Goodbye 2011

A few thoughts about this past year.  It seems it certainly has flown by.  We've been very busy.  I guess that is what comes with having 6 and 8 year olds who are developing their own lives.  There's been soccer and plays, play dates and camps, doctor's appointments, family trips etc...

Erin has matured tremendously this year, although she's always been rather mature.  She had such a difficult time deciding what she wanted for Christmas and had a mixed list of clothes, books, movies and even an iPod touch (which will have to wait) with some Pet Shops just for fun.  She is now at the Elementary school with the bigger kids.  In February she got her first pair of glasses to be used for reading and any time she's at school.  Talk about looking grown up.  She is delving into longer chapter books such as the Harry Potter series on her own as well.

This summer she competed in the C'ville Jr. Idol competition.  She sang 2 songs and made us all so proud.  In school this fall she landed the lead in the school's production of Wizard of Oz. Yep, in March she's going to be Dorothy.

We also spent quite a bit of time at King's Dominion.  Erin discovered that all those rides she's always thought looked so cool, are cool.  She loves to hang upside down, shoot through loops.  She's still too short for most big girl thrill coasters, but might be able to ride them by the end of next summer.

Jeffrey has grown immensely as well, but mostly in height.  I'm afraid that he's going to be taller than I am before he's 8.  He's already up to my shoulder.  He wears a size 2 shoe!! He's lost 5 teeth!!  Certainly not my baby boy any more.  He's obsessed with anything Lego, especially Star Wars Legos.  We transformed his room from a baby fish theme to a more big boy Star Wars room.  The best part was that he helped paint the room.

The big event of the summer was little more than a trip to the ground, followed by a trip to the Dr.  Poor Jeff broke his wrist right before the end of school.  He didn't let it get him down and after the first few days in the cast really was back to normal boy.  Still, 2011 provided us with our first broken bone.

He doesn't share his sister's love of thrill rides.  He'd rather stay at the bottom and watch.  That is until we went to Disney in November.  I expect he'll be hopping onto the rides along side his sister next summer.  He is still a "fish" in the water though. Can't keep him out of it.  Loves to swim.  Last spring he finished his lessons by swimming 100 meters in 3 different strokes.

He is also becoming more comfortable on stage.  This December he was a card in Alice in Wonderland and had his first assigned lines in a play (ones that were not group lines).  He loves being silly on stage just like his daddy.

Of course we'll always remember the big events of the year.  The plays, the trip to Disney, our summer at King's Dominion.  But the little things will be the ones I hold dear.  The look on Erin's face when she first put on her glasses.  Watching Jeffrey rake leaves with Grandpa Donuts.  Those are the memories to treasure.

It's Christmas Time

Jeff, Will, Erin and Witney say Merry Christmas

We traveled to New York for Christmas this year.  It's been 4 years since we've spent Christmas in New York so we were excited for our trip.  

We didn't let that slow our Christmas experience at home though.  Even with Alice in Wonderland in early December we still found time to decorate at the house.  We went and cut down our own tree at a local tree farm.  The kids set up their advent calendars and helped decorate the tree.  Jeffrey took charge of the Christmas village and put it all together under the tree.  We had a few evenings of sitting by the tree before heading up to NY.

Our drive to NY was uneventful (save for the fact that the kids have lost their DS chargers and we didn't have their DSs for the 9 hour drive).  When we arrived Aunt Katie, Uncle Bill, Will and Witney were at grandma's.  We had a great dinner and quiet evening with the kids playing together.  It's been a year since we've seen Witney.

Playing in the flurries 

Saturday was time at Aunt Katie's house.  Some of us watched football and other played with the kids.  We tried to get some photos of the 4 kids before heading to a 4:00 Christmas Eve service.  Let's say that was not as productive as we'd hoped.  Jeff certainly wasn't in the mood.  After service we went with Grandma and Grandpa to dinner at a Japanese Hibachi restaurant and then drove around the area to see Christmas lights.  We stopped at a nearby living nativity to walk through it too.  Simple and quiet, it was a great thing to do on a dark Christmas Eve.  There were live animals in the stable and Jeff reached out to pet the donkey while Erin pet the lambs.

