Mini Hops Graduation

Today marked the end of an era for us. Today was Ethan's graduation from Mini Hops Preschool. He'll be moving on to Stepping Stones, where Camden spent the last year, so that he can be in an all day program to help prepare him for kindergarten the following year. We've all really enjoyed our time at Mini Hops. It's been such a great mix of academics and athletics. This past year we've seen Ethan grow in a number of ways.

With Camden having moved on to a new preschool, this year was Ethan's opportunity to gain some confidence and independence. This year, Ethan built deeper friendships with his classmates. According to his teachers, he really emerged as a leader and friend.

E also has really improved in his ability to count, identify patterns, identifying letter sounds, spelling, writing and more. We've been so happy with the caring, nurturing, and love that Miss Kris and Miss Cindy have provided to Ethan (and Camden) over the last few years. The boys have become quite close with their teachers and classmates. It's hard to leave, but we leave knowing that Ethan has a strong foundation to move forward on.

Christmas in the Desert

The Nguyen-Sindt clan made the pilgrimage to the southwest to spend Christmas in the desert. Always thankful to have the excuse of visiting Auntie Paige in Phoenix to get a break from the early midwest Winters. We made the trip with the boys a few years back, but this year Aunt Lisa, Uncle Tony, and Cousin Max (aka. "Honey Badger", or shortened to "Badger") were also joining us. The theme for this year's trip was "Presence. Not Presents." More on that later.

It would be Max's first plane trip and we were all anxious to see how he did. For that matter, it was the boys' first plane trip since the Phoenix trip in 2010. In the days leading up to the trip, E would mutter, "I don't want to go on a plane." That had us slightly worried, but he perked up quickly once we were at the airport.

Travel Day Arrives

Like all Sindt related trips, the logistics are creative to say the least. Grandma and Papa started their trip out West by flying Northeast to Minneapolis. Turns out, a layover at MSP from OMA was a cheaper option than flying direct. Worked out for us because we caught the same flight as theirs from MSP to PHX and the boys loved having Grandma and Papa onboard. 

The boys did great and loved every minute of it. Camden fell asleep shortly after take off, while E kept himself occupied with various iPad games and movies through the duration of the 3 hour flight. Separated by a row, when we landed at PHX, Camden shouted, "Ethan we're at Auntie Paige's!" To which E screamed, "I knowwww!" They still have a bit to learn about airplane etiquette :)

Lisa, Tony, and Badger arrived the next day at midnight. Badger was a model traveler as he slept the entire flight. The bad news about that was that he was up until about 2am local time when they arrived. Can you blame him for being excited?

Jolly Roger Magic Show

One of the early highlights was the Jolly Roger Magic Show at the luxurious Valle Del Oro resort where Kim's Aunt Jan and Uncle Bob reside during the Winter months. Wasn't quite sure what to expect from the show, but it turned out to be a lot of fun for both the children and the adults. Here are some videos from the show, including E's on stage appearance in the second one.

Dreamy Draw Hike

Saturday was a beautiful day for the boys to go for a hike. Tony was shopping for tickets to the Bears game, Papa and I were gathering all the fixins to make Pho, and Lisa was keeping the Badger busy.  So Grandma, Kim, and Paige took the boys for a hike at Dreamy Draw. They hiked for about a mile and a half and by all accounts Camden and Ethan rocked it. They stopped along the way and willingly posed for pictures. It was a much needed time for them to run off some energy.

Coffee Table Catastrophe

One of the scarier moments from the trip while Kim, Grandma, and the boys were on their hike. Lisa and I had stayed back to watch after Badger. If you've spent any time around Badger, you know why he has that nickname. He's fast and quickly finds himself getting into trouble before you can blink your eyes. This played out right in front of us.

Lisa and I were chatting in the living room while Badger played with his Woody doll right in front of us. Before we know it, Badger rolls under the glass coffee table. Lisa and I immediately saw the danger. Just as we rose to get out from underneath the table, Badger kicked his foot up releasing the thick glass tabletop and it came shattering down on top of him. Max is 3 and fairly strong, but the coffee tabletop was thick and we never would have imagined that he could do the damage he did. He kicked the tabletop in just the right position for it to break on top of him. 

