you

This post is for YOU.  YOU know who you are.  You're the YOU of all you's, my one and only and most importantly, the greatest father on earth.  On Father's Day, more than any other day, I revel in the fact that, of all things, I am certain of one:  I chose right. 

It is such a pleasure, honor and thrill to help you raise our three amazing little beings, to see you pass along your patience, your good-to-the-core nature, your tireless work ethic and endless generosity.  You are the epitome of what "father" means and I will never tire of watching you in action.  You never cease to amaze me.

What a perfect Father's Day this year - we got to witness your Nascar Riding Experience with your Dad and Mary.  I'm sure the Driving Experience is next!

For all that you do, for everything that you are, for the dream you have for our family, I thank you and I wish you the happiest Father's Day.  In my humble opinion, no one deserves it more than YOU. 

You're the very best, so deeply loved and forever appreciated.

young naperville singers

What a thrill it was to watch Logan in her sixth concert with the Young Naperville Singers last weekend. She just completed her 3rd year with this group, as part of the Cantabile Singers of Young Fox Valley and the experience has been top-notch all the way through.

At one of our annual parent meetings, YNS artistic director, Angie Johnson, mentioned that she believes singing keeps kids' hearts soft.  In a world full of heart-hardening competition, I believe she's right.  Of course I'm anxious and excited for Logan's concerts, hoping she'll have a great performance, but it's such a different experience than other activities our kids participate in.  Just watching them up on stage, you can see how it changes kids for the good and builds them up inside for the future. 

Taking Logan to that vocal audition in 1st grade, I felt scared for her and wondered how she'd do, without me in the room to hear her and cheer her on.  But she did just fine!  Three years later, my daughter fearlessly performs, smiling and relaxed, striving for a solo or a chance to stand out.  Along with piano lessons, she has taken her talents further on her own, writing lyrics and composing her own music.  As a non-musical music lover, I could have never helped her develop these interests.  I am so grateful that YNS and YFVS has given her the opportunity to bloom in this way.

The bottom line is, this is not your typical choral group experience.  The exposure to different cultures and musical styles is endless and the performances are breath-taking. If you have a child that loves to sing, consider this amazingly talented group that focuses promoting the highest level of artistic excellence in choral music, through extraordinary educational and performance experiences that enrich the lives of young people.

Past concerts:
catching my breath
young fox valley singers
and the angels sang
voices of angels

gymnastics state meet 2012

Just had to share these fabulous professional shots of Riley at this year's USAG Level 4 State Meet in Peoria.  She competed fabulously and ranked 8th All Around in a super-tough age group.  She also placed on beam and floor and put up her personal best on bars as well.  She's a star and we are SO proud of her!  Mostly, we just love that she's founds something she loves so very much!

playing hookie

After 18 years, I finally talked Mike into a day off for no good reason!  We hit the city on Friday, the kids' last day of Spring Break.  After a few awesome hours at the Adler Planetarium and bumming around the beach for awhile, we had to try out Big and Little's, a killer dive from Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on the Food Network.  What a thrill it was to eat where Guy, one of our favorite celebs, visited!

This family of foodies even felt adventurous enough to try the foie gras and fries!  (Well, everyone but Finn, that is!)  I love trying something new, and I love it even more that our kids do, too.  Will I eat foie gras again?  Um, no.  I think it's safe to say that it was too much for this vegetarian-ish girl, even though as a food lover I felt compelled to try it.  But will we return to Big and Littles?  Absolutely!  The fish and chips was the best I've had and generous enough for Logan and me to share.  (And anyone who has eaten with me knows, I don't like to share!)  Mike had a sausage sandwich smothered in blue cheese - OMG.  And Riley and Finn devoured "the biggest and best burgers they've ever had!"

We shot over to Sprinkles Cupcakes to try the award-winner, but the city would not allow us to park and the line out the door was a bit of a deterrent.  Driving around the block for awhile, while I waited in the chilly air, near Michigan, right before rush hour, wasn't so appealing.  So we headed to our old fav, Molly's Cupcakes.  As usual, my namesake did not disappoint and we stuffed our faces with the most ultimate indulgences on the way home.  The winner?  A peach cobbler cupcake that blew our minds.  It's quite possible that it might be the best thing that I've ever eaten.  I'm serious.

Needless to say, a van full of very stuffed Anderson's headed west, chatting all the way about what we'd do with $640 million of Mega Millions winnings, should we be so lucky in the drawing at night. Man can we dream big!

Nothing better than a day like this with my most favorite people in the world!

helping haiti

What started with a short story read to the class resulted in a big surprise for Logan's teacher.  After taking the next day off, she returned to school to find that her class was so inspired by the hardship and turmoil so many Haitians deal with daily, that they started their own impromptu fundraiser and on the first day, while at school, they collected $87!

