Disney Playhouse Live! Rockin Road Show!!

On Sunday, the 31st, we went to Disney Live! Rockin Road Show. Lon had been waiting for SO long to see the show.
Waiting for the show to start. Mommy, watch the stage, it will start soon!
The toon bus! Mickey's Bus!
Oh Mommy!! This is SO cool!
My personal favorite part of the show, the little green army men who came to help change the tire on Mickey's bus.
Lon's favorite was Tigger! Lon is bouncey and the only one, they have alot in common.

Mommy, if I am really a good boy, can we get cotton candy? Lon you didn't like cotton candy when you tried it at the fair. But I will like it now. PLEASE. At intermission I let him have a bag of cotton candy. It came with the ears. Lon ate most of the bag. I can safely say he likes pure sugar now.
Part of the finale. One of the jokes running though the story was that Donald and to come up with a big Ka-Pow finish and he kept coming up with tiny bursts of confetti. Yes, of course, at the end he got it right and there was confetti everywhere! By that time Lon was right down in front dancing with all the other little kids. He had so much fun!
We caught up with Daddy at Uncle Rahul and Auntie Prachi's house. Daddy got to wear the ears for a few minutes.
Daddy looks thrilled! What a good sport!
I have not put up a video for a while, so here is one of the dancing king!

Happy Birthday, Drew!

Saturday, the 30th, was Drew's Bowling Birthday Party! Lon had never been bowling. Lon now LOVES bowling. He wanted to go again on the way home.
Figuring out the board
Drew, master bowler!
Lon's form is more of a chuck down the lane. Mark was trying to help him. Lon was having a great time!
The only thing that got the boys to stop trying to bowl was Pizza!! Lon, Drew and Conner were having fun
Waiting for candles!
And there they are!

Blowing them out!

Lon had a good time, we all had a great time.

Pennsylvania

We set out on Tuesday, the 26th for Pittsburgh. Our flight left at 7am. I did not even bother to get Lon out of his jammies.
He stayed in his jammies while he played at the playplace in the Southwest concourse. We LOVE Southwest Airlines! We got though security quickly, so there was lots of time to play. Chicago Midway airport was nice. We got in 20 minutes early, so we had just enough time to get Lon some chicken nuggets, for him to eat them, then we got on the plane. Somewhere between Chicago and Pittsburgh we saw this great circle rainbow. It was beautiful. The sky cleared up the closer we got to Pittsburgh. Since we had another tail wind, we got in early. The pilot decided to use some of that time by flying over the city. We saw Heinz field. We saw the three rivers coming together. Lon was impressed. I was impressed. It was pretty.

Lon on the airplane, after changing out of his jammies.
We had breakfast before the service at Eatn' Park. Lon was so happy with his waffle, it had a face on it!! Oh my! I have to start looking for a waffle baker with faces or Mickey in it.
Lon wanted to take my camera and take some pictures at the service for GiGi, Grandmother Presken. But I told him no. St. Joseph's Church is beautiful. The service was good. Father Allen did a great job. Grandmother talked about wanting to go home, and even without anyone mentioning that to Father Allen, that was his homily. How we all want to go home. After Mass we went to St. Mary's cemetery. It was so cold we were in the chapel. Lon asked Grandmother what we were doing here. She answered to say a prayer for GiGi. In a voice loud enough to be heard by all, my darling son told Grandmother he already said all his prayers. At least everyone laughed.
We walked over to the grave site.

We will miss her very much.

Grandmother Presken

This morning, January 18, 2010, Louise Presken passed away peacefully in her sleep. She was born April 10, 1916. If you would have told her at her First Holy Communion that she would have lived in Alaska, been on a cruise, stepped on a glacier or flew on airplanes and helicopters she would have looked at you like you were from mars. Yet, she did all that and more. Lon loved his Gigi, and the feeling was mutual.

This is the very first picture I could find of Grandmother. It is her First Holy Communion. She would have been in second grade, about 1924.

When Grandmother was born they waited 10 days to register her birth with the county as her parents thought she might not survive. She outlived all but her youngest sister.

