little Polish girl.

Today I went to Maddie's school for her Heritage Day Festival. Each child in her third grade class picked a country of their heritage to celebrate. Maddie chose Poland.

She made a little doll showing what a Polish peasant would wear as an immigrant from the early 1900s. Her doll is also wearing a babuska. (She even looks more Polish with her plaid school uniform pants underneath.) They also wrote a report after researching their country.


Natalie (Ireland), Maddie (Poland), Eliza (Poland, and who speaks Polish!) Margarita (Mexico)


We were treated to a few international songs and dances, and were even invited to come up and dance with them! Yes, I did it too.... it was fun!


We even had a little Thanksgiving. Each child also brought a dish that represents their country. We made Polish Tea Cakes, practically everyone asked me for the recipe. Also on the menu: Polish sausage, cabbage rolls, Irish soda bread, cheeses, German chocolate cake, potato pancakes, leek soup, shortbread cookies, pecan cookies, sauerbraten, homemade tortillas, pazzelles and many other good things I can't remember.

I'm so glad that Maddie invited me, I really enjoyed their performance and treats! This was a pretty cool project for the kids, even though it was a lot of work. I'm sure they learned more by tasting/singing/dancing and wearing their heritage, than by just reading about it.

turkey day.

So, we had our own little turkey day here in Rockford.

Gran, Poppa and Fredddie came over from Waukesha to stay for a few days and help us celebrate. They arrived on Tuesday, and helped me hunt down the right kind of sausage for the stuffing, and cook & bake all the traditional fare that were requested for our feast. We pulled-out the good china and even had namecards made by the kids and Gran. Everything was delicious (of course!) and we enjoyed our full-bellies after our three desserts. (pumkin pie, pecan pie and apple-caramel cake). We even had visitors, our neighbors Brett and Amy joined us for dessert(s).

An in a sad turn of events for the weekend, my Grandmother passed away on Saturday. My folks left early to make arrangements and I will be traveling this week for the funeral on Thursday.

helping dad.

Yesterday we finally decided to do some leaf clean-up (we weren't really putting it off, since fall came late this year.) We had an amazing amount of leaves in our yard for not having any trees actually on our property. (Blowing them back into our neighbor's yard did come to mind, but they were out raking too.)

So Greg got to use one of his favorite outdoor appliances, the leaf blower. Not only does our leaf blower "blow", it also "sucks" like a vacuum. And yesterday it really sucked because it broke, which left Greg to use his least-favorite tool, the rake. And for the short time that it was working, Henry would stand in front of it with all the blowing leaves, running through the leaf piles, hindering progress and having a whole lot of fun.

After all was done, a sense of accomplishment was reached. Then we enjoyed a family trip to the grocery store to shop for dinner which Maddie picked out of an Emeril cookbook that Greg got at the library for her. Since she's been fickle about dinner lately, we suggested that SHE choose some recipes that she would like to try and help cook them. She chose Chicken Parmesan and a Cinnamon-walnut Shortbread for dessert. Both were easy to make and were delicious. She declared that she LOVED them, even though she "doesn't like" cheese or nuts. Naturally, if I had made Chicken Parmesan, we would have heard "ick". Small victory for us, since sometimes dinner can be a battle.

Meg @ 12 weeks

here's Meg... wide-eyed and ready to go. She has a little runny nose, but otherwise all happy.

rock on.

Henry has a "gym" class at the YMCA every Monday morning... its a Sports Sampler class that lets the kids try different things, before you sign them up for soccer and then after one practice they tell you they hate it (we've experienced this firsthand). Today's sampler: rock-climbing. True, not your typical activity, but it is the year 2007 and no one else in our household has gone rock-climbing, so this is a Ripple first for us.

He was pretty tentative at first and even said, "Mom, this is not a sport". Perhaps to dissuade me from letting him do it, or maybe he wanted to know who was winning or how you keep score or something. But he did go up a few times about 6 feet high and had fun coming down on the harness. (the whole wall was 2-stories high and one little girl was more than halfway up... she sure showed those boys how it was done!)

He ended up having fun and can't wait to do it again. They do offer a class for 3-5 year olds for rock-climbing, but can you imagine what your kids would be climbing up at home? (the banister, the bookshelves, the dresser, Maddie's loft... maybe I could permanently outfit him with a helmet.)

So next week is T-ball... something more traditional in the sampler rotation where you can keep score and get ranked among your peers.

Henry says...

...on Friday AM, when we leave the house.

Hen - "Mom, why is the grass white?"

Me - "That's frost, it means that its cold outside"

H - "Cool. I like frosting. Can I touch it?"

M - "Sure Henry, go for it."

H - "Hey, its cold! I like it!"

M - "Wait until it snows."

halloween recap.

Well, our luck ran out with the good October weather this week as it began to rain about 5 minutes before we went out Trick-or-treating. Luckily, both kids wore something on their heads to keep the drops off, and Henry's costume actually was like a raincoat.

We went around the block once and both kids had a blast. Meg and Greg stayed back to hand-out candy. And when we got back, we reviewed the loot and sugared-up for bedtime stories. (trades were made, as Henry cannot have gum yet. They got all good stuff with no boxes of raisins or religious literature. One neighbor even handed out those mini-cans of soda. Mmm. liquid sugar.)

My costume editorial:
Okay, our kids were a witch, a firefighter and an angel. Three great, traditional cosutmes. Right? Remember when you would go as your hero, something scary or your favorite TV cartoon character? Well, if you're over the age of 13, it now appears that whatever you can wear (or not wear in some cases) qualifies as a halloween costume. Wear your dad's boxer shorts, and nothing else. And what are you exactly? Okay son, I know you want some candy, but you needn't degrade yourself. Or wear some kitty-cat ears with a short skirt and thigh-high boots... is your hero a pole-dancer? I feel like I should be handing out condoms instead of candy... perhaps some literature on good-taste or maybe you're the one who should get the boxes of raisins, toothbrushes and pennies. (Not the little kids who have been dreaming of this night for two months.) And if you want to TP my yard in return, my border collie will herd your inappropriate excuse for Halloween mockery right out of my yard. Am I judgmental? Yes. Well then, don't come up to my door half-naked asking for food.