Addie's Princess Party

One of Maddie's best friends, Addie, turned 3 right after Christmas, when lots of her friends were away and things were just too busy to have a party, so Carol and I plotted to have a little party for her in January. It had a princess theme, and since Maddie doesn't have a princess dress, she (happily) wore her bumblebee costume, and with a crown on she became a bumblebee princess. Ollie was the resident pirate, also very pleased with himself. Addie always LOVES an excuse to be a princess... we love you, Addie, and Happy Birthday!!!

Thumbs Up

It's Friday morning, and Ollie's already excited about starting soccer again this afternoon... and I start to think about the "practical" side of it, what I need to gather so he'll be dressed for it and we'll be ready to go. Only then do I realize that he has no sneakers. So we left home this afternoon with an extra half hour or so on our hands to dash to Kohls and pray they had something that fit at a reasonable price. I was shocked to find most of the decent sneakers there were at least $45 (??!!), so when I found some at $32 that I didn't loathe, we went for it. These are his first ever shoes in a boys size 1... a bit step!! I think he has a bit of room to grow into them, thankfully... hoping they still fit him fine for spring soccer in several months. He had a great time today with Pre K Kickers, already can't wait for next week.

Girls' Night Out

I had a fantastic night out with my friends Jen, Chloe and Tiffany a few days after Christmas - our 2nd Annual Girls' Night Out! We met at Badger's in Union, my old hometown... it was so nice driving through the town common and seeing the same decorations that have always been there - little pine trees scattered about, decorated with big colored lights. When the four of us get together, we just laugh and laugh, and we had EXTRA fun this time because we happened to be at Badger's on "Quiz Night,"which costs $2/person to enter if you choose to play, and winners get a cash prize. The restaurant was packed, and pretty much the whole place participated. Our team name was "Kick Ass on the Cutting Room Floor" (long story). There were 6 sets of 5 questions, and they were hard! However, we had Chloe on our team, so we were golden.... and we came in second place, only a point behind the winners, I think! Here's to next year, ladies!!

Christmas 2011

We have just come back from 2 fantastic weeks in Maine, our big Christmas holiday, which is always jam-packed with loads of fun and excitement and yumminess and family! Ian and Suzanne are there with Aidan and Eli, and the kids can't get enough of Grandma Patty and Granddad Richie. It's fun that we're in Maine for a full week before Christmas (baking! wrapping! relaxing! wrapping!) and another week after (eating leftover cookies! playing! watching movies! playing!). Maddie is still a bit young to understand about asking Santa for gifts, but Ollie came up with a modest list this year, which consisted of three items: sticker books, some Fireman Sam books/dvds, and a "dino-grabber." We had an interesting time figuring out what a "dino-grabber" is... we pretty much determined it's one of those long gadgets that you squeeze the handle and the other end clasps stuff. We passed that on to Santa, and he came through!! It was sticking out of Ollie's stocking, and he was so pleased with it that it's likely he wouldn't have cared if that was his only present all day. But back to Christmas preparations... as usual, mom did most of the baking - she made 4 loaves of Finnish coffee bread, 2 different kinds of butter cookies, lebkuchen, almond cresents, and chocolate saltine bark. All I made was a big batch of gingerbread cookies, which Ollie and I cut up into girls and boys, trees, stars, angels, and - of course - lobsters and ducks! Rolling, cutting, and frosting them was pretty much a pain in the tookus; I would love one day to find a a cookie recipe and a frosting that I REALLY like.

This year for the first time, we decided to stay overnight at my mom and dad's house on Christmas Eve, because there's a lot of special stuff that happens after dinner, and we didn't want to have to rush home and get the kids to bed. Dinner was our now traditional lobster feast, followed by a massive cookie selection. After that we all headed to the living room, resplendent in the twinkley glow that only a 12-foot Christmas tree decorated with hundreds of sparkley ornaments can give... we opened our Christmas Eve presents (everyone gets new jammies), hung our stockings (which Grandma has knit; mine is by far the smallest and least stretchy!), put the kids to bed (exhausted by then, and sooo excited), then snuggled back into the sofas for some steaming hot gluug and a reading of Dylan Thomas' A Child's Christmas in Wales. This tradition began many years ago, when my granddad always read it aloud for us; it definitely wouldn't be Christmas without it. I think next year Ollie and Maddie will be old enough to sit quietly for the whole thing.

