East Coast Tour - Part 2 Nana's House!

Once we said good-bye to Daddy, who headed back to TX for work, we headed south to Unionville, PA to see Nana and Grandpa. Within moments of walking through the door, Matthew had already convinced Grampa to "play trains" with him. They have a set of brio trains that are as old as...well, me. After trying to talk me into the train museum several times, Grandpa asked the two year old boy in the room if he wanted to go. You should have seen Matthew's face light up....TRAIN!??!? MUSEUM!?!?!?! And then you should should have seen Grandpa's face light up, once he realized he finally had a partner in his enthusiasm for old trains. And old keys, and old locks, and old...well, anything. At one point these two disappeared into the barn and came back with a ring of skeleton keys and some old glass frog eyes. Matthew was thrilled!


The train museum was a big hit. There were model trains. Real, BIG, trains...


A train bell, just waiting to be rung...
And then we got to go on a ride, on a real, old, working, steam engine train, through the Amish countryside.



Corn and farms...

And corn and farms...

And a little living on the wild side.

After Nana's explanation to the kids about who the Amish are, about the farms they run, about why there are no power lines, about how the kids help out with the animals, and the gardens....Ellie declares, "I wish my mommy and daddy were farmers so I could help with the cows.". Ellie, you might like it for the weekend, but I don't think the Amish would think too highly of your princess dresses, or your ipad, or your neon pick nail polish. It's always nice to visit though....
And then there's always art to do at Nana's house. A never ending supply of paints, and clay and paper, and scissors, and glue, and pastels, and colored pencils...While Matthew was off with Grandpa finding old stuff, Ellie and Nana were painting in the garden. Two matches made in heaven!

East Coast Tour - Part 1 Grandma's House!

This summer we headed back east for our little Nephew, Shane's, baptism. I thought I might take my chances and see if I could continue on with the kids, after Tony needed to get back to work, to see some more people, since we had already come so far. So, our two week vacation had three parts. Grandma and Pop Pop's in Oneonta, NY. Nana and Grandpa's in Unionville, PA, and Aunt Jill and Uncle Nabil's (and Sesame Place!) in Princeton, NJ. We are back now, and I survived traveling on my own with two toddlers...phew! They were actually, very, very good. As we got off our last plane after landing in Dallas, I had a uniformed US Army soldier come up to me and say, "Ma'am, I just wanted to say what a great job you are doin' raisin' those kids, they were great." That was some nice icing on the cake.

Since I have two weeks, and three locations, of pictures to share, I'll do it in three posts. Here is part 1 - Grandma and Pop Pop's house....

We had a full and exciting and crazy week in Oneonta. All three of Tony's sisters and families were able to make the trip, so that made five grandchildren under five, and too many grown-ups to count! We ate, we played, we ate, we swam, we went berry picking, we ate berries, we ate pizza, we had camp fires, we ate s'mores, and we ate some more. Between Grandma's famous meatballs, and all the NY pizza and bagels we could stand, I am sure we all gained a few pounds!


Best Friends!!! While technically Ava and Matthew are the same age, it was Ava and Ellie who hit it off the best. "I'm going to miss Ava", Ellie said as we pulled down the driveway. Awww...we'll see her soon when she comes to TX in September!
This was our Little House on the Prairie moment. Grandma has a huge hill in the front of the house, and the girls, Ava in pigtails, with their denim dresses (and Matthew), found such joy running down the hill, breeze blowing and hair flying. I could almost hear the theme song to Little House on the Prairie playing in the background.


Sweet girl :)


These two pictures were taken while on a hike in the woods. They were taken with my iphone, and no photography skill, yet they have something about them that makes them look like an old photo the kids will find on someone's piano thirty years from now, and they'll say, "I remember that...we were..." What sweet kids!!


Face painting at the fourth of July party down at the local park.

And LOTS of ice cream eating. (the kids always picked what kind based on the color, not the flavor)

Phew! That seems like a lot, yet, we continued on. Part 2 and 3 to come....

Father's Day

What would make the perfect father's day? Fishing...steak...boating...cigars...big breakfast...and your kids. Well, we did it! We were so lucky to get the chance to spend Father's Day weekend with some of our best friends, at their lake house. And I mean good friends all around. Sara and I have taught together for several years and see or talk to each other just abut every day. Tony and Dustin have their own picnic table business together. Ellie and Tanner were practically born on the same day, and today, started playing "married". And Garrett and Matthew get to tag along with the big kids, trailing behind them, in awe of everything they do. It was a weekend full of boating, fishing, grilling, playing, and hanging out!

Could this picture not go in the "perfect father's day" hall of fame photos?


I see this picture and can't help but think the "Three Stooges", umm, I mean, the "Three Amigo's"


The two youngest ones, hands in the live minnows, and loving every second of it. Matthew reeled in his line at one point that had been baited with a live minnow, and apparently forgot that that little fish started out on his hook, and was SO excited to have "caught" a fish. He made us save it in the bucket of ice right along with his Daddy's fish. So sweet.


Enjoying what she kept calling the "beautiful, beautiful morning". (ahem...it was 6am)

Again, the Three Stooges. Matthew needs a little conversation bubble here saying, "hey guys, let me in too!"


Dirt. Sweat. Sand. Chocolate doughnut. Fish slime. Happy boy.
Cleaner. Cute. Enjoying the atmosphere.

Happy Father's Day, Tony! And thanks, Pierces, for a great weekend!

