Decembre

December is always a great month for us!  The kids would say it is because of Christmas and all those gifts and treats.  I say it is because of lots of time spent with family and the fact that Kurt always needs to use up his vacation time for the year and spends so much time at home with us. 

This December was no exception and the way  the dates fell, Kurt & the kids were home for just about 2 straight weeks. 

We kicked off the holiday with Christmas Eve at Mimi & Buppy's.



Then we were lucky enough to have Aunt Janet & Pierre join us this year for Christmas.

Hi Pierre!

The kids got lots of great gifts for which we are very grateful (or at least are working on learning just how grateful we should be for all that we have).

Beloved Ninja Turtle pajamas from Meghan.

Beloved Cheetah sleeping on her head.

Mommy did learn one lesson though - don't tell Aidan a secret (actually I think I already knew that but temporarily forgot it).  In the months leading up to Christmas, Maddie must have asked seven thousand times if she would get a stuffed cheetah for Christmas.  How could I be sure?  How would Santa know?  And so on.  Aidan was so worried about how devastated Maddie would be if she were not to get her Cheetah, that he also harassed me about it.  In a moment of weakness, I told Aidan "SHE IS GETTING THE CHEETAH - I KNOW - I BOUGHT IT".  That seemed to quell his angst and I thought we were good to go.  Day after Christmas, Maddie comes up to me and asks, "Who bought the Cheetah Mommy?".  Ummm, ahhhh, huh? was pretty much what I said.  Turns out Aidan told her that the Cheetah was not from Santa and that I bought it.  Luckily she accepted my confusion and let it drop. 


Post- Christmas we enjoyed our Daddy's at home time with lots of activities and day trips.  We went to the movies to see "Annie", had a playdate at Jump Trax with friends, did a free skate with cousins Meghan & Jake and even took a trip in to the Museum of Science.

Aidan was on cloud 9 skating with Meghan.

Maddie has always had such a love for learning about Dinosaurs.  Love this photo
because you can see how small she is compared to the Triceratops.

It is January now and the kids were asking, even before their first day back, when their next vacation is.  I suppose I'll have to start giving some thought to February break.  In the meantime, we'll just keep going about our business and watch the days slip by as fast as they always do (which is why, in my opinion, it is so important to log your memories). 

Happy winter all!

Walk Like An Egyptian...

Out of the blue yesterday, Maddie asked me to please print her out a copy of the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic alphabet.  Additionally yesterday, the kids decided to take advantage of the really huge box that was delivered (Yes Grandpa, yet another delivery) and turn it into their fort/clubhouse/office.  Blend the two and here's what we've got...

Peeking out from their "insert today's descriptor".

How Maddie put the hieroglyphics chart to use!  (Says "Welcome")

I love their creativity and I hope they never lose it!!!! 

It's Raining Leaves....

Well our yard is basically one big blanket of leaves!  The kids had been dying to get out there and rake up some leaf piles for jumping.  Here they are having a blast.  Granted no actual leaf cleanup was done; but we are saving that for Daddy and Buppy this weekend :-)

Best buddies!

Happy Boy!



Peek-a-boo! (Note the newly missing tooth)

And since it is Throwback Thursday (a facebook thing), here are a couple of links to prior years fall leaf posts.  I've always said that the great thing about this "blog" is that it is like an online memory book.  I don't get to look back at the posts as often as I would like, but I am sure that once the kids are much older and don't keep me as busy; I will be very grateful to have these memories detailed so vividly for me!!!

2008 - The year they had just turned 1:

http://www.willnersofmansfield.blogspot.com/2008/11/these-leaves-are-meant-for-jumping.html

2010 - The year they had just turned 3:

http://www.willnersofmansfield.blogspot.com/2010/11/fall-cleanup.html

Halloween 2014

The kids have REALLY been looking forward to Halloween this year!  We kicked things off with Halloween Bingo at the school on Wednesday night.  Unfortunately, Maddie was a bit under the weather and had to stay home.  But she seemed to really enjoy her one on one time with Mommy reading books and playing games, so she wasn't too sad about missing Bingo.  Aidan, however, was a bit sad that he didn't win B-I-N-G-O.  Maybe next year!

