Kampai!

The kids loved Kampai, a very rare treat thanks to a gift certificate. Zion hadn't been there in so long that he had almost forgotten what it was like, and it was Zen's first experience with Japanese teppanyaki. We ate like pigs. Zen finished almost a whole bowl of white rice (which took him 45 minutes using chopsticks) and then polished off an entire dish of rainbow sherbert. The rest of us dined on sashimi, steak and shrimp-yummy!

Shaving

The boys got some money for their birthdays, and we had to make a trip to Target (of course) because Zion's was burning a hole in his pocket. On the way to look at the Halo action figures, we passed this display of kids' shaving sets, complete with fake razor, shaving cream, and mirror. The Toy Story one was too cute--we couldn't resist. Zion modeled the "shaving the face" part, but Zen preferred to shave his legs like mommy. Zen (like Zion at age 3) gets very offended by prickly legs. Enjoy the pic and video (warning--there is a naked 3 year old in this video).

Zen's Birthday Celebration

Since Zion already had a "friends" birthday party, we decided that Zen should have one as well. It was a simple affair--we invited some neighbors and some of Zion's friends and their parents; Elijah brought his two younger brothers, Levi and Noah, who Zen has previously enjoyed. We brewed up some spiced cider and made some cupcakes; We had 8 little boys tearing around the house, playing ball and balloon and guns and making LOTS of noise. It was exactly what Zen wanted--he had a blast!

Happy Birthday, Zen and Zion!

We dragged the birthday celebrations out for at least a week this year, beginning with a fiesta for some of Zion's school friends with the theme "The Mission", a large-scale, scavenger hunt that took us around Evanston. The kids deciphered clues, performed tasks, and received gifts at all 9 stops, eventually ending up at a pizza place downtown. We had fantastic chaperone/helpers in the form of Ben Wickstrom (who was fantastic at keeping up with the quick-running 6th graders and keeping them away from traffic) and Rebecca Erikson, who helped me bring up the rear and who bonded quite nicely with the only girl Zion invited to the party (they're just friends). Rebecca also made an amazing cake--a 2 tiered delight with a "Halo" theme that awed all of us.
Zen kept reminding us "my birthday, too!" and he, of course, had a blast playing with all of Zion's big friends, who all wanted to push him in the stroller on our trek downtown. Enjoy the pictures!

Zen-isms

I would be a poor mommy if I didn't record some of the cute things Zen has come up with lately now that he is talking. Here are some samples:


Zen: "DAD! You come here RIGHT NOW!" Me: "Zen! You cannot talk to mommy and daddy like that!" Zen: "No, only Dad."


I think that one of the most accurate words to describe Zen is "fierce". He is very protective of all of us. If someone is picking on someone else, he will distract them, yell at them, command them to stop, or even pummel them. When Sam is picking on Zion, Zen will come into the room with a glare that could melt paint off the wall and command, "No! No hurt my brudder!"

Earlier today: "Zen, you need to help pick these legos up off the floor."
"Me tant."
"Why can't you help?
"toffin' (hack, hack)"

already using physical ailments to get out of work :-)


More Zen-isms: Teetumpin' (see something)
"ditamin" (get something)
"dootumpin" (do something)

"mutt" (milk)
"doot" (juice)

"bootchub" (book club...this one shocked us the first time we
heard it, as it sounds similar to a sexual act)

"Zen, what are you doing?" "Anyting!" (which is actually translated into, "nothing")


It is very fun to hear what he says, especially since he believes that repeating the same thing over and over again will get him what he wants eventually. How many times have I had to endure hearing "want doot! want doot!...." repeated 100 times in a row??? I love it!

Zion's Visit to Northwestern University

Zion's big brother, Ryan (from the Big Brothers, Big Sisters program) is a Ph.D student studying spinal cord regeneration at Northwestern. He invited Zion to their new, multi-million dollar biochemical engineering lab for a tour. Of course, scientist mommy wanted to tag along. Wow, what a fascinating place! Zion got to see and handle scientific tools and equipment. Ryan does surgeries on rats for some of his experiments, and it was amazing to see his tiny surgical kit and his sub-zero freezer full of tiny rat brains and spinal cords. We were able to see how cell samples were freeze dried, stained, sliced and stored and we got to look at them under a powerful electron microscope. The most interesting part of our tour was a visit to the animal lab, where we scrubbed and gowned up so that we wouldn't pass on any germs to the special, immune suppressed rats and mice. We also got to peek in at some of the other animals, including cats, chinchillas and monkeys. It was a little hard to see, but I kept reminding myself (and Zion) what these animals are sacrificing to make the world better for humans. (I will remember to say a little prayer of thanksgiving for the lab animals of the world, who are helping to keep us healthy) It was a very cool experience, and Zion asked some great questions. I was proud of him, my scientist boy. Ryan has been a great role model, and I am glad that Zion had the opportunity to see his important work.