Life Lessons

Ellie's new love/obsession is writing letters. She has been using up all of my stationary but I suppose there are worse habits for a four year old to have. Just about all of her letters say, "Mommy please come to Ellie's tea party." We've have a LOT of tea parties and a LOT of invitations. The other day I was encouraging her to branch out in her writing, telling her that she can sound out just about anything she wants to write. This morning she took a leap and wrote a letter to her meddling brother....


For those of you who aren't elementary teachers, and may need a little help translating, it says, "Matthew can you stop touching my drum". Not only am I proud of her for such great writing, and I am also proud of her for taking an approach other than yelling at him. She is learning that the pen is mightier than the sword!

And here is Matthew, busy with his newest obsession...MESS. Well, really, Playdough. This boy can play Playdough for a long time. And make a BIG mess.


Notice Piglet under the table, hoping that some of that mess is food, and that some of it will fall off the table soon.

Graduation

This was a big week of graduations! Ellie and Matthew had their graduation ceremony last night, from Grace Place, where I have been teaching pre-school and the kids have been attending. It's just been two days a week, filled with fun, friends, crafts, songs, snacks, and...nap time...we'll talk more about this later....While Matthew and I will be back next year, Ellie actually did "graduate" from her four's class and will head on to Kindergarten next year...my baby...





Now, this adorable little devil loved his first "school" experience. He insisted on wearing his backpack every day even though it contained his lunch box, water bottle, and nap mat...and was so stuffed and big (compared to him) that he had to lean forward just to not fall over backwards.


Teaching in a classroom just down the hall I was always around, would have lunch with Ellie, and would pop in from time to time to check on Matthew. I also heard all that went on in the hall. I heard a few..."Matthew, hands off the wall. Matthew, stand in line. Matthew, don't scrape your lunch box along the wall. Matthew, please sit in your chair." Funny... NEVER heard Ellie's name. Tony, I think Matthew might take after you :)


And then there was nap time. In his defense, there were eight two year olds on mats, in one room. Come one, who's going to nap? However, I guess some of them were able to lay quietly on their mats till nap time was over. Not our little guy. He got in "trouble" quite a few times at nap time. He even had to go to the "principals office". (Tony was horrified). Now, I use that term loosely. You just get walked down the hall, to Mrs. Stephanie, who says, "Matthew, please lay on your mat nicely, and make good choices". But, hey, look at that face?!?! How could anyone be upset with him?

The best days were when I'd walk down the hall to pick him up at the end of the day, and he'd come running to me to tell me, "I didn't make any bad choices today!!!!". So proud of himself!
We all had a lot of fun at pre-school together this year!

And then there was the big graduation! My mom has been working for the last two years to get her Master's in Art Education from Boston University. I got to go up there last weekend to see her walk across the stage and get her hood! Good job, Nana! And I bet she stayed on her nap mat when she was in pre-school. It must run in the family :) Now, Dad...I have my doubts. Could it be a boy thing?

Mayfest

Dance recital #2

This time Ellie's dance recital was at Mayfest, our annual huge Fort Worth Fair with food, rides, games, crafts, music, performances...it's huge. We had never been before and got two free tickets since Ellie was performing, so we all decided to go early and enjoy the fair before her show at 2pm. This is what she looked like when we left the house...


Excited, and adorable. And clean.


We stopped first at a lumberjack show and everyone had a great time...till the chain saws started. Then we had two in tears with their hands on their ears. So, so far Ellie still looked like the above photo, just with a few tear stains and a little less makeup on.

Again, this was before the chainsaws. Cute :)


So we quickly moved on and spent the next two hours eating smoked turkey legs, playing games, making crafts, hammering wood, digging in sand pits...having a great time! However, by the time we got to her recital, we had all spent two hours in the 90 degree sun (the reason we moved on from tball to ballet), and she looked like this....

She also informed me that her tap shoes were too small. I thought she was just complaining but I looked at the size, and lo and behold, they are two sizes smaller than all the shoes she wears. Oops. Now, in my defense, I never put these shoes on her, so I had no way of knowing they were too small. They are just always in her ballet bag, and I drop her off and pick her up. The shoes thing goes on while I'm gone. Unfortunately, she waited till three minutes before her performance to tell me they were too small. So we had to stuff her feet in one more time, because the show must go on. She mostly just stood there and looked pitiful. Matthew conked out in the stroller one minute before she went on. But, all in all, they had a great time at May Fest! It just turned out that her dance show wasn't really the highlight of the day.

Dinosaur World

With Ellie's love of rocks and fossils, and Matthew's love (obsession?) of dinosaurs, what better day trip could we take than one to Dinosaur World! It's about an hour away and boasted of 150 life sized and life like dinosaurs in a natural setting. So, off we went this morning, with Matthew roaring and Ellie making sure that these were just pretend dinosaurs. I have to say, it was pretty cool, even for adults. It was really neat to see the whole thing (not just bones), and to see them the size that they really were. Those nasty Velociraptors from Jurassic Park were actually pretty small, and weighed no more than Ellie or Matthew!

We began our dinosaur walk with this...Matthew couldn't get in there fast enough....and Ellie wouldn't go near it.

A few favorites....
This was the "roar" hands and face that we saw often along our walk :)

Wow. Big dinosaur. Look at tiny Matthew.


We did a fossil dig and each of them go to the bring home their three favorite. We have a few dinosaur(shark?) teeth now. This is what Ellie is proudly showing off.
Tired out from all the dinosaurs....