Happy Thanksgiving 2009

Scenes from this year's Thanksgiving.





Isn't this cute? I got the idea from a magazine and the kids happily munched on their "turkeys" while we sat down to our Thanksgiving dinner.



:-)

Hannah's first Panthers game

Last week Hannah got to go to her first Panthers game. Her favorite part of the game was a toss-up between the brownies and the cheerleaders.






We put Hannah in her jammies for the ride home and we took her picture from the top of the parking deck. I tried to get part of the Charlotte skyline in the picture and if you look REALLY closely you can see the BOA building.
:-)

Look what I made!

I had a couple of goals for 2009 - nothing crazy big, just some little things to work on. One of them was to create something to sell at our church's Christmas Bazaar. And here it is - Ta Da! I made 27 magnet tins that each contain four magnets. I would have made 30, but I ran out of magnets. :-(

I use old Christmas cards, Valentines, magazine covers, etc for the pictures on the magnets. I wish my camera was better so I could take better pictures... that is a goal for next year.
:-)

Happy 4th Birthday Katie!

Katie's birthday party happened to be the same day as Jadyn's. I mention this so you don't think I dress Hannah in the same pink dress for every birthday party. Heh.


Katie's birthday party was a pottery painting party, so I made sure we came prepared with a smock. Have smock, will travel. Have princess smock, will travel IN STYLE.



Hannah chose a rainbow to paint, Katie picked a flower, Sam picked a tow truck and Stephen picked a puppy dog. As an aside, every color required two coats of paint. A word of caution: do not let your child pick a rainbow. Since each color takes two coats and there are I-don't-know-how-many colors in a rainbow... you do the math. Needless to say, we were the last ones done.




Hannah had a really good time being silly with her friends. Cole's Daddy was in town that weekend, so Cole was not with us. It is just as well, two birthday parties in one day really wore Mommy and Daddy out.
:-)

Happy 3rd Birthday Jadyn!

Serious Jadyn.



Playful Jadyn!




Isn't this the cutest cake? Jadyn's birthday was a couple of weeks ago (sorry for the delay, I had technical difficulties... again). She had a ladybug themed party (as if you couldn't tell). We are so happy we went to this party because we were able to tell Jadyn's parents about the awesome gymnastics class. Now Jadyn is enrolled in the class too!
:-)

A Book Review: Wink - The Ninja Who Wanted To Be Noticed

We were lucky enough to receive this book as a gift (shout out to Amy) and what an awesome gift it is. Written and illustrated by J.C. Phillipps, this book is the story of a little boy being torn between becoming a ninja (stealthy and silent) versus an entertainer (look at me! look at me!). At the end of the story he discovers a solution that capitalizes on all of his talents, allowing him to really shine. Hannah just LOVES this book. Cole does too. It's pace is perfect for little kids and the story never seems to get old in our house. I love the use of fabrics in the illustrations and proverbs in the story. "Time spent laughing is time well spent." All ninjas from now on are named "Wink" in our household.
;-)

Let's go Yankees, clap clap clap clap clap!

How cruel are we? In honor of the Yankees World Series win, we make our adorable 4 year old go to school in full Yankee regalia, knowing full well that some of the kids/parents in her class are (gasp) Red Sox fans. Yeah, that's right, we make our daughter fight our battles for us. My hope is that her super-cuteness will win them over.
:-)

Trick or Treating

Amidst all the weather dreariness of last Saturday, we braved the elements and went trick-or-treating in our neighborhood. Hannah's cousins Greyson, Ayden and Cole were along for the moist, candy-filled ride.



My Mom was kind enough to volunteer in handing out the candy while we were around the neighborhood. Isn't she cute? That's a pin stripe suit she's got on, get it? PIN stripe suit... Oh well, I think we got about 200 kids this year. That's right, TWO HUNDRED. We get a lot of kids every year - I guess there's something spooky or extra Halloweeny about our neighborhood.







Aren't they the cutest Chicken, Little Red Riding Hood (sans hood) and Batman you have ever seen?
:-)

Our First Parent Teacher Conference

This morning, we had our first parent teacher conference. I was excited to hear some stories about our Hannah since they get the wonderful opportunity to spend more time with her during the week than we do. One story in particular has stayed with me all day and I thought I would share (if nothing else to keep a record of this before I forget).

Hannah's teachers told us about a teacher's assistant that comes into their classroom every Friday afternoon. She brings with her a little boy who is handicapped. They did not mention his handicap other than he has difficulty speaking clearly. They told us that Hannah was the first to volunteer that the little boy could sit next to her. She was talking back and forth with the little boy when the other kids gathered around and asked her what he was saying. She simply said "He is speaking Chinese, and I understand him." Her teachers said that they "talked" the rest of the time while he was in the classroom. They also said because Hannah accepted him immediately, that the other kids were much more open to his presence.

I can't help but to stop and be amazed by our little girl. Thank you.

:-)

Halloween Party

I was so excited to see both Hannah and Cole in their costumes this year. I think they were pretty excited too. Our church was having a Halloween party the weekend before Halloween so we were lucky enough to get the kids in their costumes multiple times. Hannah tried the pink wig, but it was too hot and heavy for her to wear for any length of time. Besides, when I put her hair in braids, everyone kept saying how cute she looked- so I think she was okay with no pink hair.







I couldn't resist putting up some of the collection of Halloween face painting pictures from years past. I love that she gets something different every year.


I am REALLY glad that the church decided to use tongs for this year's bobbing for apples. I'm not sure Hannah has recovered from last year's "Bobbing for a Wet Head".