Don't Take Our Picture

Before Christmas Eve Service

In PJ's Under Grandma's Tree

Christmas morning was abuzz with activity.  Daddy cooked special eggs while everyone opened their stockings.  Santa was very nice to everyone.  After Aunt Katie and clan arrived we sat down for breakfast followed by the anticipated present opening.

Momma's Boy

Paper flew.  Shouts were heard everywhere.  Jeff got 3 Lego Heroica games he'd been wanting.  Erin received a special  note telling her that we would take her to get her ears pierced.  As you'd expect, the rest of the day was spent putting together Lego games, opening Pet Shop toys, trying out new DS games (Aunt Katie came through with some new chargers), reading new books, trying on new clothes etc..  Mommy got a Kindle Fire, so she was certainly occupied with that.

Building Heroica with Daddy and Uncle Bill

  
The kids did get a special visit from their Uncle Jonathan.  It's been a year since we saw Uncle Jon and it was nice just to hang out and relax with him.  He's been working hard and I hope we get more chances to see him next year.

Hi Uncle Jon

The next few days included a trip to the Museum of Play and Erin's trip to get her ears pierced.  The Museum of Play is a truly cool place.  The kids could have spent all day there.  Erin had a great experience getting her ears pierced and was so brave.  She loves her new sparkly ears.   Of course there was still time at Grandma and Grandpas to play more Legos, battle on the Wii, and knock down some Angry Birds.

Cool Fish!

Shopping

Holding a Butterfly

Waiting to Get Ears Pierced

1..2..3..

All Sparkly

Wednesday we packed up and headed off.  As is usual, the only real snow of the week was falling, but not enough to keep us there.  We got home Wednesday evening, broke out some more Legos and Wii games at home.  Now we are waiting for Christmas Number 2 with Noni and clan this weekend.

Blankie

Blankie's current worn state

This is the story of what sometimes feels like another member of the family.  This is the story of Jeffrey's blankie.  Originally given to Erin, it was Jeff who attached to it when he was about 15 months old.  Even now he's still trying to sneak out to places with it tucked under his jacket.  She (Jeff has personified it as a female) is faded and shrunken and smells just the way Jeff wants it to.  I think it smells pretty vile.  Every once in a while he lets me give blankie a bath, but she is getting pretty fragile that I'm afraid to run it even through a gentle cycle.  Blankie has had several surgeries by both Noni and Ms. Jackie.  Still, blankie is in bed every night.  And she finds her way to the breakfast table as well.  She gets lost pretty often, but never for more than a day or so.

So Erin's friend made blankie for Erin sometime around Erin's first birthday.  She liked it and kept it in her crib, but never got attached to it.

Erin napping with a very bright blanket (2004)

 When Jeff was about 15 months old, I tossed it over him in his crib just to serve as a light blanket.  It hasn't really left his side ever since.

Getting Acquainted  (2006)

Already in love (2006)

Originally it was bright yellow, with lots of bright animals on the other side.  Now it's a very pale yellow and the animals are barely visible.  There are a few holes, but only because she just came back from Noni's hospital where she was mended.  It's shrunk quite a bit because the only way to mend the big holes now are to fold the edge over.  Eventually there won't be enough left to fold over.

Blankie is good for games (2007)

But best for snuggling (2009)

And just chilling (2010)

Jeff is convinced that he is going to get married with blankie.  His future wife might have something to say about that.  For now, he'll continue to snuggle it every night as he falls asleep.

December 22, 2011

Giving Thanks

We had a quiet Thanksgiving with Noni, Grandpa Donuts, and Oma this year.  We were thankful for very many things.

Leaves:  Yep leaves.  The first think Jeff wanted to do when we arrived in SS on Thanksgiving morning was rake Grandpa's leaves.  I think jumping in the piles had something to do with it.  So Jeff, Grandpa and Daddy spent a good portion of the afternoon raking leaves.

Cardstock:  Did you know that you can take cool card stock and fold it into little boxes?  Neither did I, but Erin spent several hours doing just that.

Turkey: Of course there was turkey.  And sweet potatoes :)

Recorders:  When not folding boxes tooting on a recorder is fun too.  Daddy even taught her a duet.

Family:  Spending time with family.  Hearing laughter.  Smelling food.  Seeing smiles.  Giving hugs.

