The morning after I flew back from Houston, James left for a week conference in Costa Rica. I love that we can both manage the household on our own – I definitely can’t say I’m the “family CEO”, as we are both equally good homemakers! On Friday, I went to Calista’s pre-K class for a harvest feast. I read her a book after lunch and attracted a bunch of other kids … a few of them tried to get me to read more books. And Calista said (with quite a bit of authority I might add),”No, my mom has to get back to work now.” What a big difference compared to last year, when she’d want me to stay for the rest of the day.
Calista and her teachers – who are super awesome; she’s made great strides academically this year!
Friday night was miserable. I had food poisoning and was up all night. Top it off, the was pouring rain and Zach had 2 soccer matches. I cancelled Calie’s dance lesson, and had to ask another parent to take Zach to his games. The kids pretty much fed themselves cereal (and whatever else they could find around the house) all day. My admin was also sick, and rescheduled her twin’s birthday party – so at least we didn’t have to miss that. We did miss Sandy’s annual Cooking Contest though, which was a real bummer, as it’s one of my favorite dinner parties to attend. Congrats Sam and Melissa on their winning dish (beef empanadas). James got back later that night and put the kids to bed.
On Sunday, I took both kids to Zach’s end-of-season soccer party at SkyHigh, a trampoline place. The coaches handed out participation trophies, and then the kids were set free to bounce off the walls (literally!). I bought an hour of jumping, but due to some confusion ended up with 3. Both kids played the full 3 hours; lots of jumping, dodge ball, and rope swings!
Tuesday, my family met up with Melissa’s for dinner at Chicago Fire with cupcakes for dessert to celebrate Melissa’s birthday. Then our husbands took the kids home, and we went to watch “Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2.” It was entertaining, but I liked part 1 much better. Happy Birthday Melissa!
Thanksgiving morning, my running friends and I gathered together for a 10k race. I think the last 10k I ran was in 1998 (it was definitely pre-kids), and I had not run in a few weeks due to work travel and illness, so I was a bit concerned. Zachary also ran the 10k; his first ever. Final results? We both did great. I finished in 1 hr and 3 minutes, which was about the same time I ran in 1998. And Zach finished in 52 minutes, which placed him first in his age groups (under 11)! Yay!
After a quick shower, we hopped into the car, and drove to Bay area to celebrate Thanksgiving with my sisters, my parents (visiting from the east coast), and my cousin Spencer (plus his new girlfriend with daughter). It was a great meal … a feast really! Sophie has a terrific Alton Brown recipe that rebukes the dry turkey stereotype. Instead of watching sports after dinner, we played video games.
The next day, we went to Muir Woods National Monument. The parking was pretty terrible, and the main loop was indeed very crowded. However, we took a detour to Fern Creek trail, which ended up being eerily isolated. Most of the time, it was just our family. What a pleasant, leisurely 3-hour hike amongst the coastal redwoods! Everyone walked the whole way, from the almost 70-year-olds to the 4-year-old. We had Chinese buffet for dinner before heading home.
Saturday, all of us (minus Sophie and Eddie) went to the California Science Academy. The last time we were there, Calista was barely walking, so it was definitely time to visit again. Plus, my parents had never been there. We took advantage of our ability to hustle in the morning, and got in line before they opened (9:30am.) No crowds! New exhibits include an Earthquake simulation, Earthquake-themed planetarium movie, live reindeers, and a running pen with 3-week-old baby ostriches.
There was also a fun under-5 play area that I didn’t remember seeing last time – I’m glad we got to visit it before Calie got too old. She played there for quite some time, as Zach was busy exploring the aquarium she deemed “boring”. I don’t think it was really boring, but Zach was there for hours, which really tested her patience. Our kids had a lot of questions, which prompted one docent to say, ”You guys are going to be here until midnight!” Pretty close – we stayed until past 5pm … which makes it a pretty full day!
We met up with everyone for a Korean BBQ dinner, complete with a crazy huge shaved ice dessert. I loved the banchan (and was glad we didn’t have to do all the dishes!) One of my kids had white rice while the other indulged in beef tongue. They are so predictable. Eyeing the sizzling meat, Calie said,”Let me try a no-thank-you bite”, took a bite, widened her eyes and exclaimed “YES thank-you bite!” She definitely has my gluttony gene. 
Sunday, we hung out at Alice’s house. We took the kids to a nearby park and did some window shopping before heading home. No traffic – Wowowow! Thanks to my sisters for hosting us! So awesome to have the whole family together like that … it’s really what Thanksgiving is about. I definitely feel like I’ve been given a good hand in life.
And now that we’re back … work week activities included putting up the Christmas tree, a make-up swim lesson for the kids (while I took yoga!), and a late night movie ‘The Sessions’ with JP and a few of his friends ($5 Tuesday!)
One day I’m going to have that perfect Christmas tree like the ones you see in store windows … and look back and miss our hodge podge tree weighed down with all the kid-made ornaments (all on the bottom half of course). Walking into our house, you can definitely tell we have kids … and in this phase of my life, that’s exactly what I want.