We were very lucky. Max escaped with only a scratch on his cheek and a small scratch over his eye. Yes, it could have been much worse. It was a scary moment to say the least. On the bright side, not having the coffee table in Paige's living room really opened things up in there.

Bears Game

Part of the appeal of taking our family Christmas to Phoenix was the Bears playing at the Cardinals on December 23rd. Uncle Tony is Bears season ticket holder and this was another opportunity to get another game in. Turns out, the rest of Bears Nation had the same idea. The stadium felt like it was 50% Bears fans, at least. It felt more like a Cardinals road game. Tony secured some great seats for us. It was Papa's first NFL game and it didn't disappoint. The Bears got an easy win and I got to see Brandon Marshall score a much needed touchdown to help propel my Fantasy Football team to a Championship victory.

Zoolights

This was a family favorite 2 years ago so we decided to make the return trip to the Phoenix Zoo to take in their beautiful Christmas lights.

The Phoenix Zoo uses 3.6 million individual lights for ZooLights. This includes all the lights used on nearly 700 displays of animals, flowers, stars, trees, etc. The big blue tree in the main plaza alone has 30,000 lights. ZooLights is one of the largest light shows in the Southwest. It takes a four-person crew approximately 12 weeks to install. That’s almost 2,000 man-hours!  Installation begins in early August and wraps up the first week of November.

Christmas Eve

With our travel to Phoenix, we had to make sure that Santa was familiar with our logistics. We were flying home on Christmas Day, so the boys wanted to make sure he knew where to go and when. So on Christmas Eve, we let the boys open a few gifts that were from family. I mentioned earlier that this year's theme was "Presence. Not Presents." Anyone could buy presents for the kids, but we weren't to buy presents for any of the adults. Our gift to one another would be the gift of togetherness - our presence. 

The boys' Christmas wishes were pretty easy. Their list included:

• Transformer Rescue Bots (all of them)
• Bullseye (from Toy Story)

They're still very much in their Super Hero phase, so anything related to action heroes or fighting crime would also fit the bill. Max got a Bullseye from the boys which he seemed to enjoy since he's currently in his Toy Story phase.

A Sindt-Nguyen Christmas Eve wouldn't be complete without food, and lots of it. We had a nice get together at Cousin Anita's house where the main courses consisted of Fugens, Pho, and Honey Glazed Ham. We also had the usual assortment of snack mixes, cookies, and other delectable treats.

Following dinner we went to Christmas Eve service at Paige's church where she was slated for a piano solo. It's always a treat to hear her play. Auntie Paige is so talented. I really enjoyed her rendition of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing".

Christmas Day

Christmas Day arrived and it was also a travel day for all of us. Time to head back to our respective frozen tundras. Some more frozen than others. Grandma and Papa, with a layover in MSP would fly over their house twice before they actually arrive home. Everyone was packed and ready to get home to see if Santa left anything for them. This is what happened when we arrived home...

Christmas 2012 was a success. It was quite a whirlwind and there were hundreds of photos taken over the course of the week. Far too many to share in one blog post. If you're thirsting for more, click the photo below to see our Christmas 2012 Flickr album.

Ethan Gaining His Independence

Ethan's Self Portrait

Today was Ethan's mid-year pre-school conference. Camden moved to a new all day pre-school this year in preparation for Kindergarten next year. We decided to keep Ethan at Mini-Hops because we love the teachers so much and he also has some good buddies there. We were looking forward to seeing how Ethan did with his newfound independence. Ethan has always grown up in the shadows of his big brother, so this was a nice opportunity for him to begin to develop his own sense of identity.

Ethan continues to show good improvement in all of his cognitive and physical development areas. More than last year, he's starting to explore the arts. He does really well with detecting and completing patterns. He can recognize the sounds of all his letters and we've begun working on spelling and sounding out words at home. He's able to clearly speak and articulate his thoughts in sentences.

