Adios Bisabuela!

Eddie's grandmother was here visiting from Venezuela this past week. We spent time with her over Labor Day at the Campins' House. We did a nice afternoon brunch at Brazzaz. We had Chicago Pizza at Eddie's sister's house and said our goodbyes in the pouring rain on Wednesday.

It was the first time she was here since our wedding in May of 2002. So, it was the first time she met the kids and got to cuddle them. Those were very sweet moments. Trinity made a big picture of Grandma for her to take home complete with 2 big eyes, one much larger than the other. (FYI, Grandma's eyes are the same size in person as you can see.)



Amongst a busy week, Eddie was getting over an illness from his birthday and Everett got it so he was pretty miserable.

We are all healthy now and missing Grandma, and Venezuela.

Six Flags G.A.

We took advantage of the MERC/CBOT night at Great America since I was not pregnant this August as I usually am. We left Everett home since he is obviously too small for anything, even a funnel cake and took Trinity to her first amusement park. She reluctantly rode on a kiddy coaster and on a hand full of other rides. She might have been a bit more daring if we didn't take her on the spinning, dipping, twirling octopus ride that was way too big for her and way to swirly for me. She almost immediately wanted the ride to be over yet we were stuck on it for another minute which seemed like an hour when you are getting spun too fast and your little girl is terrified out of her mind. She recovered quickly and had a great time in Wiggles' World. I was going to leave her with Eddie's mom and go on Raging Bull but she got really freaked at the thought of her mama going on such a big roller coaster. I declined while Eddie and gang had a blast. She then swiftly fell asleep in her stroller at 10PM and I took advantage and ran to the Batman coaster and Superman. My aged body and post baby brain came to a full strain as I was upside down on the Superman "flying" head first toward the ground at 60mph. Terrifying yet freakishly fun! Since our trip to GA, or "Looney Tunes" as Trin calls it, she has pretended to be Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Sylvester. She has even gone to far as introduced herself as a Looney character to strangers.

Happy Birthday Eddie!

Eddie celebrated his birthday this year with friends, cupcakes, cookies, his family (us) and a fever in bed. Dinner reservations for Sushi Samba were canceled. Boo Hoo! Since my birthday is 19 days later, we will do a combo dinner soon. Also, because my birthday is 19 days later and we were born in the same year (in the same hospital) I won't tell you how old he is.

I thank the Lord for creating him _ _ years ago!!

I wrote this post and drafted it until I downloaded pictures off my camera. I quickly realized that I put his age, and mine, on the cupcakes. Darn it!! The cat is out of the bag.

Farewell Beijing

I am sad the Olympics are over. The last 17 days have been filled with many tears, anticipation and screams of joy and heartache. I meant from me, not the athletes, although I am sure their emotional response was far greater. HA!

China did an *amazing* job as host nation. I have never seen such a display of artistry. (I am starting to sound like a NBC commentator.)

If you have children and sat them in front of the TV for the last 17 days like me and sacrificed sleep to stay up and watch the games until midnight logging in over 100 hours of Olympic coverage...or, you didn't have time to watch or weren't that interested...you need to watch this video. It highlights the heartbreaks and the highs of the games including many world records that were smashed.

Enjoy.

Olympics 2008: Highlights

Only 3 years and 364 days until London 2012!!

P.S. Trinity looked at the TV the other day and said "Hey, that's Michael Phelps!" Thatta girl!!!

"We've Got the Whole Wide World in Our Yard to Explooore....!"

I took Trinity on a special date to the Backyardigans show this week. If you aren't familiar with them, it is a cute little kids show on Nick Jr. where Pablo, Tyrone, Uniqua, Tasha and Austin go on pretend adventures in their backyard. It is right up Trinity's alley. Although she isn't interested in the show anymore, she still embraces the imagination aspect of it and, like her mama, is always thrilled to see a musical.

It was a cute little musical. I was impressed by the costumes, stage, props, etc.

There's More Than Corn in Indiana...

That's right, we headed on out to good ol' Lake Shafer for a weekend getaway with The Campins'. We stayed in a little cottage by the lake with the rest of the family close by. Trinity loved that we were "sharing houses" with everyone. Everyone would stop by and peek in on each other. Trinity thought that was the greatest. It was great that she can take a walk over to Grandma Jo's or Auntie Coo Coo's cabin yet know she can be home in a couple minutes too. It was a safe freedom that she really enjoyed.

I was pleasantly surprised how well Everett did. Since birth he has disliked the pack n' play. However, he slept like a champ while we were away.

