thanksgiving morning....

Thanksgiving morning we were up at 5:00am, so we could get down to the parade. Our check-in time was 5:45, with rehearsal at around 6:10... ugh.

Jeff and I were pretty groggy... but Alex was pretty bright-eyed....
And then it was time to rehearse in the dark.

Here's Jim, getting ready to start the number...

Rehearsing...


After a quick run through, it was time to go back to the "green room" on Daley Plaza to wait. I took a quick snap of the tree there...
We hung out for about an hour and a half (thank goodness I had put some "board games" on my phone that the kids could play) and then it was time for the actual broadcast.

Hanging out in the holding pen...

.... it amused me... it was an actual corral this year.

And then the broadcast began with the Barnum and Bailey group...
Another act followed then, and then it was our turn.

Getting ready to begin...
The toy soldier....
Raggedy Andy...
The gang of Santa's toys...
And now the kids....
They ran in and danced a circle around Santa.... but this year there were sooooo many people out where the there were only camera men last year that it was nearly impossible to get a clear shot. You will see random people in every single shot I took (plus you'll see them in the broadcast too.... ugh).



The End! :-)

After grabbing our gear in the green room, I took a couple of quick pics of Alex in his Jake costume in front of the tree....


And then it was time to head home for a big breakfast and a low key day before heading to dinner with friends later.

Here's the video of the performance...

The Scrambled States of America....

Today was Clara's first school assembly. Her class worked together with the fourth grade class to present a little skit called The Scrambled States of America. She got to be Louisiana.

Here she is delivering her line "I like to Cajun dance"...
And at the end, they all sang Fifty Nifty United States....

It was so much fun to see and she had a great time.

(excuse the photos.... I forgot to change my lens before we left and had to make due with what was on my camera)

Also... just a little FYI... Clara was very concerned about which yellow shirt she owned would be the most appropriate, so she packed all of her yellow shirts in her bag. I guess it was a good thing as she changed shirts several times today, due to spills... sigh. :-)

McDonald's Thanksgiving Day Parade...

... if you get WGN, watch for Alex and the fabulous cast of Miracle on 34th Street performing at the McDonald's Thanksgiving Day Parade... they are scheduled to go on at 8:12:56 AM Central.

And just for fun... here's last year's performance...

The Man with the Bag...

... from this year's production of Miracle...

Miracle 2010 from Porchlight Music Theatre on Vimeo.

(watch my poor red-headed boy attempt to dance) :-)

press opening

Yesterday was the press opening for Miracle on 34th Street. Jeff stayed backstage to help with the kids so Clara and I could go in and watch.

After the show, the kids went up to have their photo taken with Santa.

Here they are waiting in line for their turn...
and now sitting with Santa (aka... Jim)...
It was fun.... during the show they pick kids from the audience to sit on Santa's lap during the department store scene... and this year Clara got to be one of the kids. It was fun for her to be on the other side, watching and enjoying the show.

After the show, there was a reception with food and drinks.

Here are the kids from the cast posing for a photo...
And one of Alex and his "dad"....
... Thomas Mara and Thomas Mara, Jr.

It was a good time, but we were pretty worn out from our weekend so we cut out a little early so we could go home and just relax. I think it was the first night this week that we were all in the same place at the same time for dinner!

the transformation...

from Alex Radtke....





to....
... Thomas Mara, Jr.

Miracle on 34th Street opens this weekend!!!

because I can't put up a post...

...without a photo, I finally finished this layout that's been sitting open on my desktop for about a week now...
(supplies: My Style Template Pack 3 and Strange Dream Kit... all by Miss Kim Designs)

Life is crazy here since this is tech week for Alex.... press opening on Sunday!! So exciting! He'll be a red head again on Thursday and I'll be sure and take lots of photos.

Gosh... I really don't have much to say today.... I usually just ramble on about whatever photos I post, but this time I just have a layout... oh well... I'll try to take some photos to talk about for the next post! :-)

fashion...

This morning was the Joffrey Nutcracker Family Dinner Kick-Off Event... a fashion show at Nordstrom. Clara was so excited to be in a fashion show with her friends!

