Captain Hook!

Ellis was thrilled to get the chance to play Captain Hook in the Broadway Juniors' Peter Pan at Winnetka Community House!  This kind of thing becomes a family effort, as the rest of us had to rush to Winnetka after school every Thursday for ten weeks and then kill an hour while we waited for Ellis to practice.  

Luckily, we found a really great, quiet spot in the community house that no one else seemed to know about.  We had this table and chairs, and a set of comfy red chairs all to ourselves.

Sam often brought games to play or books to read.  I played with him whenever I wasn't nursing Archer, cleaning up spit-up, or checking my Instagram feed.  :)

Henry and Sam might tell you they didn't like having to go to play practice, but I think they secretly enjoyed this quiet time.  

That is, after Henry got his homework done each week.  

Now, on with the show!  Ellis was thrilled to get this awesome costume, which we bought through the virtual yard sale from another kid who was Captain Hook a few weeks before in another play.  

And now, just enjoy the great pictures of our little actor onstage!  He did an amazing job and really got into his part!  His pirate accent and angry/bossy Captain Hook mannerisms were spot-on!

Credit to our friend Sarah Severson for taking and sharing these great photos!

Ellis never broke character as Captain Hook - even during the mermaid songs.  :)

Ellis as Captain Hook from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Isn't he kind of amazing?

Latergrams: March - April 2016

Half a year since this guy joined our family! Now he is entertaining us with the cutest laugh you've ever heard and "blah blah blah" babbles.  #sixmonthsold #archerbythemonth #halfbirthday

This winter has been the mildest of our three years here in Chicago. That said, I will be happy to take a break from putting a bunch of layers on everyone, including myself, when spring decides to stay!

Just enough snow to make a "snow toddler" named Kevin. #notcomplaining #ourmildestwinter #BFFs 

Ellis made sure we didn't forget to celebrate his half birthday today! Everyone got 1 1/2 lemon bars, and we sang half of the birthday song before he blew out to 7 1/2 candles. #bigdeal #whynotcelebrate#halfbirthday

Sam is still completely terrified of strangers and "bad guys"...so I tried to prepare him for the handyman that was coming today: "There's a guy coming to fix our dryer, and he's going to come in our house, but he's not a bad guy. He's a good guy named Rob." Sam sat quietly for a minute and said, "...like, Rob a bank or something?" "Oh, no," I said. "He's definitely not the kind of guy that would rob a bank. He's just a regular guy who won't rob us. He'll just fix our dryer. In fact, his real name is actually not Rob. It's Robert." Sam: "What? Robber?!?" #goodtrymom #robberinourhouse

Just heard singing out my kitchen window and realized it was time for the pre-game national anthem. #ohsaycanyousee #soccertimeagain #wetakethisveryseriously

This is Ellis' pile of clothes for tomorrow morning. He has had enough of the fights, arguments, and fouls at recess soccer games, so he has appointed himself the official ref. He made a red and yellow card (and laminated them) to bring in his pocket tomorrow and forever more. And the best dad ever lent him his whistle. My kid is SO cool! #ruleenforcer

I'm really happy that @beniverson is back from a 3-day trip to England. I'm also happy that if he had to spend time at Oxford without me, at least he had the heart to bring me some of the best cookies ever. The only thing I'm wondering is what he plans to do with this collector's tin after we eat the cookies. 😂 #fillerup #benscookies #whataboutjennscookies?