Christmas morning -- the kids were up at 6:30, but we couldn't open stockings until almost 8:30, when Ian and Suz finally made their way over to the house! Stockings on Grandma and Granddaddy's bed, lovely breakfast, then presents, presents, presents. Maddie got an Mp3 radio from Grandma Carole and Granddad Maurice, as well as books and a soft fleece sleepy suit, a stick horse and a big stuffed kitty from Grandma Patty and Granddad Richie, and from Santa a Leapster 2 with a Thomas the Train game, and some castle building blocks. Ollie got a projection planetarium from Carole and Maurice, a big set of Roy Toy building blocks from Patty and Richie, and Santa came through with the sticker books, a big set of Fireman Sam dvds, and a Leapster Explorer. It had snowed a few days before Christmas, so it was nice to still have some snow on the ground, but the best thing was that it actually started snowing on Christmas morning!! Definitely a white Christmas, so we didn't even mind that it changed to rain by the evening.
The week after Christmas went really fast, of course... a highlight was a big family outing around "the head," which is a gorgeous little mini-peninsula we can walk to from mom and dad's house. We all bundled ourselves up and had such a good time. Maddie walked the whole time, except at the end when it gets a bit tricky. Ollie had loads of fun with Aidan and Eli, but was definitely ready to head home when the time came. Another highlight of the holidays for me was spending time with Chloe... never enough time, but we're grateful for whatever we can get.
We had ANOTHER lobster dinner on New Year's Eve! The night before that was Grandma Patty's birthday, and she and Granddaddy hosted their annual "Soup-off," a party that features 4 different kinds of soups! Granddaddy made borscht, Grandma made carrot-coriander, Andy made broccoli-stilton, and Ian made spicy corn soup with candied bacon. Andy's was sooooo good (he got major accolades) and Ian's is always a hit. The borscht has a cult following, and mom's was a new addition this year, a soup I make quite often that always comes out yummy.
All in all, Christmas is glorious, and except for missing our family in England, it couldn't have been nicer. Happy 2012, everyone!

Wow, Some Family Shots!

We met the nicest family at the Owl's Head Lighthouse today - 2 parents, maybe 5 kids, and 2 grandparents - the wife grew up in Rockland but they all live in Viginia Beach now. We took pictures of them with their camera, and they took pictures of us with ours. We should do this more often... there are so few photos of the 4 of us together!! I like Ollie's expression in the second photo - the sun was right in our eyes! The weather was gorgeous today; it was so nice to walk along the wooded path to the lighthouse, with beautiful ocean views the whole way there. After that we went into town and had lunch with mom and dad at the Rockland Cafe (yummy Maine shrimp!), then meandered down to the Farnsworth Museum to visit their wonderful Christmas toy train exhibit. Tomorrow is a big day - Aidan and Eli come!

Oh, How They Grow

We had such a fun time at the "Moms Around the Lake" Christmas Party... the kids would barely stop playing long enough to eat two bites of food the whole time. Santa was a big hit, as usual... he brought Ollie a fantastic Lego robot, and Maddie a magnetic paper doll kit. We stayed with Carol, Ryan and Addie about a half hour after everyone else left, and the kids rode around the empty gym in the plasma car, danced on the stage, and just had a blast. When we got home, Ollie got busy with his new Lego kit... he's quickly becoming a pro!!!

December!!

Way, way behind in my posts... just wanted to start this month off with a photo actually taken on December 1st, when we put up our fabulous advent calendar. It was Maddie's turn to go first (the angel ornament was in pocket 1; the soldier in pocket 2). When she took out the ornament, she said, "Oh, Mommy, it's a princess!!" So, our angel with forevermore be a "princess" (you can see her at the top of the tree in this photo). The kids were completely ecstatic over their Peppa Pig calendars; Ollie comes into our room every morning to ask what day it is so he can find the right number on the calendar and retrieve his tiny piece of chocolate. He helps Maddie find hers when she comes downstairs. Maddie has gotten a bit over-eager with the chocolates a few times, so I've had to secretly replace a few missing chocolates with Cadbury buttons. Believe it or not, we're even enjoying a fourth advent calendar this year -- the Jacqui Lawson London calendar -- every day reveals a new, fantastic animated event. Maddie always wants to see "Bem" (Big Ben), Covent Garden, the London Eye, and the "chimney" (where the elf sweeps chimneys so they're clean for Santa). Ollie loves that one as well, and he loves making snowflakes and decorating the tree. Happy, happy December.