Eddie always jokes that I over pack when we take the kids anywhere. This was no exception. I even brought room darkening paper blinds for the bedroom and ohhhh, was I glad I did. Trinity, Everett and I slept until 8:30 in the "cave" of a bedroom while Eddie was awoken to the sun. As he eloquently said "I opened my eyes to what looked like a nuclear blast!"

Some highlights of the trip:

The beach. The kids were able to play in the sand. Everett didn't eat any.
The bombfire. We keep the kids up late to make smores. mmmm.

The boardwalk. Trinity loved all the rides. She drove her own antique car, an airplane, motorcycle and boat. She survived the super fast merry-go-round and after awhile she was feeling really brave and wanted to go on a rollercoaster. She didn't meet the height requirement for any of them though.

She won the jackpot on one of the games. She randomly pressed the button and got 777 which earned her 150 tickets!

Brookfield Zoo

This was an interesting trip. I thought I was going to be eaten by the lion. It came right up to the window and my slight panic attack scared all the children. Trinity looked calmly at me and said "Um, I want to go look at other animals!" I was so freaked by the 2 inches that separated us that taking a picture was not on my mind. I wish I had though. You don't realize how big lion heads are until you see their breath on the window in front of you.

Trinity had the quote of the day: "That lion was crazy...whaaaaaaaaat!?!?!?!?"

Oconomowoc Lake

The pictures are tiny but you get the idea. We spent our Saturday afternoon at our friend's lake house in WI. I call it my sanctuary away from the city. It is so relaxing and cozy. It was a day of many firsts: Everett and Trinity's first time on a boat (a speed boat anyway); the first time I witnessed Eddie's brute athleticism as he demonstrated a marathon water ski around the lake(might be a new Olympic sport); Trinity's first time tubing and the first time we drove 5 hours round trip in 9 hours.
We had tickets for Cirque Du Soleil's Kooza Saturday night and I didn't want to miss it and I didn't want to pass up the invite to the lake so we did both. Both were fantastic!! Despite the busy day it was our best day of the summer!

Trinity was so nervous and I can tell she wanted to change her mind but not sure if she ran out of time or really didn't know what was happening. In any event, she did have fun but was quick to say "all done!"

Kooza!!!

Vivienne

The newest addition to the family was in town, Vivienne. Eddie's cousin Marie lives in Texas with her hubby and we had not yet had the opportunity to meet their little girl. She was born just a month after Everett and we hoped they would take a liking to each other and be pals. They enjoyed crawling on the floor together, checking out each other's cool toys and sitting on each other. We miss her already...

Happy Birthday Grandma Marie!

We celebrated Eddie's Grandma's 85th Birthday last week. As you probably guessed, we did it Mexican Style.

My Adolescent 3 Year Old Little Girl

Trinity *loves* to pretend she is other people. She has quite the imagination. Most days she is not Trinity (nor am I Mama) but Cinderella, Hannah Montana, etc. This morning this was our conversation:

Trinity: "Hey, I have a great idea!" (Our "pretend" acts always start with this statement)
Mama: "Yeah, what is it?"
Trinity: "You can be Nick, I will be Kevin and Everett will be Joe."
Mama: "hmmmmm, ok!?!?!?"
Trinity: "Let's doooooooo it!" (She always says this to get the show going)
Mama: "Um, Kevin?!?!?, who are we exactly?"
Trinity: "The Jonas Brothers!"
Mama: "What in the world...how old are you!!?!?"

Carnival Picnic

My brother was in town again. I may see him more often now that he is in D.C. then when he lived in Monee. Well, since that was pretty far from Chicago, he basically lived out of town then too. Anyway, I digress. So, he was in town for the 1st annual Tessler Family Picnic. His girlfriend's, Melissa, aunt and uncle own a construction company and have this amazing house up in Crystal Lake (wayyyyy out of town to me). So I took the trek up to visit especially since Eddie was gone all day at Starved Rock (see post). I really wanted to see my brother and Melissa but I also promised Trinity that I would find a "bouncy bouncy" for her soon. At the Pierogi Fest (Trinity refers to that day as the Pierogi Contest...HA!) she was finally brave enough to go jumping on one of those big bouncy houses. She had a blast and almost refused to get out of it. So, I was thrilled to hear that The Tessler's rented one and that Trinity can bounce as I visit with my family. I estimate that she spent at least 2 hours jumping. Her face was so red and her head so sweaty that I was afraid the poor child would pass out.

Among other entertainment at the picnic: cotton candy machine, popcorn machine, giant slip n' slide, dunk tank, baseball and potato sack races. Not to mention a mix of Van Halen music sometimes to loud for my delicate ears. :)

My nephew Doug and girlfriend Emily

Jim and Melissa