Happy 90th Birthday Grandpa!

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Tessa

Grandpa turned 90 this weekend! To celebrate we had a big family gathering with all four of his children there, plus spouses, some grandchildren, and even great grandchildren! From all corners of the country people came to celebrate. It was so fun and, as always, I wish it could last a lot longer.

Just hanging out, enjoying the beautiful fall day, and waiting for the West Coast crowd to arrive.

As soon as everyone was in one place we organized for a family photo. (For a quick stroll down memory lane, check out the family picture from 10yrs ago, this sweet picture, or this incomplete but funny Christmas picture)

Greg suggested we all line up single file and then put our heads out on either side! I wish we had managed that picture! :)

Almost there…

What a good looking family!

Can’t be a Steuer/Collier/Johnson picture without a bit of silly at the end!

After we managed a lovely family photo Rosy headed home (she’d had enough already!! Just kidding, really she had to work) and the rest of us hung out, chatted, cooked, set tables, slide down stairs, checked out Minecraft sites, drank wine, and thoroughly enjoyed each other’s company.

There are a lot of tall guys in this family! Greg was trying to get Eve to do a silly thing that we used to love doing as kids, but Eve was plenty silly all on her own!

Getting dinner set up.

The BEST photo bomb!

Like father, like daughter. Silliness definitely runs in this family!

Time for presents! Eve made Popcube a puzzle for his birthday present. Earlier in the week she was thinking about presents and asked me what kinds of things he liked doing. One of the things I said was puzzles, but I told her that at 90 years old it’s hard for him to do puzzles with tiny pieces like he used to. She thought about it and decided to make him a puzzle with large pieces that he could do easily.

Popcube opening Eve’s present.

After presents and cards we all headed downstairs for dinner. We had two kinds of lasagne, three kinds of bread, salad, and desserts. We worked hard on that meal and everyone enjoyed.

Sitting down for dinner.

I like taking pictures of people taking pictures. :) It looks like there was a serious discussion going on in the foreground!

Oh Greg! (What you can’t see here is Eve, on the other side of Alan, making the exact same face!)

Happy Birthday Grandpa!! We decided to go easy on him and only give him one candle instead of ninety.

I like this picture, despite the blurry. He was just so happy all day.

A birthday pie by Mema. I suggested she put “90” on there, and she took it to a whole other Grandpa-inspired level. (So many blurry photos. :( )

Lex started a new dining trend.

It caught on quickly.

Uh oh! Someone gave Greg a weapon! Take it outside boys, take it outside. (and they did, and they had a blast!)

Goodbye hugs, still silly. Greg finally talked her into putting her arms like that so he could lift her and fly her around. I tried to get a picture of that, but it was all too blurry!

In celebration of Grandpa’s 90th, the moon decided to put on a show! It was a full moon, a harvest moon, a blood moon, and a lunar eclipse. I feel like I’m forgetting something too. Apparently only happens every 18 years or so. We decided to stay up late and watch it. Everyone was excited (except tired me) and we bundled up and brought out the lawn chairs. I enjoyed it too. Shhh, don’t tell. At 10:11pm the moon was fully covered and turning red. We loudly discussed astronomy and displayed our complete ignorance of moon cycles and such things for the whole neighborhood to hear. :) I think we all need to go back to school!

My camera clearly is not up to snuff for night photography!

Super harvest blood moon lunar eclipse! Google it for much better photos. :)

A blurry, blurry close up.

We were too tired to stick around for the un-eclipsing of the moon so we headed in for bed. I thought the shadow would keep moving right across the moon, but I kept checking as I was getting the kids into bed and getting myself ready for bed, and that red moon stayed steady for a long time. (Lots of good information about it here…. I should read it myself some day!)

The next day was a school day so the kids went to school and I had errands to do. Most everyone else went to lunch at Mickey’s and hung out for the day. Someone else will have to share photos of that. Mom sent me this picture of Grandpa with his new puzzle. :) I love it!

Popcube completed Eve’s puzzle. A drawing of him, wearing his red Scrabble sweatshirt, and holding a green airplane.

I hope we have many, many more happy occasions to celebrate as a big extended family. I’m chomping at the bit to get out West again myself. I’m hoping I can make that happen next summer. Maybe I’ll started a GoFundMe campaign. ;)

Eve’s first track meet

Posted on June 14, 2015 by Tessa

We had a super fun day today. Eve ran in her first track meet, an AAU Junior Olympic qualifier! She did awesome!! We drove for over two hours to get there, but it was totally worth it. One of the best things about having kids is all the new areas they bring you in to. I remember watching the track team practicing, way back in my high school days, and being so amazed that anyone could run like that. It seemed like a world I would never know. Now I do! Anyway, back to Eve.

