Christmas Begins...

What a weekend!!  Minus the work aspect it was a great weekend with friends and family.  Started yesterday with the annual cookie bake off.  Jason is the king of cookie baking in the house.  He insists on making them all from scratch which is way more time consuming, but they are yummy :)  Many, many batches were made and here are some pics of the baker and his helpers:

Then this afternoon we had the LeVasseur's & Martinelli's over to visit.  It got a little loud at times with all the kids running around, but it was sooo much fun!!  We definitely don't take enough time throughout the year to enjoy each others company so I enjoyed every minute of this afternoon.  Kylie was in 7th heaven when the twins got there.  Within the first few mins I look over and see her and Rylee cuddling on the couch...Awhh:

 Later in the afternoon we heard sirens outside and had a special visitor come to the door...Santa!!  The kids were sooo excited, running laps around as they waited and then patiently waiting with big grins for their names to get called.  It was so cute:

 Unfortunately, all good things come to an end.  Everyone all bundled up ready to take on the cold.  Thank you to everyone for making this afternoon so special.  Things have been a little crazy lately and the downtime was exactly what the doctor ordered.  Good night little ones!

Gingerbread Jamboree

Got to escape from work for a little while to enjoy the morning with my favorite little man.  Noah's kindergarten classroom made their gingerbread houses out of paper bags this morning.  We had a lot of fun gluing it all together, adding snow and sparkles everywhere.  It also happened to be PJ day which Noah insisted I was supposed to participate in too....so I did.  In his room I was the one of 2 parents that came dressed that way...but his teacher was in PJs to and it was a lot of fun.  Finish product below:

 

 Here is another shot of the two of us:

 

How I love this time of year...just wish we had more time to really enjoy it.  Looking forward to some baking and friends visiting this weekend.  Who knows, may even have a North Pole visitor :o)

Thanksgiving

Home again after a fun, sleep deprived long weekend back in NY.  Got in Wednesday night.  Biggest problem with the day was staying up until 12:30am and finding out that Toys R Us "lied" about posting specials at midnight.  So after the disappointment it was off to bed.  Thursday AM started early prepping the turkey at stuffing at Joanne's, getting the paper for the all important Black Friday ads and then off to Rene's for breakfast.  We had a nice visit with Rene & Kelly with some delicious french toast.  The kids were excited to show off their Disney books and catch up with "bald headed Grampa".  Next it was off to Nana's for dinner #1.  It was a full house too which was great.  Got to catch up with the cousins, visit and play with the babies as well as hangout with my favorite almost teenage niece!  Dinner was good and then came the huge variety of desserts for celebrating the 3 bdays...yum yum.  Thank you to all for the early birthday wishes...love you all!  To round out the day it was back to Joanne's for a little more turkey and desserts.  Great friends and family...what more can we ask for? 

Black Friday: Lists were prepared Thursday for the early start on Friday and sent Jason to Toys R Us for 10PM.  Amazingly, he stuck it out in line for hours to get in and got almost everything we needed.  Like the changing of the guard he got back at 2AM while Dawn & I got up to head for Kohls at 3AM...hahaha.  Without the play by play we left the house at 2:39AM and got back around 4:30PM.  More than 1/2 done with the shopping....feeling a lot better than I did before Thanksgiving.

So we got back home late this afternoon.  The kids were anxious to get the Christmas decorations out so they were VERY helpful at cleaning up the clutter we had lying around to prep.  Netting it out, the trees are up, stockings are hung and 2 kids are sound asleep in their beds.  Oh how I love this season!!  Sweet dreams all!!

IPPONE Finale

We are home after a tiring afternoon.  The ride wasn't as long as I expected it to be, but we definitely left earlier than we needed to (mental note for next time).  Anyway, little man did great.  He had A LOT more competition this time.  For forms there were 8 boys competing in the 6 & under age group and for sparring there were 10.  In forms Noah took 3rd place (inched out by a tiny bit for second).

