Thanksgiving 2011

So it's the Monday night following Thanksgiving and I feel like I could go to bed now at 9:00 pm and that still wouldn't help me recover from the holiday festivities.  That and I have to participate in a conference call in 30 minutes.  Hardly seems fair that I'll be dialing in to talk HR while Matt's out for Monday Night Football with the guys at the local watering hole.  I want equality!  Actually, this body could not handle being hung over on a Tuesday so I'm going to consider this as a blessing in disguise.

So Thanksgiving was fun.  Lots of activities, lots of people, lots of food,  not so much sleep, too much booze.  The kids had a blast as usual while all of the jesters of the court took turns entertaining them.  I normally consider myself head jester but I think Uncle Tommy and/or Karis borrowed my title for the weekend, one I'm very willing to share.  Luke took his usual 875 turns on the trampoline and Adrienne her usual 600 turns on the swing - or the woo woo as she started referring to it as.  Was that correct English?  You know what I mean.  Oh and Luke learned how to use and iPhone - he's a pro at Angry Birds!  Aunt Emily had quite the grubby little iPhone decorated with Jello fingerprints by the end of the weekend.  And one more point of interest while we are talking about Emily, Adrienne called her by her name!  No, she didn't say Yummers, she said "Emmy!"

My mom graciously babysat while we went out on the town for a few hours one night.   We came home to find her asleep next to Adrienne.  Of course both kids woke up at some point while we were gone.  They apparently didn't hear Santa when he said he wanted them to sleep through the night.

Before I go and jump onto my conference call, I want give a shout out to Big Nick to wish him a happy 27th birthday!!

November Update

As usual, life’s been moving at a million miles per hour.  It seems as though every weekend has been taken up with, well, life.  We’ve been out of town a lot lately and when we are in town, it seems as though we get around quite a bit.  

I am pleased to say that this weekend is going to be the only “down” weekend we’ll have until 2012.  Not much planned and I like it that way.  Oh, Luke does have swim lessons but we don’t even count minor commitments like that!

I think we’re all still recovering from our trip to Michigan this past weekend.  We went to a wedding on the Meyer side of the family.  4 adults and 2 kids crammed into a rented mini-van for an 8 hour road trip 2x in one weekend. mixed in with partying, fun, lack of sleeping and general over-stimulation - sounds like the basis for a comedy, eh?  We did have fun and the little ones had a blast.  Luke was the MVP of the dance floor not only for his dance moves but also for his ability to pick up the not-so-single ladies!  He’s got a gift, that’s for sure.  Adrienne also enjoyed the dance floor a bit, but more for the colorful lights coming from the DJ stand than for the music.  She did a few shakes of the booty though.  

We’re all trying to catch up on sleep as I’ve been trying to communicate to Luke and Adrienne that anytime before 6:00 am is not an appropriate wake up time.  We’re getting there - slowly but let’s hope the time change the the long dark winter hours at least induce some sleepiness onto the wee ones.  

Here are some Halloween pictures since I didn’t manage to get a Halloween post out!

Friends for a few minutes

Mooooooooooooo

Super Why!

An old picture I found of Matt and I back in the day

So we've obviously been up to a lot since the start of school!  We've been attending festivals, checking out area attractions and just general busy business.  Luke is in swimming lessons these days and I'm thinking about signing Adrienne up for gymnastics.  She seems to be rather coordinated and is a little climber.  I've started working out  and reading again and Matt's studying for the CFA exam - we like a lot of activity - can you tell?  Oh and we've been house hunting, too! Once we get a house, I'll be able to start a new hobby of house projects.

Luke has started reading - yay!  He's known his letter sounds for a while now but he's been putting them together at school and thus, he was sent home with his first reading book - Goldilocks.  He's been making huge progress in school this year.  Ade's still hanging out at daycare but she's in a new room that has new equipment that she loves.  We're gearing up for Halloween - Luke will be a skeleton (his decision) and Ade will be a cow (not her decision).  We have bits and pieces of Halloween decorations ALL over the house and the floor, and the couch - and they stick to my socks- hmf.

At a winery in Naples - we were feeding the Koi right out of our hands!














My soapbox rant of the day:
So I was reading a "fitness" blog this morning and I was totally turned off by it.  This author is a personal trainer who is now pregnant and she wrote in her blog, don't worry, this won't turn into one of those "mommy blogs!"  Seriously, at least years down the road, I'll have a written account of all the fun we've had along the way, instead of a compilation of posts that all the say the same thing - don't enjoy food and work your body into the ground!

On to more fun things!

Ade with crazy hair and her baby:

 Ade's crazy hair is getting long!

Playing after dinner:

And the Pumpkin Patch:

School Year 2011-2012

Well the first day of the 2nd year of school has come and gone already.  I have to say, it was rather easy and pleasant this year.  I love not being the new kid on the block.  You see, I think the first day of preschool last year was much more anxiety provoking for me than it could ever have been for Luke.  This year was easy peasy - I knew what to expect and more importantly Luke knew what to expect.  He walked in there like he owned the place - naturally.  He spotted his teacher, Mrs. Robinson right away and gave her a nice big hug, then we walked in his classroom and immediately got back to work as if he had left off just yesterday.  He didn't even wait for me to say, "Bye Luke, have fun!"  Before I had the chance he said, "Bye mom, I'm having fun!"  

Little A went along with us and she also walked in there like she owned the place.  She wanted to pull things off the shelves and play with the big kids. So below are pictures of both kids on Luke's first day of school!

Puerto Rico

Ah, R&R in PR!  We snuck off for three fabulous days to Puerto Rico last weekend and the trip couldn't have been any better.  Great weather, great hotel, great drinks, sleeping through the night, sleeping in, eating a leisurely pace - we had it all!  We mainly did two things: hangout at the pool and one trip into Old San Juan.  We did a lot of hanging out at the pool with lots of adult bevvies.

The kidlets went on vacation to Mimi's and were entertained by the likes of Aunt Emily, Uncle Tommy, Karis and all the usual suspects who pass through the revolving door at my mom's house.   They were worn out when they got home to say the least.  I even got the cold shoulder, I'm mad at you routine from the little miss.  ha!  She got over that in about 15 minutes when she realized her favorite food source was back.  Luke had a lot of stories to tell - we're still hearing new ones 5 days later.

Great trip...can't wait for the next one!

Silliness!

So the babe was snoozing and the hubs was lounging (unusual, huh? LOL) so the boy child and I were being silly. And then the hubs decided he wanted in on the fun since he couldn't sleep through our laughing. And we laughed so.hard.