time on the weekends, which is nice. It is also maddening because the weather has been unseasonably warm and it's killing me to not be out running in it, but I'm trying to enjoy the thrill of easing into the day and not jumping out of bed to hit the pavement. It's kind of working.

Saturday, Shane had to help move his grandpa from assisted living to a nursing home and Luke had plans with my parents, so Tommy and I had the whole day to ourselves. The day started off a little suspicious when Tommy accidentally dumped an entire cup of orange juice on his head, but after weeping pulpy tears, I got him in the tub and calmed him down and we were off to Target.

We don't go to Target often because I like to not spend all of my money all of the time, but when we do, we have to look at the bikes and the vacuum cleaners. It's Tommy's routine. He likes to point out which vacuum cleaners people own. He also likes to discuss the steam mops. Our real purpose in heading to Target was to let him pick out his own underwear because I am very desperate and would like him to finally potty train. He chose Spiderman underwear. I hope this works. Of course because it's Target, I also bought 1231231209 things I didn't need, like an advent calendar, some Archer Farms frozen ravioli that sounded good, various types of cheeses (obviously I was shopping while hungry) and two giant things of International Delight Peppermint Mocha creamer (okay, I needed the creamer).

After Target, we were going to get frozen yogurt, but the frozen yogurt place wasn't open yet so we ended up going to Steak n Shake. I asked Tommy if he wanted a milkshake. Then I asked him if he'd ever had a milkshake, to which he said no. I can't believe a child of mine made it three and a half without ever having a milkshake. I'm such a failure of a parent!
He was a little disgruntled that he had to wait for his milkshake, but once it arrived, he decided it was clearly worth that wait.


We had a great time, even though it took him 1200 years to finish his chicken fingers. I think we were the slowest eaters in Steak n Shake. We had a great time. Then we headed to the post office to buy stamps for our Christmas cards. Tommy got to do the honors of dropping the Christmas cards into the big mailbox, which is one of our favorite things to do.

Tommy isn't really quite big enough for us to go to the movies. Well, we could take Luke to the movies at his age, but he can't sit still a movie in our house yet, so I'm not even trying that one. So when we do one on one time, it's simple things like running errands and going to lunch, just spending time together. It's precious and fun and I'm so glad for this time.

Sunday morning, it was kind of rainy, which ruined our plans to go to the arboretum. Instead, I asked Luke if he wanted to go see Wreck it Ralph, which I've wanted to see since I saw the preview this summer. We headed off to the movies, where we discovered that Sunday morning was not a busy time, as there were only about twelve people in the theatre. Luke wanted to sit in the very last row, so we did. Even though it was an early show, we still had to have popcorn and icees!

We both loved the movie! It was really cute and funny, as well as incredibly original. I love video games, too, so I liked that whole aspect. Luke said he really liked it, too, but that some of the jokes were "inappropriate potty humor." You can tell what we correct on in our house!
Afterward, I asked Luke if he wanted lunch, but he told me he was too full from the popcorn. Somehow he had room for ice cream because, you know, that's a different stomach and all.


While we were gone, Shane and Tommy took advantage of the nicer weather and hung up all the Christmas lights, so it was a good day all around. It's not every weekend that I get two shots at one-on-one time with my boys, so I'm going to count this one as a huge win.

The [surprising] 2013 Chevy Malibu

A few weeks ago, I received an email from a contact at GM inviting my family to be a part of the Magnificient Mile lights festival. Chevrolet is the official vehicle of the Lights fest, meaning that all the parade floats and people in the parade are carried by Chevy vehicles. Pretty cool! Unfortunately, because this weekend was my dad's 70th birthday, we weren't able to stick around to be a part of the parade (please invite us back next year!), but we were happy to attend a breakfast with Disney characters... more on that soon. We were also generously offered the chance to try out another car this week, as I'm still driving my Focus for another month or so (one more payment!).

