feeding the duckies

Boo!

This year’s Halloween was extra special for two reasons. First, there were two days of “trick-or-treating.” Second, the kids got to spend it with very good friends.

The Costumes

While hunting around for age-appropriate versions of “Spider-Man” for my Spider-Man-obsessed kids, we discovered a real gem from my own childhood — Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends. Upon the first viewing the older three assumed the roles of Spider-Man (Sean), Iceman (Nathan), and Firestar (Annalise), and began having adventures fighting numerous bad guys (usually Mommy or Daddy).

When it came time to pick their costumes for this year, the decision was unanimous. Good thing Mommy is very creative, and has some talented helpers available (Kathy and Lisa). The Spider-Man costume was in the bag — Sean has 4 already. So for Iceman and Firestar, Suzy purchased some sweat suits and had Kathy dye and draw “muscles” for Iceman, while Lisa helped with the Firestar flames.

And here’s the trio, with Emma completing the cast as the trio’s dog, Ms. Lion:

Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends -- with Ms. Lion

Trick or Treat in Downtown Naperville

The first of the two-day festivities consisted of trick-or-treat in downtown Naperville. Dean and Suzanne, parents of Sean’s preschool classmate Laila, and far and away our kid’s favorite playtime friends (Laila, Luke, and Ben) organized a group of preschool families and friends to meet for the annual event. It was quite the group and the crowds downtown were incredible.

The crew in downtown Naperville

Luke and Sean

Annalise and Laila

The Main Event

The next night, Laila and family joined us for Trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. The kids had a blast, racing from house-to-house, a marked difference from the previous year of getting in and out of the wagon as we pulled them between driveways.

…and what Halloween night would be complete without a giant chicken?

The Halloween House

A house in our neighborhood goes “all out” decorating for every holiday (even Easter). This is the first year we’ve actually visited the house on Halloween. A lot of work, but way cool….

The result — 8 pounds of candy! (donated to our troops overseas, after taking a small cut!)

Happy Halloween!

Tags: Annalise, Ben, costume, Dean, emma, Firestar, halloween, Iceman, Laila, Luke, Naperville, Nathan, photos, Sean, Spider-Man, Suzanne, Trick or Treat
Filed under: Uncategorized on November 6th, 2011 | No Comments »

Annalise’s school has a program where students are awarded with “green tickets” whenever they’re caught doing something good, such as following directions, assisting another student, etc. Unsurprisingly, Annalise has really taken to this program and works hard to earn these tickets every chance she gets. We promised we’d celebrate with an activity of her choice when she earned 25 of these. Little did we know she’d hit that milestone within the first month of school!

A few weeks ago we enrolled Annalise and Sean in Taekwondo. They’ve enjoyed earning the tape on their belt, and by coincidence, the very week we decided to celebrate Annalise’s 25th green ticket, they both earned a green tape stripe on their white belts. Two things to celebrate!

Thus was born “Green Ticket and Tape Day!”

Green Pancakes

The celebration began with our traditional Sunday morning pancakes — with a twist. I threw in some green food coloring and we had green Mickey Mouse pancakes.

Riverwalk Picnic

Next up, a picnic on Naperville’s picturesque “Riverwalk.” We realized today that the last time we picnic’d there was days before Nathan was born. The riverwalk has since undergone substantial renovation, however the path is basically the same and lovely as ever.

Feeding the Duckies

We brought along some old bread and, against admonitions stamped into the concrete walkway, fed the numerous ducks gathering at the water’s edge. As usual, the kids then spent some time running in circles around the amphitheater and generally having a great time enjoying the mild fall weather.

The Bouncey Place

Annalise choose “the bouncey place” for her celebration treat. So next, we headed out to Airtastic for an hour or so of jumping, climbing, and sliding down inflatables.

Tags: airtastic, Annalise, Celebration, emma, Family, Feeding the duckies, Naperville, Nathan, photo, Picnic, riverwalk, Sean
Filed under: Uncategorized on October 3rd, 2011 | No Comments »

I think this photo pretty well captures what it means to be “Nathan.”

"Nate" by Dean Thorsen

…and in case you didn’t get the full picture from the photo alone, here’s Nate and his older brother and sister playing with a musical greeting card from Grandma and Grandpa.

Filed under: Uncategorized on September 29th, 2011 | No Comments »

The Kratt brothers have been around for some time and their latest show on PBS, “Wild Kratts”  is a major hit with the kids. To celebrate the 10-year anniversary of the Hammill Family Play Zoo at the Brookfield Zoo, they invited the Kratt brothers, Chris and Martin, to make an appearance and sign autographs. Aunt Bethie was off from work and happily decided to come along.

