School pics

Here are Carter's school pictures from 1st grade.  We aren't buying any so these are just the proofs.  This is what Carter considers his best smile.

Breakfast with Santa

Every year Robert's group puts on a breakfast with Santa for all of the partners and their employees.  This year was at the Fieldstone Grill; very conveniently located only a few minutes from our house.  It's a great opportunity.  Always fun to catch up and there were 170 people this year!

At 6 1/2 and almost 9 years old, both of my kids still believe in Santa Claus.  That morning the kids both sat down to write their lists.  Carter was decisive - writing only two things: Lego Star Wars and a lizard starter kit.  Yes, he wants a pet lizard, a leopard gecko most likely.  Heck, with a dog, three rats, and one hamster, why not add a lizard to the mix?! ;)  Teah wrote a list, but after much consideration decided to just ask Santa to surprise her.

Gone are the days when they were young and scared of Santa.  Now they both just hop right on up and tell him what he needs to know.  These innocent days are fleeting I'm sure, so I'm enjoying every minute of it!  Here are a few pictures from the event.  One of my favorite details are the kids name tags, which they wrote themselves.  Teah has been very happy to learn cursive this year in 3rd grade.

Let's Go Redwings!

Last weekend we went on the annual trip with Robert's group to the Redwings game.  We hop on a bus with good colleagues and friends from Kalamazoo with some cans of beer and a box of wine to share and head over to The Joe in Detroit (for you non-michiganders it's about a 2 1/2 hr. road trip).  It was a great time.  I love love love the feel of a live hockey game.  It's the chill in the air, the smell of the ice, and the sounds - oh the sounds.  The sounds of the sticks on the ice and the puck being hit and the glass being pounded.  The excitement in the arena is usually palpable.  We were in a box with food and drinks, but also with seats that opened up to the rest of the stadium.  It's a great opportunity that the group offers for sure!  This year we were happy to invite Robert's parents to come along with us as it was his Dad's 60th birthday.  Happy Birthday Tom!

 

The game wasn't a great one, but at least the score was close at the end, so there was still that excitement of pulling the goalie and hoping for a last minute goal.  Alas, the Wings lost, but fun was had by all.

Our Thanksgiving Trip

I already posted about our dramatic sledding adventures during our trip to NY over the Thanksgiving holiday.  Here's the rest.

There was a drive through Canada.

 

A hotel stay with a mountain of bubbles in the hot tub (?!) and a fun indoor pool.  We were able to take advantage of those two of the mornings before we headed over to Bob and Linda's house.

There was breakfast in the hotel (kids in jammies) - sometimes by the fire


Good conversation and GREAT food.  I should've taken pictures of the great food.  Linda is an amazing cook and hostess and we not only had a huge Thanksgiving feast, but a huge feast every night including homemade meatballs and smoked ribs, chicken, and pork.  Delicious!


There were DOGS!



We brought with us our annual tradition of frosting Turkey cookies (shaped like hands).  Since I forgot the hand shaped cookie cutter, we had to do it the old fashioned way by tracing the kids hands and cutting them out with a knife.  The amount of effort that took meant we had lots of other shapes this year as well!






There was sleeping on the floor with Pandy and playing the iPad during downtime.


Many things I didn't take pictures of - like mall shopping at midnight on Black Friday, playing in the snow, and a trip to the local game store.  Much FUN was had!

And on the way home there was a beautiful sunset.

All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth

At almost 6 1/2 years old Carter lost both of his front teeth.  Here is the first one down on December 4th.

He lost the first one in the afternoon at school and didn't tell anyone!  He just put it in his backpack and went about his day.  His teacher didn't even know he had lost it at school.  I think he was a bit unsure of what to do and didn't want all of the attention.  When I picked him up that day and noticed his tooth was missing he had a crying jag in the van on the way home, so I think he was feeling a bit strange about the whole ordeal of losing the tooth at school.

Not long and that second tooth was barely hanging in there...



























With the help of a friend bumping into him approximately 32 seconds into indoor recess yesterday (December 12th) the second one was out!  This occasion called for the big camera.

And now we have a TOOTHLESS GRIN!!  I love it.

He likes to stick his tongue through the hole :)

Let me add that I had to bribe him to let me take this picture.  One good picture for an hours playtime on the iPod.  He got the better end of the deal, but it's a great picture, so maybe not.  Thanks Robert for the tickling.  His real smile is soooo much better than his fake one.

Also, for the record Teah lost her front teeth at 6 1/2 years old as well.  It was the summer after Kindergarten for her and Carter is halfway through 1st grade.

Sledding...

... It's all fun and games until someone hits a fence.

We'll get to that in a minute.

We're off visiting Robert's Aunt and Uncle on the West side of New York for the Thanksgiving holiday this year.  We were excited to wake up to somewhere near 8" of snow on Wednesday.  So, we took the kids to the high school to go sledding!

Here is photographic evidence of the great time we were having.

Robert even built a ramp

But then...

Teah got a face full of snow

She recovered quickly

Then of course Mom was down at the bottom taking pictures with Dad supervising up top.  Dad likes to let the kids make their own bad decisions - like sledding dangerously close to the chain link fence.  Of course, Carter insisted on this.  We didn't expect that he wouldn't jump off the sled or even put his hands up, but instead get flung face first into the fence!  It was quite dramatic, but when all was said and done he has a few scrapes and bruises.  Robert and my Dad both said, "Yeah, but you should see the fence."  Boys *sigh*.  Here's what his face looked like a few hours afterward:

And here it is this morning.

I don't wanna grow up...