When I received the email that we would be provided with a 2013 Chevy Malibu, I will admit that I didn't know what to expect. I haven't had a lot of experience with the Malibu and my thoughts were that this was what you got when you went to a car rental place and asked for a mid size sedan.
Imagine my surprise, then, when this pulled into my driveway last Monday.


All of my notions about the Malibu were completely wrong. Yes, it is definitely a mid sized sedan, but while it is functional, it is also fun--just look at the exterior--I would be happy driving something that gorgeous around every day! It's functional in that this is the type of car that I could see being a perfect fit as a secondary vehicle for a family of four (or primary, even) because the interior is spacious. And the trunk? The trunk space made me swoon. Among many other annoying qualities, my Focus lacks trunk space. Traveling with it means that we end up packing items around the boys' feet, so when I opened up the trunk of the Malibu and saw all this space, I knew that if we were in the market for a four door, this was absolutely the type of vehicle I'd choose.

Do you see how there is space and then more space? Space for suitcases, space for toys, blankets, pillows. The little extra cubby of space made me so happy. This is where the functionality comes in because I feel like you could easily fit in everything with a long trip, without having to use the interior of the car for storage.
It also has a five star NHTSA safety rating. Not only does it have the space to travel with your family, but it will get you to your destination safely.

In terms of interior space, the back seat is pretty roomy, too. Luke and Tommy are still in the large Britax five point harness seats which take up a great deal of space (and which were easy to install, thanks to the Malibu having the latch system), but there was enough space in between where they weren't right on top of each other and where a smaller person could ride if we needed to put another person in the back seat. It wouldn't be a comfortable ride, but it would definitely work.

The interior of the car is gorgeous, too. The LTZ had a really sharp interior that again, this was not the mid size sedan that I was imagining.

Isn't that gorgeous? The 2013 Malibu can also come with The Chevrolet MyLink option, which allows you to integrate your car with your smart phone. As an iPhone junky, I love the thought of being able to control my car from my phone.

The best testimony to the Malibu came from my dad. For the last few years, my dad has been a fan of VWs; however, he was disappointed by some of the changes they made in the 2012 model. He felt that they cut down in the roominess and took some of the sharpness out of the interior. After checking out the Malibu, he said that he was going to have to think long and hard about remaining with VW when it comes to his next trade-in because he felt like Chevy picked up where VW disappointed him.

Although we're currently in the market for something bigger, I know that down the road, we will be looking for a smaller secondary car. At this point, I know that the Chevy Malibu will be the first place we look!

And if you ask the boys where was the best place the Malibu took us last week? They'll tell you it was to downtown Chicago where we got to breakfast with these guys.


My boys were in heaven. Tommy was a little scared when he got close to the characters, but he was excited from far away. Luke, on the other hand, had a big grin the entire time. The breakfast was delicious, too! We felt spoiled and loved having a chance to drive the Malibu into the city (it got great highway gas mileage--in the 30s) to such an amazing event.

Although we were provided with the car loan and invited to breakfast with Disney characters, all opinions are my own.

Knock Knock... trick or treat!

It's safe to say that this was our best Halloween yet.

This was the first year that Tommy really, really got it. Last year, he was still a YOUNG two and while he understood that he was getting candy at some houses, he was still content to hang back and was mostly still too shy to hold out his treat bag. This year? He was off and running with his brother.


At one house, he gleefully shouted KNOCK KNOCK as he ascended the steps, followed by TRICK OR TREAT. If you know Tommy, you know how shy he can be around people he doesn't know, so you'll know why we all looked at each other and burst into laughter at his excitement.

I didn't take very many photos because I was too busy watching them run from house to house and have fun. We trick-or-treated for an hour, which is probably our longest time. Tommy started to get tired toward the end and handed my dad his candy bag between houses with the warning, "But don't eat any of it, Papa."

Their excitement was probably sweeter than the Halloween candy that I stole from their pile after they went to bed.


I hope your Halloween was full of treats!

