Christmas 2010

Christmas cheer to all.
Both kids were super excited about Santa and had fun tracking him on NORAD last night before bed. HZ got up at 4:30 this morning!
After presents and breakfast we headed up to Nana's and Grandpa Doug's for company and a delicious lunch. After naps, we had a fire, made smores, and watched 'A Christmas Story'. Fun family times.

Merry Christmas!

This is a picture from the other day when we were out and about. I wanted to take pictures of cookies today, but it's hard to take photos when Royal Icing is involved.

Right now:
Kids are asleep.....(finally, after a rough patch of untimely hiccups for HZ)
Stockings are stuffed.
Presents are wrapped...thanks to the awesome work of super dad, who is the master of gift wrapping in our home.
Coffee pot timer is set, knowing that the kids will wake up before dawn.

I think we're ready!

Christmas card picture

You have NO idea how many pictures I've had to snap to get this thing. But I did it! Both kids looking at the camera AND smiling. Cards will be a little late in going out..not too late, though. I'm trying to print them out tomorrow. It will be a "Happy Holidays" card.

Christmas photos of the day

Christmas party 2010

Pounds of sugar and dyes were consumed by these little munchkins. Then, they all got sent home to their parents.

That's mean.

I think the teachers did it on purpose. I think they have been waiting since August for this day. I imagine that they are sitting right now drinking a quiet cup of tea with their pinkies up, politely laughing at the mental pictures of their dear students swinging from the rafters.

I'm kidding. We all had a nice time and the kids enjoyed themselves.

Gravity bill

....wasn't paid this month. That's what HZ said when he saw these pictures. (I think he got that line from a Calvin/Hobbes book.) I was inspired by the last 'Office' episode in getting the kids to jump at the same time. I've actually got another 'jump' picture somewhere on this blog. It's a hard picture to resist. They look so happy.

Xmas trip 2010

Many thanks to everyone for a fun time!

Thanks Granddad for driving us there and letting us use your home. We look forward to this every year.

Weasel coffee

Would you? Could you?

We did. (Not bad!)

My grandfather had been given this as a gift from a friend who went to Vietnam, so we all tried it. It helped to think that this was a synthetically treated version of the real thing...but still not sure.

Next blog post on Monday night.
See you then!
-L

Family art night

Tonight was family art night at the school. A. chose to do "paper marbling" and HZ chose to do a 'holiday craft' (felt poinsettia napkin rings)
All three knuckleheads have such goofy smiles in the last picture!

No more velcro

I taught HZ how to tie REAL shoes tonight. We've always had velcro and I didn't think much about it until we were in the shoe store this afternoon and thought, "Oh yeah, I should probably do that." Teaching him was fun and he was certainly proud of himself. I'll teach little A. tomorrow because she was busy coloring before dinner and fell asleep soon after bath time. Kindergarten is hard work!

Sock pajamas

HZ and A call these "sock pajamas". Aubin has a few pair, but HZ did not and has wanted some for quite awhile. Nana was so nice to surprise them with a pair the other day.

Pot stickers

A. and R. have been begging me to make these, so I did.
A. loves them. Can you tell?

The big 4-0

Happy Birthday, R!

26 hours of fun

We had a great time! 1 1/2 hours from the first inkling of this adventure idea, we were on the road and headed a few hours north to Dinosaur Valley. What a fantastic state park! We explored real tracks, held a few daddy long leg spiders, and skipped rocks. The weather was lovely! That night we had dinner, complete with our first experience of 'fried oreos'....interesting, but nasty....who would of guessed? We had a nice sleep at the hotel and then took a side trip to Dublin this morning for a Dr. Pepper tour (only sugar used...no corn syrup!). They handed out free, ice cold glass bottles of Dr. Pepper at the end....YUM!

A fun family time, indeed.

Spontaneous Adventure

We are headed out in 2 hours for a spur of the moment over night trip. R. realized that he had enough remaining hotel points (that expire shortly) for a free hotel room. Sooooooo.........why not make the most of it?
Where are we going? Well, all I can say is that it involves dinosaur tracks and should be blog worthy.

(:

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone enjoyed their turkey! I actually had to work today ........boo-hoo! (:
Rick and the kids went to Nana's & Grandpa Doug's house to have lunch and brought back delightful treats that I greatly appreciated!
Aunt Jess has been in town this week and it has been fun to see her. She is having a baby girl (Cailyn Grace) that is due at the end of March. HZ thinks that they should name her "Tina". Too funny.

Then and Now

First, A. is doing MUCH better today! Hooray!

This past Thursday was our 10th wedding anniversary. TEN years. 'I can't believe it's been that long' is cliche, but true.
To celebrate, R. surprised me with a weekend getaway. Many thanks to the R. grandparents for watching the kids. They had a great time and so did we.
We hiked up a mountain in the western part of the state. R. made it to the top, and I ALMOST did. 300 feet from the summit and I became a bit 'apprehensive' about being 8500 ft. above sea level. Details. I didn't quite conquer the life-as-mountain metaphor on this trip. Still, it was nice to do something just the two of us sans our progeny.
Here are 2 pictures from our trip and 2 old, funny pictures of when we were dating. Can you guess what we were dressed up as that year for Halloween? .......Mary Katherine Gallagher and R. was "Schneider" from 'One Day at a Time'. ( :

Happy 10th Anniversary, R!

