I looked out the window and what did I see?

Friday morning we were greeted with a bunch of white fluffy stuff. This was only the first 12 inches. It snowed four or five more inches after Steve cleared this off the driveway. Oh, and yes, those are our children playing in the snow at 7:00 a.m. Needless to say school was canceled.

Trouble with a capital T

Andrew T. (?) Scrogham. He's been pretty easy to find the last few days. We just have to follow the toilet paper trail.

An Ordinary Lump of Laundry?

Today, Sammi and I played Hide and Seek. She's pretty good. See for yourself. If this looks like an ordinary lump of laundry to you, take another look.

Handsome Little Man

The other day, I gave Andrew a haircut. I chased him all over the bathroom taking a little snip here and a little snip there. After about twenty minutes, I called it good. If I would have thought things out a little better, I would have taken a before picture. But, here is the after. Yes, his bib has pink on it. But, it's a bib. Besides, he doesn't care.

After Thanksgiving

We were very blessed to be honorary Rappaports for Thanksgiving. Our dear friends in Milwaukee, with whom we have had Thanksgiving before, have a brother not far from where we live now. As luck would have it, it was his turn to host the family Thanksgiving dinner. So, after a very gracious invitation we drove all of 20 minutes to join them for the feast. It was wonderful. The kids loved being doted over. Steve and I loved being a part of a large family for the special day. After dinner and much visiting, we drove downtown as we have in years past. We decided it was time to revive our post-Thanksgiving Chicago tradition. That's right, no Black Friday shopping for us. Of course I like getting a good deal, but I'm not suicidal. So, we spent a couple of nights there and were busy to say the least- Field Museum, Santa, Macy's, the Tree in the Walnut room, traditional deep dish pizza, and American Girl.

The Repeat Offender

Now that Andrew is extremely mobile, he is what Steve refers to as a "one-man-wrecking-crew." That says it all. This day I was putting the dishes away. Before I could relish in my pride of a task completed without interruption, I noticed it was quiet. Don't get me wrong, it is a sound I quite enjoy, music to my ears really. But, after having three kids I know better. I know that silence and random "Mommy, I love you's" mean trouble. So recognizing this silent alarm, I searched for Andrew. There he was in the dirt. He was so proud of the damage that he had done. Behind the chunks of potting soil was the cutest grin. I had a very hard time hiding my laughter at the event and tried desperately to reprimand the little destroyer. After a bath, vacuuming, sweeping and mopping everything was as good as new, for a few hours anyway............

Grandma and Grandpa

My parents came to visit. I hope that I can speak for them too when I say that we had a lot of fun. Dad insisted that we go to a pumpkin patch. Each of the girls picked a pumpkin. When we got home, the girls ripped the cold, wet, slimy guts out of the pumpins to transform them into Jack-o-Lanters. (Kris, I thought that you would like the descriptive pumpkin carving details.) I don't know who was more entertained, Dad or the girls. Andrew enjoyed watching from a distance with his biter biscuit. For him, it was like dinner and a movie.

Happy Birthday Sammi!

Sammi turned four last week. She was very excited about her birthday. She literally counted down the days for the last three months. The day after her birthday, she began the count-down for next year. She is pretty excited that there are only 353 days to go! She has grown up so much so quickly. We had her party on Saturday. It was very fun for her to have some old Milwaukee friends that were willing to make the drive and some new friends, too.

Oh, and she finally got that golden ticket she was waiting for!

For the birds!

I'm not sure that the Canadian Geese got the message that cold weather is on the way. They are everywhere. Have you ever see the movie "The Birds"? It is an old Alfred Hitchcock movie. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. You will never look at a flock of birds the same again.

We were so fortunate to have Steve's grandma, Edna, visit us. We did a lot of shopping, a lot of talking, a lot of eating, and a lot of laughing. I hope that she had as much fun as we did. We truly enjoyed having her. I'm still amazed that she flew half-way across the country alone at 82!

It wouldn't be Halloween without sewing costumes. I get excited about having a new project. But, I buy fabric thinking that I'm going to save a few dollars from not buying a ready-made costume, and the time I spend sewing I'm not spending cleaning or playing/refereeing the kids. So, when I'm done I'm frazzled, the kids are mad, I have less $ in my wallet, and my house is a wreck. I experience this every year. You'd think I would have learned my lesson by now. Despite it all, it does bring a sense of accomplishment to see the kids wearing all the love and time I put into them-just like mom would always do.

