Christmas at the SSC

Last weekend we went to the SSC Christmas Party.  Adam is on the Vorstand (Board) as Jugend-director, which means he's in charge of kid-activities, namely the Christmas party, Easter party, and Kinderfest (lawn games on Labor Day weekend).  Sadly, there aren't that many kids around at the SSC.  Our 3 kids make up HALF of the permanent member kids under 12.  Anyway.... 

A "Crispix Adventure" and other Festive Activities

There are SO many different ways to take in the Christmas spirit in the city, not to mention the oodles of craft projects available (ah Pinterest!) this time of year. Last year, we didn't do much in the way of holiday activities - we were just thankful to have survived the month of December.  This year, I've been trying to slowly add back.  So far so good!   

On Saturday, we baked and decorated cookies -- boy was that stressful with three helpers! Adam was thankfully on hand to help manage use of the cookie cutters.  I am all about the store bought pre-made mixes when it comes to baking with the kids!  I bought two packages of sugar cookies, made one batch for adults, and let the kids make holiday shapes and decorate the others.  No adults should EVER be eating cookies baked/decorated by small kids!  Alex spent most of his time decorating eating sprinkles, directly out of the container.  Lukas was very happy playing/decorating with frosting, which was great to see, since he's usually the one to loose interest in arts & crafts projects first. Oliver took cookie decorating very seriously!  

POTD: Family Pet

This is the only kind of pet we will have in this house as long as I get a vote -- battery-operated!!!

Life Around the "New House! New House!"

We are all settled in... I will post a mini-tour soon.  

Recently, the twins have been yelling "M-Cart! M-Cart" when Oliver gets home from daycare.  They like watching him race Mario Cart.  It's pretty funny to watch them yell "turn, turn", "race, race", and "fast fast" as they cheer him on.  At some point, the fun will stop as they try to yank the steering wheel from him to take a turn, but we aren't there yet.  

Lukas absolutely adores our train table in the basement.  The table is small and he will happily do laps around it for an hour if you let him.   Over the weekend, I took all the trains down off the table and assembled the largest train track I could manage.  Toddler heaven!

Our bedtime routine has changed a bit in the new house.  With Lukas in a room by himself, and Alex & Oliver together, we have been putting all three kids to bed at the same time.  Lukas craves one-on-one time with us, and now he gets some quiet time with one of us to read books.  Previously, Oliver would get to read books with one us and stay up a bit later.  It has been working great having Lukas in his own room.  He usually sleeps longer in the morning, so now his brothers aren't waking him up.  He also likes to take him time waking up and will happily hang out in his bed for 15-20min before starting his day, and now he has the privacy to do that.  Alex & Oliver in one room isn't working as great.  They are both prone to early wake-ups and will most often wake the other, in addition to us.  So, the house is still getting early-starts more often that we would like -- if we make it to 6:30am before someone is in our room, that's a win.  If only we could teach Oliver to go back to sleep after he wakes up to go to the bathroom in the morning.  

There is a master bathroom in Oliver & Alex's room, but we replaced the jacuzzi tub with a swanky shower.  Oliver alternates between showers and baths, but we haven't started giving the twins showers yet.  What is with all my kids having a fear of water???  Showers don't work well for kids that don't like getting their heads wet.  For now, we use the hallbath that Lena uses for bathtime.  

Oliver is starting to be a loving older brother -- that certainly took long enough!  It's still not happening as much as I would like, or as frequently as I see/hear about other older siblings treating their younger siblings, but we will take what we can get.  

Movie Night: A new family tradition

In an attempt to offset the impact of Daylight Savings Time, we let the kids stay up late (in hopes that they would sleep in on Sunday morning, yeah right) by watching a movie.  Oliver had been asking for "Planes: Fire & Rescue", so I bought it from our Disney subscription and it had just arrived.  So Saturday, we popped some popcorn, put a blanket on the floor and watched a movie together.  The kids loved it, and it has turned into a weekly event.  The little ones can mostly sit through a full movie.  A few have been deemed "scary", so it's been a challenge finding crowd-pleasers.  Adam and I are usually doing stuff around the house when the kids watch TV - I've been enjoying sitting and watching with them.  Bonus snuggles!  