The meet was supposed to start at 11am, but we got a call from the coach at 10:30 saying Eve’s first field event, the long jump, was about to start! Luckily we were only five minutes away. I thought we were doing so good to get there early! We got there as fast as we could, Eve hopped out of the car, and ran over to do her first event! Whirl-wind! :)

Practicing the long jump before the actual, official jump.

I have some videos of this and Lex is working on an iMovie project, so I’ll try to get those posted soon too.

Long jump

Eve jumped 6'7" and earned the silver medal.

After the long jump she had a little break. We used that time to find the bathrooms and unpack the car, then it was time for the 400m. Mandy came to join us for the meet to so we helped her unload her car too. Mandy used to run track in high school so she had lots of good information to help us understand what the heck was going on. :)

The start of the 400m. Eve is in front, on the right.

Lex ran out to congratulate her at the end. He has the iPad because he made a video of the run and is working on an iMovie of the day.

Eve came in second, just three tenths of a second behind the first place finisher. She was ahead of the other girl for most of the race, but the girl pulled ahead right at the end. Eve’s coach was so impressed with her 400m that she suggested Eve try the 800m at the next meet. We’ll see what Eve thinks about that. :)

Another long break, then time for the 200m.

The finish line of the 200m.

This is the same as the picture above, just zoomed in more. Notice her feet aren't touching the ground?! I love this picture. She looks so happy.

Her final scores:
* Long jump – 6’7″
* 400m – 1:35.40
* 200m – 0:42.20
Official results are posted here on the AAU website.

After Eve had finished her three events we hung out for awhile longer, cheering on the rest of the team through their events.

Comparing medals. That fine social dance of being proud of your three and supportive of your friend's one.

What did the girls do during their down time? Run around, of course. Racing to the bathroom, playing tag, hopping and skipping. Oh, to have that energy!

Triple medal winner! Two silvers and a gold. Happy girl.

We were going to swing by the Atlantic Ocean and put our toes in the water on the way home, but everyone was so tired and they kids were falling apart, so instead we headed to Panera Bread for dinner at 4pm, and then headed home.

The cool Boston bridge!

After a long day in the sun ice cream seemed in order. :-)

This meet was the District Qualifiers. Eve qualified for advancement in all three of her events. Unfortunately the Regional Qualifers are being held in Conneticut, the same weekend we will be at Niagara Falls! Bummer. We will plan our vacations a little better next summer and see how far Eve can go. For this summer she’ll continue to run in the rec program and enjoy the two meets they do. Next year, if she wants, we can try AAU and Olympic Qualifiers again.

(Full disclosure, Eve is awesome, but participation in her age bracket was also pretty small. There were only two girls participating in the long jump, three in the 400m, and four in the 200m. She did win medals, and ran hard, but the competition wasn’t abundant.)

Happy 10th Birthday Lex!!

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Tessa

It’s hard to believe, but this little guy is suddenly ten years old!!

Lex’s first birthday. He is so adorable!

My, how time flies! Today we celebrated with presents in the morning, a Memorial Day parade, lunch at Popcube’s house, and a slow, tired afternoon at home. Overall a great day and a great way to celebrate our favorite little boy who is not so little any more.

He’s a balloon guy! I have a very similar picture from his 4th birthday. I’ll try to find it for a “then and now” post. :)

A special birthday greeting for our special ten year old.

Happy Birthday Lex!!

Morning smiles with the birthday boy.

I got a little artistic while waiting for him to open presents. He got side tracked a bit with a book. This big box contains the game Clue.

Waiting for the Memorial Day parade to start. I embarrassed the family by asking a stranger to take a picture for me. Totally worth it! :)

I think my kids are a bit too big for this toy, but boy did they have fun! I have this same picture from a few years ago. I’ll try to dig it up. They were a bit smaller then. :)

An ice cream cake for his family birthday party. Cool Whip and chocolate chips make perfectly excellent decorations.

Lots of birthday Legos. Everything is awesome!

Happy Birthday Lex! I like his choice of shirts for the day too. :)

The candles are casting a glow on his sweet face. <3

Cutting the cake.