And so we made a day of it.

Butterflies

Our first stop was actually to the butterfly garden. Annalise has been anxious to see the butterflies, but the exhibit wasn’t open the last time we visited. This time, we got a chance to see the butterflies and even a couple emerging from their cocoon.

A butterfly emerges from its chrysalis

The Kratt Brothers

The first show was set to begin at 11am, so we headed over to the open area where they had setup the stage. The crowds were huge and the 1/2 hour stage show the Kratt’s put on was entertaining…the kids had a great time.

Annalise enjoying the show

the crowd was huge

Face Painting

After the show, Aunt Bethie got in line for autographs (still a few hours away!) while we took the rest of the kids around the zoo. Annalise and Sean had a great time painting their faces outside the Hammill Family Play Zoo (Nate decided to be grumpy).

Meeting the Brothers

After their second show, the brothers sat for autographs and pictures. The odd bit was they had set up separate lines for Chris and Martin — and folks started lining up hours before the signing. Beth was able to reserve a spot for us fairly close in Chris’ line, but we wound up a couple hours back in Martins’. So it was a very long wait and a very long day. I think it was worth it.

Meeting Chris. Chris and Martin had separate lines, and long waits for each!

Meeting Martin after waiting in line over 2 hours! (Nathan was still grumpy)

Tags: Brookfield Zoo, butterflies, Kratt Brothers, Wild Kratts, zoo
Filed under: Uncategorized on June 21st, 2011 | No Comments »

It took 4 years, but we finally got pictures of the kids sitting on Santa’s lap, smiling instead of crying.

Sean asking for a Spiderman web shooter

Smiles!

Emma sitting in for a quick shot

Well, almost all of the kids sat with Santa. Nate wasn’t having it!

Nate wasn't so keen on the whole Santa thing

Thanks, Santa! And everyone in the group that organized this event!

Tags: Annalise, christmas, emma, Nathan, photos, Santa Claus, Sean
Filed under: Uncategorized on December 12th, 2010 | No Comments »

Last year we conceded that there would be no reasonable way for our family to drive or fly to Buffalo for a December Christmas celebration with the Jaromin side of the family. The solution: host everyone at our house in October for an early family Christmas!

The Shedd Aquarium

On Thursday Mom and Dad, and my sister Julie with her family arrived. Friday morning Sue and her family flew in to Midway — and were immediately taken downtown where everyone met up for a day out at the Shedd Aquarium.

Clockwise starting @left: Patrick, Suzy, Sue, Scott, Julie, Joe, Shea, Jacob, Josh, Morgan, Samantha, Annalise, Sean, Nathan.

We took in the aquatic show and watched the Beluga whales and dolphins perform. We took in the sharks and saw fish in the “Wild Reef” and the kids got a chance to dress up like penguins — a definite highlight.

Penguins Shea and Josh

While Suzy and I drove the kids home, their parents experienced pizza at Gino's East.

American Girls, Cutting Boards, and Christmas Dinner

While the girls headed out to the American Girl store in downtown Chicago, I worked with Scott and Joe on cutting boards in my shop. Later that evening there were Christmas presents and an Italian Christmas dinner courtesy of Mom (and Biaggi’s)!

The American Girls

Making Joe's cutting board

Christmas Dinner

Swimming in October

The weather for the entire weekend was absolutely beautiful, and Sunday was no exception. In fact, we hit 80+ degrees and decided to haul the pool out of storage.

The kids enjoy the unseasonably hot weather

Girlfriends. Annalise and Samantha spent much of the weekend playing together.

Scott wanted his own cutting board, so we headed back into the shop on Sunday to build one — naturally it had to be bigger than Joe’s. I designed a cherry/walnut/purpleheart and a cherry/walnut/purpleheart/ash board.

Scott sands his manly cutting board

Mom runs the Wii Sports obstacle course

Morgan did her “community service” by taking excellent care of baby Emma for the duration. Unfortunately, Chris, Amy and family were unable to make it. Otherwise it was a nearly perfect “Christmas” weekend!

Tags: christmas, Holiday, photos
Filed under: Uncategorized on October 12th, 2010 | No Comments »

Emma’s quite a joy! She’s probably the most expressive and “smiley” baby of the four. She was also the fussiest and still requires a bit more attention (and carrying) than the others did at this stage. This is one of the reasons for the long delay between posts! Let me try to catch up a bit…

Emma‘s only sporadically sleeping through the night at this point, but she’s also now able to roll over from back to front. She’s incredibly vocal and greets everyone with a wide smile — and sometimes raspberries!