Thanks to Netflix, we've watched a ton of holiday movies recently. Do you know how many different kid versions of A Christmas Carol exist?  A lot! We have seen the Muppet version, two Disney/Mickey versions, and at least one other.  

Franklin Square Outing

Lena and I took the kids on a "holiday adventure" on Friday.  We went to Franklin Square to see their holiday lights.  I had really wanted to do this last year, since it is on every list of fun spots to hit in the city over the holidays.  

Oliver was being super whiny and we would have left him at home had the option existed.  Alex and Lukas were tickled pink to be riding the bus, something they don't get to do very often.  By this age, Oliver was already a frequent bus rider to daycare.  As the boys get less reliant on the stroller, we will be able to take them on bus outings more often, hopefully by Spring.  The bus ride was likely the highlight for Lukas, who delighted in announcing what we were passing, chatting up other passengers and happily singing his ABCs.  If only Happy-Lukas would join us at home more often!

Getting Our Tree

On an overcast Saturday, we did a quicky-trip to get our Christmas tree at Linvilla, where we have gone the last two years.  It isn't the same experience as where my family goes (you pull up and they tie it to your car for you), but we tried to bring some of the tradition with us and make the most of it.

Thanksgiving Cousin Fun!!!

We had a small group over for Thanksgiving this year.  With Ken/LeeAnn out of town this year, it was just my mom, sister, and Devon that made the trek to Philadelphia for the holiday.  

School Photos

I'm home with a stomach bug... get ready for lots of photos!

Lena and I had low expectations for school pictures, having seen first hand what a challenge the munchkins were that morning.  Lukas clawed at Alex's face over a toy while we were waiting our turn.  You can see on Alex's face that even going last did not allow enough time for the red scratch marks to go down.  They had Oliver in these very awkward positions and he didn't look comfortable.  Lukas was squinting as a reaction to the photographers flash in most of his photos and Alex spent most of his turn bouncing up and down like a jumping bean with his tongue sticking out of his mouth.  How they got a photo of him smiling, is beyond me!

It's odd, but this is the first school pictures we have of Oliver, even though he has been in parttime daycare since he was 18mo old (September 2012).  One year I didn't sign up for photos, the next year the school had an issue, and then we switched programs right after they had already done photos at the new school.

POTD: You're So Vain

Alex was enamored with his own reflection (especially his tongue) looking at my magnifying mirror on Sunday.  It was pretty funny... I couldn't help but sing a little Stevie Nicks (Carly Simon?) to myself as I watched him.  "You're so vain. You probably think this is song is about you.  You're so vain."

Still plenty to do...

We are moved in, thank goodness!  Adam got a lot of small projects done around the house this weekend, and we are mostly upacked (over 75%, which I consider a win).   This week, the runners are getting installed and our bathrooms should get finished.  Woo hoo!!!

But, I thought by now there would be less on my plate in need of immediate attention.

Exhibit A.  The storm door in our backyard (with a stupid doggie door!) has broken off the hinge and needs to be replaced sooner rather than later, since cold air and um, RAIN can come through the space between it and the house.

POTD - A good excuse for rainboots

I has the kids this morning, so Lena could help Adam tonight with bath/bedtime while I'm in Salem MA (I'm giving a speech tomorrow). We were running out of diapers and waffles - toddler staples - so me and the little ones went grocery shopping.  The car was parked pretty far from the house and the boys had fun walking in the rain!  

They were amazingly well behaved in the grocery store! Yeah! Neither spent any time in the cart at all and I managed to fill it all the way up and check out without any issues.  They are getting to be big, cooperative boys!

The big move and unpack

We had many hands on deck for the move and subsequent aftermath, but not many photos chronicling the event.  Who has time to snap a bunch of pictures when all of their belongings are being hauled across town? 

On Wednesday, Mom, Lena and I finalized third floor paint colors and started moving the boys stuff into their new room while overseeing the painters and cleaners.  

Halloween Fun

Halloween came the day after our big move, which was less than ideal.  We had dropped all three kids off at the back-up daycare facility (where Oliver used to go to preschool a year ago) in the morning so we could finish moving/unpacking.  None of them were very happy with that plan, as measured by the howls and tears when I dropped them off.  I was more than a little worried about how our Halloween evening would go, since they are usually pretty exhausted after a full day of daycare.  We picked them up that afternoon and went directly to our old neighborhood to trick-or-treat with our friends as we have done the past two years.  Everyone rallied more than I had expected and we wisely called it a night while everyone was happy and upbeat (pre-sugar meltdown). 