This was an “upcycled” cake using the leftovers from Saturday’s karate cake. Lex wanted an ice cream cake for his family party, so I took layers from the karate cake, relayered them, and added some Fudge Tracks ice cream in the middle. Then I slathered the whole thing in Cool Whip. It came out really tasty!

The cake was tasty, but frozen pretty hard. Lex had trouble cutting into it with his plastic fork so he resorted to eating it caveman style.

She’s looking pretty classy. :)

The photogenic side of the family. :)

The ride home from Grandpa’s. Proof that she does indeed stop moving, sometimes, even if only for a short ride in the car.

We were all exhausted when we got home so everyone went to their rooms for awhile. After an hour or so of quiet time we regrouped for a few family games of Clue. It was fun to teach the kids a new game and they both enjoyed the mystery and secrecy of it. Then we ordered pizza for dinner and watched the movie Clue!

Lex got to choose his birthday dinner, so Ziggy sticks it was! I served him on this birthday plate, but he wasn’t happy about it. He transferred everything to a normal plate instead. Oh well. He’s ten now, but still the same boy we know and love!

After the movie, when we were all exhausted and getting ready for bed, I remembered that Lex needs birthday treats for school tomorrow. Birthday treats round three! I think we need to sugar detox again!

I feel pretty fortunate to have such an awesome boy in my world. Lying in bed tonight I said, “Ten years ago right now you were less than one hour old.” Around birthdays we like to talk about “ten years ago” or “eight years ago” and reminisce about their actual birth days so many years ago. He replied with, “Mom, I’ve been wondering, just how exactly do babies come out of the mother’s belly?” Yep, he’s growing up! So we had that conversation tonight, all snuggled up in bed, and we were happy.

Indoor outdoor kitty

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Tessa

We took Daisy to the vet on Friday (routine check-up) and had a long discussion with her about letting Daisy be an outdoor kitty. After some deliberation at home Eve decided that we should let Daisy explore the great outdoors. With great trepidation (on my part!) we opened the door today and let her go!

Away she goes!

She spent awhile sniffing around our house, learning our house so she could find her way home again. That’s how Alan explained it anyway and it sounded reasonable.

Exploring the back of the house

Exploring the front of the house

Then she decided to explore the rest of the neighborhood! We were all outside playing and doing some spring yard work (the joys of homeownership!) and watching Daisy explore. When she left the yard Eve and I had to remind ourselves and each other that it’s ok and (hopefully) she would be back. I was happy to see that each time something loud startled her she ran right back to our house. That was a good sign.

Away she goes, exploring the neighborhood!

Fun with the bow and arrow. I think Eve needs some new summer clothes. Everything she puts on is too short!

Queen of the mountain!

She wandered around the neighborhood and came back home a few times. Once Eve and I took a walk down the cul-de-sac to find her. She was three houses down, exploring their garden. She ran when we saw us. A few times she came to the mudroom door and meowed, but we wanted her to come to the front door instead. Once she came to the front door, but when Alan opened it she ran away. After about two hours she was ready to come home. Lex propped the door open a bit when she was near the front porch and she slipped right inside! Yay! She headed right for her food bowl, ate a bit, then went right back to the screen door and meowed to go out. Alan let her out and she has repeated the process three times now! Out, explore, home, eat, out again. She is training us well. Silly kitty.

It’s good to know that she will come home again, but it makes my chest a little tight when she goes out. After some deep consideration (what else is there to do when raking the lawn?!) I realized that Daisy being out is just one more thing for my mothering heart to think about. One more thing to keep track of and one more thing to add to the ongoing risk analysis that my brain is always running. But she seems happy and the kids aren’t worried, so I guess all is well.

(Now we are one of those people I always complain about, with their pets outside, pooping on other people’s lawns! Now when I find cat poop in the backyard I can no longer blame it on the neighbor cats… though I’m sure it will still be their fault. My lovely kitty is well loved and cared for and would only use her proper litter box. She’s a very polite kitty. Right?!)

Eve’s Birthday Sleepover – Part 1

Posted on March 28, 2015 by Tessa

Eve decided to have a sleepover birthday party this year and today was the day. In fact, today was a very busy day. We started with karate, as usual on Saturday, then Eve had to run a cookie booth with her Girl Scout troop. She was partnered with her buddy and they had fun. While they did that, Lex and I ran some secret birthday errands.