Logan came home daily toting huge bags of change and cash, counted it and returned it to the principal the next day.  Within a few days, the halls of the school were lined with promotional posters, collection jars had been delivered to all the classrooms and the kids even stood outside school bathrooms to ask for pennies.  With no direction, operating on pure desire to help, these kids were accomplishing their goals!

As this evolved, I thought of only one person:  Dr. Sylvia Campbell.  I worked for her in Tampa during the mid to late '90's when she began traveling to Haiti annually to perform surgeries and give medical care to those in need.  That was before the natural disasters that completely ripped this third world country apart.  Nearly twenty years later, Dr. Campbell has gone to help up to four times per year with her organization, Village Partners International.  In Mombin Crochu, they've now built a small clinic to take care of patients.  They've expanded to visit other countries in need as well.

We keep in touch and I knew that she was currently in Haiti at the clinic on one of her trips.  After getting the okay from Logan's teacher, I reached out to her to find out if the class could make their donation to Village Partners International.  In my message, delivered to this small clinic across the world in real-time via Facebook, I reminded Dr. Campbell of a handmade, light blue paper rosary she gave me after her first trip there so many years ago, that still sits in my jewelry box today.  Who would've imagined that I'd someday have a daughter whose giving spirit would lead us back together, who would be inspired to help Haiti, too.

Through tears, Dr. Campbell responded, saying she'd be "proud and honored to be part of the children's beautiful hearts and spirits!"  The $300 earned by the kids in two short weeks will go to the organization's Food for Healing program, which provides meals for patients who typically don't receive any food. Not only does it promote healing, but it supports the local economy and provides jobs, too.

I am so proud of Logan's involvement in this!  And thanks to Dr. Campbell, who has handwritten a letter for me to give to each student and will likely do a quick Skype with the class, these children will have a true personal connection to how their efforts will make a difference in Haiti.

How lucky we are for our kids to have this experience at such a young age! Logan and her class have inspired me to find more ways to give to others in need and hopefully someday, to travel to Haiti to help in person!  When Dr. Campbell first went all those years ago, I knew it was something I wanted to do someday; now I know it's something I want our whole family to do.

To learn more about Dr. Campbell's and VPI's efforts, watch this you tube video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-u6CkvxH9s

gourmet girls and a date with daddy

Our weekends have turned into complete blurs - filled with kid-related activity from beginning to end.  This weekend was no different.  Gymnastics practice and floor hockey were followed by a quick family gathering for Logan's and Riley's birthdays and then the Daddy-Daughter Dance at school.  What a great day!

I have to say, I love my gourmet girls.  Their palettes are bordering on "adult" at the ages of 8 and 10.  They want to try every kind of ethnic or unfamiliar food they see, from sushi to Thai.  This is very good news for parents that love to cook and eat.  There were no grocery store sponge cakes for their birthdays, oh no.  These girls don't mess around and while it's a lot of work, I love every minute!

For Logan, it was a chocolate cheesecake with a cookie crust and chocolate whipped cream on top.  For Riley, a lemon meringue ice cream pie with a gingersnap crust.  Both should have sat in the fridge up until the last second for easy cutting, but even though they were messy, they were DELISH!

After a quick party, the girls and Mike got dressed and headed to dinner and then the dance at school.  They had a wonderful time and they couldn't believe Daddy wore a tie.  (With jeans.)  They each got a slow dance or two with Daddy and lots of giggle time with their friends.  Mike had a great time, too.

Love this lifetime memory stuff - what a day!

catching my breath

This weekend was ridiculous.  I hate when our schedules are so packed that you can't even be in the moment with anything because "EVERYTHING" is taking up every ounce of your brain.  We started Friday night with our annual ugly ornament contest in the 'hood - which I'm excited to announce that we won - after participating for many years!  Looking back, even though it was another line item on the calendar, that party was pure relaxation in comparison to what followed.

Saturday morning, we took Riley to the gym at 8 AM.  By 9, Finn, Logan and I were at Finn's pancake breakfast at school.  At 10:30, we picked up Riley from the gym and went to Finn's basketball game, with Grammy and Jim, until 12.  Mike and Finn dropped us off and went to get haircuts - Mike was really starting to look like a cross between Max Hedrum and Conan O'Brien.  After what might be consider lunch, we packed up with our good pals, the Marienthals, and drove out toward DeKalb, to our traditional tree-cutting stomping  grounds.  Two unbearably frigid treks through two different farms resulted in zero tree choices; they were all too small!  We ended up buying from a tree lot at the second farm!  We went home and tried to decorate, but it was so late that we got little done and rushed the kids into bed so that we'd get a good night's sleep before the 5 AM wake-up call for Riley's meet.