During the party we did a cake walk. For those of you who do not know, a cake walk is like musical chairs in that you walk around until the music stops. Once the music stops you stay where you are and the Pastor determines a winner by their proximity to a predetermined location. The lucky location changes for every round of the game. For example, "Cole you win because you are the closest to the poster of the pumpkin." Each winner gets to pick a cake from the dessert table. Cole won a pound cake. I thought it was interesting because Hannah did not want to have anything to with the cake walk, she wanted to play the piano with Miss Libby. Piano lessons in our future?

Happy Halloween!
:-)

Happy Birthday Stephen!

Hannah and Cole got to go to Stephen's fourth birthday party at Extreme Play during our wild jam-packed weekend. Notice that they are both wearing different outfits from the morning's pumpkin picking. Wardrobe change!




What a mischievous smile.


I know it sounds silly but we really think that gymnastics has helped Hannah with her bouncing skills. It never occurred to me that bouncing was something that some children may have to work on. Anyway, Hannah used to hate bouncy houses. If we were lucky enough to get her in one, she would just cling to the sides and fall. At Stephen's party, we saw her really enjoy the bouncy houses and not fall over every two seconds. Now if I can only get her up one of those ladders...
:-)

Whew! What a weekend.

We fit so much into this weekend, I think I'm going to need several days to post it all. Gymnastics, Pumpkin Patch, Birthday Party and Halloween Party oh my! We also fit some other errands in there too - don't ask me how, it was all a delightful blur.

Hannah is doing really well in gymnastics. She seems to have started getting the basic idea around balance and jumping. Her arms and legs seem to have gotten stronger. I promise I will try and get better pictures of Hannah in action, but my camera is a P.O.S. I'm just sayin'.



We woke up Saturday morning to some really grumpy weather. It was overcast and rainy pretty much all morning. There were even a couple of thunderstorms to contend with. But we were determined to go pumpkin picking with our church. All the kids were such troopers. If anything, you could say we had the place to ourselves. And we got some really nice (and muddy) pumpkins.









Right after the pumpkin patch we stopped at the house to change out of our wet clothes into appropriate birthday party attire. Then we were off!
:-)

An evening at the races

Chris was lucky enough to get some box tickets for the race last weekend. We figured that being in the box was the best way for a four-year-old to watch her first race in Nascar country. The race held her attention longer than we thought it would - she even picked a car to cheer for. Go number 77!


Unfortunately, number 77 had a really bad race and did not finish, but Hannah kept telling him not to give up. I think his crew chief had other plans.
:-)

A Book Review: Liberty's Journey

Ha Ha! I found a children's book on the "Statue of Liberry". It is called "Liberty's Journey" by Kelly DiPucchio & Richard Egielski. Lady Liberty gets tired of standing on her pedestal and decides to walk across the country to see how people have been doing since she welcomed them into the United States. The story does a good job of describing the landscape while she is crossing the country. For example, "amber waves of grain" is mentioned. She doesn't end up interacting with as many children as I'd like, but I realize that you can't drag a children's book out too long. The "natives" just get too restless. All in all, a very cute book for those of you who happen to have a child with an appreciation of the Statue of Liberty.
:-)

A note to Santa

Have I mentioned that Hannah is a planner? That's my girl. Anyway, here we are in early October and she is already thinking of Christmas. Out of the blue this week Hannah announced that she wants to write a note to Santa and tell him what she would like for Christmas. Care to guess what she wants? You will NEVER guess. Here are the drawings...




And here is my drawing to give her some guidance. Have you guessed yet?



That's right! A spork. Do not ask me why. The best we have been able to figure involves two theories:

Theory One: There is a really cute scene in the movie "WALL•E" that involves a spork.
Theory Two: When Hannah is eating macaroni and cheese (which unfortunately is too often) she seems to be torn between a fork (for spearing the noodles) or a spoon (for scooping the noodles). I think we may have mentioned that a spork would be perfect - although we did not realize that she had put two and two together. Smarty Pants.



So as the "wonderful" mother I am, I am on a quest to find the most awesomest spork ever. Stop rolling your eyes, because I found this:


What is THAT, you say? Why it is the most coolest spork EVER. You too can get one! Just go to Light My Fire. They come in 19, yes thats 19, colors and TITANIUM. Oh yeah.
:-)

Welcome Home Chico

Sorry this has taken awhile to get these photos up, I don't have a good excuse, so I won't bore you with any bad excuses. We decided to adopt Chico into our family on Saturday. He is in worse shape than the rescue group let on, but I don't think we could live with ourselves if we left him there. We're not dead inside, you know.


He is almost blind and seems to be rather hard of hearing. He had hot spots, which have already started to heal. I was thinking of changing his name to "Keller" as in "Helen Keller" but that didn't seem to be very nice. We kept the name "Chico", but I usually call him "Cheeks".


We will take him to the vet's next week. Keep your fingers crossed that no additional problems crop up.
:-)

Wish us luck!

I've debated about whether or not to share this too soon, but what the heck! This is Chico. He is a big, beautiful five year old pug that we are meeting for the first time this weekend. Please think good thoughts for us. If everything goes well on Saturday he will be coming home with us. Don't you just want to squeeze him? I know I do.
;-)

Happy Autumn Moon Festival!

Today we had our first official "Red Couch Group" event. We celebrated the Autumn Moon Festival at the Village Park in Kannapolis. So far, the group consists of two families, and we hope to grow it little by little. Hannah, Emma Grace, Elisabeth and Cole had a great time.









I found some moon cakes online, but I wasn't sure how they tasted. Luckily, I remembered to buy moon pies in case the moon cakes were not a hit. While we taste-tested all four kinds of moon cakes (melon was the least favorite, I think the black bean & nut moon cakes were the favorites among the adults) - the moon pies were definitely a hit with the kids. Whew!




We had a wonderful time in the park and hope to continue this tradition every year.
:-)