Cookies for sale! You don’t see any cookies because they hadn’t fully set up yet, but I wanted to take a picture and get going so I didn’t wait for the actual cookies to appear. :)

Crazy girls ready for birthday fun!

After cookie time was over I picked up both girls and we headed to the aquatic center to start her birthday festivities. At karate I ran into the dad of one of Lex’s friends and we ended up making plans for his buddy to come swimming too. I had been so busy thinking about Eve’s party that I didn’t make plans for Lex, other than “tag along” plans. :) I’m glad his friend was able to join us.

Eve had invited three friends, but unfortunately one woke up sick this morning and couldn’t join the fun. Another came for swimming, but couldn’t join us for sleepover fun.

Just hanging out, waiting for another friend to arrive.

A wild crew!

Handsome boys.

Silly girls.

Waiting for the bucket to drop…

Splash!!

All smiles. :)

Three down the slide… I don’t think that’s allowed, but I won’t tell. :)

After everyone was tired of swimming we headed home for pizza and craft projects. With just one friend here it felt more like a playdate than a birthday party, but still fun.

Eve was pretty excited to find balloons when we got home! (One of the birthday errands Lex and I took care of earlier in the day.)

Balloon girl!

Happy birthday to you! Birthday cupcakes for the party.

I love this girl!

Awesome cupcakes! I might write a whole separate blog post on the cupcakes alone.

They went out to play and came back twenty minutes later covered in mud! Good times. They spent the next twenty minutes washing their feet and making soap beards on their faces.

Later they did some painting. For some reason Eve was really set on painting bird houses with her friends. (we bought them at the store, for cheap, sorry dad!)

Lex painted a cool lighthouse.

At 8:30 I started to get them settled. Hoping maybe they would fall asleep. Silly me.

It is now 10:15 and they are still going strong. Just the two of them. I don’t know if four would have been better or worse. I’ve shut off the lights, taken away the glow sticks, and not sure what comes next. Other than another glass of wine and hoping they pass out soon!! My last trip up was because Eve broke a glow stick and got it all over her self. It’s non-toxic, so no worries, but she was scared. I got her cleaned up and changed and hoped maybe that would be the final straw, but alas, I hear them still going strong.

Luckily, tomorrow is a no-plans day! Well, maybe “luckily” isn’t quite the word since I totally planned it that way!!

Belt testing again

Posted on January 22, 2015 by Tessa

The kids had another belt test today. They weren’t as excited this time, for some reason, but they pulled it together and earned a yellow belt with a white stripe, which is exactly what they were expecting.

I’m impressed with how strong and stable Lex has become. Watch his kicking here. He used to barely lift his leg and basically fall into it, but now he has much better balance and strength.

Karate kids

Karate – Pinan Nidan

Daisy’s first walk

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Tessa

Eve finally bought Daisy the harness and leash she has been so eager to get for so long. The great day finally arrived (last week) and she took Daisy for a walk!

Daisy’s first walk… in the snow.

She was less than impressed!

The walk lasted about two minutes. :)

Eve took her out one more time since and Daisy spent the whole time trying to get back inside. We may retire the leash until the ground clears and the weather warms. :)

First Lego League Competition

Posted on November 15, 2014 by Tessa

This year Lex joined the local First Lego League group and finally found his tribe. :) There are ten kids in the group and they have been meeting twice a week for the past few months, designing and building a robot to complete a variety of challenges (aka “missions”). Today was the big competition. Nineteen teams from around the area competed in robot missions, design challenges, team work exercises, and presentations. It was a full day for these kiddos and a day of firsts for Lex! Overall it was AWESOME!!

The event started at 8am today at Dartmouth College. Lex and I went while Alan took Eve to karate. Suddenly we are that over-scheduled family! I wasn’t sure what to expect, but parents from last year said there is a lot of waiting and just hanging out. I personally felt the day flew by! Alan brought Eve over around 11:30 and I was having a great time hanging out. I loved watching the kids on the team work and play together. You could clearly see who had been there before (the older kids) and who was new (the younger ones) and how they went about things differently.

#10 Pencils, hanging out before the events begin.

My #1

#10 Pencils, getting ready for their turn.

Lex gets final updates on the mission order before their first match.

Part of the competition is a presentation and demonstration of their robot design. Each person had to read a part and then they all had to answer questions.

Question time.

I love how Lex stepped right up to answer questions without hesitation. He was so confident!

Team picture!

