Christmas Pageant

Sitting on our couch, recounting all the wonderful times from Christmas Eve and Day (and trying to cheer ourselves up from our little "present" from the Cleveland Water Company - more on that later), we both listed the Christmas Pageant as one of our favorite traditions of the holiday season.  For our family, there's no better way to kick off Christmas then with this fun, festive and meaningful celebration.  It also helps that we were the parents of one super cute angel!

Comparing wings and halos with one of the other angels.  

Cora sat this pageant out, but that was okay by her because she got to spend more time enjoying the live animals while waiting for the performance to start.

Herbie the Camel - a regular at the pageant.  Really a traffic stopper to see him out front of the church!

 Cora really liked Herbie.

The Director takes up his post a few minutes before showtime.

 A packed house.

Mary and Joseph make their way down the aisle, with donkey.

 Getting the angels ready for their grand entrance.

The whole cast.  

Merry Christmas!!!

Happy Holidays Sisters

Rainbow Hawk

For one of her Kindermusik classes, Addy had to make a bird costume.  She wanted to a "rainbow hawk." I gave her some fabric streamers, and a bag of feathers. and here's what she came up with (with some help from me attaching the feathers to one of Graham's old uniform shirts).

And as a bonus, when she flapped her arms. the giant shirt sleeves made a great "whooshing" noise.

Addy's 4th Birthday

She's 4!!!

We celebrated her actual birthday with a family dinner of pizza and broccoli (her choice) and birthday cake, of course.  For most of the day, Addy was adamant that she was not in face turning four on that day, despite everyone's attempt to explain to her that it was December 1st, and that four years ago that day, she was born.  She was quite sure that the moment you turn four is at your birthday party, when all your friends sing "Happy Birthday."  It was no use arguing.  (She did however, when snuggling in for bed that night, tell me she was glad to be four.  Little clown.)

So Addy wanted a "Doodlebops" birthday.  You mean you've never heard of the Doodlebops???  Are you living under a rock?

Don't worry.  You're not.  Addy has a thing for picking obscure themes for her birthday parties.  Last year, it was Balto, so I feel we did our community service by educating guests about the heroic story of Balto the sled dog who saved the town of Nome, Alaska, from a diphtheria outbreak.  This year, there was no community service in embracing the Doodlebops.  It's a Canadian kids show, that does occasionally broadcast here on Saturday morning.  They sing, they dance, and are generally obnoxious.  Addy saw the preview once and desperately wanted to watch them.  Wouldn't you know, the Shaker Heights Library has a DVD collection of them.  Thank you, Library, thank you.  But because we love her to pieces, we did our best to give her a Doodlebop Birthday Party Extravaganza.

Here's the piñata and birthday cake I made for her birthday party with her friends.  As I have lovingly referred to it, I believe an accurate description for this cake would be what it would look like if a pack of highlighter threw up.  But she loved them.

Addy had a wonderful time at her birthday party with all her friends.  She invited her whole preschool class, along with other playgroup and neighborhood friends.  Her preschool friends and her were particularly excited because the party was at the gym at their school.  It was big fun.

Hulu hoops and tricycles!

It was so much fun to see Addy interact with all her new friends and classmates.  I felt like the birthday party was a little sneak peak into what Addy is like at school.  Here she is getting a lift from one of her classmates.

And what's the best way to get 15 four year olds to sit down???  Food!  

All in all, it was a great birthday!  Happy Birthday Addy!

Giving Thanks

I'm just feeling so truly blessed to have such a wonderful family - Graham, the girls and our puppy, as well as our larger family of parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins.  And today, of all days, I give thanks for that.

 Addy and I had some fun getting ready for the big day of hosting by making some owl place cards with everyone's picture.

 

Grandma Carol and Grandpa Russ surprised us with a nutcracker to add to our collection we put out as part of our Christmas decorations. 

Grandpa hanging out with his granddaughters.

The kitchen crew (don't ask me why I look half out of it in this picture!)

Playing cards is a family holiday tradition...this year, Addy added Ruckus to the list and found some willing players.