Washington School Fall Festival 2010

Our family really took advantage of many of the fun (and sometimes free) events that Evanston offered for Halloween. On Friday night, I took Zen to the Fairy Tale Trail, a non-scary event for the preschool set. He was adorable in his costume and had fun playing in all of the different themed rooms on the "trail". Sam and I hitched up Zen and the dog on Saturday morning and hit our neighborhood farmer's market for a free pumpkin, books, crafts and a treat bag. We made a brief stop to get Zion from his play rehearsal and headed over to the Washington School Fall Festival, where the boys (Zen, Zion and Kyle) played games, did crafts, and won prizes. Zen had a successful pony ride this year (captured on film!)and Zion won a very food-color laden cake at the cake walk on his first try. We were wiped out after that, although we could have easily continued the fun with a trick or treat and fair offered by the local upscale senior center and topped it off with free ice skating in costume at the Evanston Ice Arena. Maybe next year we'll have more stamina???

Dream Halloween

9 years ago when Rebecca was in town for a fall weekend, Zion's daycare gave us free tickets to a Halloween party. We noticed that the price of the tickets was $100 each, so we decided it was worth checking out. We dressed Zion up in his Winnie the Pooh costume and made our way to the Windy City Field House. Little did we know that the tickets we had acquired were the entrance to the Dream Halloween Gala, a posh and elaborate event put on by the Children Affected by Aids Foundation. We stared in wonder as we walked into a beautiful grotto full of amazingly designed jack-o-lanterns, fantastic decorations, and costumed characters that looked like they had just walked off of a movie set. Jamie Lee Curtis was there; there were dancers and bands and trick or treating stations that were handing out treats that were more like Christmas presents than Halloween treats--Barbie dolls and race cars and lego sets--we ended up with a carload of abundance. There were tables piled with food and drinks donated by some of Chicago's favorite restaurants, and a raffle giving away a Lexus SUV to a lucky winner (we dared to hope). The whole evening was so cool and so unexpected. I remember walking out of the party with a dazed happiness that felt a little like a trip to Disney World.

I spent the next 9 years trying to cop some more of those free tickets, and this year...score! The gala did not disappoint. We had to make 4 trips to our car to carry out our bounty. Zion and Zen were so excited to go home and play with their newly acquired toys that we didn't even wait to enjoy the Trinity Irish Dancers or the hip hop group that performed. When we came home, it was like Christmas morning. Of course a large portion of this went into the basement to be donated to holiday charity and shared with cousins in the future. It was fun to share the experience with Zen, who has been dragging around a giant, remote-controlled motorcycle with him all this week, courtesy of the party.

Pumpkin Carving

I was so proud of Sam for undertaking this task this year! I had to go to a leadership team meeting after work--when I came home, there was a nice jack-o-lantern and pumpkin seeds fresh from the oven. We used the pumpkin the next night for our annual "haunted bath", a tradition that started with Zion at age 2 and has continued until this day. You fill the tub with water and some orange food coloring, light up all the halloween candles and the jack-o-lantern, garnish with some halloween bath toys, decorations, spooky music, orange shaving cream if desired...turn off the lights, and splash away! Zion still loves his haunted bath at age 11. Maybe he'll do it with his own kids someday.

Pony Ride!

If you were reading the blog a year ago, you probably remember how Zen was so terrified of the ponies at the fall festival that he crawled up my arm, shoulder and neck trying to get away from them (this happened AFTER we had already paid $5....no refunds!). He did much better this year. Made his mommy proud!

P.S. our pony's name was Lightning!

Zion's Costume

I was so proud of myself for picking this up at the Salvation Army for less than $10. Of course, Zion has already customized it with all kinds of plastic guns, a gas mask, a helmet, etc, etc.

Didier Farms

Faye and Kyle asked us if we would like to go to Didier Farms with them on Zion's day off of school. They've been going there since Kyle was a baby. It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day and not (like our other Fall activities) insanely crowded. The boys all got wristbands so they could do each activity as many times as they wanted. Zen just loves Kyle, and Kyle is happy to engage Zen with his playful nature. He patiently rode all the baby rides with Zen and accompanied him through the corn maze. We all enjoyed the hay ride and the tiny petting zoo. By the end of the trip, we were exhausted but happy.

Zen Shows his Musical Side

Zen was somehow enticed to get on the table to sing and dance AND let himself be filmed. (Yes, we let our children sit and stand on our dining room table. Often. I figure it can't hurt--this is the table that I grew up eating on, so it's over 40 years old, crafted by the Amish in northeast Missouri. Naked dancing, painting projects, homework...this table does it all!). Enjoy Zen's dance!

