Officer Gabriel

Gabe had a thrill today when we went to City Hall to renew Roxy's dog license. As we were walking down the steps from the second floor, he spied the "Most Wanted" photos on the wall and asked me "Are those the men the police are trying to kill?"
I laughed and said "No, they're just trying to catch them."
As we walked past the police station/door on the first floor, he leaned over and asked me "Where are the policemen? Can't I see one?"
Feeling sort of foolish, I marched him to the window and asked, rather sheepishly, if my son could see a police officer. The lady at the desk seemed to think this was the cutest thing she'd heard all day. She quickly went to go find someone. Gabe was rather excited. "Do you think he'll be wearing a hat?" He asked me.
Pretty soon, an officer (without a hat, but with a gun!) came out and was kind enough to take a few minutes to shake Gabe's hand, show him his badge, and even show him his office and give him a few gifts, such as a plastic police badge, a police magnet, some pencils and a hackey sack. Then he took Gabe out back to see the police cars. Gabe got to hear the siren and see the lights, which he found very exciting, but he was too nervous to get close to the car.
After we thanked the officer and left, Gabe realized "MOM! We forgot to ask to see the jail!!!" He was pretty disappointed. I'm not even sure if there IS a jail at the City Hall ... it's probably located somewhere else ... but now, Gabe wants to be a police officer or a fireman for "next Halloween."
Look out fire department ... you might be next on our hit list!! :)
(the photo is of Gabe, proudly displaying his new police badge)

CROCS!!

I have to admit (and I'm sorry if I'm offending anyone..) I'm not a big fan of Crocs. Occassionally, I'll glance at a pair in a store and think to myself, "Those might make nice gardening clogs." But I would never wear them out in public, and I don't quite understand the phenomenon of grown adults wearing solid, plastic shoes that LOOK like solid plastic shoes. It's sort of reminiscent of days gone by (the 80s for instance) when people also wore strange shoes made of wicker, called Huaraches. Remember those? Or jellies? Yet another example of plastic shoes gone wrong. I remember having a pair of jellies as a kid. I was DYING to have them. And they were the most uncomfortable shoes I ever owned -- except for my huaraches.
Anyway, we were in Payless the other day -- surrounded by Crocs, and fearing for our lives -- when out of the corner of my eye, I spied a tiny pair of camo-colored Crocs, size 5. Small. Cute. I was surprised at how cute. I put them on Asher's feet and they became 20 times cuter.
So I have indeed changed my mind about Crocs ... at least for little tykes. I think they're adorable. On adults? Not so much. But on Asher, the little shoes just look so FUN!
Here are some photos of Ash enjoying his new Crocs. He loves them, and even carries them around when he's not wearing them. The photo of him standing on his head, was how I caught him watching Sesame Street this morning ... frozen in that position, watching the TV through his legs. What a goof! The other photo is of him rolling on the ground, playing with his Crocs.

Sledding Party

We had SUCH a fun day! Today, Gabriel had his very first "little-people" birthday party. :) We invited about 8 of his friends to meet at the sledding hill at 11 a.m., followed by pizza and cake at our house. What a blast! Although you can see spots of grass in the photo of the sledding hill, it was some of the best sledding we've ever had! The snow was packed so hard, it was like flying on ice! We had a few mishaps, with Gabriel bouncing down the stairs on his sled (ouch!) and mom taking out hapless children who had to do flips to get out of the way ... yikes! But no one got seriously injured! :) It was so much fun to see all of the kids getting so excited about sledding, and pizza and presents! What a great group of friends!
In the photo of the group (from left to right, starting in the back): Seth, Shea and Abbie; Joel, Isaac and Jen; Me and Asher: Josh is sitting in front of Jen, with Austyn in front of Josh. And then Katarina and Gabe are sitting in the front. The other photo is a picture of Gabe and Nate, getting ready to go down the hill together!

Happy Birthday Gabriel!

We celebrated Gabriel's 5th birthday yesterday! I can NOT believe that he is so old already! We took some time in the afternoon as a family, to celebrate, eat cake, and open presents. Gabe LOVED it! When I dropped him off at school, he was greeted with a chorus of "happy birthdays" from his classmates, and even from those in the older grades, who he must have told in advance, about his "big day." All in all, it was a super-fun day! The photos include a picture of Gabe blowing out the candles on his Spiderman cake, Gabe with his new, giant Cars coloring book and finally, Gabe playing with his new Buzz LightYear toy, which has these light-up spinny things that whirl around its head. (It's hard to describe) HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABRIEL! WE LOVE YOU!

