Christmas at the Beach

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This year, we spent Christmas week in Emerald Isle, NC.

We headed down a night early to try to beat the Blizzard, but met up with it in Richmond where we waited almost 3 hours in near standstill traffic before we got our turn to attempt to cross the bridge across the river. Several cars and all semi trucks were stranded at the bottom of the large incline of the un-plowed bridge. (The plows couldn't make it to the bridge through the traffic.) We made it across. Thankfully we were full of people, luggage, and Christmas presents, and had new tires. As we made our way off I95 onto I85, we stopped to call a tow truck for a stranded minivan and family who had plowed into a ravine - it was a pretty nasty drive. Patrick is a very skilled driver, and I'm thankful he was the one driving.


By the time it was nearing 3-4 in the morning and we were just out of the snow and finally in the rain, we stopped to get some sleep at an old gas station. Sleeping in the car was just fine at that point. However, should you attempt this, please remember to call those expecting you, even if it IS 4 am and there is a sleeping baby in their house (oops!).

After a few hours to freshen up and refuel our minds and bodies in Raleigh, it was smooth sailing to our beloved 3 Palms - the house we also rented in September 2008.




We started the week with a bad cold for Mia and while we passed it around , we fit in fun filled days of cooking, relaxing, cookie making, gingerbread house decorating, sea shell collecting, and even a birthday party for Jacque! What a blast.

Thanks to Neil and Jessica, I took a much-needed break from the kid-chaos for a half-day spa experience with Amanda and my mom - ahhhhh.

Although weather systems seem to try to keep us from going, I love Emerald Isle and can't wait to go back in the summer - hope you all had a Merry Christmas, too!

Happy Birthday, Laney and America!

Laney is now officially 3! She has grown so very much in just the last few weeks it's astounding. Laney is finished with diapers, doesn't bite her sister or her playmates, has completed her first swimming class, really enjoys talking on the phone to her family members, can reach the light switches in the kitchen and new bathroom, and can play a few board games without eating the pieces. She LOVES to play dress-up, to put puzzles together and has completed a 64 piece jigsaw puzzle of Strawberry Shortcake on her own, and she absolutely adores baby dolls and her "sissy", Mia.

She's into everything and you can't leave her alone for a second, but she's showing her intelligence by being sneaky about things and waiting until you just leave the room before getting into mischief. She'll tell you that she wants to do everything herself and will button and unbutton anything with buttons she can get her hands on.

She's been a true joy to raise these last 3 years as well as a handful recently, just as she should be. We love you Laney-Bun!

And a big Happy 233rd Birthday, USA!

Mia's 5 and Happy Fathers' Day!

Our Mia is five! Five years old is a big deal around here. It's the year you are officially allowed to have makeup, the year you are allowed to have a pet (though we will be waiting until construction is finished this time), it is the year in which you move from being a preschooler to a school-kid, it's a Big Deal!

This year, Mia had her birthday party at Pump it Up the week before her actual birthday, since she shared her big day with Fathers' Day.

On the actual day, we spent the morning searching out chocolate chip pancakes. It appeared many many others had the same idea, so we stopped at Starbucks instead and moved the pancake feast to lunch in order to make it to church on time.

Presents in the afternoon, a few phone calls, a pizza dinner and a double-decker cake finished off the day for both Mia and Patrick, stuffed to the brim with sugar and love.


For Mia, this was the epitome of greatness. After watching almost all of her preschool friends turn 5 throughout the year and feeling a bit left behind, it was finally HER TURN! Waiting is really really hard when you're not quite 5 and you count every month until you get there.


Patrick was very gracious for sharing his day (and his cake) with Mia, and enjoyed the homemade picture frames from the girls as well as the chance to spend all day together as a family.

Happy Father's Day to a Great Daddy!

And Happy Birthday to my Mia Bug!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

This is what Mia got in the mail today...




And for my friend, Julie - here's the finished gingerbread house. We had a great time making it. Me, the architect (it's cardboard), Patrick the contractor, and the girls the decorators. :) Merry Merry!

A Week Away

What makes it Christmas for you? For me, it's the excitement of finding just the right gift for someone, the beautiful lights on trees and houses, the Christmas specials on TV, the music, Sticky Buns on Christmas morning, a cup of cocoa with a candy cane in it, reading the Advent verses on Sundays leading up to the 25th, and singing Happy Birthday to Jesus Christmas morning. Add children to the mix, and it's just *magic*.

