Kids, Cranes, and a New Piano

Over the past few weeks we have spent some time with some of the young people in our life, specifically our niece, nephew, and my cousins. And they're all pretty great.

First, there's Bo, who just graduated from pre-school. Yes, you read that right--he just graduated! Whahooooo!

Front of the line, ready to get his diploma

All right--what can I do with my brand new diploma? Nothing? Okay. Where are my toys? Also, have you seen my shirt? It's great.

To celebrate this graduation, Bo's pre-school class sang an amazing song, "We Recycle," which was done to the tune of Frère Jacques.

 Then, there's Sadie, who is counting up a storm and showed her Uncle Trevor her new skills.

Two basketballs and a bunch of footballs. Why can't I count mermaids or something fun instead?

All right, Uncle Trevy-trev: one picture and then it's back to hide-and-seek. No, I will not negotiate.

And finally, there are my cousins Erica and Carly. They're smart young college students (DePaul University and Elmhurt College) who just so happen to be gorgeous. Is there a connection between their smarts and the fact that they're related to me? Well. Let's just say that there might be. (yes. the answer is yes.)

We are Boscos. We need no other explanation.

Now, I can't leave out our niece Destiny, who, although we haven't spent time with her in the past few weeks, is also smart and gorgeous. So, for a pre #TBT, here she is (and I couldn't decide which picture to post, so we have a variety [Destiny, this is what you get for not hanging out with your Aunt Laura lately...(we miss you)]):

This is Destiny, mid-dance and mid-song, at our wedding in 2007

And there she is at her mom and Neill's wedding in 2012--she's such a grown up! (this is what aunts do, Destiny...we humiliate you)

And here's D. with some more smart and gorgeous young ladies. Check out the paparazzi!

Now, on to the cranes that live in our neighborhood.

As some of you know, we moved to a neighborhood that is full of woodland creatures: flying squirrels, gophers, geese, turtles...

Yeah, this exists. And it's the best thing in the world.

...and recently there have been two sandhill cranes hanging out in the neighborhood.

We are cranes in the neighborhood. Hello. We're cranes.

But the other day they ventured away from the main hangout, and Roo and I ran into them on our afternoon walk. They were wandering through a backyard--a backyard, I might add, that is inhabited by a basset hound who is a fan of Roo.

Here's a short video of the cranes:

 And here's a slightly longer video of the cranes, the basset hound, and Roo:

Grandma Madel, our very own bird expert, told us that we should see a baby crane wandering around soon. And when that happens, I will probably crane-nap it and make it my new best friend. Pictures to come.

And here is one last video to finish this post. Last month we had my old piano moved from my brother and Paula's house to our place (G&P have been piano-sitting for the past five years since my parents moved to the city and didn't have room for it in the condo). And I discovered that I can still (sort of) peck out a tune!

So, enjoy all of that and look forward to my next post celebrating Trevor, who is very hard to pin down for a photo.

BOOM.

But I will pin him down. With words. (ha!)

See ya.

Monumental Weekend

Well, maybe this weekend wasn't exactly...monumental. But it was pretty darn nice.

Saturday was the Power family's annual excursion to Sonny Acres Farm. We've been going there every fall to ride the rides, go through the haunted houses (not me), eat caramel apples (absolutely me), and check out the Halloween shop; and this year was no different.

We rode the rides...

Daredevil Power

Dad, Sadie, and some elephants

...and went through the haunted houses, although Sadie was relegated to the Spook Shack instead of the real haunted house that only Sean and Destiny would go through. She gave it the old college try convincing her dad, though.

Dad, come on! They've taken emergency precautions, so what's the big deal?!

The cousins decided to paint their faces to finish off the afternoon.

Favorite cousins = Matching skeleton faces

I am very serious about face paint.

I made them take another picture after this because they weren't being very scary (um, Destiny, skeletons don't smile).

