Christmas season

We have been decorating gingerbread houses, and people...

My Mum's "egg in a basket" made in angels...

Our inflated nativity scene on our front lawn.

First snow

We have had our first snow for the winter. It is magical how the landscape changes. Gracie was excited to let the snow fall on her face.

Our new pets

Not as cute as three little pigs, but equally lovable! A bit of Australia in our living room. We now have three bearded dragons. They came from a home of a friend (who also has sugar gliders). They have just got a third dog, and so decided they needed to find a new home for their bearded dragons. The kids are very excited. Dante's is called Midnight because his neck goes dark to show off his maleness. Angie's is Athena (her original name), and Grace's is called Sunday (because that's the day we got her).

Cleaning sheets

Sicknesses in the past month: ear infection (Angie), chest infection (Kate) swine flu (Grace) now it's little white worms in the poo (Grace, and probably Angela), Suspected to come from the new kitten at the neighbour's house. Meanwhile, my computer hasn't been able to connect to the internet for the whole week. Amazing how that slowed me down. Fixed now. Yeah! Scott has finished his comprehensive exams. Well done honey! We will get the result in about a month. Still one assignment, and lots of marking to do before Christmas. Tomorrow we are going to get a new pet for the kids. Wait to see. Feeling exhausted. Missing my family and friends at Christmas time.

Inflatable Jesus

O.K. Sorry there hasn't been much blogging for a while. Life generally seems pretty ordinary, or I am feeling so snowed under that there isn't energy left for blogging. So I am going to skip the past few months to today.

Now that Thanksgiving is over, everyone is putting up their Christmas decorations. Americans love decorating. We decided to save our decorating energy for Christmas, to show that it is an important time for us. So after church today we went to the shops, where Scott was very happy to find something special for our front lawn. While you do see lots of snowmen, raindeers, and basically lots of lights outside people's houses, there isn't a whole lot of Jesus. But we are trying to help our kids remember that we are celebrating Jesus' birthday, and that's the most important thing about Christmas. Hence - our inflatable nativity scene. P.S. It is still on its way to being totally inflated. When it is, a light shines through Mary's heart.

Autumn kids

Cuddles with baby Rachel

Our friend came to visit with her three week old daughter. It was lovely tobe able to give her cuddles. The girls were keen to hold her, and Gracie was even telling me how it should be done.

Apple Orchard

On a rainy Friday we set of on a westerly direction for a 90min drive to Edwards Orchard to go apple picking - one of the main events of the Fall season. The place was well set up for visitors, and we could see why families made this a yearly event.
Being Fall, the main flower out is crysanthenums (sorry if that is spelt wrongly). They are everywhere, and their myriad of colours are so beautiful. At the orchard there were lots of pots of flowers everywhere to buy. The kids got right into the apply picking job. Angie ate as many as she picked. We had to buy the basket for $3, and fill it with apples, for a minimum purchase of $30. They had three types that were reading for picking - gala, and two others. Since then I have made apple crumble, and apple pie which turned into apple crumble pie-ish dessert. The kids always eat lots of apples anyway, but they enjoy eating the ones they picked themselves.Besides apples there were the obligatory pumpkins. Outside the shops at the moment in Deerfield are mountains and mountains of pumpkins. People mainly use them as decoration, as it is much easier to use tinned pumpkin to make pie with (this is called 'semi-scratch' cooking). At the shope we bought a pumpkin roulade thing with cream cheese which is delicious. Otherwise, I'm not really that into pumkpin desserts. Maybe I will get creative and try to cook some pumpkin gnocci, or I found a recipe for pumpkin fudge and pumpkin profitteroles.

This was the method of transportation to and from the picking area. We are on our way back with a full basket of apples,a nd one pumpkin. Notice that Angie, in typical fashion, is deep in conversation with someone. And we had the obligatory conversation about where we come from, and the local school teacher who comes from Australia, and how they have always wanted to go to Australia. Even though we got wet, it was a wonderful time. The kids had a pony ride, and played in a playground. There was a shed with some animals in it - goats, pigs and chickens. We enjoyed eating hot apple pie (served with either ice-cream or cheese... we had ice-cream), and delicious hot apple donuts - the best. We came home with some sweet corn salsa and corn chips which we served when some friends came over - much to Scott's chagrin as he would prefer to keep it to himself. But it was a big jar. Yum! Another all American experience under our belts, and in my scrapbooking album.

Hospital Fort Knox

Today we went to visit friends in hospital who have just had a baby. They kids know them really well, as they have babysat for us, and often come over for dinner. So the girls have been watching our friend's stomach expand, thought up names, and asked repeatedly when the baby would be born. After Dante got home from school, the kids each chose a gift to wrap up for the baby. The girls had done a drawing each, and put on their pretty dresses for the big occassion. Dante even changed his t-shirt, as the one he was wearing had paint on it. Angie directed me to do a new hairdo that she had seen in a magazine (which didn't put me in a great mood, as Angie finds it hard to stand still on two feet - and my efforts didn't quite match up to the picture). Off we went to pick up Daddy from uni, then on to the hospital.

Having reached the hospital, we managed to find the women's building. At the front door we pressed the buzzer and explained our presence to be let inside. Fine. Then, Scott and I both had to sign in, show photo ID, and have yellow wristbands put on us. Still coping OK. We went on the left to the first floor, and got to the door of the maternity ward. Locked. Pushed the button, and told the lady who were we there to see.