Mia and Laney are working really hard on trying to be good for Santa, but all the excitement is causing a bit of high energy to escape in all but the best possible ways. Speaking of which, I gotta go. I hear screaming.

Whew!

What a Weekend! (Still recovering...) Between Halloween, a Bar Mitzvah, a Birthday Party, an Election Day Bakesale, Election Night festivities, and a Time Change, I'm beat! But what fun!

Halloween night was kicked off with a Pancake Dinner hosted by our good friends and neighbors, then we all headed out to purge the neighborhood of their goodies and admire the carving skills in the area. Turns out political pumpkins took the cake this year, with all but one in some way referring to our new President Elect.

The night after Halloween, Patrick and I attended a Bar Mitzvah for our next door neighbor's son and we had a really nice time. Neither of us had been to one before, so it was really fun and also very interesting to learn about the customs and traditions involved in this coming of age milestone as well as the Jewish religion. David did a great job with his Torah readings, and though he shared his night with another Bar Mitzvah, he definitely shone brighter. (Don't tell the other family that, though.)

The following day we went to a Birthday Party at Pump It Up, an all inflatable jumping place (what a great idea for a party place!) and the girls just wore themselves out. Though I was a little unnerved by the bigger kids pushing by and over the 2 year olds, everyone had a great time. Happy 2nd Birthday, Elliott!!

THEN, Election Day the girls' preschool had a bakesale to try to take advantage of the extra voters and some potential school donations, so Monday was spent baking. I love to bake, but the kids had the day off of school, so I didn't really get to make as much as I wanted. This was a good thing, however, because we didn't sell all the things that we made. (Can I gloat? My banana bread was all gobbled up- yippee!)

Lastly, that night Patrick's company had a huge Election Watching Party in typical Accenture style. It was fun! There was a huge room decorated with one side in Blue Donkeys and one side in Red Elephants showing CNN, and there were satellite rooms - one Red showing Fox News, and one Blue showing MSNBC. Other rooms held human statues, a raffle drawing, food of course, and meandering ex-presidents. Lots of fun for us all.

Carving Pumpkins and Building Walls

This past week we spent a good chunk of time working on our front yard and new kitchen. It's been a long time in the planning stage, but this week, we finally were able to begin on the actual building (and demolishing) process. My dad and mom came up and now we have new wall studs that will become one of the walls for the kitchen, as well as a new retaining wall and sod in the front. Woo-hoo! You would understand my enthusiasm if you could have seen the front yard just prior to the work - old rotting railroad ties, dirt and weeds. It was lovely - not. But now it is! (Going to add pics tomorrow - I can't believe I didn't take any!)






Sunday evening, we spent family time carving pumpkins. Both girls drew their own jack-o-lantern faces and neither one was even remotely interested in getting gooky pumpkin and seeds all over their hands, so Mom and Dad had to do that part. (When I was a kid, that was the best part! Well, that and the toasted pumpkin seeds!) The result was fun all around and some great spooky jack-o-lanterns on our porch.

Sick Weekend

Well, Laney came down with the Coxsackie virus blisters Friday. No wonder she was so cranky last week. Mia was disappointed because that meant we would be missing a Halloween party on Saturday that she had really been looking forward to.

No worries - Mom to the rescue! I happened to have a few things in my bag to make our own party. First Mia made cookies.


Then, we hung decorations we had made earlier in the week and donned Halloween Costumes. (Thank you to Travis for lending his hat.)

Then, we made Halloween cards, ate spooky snacks and the cookies, applied creepy tattoos, and had orange milk.

Then, we got to play in the dark with glow sticks - Mia bit into one and we worried a bit about poison. (So far, she's still normal, aside from HER Coxsackie blisters that showed up yesterday afternoon.)

We had an uninvited visitor or two, asking for treats (almost like real Halloween!)
and then we went to bed.

Phew! Crisis (and disappointed 2 and 4 year old meltdowns) averted.

Laney Turns 2!

Happy Birthday, Laney!

Laney shares her birthday with our country, so there is a lot of hoopla and hurrah around when her day arrives.

We started the day with the Takoma Park 4th of July parade, but unlike last year, we got to walk in the parade with the girls' preschool, which was a whole lot of fun! Mia walked the entire way, Laney rode in our stroller, and our wagon was lent out for the tired little legs of our friends.