Much better

We left the farm and headed to Pal Joey's for pizza. By this point Dest had gotten rid of her skeleton face, but Sadie was still going strong. And as everyone knows, skeletons are really big into roaring.



Trevor and I also enjoy making faces at our favorite niece, so we spent some time doing that, too.

We called it a night to get home and take care of Roo, whose belly was grumbling and who was having a hard time sleeping because she was so excited about today's Hound Town Halloween Bash.

Yes, that's right--today was Roo's first costume party! Her costume has been ready for over a month (I did some early shopping), but I had to get my costume ready, too, so that the two of us could participate in the neighborhood dog park's parade. She was a hot dog and I was a bottle of mustard.

Her costume was store-bought but was the perfect costume for her:

Our little hot dog

 But I decided to make mine, so I added some iron-on letters to a yellow t-shirt and knitted a goofy mustard hat.

 

There were lots of dogs there--two bumble bees, a cheerleader, football player, and umpire, Superman and Supergirl, an alligator, a Home Depot employee, a banana split, a witch, and even another hot dog (although Roo was the cutest hot dog. obviously).

Roo found a plate full of spaghetti and meatballs to play with before we walked in the parade:

Don't play with your food!

Mustard!

My friend Lisa and her two daughers in pumpkin shirts walked with us

Not only did we have a great time, but Roo won "Silliest Costume"! She is so very much my dog.

When we got home, Trevor tried out his new leaf blower and I baked some pumpkin pies from the pie pumpkin I got a couple weeks ago. The pies turned out to be pretty tasty--though a little clovetastic--and they were a good companion to tonight's episode of The Walking Dead. And now I am typing this post and watching Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (I thought it was the original and am disappointed but still watching it [because of laziness]).

I've been working on Halloween decorations for the house, and that will be my next post. Here's a little taste until I get it up:

Um, a little help here?

Until then, stock up on candy and get ready for trick-or-treaters coming soon to a neighborhood near you!

Happy New Year! (wait, it's January 7th. well, happy new year, anyway)

Greetings, fellow humans!

It's two weeks past Christmas and one week past New Year's Eve, and less than one week until I start a new semester. So, here are some things to wrap up and some things to look forward to!

First, when we saw you last we were only beginning our four days of magical Christmas romping. We'd gone to John and Fran Power's place for a Very Power Christmas, and we were gearing up for some Bork and Bosco time (and some Bosco Bork time. it's not as confusing as it sounds, really).

We hung out with the Borks for some pre-Christmas Sunday supper. Bo got some cool new toys:

Not pictured: the 72 piece blocks set that will stay at Grandma Bork's house and some new Matchbox cars from his auntie and uncle

I, too, got some cool new toys, courtesy of Paula and Greg (let's be clear: it was all Greg).

Racing grannies, an angry nunzilla (who is yelling at the grannies) and a cow about to shoot that ball out of his pie hole right at the nunzilla (Trevor has been shooting that cow at me for two weeks now. thanks, Greg. thanks ever so much.)

Greg also got me this ermahzing rubber chicken. Don't feel bad; I put that sign on him. It used to be on the little pink doll, but I thought the chicken made more sense in our household.

But the pièce de résistance is the sound that my new effigy makes. Here, take a listen.

So, after the gift exchanging, we said our goodnights...

Good night, Grandpa!

...and Trevor and I popped over to Sean and Angi's place for one last hang-out with Rae and the gang. We played Cards Against Humanity and laughed until our faces hurt.

Rae, Auntie Fran, Uncle Neilly, and Sadie (who is eating...something)

Christmas Eve morning was spent with the Madels in River Forest and we were so happy to get to see Doug and Jean, Becca and Jason and their families, but also Grandma, Grandpa, and Jim, who'd all driven down from Door County for the holiday. We did some brunching, some chatting, and a little bit of gifting.

Sadie got a cool new house with locks and keys from Grandma and Grandpa Madel

Gradma Madel tries on a new shawl while Angi, Sadie, and Sean stand by

Grandpa, Jean, and Destiny

Grandma checks out the owl jar from T. and me

Destiny asked me to not put this on the blog. So here it is. I love being an aunt.

