Halloween

Because Halloween fell on a Saturday this year, we got two days straight of the holiday with the school celebrations on Friday and then trick-or-treating the next night. Kiera, Soren and Matteo had their Halloween party at preschool on Friday morning and then parents were invited to Oliver's school at the end of the day for their Halloween parade.  Oliver and I finished the evening with a party at a fellow host family's house.  The back staircase of the their three-story home was turned into a haunted house.  We kept climbing up and up through the darkened staircase where there was a surprise for us around every twist and turn.  It was quite phenomenal. 

On Saturday afternoon I took the kids up to their grandparent's house to show off the costumes.  Grandma and Grandpa made an appropriate fuss over them.

It rained on and off much of the afternoon and I kept checking the forecast in hopes it would clear up in time because I had four kids bouncing off the walls desperate for it to be time to go trick-or-treating.  We held them off until darkness fell, it quit raining and out the door we went!

I wasn't sure how much Matteo and Kiera would like Halloween since there's  a lot that can scare a little kid, and Oliver and Soren didn't necessarily get caught up in the hype at that age, but they really enjoyed themselves.  Although they really couldn't say "trick or treat," they did understand that if they held out their bags, someone would drop candy in them and of course they liked that!  And then they were off tailing their brothers to the next house.

We continued down our street and back up the other side and visited some of our favorite neighbors along the way.  The boys eventually got tired and wanted to go back home to count their loot, so Kiera, Celina and I continued on with our next-door-neighbors to check out the crazy Halloween decorations some of the houses in our neighborhood have up.  The weather I had been so worried about ended up providing the perfect backdrop to Halloween with a mist that shrouded the neighborhood.  

Chris' bat and Dracula pumpkins flanked Celina's Tinkerbell.

Halloween - a Trip Down Memory Lane

I first met Chris' parents at their house for dinner where we had gathered for his brother Andy's birthday.  They entertained me with stories from Chris' and Andy's childhoods, which quickly lead to the story of the year Nan dressed the boys as matching daisies.  After dinner was over, Dan paged through some old photo albums until he found the photographic proof.  This picture possibly explains why Andy (and to a lesser extent Chris) do not think dressing siblings in matching outfits is cute. (Unfortunately for them, their wives agree with their mother and think this is ADORABLE.)

Andy and Chris as daisies, circa 1986

The year of the bumblebee was not as emasculating, but still just as hilarious.

Sadly, Nan didn't get much say in Halloween costumes past 1986.  The boys eventually wanted to be cowboys or football or baseball players and Nan's sewing machine didn't get much use every October.

A couple grandchildren changed all that though. Long before I was even thinking about Halloween, Nan was picking out patterns for Halloween costumes and announced one day that she was making a mouse costume for Kiera.  And then there was suddenly a Dalmatian costume for Soren and a cow costume for Matteo. Multiple costume fittings were involved, which Nan undertook while at our house for speech therapy appointments.

Dress rehearsal for the year of the cow, Dalmatian and mouse, circa 2015

Even Uncle Andy reluctantly admitted they were pretty darn cute, but only because they weren't dressed in matching outfits.

New Family Pictures

A friend of mine has given me grief for not updating our family picture on my blog.  We've only been home, what eight months? 

Well, if you were at our family's photo shoot, you'll know why it's taken this long to get new photos.  My kids generally do not like to smile nicely for the camera.  Thus, a lot of our photos looked like this.

But we did get some nice shots. (Spoiler alert - many of these will be featured on our Christmas card.)

School Pictures

Oliver's school pictures came back today.  These are the ones I had stressed over because he's not super cooperative with smiling for the camera and the day they were taken, I was dealing with Matteo's newly-broken arm and possible surgery, so that whole day was a stressful blur.  I couldn't even remember what Oliver had worn or if I had brushed his hair. 

I peeled open the envelope and found a beautiful picture of my six-year-old little boy.  Except, he suddenly didn't look so little. He looked so grown up!  How did that happen?  It was just weeks ago he was a nervous-wreck starting school. 

In my in-law's house are framed pictures of Chris' and Andy's school pictures from kindergarten through 12th grade. As shocked as I am by how grown up Oliver looks in his kindergarten picture, I can't imagine what he'll look like as a high schooler.

Soren at Four Years Old

Chris said he just loves the age Soren is now.  He's playful and sweet and full of imagination.  Plus it can't hurt that he's a daddy's boy.  Like his brothers, Soren is all about dad.  He likes to go wherever Chris goes, whether it's on another Home Depot run or outside to do yard work.  Of course Chris loves this age, he's got a sidekick! 