Here she is with some of the girls from her ballet class...
.... their class has really become a pretty tight knit group. They have so much fun together.

Clara was pretty nervous before the show started... but she got right out there and walked the runway...

and even added....
a spin....
:-)

She did great and had so much fun with her friends. She had a four day weekend (they had Thursday and Friday off from school) and she was so pleased that she got to see her two friends from dance ALL four days of her weekend!

saturday...

Another crazy Saturday... we were only briefly all at the same place at the same time today.

First up... Clara had sewing at 10am. We ran her and her friend over to class... and while I was there and they were occupied in class, I was able to pick up a few stocking stuffers for Clara.

Then it was back home (after a couple errands) to hang out with Alex for a while. This is how the boys spent most of their time...
... with their laptops and Starbucks (the one Alex has was actually mine which he finished off for me... Chai Tea Soy Latte).

Then it was time to run him over to rehearsal at 12:30.... just in time to go pick up Clara and her friend from sewing.

Today they finished up their jumpers from last week...
...and even had time to make matching jumpers for their dolls! Clara is totally in love with her new jumper... she wore it all day and is currently sleeping in it. It's fleece, so it's very warm and cozy.

We picked up Alex at 4:00 and then Clara and I went to her dance class at 5:00. The four of us moms went to a nearby restaurant to hang out while the girls had class.... it was a nice little hour and a half out :-)

While we were at class.... Jeff and Alex headed out for their guys' night out! They went out for wings before going to see the Fab Faux (a Beatles tribute band). Alex LOVES the Beatles and they both love seeing the Fab Faux (this is their second show). The last show they saw was the white album... this time it's Abbey Road. From the texts that I'm getting... they're having a fabulous time!

Clara and I came back to our neighborhood after dance... ate out and then picked up a movie from redbox. We had a relaxing evening watching Barbie, A Fashion Fairytale.

Now we're off to bed... we have a busy morning ahead of us!

glasses...

Two photos today.... one that makes me laugh and one that makes me smile :-)

First the one that makes me laugh....
... the girls were at Nordstrom picking out their outfits for an upcoming fashion show when they happened upon these glasses. Stylish, no?

And now the one that makes me smile...
... the boy, his glasses and a book. Like I said, since he's gotten his new glasses, he hasn't stopped reading! Love it!

eyes....

I had my eyes opened on Wednesday... Alex and I were waiting on the L platform after his guitar/drums class. I was showing him my big score on my favorite app (Words with Friends)... and he couldn't read it. He made a couple of attempts but never came up with the right number. I tried to dismiss it... the font is tiny, there was a glare from the sun, etc. But I knew that wasn't it. As I continued to think about it, I realized some other things that had happened lately.... my normally voracious reader had read very few books lately.... tending to read more of Clara's larger print chapter books from school versus what he would normally read.... he would always start to read at bedtime but would go on to bed because he was "just too tired to read"... and then we had some school issues (hopefully I'll post more on that on my homeschooling blog).

So, yesterday morning I called and got him in for an eye exam.

Here he is checking out the equipment before his exam....

(he looks like he thinks it's going to attack him, doesn't he?)

Well... he's farsighted, just a bit and the doctor suggested reading glasses. You should have seen the excitement on Alex's face when she put the lenses up for him to look through while reading this card she had handed him. He was so excited that everything was clear again!

So, here's the boy in his new glasses....
I'm so excited for him! Later he talked about how much he has missed books and reading.... he just hadn't really been able to pinpoint the reason why he had stopped reading. Now, since he's had his glasses, he hasn't stopped reading (he has a fairly substantial backlog of books to read). He even took his glasses and book to rehearsal last night and read every chance he got! I'm so happy to have my reader back... and I think he's really glad to be back too!

