goodbye, warm weather

Friday night, we bundled up and went downtown to the Christmas parade. To my dismay, when I tried to turn on the camera to snap the first pic of the kids waiting for the parade, my batteries were dead. It was a devastating moment for this mama who snaps pictures more than the paparazzi. But, I got over it and the kids were able to enjoy the parade without being blinded by the flash of my camera every thirty seconds.

And since I have no photos to share of the first "cold" event of the year, I thought I'd share these pics that I never got around to posting a couple of weekends back when we were hit with beautiful, unseasonably warm, 70° weather. We took advantage of the heat wave by going for a hike at Raven Run. I was thrilled to see what I ended up with once I started weeding through the shots.

Some nature/environmental shots:

And some of the kids in the woods and at the lookout over the Kentucky River where we paused to snack and take in the scenery:

And, a rare occurrence, (since I'm usually TAKING the pictures!) a picture with Mom:
And I think that wraps up the fall posts! Onto the Christmas season!

and so it begins...

Kris is at Lowe's right now picking up more gear for the outside Christmas decorations. He and the neighbors across the street have waged a little challenge with each other. As Michael and Scott pulled out of their driveway earlier after spending the morning hanging wreaths and garland on the front of their house, they paused in front of our house to tell Kris, who was outside hanging our snowflakes, "It's on." I'm slightly afraid...we'll see if we win for tastefulness or if the outside of the house ends up looking like this:

I'm in LOVE!

I was just catching up on Design*Sponge from the past week when I came across the most beautiful lighting website featuring stuff like this:
For the post on Design*Sponge, click here.

For the website full of all sorts of lighting treasures, click here.

Sleeping Beauty (and her daddy)

I had to take the opportunity to take a pic of this when it happened a few weeks ago...
...because the last time she let herself do that, it was roughly two years ago...

aaaaaannnnd...we're done.

Time for me to catch up on my fall posts, since the kids have Christmas programs coming up!

Nov. 7 marked Sam's last game of his very first soccer season (and my dad's b-day...Happy Birthday, again, Dad!). He ended the season on a high note, scoring one goal (which he celebrated with everyone on the field and the sidelines for a good three minutes) and paying close attention and cheering on his fellow teammates during game time when he wasn't playing. Our neighbors even came for a little while to watch him play, which thrilled him. We were also treated to BEAUTIFUL weather at this game, as well.

Overall, we were happy that he started to learn the game a little and learned how to be part of a team (and also that he learned to lay off the pushing!).

And he was happy that he GOT A TROPHY!!!

I can't say for sure, though, whether he'll want to play again in the spring...we'll let him decide. At this age, he is just thrilled to play and wants to be involved in any sport. So, the possibilities are endless...baseball, soccer, football in the fall...we shall see!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Every two to three years we do Thanksgiving as just our little family, depending on travel schedules for the year (both ours and those of extended family) and vacation time. Even though we don't get to share our table with our extended families those years, we still make the best of it, enjoy each other's company, reflect on the things we are most thankful for and eat a really, REALLY yummy meal :)

This was one of those years. This morning, we watched the Macy's parade together, then a little of the dog show, which prompted a discussion to explain to Sam why we couldn't enter Molly in the show based on both breeding as well as atrocious behavior. (A little later, Molly proved our point by chewing a nice rough spot into the wood along the bottom of the living room couch...ugh.) After we convinced Grace that it was really Thanksgiving (she was a little confused because they had a Thanksgiving feast at school yesterday), we prepared our meal, set the table with the good china (no need to scrimp just because no one else was coming!), and enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner. And we ended the evening with a family viewing of A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on tv.

We have much to be thankful for!

recent conversations with Grace

This one cracked me up:

Grace: "My toe hurts! I put my princess shoes on the wrong feet and didn't switch them and then played too hard and now I have an owie! My toe hurts!"

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And this one made me realize that I am totally screwed with this kid, because she pretty much refuses to make anything easy:

Grace: "For Halloween next year, I want to be Cinderella."

Me: "Okay. What color dress does Cinderella have?"

Grace: "Pink."

Me: "Are you sure? I thought her dress was blue..."

Grace: "That's the one she wears to the ball. I want the pink one that the birds and mice make for her...the one that her stepsisters rip up."

Me: "Holy crap, kid...are you kidding me?" (Okay, I didn't really say that...but I've been thinking it ever since!)

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And this one made me feel like Mother of the Year (note my sarcasm):

Kris (during dinner): "Mommy had to go to a meeting."

Grace: "Sam, a meeting is where you go when you don't want to eat dinner with your family."

My redemption here is that I was at a volunteer youth soccer marketing meeting, but I don't think Grace really cares about that!

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And, another one to add to the Mother of the Year category:

A frustrated me after bedtime was dragging on and on: "Pick out your frickin' books and let's go!"

Grace: "I already got my frickin' book."

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And that's day to day life with Little Lu!

hit the nail on the head

Christina over at A Mommy Story apparently is channeling me this week, because this post right here basically sums up exactly where I want to get to. Only I'm not there, yet. So, I'll probably continue to stuff my kids' artwork from school and home into the overstuffed cabinet where I keep their treasured creations...but, I'll be keeping Christina's post in mind as a goal...because I'd like to be able to shut the door to the cabinet again someday.

try and hold it together, Mom...