Hallo-Weekend

I have a love-hate relationship with fall. I think I discuss this every year, but I do. I would love this season so much more if it wasn't followed by winter. I hate winter. there is no love about winter. I hate snow. I hate cold. End of story. So, it's hard for me to really love fall because I know that winter comes next, but I still try. I like the changing leaves. I like the apple cider. I like Halloween. I like the weather in terms of running.
I don't like that I'm sitting inside my house right now and I can hear the wind screaming and I can feel how cold it is through the house. I do not like this. I should only feel cold in my house because it's July and I've turned up the air conditioning.

Still, I choose to live here, so I try to make the best of this season. We ended October with a lot of fun. Saturday morning, Luke and I were invited to a pumpkin decorating event at the Fairmont Chicago. I love carving pumpkins with the boys, but I hate the stress of knives around my kids, so this was a lot of fun for me. Although I helped Luke with a few things, it was fun to sit back and let him go wild with his pumpkin. I am ridiculously craft challenged, so the thought of giving him a box of craft supplies and a bottle of glue never occurred to me, but we'll be doing this with both boys and pumpkins next year.

We also got to sample pumpkin seeds (both savory and sweet) and pumpkin cookies prepared by the Fairmont chefs. Part of the love side of things that I have with this season is anything pumpkin flavored, so we're planning on recreating the cookies to share with our family on Halloween!

Luke left with a pumpkin carving kit, a bag full of candy and this very decorated pumpkin, which he made me carry back to the car. Of course. On the drive home, Luke said, "Mom, I had a great time at that party!"

A side note about Luke, he absolutely loves hotels. So even though we weren't staying there, all I had to do was tell him that it was in a hotel and he was already hooked. Ever since we stayed at the Swissotel this August, he's been asking if we could go back and stay overnight for his birthday in February (we usually let him choose an overnight at a water park in lieu of a big birthday party). After our short visit to the Fairmont, he's now considering this an option. Why? Because they have an escalator right off the main lobby. Something tells me this is not how most people choose hotels.

Sunday morning, we went hiking at our favorite local arboretum, which is all decorated for Halloween. The boys loved the additions to the train garden.

As well as the hay maze, which Tommy tried to cheat his way through by climbing on top of the hay bales.



And then I started whining about the cold and asked if we could please go get lunch and also, how many months until summer?!

Seasonal Greetings

Almost two years ago, I won a blog auction for a card creation on etsy. It was right around the holidays, but I'd already created our Christmas cards. I thought about saving it for a birthday invitation, but I decided to send out a happy New Year card instead. We got a lot of compliments on the idea and after that, I tried to send a card with pictures of the boys to greet each season. Some slipped away from me because of stress or money constraints, but I still tried my hardest. I've found that some of our older relatives who aren't online love them the most because they still get relatively up-to-date photos of the boys--and who doesn't love a surprise in your mailbox, even if you are online?

This one was one of my favorites...

(That's a picture of my computer screen--excuse the poor quality.)

Since then, I've discovered that I can make postcard size prints on my MacBook, write a cute note on the back, print and order via iTunes. It's so easy! Although I'm obviously not a photographer, I'm just a mom with a DLSR who does her best.

Another favorite was the photo I took this summer. The farmer planted wheat behind our house and I managed to catch this shot at golden hour. I was so happy with it.


This was our most recent one. I wish I would've swapped them, so Tommy's face wouldn't have been in shadows... but again, mom with a camera.



Still, despite the stress of taking the photos and the cost of printing them and postage, I love it. I love when people tell me they enjoyed it or when I walk into our sitter's house and see it on top of her entertainment center or when the boys' great-grandma calls and tells us she took it with her to the hair salon. Totally worth it. I realize this reads like I'm being sponsored by Tiny Prints or Hallmark or Snapfish, but I'm not (although if any of those places would like to sponsor my seasonal postcards, please feel free). I do these completely out of my own pocket, just because who doesn't love an extra reminder that it's a fresh new season, with new smiles and new joys?

Can't the weekend last forever

This weekend was one of those glorious, sunny mid-70s weekends that hover on the cusp of summer and fall.