sad girl :-(

Yesterday Clara dislocated her elbow playing at recess. She has had a tendency to do this since she was little. We honestly thought she was outgrowing it... but I guess not (and given this episode, I think it has happened other times recently, but popped back in on it's own). Her friend and her were playing and her friend swung her around by the arm. That's all it took. She couldn't move it at all when I picked her up from school. I started making calls and canceled her afternoon appointment and lessons... then Jeff took us to the ER. She was in pain, but it was manageable... unless you tried to move her arm, then the tears really started to flow. Just to rule out a fracture, we were sent to x-ray... in the process of positioning her for the x-rays, her elbow popped back into joint. It still hurt, but she was able to move it again. We hung around a while longer while they looked at the x-rays to confirm that there were no fractures... and then we were free to go (about 2.5 hours total time in ER and Urgent Care). Thankfully, one of our good friends had stopped by on his way home from work to check on Clara and he gave us a ride home (Jeff had taken Alex to swim). As an added bonus... she has today and tomorrow off from school, so she's lounging around in her pj's, taking it easy and letting her arm heal!

floor hockey

Alex has been taking a sports class through the park district and he has been loving it! They work on different sports, but mainly, this term, they've been working on floor hockey in preparation for a park district tournament. In order to make a team, they combined Alex's class with the actual floor hockey class. Last night was their first game in the tournament. Alex had volunteered to be the team's goalie and that is the position he had been practicing at all term. The thought of him as goalie made me a nervous wreck! He can be so hard on himself sometimes and if the other team scored on him, I thought it could send him over the edge. Well, he did awesome!! I was so impressed! They did score on him, twice, but he dealt with it and kept going. He made some very impressive saves too!! He got quite a workout, as he played goalie the whole game and the other team made lots of scoring attempts.

(you've got to love the park district's makeshift equipment)


It was so much fun to watch! The other mothers from the class were really nice and we laughed and cheered together. You couldn't help getting into the game! Especially when they won....
.... 3-2.... now on to the next round!

Such a fabulous night for Alex.... he rarely gets positive feedback when it comes to sports... especially team sports... but he made some big saves right at the end and his teammates ran over to tell him "good job" when the game ended. The moms all made a point to say something to him too. Even the ref from the game stopped him as he went out to congratulate him on his saves. I know it's just a little tournament for a park district class... but for a kid who is generally picked near the last for sports... this was HUGE!! :-)

Halloween Party

Backtracking a little bit here...

The day before Halloween, Clara's school had their annual Halloween Party. This was the reason for the first change of Clara's birthday party plans. We had booked her party for the exact same time as the school party (before we knew about the school party).... so, once we found out, changes *had* to be made.

First stop after buying our tickets, was the decorate your own cupcake booth. Unfortunately for Clara, the cupcakes were either chocolate or had chocolate icing (and she can't have chocolate). Chocolate worked for Alex, so he decorated away....
(Later in the day they had vanilla cupcakes with vanilla icing, so all was good)

We wandered around a bit before the kids picked their next activity.... pumpkin decorating...

(not sure why both kids seem to be staring off into space)

Here's Clara's happy cyclops...
After that, Clara found some school friends and took off. Alex and I found some neighborhood friends, bought some popcorn and settled in to watch....
... It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

We didn't get to see the whole thing.... Alex had rehearsal so we split and Jeff and Clara stayed for a bit longer.

I'm so glad that Clara is enjoying her new school!!

(oh... and yes, I do realize the color casts are waaayyyyy off... too lazy to fix them :-)

crazy weekend!

The boys started out bright and early Saturday morning... they were both running in the Hot Chocolate Race. Alex was doing the 5K and Jeff was doing the 15K. Here's Alex's results...
... not too bad considering he doesn't really train for it... he just gets out there and does it! Alex insisted on running this race because of the treats afterwards... hot chocolate, chocolate fondue and Ghirardelli chocolates!!! Plus they have really good goodie bags.... he got a great hoodie that he wears all of the time now.

While the boys were at the race, I took Clara to her sewing class. This one is to make a fleece jumper. Clara and her friend are the only two in the class, so they're moving quite quickly. Their instructor told them to bring their American Girl dolls next class and with their extra time and fabric, they'll make matching jumpers for their dolls!

