Jonathan’s third birthday celebration is already underway. Miriam and I went to the CDC with a music-themed Blue’s Clues cake (at Jon’s request). We still have the guitar cake for tonight and another music-themed cake planned for the Chanukah party on Saturday night. Of course Jonathan is convinced that, if he turned three on his birthday today, then when he has his “Chanukah Birthday” (as he calls it) he will be four!

While Grandpa Steve and Grandma Sali were here, Mikaela and Jonathan discovered the magic that happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar – Jonathan calls it a “blocano”.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We had the largest Thanksgiving Feast yet at Grandma Marcia and Zaydie Larry’s house – I believe the final count was 28. We were served by the biggest turkey yet too – a full 30 pounds of Thanksgiving bird. It was great that so many out-of-town-based relatives were able to join us – Grandma Sali and Grandpa Steve from Montana, Corey, Monique and Annie from Chicago, Steph from Springfield, and Jeff and Brandi from Houston. Both the food and the company were great!

Now, if the Jayhawks can just pull off a victory over the Tiggers this afternoon . . .

We buried Bubbie today. It’s been an incredibly emotional few days. The words and notes of support from family and friends have been wonderful. Jonathan doesn’t really understand what’s going on – just lots of people around and disruptions in his schedule (though getting to spend some fun time with Aunt Mo this afternoon was a treat). But Mikaela is struggling with all of this. At first, she just tried to ignore that Bubbie had died. She wanted to pretend that nothing different had happened, she even wanted to go to Sunday School on Sunday. But she left Sunday school about 15 minutes early, as the reality of it all hit her, at which point she also decided that she wanted to come to the funeral. After the funeral, Mikaela turned to Miriam and said, “I just want to go home and go over to Cannon’s house to play and forget all of this.”

All of the grandkids spoke at the funeral. Corey and Matt and Greg all spoke beautifully. I had an unusually difficult time figuring out what to say. You can read the full text of what I wrote after the jump.

continue reading "RIP Jean Rittmaster May 10, 1918 – November 14, 2009"

Halloween anticipation has been building for several weeks in our house. The kids both settled on their costumes early on – there was never really any doubt the Harry Potter-obsessed Mikaela would go as Harry Potter, and she received most of the components of her costume as birthday presents earlier in the month. We were somewhat less certain what Jonathan would choose to do, but as soon as we mentioned Halloween, Jonathan was excited to get to wear his dinosaur costume again — and this year, he actually wore it, instead of being afraid of it!

We actually started our celebration on Friday, with an evening playdate with Mikaela’s best CDC-buddy Logan, and her brother Garrett. Rather than carve pumpkins (sharp knives around four young children just seemed a bad idea) we picked up tempra paint and let the kids paint their pumpkins. We also picked up an additive for the paint that was supposed to make it glow in the dark – unfortunately, the additive didn’t seem to work at all. After painting pumpkins, we ordered pizza (and I somehow accidentally ordered a BBQ pizza from Pizza Hut, instead of plain cheese. Oh well. Lots of leftovers for lunches after ordering a replacement pizza).

We watched movies while eating pizza – the boys watched Monsters, Inc. upstairs while the girls watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone downstairs. Plans for the return playdate were already underway before the movies were over.

We lucked out with terrific weather for Halloween. Warm enough that we didn’t need to wear coats to trick-or-treat, but Mikaela wasn’t too hot in her Hogwart’s robes and Jon wasn’t melting with his dinosaur hood up. Despite a runny nose and a cough, Jonathan had plenty of energy for trick-or-treating, though he and Miriam turned back to home a few blocks earlier than Mikaela and I did. The only real downside of the whole trick-or-treat experience was the smoke machine that one of our neighbors decided to use as part of their yard decorations. After walking through the smoke to knock on the door, and then back through it to reach the sidewalk again, Mikaela had a pretty nasty asthmatic cough herself. Luckily, we were almost home at that point.

What do you do with an energetic preschooler who can’t go back to school for 24 hours, because he was sent home sick? Show him how to use iMovie! Looks like the kids have started learning the songs for the Thanksgiving program. If you search this blog, you can probably find video of Mikaela singing these songs.

(Sorry for the dim lighting – I really need to do something about the lighting in the Great Room).

Jonathan and Mikaela got to break in their Halloween costumes a week early at “Boo at the Zoo” at the Kansas City Zoo. After a rainy week, the skies cleared up on Saturday morning and though the day started out kind of cold, the sunshine warmed us up and made for a really pleasant day at the zoo. The cool weather even encouraged some of the animals that are normally pretty sedentary when it’s hotter to move around, like the lions and tigers. We spent a good four hours walking around the zoo, checking out animals and collecting candy and prizes. We had hoped to check out the new baby orangutang, and we kind of did, but the baby was napping with its mama, and they were curled up together in a tight ball. If you looked carefully at the mama orang’s arms, you could just barely see the baby’s tiny little ear sticking out.

Mikaela turned seven-years-old on October 7. She decided this was a lucky birthday, because not only did she turn seven on the seventh, but she realized that she also has seven letters in her first name. The theme of the birthday party (at Elite Gymnastics) followed Mikaela’s Harry Potter obsession. Miriam made a great Harry Potter birthday cake, and all of the party guests went home with a gift bag of homemade chocolate frogs.*

*Note: No actual frogs were harmed in the creation of the chocolate frogs.

I have a new niece! Ella Dayne Rittmaster was born yesterday morning, October 4, 2009. She weighed 7.5 pounds and was 20 inches long. Mom and baby are doing great – Matt says that Sarah and Ella might even be able to come home from the hospital today. Mikaela and Jonathan are excited to meet their new cousin (even if Mikaela was a little miffed when she found out that Ella would be a girl, because she was “the only one who had to have a brother.”).

Ella shares her birthday with United States President Rutherford B. Hayes (1822); comedian Buster Keaton (1895); and actress Alicia Silverstone (1976).

On Ella’s birthday in 1648, Peter Stuyvesant established the first volunteer fire department in America; in 1824 Mexico became a Republic; and in 1957 “Leave it to Beaver” premiered on CBS.