Emotionally, Ethan is described as very even keeled and doesn't let many things rattle him. Miss Kris described a time when another classmate was bothering Ethan and he very kindly asked that classmate to please stop. The classmate persisted, but he wasn't deterred. Funny because this behavior is much different from the behavior we experience at home when Camden is up in his business. I guess it's better that he handles things the way he does in public, than he does at home.

We're very proud of our Little E. On more than one occasion, Miss Kris indicated how much she adores Ethan and how much she wants to take him home with her each day. I'm sure she says that about all the kids :)

Thanksgiving Road Trip

The family loaded up the Odyssey and took another long Thanksgiving break to Ohio. We stopped in Chicago to have an early Thanksgiving dinner with Uncle Tony, Aunt Lisa, and Cousin Max. It's always nice to have an overnight family stop halfway to our destination in Ohio. Stopping at the Sindt's is almost perfectly half way between Minneapolis and Dayton.

The overnight stop included a thrilling victory by The (undefeated) Ohio State Buckeyes over those pesky, smelly Badgers. Thankfully the Buckeyes pulled it out, otherwise the six hour drive to Ohio would not have been pleasant for me or the rest of the passengers. I tend to be a bit grumpy after the Buckeyes lose. I'm working through it.

The week with Ong Noi and Ba Noi in Ohio was filled with fantastic home cooked Vietnamese meals, as always. The boys requested Pho several times during our stay. Banh Cuon is also a must whenever we're home.

When we're at my parents for Thanksgiving, we don't typically go with the traditional turkey dinner. Instead, we opt for lobster and ribs. Lobster because the Pilgrims probably had access to lots of it when they landed in New England. And ribs because...well, we just love my mom's lemongrass ribs.

The boys love laughing and rough housing with Ong Noi. Ba Noi enjoys escorting the boys to any of the local parks for them to jump, climb, and run off all their energy. We got a chance to visit with the Bethels, which is always a nice treat for the kids. A playdate with the Bethels is usually "catered" by Marion's Piazza and some desserts from Ele Cake Company.

Speaking of Ele Cake Company, did you know that founder/owner Becky Lewis is also a photographer? It's true. A damn good one at that. We scheduled a photo shoot with her and here is a sampling of some of the pictures. She did a great job wrangling the boys together and making them look great. Interested in your own family photo shoot? Head over to Becky Nels Lewis Photography for the deets.

The tail of our Thanksgiving trip ended with The Game. The day of the year that makes my blood boil like no other. This year's tilt matched the aforementioned undefeated Buckeyes against That Team Up North. We made the trip to Columbus and spent the night with our good friends, the Mysers and their boys. Kim and I didn't have tickets to the game, but we were fine just soaking up the atmosphere and watching with Neil and Chris at the Buffalo Wild Wings on campus.

As you might imagine, there was a lot of energy and buzz throughout the campus area as game time approached. After a mini-pub crawl from the Beer Stube to Eddie's to Out 'R Inn, we settled in at Buffalo Wild Wings. The place was juiced! It was a great atmosphere to watch the game and celebrate a 26-21 victory over the scUM bags.

We were departing Columbus and heading half way to Chicago that evening, so a victory was again paramount to Daddy being in a good mood for the return trip. On this weekend for giving thanks, we're again thankful for another Buckeye victory to cap off an historic undefeated season.

All told, we traveled about 1900+ miles for the week. We're also thankful for so many other blessings in our lives. Great family. Great friends. Our health. We're blessed and lucky for so many things in our lives.

September Birthdays!

Our boys turned 5 and 4 this month! It sounds so cliche, but they're growing up so fast. Hard to believe sometimes that Ethan is only four years old. He's grown up so close to Camden that we often forget about the age difference.

Afterall, E is the same height as Camden and weighs a few pounds more than his elder brother. E will always feel like our little baby though. 