The title of this blog makes me think of that old Toys R Us jingle - "I don't wanna grow up 'cause I'm a Toys R Us kid".  I have fond memories of that song, but alas, we all do grow up - a blessing and a curse.  Teah will be 9 years old in December and is in 3rd grade this year.  Thankfully I think she has a few more years of blissful childhood ahead of her, although the grips of growing up are starting to close in.  She has a tendency to cry for no apparent reason every once in awhile - to which she tells me that she is just "emotional".  She was tired this evening and had a cupcake taken away for bad behavior, so she was feeling a bit extra emotional.  I found her crying and when I asked what was wrong she told me that sometimes she doesn't want to grow up because it's just not as fun anymore.  Wise words.  Hopefully I will be able to help her discover the fun in growing up over the next few years. 

An Unexpected Tooth

The tooth fairy visits our house a lot with a 6 and an 8 year old.  Teah has lost 9 teeth and Carter has lost his bottom two and one of the ones on top next to his front teeth.  One of Teah's incisors has been loose for about  a year and a half now and one of Carter's top teeth is very loose.  So, if I was expecting the tooth fairy to pay us a visit, I would've first put my money on Carter's top tooth and second on Teah's forever loose tooth.  Neither of those is what brought the tooth fairy!  A few days after Halloween Teah was eating a Snickers and spit a piece of it out - crying because she thought she lost a tooth (she has never liked the process).  I had to sift through chewed up candy bar (standard Mom job) and came up with a piece of a tooth that looked nothing like an incisor.  For a minute I was freaking out myself wondering if she had lost only part of the tooth.  This is when we discovered that she had lost her first MOLAR!  She hadn't even told us it was loose.

A Big Storm

Last night we had a big storm come through with wind gusts up to 60 mph.  I sent Carter to bed as usual, but he was having a hard time falling asleep with the wind gusts.  Of course I was sick and just wanted some peace and quiet, but he kept coming out of his room telling me he couldn't sleep and asking to sleep in our bed.  Finally I gave in and told him I didn't care what bed he fell asleep in - as long as he fell asleep!  After about 2 minutes in our room he came out and said, "Actually, Mom, I just don't want to be alone."  My heart melted of course and I laid down with him in his bed until he fell asleep.

Returning to blogging

As most of you know, I lost my Mom to brain cancer October 1st.  She was always the first person I called when the kids would do something funny or enter a new milestone.  They called her Nana and she had so much enthusiasm for their new endeavors or the cute and ridiculous things that would come out of their mouths.  I would call her and ask her for "immediate gratification" when I wanted her to look at a new picture I had taken.  She had a job where she could take a few minutes break to chat with me and she always did, even if it was mostly for me.  We talked every day.  So, it is with a somewhat heavy heart that I am going to start blogging again.  I am hoping that when I have the urge to call her up and tell her something funny about the kids, that keeping up with the blog during these moments will help maybe just a little.  And I do believe that as I type these posts she will be looking over my shoulder and laughing along with me - still giving me that immediate gratification in spirit.

This picture is from Teah's first birthday party if you're wondering about the Elmo garland :)

Teah and Abigail

So, I've decided to throw out the words "best friend". The word best implies some type of competition, like this friend is better than all the rest. There are just some people that you connect with on a deeper level for reasons that seem unexplainable, so my new word is SOUL FRIEND. I have found a few soul friends so far in life and hope to find more along the way before my time is up - and for this I am a lucky girl.

Well, what this post is really about is that Teah has found her first soul friend - Abigail. They are two peas in a pod and live a mere two backyards away. Life is good. Here is a picture of Teah and Abigail playing the wii today. You wouldn't guess that Teah is 6 months older. Teah is in the 10th percentile for height for her age - I guess those genetics work!

My Return to Blogging

I have been waiting and waiting to blog because I felt like I needed to catch up with old posts first. Well, out with the old thinking and in with the new! I'm not going to let that stand in my way anymore. Maybe I'll eventually get to those old posts and maybe they'll go to the wayside, but either way I'm going to start writing down the memories of today.

So, without further ado, my return to blogging!

Walking to school

Teah started 2nd grade at the Kazoo School this year while Carter is in his third year in Mary's room at The Montessori School. The great thing is that the two schools are close to each other and their pickup times work perfectly, just 15 minutes apart. The not so great thing this year is that Tah starts an hour earlier than Carter. To fill some of our extra time Carter and I have started walking to his school after we drop off Teah. Thanks to the Map My Run app on my phone I know that it is a 3/4 mile walk. The weather has been PERFECT. Sunny and just chilly enough to need a jacket. Carter has so much fun "going crazy" down the hills, pretending to blast things with his lunchbox, and finding new things in the neighborhood like a chicken coop or a squirrel crossing the street overhead on a power line (now known as the squirrel bridge). In our too busy world it is so nice that we have extra time to kill on the way to school and I can actually take the time to let him explore. He gets his extra energy out and I get some much needed exercise, kicking my walking into high gear on the way back after I drop him off. I'll definitely be sad when winter comes and we're forced to start driving again. Here are a few quick iPhone snapshots that I took one morning. I plan on taking my camera along one of these trips to try and capture some of the morning glory.

First Day of Fall

This year Teah decided that we needed to make cupcakes to celebrate the first day of fall. How could I argue with that?! This was the first time that she made them almost entirely on her own - reading the directions, choosing the right measuring cups, mixing... She's getting to be so big. Here are some pictures of our celebration.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

This post somehow never got published, so even though Robert's birthday was in May, I am posting this in September.  Oh well!  For Robert's birthday, the kids decided to wash his Jeep as their present to him.  Robert loves that Jeep, so it was a great idea all around.  It wasn't too warm that day, so the tomfoolery was kept to a minimum.  Here are some pictures of the kids doing a great job.