Halloween Cupcakes

Decorated by Zen, Zion and Elijah. Amazing how much Zen loves to help out in the kitchen--he will happily sit on the counter and watch us cook, participating in any way he can. He has really enjoyed our recent cupcake events, especially the sprinkles and food coloring. I think these cupcakes lasted about 2 days at our house.

Tail Gate

We were introduced to the joys of Northwestern tailgating through an invitation from Elijah's mom, a Northwestern graduate. The stadium is walkable from our house; it was a beautiful day, and I learned that there are always free activities for the kids 2 hours before kick-off. We painted up in Wildcat purple and went on down. It was a blast! Fun people watching, great food, and we even got some pictures with one of the dance squads (which Zen didn't look too happy about, but Elijah and Zion were DEFINITELY into it!). Zion played football with Elijah's bigger brothers. It is amazing to see how tough our littlest boy is. Everyone always remarks on his coordination and his enthusiasm for all things sports-related. Do we have a little jock on our hands? I wouldn't mind going to some NWU games in the future--as a parent! :-)

Trip to Goebbert's Pumpkin Patch

I thought I would be really smart and plan a trip for Zen and cousin Madison to the much-crowded and sought after Goebbert's Farm in Barrington. I have a love-hate relationship with Goebberts, I think. It has so many fun things--corn maze, straw maze, hay ride...you can buy all kinds of farm products, ride a pony or, if you are more adventurous, a camel. There are things to climb and play on, acres of pumpkins of all kinds, and a Halloween store. There is a haunted house (not for anyone under the age of 5, as we found out with Zion years ago). There is a pumpkin-eating dinosaur and a track for pig races which take place regularly throughout the day. The best reason for me to go to Goebbert's, however, is its absolutely amazing, un-toppable petting zoo. It features 4 tents of exotic animals, including baby zebras, giraffes, antelopes and rare goats and deer of all sorts. It's clean and thrilling and (for a price) you can feed just about any one of the animals by hand. I, personally, could spend all day there.

What's not to like about Goebberts? The prices, for one thing. Everything is expensive, and on the weekends, they jack things up even more for the poor working suckers that can't get a weekday off. The second thing is the crowds--oh, the crowds! On sunny Sundays in October, the line to turn into the parking lot can literally be a mile long. Want a pony ride? Be prepared to wait for 40 minutes to buy your tickets and another 40 minutes to ride the little beasts. Hungry? You'd better hope you brought food of your own, not like that inexperienced mom waiting for her hot dogs for 30 minutes with 2 toddlers screaming their heads off. All of this is enough to turn an ideal family jaunt into the 5th circle of hell after a very short time. I know this--I've been coming to this place for years!

This year, however, I was smart. I decided to take the kids on a Monday. Zion was supposed to be in school, but he accompanied us at the last minute due to a headache. I packed some snacks and, as usual, some horse treats (we don't pay a dollar a cup for animal feed at the petting zoo--no way!). I packed some water and a camera to capture the fun and photogenic moments we were sure to have as we romped, crowd-free, through the entire farm. The one thing I didn't take into account was...Columbus Day!!! Evanston is one of those enlightened places that DOESN'T celebrate Columbus Day, so you just kind of forget about it when you live here...until you approach the parking lot of Goebbert's Farm and see about 2,000 cars in the parking lot!!!!

Well, a promise is a promise. We modified our agenda, skipped the pony rides, and just tackled the petting zoo area. Our high point (literally) was up on the giraffe platform, when we discovered that the giraffes really preferred horse cookies to the $3 carrots that everyone else was shoving in their faces. They ate cookie after cookie out of our hands with their big, soft, gentle mouths as dozens of people pressed against us, trying to tempt them away.

Here are some pictures; we didn't get as many as I thought we would.

Oh.....Yeah.....!!!!!

Zen loves this toy microphone. He will mostly sing when he thinks no one else is paying attention, but lately he has been more tolerant of an audience. Oh, yeah!

Grandma Pam Visits!

Grandma joined us for a week at the end of September/early October. It was fun to have good weather for a few days so she could join us at our favorite spot. Little hard to get good pics, since neither Zen nor Grandma are really into having their picture taken these days, but I managed to get a few good shots in.

Sprinkles

We got this giant shaker of sprinkles free with a grocery coupon. Not really sure WHY we needed a giant shaker of sprinkles, but it was FREE, so...As you can tell, Zen just loves it. We sometimes have scrambled eggs with sprinkles, or scrambled eggs dyed blue or green. Sam wasn't in on this until recently, when Zen requested "boo eggs". Sam made two very lovely "boo eggs" and Zen ate every scrap, although they ended up looking more like green play-dough. Go, Notre Dame!