We had an ice cream party for the boys and decided to have a shared birthday party. Logistically, it was just easier that way. I have a feeling we'll be seeing that a lot over their lifetime. In addition to the ice cream, we had a brunch menu consisting of eggs, Spiderman pancakes, fruit, and a large pile-o-bacon. We made the ice cream the night before which consisted of Dark Chocolate, Salted Caramel, and Basil Honey Pinenut Praline. They were delicious if I do say so myself.

It was nice to have Grandma and Papa with us to celebrate the occasion. Lots of the boys' friends were in attendance including Ty, Alex, Alex, Aiden, Alyssa, Caden, Morgan, Gavin, Addison, Reese, Meara, Sophia, Beret, Jack, Charlie, Lucy, Emma, Grace, Weston, Hazel, and Nate. The kids enjoyed jumping on the trampoline, random arts and crafts projects, and an impromptu boy band concert was formed (Alex, Ty, Caden, Camden, and Ethan). Thank you to everyone that came and also thank you for your generous gifts.

Chatterji-Khan Wedding

The day finally came. The day when the consumate student, the consumate nomad, finally settled down. Our boy Neil Chatterji is all grown up.

What a fabulous weekend Kim and I had in NY/NJ celebrating the wedding of Neil Chatterji and Shaista Khan. This was no ordinary wedding. At least by American standards. This was an event. An event that spanned 3 days. Well, 3 days that we were able to take part in. More if you include some of the events that took place in the days weeks leading up to the Labor Day weekend festivities.

An event like this really made us grateful to have such a diverse set of friends that give us the opportunity to participate in such rich cultural traditions. The 3 day event was quite a spectacle and one that was perfectly set with New York City as its backdrop. Everything was so vibrantly decorated and ornate. Every THING and every ONE was just beautiful.

The festivities began on the Friday evening of Memorial Day weekend. Kim and I arrived one day earlier. We left the boys in the good hands of Grandma and Papa for "Grandma Camp". Friday night, Neil and Shaista had rented out a small club in New York City. It was a perfect start to the weekend as Shaista's brother and brother-in-law DJ'd the night.

Saturday, Neil's crew got together during the day to do what Neil's crew would be expected to do on Saturday's in the Fall. That is, of course, watch Ohio State Football. Good planning on Neil's part to schedule the wedding activities opposite the game. Well played.

Later that night, we boarded two tour buses that were headed for Allentown, PA for the evening. (I'm writing this some time after the event happened, so I can't remember the formal Indian names of these events.) Shaista's family is from the Allentown area. When we arrived, the party hall was already filled with several hundred people.

A night like this one, again filled with food and dancing, would have been more than enough for any traditional American wedding. But, oh no, this was just one part of the Chatterji-Khan extravanganza! Women could also the option to get a henna tattoo. After a long day and a long trip back to the hotel, we were all pretty beat and ready to recharge for the next day's activities.

Sunday came and included a more "traditional" ceremony followed by a reception at the hotel. The ceremony was held outdoors on the hotel concourse with New York City beautifully set in the background. The ceremony went so fast that if you blinked, you might have missed it. Many guests commented on how they appreciated the brevity of the ceremony. Left more time for us to eat and dance!

Dance? How about dancing next to the groom while he's escorted to the reception on a horse? Not something I've experienced before. I remember a few months back asking Neil how the wedding planning was going. He responded, "Pretty good. Just went to go order a horse for the ceremony." Wha?! This was one of the more enjoyable parts of the weekend for me. Letting loose, dancing in the street with the rest of the wedding party, escorting the groom to the reception. There's a video of this floating around somewhere.

One of the really cool things Neil and Shaista did was to have a film crew video many of Saturday and Sunday's events. They took some of the footage, edited it together, and had it ready before dinner was served at the ceremony. Really cool to see how much had happened in such a relatively small amount of time.

It was a memorable weekend spent with great friends. Congratulations to Neil and Shaista. We're so proud to know them and happy that they found each other. We're grateful for their friendship and wish them many years of love and happiness. Here are a few more photos from the weekend.

Nguyen-sanity!

Took Camden to the park today to shoot some hoops. Nice having an adjustable rim at our local basketball court. Next time we'll work on our dunks. Chicks dig the dunk.