Heading off tomorrow morning to submit applications for the kids for Catholic school for next year.

And here's where my mom will probably tear right up:
I looked up the Patron Saint of Education and when I found out who one of them is, I felt pretty dumb...probably already knew this at some point but didn't fully commit it to memory. The title is shared by Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint John Bosco. The former actually had a beautiful little Catholic college in Grand Rapids, MI named after him and both my mother and my younger sister just happen to hold degrees from that same institution. So, yeah...I probably should have known that one.

Anyway...if you're the praying type, please direct a prayer toward Sts. Thomas Aquinas and John Bosco on behalf of my little munchkins. Here's hoping I'll be dropping them off in August (in their school uniforms...no morning fights about wardrobe!) to the small Catholic school tucked away next to our church in a quiet neighborhood. Because the alternative is shipping Sam off on a bus to an enormous elementary school on one of the busiest roads here then scrambling with the logistics of getting Grace to another location for preschool and arranging another caregiver to figure out how to meet a bus at the same time they would need to pick up Grace from school. I'm breaking into a cold sweat!

Yes, let's focus the prayers on them getting in. We'll find out whether we're in after December 15. If they get in, then I may ask you to say a little prayer to St. Matthew the Apostle, the Patron Saint of Financial Matters, to help us organize the budget to pay for it. We were thrilled today when we realized that it would be less a month than the current preschool/nanny situation...until we realized that we have to pay for the Catholic school starting in May so we would have 3 months of overlap each year. Guess that will take a little more planning!

she strikes again...

Major milestone in our house: Gordon had his first bath. And it only took 7 years.

Why, you ask, did we find it necessary to bathe the cat at this point? Because I came up the stairs at midnight to hear him frantically meowing from behind the closed kids' bathroom door. And I opened it up to find this:
Yup. That's sunscreen. And there was no doubt in my mind that Grace was the kid who was now teaching Gordon about proper skin care in the sun. She must have seen him snoozing in the sun on Sam's carpet in the late afternoon. And since she'd already taught him the proper use for mascara, she probably figured it was time to move on to skin care.
Poor Gordon. I'm hoping he can avoid this one in the future. Because he was definitely not a happy camper with the bath or the blow dry that followed. And Kris and I weren't so pleased to have to take this on at 1 AM, either.

Grace, Grace, Grace...

Sophie's Choice

Okay, maybe I'm being a little dramatic with the title of this post, but the situation totally felt like it at the time. I had it all together. I had it figured out how I would juggle the kids' separate field trips to the same orchard on the same day when they were both required to have the chaperon with them at all times.

Until I realized that I was mistaken and that they were actually going to two separate orchards several miles away from each other. TWO SEPARATE ORCHARDS?! Oh yeah, and that Kris would be traveling to Cleveland that week and could no way take the morning off to go with one of them.

So, I had to ask the kids' sitter if she could work the morning that day so she could transport and chaperon one of them instead of getting the day off like I had originally planned. She happily agreed.

Then I was faced with the choice. Which kid gets mama and which one gets the sitter (not that that is a punishment or anything!). Trying to take the easy way out, I asked Katie if she had a preference with which kid she went. Of course, she didn't...or she didn't want to say. :) After much deliberation, I decided that, since Sam seems to get slightly more attention than Grace, whether that be for discipline or simply because he doesn't nap anymore and she's usually down for 1-2 hours every afternoon, I would go with Grace and give her a little one-on-one mama time. Sam, surprisingly, was totally okay with this scenario.

Grace and I had a wonderful morning with her class eating donuts, learning about how apple cider is made, taking a tractor ride, picking out pumpkins and checking out the playground and petting zoo.
I was wondering how the other trip was going, though, and was a little upset that I didn't have a backup camera to send with Sam's backup "mommy". That's why I was thrilled when Katie returned back with a great report on wonderful behavior and fun times at the pumpkin patch. And I was also thrilled when one of the other moms from Sam's class sent me a couple of shots from his trip.
I realize scenarios like this are just breaking me in for sports events and performances and such in high school...hopefully somewhere along the way I'll learn to stress a little less about the decision!

last Halloween post, I swear...

Just had to share quickly, since my little sis sent out pictures tonight. This is Sam at almost 9 months on his very first Halloween in 2005 dressed as a little cow:
And here is his youngest cousin, Max, dressed as that same little cow this year at almost 8 months old on his first Halloween:
I don't why, but this left me thinking that I can't believe my baby boy is so grown up! Glad the costume has gotten some more use...kind of hard to believe that out of the six cousins on our side, only Sam and Max used this costume.

TRICK OR TREAT!!

We had so much fun trick-or-treating last night! Our little bumble bee greeted every house with a "HAPPY TRICK OR TREATING!!" And our little police officer greeted every house with a "hey, I'm allergic to peanuts and peanut butter." This meant that I ended up with a few less Snickers and Baby Ruths than I had been hoping for!
Sam was really excited to find a police car while we were out...At home...loading up on chocolate...Fun night! Today, we decorate the house with turkeys!