Sorry folks......

R's home, with pics, but just a bit tired to put them up tonight like I promised. A's been home for 2 days with a bad case of pink eye. Eww. Major gross. The doctor wanted us to double up on the usual dosage of drops. Poor thing has been miserable..night and day. Everything on that side of her head hurts today, so the doctor wants us to call him back tomorrow. Hopefully, she'll wake up much better.

So, tomorrow night for pictures......really.

-L

10 years!

Pictures coming soon.......10th anniversary post, but R. has the pictures uploaded at the office and he's traveling today, so it will be tonight. (:

Yesterday morning

Grandpa's 'eye picture'

I absolutely love this picture!! This is a shot Grandpa took of A. while we were at the science center in Canada this summer. Isn't it great?!

A mermaid and a dragon

Have a fun and safe night!

Happy Halloween!

Picking out a pumpkin yesterday.

Found it!

Here's the park picture.

Excuses, excuses

My camera battery is dead and I can't find the recharger. ) : I did take pictures this weekend, though. So, close your eyes and imagine a family bike ride at a park.
Now, that's your picture for today. ( :

I keep falling off the blog-wagon, but I hope (HOPE!) to change that soon......once I find my charger. Argh, first the cord now the charger.....I think we have little techno-clepto elves.

Random thoughts

HZ

.....told his teacher that I was going to dress up like Lady Gaga for Halloween. (I'm not nor would I in a million years.)

.....also told his teacher that his Dad made F's and was class clown (apparently that was the skewed 'take home' point for HZ when Dad tried to cheer him up after some kids giggled at his dancing and he brought home a S- for scribbling on a paper)

......is the highest reader in his class. The teacher does not know his reading level because the testing stops at a year beyond his current grade level. (We are working on that.)

......likes to dig holes in the ground and it drives me crazy.

......is sweet to his sister (mostly).

Little A. :

.......is a super, fantastic reader and could easily read all of the books her teacher gave her today for testing.

.......was weather helper today (dress the frog).

.......also likes to dig holes which drive me crazy. (WHY??)

.......likes to draw and paint.

........loves to eat asparagus.

........is sweet to her older brother (mostly).

Park time

Ahh, the brother/sister relationship (bottom picture). A. screaming at HZ for a turn. (I have to say it was quite fun. I had a go at it myself.)

Found it!

(.....actually R. did! Thanks, pops.)

Family game night......both kids beat us. HZ is quite good at battleship and A. can rack up Clifford's birthday presents in a hurry.

Still can't find it

......the cord I need to put up pictures. I think this happens once a year. Highly annoying.

Kid stories:

I like hearing about the 'behavior modification' systems that the teachers use to rein in the chaos. HZ's class has the "stick in the can" system. They all have a can with their name on it. When they are bad, they have to grab a Popsicle stick from the teacher's desk and put it in the can. The first two sticks are warnings and the third stick means you get a note home. I eat with the kids every Friday and how many sticks you have in the can is common talk at the 1st grade table.

A. has the 'frog system'. All of the children have a picture of a frog with their name on it. If your frog moves down, then you're in trouble. I frequently hear about which friends have had their 'frog moved'. A, said that she has never ever had her frog moved. (:

Boo hoo

I was going to throw on a couple of pics but I can't find the attachment cord....I think pops has it.
This week has gone by fast! The weather has finally turned beautiful. Nice and cool. There is nothing like that first cold front that sweeps down here after months and months of scorching heat.
Anyway, back to blogging. Just got out of the habit.

Window markers

I picked up some window/mirror markers for the kids and let them have at it after school yesterday. They loved it! A. drew a picture of a beautiful flower and HZ drew a picture of "smelly feet" (a foot with wavy lines rising up).

Happy Autumnal Equinox

The kids were easy to get up this morning.
Today A. is 'snack helper' and HZ's class gets to change the 'weather arrow' from summer to 'fall'.

HZ told me a funny story yesterday. He has been saying "Why, hello beautiful" to the lunch room monitors (who are a couple of paid moms that help out with the lunch process, bathroom privileges, etc. while the teachers take their break). He said they didn't like it so much when he said that. ...Where does he get this stuff?

Hello

This picture was from a few weeks ago. I've been bad about taking pictures lately! I wish I could capture our fun after school activities, but they've been a bit messy and not camera friendly. We've been doing science experiments after school with HZ's new chemistry set and A's book "The Daring book for Girls". Yesterday we made a stink bomb out of Valerian root and vinegar (worked great). Today we smushed up iron-fortified cereal/water and put a magnet to it in order to extract some of the iron. (Yeah, that didn't work out so well.)