A little while later he was up for sparring.  They only handed out trophies for the first 4 positions so he didn't get a trophy, but he did receive a medal for the 6 way tie for 5th :o)  He did sooooooooo much better than his first tournament.  If he had just remembered to throw some kicks I think he would have went further.  It's hard when all the kids are pretty much a year old and almost a head taller...haha.  Here are some action shots:

All in all he did a great job.  His teacher and his other teammates were really proud of him.  Can't wait for the next one...sort of...haha!

Halloween and beyond...

Halloween was a really fun day.  Started with some leaf clearing.  I think we managed to create our record largest leaf pile for the kids enjoyment:

In cominggggggg

 Then we went inside for some pumpkin carving before heading out for the nights festivities.  With the kids being bigger they wanted to do their own carving this year so we went with a more traditional jack-o-lanterns.  They each came up with their own patterns and have fun hacking them up :o)

 End Results:

Kylie went for the "scary/angry" face

 

Noah's was more shapey....little Harry Potter resemblance?

After that it was off to the Colson's for some yummy dinner and fun with great friends.  All the kiddo's are getting so big!!

Toothless

Dorothy

Flashback to Dorothy the first time...6yrs ago!

After Halloween it was a crazy busy week.  Fast forwarding to this morning...Noah had Karate which he did great!! He is so ready for his tournament next week.  After that it was off to CCD where Kylie's class worked on their first of many 1st communion projects.  They planted bulbs in front of the church which Father Gerry came over after to bless.  All this as early preparation for the big day in May :o)  Enjoy!

Halloween 2010 So far...

As is true with most holidays lately, the Halloween festivities last for multiple days.  On Thursday Kylie had a party at dance class where she decided to take my costume and dress up as Scooby Doo.  Yesterday, the kids had their parties at school.  I spent the morning in Noah's classroom helping with their projects, parade throughout the school and then party. Here are a few pics from the festivities:

Later that afternoon it was off to Kylie's classroom to enjoy some time with my little Dorothy and her friends...and of course...more goodies:

 This morning the kids had CCD class where they each had yet another party.  This time Kylie wore her pirate costume from recital last year and Noah wore his Darth Vader costume he got for Xmas last year.  As part of the 1st communion team I was only able to take pics of Kylie's class as I was with her the whole time.  They each received a pumpkin which we then proceeded back to the classroom to decorate prior to the party.

 After CCD it was off to soccer.  The kids did great.  Kylie had a number of great saves as goalie (her favorite position) and Noah was happy to actually play in the game as they were short on kids.  After soccer it was a run home for quick lunch and change to Noah ready for his big Karate party.  He had a great time with all the older kids.  Here are a few shots:

There were teams and the younger kids had to mummify the team leaders (black belts).  Noah was a little confused at first when Master D handed him a roll of toilet paper...don't think he knew what to do with it other than the normal use, but he caught on quickly.

 A sneak picture of my little "Toothless" patiently waiting and watching the other kids.  He was pretty tired at this point, but how cute is he??  For the costume contest he wouldn't go up for the scariest costume or the cutest...he felt he was the "most creative"....haha.  Unfortunately he didn't win, but he was still having a lot of fun cheering for the others.

 At the end each kid got to select a balloon which Master D then popped to reveal a small piece of paper.  On it was either 2 small pieces of candy, 1 large candy or other bigger prizes like free private lesson, etc.  Noah got 2 small candies...but in true Noah style he goes to select from the bowl, asks Mrs D if it is chocolate and when she says yes they start digging through the bowl to see if they is any non-chocolate candy.  When there isn't Master D makes an exception and gives Noah a "big" bag of Skittles. 

As we were leaving we also got a sandwich bag full of candy as well as a caramel apple.  So as we go to the car he is asking what was in the bag that had the caramel apple.  When I tell him an apple....out of all the goodies he got..this is what he wanted.  Best yet when I opened it up for him he had no idea what to do with it...he tried to bite it and couldn't.  So I took a bite to break through and he tried to eat a little...didn't like the outside and insisted I eat all the "sticky stuff" off so that he could eat the apple.  I love it!!

Now they are both sound asleep with visions of running from house to house tomorrow night.  Stay tuned for more fun to come I'm sure.  Good Night!

Red Gup White Belt!!!!

