Thanksgiving Recap

The little kids had their parties/feasts the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. They put on a show for the parents and had a big feast where they made corn bread, muffins, pumpkin pie and homemade butter. Each kid could bring a sibling to the feast, so they went to eachothers, and then Taylor surprised Isabella by coming to hers, since she got out of school early. Isabella was very excited to have her sister there.

Thanksgiving day, we took our annual walk in the woods. This year, the weather was perfect. I didn't take my camera so, unfortunately, I have no pictures. It was the right choice, because we took a different hike and were scaling steep hills and crossing deep and wide creeks. Isabella is Miss Caution and wanted to hold my hand the entire time. Nicholas slid down the hills and walked through the creeks. Gio ran up and down the hills over and over again waiting for us, and also ran through all the water. When we got home, I made them undress on the deck and I dumped about 2 cups of water out of Nicholas's boots and  it looked like Gio had an entire pricker bush attached to his rear end. 

  We went to my sister's house for dinner. The table was set perfectly, and the food was fabuloso. 

Dave (my brother-in-law) bravely dropping a turkey into a deep fryer and hoping not to catch the side of the house on fire.

After dinner, my sister and I scoured the paper for Black riday deals. Nick had to work the next day, so I wasn't about to battle the store myself with the little kids, so I got on the computer first thing in the morning and started ordering things like a maniac. My inept typing fingers were movnign so fast I thought the keyboard was going to start smoking. 

Packages have been arriving daily. This is how I react when that brown truck drives up our driveway. 

 

  

It's Going to be a Long Winter

This is what I woke up to this morning.

Halloween

I know it's been a week since Halloween, but for some reason, I couldn't get my pictures to upload until now.

We started the Halloween festivities last Sunday with our annual pumpkin carving. This is the second year that Taylor has been at work and was not able to participate. So we got a stand in and invited Shea's friend, Ben to come over and carve one. Man are those two competitive with just about everything they do! They were each determined to have the better pumpkin. Ben's pumpkin was the haunted house with the bats and Shea's was the goofy face. Shea was really hoping that Ben would accidentally slice the house in half trying to carve out one of the windows, and Ben continued to goad her about the lack of technical difficulty required to carve hers.  I refused to choose a side. I applauded both of their skills. Isabella picked the Spider, which Nick did, and Nicholas wanted the dragon, which I started and Shea finished. Nick and I were done carving. I did mine a couple hours later, which I never got a picture of, and Nick never carved his. (Which by the way, happened to be the biggest, most beautiful pumpkin in the bunch) It's sitting in my lawn on display with a few mums, looking very festively fall-ish.  

On Monday we went to Nick's brother's house, which also happens to be our old neighborhood. We have gone there every year since we moved 6 years ago. It's the best location for trick or treating.

Isabella decided to be Jessie and Nicholas was Woody. In September, Nicholas wanted to be Iron Man. I bought it, he wore it around the house a few times, and in October when it was good and dirty, he decided he wanted to be Woody. I know I should have said "tough tooties, you're going to be Iron Man", but how cute does that duo below look in their matching costumes? I justified the $20, and he can run around the house saving us from peril for the rest of the year. Nick asked me to kindly please stop going to stores that sell costumes until November 1st, so as to avoid another switch. For the sake of his sanity, I agreed.

Shea and my oldest son her boyfriend dressed as each other. They thought that little number up all on their own about 2 hours before trick or treating started.  These two are a goofy pair of kids. The entire 30 minute ride in the car, Ben acted out and recited every ism that Shea has or says. Nick and I thought she was going to pummel him.

 The Cousins!!

The next morning, bright and early, still coming down from the sugar buzz, Nicholas and Isabella had their school parties. They had a parade and a little show for the parents, and then they played games and did crafts for the rest of the class. They had so much fun, and Nick was one of the parent helpers for the party. He was the ONLY dad there!

Here's the loot....

And here is the tax that they must pay me in order to live in my house.

Homecoming 2011

This year, homecoming was a breeze. There were no meltdowns, no away soccer games to rush back from in order to get ready on time, and I didn't spend hours at the mall shopping for dresses and shoes. The girls went by themselves to shop for dresses and their dad took them to look for shoes and jewelry. I got off so easily this year. No one complained about pictures, and no one cried because their $40 hairstyle didn't come out the way they wanted it to. The only bad thing was the yucky, freezing cold weather - for the second year in a row.

Shea and her date went with a group of 10 kids. They pooled their money and got a big limo to drive them to dinner and then the dance. Taylor went with a huge group of girls and also got a limo. Limousines are great unless you drive. Both kids had to figure out how to get to the house where the limo was but also have a car parked at the high school so that they could drive home after the dance was finished. Because of the crazy schedule, I only took pictures of Taylor at our house and had none of the group. She didn't mind and said that we could get copies from someone else. Hopefully I will see them someday.....Shea's date left his car at the school and his parents drove him to the meeting house and I drove Shea. Kind of strange to not have your date pick  you up for a dance, but whatever. This seemed to be the only way to work it out. 

Both kids had a great time and talked about it all the next morning. Apparently there is nothing like spending 4 hours in a hot, sweaty, smelly gymnasium with several hundred other students, with only sticky sweet punch to quench your thirst. Oh, to be a teenager again.   

By the way, the house we went to for pictures was STUNNING! The landscaping was beautiful, and thankfully the rain stopped for about 20 minutes so that we could take pictures outside. The temperature was about 45 degrees though. The girls did a pretty good job at standing still and not shivering.    