Saturday morning I woke up early to get my long run over and done as quickly as possible. Using the term quickly loosely here, as I had to run 13 miles. The Train Like a Mother plan doesn't mess around when it comes to owning, as I basically just ran a half marathon when my half marathon is still two months away. The weather was perfect for a long run, thankfully! I finished and lazed around the house (read: grocery shopped, went to Walgreen's, and did a load of laundry) in compression socks for most of the day, then went to Dairy Queen to fill some of my calorie deficit. Sunday I woke up surprisingly mostly not sore, aside from a little bit in my legs, so we decided to take advantage of another beautiful day and headed to our favorite local arboretum.



The boys loved the chance to stretch their legs and run in the sunshine.

And splash

Of course, we always have to visit the train garden!


I'm hoping we get a lot more weekends like this before winter settles in and I look back on this post, all gloomy and sad. Sigh.

School Days

Luke's been in Kindergarten for seven days now. Seven--and I'm just now getting around to writing his first day of school blog post. I know, I know, but when my first day of school is the same as his, it takes awhile for life to calm down. And did I mention that we've had a birthday party every single weekend since school started and it doesn't look like that's about to slow down any time soon?

Otherwise, life is good. This year's group of students seem a little calmer than last year, which is a blessing. Since Luke is now in public school, we've hired a cleaning lady again and let me tell you, I'm breathing a sigh of relief while standing in the middle of my clean kitchen floor. Luke's teacher emailed me to tell me that he's one of the most well-behaved students in his class. I'm exhausted at the end of the day, yes. I still wish I didn't have to work, of course. I miss my boys like crazy. I don't have the energy to run most days and I'm not sure if I'm going to make it through training for this half marathon, but I can't complain about much.

Mostly, I'm just super proud of this guy right now.



He was a little nervous, can you tell?

Unfortunately, since we both had the same first day of school, I was not able to see him off on the school bus. Luckily, Shane was able to go to school a little late since he started sooner than I did. Whew.



And I was able to speed home and see Luke and his friend Addie, who he's known since he was six months old get off the bus at the sitter's house. Addie hugged me and told me the bus was HOT.



Then they ran across the street to tell the sitter about their day, because she was waiting just as anxiously as I was!



It's hard to believe that it's already Labor Day. We've already done our first homework assignment and made our first Scholastic book order. I'm hoping there will be a field trip soon!

Summer [weekend] Of the Universe: Adler Planetarium

If you follow me on twitter or Instagram, you know that we had a pretty amazing weekend. You may have even told me that you were jealous and I probably replied that I understood because, well, it was an amazing weekend.

Last month, I received an email from the public relations manager at Adler Planetarium inviting my family and me to spend a weekend in Chicago experiencing Adler. Shane and I actually went to Adler on our first date and hadn't yet taken the boys, so I thought this would definitely be a good opportunity to take them--as well as an opportunity to let them experience Chicago as tourists. Since we live close to Chicago, we don't normally stay overnight. I knew that this offer would let us see the city like tourists and I was pretty (okay, REALLY) excited.

The best part of this weekend was that although we were given several different vouchers for things in the city, we weren't told when to do these things. It was designed to be a self-guided experience, and I can't say enough what a great idea that was. As anyone with young kids know, it's sometimes tough to keep to a strict schedule and is much easier to work with them instead of against them. The fact that Adler let us do that really means a lot and made this weekend that much more enjoyable.

So, what DID we do? As I said, we got to shape our weekend, so we left early Saturday afternoon and headed to the Swissotel Chicago. We opted to do valet parking, which was a quick and easy experience and upon checking in, we were given a great gift bag from Adler. The boys were so excited at their new goodies, but they were equally as excited with this view.


That little head in the picture is Tommy's. He didn't move from the window for at least 20 minutes. I cannot rave enough about our accommodations. We stayed in the classic double room, a perfect size for us. The room itself was gorgeous and very clean. I especially loved that the bathroom had a separate bathtub and shower, which is not something you often see in hotels. Once we tore ourselves away from the incredible view, we decided to head to dinner. What's nice about the Swissotel is that it's very close to Michigan Avenue, but there are also always taxis at the ready if you want to go further. As we were going a little further and didn't feel like the long walk with the boys, we decided to take a taxi. It was so nice to be able to step outside the hotel and get right into a taxi. And the boys? They were thrilled at the prospect of their first ever cab ride!


