Birthday Party Day

December 1st was the day that we got all of our family and friends together to celebrate Luke turning 4! 

It was a superhero kind of birthday!







We had some fun decorations!



And an amazing cake and cupcakes!





I had a house full of people that truly love Luke!















There was pizza and presents and....











singing and blowing out candles and cake eating...













Batman even made an appearance!











Batman had to head back to Gotham City though and as Luke was looking out the window watching him leave, he started crying and said, "I don't want Daddy to leave!" So sweet and so smart and so funny!





And the night ended with Luke completing his first 48 piece puzzle!





What a fun, fun day!  Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate!

Wordless Wednesday {Gamers}

Thanksgiving Weekend

This is what the morning after Thanksgiving looked like:


The girls headed out for some Black Friday shopping, while Luke went to a movie with Grandma and Grandpa Z.

We had the most amazing thing happen when we were out to lunch though - a table of complete strangers picked up our bill, which had to be at least $70.  We couldn't believe it!  Paige was flirting with the guy the entire meal, the guy said goodbye as they were leaving, and then the waitress came over and told us that table had paid for our meals and included the tip - amazing!  We all had chills!  What made it even more interesting was that morning Carly had paid for the person behind her in the Starbuck's drive thru as she was coming to Peru from Madison.  Pay it forward!!!

Anyways - we had a great day of shopping and both Fiona and Paige were very good!  They slept at the right times in their strollers and were perfect little shoppers!







I got quite a few strange looks since Paige didn't have any socks or shoes on, but she kept taking them off so I finally left them off while we were in the mall!



That night we headed to Mi Margarita to celebrate my mom's birthday as we do every Friday after Thanksgiving!

Before we left my parents on Saturday, Luke & Paige needed a bath and Fiona came in for a bit too!





Next up was heading back up to the suburbs for Lilly Happ's 1st birthday party! And of course that was the night that Notre Dame finished their season undefeated - Wally was very happy!





I began bringing up some Christmas decorations that day, but the decorating really began on Sunday.  Wally put the outside lights up and we got both trees up. 

As is our tradition, we put on The Polar Express for the first time this year and had some hot chocolate.  This time though, we took our hot chocolate to go and ended our Thanksgiving weekend with a walk to see some Christmas lights and show the kids our own Christmas lights!

Thankful!

I am so thankful for all of the blessings in my life - and there are many! 

This year we spent our Thanksgiving the same as we have the past few years.  First up, was Zukowski Thanksgiving on Wednesday night.

Paige was very interested in the pilgrims...


while Luke was busy with castle grayskull.






All ready on Thanksgiving Day!


So sweet!




Maybe someday we will get a good picture of all three grandkids! Oh Paige!





Cuteness!








The next stop was my grandparents where Paige enjoyed some horsey rides on Logan!

And then it was back to my parents for some dessert with the Kohr's!

And there it is - Paige's nasty look she shows quite often!

Paige found a new seat!

Sophie was busted jumping on the bed!

Conversations with Luke

As we were eating dinner on 11/7/12, Luke said something about Barack Obama.  The rest of the conversation went like this:

Luke: Did the white guy win?
Me: Did the right guy win?
Luke: No, the white guy.
Me: No, the white guy didn't win.  Barack Obama is our President.  But Luke you shouldn't call him the white guy.  That isn't nice.  He has a name.
Luke:  What is his name?
Me: Mitt Romney.  Where did you hear the white guy?
Luke: Goo Bear (Luke's friend Will at daycare)
Me:  Well, it isn't nice say the white guy.  He has a name just like you have a name.
Luke: So Mitt Romney didn't win?
Me: No, Barack Obama is the President of the United States of America.
Luke: Like the flag.
Me: Yes, the flag represents the United States.
Luke: Oh.

The next morning in the car:
Luke: Is the white guy's name Mitt Romney?
Me: Yes, but we shouldn't say white guy.  We should just say his name.
Luke: I am going to tell Goo Bear that his name is Mitt Romney.
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Luke was naming the letters on a stop sign one day and I told him how you spell "stop".  Now he is into asking me how to spell a lot of words.  After spelling many for him, we got to this point:

Luke: How do spell Wally?
Me: W-A-L-L-Y
Luke: (with such excitement and disbelief) What???  Daddy's has two L's?  I have an L.  We are like brothers!
Me: (cracking up)
Luke: If you had a P, you and Paige could be twins!
Me: (still cracking up)
Luke: How do you spell Nala?
Me: N-A-L-A
Luke: Nala has an L too???  We are all on the same team!  (He is now cracking up!)
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Paige's favorite song is Twinkle, Twinkle and when it comes on in the car, she puts her arms up in the air and twinkles her fingers.  Luke was doing it with her one day and it was the cutest thing to see then smiling at each other.  We were headed to church one Sunday morning, and I asked Luke to do Twinkle Twinkle with Paige so Daddy could see.  His response was, "I only do that on Tuesdays."
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My iPhone was without a cover for awhile, and Luke was playing with it in the car one day when all of the sudden he turned it over and said, "Mom, your phone is from Applebee's!"
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Notre Dame Weekend

The weekend of November 16th was all about Notre Dame.  It all started Friday night when Walt, Wally and Luke went to the pep rally at Notre Dame. 





Wally reads a Notre Dame book to Luke every once in awhile so Luke was excited to see all of things in real life that he has seen in the book.

Touchdown Jesus


The Golden Dome


The Grotto


The highlight of the night for Luke, though, had to be meeting the Leprechaun!



Will came over late Friday night and Walt, Will, and Wally headed back to Notre Dame Saturday morning for the game.  We don't think Luke is quite ready to attend a game yet, and he isn't free and those ND tickets aren't cheap!  I think it is safe to say that Luke has been officially brainwashed [sorry, I had to ;)] introduced to Notre Dame and is now a fan!

So Proud of Our Lukey

On November 15th, Wally and I attended our first parent-teacher conference and it couldn't have gone better.  We are so proud of how well Luke is doing in school.  The first thing Ms. Sandy said to us when we walked in was, "Oh Lucas - if the other 12 kids in class were like him, my job would be easy."  What a great thing to hear as a parent!

We were always pretty confident that Luke would do well in preschool and enjoy it and everything we were told solidified that.  Our one concern was whether or not he was playing and interacting with the other kids since he doesn't give us many details.

We were told that he is a leader in the class - always helping and encouraging the other kids.  He plays with the other kids, but when the boys get a little rowdy, Ms. Sandy said he usually walks away and does something else.  When some of the boys are busy building legos, Luke can be found in the "library" or doing a puzzle.  She said he is very smart and is the only one that can write his name and knows most of his letters and numbers.  Ms. Sandy said he knows the routine and does everything with little direction.  He follows multi-step directions with no problem.  Her only concern was keeping him engaged and busy enough so that he doesn't get bored.

Luke really looks forward to his school days and he loves staying for an extra 2 hours on Tuesdays for "Lunch Bunch".  I don't always send him since Tuesdays are my days home with the kids, but I can sense his disappointment when he doesn't get to go.

Hopefully Luke's love of learning continues.  We couldn't be prouder!

Here are some things that were hanging in the hallway at his school:



This one cracks us up since Luke has never ridden his bike in leaves.  Where do they come up with this stuff???  Kids are too funny!