Birthday Party #1 for PK1

PK1 turned eight years old last week.  I know every mom says this, but it is unbelievable that I have an eight year old.  In lieu of a party this year she wanted to take her best friend and her sister to Build a Bear.  I had hoped PD could join us, but he had to work.  I was a little nervous about balancing all three girls at Build a Bear, but since they were such sweet young ladies, it all went beautifully.  When we picked up PK1's best friend, she was gifted with sea monkeys!  Our first pet(s)!  I silently cursed my friend a little, but the care of the little darling sea monkeys was quickly turned over to PD.  I just have to look at them every day on the kitchen counter. blech. But of course PK1 is delighted.

We headed right to Build-a-Bear.  They gave PK1 a birthday necklace.

Then we got lunch at Five Guys:

And came back to our house for cookie cake:

The girls played and played and played and when it was over PK1 said it was the best birthday she ever had.  High praise indeed.

Zoo School in December = brrrrrr

I swear.  I do so many things that I don't want to do these days.  And I hardly bat an eye.  OK, PD and my friends might say I fuss a bit.  But it was FREEZING at Zoo School this month, but it was also a really good one!

 I am not an animal person, but I have a couple favorite animals and one of my favorites made a personal appearance. Check out the sloth! His name was Sid.  It is so funny when they bring in the animal visitor each month.  They always arrive in a big cooler or crate with their name on it. The sloth expert was really animated and funny.

 The topic was rainforests and they studied the layers of the rainforest and the animals that reside there.  After meeting our animal visitor, they were to use a big array of craft supplies to create their own tropical bird.  They came up with some pretty cute stuff.

The PKs go to High School

PD and I had a little adult evening at a fund raiser the other night.  It was really fun and I enjoyed talking to grown ups and wearing something besides my uniform of crocs, yoga pants and a rotating array of cardigans.  Anyway, while we were there, Gram and Papa took the PKs to an arts evening at their school.  They had a great time and Papa took these pictures for me:

  

Christmas at the Zoo

We went to the Zoo Lights on the most beautiful 60 degree night!  PD was unable to join this year, but Gram and Papa, the girls and I enjoyed light crowds and gorgeous weather.  Some years we have really frozen our toes off!

The lights were beautiful as always, but the highlight this year was the Animal Show we saw.  It was the cutest thing.  All these trained animals ran around on stage.  There were dogs, cats and birds..but also kangaroos, lamas and porcupines.  The kids were mesmerized and we had great seats too.

The girls rode the Carousel without me..which was a plus because I always get a bit of nausea.  Another mommy had to help PK2 get off her horse..but that was ok.

Thanks Gram and Papa...for such a special night!

Thanksgiving 2010

Thanksgiving was so wonderful and relaxing this year.  It is fun the years we go to the big city of Chicago, but having four luxurious days at home is pretty nice too and just what we needed this year.  We slept late and watched the parade:

Packed up and headed to Gram's around noon:

I made pie:

Gram and Papa get all stocked up with our favorites.  Vino for me:

Chex mix for PD..do you think Gram made enough? (This is PK1 dipping into it before the meal.)

PD is the potato masher:

The incredible meal.  I am not kidding, every dish was perfect.

After the dishes, PK2 and I kicked back and watched a marathon of Cake Boss.  The PKs ask me "Why don't we have these shows at our house?"  Me, "Ask your father." Between you and me I think he is half too cheap to buy cable and half afraid the girls and I would stop studying Latin and start watching TLC all day! He may have a point..but whatever.

Then they played a bunch of games:

And Gram gave the girls their ornament for the year.  A bird for PK1 and Curious George for PK2..perfect!

And the day after Thanksgiving, PD and the girls went to Home Depot for light bulbs and came home with TEN poinsettias for me!  They were a dollar a piece.I should have been generous and given half away to the neighbors, but the house looks so great with all the red..that I just stink'in kept them!

We Won!

Warning: I did not get a lot of cool pictures from election night.  For my husband's sake I just couldn't be that dork with the camera all night.  But election night was pretty exciting and a little surreal.  Around 5 I dropped the girls off at Gram and Papa's and met PD downtown.  Even though we were were kind of giddy and nervous and didn't feel like eating, we went to one of our favorite restaurants just because we could.  There were a bunch of people there that kept coming up to PD and slapping him on the back and saying "good luck" and "heck of a campaign" and other stuff.  I had no idea who all these people were but I am pretty sure PD is getting to be too good for me.  It is a total Don Draper scenario. After dinner we went to a hotel where all the Republican parties were being held.  It was just in time for results to start coming in.  We stopped in at a few parties, but I wanted to watch the results and PD kind of needed to work so we were mostly in this war room full of dorks people at computers.  Here I am with my credentials.

Here is PD working...I know, these pictures are really wowing you aren't they?

Here I am texting my mom with updates. The room is empty because every time someone would give an acceptance speech in one of the ballrooms, everyone would clear out and go watch it.  I sometimes couldn't be bothered to go watch.

We were watching a lot of races because our best political friends are fundraisers and really needed some wins.  It is crazy when a lot of your friends' jobs hang in the balance with these elections. Also, the more "Rs" that won, the better climate to effect some change.  Anyway...here are the results with 40% in...it was closer at times than we had hoped, but PD was cool as a cucumber.

And here is the new first family!

PD was already in Cleveland today for policy work.  I am so proud of him!

Election Day

The girls with PD before their class this morning.