tis the season...of birthdays

it took four months but we finally emerged a bit from the tired haze of new baby around mid-november. it corresponds with mister harry getting a bit more sleep at night. he's now into that wonderful, but challenging for the social life phase, of going to sleep by 6:30pm.

that's allowed us some evenings at home with time to spare. we've filled it a few times recently with grandparent birthdays from chef jude. it was his idea, begun when we spoke with grandma carole on her actual birthday while she was abroad and jude said 'are we going to have a party??'. so we did, in november when they came.

enjoying the sweet rewards

First up was the popular sesame street themed party for grandma carole and grandpa chuck...chosen for its colorfulness and availability at the dollar store.

the party in full swing

we had fun enjoying a train cake, overdecorated with sprinkles. being a guest isn't a laid back affair here...grandma carole baked her own cake with jude earlier in the day. he still says "now we have to break the 'okes" whenever we bake something with eggs now.

the punch balloons have been a lingering hit in our house.

more recently we celebrated the year marks for grandma nancy and grandpa henry. they both have birthdays in between thanksgiving and christmas. as you can see this was quite the bash.

perhaps my favorite mother in law photo ever

yes in addition to a cake we had the noise makers and quite the festive birthday centerpiece and plates. (really is the best $6 spent total spent on a party in recent memory) again no rest for the guests here...grandma had to help jude with the set up.

decoration time

it is rare for us to celebrate birthdays with these two, as normally we see each other thanksgiving or christmas. but this year we decided to stay home for the holidays with our newborn, so they made the trip out in early december.

it took like 3 tries to get this shot

as for harry, although he slept through the parties he continues to thrive in his awake time. rolling over except for that one blasted arm in the way! smiling a ton, laughing at himself in the mirror every time. this is an adorable age.

grandma nancy and harry, age 4 months

that's it from birthday central for now. next up is mine in january and greg's in february. we'll have to host a 'bash' for grandpa scott and nana next fall. hmm...train or pirate party anyone?

50/50

so baby jude is now mister jude, age 3 1/2. the time is flying by. our neighbor jann, a retired advertising photographer, recently snapped this amazing photo of our oldest.

jude: october 2011

at his 3.5 check up doctor dave said all is well. and it turns out our jude is 50/50.

50th percentile in weight at 36 1/2 inches, and 50th percentile in weight at 38 1/2 inches.

holidays at three

celebrating the holidays with a three year old is a lot easier thanks to preschool

this year concordia not only provided several holiday crafts. but the kids even got a tasting meal where they tried all the traditional thanksgiving dishes.

jude's holiday feast feathers

he also brought home one of the more creative hand turkeys i've seen. they used different color paint for each of the fingers.

the brown paint might be dirt for all i know

so after the parade on thanksgiving we settled in for naps. and then enjoyed a delicious meal at our friend kristen and kevin's. thanks for allowing us to join your feast. unfortunately we forgot to take many pictures. but here's a quick shot of greg, and harry on his first thanksgiving.

baby's first thanksgiving

thanksgiving 2011

check it off the bucket list. chicago's huge colorful thanksgiving day parade.

happy thanksgiving!

here is a look at how we enjoyed turkey on thanksgiving morning.

tom turkey's giant cousin

three of the four in the miller clan made it to state street by 7:20am. we hired a sitter to keep harry warm and rested at home. We decided this was the year to do the parade as its the last year jude makes the 3&under ticket price of free for the bleacher seats. the tickets included breakfast. this may be the first time cookie made it on jude's breakfast menu.

sweet time at the parade

the bleachers include a view of the first hour of televised musical performances. honestly about 30 minutes would have been enough. but once the parade began it was amazing.

he really is a big bird

the many giant balloons in the parade required a team of handlers. check out how small they are below that giant big bird:

don't let this bird fly away

a highlight of the parade for jude was ronald mcdonald. you may know that he calls mickey d's "chicken fries". later he told friend he saw ronald mcdonald "in a chicken fries shoe".

hey ronald!

we missed celebrating with our families this year but we are thankful for all the memories of this special holiday event.