Part II
Part III:
We arrived in Elmwood Park Wednesday evening. Did the usual- ordered some pizza, played catch-up with the fam, waiting for everyone to slowly trickle in from work. Basically, we relaxed. Auntie Kelli made the drive in from Rolling Meadows to see the girls. We made some exciting plans for the following day, and headed off to bed.
Thursday morning, New Years Eve, we were up early. We drug Kaitlin, now used to lazy college days and sleeping in until noon, out of her warm cozy
We piled in the car and drove off to Kelli & Randy's, but not without an Einstein's pit stop... a bagel bucket was definitely in order! Upon arrival, we schmoozed, ate bagels, avoided getting trampled by Morty, and headed to Woodfield. There are about a million reasons why I love Woodfield... Macy's, The Disney Store, Sephora, H&M, Hanna Andersson, Janie & Jack... in the flesh. It's like a Midwestern mecca of great shopping. Too bad I forgot to bring my small fortune...
But, we never leave without a few treasures...
After lunch at Portillo's and my favorite.salad.EVER, we were back at the house to wait for the New Years Eve festivities to commence. The girls rested. Tyler and I made Oreo Truffles and Red Velvet Cake Balls. All was well.
Aunt Kathy called me earlier in the day to ask what sassy was wearing for New Years Eve. I had planned for her to wear her little red tunic with zebra leggings, but Aunt Kathy assured me that she found a really fancy dress on clearance for $7, and asked is it was OK for her to buy it for Sassy to wear.
Sure.
The funny part was a subsequent trip to Target turned into $33 spent on tights, a cardigan, and red glitter shoes that Sassy just had to have to match her fancy party dress.
Although, the look on her face while we got dressed for our New Years Eve party made it all worth it!
So, we were slated to go over to Frank & Nancy's for a NYE party- friends of Aunt Kathy and Uncle Joe's that have most definitely become close family friends. There was only one problem- my girls are used to going to bed between 8:00 and 9:00. By the time Aunt Kathy got home from work and got ready, combined with the time it took Kaitlin to get her hair and make-up just right, we were sitting and looking at the clock approach 10:00. Then 10:15...
Yeah.
So, Uncle Randy assumed his post as we waited:
Eventually, both girls were asleep, and Tyler and I were all ready to call it a night in when some crazy people who haven't had young children in a really, really, really long time talked us out of it. Needless to say, the moment we woke Sassy up to load her int he car in her new pretty party dress, she melted down like melting down was going out of style. The air was to cold, her dress was too long, her coat was too heavy, the car was too far away... you get the idea.
When we arrived at Frank & Nancy's, Little A demanded to be held until she fell asleep, at which point she was promptly placed on a black leather couch in the den.
Sassy decided to be
At this point, we had about 30 minutes until the near year rang in, and I joined my husband, who was already noshing on goodies and mingling. Then, the dreaded hats, horns, and beads came out:
Kelli modeled her little baby bump:
Aunt Kathy jumped on for a "girlie" pic:
Baby T celebrated, too:
I checked in on the girls... still asleep:
And, it became 2010!
Tyler and I took our
Aunt Kathy & Uncle Joe... as cute as ever:
I love how Sassy always manages to be a princess... even in slumber:
Kaitlin even emerged from the college freshman-filled basement, which was supposed to hold 15 kids but really held 50. We, the upstairs dwellers, were all confident that these kids did nothing but play the Wii and sip Sprite, of course...
And, at 12:15 sharp, after spending our obligatory 15 minutes of New Year celebration with our peers, we promptly loaded the car and drove home for bed!
The best part of New Years Day... I didn't leave the house. Not once. In fact, I enjoyed New Years Day in my fleece sweatpants. Ah, the beauty...
We had a total family day. Uncle Mikey came over. Aunt Kathy and Uncle Joe were off from work. We forced Kaitlin out of bad at some ungodly late hour in the morning for blueberry pancakes and uncle Joe's famous maple sausage. Kelly, Randy, and Morty moseyed in during the early afternoon. Tyler began cooking our ham dinner. We exchanged gifts. We watched football. It was great!
Uncle Mikey watched on as Little A played with some one's slippers:
Sassy snuggled in with AK:
Auntie Kelli helped Little A dig in to her gifts:
Meanwhile, Tyler kept Morty under control:
Little A tried our her Christmas tree magna doodle:
Sassy was in awe of her new winter princess nightgown... with slippers:
We had a really nice day!
Saturday, to Kaitlin's chagrin, I drug her out of the house at 7:15 am in order to make our hair appointments at the Aveda salon in The Streets of Woodfield by 8:00. Aunt Kathy and Sassy came along.
Then, we got our hair did.
We met up with Kelli and tagged along to her OB appointment and glucose tolerance test... all clear!
We ate lunch at Portillo's. Aunt Kathy took Sassy and the rest of us to see The Princess and the Frog. It was only Sassy's third time!
We barely had enough time to make a pit stop back at the house before we piled into the car again to head to Des Plaines for Ali's 11th birthday party. Well, we had enough time to practice matching silly faces for a bit:
We ate, drank, mingled, and hurried home to pack the car so we could head home at 4:30 AM Sunday morning.
4:30 AM is our lucky number, I guess...
1 sweet tweets:
Man, now that you have FINALLY written about your trip, I now realize why I was tired from the holidays. I can only imagine how exhausted you guys were.
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