Christmas with Grandma and Grandpops

Let's pretend that its December 30th rather than January 30th! Grandma and Grandpops had Christmas with us a few weeks early. The kids were really spoiled with presents from them, Mark's brother, sister, and brother-in-law, and Mark's aunts and uncles. Whew! I think Christmas would've been really overwhelming if we had not spread it out like we did. It gave me time to find room for new toys before the next overload came!

Emma really loved snuggling with Grandpops.




















Maryn's new favorite outfit from Grandma. I practically had to bribe her to get her to let me wash it.














Look at that expression! So cheesy.













Parker got a really cool dinosaur toy. He's been very into dinosaurs lately. More Christmas later...

Grandma!

I was going through pictures from Christmas- more to come later- and found this really cute one of the kids with Mary Sue. They always have so much fun when she's here. We love you, Grandma!!

Gingerbread House

I have never done a gingerbread house with the kids before. This is the first Christmas I felt like it was something I could try since the kids were older- and I have help! Mary Sue is here for the week!!

We iced the house. I think more icing was consumed than used on the house. Maryn is the queen of sugar!! (I guess she comes by that honestly...)


Parker hard at work.


Emma was really enjoying herself!


Sorry for the color but Mark was messing around with the camera.


Finished product. Not too bad!! I can't wait until the kids are old enough to do their own- mainly so I can do one by myself!!

Happy Friday

Kids in their Christmas pjs getting ready to decorate the tree.


Parker's Thanksgiving Feast. Our pilgrim is the one in the middle.



Maryn dressed up with her class too but she has a terrible scowl on her face so I didn't post her picture (also I had not rotated it and am too lazy to do so right now!) Happy Friday!!

Baa Moo Farms

A couple of weeks ago I went to Baa Moo Farms with some friends when the kids had a day off school. I was able to leave Emma with Nana (Emily's mom- Thanks, Nana!!) and take Cam. Baa Moo Farms would not have been the best place for a 16 month old along with a 4.5 and 3 year old. My friend Verna planned the trip for us, her girls, Lanigan and Adrianna, and my friend Ann and her two boys, Carter and Will. We had so much fun!!


The kids- Will, Parker, Maryn, Carter, Cam, Lanigan, and Adri


They had lots of calves that the kids could pet.


They were even able to feed one.





Group shot on a wagon


Climbing in an old tractor


They fed sheep.





Will with his egg. They were able to go in the hen coop and pick an egg from the nest and then put them all in a basket. Then they fed the chickens. Surprisingly no one freaked out with 15 or so chickens running around them.


My kids with their eggs.


They had a chance to milk a cow. This is Carter milking the cow. Maryn did it but Parker didn't want anything to do with it!


Cam


Then they found a kitten to pet. Kittens are so cute. I think if they didn't grow up to be cats I might get one!


Maryn and Lanigan


The boys


At the end we took a hayride around the farm. Cam's favorite part was the bulls. They did come really close to the wagon we were on. Fortunately the farmer was right there and our group was on the far side of the wagon.

We had so much fun and I would highly recommend it for a nice morning trip. You do have to make reservations in advance, but it was great for the kids to have such a hands on experience.

Please disregard...

this baby's bib!! She now wants to feed herself with a fork and its the only one we have that snaps. All you moms know how pointless a velcro bib is at this age! Someone please get Emma a new bib for Christmas!!


I saw this on another blog that I read... can't remember which one its been so long... its a geoboard. We used them some when I taught and Parker used one last year in school. Its a great thing for their fine motor skills. I bought some wood from Michaels,- I think its for making a plaque or something- (is that how you spell plaque in that case?) painted it black, and then I/Parker hammered push pins in a grid. I am fully prepared for the math dork jokes from my brother after posting this! And all you people from Auburn, no I didn't name Parker after Parker Hall, the math building!!


In other news our princess turned 3 at the end of October. More pictures coming soon. Dede sent this tiara to arrive on her birthday along with other pink, girly things. Since I was making cupcakes for her school party and her actual party I went with this lovely Harris Teeter cake with a princess stuck on top for the day of her birthday. She was thrilled!

Great Idea

I have been reading a lot of craft blogs lately and as I am not a huge Halloween fan I haven't done a lot with the kids but I thought these were really cute. She bought fake pumpkins from a craft store and painted them with chalkboard paint! How creative!!

How Cute!!!!

Is this not the cutest thing you have ever seen?? I hope to have the time to make this for my girls. Yeah, right. Maybe she'll make them and then sell them and I could buy one!!

Random

So its been a while! We've been very busy with the start of school and consignment sales. Here are a couple of random things. Pictures from school to come.

Are your kids side sippers? Parker and Maryn both were and it looks like Emma will be too. They don't want to miss anything!



Emma the fairy


Do you remember making these?

You put the beads on a little peg board that makes a shape and then iron them together. I bought these for the kids while I was in Seattle this summer. They were bigger than the ones I did when I was little which was better for my kids since their fine motor skills aren't quite ready for the tiny ones! Maryn needed a good bit of help but Parker did pretty well on his own. It took a couple of days to finish because they weren't quite patient enough to finish it in one sitting.

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures made a week ago by one of my really good friends, Sharon, at Smitten Photography. She does amazing work and the kids had a great time. These were for Emma's first birthday and we decided to do some of everyone while we were there. Sharon took these pictures of Emma at the hospital the day after she was born. You can see all of the pictures from our recent photo shoot here on her blog.

Kids Books

I was just reading this to Maryn before her nap and decided to share it with you. My mom gave it to Parker and it is so cute! She is a preschool teacher so she knows kids books! It is a great story about a duck who decides to ride a bike and all of the other farm animals he passes and what they think. The illustrations are really good too. What kid books do you enjoy?

Bermuda!!

Let me say that Bermuda was FABULOUS!

This is where we stayed, the Fairmont Southhampton.

We dropped the kids in Auburn on a Wednesday, put them to bed and then left. It felt really weird driving away- but I didn't mind too much! We got to Bermuda and it was raining really hard but since it was 4 o'clock in the afternoon and we weren't going to get any sun anyway. The weather the rest of the trip was great although it did rain again Saturday afternoon but we were shopping in Hamilton so it didn't matter too much. The food was absolutely fabulous. Our favorite was Waterlot Inn. It was probably our favorite restaurant ever. I had scallops all four nights either for an entree or appetizer. YUM!! We did lots of reading, sitting by the pool, whatever we wanted! I could take as long as I wanted in the shower, shave my legs every time, fix my hair and put on my make-up without any interruption. Maryn wasn't trying to play in my make-up and Emma wasn't crying to be picked up. I love my kids A TON but it sure is good to get away every once in a while. Especially with Mark!!

It was a great trip and the kids had so much fun while we were away. When we got home they were so excited to see us. Maryn just screamed and then said "I saw the door open. I didn't know who it was and it was you!" in her shrill little excited voice. So cute.

You can't rent cars there, only scooters. We weren't there long enough and didn't care about doing anything but sitting by the pool to rent one.


This was at the Fairmont Princess in Hamilton. There was a free ferry that would take you between the two resorts which was nice because taking a taxi was pretty expensive.


These dancers were at the dock when the ferry arrived in Hamilton.


View from the ferry




My handsome husband


View from Waterlot Inn


Our room


Can't wait to start planning our 15th anniversary trip!