Meanwhile, I'm mourning the fact that Soren doesn't necessarily want snuggle with me anymore at bedtime.  I still get hugs and kisses, but not the snuggles where he pulls me close until my cheek presses against his.  It breaks my heart, even though he demonstrates that he still needs his mommy.  The mornings are particularly cute/pitiful when I leave for work.  A single hug - or 10 - won't do.  He's got to follow me out the door and get another hug on the porch and then as I walk to the car he needs to open the storm door and scream/cry/desperately proclaim that he loves me and that he's going to miss me.  On more than one occasion, he was getting dressed when I left and he came flying out of the house in his underwear, or that he time he came out in nothing but his socks.  I tell you, we provide endless entertainment for the neighbors. 

On a recent workday morning, I didn't have to say goodbye to him.  He had been sick the day before and couldn't go to preschool and I was home sick from work too.  My other kids were at school and as I lay in bed trying to rest, Soren played quietly with his Legos just outside my bedroom.  I snuggled under the covers and listened to him talk out loud to himself about what he was making with his Legos and to the stories he created as he played. It was an unusual kind of background noise, but so soothing, and at that moment I wished I could have bottled up his four-year-old innocence. 

There's nothing sadder than a kid sick on his birthday and that unfortunately was the case for Soren.  He rang in his fourth year with a super high fever and no appetite, not even for cake.  All the fun things we had planned for his birthday, which was an unusually warm 83-degree day, pretty much went out the window.  The good news is that his birthday cupcakes weren't going to go bad if we put them aside for a day or two until he got better.  He was feeling well enough the next day that we were able to pick up where we had left off and finally feasted on the lemon cupcakes with vanilla frosting that he had requested. 

After I posted Soren's birthday pictures on Facebook and later an old picture from my father-in-law's birthday 29 years ago, my sister-in-law sent us two photos side-by-side to highlight the resemblance she noticed between Soren and his Uncle Andy.  I regretted cutting Soren's hair right before his birthday, because if I'd left his blond mop, he would have looked that much more like his uncle.  It's funny how we had never noticed the resemblance before.  

Soren at age four and his Uncle Andy at age two and a half.

Crazytown: Three Three-Year-Olds

For 11 days every year, we will have three kids the same age.  This year is the year of the "threes".  This picture exemplifies what it's like to have three three-year-olds.  It's part exciting, part loud, part chaotic and part fun.  They're either displaying incredible teamwork to do something like put a puzzle together or they're destroying the house at three times the speed a single kid could accomplish the task.

Then Soren turns four and our family sounds a little less crazy when I tell them that we have four children, ages six, four and three. 

Another ER Visit

It was a long, long week at our house.  The kids passed around illnesses ranging from 105 fevers to ear infections and in the middle of it all, Chris hopped on a plane to Dallas for another business trip.  He sent me this text from the airport.  

Dropping the kids off was a breeze.  Matteo didn't even give a hug goodbye.  He was so pumped about coloring with his friends.  That was a nice way to start a work trip.

I was still smiling after reading Chris' text when I opened up the other text I had received.  This one was from Celina.

Soren pushed Matteo down the stairs and he is crying a lot because his arm is hurting.  I don't think it's broken, but I'm not sure.  One arm is bigger than the other one. 

We hadn't received the bill from Soren's fishhook ER visit and back to the hospital I was headed with another injured kid.  I wasn't even sure Matteo's arm was even broken though.  You had to look closely to notice the swelling, but then Celina mentioned that when she lifted his arm, she heard a crackling sound.  She imitated the sound and there was nothing lost in translation.  That's no sound a bone should make.

Matteo is a stoic little boy.  Once he stopped crying after he fell, he remained pretty calm.  He wanted to lie on the couch or sit in someone's lap instead of playing, but if you didn't notice his arm limp at his side, he could have fooled you that he wasn't injured.  He even looked slightly amused about getting to ride in a Radio Flyer wagon at the children's hospital and used his good arm to curiously point at pictures in the books I brought to read to him while we waited.

The triage nurse, the ER nurse and the ER doctor all examined Matteo's arm, noted his demeanor and decided he must be suffering from "nursemaid's elbow," even as they admitted that diagnosis didn't make much sense since such an injury is caused by pulling on the arm and not falling on it like Matteo had. I called Chris and complained that I was sitting in the ER for something I could have probably fixed myself and he made me promise I'd leave fixing his future middle linebacker's arm to the professionals.  The professional tried twisting the ligament in Matteo's arm back into place, he screamed, the doctor apologized and sent Matteo straight for an x-ray.

Matteo's arm was broken.  He had a fracture of his supracondylar humerus, to be exact.  The humerus is the upper arm bone between the shoulder and elbow and I think "supracondylar" means "above the elbow." The location of the fracture is a spot in the humerus that is much weaker in young children than adults, which is why the fracture Matteo experienced is the most fracture to occur in children.  