Her wedding photo, April 10, 1939. I always thought that Grandfather looked a little like Walt Disney. He was an artist, a sign painter for Alcoa. He died in 1957. They did not even have 20 years together. Her dress, borrowed from Aunt Pauline. I am sure she is talking to Grandfather Adolph now about how he could leave her alone so long! The few times I

was able to visit her while she was in her home in Pennsylvania something would go wrong with the house and she would mutter at Adolph something about how he should be taking care of this.

This has always been one of my favorite photos of Grandmother. I took it at a family trip to Disney World in 1999. We were watching the 3 o'clock parade.

Lon with his Gigi. Lon was 3 days old. . She was always there for him, when ever they were together all her time was devoted to him. She didn't have to worry about anything else but him. Lon loved the full attention. He still loves his Gigi. He told me this morning after I told him, that it is okay Momma, Gigi still loves us and we can still talk to her. Yep, little one we still can.

An Outing for Ice Cream!

Lon and I are both feeling much better. Finally! I needed to get some fabric, and Lon asked nicely if we could go to the fabric store with the ice cream store. Of course we can! I got the background fabric I needed. Lon was extra good knowing that if he was it was ice cream time! It was a special Cold Stone treat. He got dark chocolate peppermint ice cream, with extra sprinkles.

Cutest little boy. Ever.

Since Lon was extra good today we also brought home a Cold Stone ice cream cupcake. How very fun, the liner that holds the ice cream and cake is chocolate. The entire thing is edible. Lon ate every last bite before I could get my spoon in. Lon told me we would have to go back and get another one if I wanted a taste.

Christmas!

Our Christmas was very fun! Lon is seriously getting into the entire holiday now! We have an Elf ~ from Elf on the Shelf. Great book, great idea! Our Elf is named Apple and he watches Lon every day during Christmas time and reports back to Santa every night. Which means every morning he is in a new place around the living/dining room. The advent angel was busy this year too! We got that great advent calender box that gets filled by the advent angel every night with some new candy or small toy. That was a HUGE thing this year too. Lon LOVED it. We tried this year for a couple of presents under the tree before Christmas Eve. The last couple years, any present that was out, was Lon's and must be opened NOW! This year he knew that some were not his. One that was his, he did ask us to hide again cause it was really just too hard not to open it. What a great little guy!
Our Christmas Eve Table, which looked remarkably like our Christmas Day Table! Since we had TWO big dinners this year. That was great fun! The children used the same dishes as everyone else. The only exception was the crystal. It was just too tall.
Mark's Christmas Cake! mmmmm.... Pistachio cake!
Our Christmas Eve meal this year was Cranberry Glazed Duck with Cranberry Chutney. Yummy Yummy Duck! It was really wonderful. Christmas Day dinner was Roast Beast with all the regular trimmings. Also, wonderful.
Lon waiting with the Christmas Chicken. He plays a little Christmas tune before he goes into the chicken dance, he lights up and walks around the room too. Yep, he is loud. I LOVE this chicken.

After Santa came. It looks wonderful!
I did not get any still pictures in of Lon opening his gifts this year. Mark took it all on video. (And Grandmothers the disks are coming your way soon)
Pancakes after presents! Yes, those are Kinder Eggs on the table and yes, Lon had chocolate with his breakfast. It was CHRISTMAS!
Miss Sarah and Mr Kevin came over for a late morning visit. Putting some toys together was the order of the morning!
Natasha amid some presents. Hot Wheels tracks were a huge hit !
More putting toys together, more hot wheels tracks. Then we started getting ready for company and roast beast. I did not get many pictures in this year.
For dessert we had chocolate fondue! Very fun. Lon did not want me to to take a picture of his being all chocolate covered.
Rob, Drew and Janet and the fondue pot.
Megan, Grace and Gernot. Grace loved the strawberries in chocolate, but who doesn't! The kids played after dinner. They had a great time. Cool new toys and kids all pretty much the same age! It was almost the best part of the day (opening all those cool gifts that morning was the best part of the day!)
I did manage to get a picture of chocolate covered Lon. After that he decided to give me a chocolate covered kiss. yummy!
Lon and Grace hugging by the tree. They play so well together. Lon does not like to take grief from the guys he knows and he won't let them boss him around. Grace, he lets her boss him around all she wants. It is sweet. Lon is trying his best to be a gentleman.