Friday, December 30, 2011

The Christmas Musical


It's a little blurry, but here the boys are during their Christmas Performance.


As always, the little performers loved every. minute. of their. show!
Austin even thanked God for "Miss Anne and ALL the wonderful songs she picks out for them every holiday!....and Please don't. ever. let her. stop!"
;-)

Christmas Eve, they performed with the handbells, were two of the Three Kings and sang again.













Monday, December 26, 2011

What a great Christmas!

We didn't rush.
We didn't run around.
We didn't worry about hitting up every tradition we've ever participated in.
We just sort of took it all in.
And did what we could,
and it turned out quite perfect.

Daddy has a new job and was gone for the first two weeks of December for training.
Nonnie stepped in and helped this Momma manage things.
But we were still. both. quite. exhausted!

And it turns out when you are not busy running around,
you have more time (and energy) for cool crafts!

I made the boys these fun little Advent calendars.
They are matchboxes.  With a little scrapbooking paper and some ribbon, they made an adorable little "chest of drawers."

I filled them with little treats, scrolls (with scripture verse or things to do, like make cookies).  Once they opened the box, they turned it around created a picture on the back!


And we made some awesome ornaments! 
I bought clear glass balls.  We poured paint insideof them, shoke them up and voila...

 
As much as I wanted to keep them all, the boys handed themout to their teachers, their friends, and of course, everyone got one Christmas morning!

When Daddy returned home, we celebrated by making gingerbread houses!
 No kit this year, it was much, much better using graham crackers and melted chocolate!


 I had one, too...but Austin's broke.
So, he used mine.
Oops!
 The "snow" was my idea, but I left Daddy in charge when this epic mess went down.

Daddy's masterpiece!
(What he was creating instead of being on Snow Patrol!)

We also snuck a few Tacky Light Tours.
Dressed appropriately, of course!


Nonnie and I made it to both boys Christmas parties at school.  Fine.  They were called "Winter Parties," but we know what they reallty were!  ;-)   
Austin

Logan


And we attempted a Christmas card, but it never happened.
So, here's our pictures!
Mason, Lory, Amanda and Evan

Austin, Logan and Tinkerbell!

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Watch your extremities...

This is a tough place  to be an ornament.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Guess what Logan wants to be?

"Mommy, I need two pillows and will you help me tape them to my legs?"

Yes, baby. 
Add some leaf bags.  Some chalk.


I actually had to really try and score on him.
He's good.
And he had a ball!!
I LOVE seeing him this excited about his passions!
(Which would be sports!)
Totally worth sacrificing my pillows for.


And for the record, when Daddy took over, he somehow managed to break his own taillights. 
I'm not taking the heat for that one!


Friday, December 16, 2011

School Party

They called it a "Winter Party" -
But we know what it REALLY was!
A Christmas party!
For the first time this school year and for the first time in a LONG time,
the boys battled some fevers and ear infections and a pink eye/but not really pink eye infection.
I think we racked up three doctor appointments within as many days.
yuck!
Wasn't that nice of them to wait until Daddy was out of town!?
Not!
But...we were thankful the boys were well enough to both attend their CHRISTMAS parties!

I volunteered for Austin's class, but ran kept sneaking into Logan's to see what his class was up to, too!

 Logan and Mrs. Lang

 Logan and Nonnie - she was playing surragate Mommy!
Something she did a LOT while Dad was out of town!

And somehow, I didn't manage to get great pics of Austin!
;-)
But, he did get ME, soooooo how bad can that be?
  
 Yay!!  We are ready for the holidays to begin!
Bring it!

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Road Trip to NYC!

We recently had to head to a family wedding up in Connecticut and we decided to travel by train.
Best.
Decision.
Ever!

Although having Evan arrive home hours before we left.
Not such a great decision! 
haha
So, after playing with Evan and going to bed at 10pm,
the boys were woken up at 4am....
Luckily all-out enthusiam and excitement were aplenty! 




We broke the trip up with a four hour stop in NYC!
The boys remember that Nonnie and I had gone there and couldn't wait to see it!

We took in sites...but not a lot of pictures.
Ya know, for obvious reasons,
like trying to make sure we didn't loose our children amongst the hustle and bustle of the city!
Along the way to Toys R Us,
we somehow ended up in a commercial and had to sign a waiver release.
Hysterical, right?
I'll let you know if we made the final cut for TV.




 

Just keepin it real...somewhere in the store, both boys LOST it completely!
That whole missing 4 hours of sleep may have finally caught up with them.
On the way out, they basically staged a sit-in and refused to walk 10 blocks back to the station.
So, we splurged on a cab ride.
And they were thought that was the coolest.


Then, we sugared them up for the last leg of the trip.


PENN station, for families, is a NIGHTMARE!
For security reasons,
they don't tell you which track your train is at...
...uintil FIVE minutes before departure time.
WTF?
They make the announcement,
my family of four (each with our own rolling luggage), along with 15,000 NYC commuters,
line up single file to head down an esclator .

(pausing for that to sink in)

HOURS later, we still have our children,
and the conductor is yelling
"empty seats in the rear cars"
Each car we looked in is PACKED...
So, we keep heading down the length of the platform trying to find an empty car.
From behind me, I hear Gary yell:
"Donna, the train is going to LEAVE without US!"

I turn back at look at him.
He has look of panic on his face and he is standing next to a conductor who looks equally stressed!
There is NOT another soul on the platform!
WTF!
Gary is at one entrance.  The kids are between us and I'm closer to another door.
The conductor yells,
"GET ON NOW!"
I yell to the kids to go back to daddy.
I head to my cars' door - only to find it shut.
The kids (as usual) had chosen me over their dad and were right behind me.
Amidst more panic shouts, we scream at the children to haul butt back toDaddy.
He and the conductor are throwing luggage on the train.
The train is so packed, Gary, the kids and our luggage are all in the little boarding space once you step ontp the car.
There is no room for me to step up on the stairs as luggage is everywhere!
The conducotr behind me, is yelling "NOW! Now!!"
I mean - don't they have Safety precautions!?!
Gary starts throwing our children to clear out some space.
The kids are screaming!
They are scared I'm getting left behind and now their Daddy is throwing them.
I jumped on, standing on top of our luggage.
Lights and sirens are going off everywhere.
And they door shuts behind me, practically
WTF!?!

And it is not the end of our ordeal.
Because the 15,000 commuters have every one of the seats taken.

Gary and I are stressed from the NYC trip and keeping up with the kids.
Now, we have reached maximum non-productive, exhaustive,
"I cannot even SPEAK to my spouse" level of communication.
(Think of the worst five minutes you've ever seen on The Amazing Race.)
Gary yells at me to take the screaming children and he'll manage the luggage.
I spot a place on the floor.
Yes, the floor.
I dropped down, pull the children on me.
And we sit and have a good cry.
;-)

15 minutes later, half the people exit at the next stop - and we find some seats together.
The children fall asleep 30 seconds after that.
And power nap for the next hour!

The rest of the weekend went great!
We got to see family.
Austin and Logan got to see their cousins and uncles and aunts.
And of course, their grandparents!






And they slept a good 4 hours of the 6.5 hour train ride home.
Austin had laryngitis from talking and shouting so much...a true sign of a successful party weekend!

All in all, a great experience, another little scenario to add to their almost-guaranteed need for therapy in the coming years, and some much loved time with the other half of their family. 

(Oh and there was that one little incident where Logan hit the STOP button the elevator,momentarily  trapping and panicking the groom hours before his ceremony, but I thought the post was long enouigh without that whole stroy!) 

;-)