 

 

 

 

Sunday at 2:39 AM, Finn arrived to tell us that he'd thrown up all over his bed.  Every hour, for the next several, he vomited more; his little body wondering what the hell is going on.  His ID Reaction, which had been almost healed, flared into craziness and all the spots became dark red and scabbed.  At 5, I woke Riley, did her bun and headed out, without the rest of the fam, to the meet.  I hate sitting there watching alone - it's so stressful!!

Riley rocked it like never before, raising her personal best by one whole point!  She scored 9.3 on floor (personal best), 9.225 on beam (personal best), 9.150 on bars and 9.125 on vault.  I can't describe the excitement on her face with each flashing score - I was one thrilled mama.  She has worked her butt off for a meet like this!  There was a stinging disappointment later, when she learned that at this particular meet, they don't announce places or scores, they just give everyone the same trophy.  Our non-drama girl sobbed for an hour when we got home, but later, a good friend let us know that she was listed at the meet as placing 3rd All Around out of 56 girls that were not separated out by age.  AMAZING!  She felt better, needless to say. 

 

We rushed home to decorate as this was our only chance before Christmas.  This year, and every year from now on, we've decided to have an "Uncle Griff Tree", in the living room.  Aunt Michelle generously donated her pre-lit one to our efforts.  The kids made ornaments for it and left notes and we hung things on it that remind us of him.  Yesterday was also Griff's birthday.

By 6:30 PM, we met up with Nana and Tony, Grandpa and Irene, Grammy and Jim, Tom, Michelle and Ellie to see Logan's Christmas Choir Concert and it did not disappoint!  She is so adorable and growing up so fast.  I couldn't believe my first little babe was standing up there, tall and proud and singing her heart out, with her requested straightened hair.  How did she grow up so fast?  Finn laid in my lap like an infant though, so at least I'm still needed!!

 

We ended the  night at Potbelly's with Nana and Tony before they headed back north.  What a whirlwind!  Today, with Finn home, I'm trying to catch my breath, make last purchases and get a stronghold on what lies ahead.  It certainly feels like the holidays.  Looking to this weekend:  Finn's school holiday festival, another choir concert, basketball game and meet, another Christmas party, a birthday party and an invite for drinks with friends.  Will I survive?  And when am I supposed to bake cookies?

mother's day breakfast

This year, Mother's Day celebrating began on Friday for breakfast at Finn's school. Grandmom and I were invited to share some time with Finn in his classroom and we had a great time. Most notable though, was the priceless letter from Finn, all about me. This, my friends, is a "keeper" in the truest sense of the word. Thanks to almost-five-year-old Finn for a morning that I'll never forget!


Just for the record, I've worn a wedding dress ONCE, and I assure you that Finn was not there!

young fox valley singers

Logan completed another wonderful year with the Young Fox Valley Singers at the spring concert on May 1st. I can't tell you how blessed we feel to have our daughter be a part of this group of incredibly talented musicians and vocalists. She is learning things we could never dream of teaching her, thriving and loving it. The performances they deliver never cease to amaze us!

Congrats to Logan on completing her second year with the group. Can't wait to see what they do next!

the road to state

The road to state is paved with anxiety for Mommy. I swear, if I could get my hands on some Valium and knew I could take it and still stay awake, I'd probably medicate myself this afternoon. There is just something so disconcerting about your tiny seven year old, balancing alone, four feet or more in the air with a panel of strangers judging her. It just doesn't seem right.

But, for as hard as it is for me, Riley is in love with the sport and more dedicated than I could imagine for such a young girl. She works hard and shakes off mistakes better than most adults I know. And as she heads into her first USAG State Championship at 5 PM tonight, I could not feel more proud about who she is. How she performs is irrelevant to me; I just want her to leave feeling great about what she's already accomplished.

Her posse will be out in force tonight. The car windows are painted and signed by all the neighbors and pals and Logan has made a pink and blue sign with silver glitter to hold in the stands. We've all adopted "RA RA Riley" as our official cheer! All her hard work is behind her with just this one performance lying in wait.

When it's over, and I can't wait for that moment, I will be having a large cocktail to celebrate her 6 month competition hiatus (and the lowering of my anxiety levels.) But in the meantime, I've got to get ready because my favorite gymnast performs tonight!!

"RA RA RILEY!!"

blizzard of 2011, continued

A few more pics of the craziness!

Snow Dog

Making a path to the front door

Happy Kids