Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Skaters?


Nate and Paige started taking ice skating lessons. It all started with Nate and Luca dreaming of being ice hockey stars. They were determined to play like the big boys. After some quick research we learned that the boys had to pass a "Basic 1" class before moving on to anything even remotely hockey-focused.

Tracy and I signed the boys up, paid our money, took them to the rink and strapped on their skates. While we were standing there, Paigie decided that it looked like something she wanted to try, too. Why not? We signed her up and got her some skates and tossed her onto the ice.

Prior to stepping onto the ice the boys were all "I'm so fast!" and "I did this before!" and "This is awesome!" BUT, as soon as the stepped onto the ice they were slapped with the cold hard reality of this: They Can Not Skate!

For a full hour we watched the kids skip and slide and fall and get frustrated. At some point during the lesson all three of them were brought to tears. It was a mess.

When we returned home I called my dad and said something to the effect of, "My new little hockey stars had their first lesson today." To which Nate immediately responded, "Yeah, we're done with that. We're done with hockey. We don't need to go back there."

Oy.

We made them go back. The next week was a small battle to get the kids on the ice but, after a very short time, they all seemed to catch on and now they love it.

We are very proud to say that Paige & Nate were tested last week and PASSED to the next level with great big smiles on their faces!

In a few weeks they'll start another class and will get to learn fancy schmancy hockey moves.

I have to admit ... I am anxious to see them in all their gear!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Truman Plays Dead!!

Check out this video we made while torturing our cat.........

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Days To Go!


My original blog/photo site is about to be 
taken off line forever!  

FOREVER.  
Stinks, I know.

We have a link to this site at the top of our web browser and I'd be willing to guess that someone in my house watches the movies several times a week.  

We LOVE to go online and watch our 
little baby people being sweet and cute.

So ... this is OUR last chance to 
take a trip down Memory Lane.

It's active until Monday, November 8th.

**Be sure to check out the iMovies and the Blog!  
They are the best!!

RIP, old site.  
We will miss you dearly.

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Tough Girl

We had a day off of school today.
The girls had a friend over to play.
The gang took our wagon and went for a walk to the park.
Riley and I joined them a bit later and found that Paige was busy 
pulling ALL THREE KIDS around in the wagon!
She is really strong!
She had to go up several hills ... 
I bet that wagon weighed 200 pounds!

Shining Star

My boy is the "Shining Star" in his classroom this week.

He gets to wear this special t-shirt as often as he wishes all week long and his classmates are working on a special project for him that involves a poster board and lots of positive thoughts.  

We'll get to see it this weekend.

He's thrilled with this special treat!


For Uncle Chris

Remember the good old days????



Pumpkin Carving

We waited to carve our pumpkins until Halloween morning.  We wanted to do them the weekend before but we had a busy weekend and ran out of time.

Here are a few photos of the big event....




Sarah's Owl

Paige's Sad Face

Nate's Bat

You can see more pumpkin carving photos here!

Tillson Street

There is a neighborhood near here that is crazy for Halloween.  The whole street decorates like crazy people and everyone who knows about the place flocks in to admire their crazy decor.  I hear it's been going on for DECADES but this is the first year I heard about it.

Grammie, Poppy, and I took the kids out there to see it the day before Halloween.  I think I under-decorated (with my four pumpkins and one ghost!).




Can you read the license plate?? W8TN4U.


You can see more Tillson Street photos HERE.

Love Letters

I can't remember what Sarah was upset about.
When I dumped my photos I found this:


The Cobras!

Nate joined a basketball team.

They had their first practice AND their first game on Saturday.

They call themselves the Cobras.

To our surprise, they did really well!  Some of those kids really know how to play.

Nate had fun and is looking forward to his next practice/game.



That's Nate making the shot.  He's #9.

The Cobras were the Guests

More b'ball pics HERE!

Rochester Treating

I take my people trick-or-treating in downtown Rochester every year.  They love to have an extra reason to dress up and they super love getting a jump on the candy collecting!

You can see past years here and here.

This year looked like this:

Who knew I was such a makeup artist??





You can see more pics HERE!

Family Fun Night

Our school has a Halloween party for Family Fun Night.

I am anti-Family Fun Night.  Not that I'm particularly against families having fun ... but this is the kind of event that fills the school with hoards of people.  Adults and kids running around and taking up too much space.  Too many crowds and too much trying to keep an eye on three people running in three different directions.

That said, my people would really love to go ... I'm just not the mommy for the job.

Luckily, Paigie has Holly.

Holly's dad took the girls to Family Fun Night.
They had a blast.

Sarah, Nate and I had some equally anti-FFN friends over and we had our own party.  We played like crazy, made a tasty dinner, and made homemade pudding for dessert.  It was a good night for everyone!  (Even though I didn't think to take any more than one picture!)

Paige and Holly on their way to the party.....

Ava and Ellie making their pudding!

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

My people pride themselves on picking out the biggest pumpkins in the patch every year.

This year we had a beautiful day for pumpkin hunting and we spent lots of time wandering around the field.

In the end, our three pumpkins were all between 30 and 40 lbs.

However, the pumpkin farmer also had a fine selection of GIANT pumpkins and my people could not stop talking about them.  They were fascinated.  They wanted one.  They REALLY wanted one.

I waited until we were at the register and I knew the total for the three pumpkins before I finally said "go pick your pumpkin" and the kids ran and yelped and skipped and deliberated and, finally, picked the pumpkin of their dreams.  They didn't care one lick about the beauty of their pumpkin.  They were all about SIZE.

It was awesome.

I had to roll down the two middle seats to fit everything in the car.

It took two people to lift the big pumpkin into the car.

It took another two to get it out.

All that effort made THREE kids really happy!

PS.  Our Great Pumpkin weighs 143 lbs.  I asked the farmer if that was one of the larger ones and he said that they were mostly between 110 and 150 ... so my people did a darn good job!














More Pumpkin Pics HERE!!

Costumes!

Paige couldn't resist trying on this mask at the Halloween store....


The kids wore their costumes out of the store and then to the library....

These were the final selections......
Nate: Mario
Sarah: Athena "goddess of wisdom and war strategy" (as she's quick to tell you)
Paige: an Avatar

Schmaige

Paige has a crazy brain.
She thinks crazy thoughts.
She invents crazy inventions.
She plays crazy games.
She draws crazy drawings.

Not Smart

I was on a walk with my friend Shelley.
We saw this huge paper wasp nest.
We walked on by.
On our return trip we stopped for a photo.
THEN we decided that, surely, it was vacant.
So we hit it with a long long stick.
We saw a fly. 
At least, we THOUGHT it was a fly.
We hit it again.
We saw WASPS.
Lots of wasps.
We ran.
Fast.


My kids crack up every time I tell them this story!


lunch

I spent the day at the kids' school on Thursday to take pictures for the yearbook.
I didn't plan ahead and didn't pack a lunch.
I had to buy cafeteria food.

Does this bring back any memories????



Tucker

I was doing something in the kitchen the other day.
I turned around and found this on my island!

Vet Field Trip

We took my Girl Scout troop to the vet for a field trip.  
Nate liked getting dressed up in the x-ray gear and the girls liked seeing a super big cat!

The vet weighed the cat for us.
He was 23 pounds!