Last Time Around the Block

Last night I had the kids solo while Adam got the car tire repaired (because we don't have enough expenses these days, we needed to add a popped tire on the list).  The weather was great and the kids were in good spirits, so after dinner we went to ride around St. Albaan's one last time.  We have loved living so close to this block, which has been a great place to let the kids blow off some steam and burn off some energy.  

This time, I was the one that got the workout!  It is no easy feat navigating both the wagon and the trike.  Alex & Lukas spent the whole time yelling to me "Fast, fast!"  "Race, race" and if god forbid I would slow to a walk "Run, run!".  

Halloween Preview

We love to go trick-treating with our college friends that have two boys and conveniently live just a block away (literally one house shy of an exact street block).  We're a bit sad to be moving out of the neighborhood and away from them.  Even though we move the day before Halloween, we'll be coming back to the old 'hood for trick-or-treating fun. 

I learned last week that M, who is 3.5yr old is also going as Buzz Lightyear -what an awesome coincidence!  Yesterday, we went over for a Buzz playdate and it was so much fun watching these two run around tickled-pink to have someone else in their same costume.  Two videos below (if you get this via email, you will need to link to the blogwebpage to view).  

"To infinity and beyond!"  Enjoy!

Thank Goodness for Grandparents!

Last weekend Papa & Margit had the boys and this weekend Ken & LeeAnn had them, giving Adam and I the ability to pack without little feet under foot.  The lil' boys have been talking a lot about Opa, Mormor, Pop-pop and Grandma, so it sounds like everyone had a lot of fun while they were away. Now that the boys are a bit older, and more verbal, it seems like the outing wasn't as exhausting on the grandparents as past visits (though a newly-potty trained Alex did add an extra twist).  

Opa & Mormor fed the boys lots of Pfannekuchen (crepes) that even Lukas would eat.  I'll put aside the fact that he's rejected this food the multiple times I have tried to fed them to him, and will consider it a win!  Oliver got to visit the farm down the road with Opa while the lil' ones slept - feeding carrots to the bunnies (and himself).  

School Picture Day: Take Two

It was school picture day today.  Oliver is becoming notorious for making silly faces in family photos (ahem), so while we waited, I gave him a chance to get it out of this system.  It looks like Lukas is covering his ears, but really his is trying to mimic Oliver's silly faces that have his hands on his head.  Not sure where Alex had run off while we were doing these photos.  

House Update: Homestretch!!!

We move in one week!  Eeek!  This Saturday already (in 3 days!), the boys (Alex/Oliver's) furniture is arriving, so we are getting very close.  I was in the house this morning to check on a few things.

• The basement vinyl has been laid and the first floor hardwood are installed.  Check! 
• The recessed lights are all in.  Check!
• HVAC system replaced in basement & added on third floor.  Check!
• The painters have completed all (five) bathrooms and the laundry room and are starting on the second floor bedrooms today.  
• The contractors have as much done as they can in the bathrooms -- we have had some issues (wrong toilet sent, mirrors forgotten to be ordered).  

Laundry room (TL); Basement floor (TR); First floor hardwood (BL); Master bathroom (BR)

The third floor hardwood is being installed over the next few days.  The painters will continue to paint throughout (of course in a perfect world the hardwood would be installed after the painting is completed, but we don't have the luxury of time on our side).  The blinds and stairway runners don't get installed until after we have moved in.

Also, we have tenants for the old house!!!  (Solving our cash flow problems, but not liquidity issues, since we will continue carrying two mortgages).

Lukas - 2 1/4 update

Oh Lukas (here's the last update)...  we definitely have our hands full with this little guy.  Lukas has the most complex personality of the boys.  He's our "spirited child" which seems to make the highs sweeter and the parenting challenges often more daunting.  He shows the most empathy. always quick to bring one of his brothers a lovie if he sees that they are sad.  He has the best grin and loves to be tickled, cuddled, and played with... except when he doesn't and boy does he tell you!  