Almost wasted space

Can I tell you how much I am enjoying having an attached garage, and a three car at that? I went to Sam's Club today and didn't have to run laps up and down the driveway to get everything in the house! We really like having more space, but have yet to use the living room and dining room. Someday we will have a use for them. As for now, they are great places for Andrew to try out his crawling skills. He was so mad that he couldn't squeeze between the pillar and the wall.

Stade's Fall Festival

Stade's Dairy Farm is a "Christian-based" farm about 25 miles west of where we live. Each fall Stade's puts together a Fall Festival - there is a corn maze, wagon rides, pumpkin pickin', games and rides for kids, petting zoo, etc. We thought it would be fun to take the kids there.

When we pulled up to the place we immediately went into near shock. There were thousands of cars and the place was teeming with people like flies on stink. I asked the parking attendant if we could get a map of the lot so we could find our car when we were done having fun. He said today was pretty calm - it would be a real mess on Sunday when the Christian rock band comes. Evidently Stade's packs it in from 10-1 for its weekly Sabbath worship.

Stade's completely gets how to cash in on family fun, though, especially since the median income of the adult attendees was probably about $35,000 per year. You see, Stade's employs the ticket method for paying for things (which is a great way to get people to forget about how much the tickets cost and spend away!). So we picked up $20 worth of tickets (42) and off we went!

All in all, Stade's came through on its promise for family fun. We even got to meet Stade himself, which was a true pleasure. The weather was great and the kids enjoyed the pony ride and pumpkin patch the most. The total damage - $20 for pony rides and games, $6 for a modestly sized pumpkin and $8 for a dozen apple donuts. Based on what it looked like everyone else was investing in Stade's, I'd say we got out of there relatively unscathed from an economic perspective.

Fall Pictures

Alex's 7th Birthday Party

On Saturday the 11th of October Alex had a birthday party. She had friends in attendance from here in Illinois as well as friends who drove down from Milwaukee. I think everyone had a great time. They played flag tag, made a number of butterfly-type art projects/crafts (the party had a butterfly theme), ate cake and ice cream and generally just enjoyed being outside on a beautiful warm October Saturday.

Goodbye Wisconsin

Here is a picture from our last month in Wisconsin. We will certainly miss our Sunday morning walks to Lake Michigan to pick up beach glass and enjoy the beauty of the sun glistening off the water. It really was a blessing to live within walking distance of such a picturesque lake. Plus, we were also able to see all the multi-million dollar mansions that line the shore, which was always impressive.

Door County

Our summer ended with a short trip to Door County, Wisconsin. Where's Door County? It's northeast Wisconsin - people always say that Wisconsin is shaped like a person's left hand with all the fingers and thumb kept together - hold your left hand in the air as though commanding someone to stop and Door County is the thumb.

The picture of the huge fire is actually a fish boil at Pelletier's restaurant in Fish Creek (Door County). We went up there for a short trip (which felt even shorter because Steve spent two full days negotiating the sale of our Whitefish Bay home). It was a relaxing, fantastic place to spend a few days. Little Bud mostly just slept in the shower (they didn't have infant beds at the Eagle Harbor Inn, so we put a bunch of pillows and blankets in the shower stall and he slept there). The girls made some beaded bracelets, went swimming, showed Mom and Dad how to canoe and climbed to the top of a really tall tower overlooking Green Bay!

Back to the fish boil - essentially it is this: a bunch of potatoes, onions and whitefish is mixed in a huge cauldron of water - probably 30-40 gallons. The fish oil rises to the top of the water and just sits on the top of the water so the guys running the fish boil pour about 2 gallons of kerosene on the fire and the flames shoot up the side of the cauldron and actually burn away the fish oil on the water's surface. They then pull out the fish, onions and potatoes and serve it with a lot of butter, bread and cherry pie for desert. It was a lot of fun to experience a true fish boil and the meal was delicious!

Alex's 7th Birthday

Through the generous contributions of our viewers, Alex received her first American Girl doll. We drove to downtown Chicago to pick it up on Saturday afternoon (the 4th of October). Dad got a great parking space at a meter just one block off of Michigan Avenue at the base of the Hancock tower. It was really a great piece of work. Alex chose Felicity and a few different outfits.

Also, Sammi was really excited to get a Hershey bar from Grandpa and Grandma Scrogham. Since she's seen Charlie and the Chocolate Factory a few times recently, she expressed her disappointment at not getting a golden ticket, though.

The last days of summer

The leaning tower of Sammi

After a quick trip to the grocery store, Andrew was exhausted so I took him upstairs for a nap. When I came downstairs I was greeted by the tower of Sammi!