Nathan is, well…Nathan. At 21 mos. he’s simultaneously incredibly cute and incredibly mischievous. You would think that by the third child, all of the kinks had been worked out of the “baby-proofing” of our house. Not so. Nathan clearly has a future in quality control as he’s managed to sniff out a whole host of overlooked things. For his sake  we’ve been forced to add latches to the refrigerator and stove. And the bottom floor bathroom door remains locked at all times. He’s already managed to give himself fairly substantial gashes on his chin and mouth, and right eye. We moved him to Sean’s bed (after moving Sean into Annalise’s room) when it became clear at around 18mos. that he would be perfectly willing to launch himself from the crib rather than cry for a few minutes (or puke). There was also that month-long period in June where I would need to take him nightly to the basement to sleep after he’d wake up between midnight and 3am.

Nathan’s language skills are really taking off — he’s putting three and four-word sentences together and is actually able to say “Bethie” with a th. He’s a very special kid — though it seems a safe bet that he’ll be either the first in our house to break a bone or at least in some way involved in it!

For Sean, Spiderman still rules. I’m not sure how much video we have of him singing the (original) cartoon theme song, but I’m sure we could fill a few SD cards if we caught it all! He’s very excited about starting (pre-)school in a few weeks (Racoon) and just came home with his Spiderman backpack and Buzz Lightyear lunch bag. To accommodate Emma and Nathan, we moved Sean into Annalise’s room on a new Lightning McQueen bed. They love it — though a bit too much as most nights they’re up rather late talking and playing. He’s enjoying gymnastics and puts his head underwater at the pool, though I think if he had his choice, he would probably spend most of each day snuggling with Aunt Bethie on the couch watching movies.

Annalise is a little mommy, showman, and occasional drama queen. She directs most of the happenings at our house. Her latest thing is the “Tinkerbell Show” that she’s putting together with her brothers. We’ve yet to see it and are a bit concerned with her plans for decorating the house with wrapping paper, but it’s certain to be a theatrical tour de force.

Her biggest change this summer took place at the pool. In early June it took a great deal of coaxing to get her to get her head wet — now she’s jumping in on her own and swimming underwater back to the edge! Annalise would spend all day outside if she could.

Suzy’s still hanging on as we try to make it through this challenging year (and beyond), and I’ve got a year left of school to complete my BSIT/ISS.

Coming in November: The Jaromin’s plus Aunt Bethie Take Disney!

Filed under: Uncategorized on August 10th, 2010 | No Comments »

With the latest ultrasound results in, we are all evened up here in the Jaromin house. It’s a girl!!! Annalise joined Mommy and Daddy for today’s appointment. Baby Girl Jaromin was very cooperative and gave us some very nice pictures. Now it’s time to pick baby names. So far, Annalise’s votes are “baby Annalise”  and “Coco”. We might have to work on that. We’re just very happy that she’s growing well and healthy. We can’t wait to meet her!

Filed under: Uncategorized on October 29th, 2009 | No Comments »

It’s been a busy summer full of  “Fun Fridays” and “family adventures”. There were dance classes, swimming and swim lessons, multiple trips to the Brookfield Zoo and Airtastic, a visit to Pirate’s Cove, the Shedd Aquarium, All Aboard Diner, “Thomas Days” at the Illinois Railroad Museum, and even a trip to see Grandma and “papa” in Buffalo. And let’s not forget riding the rollercoaster at Kiddieland!

Dance Class – We enrolled Sean and Annalise in a beginning “Creative Movement” class this summer. Each Saturday, Annalise would dress up in her ballerina outfit, complete with ballet shoes and we’d head out to the “Naperville Dance Academy” for “Miss Lisa’s” class. The highlight of the class — especially for Sean — was the last 5 or so minutes of class where they would do the “animal dance.” He’d frequently spend the preceding 20 minutes requesting it!

Airtastic - A favorite after-dance family activity was visiting the “bouncy place” just down the street. A few times after dance we’d have a lunch at Culver’s and head off to “Airtastic.” For an hour-and-a-half the kids would jump and fall, climb and slide and generally have a blast. The “boxing ring” was a favorite because it allowed all of us, Mom and Dad included, to play tag. Great fun, but exhausting!

Shedd Aquarium – It was a dreary, rainy day and Mom and Dad were feeling a bit ambitious. So we packed up the kids and trekked into the city to the Shedd Aquarium. The 360° Caribbean Reef exhibit is beautiful and amazing. The kids had a great time and we were all wiped out by the end of this adventure!

