Collecting Leaves

Weather was nice on Tuesday (about wit60s) and kids wanted to help me collect leaves in the backyard. I was able to collect a small amount, before they got hungry and wanted to eat lunch. While the Mac & Cheese was getting ready, we spent a little more time outside taking pictures while kids were able to make leave angels and had more fun throwing leaves in the air.

Three Rock Stars

Kids treated us to a special rock song that took lots of musician attitude and special skills to play different instruments. Nathan appeared to be the lead and counted to five each time to coordinate the effort. Matthew was the drummer as well as the lead singer. Maya played the piano and occassionally the xylophone.

Ringling Bros Circus

Matthew spent a good evening with his Mom & and Grandparents, enjoying the Ringling Brother's circus in Rosemont. He met with his den members from the Boy Scout of America.

Halloween

Kids this year went trick or treating with grandma, grandpa and uncle Wes. They got lots of candy and enjoyed their time. Maya learner to say "My CANDY", emphesising that she wants to cary her own candy.

Oct 9th - Visit of Zoo

We started the October by visiting with Jack, Laurie, Mariann, Chrissy, Mom and Wes. We met at the Naf Naf Grill in Naperville for lunch. I specially enjoyed the rice and the camel sign they had on the wall. Later on we went to a park and kids played for a few hours. On the 9th we went to the Brookfield zoo with train. Mom and uncle Javad took the train from Naperville and we got on in Downers Grove. At the zoo we rode on the tram and kids got very tired. Train ride was based on Nathan's request. That same Sunday there was a maraton in downton Chicago and the return train was very crowded. We all had a good time and were exteremly tired when we returned home.

Aug 14 - Mom's BDay

This year to celebrate Mom's birthday, we went to the Brookfield Zoo. Uncle Javad was able to join us as well. We had sandwiches at the Zoo and also visited the bears' island. Later on we had cake and tea at Mom's place. Nathan managed to break Wes' Wii that thought us not to get one until kids are a bit older.

Matthew's 1st Day of School

Augest 24th was Matthew's first day of school. Now that he's in frist grade, he goes to school full day and says his favorit activities at school are lunch and recess. On the 26th students and their families were invited to party at the playground in the back of school.
Pizza was provided by the Skuddlebutts. Kids enjoyed ice creams, popcorn, soda and ran after each other. Dad and Nora were able to join us as well.

Matthew's 7th Birthday

This year Matthew had his birthday at Enchanted Castle in Lombard. He invited his friends and everyone (including me) had a blast. Matthew was a king and wore a crown for the whole time we were at the place.
Kids chose a parent and made mommies out of them, using toilet papers.

March for Babies

Overall we had a good day at the March of dimes yesterday, despite the chilly weather the walk was a success. My parents, Mina, uncle Khosro & my father and mother in-law and our friends Natalie joined us for the walk. Kids took turn sitting in the wagen, but when the wind took off my Dad and I were hugging them. Matthew walk almost half way this year, I think he was discouraged by the weather. Afterwards, we had a few hotdogs and then except for uncle Khosro, everyone else met back at our place. Linnet made lentens soup the night before and we each had a cup of the warm soup with some lunch meat sandwiches. Later on we had strawberry shortcake and tea for desert, in honor of my father-in-law's birthday. So far, kids are well and didn't catch a cold from our walk yesterday.

First half of April

So far this month we visited with family and returned to our normal routine after our trip. Kids received NouRooz gifts and understood the celebration a bit better.

We found out that we have at least a raccoon in our attic and paid a professional to remove them. John from ACE Animal Control setup a cage by the vent that raccoon got into our house and last night she got caught. He's currently upstairs removing the animal and next will set a cage around the vent to prevent future accidents. He'll then visit the attic to remove any babies that are there and assess the damage they've done to the attic. I guess this raccoon is lucky, I like the wild life otherwise not sure what would I have done with her after spending close to $400 on removal fees.

Feb. 27th - Sydney's Temple

Sunday we visited the Baha`i Temple in Sydney and met old friends of mine from my days in Pakistan. Bahman, Roya, Farshid, Rohi & their mother Parvaneh khanom, were among those we had the pleasure of meeting. We also met with Kamran's old friend Chris and Freida who promissed to visit us this year on their trip to US. I caught up with my friends over the lunch, at Hungry Jack's that was very similar to the Burger King's. Kids played and we talked for hours. Later on that evening we attended a party in grandma's honor at Kamran's friends' Peyman & Nina. We spent the rest of the night packing up in preparation for our trip back.

Feb. 26th - Canberra

On Saturday, we visited Donna and Michael at their new place in Canberra. Food was excelent and eveyrone enjoyed themselves. We went to the pool with the kids and I had a very nice nap by the pool. Michael brought popcicles for the kids while they were at the pool. Matthew (as well as other kids) enjoyed the chocolate fondue Donna set up for them. We took many fun pictures with Ardeshir and family and left for the Sydney. On the way over, we stopped at the Baha`i centre and had dinner and enjoyed the Ayyami-ha program there.