Though she did stay home from school today, Maddie rallied in time for the annual neighborhood Halloween party.  I must say it was a lot more enjoyable this year not being the hosts.  Pizza, piñatas and hanging out with their neighborhood friends was a blast.  Then I headed home to man the door (we got surprisingly few trick or treaters this year) while Kurt took the kids around the neighborhood with all of their friends. 

About an hour into it, Kurt brought Maddie home because she was just too tired.  You know your child is truly tired when they forego receiving bucketloads of free candy for relaxing time in their bed.  As I type Aidan is still out there pounding the pavement (I think it is a personal goal to hit EVERY house in the neighborhood) and Maddie is fast asleep (poor baby). 

I have the kids about 50% convinced it is a good idea to take their Halloween candy to the local dentist for a payout of $1 per pound.  We'll see if that works out!




The Scuba (or scooper as Aidan spells it) Diver and the Shark (note the baby shark she brought along in her bucket)


 

Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!!

Fun Fall Weekend

Well we are back into the swing of things this week after a very full and very fun fall weekend!  Saturday was a gorgeous day for soccer, followed by a family get together - including a very special visit from Aunt Janet & Pierre - to celebrate my and Auntie Deb's birthdays. 

All the Maas side cousins - including our beloved Pierre!!!

Sunday morning was ice skating lessons with a drop by from Mimi & Buppy with some very special and well loved Halloween presents.  Then we headed down to Sandwich on the cape for a mini reunion of my closest friends from high school.  Luckily our kids are all very close in age and all love to play together!  A bit chilly by the water, but we still toughed it out and even had a pretty good find in the Cape Cod Canal Museum.  We were so glad to see our friends up from Nashville and hope we can have another similar get together soon!

Slightly disjointed group photo as they all wanted to stand on their own rocks!

This tree at the ice cream shoppe was a BIG hit!

Maddie & Aidan loved playing on the above tree so much, that we are apparently now committed (we being Kurt) to building a tree house in our yard this summer so we can invite everyone over to it!
Should be interesting.  Especially considering Maddie doesn't like heights!

School is still going well and we are preparing to hunker down for the upcoming winter.  I joined Aidan on his class field trip to Ward's Berry Farm and will volunteer in Maddie's room this week for a Halloween Pumpkin Extravaganza.  And of course there will be trick or treat pictures to come. 

Happy Fall everyone!

7th Birthday!

I've been very bad about posting here (obviously) as of late.  Party it is because my camera broke and partly it is just being busy all the time.  We had a fabulous summer with tennis, bowling, skating, beach trips with friends, visits to Mimi & Buppy's house, swim lessons with Sam, trips to RI and down the cape, trips into Boston, visits with cousins and just lots of fun in general.  We kept very busy and it flew by! 

The transition to school has been a good one and with the new school year comes Maddie & Aidan's birthday.  This year they are seven - I can't believe it!!  It was more of a birthday season really with multiple celebrations with various family members and just last weekend a friend party at their karate studio.  Their Sensei created such a fun party for them and their friends and they had a blast (even came home with their own nunchucks - but that is a different story). 

All in all we are very blessed and cannot complain!!!

Blowing out the candles with their buddies looking on...

Even got to cut their cake with a real live Samurai sword!!



Even though it was a karate party, Maddie insisted on getting all dolled up!

First Day of First Grade

So far the transition to First Grade has been a good one!  A few snafus in the beginning with the kids feeling that they just don't get enough time for lunch.  But other than that they are acclimating to their teachers, classrooms, homework, new friends and everything very well.  They especially love having art, gym, music and did I mention art (that's a big hit). 

First Day Photo!!!