New hairdo

Before


During


Just the beginning of what ended up on the floor.


New hairdo. Doesn't she look great!

Christmas tree

Still playing catch up with the pictures. We continued our tradition started last year of going to cut our own tree (or pick our own tree and grab one of the young guys there to cut it down, though Jim does typically get it at least halfway cut before the guy shows up). I think it was just as cold as last year, but not quite as muddy. And we skipped the hot cocoa in favor of the roasted marshmallows.


Grace and I toast marshmallows. Little too hot and smokey for Alex to want to get close to. But Jim and I decided one of these fire pit things would be nice to have on the back deck once we expand it.


Grace enjoys her marshmallow. Alex decided he likes them "raw" better.


Alex posing in a ninja/superhero/Power Ranger stance for Jim.


This look means business. Especially with the menacing Spiderman gloves in the foreground.


Jim and Gracie on the hayride.


Me and my boy across from them. Once again, it was a very fun outing.

Cold!!!

Well, Christmas is upon us so I suppose I need to get some of these pictures off my computer and into cyberspace. I could divide them up into a couple of different posts, but I think I will just slap all 10 photos up here at once. Most are of our huge snowfall we got this past weekend, but three are just some recent holiday ones.


This was our trip to Santa this year. It was at a local nursery I like going to - we were getting the wreath for the front door. We had success in that Alex actually got near, spoke to Santa and shook his hand, but as you can see he wouldn't get in a picture unless I was in it too (my hands are gripping Alex's shoulders in an attempt to move him closer into the picture).


This is our attempt to put the reindeer horns we got for Lucy on her head. They were on there briefly until one big head shake made them dangle under her neck.


My sweet boy in his new sweater that makes him look like a ski pro.

Now on to the snow pictures from yesterday.


Our house on Sunday morning. I wish the Christmas lights had been on for the picture - it would have looked really nice. You can see the little light-up lollipop snowmen to the right of the steps. I bought those at Alex's request the day I felt so sorry for him for having to be part of the gymnastics carpool with five 2nd grade girls crammed in the car with him.


The snow on the top of the trash cans shows how deep it was. Jim measured between 6 and 8 inches.


Everyone had to get bundled up and out in the snow before we even had breakfast. This picture is taken in our driveway before Jim borrowed the snow blower from the neighbor to clear it out. I think our own snow blower will be on the list to Santa this year.


Who can resist snow angels in this powdery stuff?


You can see that neither kid could resist it. Except Alex has to work on getting OUT of the snow angel - he always needed a helping hand up (guess that happens when you look like the Michelin Man when you are bundled up for the weather).


The kids making some sort of snow tunnel in the back yard.


My sweet girl who LOVED playing outside in the snow. She and Jim stayed longer across the street sledding at the school than Alex and I did. In fact, I think she only came back because Jim pegged her with a snowball that went down the front of her sweater. A frozen tummy can be remedied by a mug of hot chocolate!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sadly, it has been just about a month since I've posted. So I'll start off with some Thanksgiving pictures. We had a quiet (well, with no cousins to keep the kids occupied I suppose it wasn't actually "quiet") Thanksgiving with just the four of us. I now have lots of turkey to freeze, and at least half a pumpkin pie to throw away, otherwise I'll find by the end of the weekend that I have eaten an entire one by myself which just isn't right.

We made some crafts early in the day. Played some games. Watched some TV. Cooked and ate a lot of food. The pictures are a little fuzzy because the light was low.

For one of Grace's crafts she traced each of our hands, cut them out and had us write things on them we are thankful for. If you look close on the thumb for Alex's hand you might be able to see that he is thankful for his new sheets - the robot ones Grandma and Paw Paw sent him. He also reiterated that thanks at the dinner table that night. He REALLY likes those sheets.


Alex's hand turkey he made. Instead of drawing the additional parts of the turkey, as you can see he wanted to cut them out and tape them on. He's really into using scissors these days (and possibly dispensing tape too).


Our Thanksgiving crafts that came home from school this week. I especially like Alex's paper bag turkey and Grace's paper bag fall tree (next to the turkey).