"Are those children with you?" "Yes". "Whose are they?" "Ours" (sunny disposition gone to slightly cloudy). "Whose children are they" (again!) "OURS" (slightly louder, sun going, clouds rolling in). "You can't bring the children in. You will have to take it in turns to come in." "OK" (short and blunt, as sun has gone, and clouds that have rolled in are a shade darker than before).

The door buzzes and I walk in, calmly, trying to focus on happy thoughts about seeing my friend and the new baby. Walk to the nurses station and tell them who I have come to see. She is around the other side. I could walk all the way up the corrider, around the corner, and down the other corrider, but those dark clouds are still lurking, and I walk across the gap in the nurses station. "You can't walk through here!" "OK" (I say as I keep walking briskly across, clouds now looking quite thunderish) "You can't walk through here. This is the nurses station. You have to go around. Blah blah blah." I get to my friends' door, knock, and go in.

My friend look exhausted. Poor girl. After we talked for a while, she asks permission for the nurse to take the baby to the nursery, where they can open the blinds, so our children can see the baby. She is tiny and wrinkly, and the kids are fascinated. I let the dark clouds roll away, happy to see the kids are OK about looking at the new baby through the glass, knowing that in a couple of days, we can visit the family in their home with no security to go through. The kids leave their gifts with baby's Dad. We remembered to sign out on our way back to the car.

The north shore of Chicago certainly protects its newest American citizens very well.

Men on our roof

After experiencing a few leeks with all the rain over the summer, the owner decided to get a new roof done. Of course the kids are fascinated, but we have to keep them safe from the bits getting thrown off the roof into the bin.

American limo

Today we went to the Botanic Gardens to enjoy the sunshine. As we walked around we saw five different wedding parties being photographed. Back in the carpark, we found one of the wedding cars - a Daddy Hummer Limo Ute. OIA! Scott said he saw a disco ball inside it as well. So if you know someone who is about to get married - this is the car to hire to drive the wedding party around in.

First Days at School

The school year has started. Dante is in grade 2, and has two of his friends from our street in his class. The girls started kindergarden, which is the same as our prep year, but it only goes for 2.5 hours a day. They are in seperate classes, which is a new challenge for them. They all catch the bus together in the morning at 8am. The first two mornings it was pouring with rain. I didn't get a photo of Grace, because she was feeling nervous and wouldn't let go of my leg. Fortunately it wasn't raining this morning, so I could get some more photos.

Williamsburg

We had a wonderful holiday at Williamsburg, Virginia, with Scott's parents. It is a historic town, set in the 18th century leadiing up to the war of Independance. They have 80 of the original houses, and re-enact some of the key speeches and moments in history. There are people wearing period dress in the streets and shops, and tradesmen working away.

The picture below was at Jamestown, the first permament settlement of the English. The statue is John Smith, who was instumental in the settement's survival. Scott is in the foreground.
One of the re-enactments, which started with the drums and fifes.

Dante and Scott went to a program at the Magazine where they had to join the army, and do lots of marching. I think it was the most exercise Dante has ever done. He decided he doesn't ever want to join the army.

Angela and Grace went to a program at one of the original family houses. They learnt a bit about what life was like for a family then, with a vegie garden to tend, sheep in the back yard to get wool from, and cooking on an open fire. They helped to scrape carrots with a spoon, and Angie washed the grater.

Thomas Family

We had a great visit from our long-time friends Matt and Anna, and their twins Sophie and Kate. They are friends from Aus, who now live in London. Matt and Anna are wonderful god-parents to Dante, and I am Baby Kate's godmother.

Sophie has the white teddy-bear, and Kate is holding onto her Woof-woof.

Baby Kate at the Botanic Gardens.

I spent a day in Chicago with the Thomas family. We did lots of walking and saw lots of things, including the famous 'cloud' sculpture, which everyone here calls the 'bean'.

4th of July cont.

Our family at the parade (read blog below first!)

4th of July

An Aussie family, living in Chicago, going to a Chinese church, marching in a 4th of July parade. Huh? It was great fun! We went in the local parade with some people from our church. It was quite a rainy day, but the streets were still lined with people. It was funny to see people that we knew on the sidelines watching us. Important for any American celebration, participants in the parade threw out candy to the children watching. Dante and Angela took this job very seriously. Gracie had been told we were marching in the parade, so march she did, with her knees going up and down, waving an American flag. The other participants in the parade were local businesses, and local charities. It was a great experience.

Getting ready to go, outside our church.

Standing in line with the banner ready. About to move off.

Another of the parade participants.

This guy is the owner of the local diner. He is a real character. Lots of fun.

8 yrs old!

Dante enjoyed opening presents on the morning of his birthday. In the afternoon he came home to his new bicycle from Granny and Pa, David and Cris, which he LOVES! We had a fun dinner at Red Robin, where all the waiters sang a very upbeat happy birthday to Dante. And, of course, we had birthday cake (a chocolate brownie) with candles to blow out. A few days later we had a party with some of Dante's friends. Stay tuned for more photos in a future blog.

Red Velvet cake

Scott has been watching some cooking shows on tv, and was inspired to make this cake. It is a red velvet cake, which is basically a heavy chocolate cake with red food colouring. I think originally they used to get the colour naturally (from red cabbage or something). They tend to make it for Valentines Day. It was a great cake, and so much the more because it was cooked by Scott!