Zoo Lights 2011

One of my favorite traditions that we have started is our annual trip to Zoo Lights. This year we had to bump our first scheduled date and were running out of time, but on the 28th we made it. As always, it was quite beautiful and a lot of fun.

The view on the main pavilion

Alex with Humphrey Snowgart

The trees in the sea lion habitat dance to music.
This picture does not do it justice.

In one of the light tunnels, a new addition this year.

Alex and Dad with the snowman,
our annual photo op

Christmas Celebrations

Prior to traveling for the larger family Christmas, the three of us had our own little celebration.

Putting together one of the new Lego minifigures

One of his new Toy Story books
I love that in the middle of the celebration, he stopped to
read his new book. He even asked if he could.

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has
become a bit of an obsession this year

For the big family gathering we met in St. Louis this year. The last time we had Christmas outside of Mt. Carmel was when I was Alex's age when we went to visit my grandparents in Florida.

Dad's played this game with all of the grandkids

This year, Alex got him back

Mom opening the annual calendar

Patiently waiting

Alex got to pass out the gifts,
an honor going to the youngest in the family
(Forrest and I had the longest stints in that position)

A Tale of Two Hanukkahs

We had our first Hanukkah of the year over Thanksgiving with Dave's family, and we had our own celebration starting tonight. Both were very fun and festive, although there were fewer silly hats at tonight's celebration.

Lighting the menorah.

Hot Wheels! Not sure who is more excited about this.

A new book from Aunt Laura!

Joshua lighting the menorahs.

Looking at this year's calendar with Grandpa Diamond.

Two silly boys in silly hats!

Self Portrait

Alex's class has been hard at work making self portraits. Last night, he came home with a carefully wrapped package, and it was his portrait framed. I love that it's such a happy picture and am pleasantly surprised at how much detail he put into it.

The artist with his self portrait

Decorating

This weekend we put up our tree and a few other Christmas decorations. Here are some shots to share the fun.

He loved putting on the ornaments.

Mommy got to help too.

So proud of the tree, which includes
a popsicle stick creation of his that he asked to add.

I didn't get a good picture of him setting up the snowmen,
but here's one of him standing with the snowman family.

In front of the stockings.

He wanted to put these jingle bells on his door as a doorbell.

Soccer Class

I am woefully behind on posts and have lots to catch up on, but that will have to wait for another day. Today, however, we have video and a picture to share from Alex's first soccer lesson. He had a great time but complained on the way home that it wasn't really soccer because they didn't play a game. He kept watching the older kids on the field next to us and wanting to play with them.

In his uniform, getting the hang of being on the field.

Click here to see him doing a jumping drill.

Click here to see them working with the ball, freezing, and then kicking and running when the "avalanche" comes. Alex is on the left of the screen.

Back Seat Driving

Alex often likes to help point out parking spaces, but yesterday he went in to full-on back seat driver mode. We were in heavy traffic on the expressway when I hear this from the back seat: "Mommy, we need to be in a different lane." Then, a few minutes later, when I hadn't moved I hear: "Why haven't we changed lanes? That lane is moving faster."

Happy Halloween

Traffic conspired against us, but we made it home in time to do some Trick-or-Treating. Or, as Alex likes to call it, Happy Trick or Treat!

We weren't quite sure what costume Alex would wear tonight. For the last two years he was a monkey. That costume is a bit too small for him, but when we went to the Zoo's Halloween festivities, he wanted to wear it. He and Dave also built a robot costume a month or so ago that we thought would make a great Halloween costume.  They labeled it the XF-17 after a Curious George episode called "Robot Monkey." (I think you can see where this story is going...) So, on the big night, he decided to go full-on George and dress as the Robot Monkey. Even though he regularly took off the robot part of the costume to make it easier to navigate candy collection, he loved being a robot monkey and was a big hit in the neighborhood.

At the start of our night

Trick or Treat!

Robot Monkey

Enjoying the spoils

Big Boy Bed

Alex has graduated out of the toddler bed and into a real big boy bed. He loves it! Of course it is decked out in Toy Story sheets, so we stacked the deck a bit. Now the next project will be wall paper removal and new paint.

Day Trip to Michigan

We had a fun adventure traveling to Michigan today. Our friends Dan and Reva gave us a heads up about a Harvest Festival at an orchard in Union Pier. We made a day of it and spent about an hour hiking in Warren Woods State Park, made a quick stop in Sawyer (where Alex saw the tallest scarecrow I've ever seen -- it was about two stories high and had two pumpkin heads), and then headed to the festival. The festival had apple pizza, apple pie, and homemade ice cream. We had a tractor ride, picked apples and pears, and listened to some fun music, including a jug band. It was a great way to take advantage of this wonderful weather we are having.

Hiking with a stick

In the "cave" made by a fallen tree

Checking out a spider making its web

More fallen trees

Apple picking

Having fun in the apple trees

Tractor ride!

Birthday Party Fun

We had a fun party at the house for Alex's birthday with some of his best buddies: Cecily, Nicholas, and Owen, as well as Owen's sister Maddi. Alex had been asking for a party at Pump It Up for months. We weren't going to go that route, but we were fortunate enough to have a friend who has a reasonably sized bounce house that we could fit in our basement (after moving the couch and coffee table out of the way). Bouncing was a big hit! We also had a book exchange (that did not go as smoothly as I had hoped, which was my fault), and the kids did an art project to make bookmarks, keeping with the book theme. The other theme of the party was Toy Story, which Alex loved, especially the cake.

In the bounce house with Cecily

Even Maddi spent some time in the bounce house

It didn't take long for Nicholas
and Owen to find the trucks.

Busy crafters

Alex made a circus bookmark

Owen even joined in!

The Toy Story cake

Alex was "hiding" while everyone sang

Alex and Cecily enjoying cake

Phase 1 of the book exchange

Happy 4th Birthday Alex!

Hard to believe it, but the little guy is now four years old. Here are a few pictures of today's fun, with more to come. (We recently changed operating systems, and the pictures are giving me some headaches.)

Passing out birthday cupcakes to his classmates.

The happy birthday boy!

More cupcakes. This time with frosting and a candle.