Embracing the season

Sunday night and I'm stuck reflecting on our past five days home on Thanksgiving break.  I'm completely avoiding the fact we're back to work so soon after spending some much needed family time at home.  I'd rather blog and look back at all we were able to do together this week than think of whether my lesson plans are ready for this week and whether lunches are packed.

We started our break Tuesday night by taking the boys to Pizza Hut to cash in on Sean's first Book It coupon that he earned in October.  Oddly enough, twin kids in Sean's class picked the same night, same time to go too.  Sean was so excited to earn his "passport" (gone are the days of Book It pins) and his personal pan pizza!

The boys also did a makeup swim class on Tuesday evening since our usual Thursday class fell on Thanksgiving.  Both boys are making great progress in their levels at Aqua Tots!  I'm so glad we joined there.

Wednesday was a day spent running errands and prepping for Turkey Day.  Haircuts for the boys, bookbag/paperwork clean out (seriously...a solid 10 minutes a day is spent on organizing paperwork sent home from Sean's school), and baking cookies.

What do I do when my boys start getting antsy at home and in destruction mode?  I slap some aprons on them and we whip up a batch of Peanut Butter Kiss cookies.  Yum!

Scott and I kept the annual tradition alive Wednesday night.  Gone are the "night before Thanksgiving" bar trips with friends and half our high school.  Instead, we put up the tree/lights and watch Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.  A classic pre-Thanksgiving movie and one of my favorites!

Thursday morning was lazy.  We lounged in jammies while circling the sales paper ad's and watching the parade.  Sparkling apple juice, cinnamon rolls, and bacon were served for breakfast!  In fact...we didn't get dressed until 11:30am when we realized we needed to get a move on it to get to Grandma's house.

We arrived in time for appetizers (a light lunch) and let the boys skip a nap.  A big mistake.  Crabby patties #1 and #2 surfaced later that afternoon/evening.  We made the most of it though!  It was a small group of us, but we enjoyed our day spent with family and of course, the delicious meal!

While the boys picked at dinner, they both were brave enough to try a bite of pumpkin pie.  Neither of them cared for it, but Bailey was there for the leftovers/handouts.

Friday morning we decided to take the boys to Jungle Java to let out some energy.  I figured the place would be crazy busy, but we had at least an hour with the place practically to ourselves before it started getting busy.  By noon, we were ready to head out.  A quick stop at Leo's for some lunch and we were home in time for naps.

When the boys woke up we gave them some options and of course, they chose to decorate the gingerbread house.  I made a simple spaghetti and meatball dinner while the boys worked on constructing the walls.  Then I was given the unfortunate task of decorating the house.  Man, that icing is pretty complicated material.

After dinner, in the drizzling cold rain, we ventured a mile down the road to see Santa arrive on a fire truck at the Plymouth holiday kick-off.  Hot cocoa, a magic show, and some light up wands (free from the Salvation Army!) and the boys were hooked.  Santa came, we waved, and he lit up all the trees lining downtown Plymouth.  It was an hour well spent out in the rain.

The following morning, Saturday, my mom met up with me and the boys at the Henry Ford museum.  Again, my only thought being they could let out some energy and see the Christmas decor.  That turned into visiting Santa, building a fishing pole kit, and eating lunch at the American Hot Dog Cafe!  It was fun.  Exhausting chasing them around, but fun.  And to boot, Evan didn't cry while visiting with Santa!  First time ever.

My babies are growing up...

Later that afternoon, Scott and I took the boys to see The Good Dinosaur and packed a picnic dinner to eat at the movie theater.  The movie was okay.  Definitely not worth what it cost to take a family of four to see it in the theater, but Sean loved it!

Today was a lazy day at home.  Aside from grocery shopping and laundry, it was spent letting the boys play every board game, build every puzzle, and even watch Wreck-It-Ralph.  My favorite part tonight was watching Sean, out of the blue, build his version of the Splash Mountain ride at Magic Kingdom.  This kid loves to build and is so creative!  We got out our CD we bought at the parks with the music from all the rides, queued it up to the right spot in the song, and let him re-enact the ride.  So cool!

Ahhh I'm feeling so thankful tonight!  Thankful for this wonderful week home with my family.  Thankful for the memories we made this week, this month, this year!  Thankful for our family and friends that support and love us!  And thankful for artwork that Sean brings home from school...like this gem...

Sean's....turkey!

Happy Thanksgiving!  And enjoy the start of the holiday season!

Checking in and taking a breath

Hello!  I just realized it's been two weeks since I last blogged and I'm finally finding the time and motivation, just being honest, to blog.  Considering our weekends haven't been overly busy, the weeks themselves have just been long and stressful.   We've had some fun activities, but mostly, lots of tears and phone calls to my mom.  Parenting is never easy and is never predictable.  Just when you think you've got things under control...your child dumps an entire container of cereal on the floor.

Two half days during the week leading to Halloween really threw Sean off his routine with school.  The following week started a week long of crying during before care and obsessing over whether his underwear were clean or not during the school day.   Emails to his teacher and before care director helped me get through that week, along with a "mental health day" for me on Friday.

Last week, we were over the tears and bathroom checks and moved on to bad choices and notes home requiring signatures.  Suddenly he "couldn't keep his hands to himself" and "couldn't follow directions".  Again, I found myself anxiety ridden at pick-up.  What color was Sean on today?!

And finally, a breath of fresh air this week.  I'm happy to report that two days into the school week, he's behaving great, staying on "green", and is bringing home some awesome artwork!  Now I fear Thanksgiving break next week and what will happen...(I must stay positive!).