Our little karate dude did an amazing job on his belt test tonight.  For the first time he actually skipped a level!!  He was a blue gup white belt and the next step for ones as little as him is a green gup, but Master D had a surprise for his little favorite dude.  After testing he asked Noah what belt he was hoping to get and Noah said Green Gup.....Master D says "Well I'm sorry to tell you you aren't going to get your green gup...but you tried really hard right?"  Noah looks shocked and shakes his head yes....then Master D asks him if it would be ok to get his red gup instead.  The big grin came out and he says...Yes sir!  Awhhhh!!  Here are some shots:

Disneyworld 2010

What can I say....we had a great vacation!!  The weather was perfect the entire trip - 80's & sunny everyday!!  We arrived Friday late morning and took the Magical Express to our hotel - Caribbean Beach Resort.  We stayed in "Barbados".  Overall the hotel was nice, but seeing as this is one of their largest resorts it was a little too spread out.  I think if we were to stay there again we would want to stay at Old Port Royale which is where all the food places are as well as the main pool with the slides for the kids.  Anyway, after checking in we headed for Epcot to start the adventure.  I won't bore you with the play by play, but there are a bunch of pictures to follow which capture some of the great moments:

 Dinner with the Princesses at Akershus (Norway @ EPCOT)

Watch out....the kids got their Speedway Licenses:

Dinner at Tony's Restaurant (from Lady & the Tramp) in Magic Kingdom:

The castle

Time to travel the countries (EPCOT)

Duffy Bear - Mickey Mouse's Teddy Bear

Mr Photogenic this trip

C'est Paris!

Oooo-la-la :)

Dinner with my girl at Le Cellier in O Canada!

My loves in visiting America

Hmmm....my loves again??  Hahaha

Touring the "islands" of our resort on a Surrey Bike.  Talk about Flintstone power....iyiyiy.  There was a big hill on the one side that the guy told us to get a running start at and of course Jason is pedaling like crazy and I'm laughing so hard I'm not helping at all....by the time we got to the top of the bridge it was debatable who was more out of breath...him for pedaling or me for laughing.  Great time!

Ding Ding...watch out...coming through!!

Back to Epcot for some educational games.  I really think the kids had the most fun here.  There was the Great Piggy Bank Adventure (seen below) where you set a goal (ie vacation, bedroom makeover, college) and then you get a piggy bank to play 3 games to see if you can save and grow your money enough to reach your goal. 

 This was an energy saver game....it was this shuffleboard like game where you provide power to a city.  The more "clean" power you provide the bigger your city is...this is them playing:

Other games like this included a garbage truck thing that you get to learn about recycling, landfill management, etc....I know it sounds a little strange, but the way the setup the games are so creative and exciting for the kids..they loved it.  We also did the IBM sponsored "Smarter Planet" booth where you get to create your own video game.  You go in and they take images of you jumping, running and dancing...then it is put into a video game...pretty cool.  Here is a link to the one Jason & Noah made (it's only available for 30 days or so):

http://www.thinkingofyoupostcards.com/runtime/play?Guestcode=KQKQ6VM1AHFM6Q

Some downtown Disney shots:

All made out of legos...can you spot the Fernets?

Last, but not least was the special Pirate Adventure we signed the kids up for.  It was a 2 hr cruise that only kids were allowed to go on...no parents!!  They had to follow the clues to get all the pieces of the treasure map and then figure out where the treasure was.  The pirate boat (below) sailed all around Barefoot Bay which was the lake that all the Caribbean Beach Resort hotels surrounded.  At the end of the excursion all the pirates got a loot bag from the treasure chest.  The kids had a blast!!

Arghhh Mateys!!

I hope this gives you a small glimpse into all the fun we had last week.  We took a break almost every day to swim back at the hotel and rest before going back to the parks at night.  Kylie was a trooper and walked the entire time with probably only a 1/4 of the complaining I expected.  Noah on the other hand was a lazy little bum that climbed in the stroller every chance he got...hahahaha.  Going to be a rude awakening for him when we go back in 2 years without strollers!!

So back to reality with lots of busyness this week between work, school, Halloween....so stay tuned!!