Then everyone headed back up to our house for some grilling and cupcakes to celebrate the big 2! Laney took a nap while the kids took turns giving wagon rides, jumped on the trampoline, and played on the swings! What a fun party!

After a dinner of Annie's Shells N Cheese (Laney's favorite) and a few more cupcakes, Laney got to open her presents and play with her sister and her new trike. The night concluded with the National 4th Celebration on TV, glow necklaces, and a peek at the Takoma Park fireworks out on our front porch. What a fun day!

Mother's Day Memory Making

Happy Belated Mothers' Day to all my Mommy friends! I hope you all had sleep-in, breakfast made for you, no diapers to change kind of days like I did. I woke up to the smell of coffee, bacon, and banana-pecan pancakes with fresh strawberries, and to a little sprite named Mia begging me to finally open the present she made at school. She had been requesting the same every day since Monday, when she made it, and waiting is just SO hard for an almost 4 year old.



This year, we resurrected the Stepping Stone making tradition, in honor of the fact that Laney was too young to participate last year. I'm thinking we can do this every year and eventually create a garden path filled with memories. Of course, we will need a bigger yard to handle the bigger path, but we're working on that one day/project at a time.

In the meantime, we will continue to dig up worms, save caterpillars from the birds, save the trees from the caterpillars, and continually hide and find treasures in the sandbox.

April Fools Day!

Happy April Fools Day to everyone and special Happy Birthday to Amanda and Kyle, who were both born today many years ago!

Once again I was hoping to have a great story to tell you today, something so completely believable yet unbelievable, but I am stuck in a rut of writers block, so it's not going to happen. Instead I will live vicariously through my seester who has made bitter sugarless cookies for her coworkers, and the many other kooky posts I have seen today.



Let's see, since I last posted life has been whirring by. St. Patrick's day came and went without much fanfare, though we did have corned beef and cabbage. I totally missed my dad's and Debbie's birthday - so sorry to both of you!! Easter and Spring Break were spent in Raleigh with my parents, and Laney had her first plane ride on the way home, so that was a big deal. I also got a taste of single motherhood as Patrick had driven home earlier to go back to work, so I flew with the girls myself, which was a bit of a logistical puzzle.

Lots of potential changes in the works for us, and I hope to be able to post about them soon.

Happy New Year 2008!

Happy New Year to you! Today I am sitting here drinking a pint of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider, something I like to toast with, but lately have been drinking like a coke. Last night we spent the early evening celebrating New Years' Eve at our neighbors' home a la Greenwich Mean Time (7pm here). It was fantastic! A little beer and wine for the grownups, a little juice for the kiddos, some fantastic Indian food, homemade mac-n-cheese, and noisemakers and glow necklaces for the big hurrah! Just a great family night for all. The best part was that we got Mia down to bed at 8:30, and she didn't feel the least bit slighted. Laney, on the other hand, is sick and didn't go to bed until 1am, so Patrick and I definitely made it to midnight and then some. Ah well, such is life as a parent.

Christmas week was spent in Raleigh with my parents, Aunt Amanda and Uncle Travis, Uncle Neil and Jessica, and cousin Jacque. Jacque and Mia played and fought like sisters, and Laney spent the time trying to woo her favorite Uncle Travis, as well as getting baptised at my parents' church. Gracious thanks to GrandMary and Santa George for hosting brunch afterwords - what a wonderful day.

The 23rd, Jacque turned 5 so we had a birthday party and Santa came to visit that night before his big day on Christmas Eve. Mia again reported that she'd like none other than a horse for Christmas, but Santa is a practical man and knows we aren't allowed to have a horse on our property, so she got a My Little Pony instead. :) Laney was a bit frighted by the prospect of sitting in any man's lap except Daddy, Grandaddy or one of her uncles, and let us know exactly how she felt. Very loudly.

Uncle Neil made a fried turkey this year, and whoa what a difference from our first experience - this one was fantabulous, as Amanda would say. The girls decorated gingerbread houses made of gingerbread graham crackers (thank you for the idea, Ms. Janise!) and enjoyed many many sweets and candies, much to my chagrin and to their sleep deprivation.

I hope all of you had a wonderful Christmas and are having a great New Year's Day celebrating the passing of the last year, and optimistically planning for the new one.



PS: Thanks to Julie for showing me how to post an album link!! You can view our Christmas slide show via the link to the right under Volpe Photo Albums - enjoy!