Snow Play

We got about 2 inches of dry, powdery snow last night, so the boys and I had a great time playing in it this afternoon! Gabe made snow angels and tried eating snow (as you can see in the photo) while Asher (who FINALLY fits into his snowpants) was rather intimidated and fussed/cried everytime I set him down on the ground. Then we went inside to have hot chocolate.

More fun with clothes

Here's what my little charmer looked like after his morning nap today. He seems to have decided that the best thing to do, when faced with bedtime, is try and take all his clothes off. It's so adorable! Whenever I go into his room lately, I have no idea if he'll be pantless, shirtless, or some strange combination inbetween, such as in this case, when he got stuck with the shirt up around his back! You'd think he would start to cry in his crib if he got stuck like this, but I never heard a peep out of him! What a goof!

Where have I seen that guy?!?

Okay, if you're anything like me, when you see a face you're sure that you recognize, it can drive you crazy until you figure out where you've last seen it! This happened to me quite recently -- last night, in fact -- as my hubby and I were sitting down to enjoy Pirates of the Carribbean, Dead Man's Chest. I just KNEW that I had seen (or rather heard) the actor who was playing the gurgling, slimey, pirate Davey Jones. (an excellent performance, by the by) These kind of things will drive me crazy until I figure them out, so I decided to look up the actor, Bill Nighy, online. Sure enough, he also starred in one of my other favorite movies, Love Actually, in 2003, as an aging, washed-up rock star, Billy Mack. If you haven't checked out either of these movies, I'd highly recommend doing so. They are both fabulous!
Another face that caught my attention was the guy who played Orlando Bloom's father in Dead Man's chest, Bootstrap Bill Turner. Being a complete movie geek, I was sure I'd seen him before. And I had .... as it turns out, he had a role in Good Will Hunting, playing the professor who originally "discovers" Will Hunting.

The other white meat

Okay, so I was walking through Piggly Wiggly doing some grocery shopping today, when what did my wondering eyes behold in the meat case??? PORK STEAKS!! Yes indeed! Pork steaks have made it to my Wisconsin grocery store! I was shocked! I had heard rumors that there were pork steaks in town, but I had never seen them for myself. Now, if you're from Missouri, you know what a pork steak is. Basically, it's like a tender, juicy piece of steak/rib meat on a bone. SOOOOO good. My dad, back in St. Louis, makes the world's most perfect pork steak. And I supopse I'll have to ask him exactly how he does it, now that I too, have pork steaks in my freezer! Yahoo!! Anyway, that was my wonderful find for the day!
In other news, Asher was fussing in his crib today and NOT taking a nap. After a few minutes I went in to find my little man standing there with no socks AND no pants!! He had taken his pants off! The little stinker! I'm really not sure how he managed this, since he can barely walk around the room without toppling over like a drunken sailor, let alone manage the logistics of separate pant legs! It's a mystery I suppose I'll never solve!

Enjoying unseasonable weather

Today, after Gabe was done with school, we decided to enjoy the warm temps and take a bike ride over to the park. It was good for all of us to get out of the house and get some fresh air ... or as I put it "blow the stink off" of us. Gabe was confused by this turn of phrase, and was rather concerned that his "stink" wouldn't blow off, if he was wearing a coat and a hat. It was too cute. So anyway, the boys enjoyed having the muddy playground to themselves. Asher is now old enough to walk around and explore it for himself, which was strange to see. But I think Gabe loves it that Ash is finally old enough to be of some use on the playground. They had fun going down the slide together and swinging together, even though Gabe was a bit too big for these swings. (He still insisted, because he wanted to play with Ash). To summarize, they had a blast. And I had fun too, but realized that this is the last "semester" that we'll be able to do this in the middle of the afternoon, because Gabe will be in school full time next year. :-( They grow up too fast!

New Year's Hike

We went on a hike yesterday, to celebrate New Year's Day. It was really great to get out in the fresh air. These trails are dog-friendly and right near our house, which made me decide that this summer, I'm going to break down and get a fishing pole so that I can take Gabe fishing here next summer. It's just the most perfect little stream! Anyway, Gabe and I had fun running around with pretend (stick) guns and shooting "beasts" as he called them. I also had fun capturing a few images with my new camera.