Year of the Ox

This past weekend we celebrated the year of the ox. We attended a Chinese New Year party at ISU on Saturday.


The kids enjoyed the dragon dance, lion dancers, and the many performers who sang, danced, and played music.

On Sunday evening we ate some Chinese takeout and read some Chinese storybooks. For dessert we ate nian gao and sesame balls with azuki bean paste from the Chinese market.

Even if you're just playing a game, it's important to accessorize

Maimie loves playing games. Several times a day we play hungry hippo and the Winnie the Pooh honey pot matching game. Another favorite thing that Maimie loves to do ever since about early December is to play "Mommy Jesus". She wraps up panda, blue dog, or furby to be baby Jesus, then she puts a blanket on her head to be Mary ("Mommy Jesus", as she says). She gets this very somber look on her face. It's a hoot.

Cock-a-doodle-doo!

The boys have been dressing up for school this week. Yesterday during celebrity day, Jacob dressed as Mario and Joseph dressed as Anakin Skywalker.

Today was wacky day. Obviously.

Go, Team!

We had a great time in the Chicago area this past weekend for the Lego Robotics State competition. The weather was absolutely frigid on Friday, earning the kids their third straight snow day of the week. We left shortly after noon, ate lunch at Culvers, and headed for Schaumberg. By the time we arrived at the hotel and got settled, it was time to feed the troops. We found a Gino's Pizza nearby and a Meijers for snacks/breakfast. Our hotel room was fabulous and quite roomy for the 6 of us.


Early Saturday morning we headed to the competition in the driving snow but had trouble with the directions and nearly arrived late. The day was filled with table competitions, presentations, judge interviews, and an awards ceremony.


Jacob's team competed well and was even mentioned as one of the top five nominated for the Ambassador's award. Originally we had thought we would drive home Saturday evening, but by about mid afternoon we were all fairly exhausted and Dad was kind enough to let us stay another night. We ate at Portillo's before heading back to the same hotel in a different room. Showers, movies, and relaxation were on the agenda. The next morning we slept in before enjoying the delicious breakfast in the dining room.

Mikaela, Joseph, Maimie, and Jacob reluctantly posing in the hotel lobby

As we left the hotel, we couldn't help but notice that the Woodfield Mall was only a couple of blocks away. We thought it would be a shame to be that close and not stop by. So after walking around the mall for a couple of hours, we were ready to be stuck sitting in the car for the 3 hour drive.

Maimie playing Star Wars Lego at the Apple store

Super-Maimie

Super-Maim flying away to fight crime

Well, that didn't take long...

I knew it was just a matter of time, and it could have gone a lot worse, but... I'm already sorry about the bubblegum. This morning we ran into Walmart before Maimie's speech session. I didn't want to give her a snack and remembered I had a piece of fruit flavored gum in my purse. I split it in half and shared it with Maimie. In the second aisle we went down, Maimie leaned out of the cart to see something while her mouth was hanging open. The gum ended up on the floor and even though I'm a huge proponent of the "5 second rule" (5 minute rule at our house), I don't feel it applies to Walmart. To avoid the certain tears and ensuing fit, I gave her the piece I had in my mouth. Yeah, I know, yukk! Everything seemed fine, we finished our shopping and headed out into the brutal cold. When I buckled Maimie into her carseat I had a fleeting thought that perhaps I should take the gum away in the car. I checked the clock, noted that we had 10 minutes until speech and a 7 minute drive to get the milk home first. I decided to take my chances. Yep, I do sound like an absolute novice mom. Don't worry, I paid for my poor choice. As we pulled into town, I turned to look at Maimie, who incidently had become guiltily quiet. I saw a purplish-gray string of gum stretching from her mouth to her mittens. I told her not to move until I could get the car stopped. It really could have been worse--the hair, the carseat, the clothes. I have one mitten in the freezer right now trying to harden the gum. On the upside, the mittens probably wouldn't have fit next year anyway.


On a more pleasant note, Maimie likes making her bed. I snapped this photo just after she made her bed today.

Bubblegum

You would think I would remember the age a kid becomes "fashion independent" by the fourth one, wouldn't you? Well, it tended to sneak up on me this time. It was New Year's Day. I was finishing my hair and told Maimie I would get some clothes for her next. Within a few minutes I went into her room to grab some clothes. The door was pushed nearly closed, which is unusual at our house. I cracked the door to find Miss Maimie on the floor just completing her ensemble. She actually did pretty well. She had chosen a stripey dress and floral leggings. While they didn't match, they didn't clash as bad as they might have otherwise. Apparently it wasn't just a fluke, either. One January 2, she chose another dress (she loves dresses) but this time with wildly non-matching tights and halloween socks. Yikes! Since we were going out, I did steer a little that morning.

Look at that form

The family went bowling one day during Christmas break. It's always a lot of fun. None of us are very skilled, and we use the bumpers. Maimie even sported a lovely pair of bowling shoes that were nearly small enough for her.


One of Maimie's Christmas gifts was a playdough set that works like a Mr. Potatohead. With everyone back to school and work, Maimie and mommy spent some time rolling, smoothing, cutting, and squishing.


Finally on to the bubblegum. It's a word that has always struck terror in this mommy's ears. Mikaela always had such long lovely hair even as a 3 year old, that I was terrified she'd get gum in there and I'd have to cut it out. I never worried about the boys and gum in their hair. I was probably more concerned about where else it would end up. Well, Miss Maimie has asked for gum for months and months. I always just tell her she's too small. Okay, so I felt a little guilty about that lately. She is 3 after all. I bought her some sugar free bubblegum yesterday. When she got up from her nap, Mikaela helped her get her hair into pigtails. And I finally let her have her first piece of bubblegum. She ate half of the piece- and I do mean ate. She swallowed it right after telling me she understood not to swallow it. Figures. I told her when she was done with the second half she could spit it out. And she was in ECSTASY!!!! She chewed and chewed and chewed some more. She wouldn't spit it out until supper time. Then she had to tell Daddy all about her bubblegum. Mikaela, Jacob, and Joseph sang a bubblegum song and she joined in as though she knew it, too.

Showing off her bubblegum