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....

Galveston and Mardi Gras

We got to tag along again this year when Tony has a conference in Galveston TX! Galveston is our closest beach and we jumped at the opportunity. We drive down, five hours (or 6 when you make four stops), car packed to the gills with all the essentials...bathing suits, swimmies, buckets, shovels, cooler and toys. And enough clothes to change several times a day(some of us have a hard time not getting sandy and wet). When we got there we discovered that we were going to be there during their Mardi Gras celebration, and would be able to go to the parade. This was Ellie and Matthew's first parade and once they figured out that they would get beads and candy thrown to (or at) them if they smiled and waved, they turned on the charm! You have GOT to see Ellie's adorable dancing at the parade...




I couldn't resist taking over a hundred pictures of our kids enjoying the beach. There is just something about beach pictures. Here are a few...





And the rest of the time, we ate! We found a great place right on the bay where we could sit at a table that overlooked the water. We had our fill of seafood, and butter. In one meal alone Matthew managed to eat a whole pat of butter, and then wash it down with Tony's little pot of melted butter. That's my boy!

The Long TX Winter

I never thought I'd be posting something about a long Texas winter, but wow, it's been cold, snowy, icing, and downright nasty here for the last few weeks. We've had snow three or four times this year. As always, the kids think it's great fun, want to get all bundled up, and love it...for...about...two minutes. Then they are back inside. Here is the loving it part....


In an effort to keep busy and warm, we have...

Been to the Science Museum...


Been the the Zoo...

Been to a Princess Party...

Eaten lots of cookies...

Lost our minds a little bit...
And then just in the nick of time, the sun came out, the ice melted, and it was 70 degrees!!! Today we planted our garden with tomatoes, onions, carrots, basil, and peas. We cleaned up the back yard, played on the swing set, and best of all put together a new toy!

This was a craigslist find. I saw it on Amazon and went searching for a better deal. Right away I found one for half price, new, still in the box. It said it takes one hour for two people to put it together. Well, it took two adults and two children five hours...but we were thrilled! It was not 13 degrees out anymore, and it wasn't 102 yet either. What a beautiful day! We (me) are looking forward to outside playing time again. Please keep your fingers crossed for no broken bones or chipped teeth. It looked like a great idea in the picture, and I was sure they were going to love it. They do, it just looks a little dangerous now that it's all put together. All in the name of (outside!) fun! Happy Spring!

p.s. Matthew is fully recovered...phew!

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!