The Little Gymnast

Isabella has been asking me for about a year if she could start gymnastics classes. Last year she had a really goofy schedule for preschool. Even though she was only there for a couple hours, it was 3 days a week, and smack in the middle of the day. I am not the type of mom who jam packs my kids in tons of activities. We need home-time with no schedule where we can just play and hang out. I made it a pretty hard rule that we would not have any other activities on school days, which left the other 2 days a week. The only gymnastics classes available on those 2 days was with a male teacher. She's a little better now, but she is not a big fan of men. (Unless they are related, of course.) I could not have gotten her to take a class with a man if my life depended on it. So, we had to wait.

This fall, I found a class at a great time in the morning, on a day off from school, and it's at a gym in an Amish town. (I have an obsession with Amish people as you may have learned from an earlier post.) And, if you're wondering, as my Dad  mockingly asked - No, Amish kids do not take gymnastics. Shockingly, there are "worldly folks" like ourselves that live and work in that town.

Isabella was so excited about gymnastics that she jumped up and down from the building all the way to our car yelling "that was awesome!!" She got to jump on a trampoline, swing from a huge rope, work on the bars, the beam and practice tumbling. There are only 3 other girls in her class, so the teacher gets to spend a lot of time on each girl. She is having so much fun and counts the days to when she gets to go back.

Great Commercial

This is by far, our family's favorite commercial. You can't help but to start dancing. The song has been our favorite for most of the summer. Even Nicholas walks around singing it. (Which I will try very hard to video, because it is hilarious.) 

First Day of Preschool

Last Tuesday was the first day of preschool. Isabella is in her 3rd year of preschool and is now considered a "big" kid at school, since she's in Pre-K. This is Nicholas' first time at preschool, and he has been looking forward to this day for a very long time. This school is very small - there is only one classroom and two teachers, so only one class goes on at a time. Nicholas is in the 3 year class and goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 2 hours in the morning. Isabella will go for 3 1/2 hours in the afternoon on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I won't get any time to myself while they are at school, but I'm really excited to have 2 hours with just Isabella and a couple hours with just Nicholas before he takes a nap. When I told Isabella that she and I would have some time to ourselves, she said "oh good, we are going to do only  girl things, and let's make a big stink about Nicholas while he's gone." I'm not really sure what that means, but I'm looking forward to doing just girly things.

I got to stay the entire time both days last week, so the kids don't feel so anxious with the new routine. Nicholas and I spent the entire time playing with the rescue heroes on Tuesday. He had no interest in anything else in the classroom. Thursday I got him to play with a few other toys, and at the end of class, he was mad that he couldn't play with the "guys" again. He's has been counting the days till Tuesday so he can get back to his guys.

Isabella didn't need me one bit. She walked into that school like she owned it. She played with her old friends from last year, and played with some new friends, too. She raised her hand and contributed to a discussion at "circle time". What a change from 2 years ago, and even last year. She used to be shy and meek, and would not participate in a lot of the activities. She is blossoming into a confident, outgoing kid, and I think this school and her teacher have contributed greatly to that.

Soccer

This is the second year that Shea has played soccer at the high school. Nick and I gingerly talked her into trying out last year, and she decided to go for it. When she was in kindergarten, she played on a rec league in our old neighborhood, and when she was in 3rd grade she tried out for a travel team and made it. She was on a team with a bunch of really good, and REALLY aggressive girls who constantly pushed her and told her what to do. Shea is a highly competitive kid and didn't take too kindly to not being the best anymore, and to also being yelled at by her teammates. 1 year of that business, and she hung up her cleats, swearing that she was never going to play soccer again.

When she decided to go out for the team last year, she quickly realized that she hadn't lost any of her skill in the long 5 year hiatus. She started on the JV team and played center on defense. And she was really good. Nick and I were so excited to be back in the soccer world again. It's such a fun game to watch.

This year, she really, really wanted to make the varsity team. I cautioned her that she was only a sophomore and she had only been playing for a year, but I believed that she could do it is she worked really hard and showed her coaches what she was capable of. Lo and behold, she made both the JV and the varsity teams. She starts on JV and dresses for varsity. They haven't played her yet on varsity but she is anxiously waiting. (and not so patiently).

I am really proud of this girl. She is a natural born athlete. She was born with muscular arms, and I am being totally serious. She can pick me up and throw me around like a rag doll and thinks it's wildly fun to do so. I don't know where the athleticism comes from, because it's NOT from me. I am about as coordinated as a rhinoceros. It sure is fun to watch her play, though.

I shot a series of pictures of her kicking the goal kick. She does this about 50 times in any given game. She has so much power in her legs that she can kick the ball half way down the field.

  

Okay, enough bragging for one day.

Fall Sports are in Full Swing

School Started last week, but the sports started on August 1st. That is the magic date when Ohio allows teams to start officially practicing. Don't be fooled - teams practice all summer long. They just call it conditioning, and have the seniors run the practice. But on August 1st, it's hard core practice, and the fun and frolic days of summer are over.

The week before school starts, the high school puts together an evening to introduce all the fall sports teams. Every team goes on the field and each athlete gets introduced. It's a lot of fun, and it gets the kids all hyped up for the school year to begin.

This fall, Taylor is cheerleading again for the varsity football team, and Shea is in the marching band and on the soccer team.

You can easily pick Shea out of the group. She is the only one wearing a white shirt.

Shea's boyfriend, Ben is right next to her. Isn't that cute - they both play the snare drum and get to be right next to each other during their performances.

Look at the little love birds marching off the field together!! We really like this kid. He's super nice and a lot of fun.

You may wonder why Shea is the only one wearing cut off jean shorts. I wondered the same thing. Her response - "We were all going to wear jean shorts, and they changed it to their uniform shorts, and I didn't get the text." Mmmm Hmmm, but the other 36 girls got it......This is the story of this kids life.