A supracondylar humerus fracture can cause complications, such as nerve damage and impaired circulation, and sometimes requires surgery (in addition casting) to correct.  Based on what the doctor could see in the x-ray, she suspected Matteo might need surgery.  She sent Matteo home with a splint and some painkillers, and told us to follow up with the orthopedic the next day.

I called the next morning and the nurse I spoke to said that if he needed surgery, they would want to do it that day, which meant that poor Matteo was cut off of all food and drink from that point on.  This also meant poor Celina, because she was the one at home with a kid she wasn't allowed to feed all day.  (I'm telling you, this woman is earning her stripes with our family!)

Thankfully surgery wasn't required and I let Matteo tear into the snacks we had brought with us before they sat him down to put a cast on his arm.  They brought out samples of the colors available and he chose a blue cast. 

Now to keep our fingers crossed that his arm heals quickly and he only needs to have the cast for the estimated four weeks. 

Our little man with his new cast.

A Birthday Party Times Three

Chris and I were inspired by an article in Minnesota Parent magazine called The best $50 party.  The author described his simple idea of the goal of a kid's birthday party. 

"Keep the kids as occupied as possible for as long as possible. (Duh.) Use things you mostly have at hand. And build in a little friendly competition with interesting rules."

We pitched the idea to the kids, who loved it.  Apparently having "stations" of activities in their preschool class had been all the rage and suddenly our DIY birthday party with "stations" trumped the birthday party warehouse full of bouncy castles.

With Oliver weighing in on station ideas, Chris and I set to work planning the party. Because we decided to host a joint birthday party for all three boys since their birthdays fall within two weeks of each other, we had the challenge of finding easy activities that would appeal to three-year-olds, four-year-olds and six-year-olds (and their older and younger friends who'd be attending the party).  We also have a really small house, a guest list that included 20 kids (plus any parents who decided/needed to stick around) and Minnesota fall weather that doesn't necessarily guarantee the option of an outdoor party.

We decided on the following stations, some of which might not have been fully planned until late the night before the party, but hey, we got it done. 

• Lego invention contest (with the littlest ones tasked with building something "tall and awesome" out of Duplos)
• Mummy toilet paper game
• Paper airplane flying contest
• Treasure hunt

On the day of the party we lucked out not only with weather that was mostly sunny and 60 degrees, but also three 20-something-year-old helpers.  We had thought it was sweet that our au pair Celina wanted to attend the party on her day off, but were super impressed when she asked if she could help out.  Even though we were plenty grateful for her help, she then came back to us and asked if two of her au pair friends could help too.  One of them even brought a homemade cake!  They got right to work helping to decorate and then ran all ran all over the block hiding treasure hunt clues before the party started.

Once most of the guests arrived, I divided the kids into three teams based roughly on age.  The birthday boys were all on different teams with each of the au pairs as "captain".  I sent the teams to different sections of the house and gave them about 15 minutes to work on their Lego creations. 

Oliver's team with their final creation. 

They followed through with the direction to build something "tall and awesome."

The next activity on the agenda was the mummy toilet paper game.  The kids had 10 minutes to wrap their captains up in toilet paper to look like a mummy.  We went outside in the front yard for this activity and I'm sure we attracted a lot of attention from the neighbors!

The game was a loud, crazy good time and Celina, Alina and Regina were such great sports. 

We were supposed to do the paper airplane contest next, but I was worried about having enough time for the final activity, so I nixed the contest and went right to the treasure hunt.  It took the kids a clue or two to get into the rhythm of figuring out the clues, but with a few helpful hints from their captains, they were off and running.  As captain of Oliver's team full of six- and seven-year-olds, Celina got one heck of a work-out in during the treasure hunt. Those kids ran from clue to clue and barely gave Celina a chance to catch her breath.  

And they're off!

The final clue for each team sent everyone back to our front porch where they found their "treasure," which was a sack of 40-piece Lego sets, with one for each kid.  Those went over very well with the kids and gave us parents an alternative to providing the dreaded goodie bags. 

With all the kids back to our home base, we set picnic blankets out on the lawn and helped the kids bring dinner outside.  We had ordered pizzas and provided other munchies that did not require utensils.  We finished the party with a round of singing "Happy Birthday" and lots of cake. 

After the kids were tucked into bed that night, Chris insisted on the two of us drinking a celebratory beer.  The birthday party had been a success, but also a lot of work!  A lot of prep went into the party - writing out clues for the treasure hunt, baking and decorating a cake, cleaning the house and shopping for food and party supplies - and many people pitched in to pull it off.  Of course it was all worth it though.  Birthday parties with silly games, homemade cake and lots of friends and family are the kinds of memories I want to make for my kids.