Alex - 2 1/4 year update

Of course, I'm a little behind on these kid specific updates (here's the last one).  These photos were taken in July at my new favorite playground in our neighborhood.

Alex remain our loud, happy-go-lucky kid.  He's a little ball of laughs and had this awesome belly-laugh he does -- you can't not smile/laugh when you here him laugh.  Happy or sad, he has no volume button, gee, where did he get that from?

Life with Lena!

The boys adore Lena and she seems to be pretty fond of us as well!  It's only been about three months that she has been in Philly, but it feels like so much longer.  She has really integrated into our family and we feel very lucky to have her!  I really enjoy the nights when Adam is out, and Lena and I cook ourselves a delicious fish meal and enjoy watching Scandal together. 

Adam and I have decided, we will only take au pairs going forward that have been recommended to us from our friend Debbie, since she is the one that hand-picked both Pauline and Lena for us.  Clearly, Debbie is better at figuring out what would be a good match for us better than we can!   

Heike's Business Trip Photo Chronicle

Last week, it was my turn to be on a multi-day business trip.

Another House Update

Here's a photo collage to depict how I'm feeling about the way things are going....

I spent over SIX hours tackling house things on Tuesday.  Luckily, I seem to only have to do that every few weeks, or I would really be close to loosing my mind.  It feels like each time I am in the house, I'm adding an additional project to the list for our General Contractor (GC).  I shudder at the thought of that final bill. 

Fortunately, we seem on track for an October 30th move, but of course there are plenty of hiccups that could still throw things off.  We needed to find a new HVAC guy, which has been the most recent frustration as getting that system expanded/replaced was the highest on my pre-move priority list.  The guys that we had selected had an on-site accident a few days before they were supposed to start our project and told us we needed to find someone else.  That turned out to be a blessing in disguise as I feel like the new team we have found has a better HVAC solution.  

The master bathroom remodels are moving along, as is the recessed lighting which Adam loves so much.  Hardwood installation is scheduled for mid-month and we just found a painter.  They came and measured for our blinds and for the hallway runners, so lots of decisions are behind us.   

Still to go: Paint colors... for the whole house!  Eek!  Luckily, my mom came down on Sunday we have the process started, but its still a big daunting to have to make that many decisions all at once.  

There is also still the small subject of selling our current house.  Over the last week we have had more viewing than we have had in the last month, but no offers came in.  It's looking more and more likely that we will be renting it out and selling it in Spring of 2016, which is a bummer, but better than the alternative of selling it for much lower than we are comfortable with.  

POTD Brotherly Love

Got a sweet note today from Lena that these two were being particularly sweet to one another today!

House Remodel... slowly buy surely

Quick House Update:

1. The remodel is going slowly but surely. The demo is done, most finishes have been selected and now we are waiting for stuff to arrive before contractors can get to work.  
2. We have not yet sold our existing house, which is a real bummer.  We're in the process of exploring renting it out until Spring of 2016, when the market will be better (we'd LOVE to sell in Spring of 2015, but finding a 6mo tenant is more unlikely). 
3. We're hoping to move around Halloween, as Oliver is all set to start at his new school the first Monday in November (and it would make for a convenient start date for new tenants), but the timing is still very much in the air.  

The amount of projects we are taking on before we move is a bit dependent on timing, as well as budget.  The current plan is to redo the basement flooring, get hardwood throughout the first floor (not the kitchen, which we will remodel another time), get new runners for the stairs, and redo two master bathrooms.  We'll also paint throughout and get blinds put on all the windows.  There are a few more things on our wishlist (like third floor flooring), but its looking less likely as time wears on that we will be able to fit it in.  

A don't often get very frazzled, but was extremely close to a panic attack the day that all the bathroom decisions needed to be made.  Luckily, Adam was able to get away from work to help.  The photos below are those that I took while we were going through the process, but aren't necessarily exactly what we decided on getting.

September Activities

We thoroughly enjoyed our summer at the bungalow, but I for one am happy to not be doing all the driving back and forth anymore.  We've been keeping busy since then and are getting out and about as much as we can in Philly with the boys.  Here are some photo (collages) of our recent outings. 

