Christmas snowstorm

We spent Christmas this year with Tony's family up in Oneonta, NY. Ellie has been talking about "snow at Grandmas house" all year. It's pretty much a given that there will be a white Christmas up there, but I still had my fingers crossed for her. We were in luck! When we arrived there were about two inches on the ground, which, if you are a four year old from TX, seems like all the snow you could ever need! Ellie and Matthew and thier cousin Ava enjoyed sledding on the big hill, with the help of a few string Daddy's to steer the toboggan and pull them back up the hill. I went down once, and it was fast enough that I found myself remembering that people can break bones and get some pretty nasty sledding injuries. We switched to a slightly smaller hill after the first (too fast) run. We even convinced our littlest cousin Ian to take one run down the hill. He cried at the top and the bottom, but seemed to love the trip down!





Then came the big snow that wiped out NYC this year! While we didn't get 29 inches like some places in NJ, we did get about 8. Again, the kids were thrilled. Out we went in the 7 degree weather. Matthew lasted about sixty seconds. He's just a little too short to be able to navigate that much snow without falling down a lot. Ellie and her Alaskan cousin Ava, who is plenty used to big snow, stayed out for quite a while.


Sledding and playing in the snow thankfully translated into tired kids and big naps!

Birthday Party

A good old fashioned birthday party at home...what was I thinking?!!?!? These days we've got the bounce houses, Chucky Cheeses, character parties, put-put. Someone else to do the party for you. You show up (and pay) and it's all taken care of. As Ellie's birthday is so close to Christmas, and one her best friend's, Tanner, also has his birthday in a few days, we decided to do a low-key, at home, good old fasioned (joint) birthday party. Before I go any further, the kids had a great time, the house survived, the mom's got to chat, pizza and cake were great! It was a success! But, I am EXHAUSTED.

Here was my vision...Pin the tail on the Donkey, Musical Chairs, Christmas Music playing while we made gingerbread houses, pizza and cake, goody bags...and it's a wrap. All of those things happened, it was just a lot crazier than I thought it would be. Seven screaming four year old. Several screaming two years olds. Two crying babies. ICING. CANDY. FOOD. TOYS. RUNNING. The dog pooped on the floor. Matthew peed on the floor. Again, they had fun. And let me tell you...the birthday party fairy was looking over us. It was 77 degrees today!!!! We did a lot outside. But, wow. WOW. Now, I understand the birthday party industry.

A few highlights...

This one is my favorite. Who can interpret this abstract art? To me it says, "bunch of four year olds who cheat, and one two year old (Matthew) who doesn't know how to cheat yet". Yes, they had a blindfold on!




The pizza and the cake...note the outfit...it was her party...who was I to argue? Thanks Aunt Jill and Uncle Nabil!

Friends, and the gingerbread house. And I promised her she could eat it after dinner...oh boy.

And the little brother...every good birthday party needs one!

Santa's early arrival

So last night, I heard through the Elf grapevine that Santa had some things for Ellie and Matthew that were going to be too big to bring back on the plane from Grandmas house, so he wanted to drop them off a few days early. We got all ready for his arrival...cookies and milk for Santa. Cucumbers for the reindeer. And both kids drew him a bunch of pictures and made name tags for Santa to put on their gifts so we knew what was for who in the morning. Then this morning, we awoke to this....


What could they be????!?!?!?



New bikes!!!!!!!!!!!! And a few other things too....





Our next step is outside to ride bikes!! Now, just to make sure we were in the real Christmas spirit, Santa brought the bikes on the coldest day of our Texas winter yet. 33 degrees. He couldn't have waited till Wednesday when it's going to be 70???

The Land Before Time

These days Matthew is as boy as boys can get. Three major injuries and he's only two, broke a chair today, and the dinosaur obsession....

Ellie has a baby doll that she has carried around forever. Her name is "Baby". Very inventive. Matthew has a dinosaur that he carries around. His name is "Dinosaur". Again. Inventive. Matthew, at two, can identify and say the names of the Pterodactyl, Tyranasuarus Rex, Brontosaurus, and Triceratops. "Dinosaur" is a Brontosaurus, however, whenever we say that name, for this particular one, he always corrects us, "No. Dinosaur". His name is "Dinosaur".

Ellie has loved having a doll house, bottles for her babies, clothes to dress them in, and high chairs to feed them in. I have been on a quest to find some sort of dinosaur paraphernalia to add to Matthew's dinosaurs. I was really wanting something that would be the equivalent of a doll house, for dinosaurs...whatever that would be. A mountain? Cave men to eat? I couldn't find anything I liked so Tony and I set out to make our own. I have to say it turned out great!!!! Tony did the sawing, and I did the collecting, painting and gluing. Here is the finished product....

And here is Matthew's face as he came down the stairs and saw it for the first time...


And the best part....playing.....