Although I've eaten my fair share of Chicago style, deep dish pizza, I'm ashamed to say that I'd never eaten Lou Malnati's.

It's safe to say that we all thought it was some of the best pizza we've ever had and we stuffed ourselves silly.


I also can't rave enough about the service. Despite it being a very busy location and it being a Saturday night, with a wait for seats and a wait for pizza, our waitress was so on top of things. She refilled our drinks constantly, brought out the food as quickly as she could, and had a smile on her face the entire time. Even when Tommy, of course, had a pre-food meltdown.

After dinner, we snagged a taxi to Navy Pier and hopped on a different kind of taxi--a water taxi. Before this weekend, I was unaware that Shoreline Sightseeing water taxis go between the museum campus and Navy Pier. It's only a short 10-15 minute trip and you get the chance to view Chicago from a different angle. My kids loved the boat ride and we all loved the sights.




After our boat ride, we headed back to the hotel, where we ooh-ed over our view in the dark.

Then we hit up the swimming pool, located on the 42nd floor. I also want to note that the Swissotel has what appeared to be an awesome fitness center with great views of the Lake. Luke noted, "Mom, you could run tomorrow," but I'd already done my run and was planning on being lazy! As luck would have it, we got the boys out of the pool, bathed and settled in just in time to watch the Navy Pier fireworks. We had a pretty good view, I'd say.


I want to rave over how quiet the Swissotel was. I know there were people all around us, yet I didn't hear a peep. The rooms appear to be spaced apart so well that you don't even hear TVs filtering through the walls, as you would in other hotels. This is huge to me.
When we woke up in the morning, we... well, we raved over the view. Are you surprised?

After a great breakfast at Eggys, which a twitter friend recommended to us knowing how close to the hotel it was, we reluctantly packed up and checked out of the hotel.

The trip from Swissotel to Adler was pretty quick, even with the air and water show going on this weekend. I have to say that the view from Adler Planetarium comes pretty close to tying with the view from our hotel room in terms of amazing.

What I love the most about Adler are the different shows that they have in the theaters and I couldn't wait to show the boys. I wasn't sure what would be best for them, but the man at the desk was really helpful in going through the different choices with me and helped me choose the two earliest shows that they would probably enjoy the most. Luke was absolutely enthralled with the way the shows worked and was excited before they even began.

Tommy was a little more skeptical, but he enjoyed them once it started and he settled in and watched it. Luke loved the way the cameras would zoom and circle and go really fast from one point to the next. I loved watching his face and watching him absorb every little bit of it. I have to say that the new Welcome to the Universe show is incredible. We were all in awe of what technology can create and it's definitely great for all ages. We also loved Night Sky Live!, which is a live show that changes seasonally and explains what stars you would be able to see in the night sky tonight and why you only see certain stars at certain times of the year.

After taking in three shows, Tommy was starting to get a little sleepy so we thought we should explore a little more. Luke really enjoyed the Telescopes exhibit. You were able to look through several different telescopes and view early concepts of telescopes, as well as see yourself through infrared. Both boys really liked that!

They were also huge fans of Planet Explorers, which has three different plays areas and is meant to inspire imaginations and learning. I like how Adler does a good job of balancing the "hands off" type of exhibits with hands on. In fact, I felt like there was more for the boys to touch and do than there was that they couldn't touch. Even in the theatre, we felt like we were a part of the shows, due to the way the screen surrounds you.

We were hardly out of the parking lot before this little astronaut was asking when we could go again--I believe that speaks for itself!

Parts of our weekend were generously provided to us by Swissotel, Shoreline Sightseeing, Lou Malnati's, and Adler Planetarium, but opinions are all my own