While it's easy to get consumed by the "negative", in reality, Sean has been rocking Young 5's!  He went from hating to color and draw to suddenly choosing to do those activities at home.  And to boot, he's quite good!  He colored in this turkey above and I added the Mickey ears, hands, and buttons.  He knows all the letter sounds, can write like a champ, and is working on sight words!  Thank you, Mrs. K!  He's quite the scholar!

In other news, along with being at an elementary school, comes the barrage of birthday party invites.

Bounce house parties with his class, a Lego birthday party complete with dress-up, pin the Lego head on the Lego man, and Lego race car races - the kids have been loving these past two weekends.  I, on the other hand, am constantly running to Target to get birthday gifts!  The crazy part?  I don't even know these kids!  It's just the beginning of this phase, I'm sure.

As the soccer season ended, we signed the boys up for Aqua Tots swim lessons.  It was a much needed upgrade from the Parks and Rec swim classes.  Evan was placed in level 3 and Sean in level 5.  I still can't believe this kid can swim by himself!

And he does it with a smile - the entire time!  It's well worth the money to see him this happy doing something.  We're hoping he has the same reaction to skating and skiing this winter.  A trip to the resale shop and Play It Again Sports and we walked out with ski boots, skis, hockey skates, soccer shoes for the spring, t-ball shoes for the spring, and a ski helmet.  This kid is set!

In amidst the chaos the past two weeks and my emotional breakdown, we've managed to have some special moments as a family.  We took the boys to church (we really should be going consistently) and they went to the children's Gospel school during mass without even second guessing it!  It was awesome to see them come back excited to share what they learned.  And even better to have a good 40 minutes of time to ourselves to listen to the Gospel and the sermon uninterrupted.  Afterwards, we treated the boys to our last trip to the Cider Mill for the season.  It just happened to be their closing day!  Warm doughnuts, fresh cider, and a mild fall day put us all in good spirits!

Later that evening, I caught a cute moment.  Scott read the boys' books together before bed.  Usually, we read to them separately since they have different interests and we like to give them one-on-one time with us.  But, that evening, it was adorable to walk in on them snuggled in bed.

We were blessed to get a night out this past Friday.  We definitely needed it!  We met up with some friends in Royal Oak for dinner and drinks.  And I got a bonus night out the following evening where I met up with some girls from my study abroad program in Spain 10 years ago!  10 years...makes me feel old.

We have 5 more school days until our first break of the year and I cannot wait!  In fact, both Scott and I are counting down the days!  We survived the hardest part of the year and are really looking forward to 5 glorious days off to spend with the boys!  Other than dinner at my parents' house and possibly going to the parade, we have no plans.  And that is a blessing in itself...

I think we'll stick to my mom's turkey recipe instead of Evan's this year...

Happy Thanksgiving!

A spooktacular weekend!

Happy Halloween from the Ferstle family!!

Another Halloween season in the books.  I had a moment after the kids were in bed on Halloween night where I felt like going through all the boys' costume pictures over the years and came up with these cute collages!

There's a small part of me that was bummed that I didn't get to do coordinating costumes this year with the boys, but it was exciting to see them pick out what/who they wanted to dress up as.  And they rocked their costumes all October long!

We carved pumpkins Monday night before the weekend of Halloween.   Scott printed off some designs at work and brought them home.  I really wanted a Mickey Mouse pumpkin, but the boys had other visions.  Jack Skellington and a ghost were requested!  Pumpkins were carved, seeds were baked with some seasoning salt, and the boys took their annual picture in their jammies with the finished products!

The boys had their Halloween parties on Friday in their classrooms.  Evan doesn't usually attend on Fridays, so my mom brought him up for the party and special lunch.  Sean had a half day and a parade.  My poor mom ran around like a crazy woman going back and forth to their two parties to be there for both of them.  Thank goodness she could help!

Having my own celebrations going on at the high school, it was exciting to get the texts from my mom with picture updates on both of their parties!  Phew!

Halloween morning started off with my last trip the farmer's market for the season.  I brought the boys home some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins to enjoy as they lounged around in their pajamas watching The Nightmare Before Christmas.  Sean had his last soccer game at 11:00am and a pizza party with his team afterwards at his coach's house.  Big day!

Sean had his own cheering section since Nana, Pops, and Dixie came to the game!  But, man, it was freezing!!!  Winter jackets, hats, and gloves were a must while we were sitting still on the sidelines.  No goals from Sean this time, but he had the ball a few times and made some good plays!

The highlight, and Sean will attest to that, was getting his medal for the season!

The pizza party was directly afterwards at his coach's house!  All the families contributed by bringing a dish or drinks.  It was so nice and the boys enjoyed getting to play with toys and bond over something other than the soccer field.

We came home and bribed the boys to take a nap.  We knew it would be a late night trick-or-treating and hanging out with their cousins, so it was easy to convince them to nap.  I prepped the food I volunteered to bring and rested a bit on the couch.  It started to rain and we were all worried about the weather.  But, somehow, we managed to get a window from 6-7:30pm without rain!  So, it was warm and dry and we couldn't complain!  We had our annual chili, cornbread, and mummy hot dogs for dinner at my sister-in-law's new house and the kids were off to get their candy!

The kids had a blast!  Evan was absolutely adorable.  He tried so hard to keep up with his brother and cousins.  He kept saying, "My legs are so tired!", but he kept going!  The kids made it through a few blocks, surprisingly.  They were ready to head back and count their loot.  They changed into their pajamas and watched Inside Out while munching on candy.  It was a memorable night!

Happy Halloween, all!  We've packed away our Halloween decor and we're moving on to Thanksgiving!  Hard to believe the time is going by so quickly.  Before you know it, Christmas will be here!  Let the festivities begin!  It's my favorite time of year!!