Pirate’s Cove – Pirate’s Cove is described as a “Children’s Theme Park” and I suppose it is, though I must say I was rather disappointed at the rather limited number of rides. There simply isn’t enough there to fill an afternoon. The kids did have a good time, though, riding the train over and over again.

All Aboard Diner - Suzy found an ad for this unique little diner in our local newsletter. The kids are big fans of “Thomas the Tank Engine” (aren’t pretty much ALL kids?) so what could be better than a diner where your food is brought out by train and where Thomas episodes run continuously? We’ve been back at least 3 or 4 times since and will certainly visit again!

“Day Out With Thomas” at the Illinois Railway Museum – What could be better than a train ride on a full-size Thomas the Tank Engine? The museum features a number of barns organized into categories. There were old “L” trains, horse-drawn street cars and modern diesel passenger trains. On the day we were there, we were able to walk through an old passenger train, complete with numerous styles of sleeping compartment with very interesting and ingenious fold-away beds and cots. With the kids running short on patience we weren’t able to fully investigate every barn or read many of the historical notes accompanying most of the exhibits…something I’m sure we’ll do the next time we visit when the kids are a bit older. This is a fascinating walk through the history of rail transportation and a great place to spend a summer afternoon!

Buffalo, NY, July 23rd – 27th - In late July we took a trip back to Buffalo to visit grandma and grandpa Jaromin, other family members, and friends. We apparently “lucked out” by picking one of the only (near) rain-free weekends in WNY this summer. Suzy and I took in a couple shows: “Buddy” at Musicalfare and “Julius Caesar” at Shakespeare in Delaware Park. We also managed a visit to the Buffalo Zoo.

Kiddieland! – With Kiddieland closing at the end of this season, we had to fit in at least one trip. Thankfully, Aunt Bethie was ready and willing to help us out — without her we’d have never been able to take the kids on their favorite rides – the rollercoaster and log flume!

“Animal Houses” at the Morton Arboretum – One day at the pool, a parent had mentioned to me that the Morton Arboretum’s Children’s Garden was a great place to bring the kids. We’d also heard of a limited time attraction — “Animal Houses” — that sounded interesting. So, we decided to spend a Sunday afternoon at the arboretum. The kids certainly had a great time pretending to be frogs or just running around the rope bridges, but I was a bit disappointed in both the “Childrens Garden” and the special “Animal Houses” exhibits. The former was a bit sparse — there simply wasn’t enough there to fill even a couple hours, and the later was inconsistent. I was expecting a more realistic learning type experience. Instead there was a  “Wile E. Coyote”-inspired coyote “house” with little to do and no educational value. Ditto the “Ant Colony.” The “Beaver Lodge” and “Heron Rookery” were seemingly modeled after the real thing, while the “Skunk Den” was more cartoon-ish, though certainly also more fun than the rest due to the slide (do Skunks really have slides built into their dens?). The day was capped with dinner at “Cheeseburger in Paradise” where Nathan, due to Daddy’s poor feeding method, puked all over the place. Even so, it really was another fun family “babenture!”

All-in-all it was a great Summer. I look forward to having even more fun next year!

Tags: adventure, airtastic, all aboard diner, aquarium, Buffalo, dance, illinois railway museum, kiddieland, morton arboretum, photos, pirate's cove, summer, thomas the tank engine
Filed under: Uncategorized on September 7th, 2009 | No Comments »

When Annalise sees her cousin Keara and her friend Ali going to school, she always asks if she can go too. Well, it’s Annalise’s turn now. Annalise started Prairie Children Preschool on August 25th. We knew it would be an easy transition for her when we went to the open house on August 21st to meet her teacher Ms. Adams and Annalise was upset when we had to leave! On the morning of the 25th, Annalise woke up at her usual 6am and was asking if she can go to school right then. I told her that we had to wait until her teachers were awake. Aunt Kathy came over to watch the boys while I drove Annalise to school. Sean was the most upset, because he wanted to go too. When we pulled up to the school, Annalise jumped out of her booster and jumped out of the car. She took the hand of the helper who was going to walk her into the school and off she went. There were just a few backward glances toward the car before she walked into the building but that was it. No tears! Yay! She’s been having a great time going to school, and Mama and the boys are having some good times too at home.

Now, if only we could get more than an I don’t know when we ask her what she did in school.. . Oh well, can’t win ‘em all!

Filed under: Annalise, Uncategorized on August 31st, 2009 | No Comments »