After the class, Clara got to come home for a bit before heading off to a sleepover birthday party (at the Four Seasons, no less). While Jeff was dropping her off there, I was at Alex's rehearsal (he's been asked to come back again this year as Thomas Mara, Jr. in Miracle on 34th Street). After that.... it was all about Alex... we had dinner and watched his movie pick... Iron Man.

Alex has been taking a fencing class this last term and he has really enjoyed it! After class on Friday, he and two other classmates were handed envelopes as they left. In Alex's envelope was an invitation to join the fencing team and info about a small tournament they were hosting on Sunday. Alex was extremely excited about being asked to join the team! We thought about the tournament, and in the end, decided that he should try it. If he liked it... then we would look into joining the team... if he didn't, we would just continue with classes.

So... Sunday morning, we were off to our first ever fencing tournament....


It was a tough morning for Alex. It's always tough when you go from winning almost every match in a beginner's class to crushing defeats when competing against actual team members. There were a handful of other new invites but the vast majority of the competitors were actual team members. It was hard to take for him. We had to have the little reminder talk about how the coach gave him an invitation because he saw potential in him... he saw that with work and training, he could be a good fencer. Getting the invite did not mean that he was magically a good fencer... to be really good at anything takes hard work and training. He decided that he was up for that and that he really had enjoyed the tournament. Now to figure out what goes from our schedule in order to add this. :-)

After fencing, we picked up Clara and two of her friends from the birthday party. They were so crazy tired that they were extremely giggly! We took them all out to lunch and then straight to another sewing class. I had signed up for this one before knowing about the birthday party. Alex and Clara were both signed up to take the class (Clara's two friends' parents were meeting us there to pick up the girls). They were going to make pillowcases. Clara had taken the class last session, but wanted to do it again, as the instructor told her she could bring our sewing machine to class and she would show her how to use it.

They both did a great job!

Here's Alex's new pillowcase....
... he decided to go with a Christmas theme and picked Peanuts fabric for the main part and snowflakes for the trim.

Here's Clara's...
... this was the fabric she wanted last time, but there wasn't enough left. This time they had just enough! Even though the dog is a yorkie (we think)... it looks quite a bit like Mango!

They both really enjoyed the class and both want to take more! Alex wants to make the "lazy pants" next. Clara made them last session and wears them all of the time.

Then to cap off our crazy weekend... Jeff got on a plane for a short work trip... sigh.

Now the crazy weekend is over... and the crazy week has begun!!! Happy Monday!

On Clara's actual birthday....

(October 23rd)

... we made our annual trip to the American Girl Store. This year we did brunch again. However, this year, it was just the girls.... Clara, both grandmas and me (the boys were at the Michigan State vs. Northwestern football game).

One of Clara's favorite things about eating at the American Girl Cafe is the little box of conversation starters....


We always have a good time with those.

This was her first year to not get a new doll. She didn't want one... I'm a little sad thinking that our AG days are waning. She did get some accessories though, so they're not completely over yet.

She had wanted some new clothes for her birthday, so my mom told her that she could go shopping and pick some out from her. It didn't go well.... she just wasn't finding anything that she liked. Then we mentioned the Ugg store and her eyes lit up! So... we were off to the Ugg store. She found the "perfect pair of boots"... tall, black sweater boots... she even wore them home.

Here she is wearing them to walk Mango when we got home from shopping...
That evening we had her birthday with the grandparents. She decided to not have a cake but homemade pumpkin cheesecake bars instead. I didn't take any photos... I'm not quite sure why. Oh well... at least a got a few of the day my girl turned 9!!

the mango pup....

She is SUCH a good pup! She has a couple "little dog" issues, but they may be just things we need to figure out given she's a rescue. We're getting her out and about a lot to meet lots of different people and dogs (as per the vet's instructions). She's doing really well. The more comfortable she gets with us, the more personality we see. She still likes being a lap dog... but she loves to play as well. She's a hoarder who likes to steal socks, my shoes and Clara's Uggs. She doesn't chew them.... she just likes to steal them and add them to her "collection". It's hilarious to see this little 4.5 pound thing carrying one of Clara's boots off through the house! She got a clean bill of health at the vet! And the vet estimated her age closer to 1 1/2 instead of 2 like the shelter had thought!