Magical Memories Part 2

OK.  So it took me a little longer to get back to the Magical Memories than I thought it would.  We got stuck in Wonderland.  If you missed the first five you can find them here.

5:  Roller coasters.  Yep, we spent so much of the summer here at King's Dominion with some of the best roller coasters on the east coast, but it was the coasters at Disney that finally got Jeff to give it a try.  I think part of it is the amazing story that Disney incorporates in to each of their rides.  Waiting in line is often like walking through a movie set.  And the rides tell a story as well as give you a thrill.  We started at Animal Kingdom with Expedition Everest.  Great ride!  Except we didn't give Jeff enough time to get psyched up for it.  He was in absolute hysterics for the whole ride.  Didn't even try to enjoy it.  Whoops.  The next day we hit Thunder Mountain.  We explained it as a fast train ride.  He LOVED it.  Wanted to go right back on.  No real roller coasters at Epcot, but we did love Test Track.  Speeding outside at 60 MPH is pretty awesome.
Finally we hit MGM and the Rockin' Roller Coaster.  Since it's inside, Jeff couldn't see what was coming up.  The one coaster he really enjoys at King's Dominion is a launching coaster so the fact that the Rockin' coaster launches is a bonus.  He willingly climbed aboard, a little nervous.  When we shot into the first loop I could hear him screaming with glee.  Yep.  Loved it.  When we went back later in the week we asked to sit in the first car -- AWESOME!!  Through the rest of the week we hit up Space Mountain and headed back to Animal Kingdom for a second try at Expedition Everest -- success.  Pretty awesome.
If you're wondering about Erin and the roller coasters, there was never any question.  She's my thrill seeker and crazy girl.  We're just lucky that she's tall enough to ride them all at Disney.

4:  Breakfast with Alice.  We headed to the Grand Floridian for breakfast with Alice and friends.  It was our only character meal, but totally worth it.  Since we were involved with Alice in Wonderland at home it was the perfect choice for a breakfast.  The food was great, but the kids barely ate (although Erin drank about 5 glasses of this fancy orange/passion fruit juice.  So much the server left us a carafe).  Erin wasn't willing to get up from the table to go to the buffet because she was so nervous that she'd miss a visit.  One of the great things about this breakfast is that they are human characters and you can have a little conversation with them.  We got to meet Alice and the Mad Hatter and Alice's friend Mary Poppins.  Alice was so cute with Erin and played with her hair pretending she was the White Rabbit.  Pooh and Tigger were also there.  Even though Jeff is 6, his excitement to meet Pooh and Tigger was unmatched.  He ran up to them both with huge hugs.  Pooh even tried to take Jeffrey home with him.  It was an amazing experience.

3:  Meeting Tinkerbell.  One of the characters that Erin was especially excited to meet was Tinkerbell, so we gave in and waited in line for an hour.  Tom and Jeff took off for an extra ride through the Caribbean.  Part of the excitement was that you didn't know which of Tink's friends would be with her.  It turned out to be Terence.  Most little girls were bummed, but not Erin.  She had collected a Terence pin a few days earlier and couldn't wait to show him.  The whole visit turned into pure silliness.  Terence was super excited that he found someone with one of his pins.  He called Tink over and made a special point to show her.  Erin also had her Tinkerbell doll with her and they compared the outfits.  It made Erin feel so special.  And she will never lose that Terence pin.

2:  Jedi training.  This is one of the few things that we had planned from the beginning.  Knowing Jeff's obsession with Star Wars we figured it would be something he'd never forget.  Our first attempt to hit the Jedi training was thwarted because we were 10 minutes too late to get in line and missed all the sessions for that day.  So, on our last day in Orlando we made sure to arrive at the park extra early.  Even still, we were back in the line to get signed up.  Both kids wanted training so we signed up both of them.  The whole training show is based around the kids learning a lightsaber routine and then Darth Vader arrives to test them all.  As is typical of Jeffrey, he was the first to volunteer to take on Vader and did with great gusto.  Erin had studied very well and made sure to have all the moves down before it was her turn.  Either way it was an experience neither will ever forget.

1:  This.

 I don't need to say much more.  Just that he asked her to dance (the boy HATES to dance).  She said yes.  They both smiled.  This will very likely never happen again.  And only happens in the Happiest Place on Earth.
I can't wait to go back.