This guy is suddenly turning into a big boy with lots of personality. We are all having a grand time trying to get him to laugh or mimic us. AND both of his bottom teeth have cut through without any fuss. I think we'll keep him! #archergriffin #archielove

Clever boy keeps outsmarting me! I thought the ponytail would stop him from pulling my hair, but he figured out how to twist his body to find what he's been looking for! #hairlover #cutebutnotcute #archielove

Officially capable of rolling both ways, twisting, turning, and scooting his way across the room to find a little light reading.  #watchoutmom #timesarechanging #babyproofingtime #archielove

It seems like overnight, he has turned into a "big baby." He is so anxious to MOVE and see, do, and learn everything! #sevenmonthsold #archerbythemonth

This referee is ready for today's championship recess league soccer game! He took it upon himself to prepare his whistle, red and yellow cards, a (homemade) trophy for the winning team, and "participation award" ribbons for the losing team. #alwaysprepared

So proud of my Sam-o, who finished this crowning achievement of his preschool efforts! He created each continent by first tracing the outlines, then poking holes with a pushpin to perforate the edges so they could be torn out. Then, as you can see, he wrote the names so adorably and glued it all together! At the beginning of the year, I was afraid he was going to be too stubborn to push himself on this, but he came through and worked so hard! #mapoftheworld #montessoripreschool #proudmommoment

Newsies 2016

One would think that the Iversons would be over their Newsies obsession by now.  But one would be wrong.  Ellis and Sam spent approximately 6 hours of their Spring Break rehearsing for this production.  Ellis has memorized every step of choreography from the 1992 movie, and he has taken extreme measures to make sure he and Sam both duplicated it with exact precision.  Then they put careful thought into costumes, props, scenery, and which room of the house would be appropriate for each song (in the first song, they move rooms!).  This is a long clip - 12 minutes - but I couldn't cut too much out, because I know how much Ellis has fretted over every detail, and he will notice if something major is missing.  And there is so much here of my little boys here and now that I need to preserve.  I love the way each boy's personality comes out in this project, as well as the complex dynamics of their relationship.  :)  Enjoy!


Newsies 2016 from Ben and Jenn on Vimeo.

Spring Break Simple

After taking a trip to Utah in February and then having the Ludlows visit for Easter, we were pretty happy that we didn't have to go anywhere for Spring Break.  We stayed home and planned just the right amount of diversions for the week off of school!

First things first: getting the discounted candy from Target on the day after Easter!  Somehow the boys had managed to eat most of their loot by Sunday night, so they were feeling pretty worried about it and wanted to use their own money to stock up.  After all, Peeps only come once a year!  Oh, wait, that's not true anymore...

We had some time for play dates with the Severson boys, which is pretty much everyone's favorite thing to do.  Archer even got in on the fun!

Ellis got invited to visit Sam's preschool as a special alumni guest at Miss Nancy's!

So Henry and I decided we needed a trip to the Botanic Garden while they were at preschool.  Unfortunately, it was still a little cold and there wasn't much growing outside.  So we enjoyed the indoor gardens, which had some pretty blooms.  

Henry was pretty interested in the corpse flower, which apparently smelled really, really bad when it first bloomed, but now it's in a less smelly phase, thank goodness.

Here are some of the pretty flowers in the greenhouses.  When it's "spring break" and doesn't feel very springy, it really helps to see color like this!

Oh yeah, Archie was with us too.  He was being cute, as usual.

I have been dreaming of eating in the beautiful setting of the Garden Café for quite some time.  Unfortunately, Ben's schedule has never allowed him to join me for this dream.  So Henry got to be my date!  This challah French toast was truly to die for, and the setting did not disappoint!

Archer got to sample the strawberry-rhubarb compote from Henry's French toast.  He was a fan!

More lazy, happy, book-sharing time.  They spent a lot of time reading the blog book this week!

Friday was April Fool's Day, so I took the opportunity to make some cotton ball truffles for the boys.  They were very disappointed!

Ben took the day off, and we were going to go bowling, but the lanes were all full.  So we tried our hand at Bocce ball.  It was really fun!

The boys turned out to be good little Bocce players.  

And this is the "winning team" picture!

We had wanted to take a little overnight trip somewhere close by, but when we realized it was Conference weekend, we decided to stay REALLY close by.  We figured the boys just cared about the hotel anyway!  We enjoyed swimming, happy hour snacks, cable TV, and yummy breakfast, all for less than we pay for 1 hour of swim lessons for 3 boys.  

In short, Embassy Suites is our fave!  

And to end our Spring Break, we had a lovely little snow fall.