Our little family Thanksgiving feast. The pan of rolls in the front were handmade by Grace and myself that day - her first time to help me with any sort of yeast bread. I think she really enjoyed making them, and she's a surprisingly good kneader.


Sweet Alex, probably avoiding looking at the turkey because he said it looked "gross," both when raw and cooked.


Sweet no-front-teeth Gracie Lu.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Happy Halloween!

Fun times for our first Halloween in New Jersey. Even though our town mostly goes out in the mid-afternoon to trick or treat (kind of weird). We had a few kids come later, but they were mostly older kids. Just as well - the rain hit by about 6pm, so we missed most of it except for a few sprinkles.

Festivities started on Friday with the annual Halloween parade at Tamaques Elementary. The kids get to head home for lunch to put on their costumes. After lunch they have a parade around the horseshoe that connects the school to our street, with class parties following afterward.


Alex (aka The Beast from X-Men) waits with two of his friends/classmates for the parade to begin.


Grace in the parade as Hermione (or HAM-ione?) from Harry Potter.


Our toothless wizard.


Grace's entire class. The teachers all dressed as "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs." Mrs. Riley had her dog there for the parade, which all the kids loved.


I had to put a picture of this costume on here. It's Paris Hilton. As portrayed by a 5th grade boy. Sadly, he walked better in those high heels than I would have.


Today for trick or treating we first hit the streets with some of our friends. Alex had already taken his mask off because the running from one house to the next for two blocks can make you sweat. We kept telling the kids they could walk, but they wouldn't listen to us.


And here's my little wizard and superhero ready to hit the streets in our neighborhood for some treats.

Happy Halloween everyone!

The boy turned FIVE!!!

I can't believe I missed posting a blog on Alex's birthday. Five years old! It's a momentous birthday! But to give those of you who (for the first time) were not able to attend his party an idea of what you missed, look at this video.



And this is early in the party BEFORE they got even crazier. We were supposed to get a bounce house and have the party in the back yard, but the weather conspired against us to give us a cold and rainy Sunday. So the bouncer was canceled, the furniture moved against the walls and we had 12 kids ranging in age from 4 to 7 inside the house.


We unfortunately didn't get a whole lot of pictures. Hard to get non-blurry ones when you've got a bunch of kiddos running around. But here's a few:


Grace's welcome sign posted on the door.


Kids loving each other before the party. Alex is wearing the birthday crown Grace made him.


The cake Alex picked out to go with his Batman-themed party.


We started out with superhero coloring while waiting for everyone to arrive.


Alex poses in front of his Pin The Batsignal in the Sky game before the game is played.


After the game is played. The winner got her signal suspiciously in the EXACT correct spot. I'm thinking that blindfold wasn't tied very well on that one.


We tried out some new games that were a hit.


And the wonderful shot of my big boy blowing his candles out. I love that guy so much!

Busy

I know I've been horrible about posting lately. Seems like we've just been a little busy the past couple weeks. A visit from Mom & Dad filled up our time nicely. And now preparations are underway for Alex's birthday party this weekend, which was supposed to be in the back yard with a bounce house. But since the weather has dropped to a high in the 40s with drizzly rain, we now are having twelve 5-year-olds INSIDE the house for two hours this Sunday. Had to suddenly shift gears in how the party was planned.

Anyway, as usual we didn't take enough pictures while Mom & Dad were here. But we did take a few at Central Park with Dad (Mom was struck with sinus problems and had to stay home). Once again it turned into one of the kids' favorite trips to the city. We went to a different part of the park (closer to the middle) than we did on our previous visit.


Of course the kids needed to climb over all the rocks in the park. Hard to tell from this picture, but they were on a pretty big rock. I think Grandad was getting a little nervous about it.



Looking over Turtle Pond toward Belvedere Castle.



Grace loved climbing the Alice in Wonderland statue. I can tell this destination will be demanded when we go to the park again.



This is called "Conservatory Water," where the radio-controlled boats sail. Lots of fun to see all those little boats out there.



We had to stop at one of the many playgrounds. This was a fun rope structure. Grace made it to the top.


Alex didn't go quite as high as Grace, but made a good show on the ropes too.



Patiently waiting for ice cream.



Dad and the kids on one of the overlooks at Belvedere Castle.



Isn't this just a beautiful place!