Table for 4: November 2009

Ben, Ava and the hose

Good Lord!

For Jimmy & Molly

You had to be there.

More exciting Ben naps

While I was making dinner the other night, it got quiet. Too quiet. I go to check on Ben and...

Anatomy of a nap cont.....

This was the same nap that started in the car:

Anatomy of a nap

Both of our kids decided that they no longer had a need for a nap on their second birthday. No matter how we tried to reason with them, beg, plead, they were done. Ben will take a nap if I drive him up and down Westchester Parkway. Matt swears that playing Poi Dog Pondering does the trick during their drives. The time change has brought new challenges with the Chunk. He doesn't nap, then has happy hour at 6, which thrice ended with him falling asleep in a time-out and waking up swinging. It was quite a joyous week. Now he's back to regular car naps and one day last week, it continued. (We can't transfer him from car to bed. He wakes up and all hell breaks loose) He wakes up, I bring him in and after a few minutes, he's passed out again. I got to watch Oprah for once, so thanks Ben!

Back to the park

On our day off school last week, we met Rachelle and the girls at the beach park in Playa. The kids were so happy running and playing and I realized that we haven't been to the park much this semester.....like at all this semester. I ended up having to rush them out so I could go to class and vowed to get back into going to the park. So we went again the other day and had a blast being pirates and flying. I can not wait for this semester to be over.

It was so "cold" that Lily had to bundle up

Flying

Hello Officer

So, Papa (Tom) came to visit for the weekend recently. Sadly, he got sick and flew home a day early. The kids and I took him to the airport and then headed to Lily's school for a family workday. While trying to maneuver my way through traffic and get my car out of the go-back-into-the vortex lane, I might have crossed over a solid white line. A policeman on a motorcycle might have been right behind me. So, while I pull over, Lily is all about the questions. When Officer Friendly walks up, Lily's says, "HI!!!" He was kind of nice and said hi to the kids. He was kind of jerky too and really excited about that little shiny badge on his shirt. Anyway, while trying to spook me by walking back to his chopper to "check out my information", Lily asks me excitedly, "are we going to jail?!?" But it wasn't even a frightened type question, it was a happy excited, can we please go to jail, question. Thanks to Lily and Ben (and my sunglasses hiding my rolling eyes), I got a warning. :)

Recently...

Aunt Maureen bought this for Lily a long time ago. I thought she would never be big enough to fit in it. I kind of think she looks like a Jedi knight, but Lily thinks she looks like a fairy princess. People freak out and want to know where I got it. Aunt Mo? Can you send me like 30 of these?

Making home made pretzels that were actually very good.

While at a family work day for Lily's school, Ben hit a wall.....literally. He needed a little drive.

Later, the stickers came out.

4 year old wisdom

Lily just shared some important information with me:

"Mom, we live on the Earth.........and it goes around............the Earth is in space....so we're in space..............and it is important to keep space clean.........up there, in the air........around like this" (she spins slowly)

I love this kid!!!!

Cactus and google eyes

So, I think I got this cactus from Aunt Connie's Western-themed 50th birthday party. Without giving away a lady's age, let's just say it wasn't recently and the little guy has grown in interesting ways. He sprouted some bizarre shoots. I may trim him up, so I wanted to document his individuality.

Thinking of sending this one to IIT's Alumni newsletter. :)

These eyes are creepy!

Ben & Ava

Ben and Ava are great friends. It is soooo convenient, since their older siblings are BFF. We can swap kids and let them play for hours. I love this picture of Ben and Ava from last year and, trying to replicate it, got a few cuties.

'08

'09

Even More Halloween '09

Pals: Allison, Lily, Ava, Kai & Ben. I love our block!

Todd, the new guy (in Matt's department), Jennie and baby Claire. We love them and are so happy they moved here when Claire was 2 weeks old!! Crazy!

Nikki and (not so baby anymore) Owen. He is such a monkey and just about to walk. (At 10 months old)

Ava & Ben trick or treating. Ben still thinks you get to go inside and hang out. Good thing he's cute!

They were over it after a few houses. They'd rather have a ride and eat candy. Lily and Kai were running from house to house this year, grabbing as much loot as they could. Gone are the days of one block and then home.

More Halloween '09

Not so patiently waiting to put their costumes on.

Sweet, sweet Dorothy

Trying to get them together. Ben would wear different parts of his costume at different times throughout the day.

Allison, Ben and Lil..... more to come....

Halloween '09

Carving pumpkins. This lasted for a couple of minutes and then Mommy ended up cleaning out every pumpkin. Lily drew her own design and I cut it out. She wanted it to be spooooooky!

Ben's (by Matt), Lily's and Cate's

Ben decided to get into character on Halloween eve.

Halloween breakfast. I got a neat tip from Kai's grandma Sherry. She uses a turkey baster to pour pancakes into the pan. You can make anything!

Halloween Party II

Yes, Ben, I would love to take that off your hands for you. :)

Maddie with her fishing prize

Lily and Bella and self painted faces

Ben, pumpkins & a hammer=yikes!

Lily loves these teeth. She is still wearing them and scaring everyone. She was like a Dorothy/Witch hybrid

Halloween Party

Halloween at WPNS was my job this year and I must say, it was AWESOME!! :) All I had to do was delegate, do a little shopping and set up. Parents were all over it this year and helped out so much. The kids and I went in on Thursday to set up for the T/TH classes and then left before the party. Friday, everything just went off without a hitch. My personal favorite, homemade popcorn balls. Oh, you delicious little devils.

Ben the fireman!

He calls everything his Papa hat, Papa boots, so essentially, he was Papa mustache. We should have put a big handlebar mustache on him. Hehehe!