Feb. 25th - Taronga Zoo

We visited the Taronga Zoo with my cousin Niloofar. There we saw a lawn clock that was about 5 minutes behind and coo cooed every 15 minutes. We also saw a Tasmanian Devil, Pelicans and attended two shows about birds and seals. Matthew had fun at the children's zoo and found new friends when he pretended he was driving a golf car.
Later on that evening, Kamran gave us a ride to uncle Jalal's place and later on his own. On the way over, we stopped at a local beach and enjoyed a beautiful scenery of the beach and city.

More of Blue Mountain

After seeing the three Sisters, Kamran took us to a very nice waterfall and an observetory where we could see all the sorounding areas down below. Later on that evening, Matthew received a Lego StarWars from Kamran and we had dinner with Ardeshir and Pooran (down) at a Persian restaurant. Matthew substituted white rice for dill and had us Awwed by the way he expressed himself.

Feb. 24th - Down Under

We went to the Blue Mountain with uncle Kamran and Grandma and saw three Sisters (down center). We also went on two cable car rides that both were thrilling. The first one had a glass floor in the middle that opened up as the car moved and the second one had a 35 degree drop to the land below that took our breath away. We walked many trails and even saw an old abandoned mine.

Feb. 23rd - Down Under

Uncle Kamran gave us a tour of the city. We left Manly port with a ferry (top right) and visited Sydney's Opera House first. There were two luxury cruise liners docked. We saw Queen Elizabeth departing from the port. Its loud horn caught us by surprise. We also noticed a group of people walking on the top of the bridge (top left).
We then walked to the Sydney Tower and had lunch at the food court near by. The tower had a similar setting as the Sears Tower and uncle described buildings close by the tower along with their history. We also saw placed he lived, worked and studied. Matthew liked giant Lego sculptures at different locations and took pictures with them (lower left). We also visited Wildlife World and the Aquarium near by, where we saw some Australia's most poisonous snakes and spiders. Some of the most exciting sites were walking under neat of pools of water and seeing many sea animals including manatees, shark, and later a mechanic shark.
We ended the day with a ride back with the ferry and saw the sun go down by behind the Opera House. Uncle and Aunt bought us some nice pizza, that was stuffed inside Turkish bread. It was equally interesting and delicious.

Feb. 22 - 3rd Day Down Under

We went to Fairfield with uncle Javad and bought some more souvenirs. Had lunch at a persian restaurant that we all enjoyed the food. Matthew and Linnet went to a library around the corner from where we parked the car and they were able to find a persian section in the children's section. I also took a picture of a public toilet that seems something out of Futurama! We visited with the cousins and family and after the good food auntie Shahnaz made us yesterday, eat good cooking of auntie Jhaleh. We acted silly a bit at the end of the night taking pictures sitting on the couch that made everyone laugh.

Feb 21 - 2nd Day down under

We gave the local mall "Warringah" a visit and bought most of the stores! We also visited uncle Jalal and his family and spent more time with grandma and had fun with the cousins.

Feb. 20th - First Day in Australia

After sitting on a plane for 16 hours that BTW wasn't as bad as I imagined it to be, we arrived to Sydney. Baggage claims and customs took less than 20 minutes, that made me extra happy. We felt the humidity of the air outside as soon as we got off the plane, and boy did it feel right. We were greeeted with uncles Kamran, Javad and Ardeshir, aunty Shahnaz and cousins Anisa & Adib. Cousins took bounch of pictures that I have to remember to ask for before we go back home. We got to Kamran's place, talked to Mom and Dad to make sure the the kids were all right and then Matthew and I, went to visit with Uncle Jalal. On the way back to Kamran's place, Anisa gave us a ride to Coles that really sounds like Kohl's, but really is more of a grocery/general store. That was our first encounter with Auzie malls.
We spent the rest of the day visiting with family friends and taking kitty naps here and there. Matthew played the whole day with his cousins and new friend Deon. We really enjoyed the food and company. Invited lots of new friends to cme to the US and give us a visit.

Beginning of February

We had a pretty bad snow storm, that was complicated by a power outage. Kids and Linnet spent the night at my parents while I was at work. Morning travel was easy since there was not a lot of wind to blow the snow around. It took Linnet and I more than half an hour to clean up the driveway, so we could bring our car into the garage. Kids were crying patiently in the car!
On the 13th Maya had her first haircut given to her by her Mom and grandma Shahla. Between Matthew playing his start wars game and Nathan giving a cream cheese tombs up, I'd say we had a happy start on this month. There is also a picture of Maya helping grandpa Iraj pushing a cart to the elevator.