Another part of the competition was to solve a non-robot challenge. This years challenge was to design a new way to teach someone something. Their team came up with a new way to teach someone to run. Then they had to present it to the judges.

He looks so little in this group! He did great though.

Eve and Alan got there right around lunch time. We had some lunch, hung out, went to one of the team’s presentations, and then Eve talked me into leaving. More like she wore me down with her whining. I was conflicted because I had told her ahead of time that Alan and I would probably switch off and that she wouldn’t have to be there all day, however I was having fun and really didn’t want to leave! I didn’t want Alan to miss out on the whole thing either though, that didn’t seem fair. I begrudgingly left around 1:30 and we went home. Eve wanted to play house and dolls and all I wanted to do was text Alan to see how it was going. We settled on reading, which I did not do very well. Eventually she asked if she could play on the computer and I flopped over on the couch and took a nap!

Alan took a video of their third match and sent it to me. It made me very happy. The team had tried the “sports” mission (where the robot throws the ball into the net) twice before and each time it missed, but this time they got it! Hence the cheering. :)

Lex and his team ended up winning an award for Best Robot and progressing to the championship round next month!! I am super happy and excited for them!! It will be a busy day and I am totally looking forward to it! Alan is excited because the championship is held at his old high school. :)

The team won an award for the best robot design. Alan sent me a picture. :)

The actual award. I wonder what they will do with it.

Lex today wore a shirt that matched everyone else’s (or at least 10 other people), stood in front of a group (twice) to do a presentation, and happily survived a day full of noise, people, and chaos. I’m so proud of him!! He is growing up into such a strong, smart, fun little guy. I’m so glad that he is introducing us to this fun new world. That’s one of the many joys of parenting, all the places your children bring you. I think my parents would agree with that!

Happy 89th!

Posted on September 27, 2014 by Tessa

We celebrated Popcube’s 89th birthday today! Greg and Kathy and Carl came to town. I love seeing my family. We had delicious food and cake and presents and fun. We partied all night… or at least until 9pm when I put a stop to the fun and dragged my crew home. Tomorrow will bring more family fun.

Happiness is.

My 20th High School Reunion (aka: feeling old this weekend)

Posted on July 27, 2014 by Tessa

So much to blog about and so little time! I have a few minutes so here’s a quick update!

This weekend was my 20th high school reunion. In true small-town style we held it at the local lake with kids and families. It was fun. Of course, with that came a trip to the ol’ homestead. I took sporadic photos this trip, so here’s a sampling of our weekend.

The kids discovered AWESOME new Lego sets waiting for them when we arrived. They were psyched.

Thanks Mema!

Saturday morning we went out to breakfast at a new café in town. It was delicious, and they had a lovely outdoor area. We ate inside because it was a chilly morning, but Eve and Grandpa Tom enjoyed the patio after breakfast.

Grandpa Tom and Eve enjoying a quiet moment.

My reunion was a the lake and I took only a few pictures, all of Eve. There are plenty of pics from others on Facebook, so if you care enough you can find them there. Otherwise just imagine a dozen or so FCS grads 20 years later. Family, kids, BBQ, etc. Good times all around. Eve made fast friends with the daughter of one of my old high school friends. It’s like these two were cut from the same cloth. A wild and wonderful cloth! At one point in the day her friend asks me, “So, are you her aunt or her grandma?” Nothing like a candid 5yr old to make you feel old… er, as I was already there to celebrate 20yrs out of high school! Sheesh!

Wild Child and her new BFF

Sandy girl

Lex had some fun at the lake, but mostly was eager to get home to finish his Lego building. He didn’t hit it off with any of the kids there (the only other boys there were babies and teens) and didn’t get much playtime with Eve since she was off with her BFF. He did a great job of being sweet and patient all day though.

Lex made a movie of his train.

The next morning (today!) Alan and I headed home and left the kids with Mema and Grandpa Tom! Eeek! Lex took a little convincing, but finally decided it would be a good idea. I think I was the only one crying when we left! I have a conference in Boston for the next two days, then I’ll drive back to pick the kiddos up. I’m sure they will have a blast! Hopefully the grown-ups all survive. :)

Watching the ants on a chilly morning.

Good bye, good bye!

After this conference and trip I think I will be home with no plans for more than two days in a row and hopefully find some time to relax, restore, and catch up on the blog! :)

Calm and Chaos: Life with kids

Tag Archives: Milestones