Last Friday, I took the boys all to the Smiths Playground after nap.  There is a giant slide there and I couldn't believe how much fun they were all having.  The last time we were there in the Spring, I was only able to get the twins to go down the slide once or twice before they were ready to go to the playground.  We must have done the slide 20times!  Alex felt confident enough to go down the slide all by himself and was even dragging his own potato sack up to the top!  Lukas was a bit less brave and stable, and stuck close to me.  Oliver got brave at the end and was going down on his belly face first, which of course Alex quickly mimicked. 

POTDs -- First days of Preschool

This week Alex and Lukas started at Oliver's preschool.  Lena and I had taken them three times in the last two weeks for a playdate (staying for circle time and snack time in their new classroom), and I was a bit worried about how they were going to do.  I had foolishly thought that all those drop-offs where they had accompanied me to drop Oliver would help us, but they actually worked against us, because the boys just wanted to play in the room they had become accustomed to playing in and didn't want to go into the room that was actually their classroom. 

 

As you can see, I didn't have much luck taking a photo of all three of them outside the school.  The only way to get them all to sit for the shot was to take a selfie and even that isn't a fabulous shot.  

Tyler Family Vacation

Need to leave this as a placeholder, so I can keep current --- you'll have to check back for the stories that are associated with these photos if you are getting this via email.  Needless to say, we had a fabulous vacation, despite a few rainy days. 

New House!!!

At long last, we bought our new house!!! The process was a complete nightmare - the mortgage process involved such bureaucratic insanity, for Adam especially, in the weeks leading up to our purchase, and our closing was actually pushed back a day.  This photo was taken when we did the final walk-thru, before we knew a single missing signed document would postpone closing.

Adam's Business Trip Photo Chronicle

Adam was away for four days last month and Oliver kept requesting that Daddy send us photos of him and his surroundings. I'll put aside the insult that this has never been requested of ME when I go on trips, and thought I would share the string of photos that went back and forth that week.

Early flight for Daddy with a connection in Cleveland.

Welcome Lena!!!

Our new au pair, Lena arrived last Friday. Oliver came with me to pick her up. He was so proud of the sign he made himself and we had been talking her up for the last week, trying to get everyone prepared for the switch.

The Summer is flying by! SSC Days

I can't believe that it is already the end of July -- where has the summer gone???  We have had amazing luck with the summer this year -- not a single rainy Sunday!  The first year we had the bungalow, it rained on many Sundays, which was a real bummer.  We have been at the bungalow just about every weekend since early June and with the exception of our family vacation in August, plan on being up there every weekend through Labor Day.  I feel SO incredibly fortunate to have this great place for our kids to run around.  Without the bungalow, I think Adam and I would have already moved to the suburbs.  

Here are photos from pool-time so far...  

Lederhosen and World Cup!

Last weekend was German Heritage Day at the SSC, coincidentally falling on the same day Germany was playing in the finals of the World Cup.

Omi had been saving lederhosen that Nicole and I had worn when we were kids and delighted at the idea of getting my kids all dressed up. Fortunately for Lukas and Alex, the smallest pair were still a bit big for Oliver, so they will be spared this experience for a few more years. Oliver only lasted about 15min dressed up, and that was a result of promises of candy and toys in exchange for doing this for Omi.

POTD: French toast craving

On Saturday morning, I had the kids solo until Adam joined me at the bungalow.  I had a hankering for Jersey diner French toast and bacon and was feeling brave, even though the kids weren't being particularly cooperative.

Lo and behold, we had a successful restaurant outing!!!! I got to eat WARM food, no drinks were spilled, and we didn't need to leave halfway through the meal because of bad behavior!

 Then we went grocery shopping, where Oliver proceeded to knock over (using the cart with Alex in it) a cardboard display stand of 50+ boxes of snack food - too bad I didn't get a photo of that!

It's Official - We're Moving!

The For Sale sign went up last week!

We have already had a first viewing and this weekend there was an open house. I really hope the house sells quickly because it is a huge pain in the butt to keep the house tidy and haul the kids out for viewing at dinner/bedtime.

I was flying solo the night of our first evening viewing and took the kids to Igloo for a FroYo dinner during the 6:15pm house visit.

More details on where we are moving (still in the city!) in an upcoming post. Fingers crossed this process is behind us quickly.