And then the yummy food!  This maple-roasted bacon covered turkey recipe is one we have used for years and I think there might be a revolt if we ever try to change it.  But why would we ever want to?  Bacon and turkey???  It doesn't get much better.

I'm not convinced that all the turkey and bacon actually made it to the table...I think the carver may have taken a few "samples."

The sunlight made this picture pretty dark, but still, here's the whole family, anxiously awaiting to dive into the food.

Star was lucky enough to score some of the scraps. It's Thanksgiving afterall!

And, of course, dessert.  The classic pumpkin pie and new one this year, apple blackberry.

Happy Thanksgiving!  Love, the Lanzes

Star's 1st Birthday

 

Sunday was Star's 1st Birthday...and yes, we made a birthday cake for her.  Addy loves, loves, loves to bake birthday cakes - real or pretend.  This recipe was dog-friendly and called for peanut butter, shredded carrots, vegetable oil, egg and flour.  It came out much like a dog biscuit.  Addy wanted the second piece, and after tasting it, declared it "yucky."  But Star loved it.

Here's Addy feeding a piece to Star and her best doggy bud Sherlock.

"Friendship, Friendship"

Many visits ago, Zee Zee taught Addy a song.  I'm not even sure of the title, but it starts "Friendship, friendship."  It evolved into quite the performance with hand motions and lots of laughter.  And on Grandpa Johnny and Zee Zee's most recent visit, a duet was quickly requested by Addy.  But, all that left me unprepared for the performance on video below.  We don't know what inspired her, but after coming home from a meeting one evening, Addy had this in store for me (after watching the first performance, which practically brought me to tears of both pride and laughter, I asked her if I could video tape her, so this is technically the second performance of the night).

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Fun! Our festivities began with a visit from Grandpa Johnny & Zee Zee and some pumpkin carving, then a Halloween playdate, and rounded out with trick-or-treating.  Lots of fun!

Graham was a good sport during the Halloween playdate and let the kids dress him up as a toilet paper mummy.  

That's a pretty convincing Mummy face!

Pirate buddies (Oscar and Addy) chillin' on the couch after the party.  Even the dog was worn out!

Pumpkin carving time!  "Eeeewwww" is the caption that goes with this photo.  Neither girl was a fan of touching the pumpkin guts. 

Zee Zee and Grandpa Johnny hard at work.

And Star helped herself to a little pumpkin snack.

The completed masterpieces.  Note, Cora's with the mums for hair - very fitting =)  And Addy is proudly boasting the Halloween shirts we tye-dyed and then decorated with jack-o-lantern faces.

All dressed up.  So at this point, I should probably explain Addy's costume.  For the last two Halloweens, Addy has been a butterfly.  And when asked what she wanted to be this year, the response I got was "Mom, I'm a butterfly."  Despite our explanation that she didn't have to be the same thing - that she could pick anything she wanted to dress up as for Halloween, she was adamant that she was a butterfly.  Why argue, right?  So the Friday before Halloween Addy is going to Kindermusik and you're allowed to wear Halloween costumes.  Well, Addy's butterfly wings are quite large and awkward and it's impossible to sit down while she's wearing them...understanding all of this, we pull a pirate costume our of her dress-up bin.  After class, and really getting into the role of a pirate (not a hard stretch in this family!), she says to me, "Mom, I have something to tell you."  Oh boy, I think.  "Mom, I think I'm going to be a pirate butterfly...you know, a butterfly, but dressed up as a pirate.  Because butterflies get to dress up, too."  Hence, the butterfly pirate was born and resulted in many confused looks as we walked around the neighborhood trick-or-treating.

Grandma Carol, Grandpa Russ and Grandma Sherry came over to help us hand out candy (We need the help!  This year, again, we had nearly 200 trick-or-treaters!)  Any guesses on Grandma Sherry's costume?  Addy got it, after being clued in to the apron...Amelia Bedelia, one of Addy's new favorite book series. 

And I just love this one...Daddy and daughter pirates.