After T. and I gave our stomachs a rest and our bodies a nap, we headed downtown to spend Christmas Eve eve with the Boscos, Borks, and Ericksons. We ate a lot,

Grandma! I can fit this entire pear slice in my mouth.

And now I can cut another piece! By myself! (um, no, you can't. put down that knife.)

talked a lot, and gifted a little more.

What?! MORE toys? Holy Christmas, Batman!

Uncle Jimmy is, as always, Santa Claus.

On Christmas morning, Trevor and I woke up and lounged around with coffee and the new books we'd exchanged (oh, what? you're surprised that we get each other books for Christmas?), and then wandered over to the Bosco's house to stuff ourselves on pizza, macaroni and cheese, and pie. I think there might have also been salad, but I don't know what kind of beanbag was paying attention to that.

This is what Bo did that morning:

Oh my goodness! Look at my OUTFIT! I'm SO CUTE!

So that was that. Almost immediately after Christmas, on Trevor's first official day of vacation that wasn't a national holiday, he got sick. So we hung out a lot inside, watching t.v. and movies, reading our many new books, and slowly weaning ourselves off of holiday food. It was hard since both Fran Power Sr. and Grandma Madel had sent us home with eight hundred thousand cookies.

We had a quiet New Year's Eve--just dinner out and then some movie watching--and then Trevor's cold germs finally caught up with me last Thursday. So I'm coughing like a...a person who has a chest cold (sorry, that's the best I could do) and starting to really rev up for my faculty workshop day on Thursday and the first day of the semester, which is next Monday.

We hope that everyone else had just as lovely, family filled, and as fattening a holiday season as we did. Happy New Year, to all!

Christmas Begins

I turned in my final grades last Friday and almost immediately started to prepare--really prepare--for the holidays. It included the following:

Shopping

My bags were heavy with wares from a trip to the outlet malls with my friend Kate

Wrapping

Baking

Yes, that's butter. Lots of butter.

And yes, those are dinosaur sprinkles. Merry Christmasaurus.

Eating

The Bûche de Noël at La Petite Creperie in Woodstock

The remains of Wyatt, the turkey, from our Friendsgiving (Trevor and I did not participate in the Wyatt consumption)

Crepes from Iguana Cafe

And hanging out with some fantastic people

Like some of my coworkers for our end-of-semester holiday feast...

This is where that log cake de noel came in.

Our Friendsgiving friends...

Cristen, mixing up some egg whites for homemade egg nog

Jayson, taking a picture before we sat down to eat

My awesome mentee Angelica...

Angelica with her presents before we hunkered down for some crepes

And family...

On Friday, I went with Mom and Bosco to check out the model train display at the Hancock Center.

Taking it all in...

Still taking it in..

We walked home from the Hancock and had some lunch before playing with some cool blocks. It was the perfect day.

Applesauce: the snack you eat right after lunch

Blocks!

 On Saturday the Power clan got together. Rae was able to fly in from Florida, but we missed Letty, who's been helping out in Atlanta for the last few weeks and only got back to FL yesterday. She'll stay at home for the holidays, but then go back to the TSA office in Atlanta until they can find a replacement (a replacement for Letty? impossible, so good luck, suckers).

Sadie ripping open her Ugg boots from Destiny

Sadie showing off her Girl PoWEr tee shirt from Auntie Rae and Auntie Letty

The cousins Sadie and Destiny--Sadie is in her final of four costume changes for the night

Angi with her new loud eyed baby Dora

Tonight we'll go over to Mom and Dad Bork's place to do some gift exchanges, and then to Sean and Angi Power's to hang out with them and Rae before she has to leave tomorrow. There will be more eating, drinking, and hanging out with our favorite people, and we'll be sure to take some pictures. But until then, Merry Christmas!