Happy Birthday Grammie!

This is Alyssa's abstract art piece for you......it is really neat in person, very bright colors and pretty! Happy Birthday mom!

Halloween 2011

Here mom, so you can stop yelling at me. I notice that you're not mean to me when I am in Vermont, just when you're on the phone with me. You better watch it or else I'll bring up that time you actually fell asleep when I was talking to you on the telephone. If you would get into this century and start texting, you would have had the top picture a week ago. They dressed up Pumpkin Hollow last Saturday. Alyssa made herself a witch for that. Luke was a scary skeleton mean guy type thing. Oh, by the way, I painted both of their faces. Guess I didn't have to be born with THAT.

The picture below is from actual trick or treating, which was last night. It's hard to have the body of a butterfly when you're all bundled up in layers. But she was cute anyway.

All dressed up for Sarah and Cameron's wedding on October 1st. What a fun time we had! We stayed in a hotel for two nights, the kids managed to swim in the pool four times despite our busy schedule, and we got to see lots of our friends and family all spiffed up. Alyssa was wearing two gold bracelets which she took very good care of...one given to me by her daddy and one given to me by our friend Sandra. It was a great wedding and reception!

First Day of School 2011

First day of 2nd grade for Alyssa, first day of 5th grade for Luke.
(You can click to make it bigger)

First Day/Last Day

Okay, APPARENTLY, I never posted my kids first day/last day pics from the end of the the 2010-2011 school year. So they are posted below. It poured on the first day last year so those ones are inside. I also was anxious about sending them off to school last year, this year...... NOT. Just kidding, I was a little bit (school started today). I'll post the new ones tomorrow, but for now, let's see how they have grown.....

Oh, hi! I have a ton of stuff to post and am overwhelmed when I think of all the things I should be putting here for my 2011 book (though my 2010 book is not done either so, whatever). Anyway, this is one of my favorite pictures of the summer. Not so nice of me but I love the peaceful look on my son's face as I hold him. This was taken during our trip to Bar Harbor in July. When I look at this picture in my head I hear a quote that is written on my bedroom wall............

We do not remember days....
We remember moments.

Mother's Day

We all take lessons from our mothers that affect us in our everday lives. Some of these things are big, some are little, and there are lots and lots in between. This Mother's Day I would like to share one lesson I learned from my mother. This lesson is not earth shattering and it will not change the world, it is simply something my mom told me when I was younger that has stuck with me. It is:

"It is not lady-like to swear. It doesn't sound good and it is not becoming to you".

I believe when she told me this I was probably a teenager and I remember thinking "Uh, okay" when she said it and thought it sounded so old-fashioned. But for some reason it stuck with me. I do not swear in public situations, I do not swear around people I barely know or even know pretty well, I did not swear when I was in the workplace, I do not swear in front of my children or my siblings' children, and I rarely swear, even still, around my parents. Do I like to swear?

YES!

If you are close to me I do swear because I like to (and come on, I couldn't follow my mom's advice 100% could I?). And when I am alone, wow, I swear A LOT. I like the emphasis it places on things and let's face it some words are just fun to say. But my swearing situations are limited. I view it as a way in which I show respect for people (by not swearing), and because of my mother, I am aware of how I present myself to the world in this regard.

Now all this being said, I would like to point out that I understand all people are different. I know lots and lots of people who swear in way more situations than I do and do I think they are bad or wrong? Absolutely not. I say, do as you wish.

But for me............for myself................I choose to honor what my mother told me. It's the little things that make up who we are. And it's the little things that mean the most.

I love you mom!

February Vacation 2011

Last week I rented a condo in Jackson, NH for a few days. My kids love to go to the North Conway area, funny since growing up (there) I thought it was quite possibly the most boring place on earth. As it turns out, I was wrong! Going back now is fun and I appreciate the beauty of the mountains and all the fun things to do there in such a different way. I do have so many great memories of growing up and a part of me feels at home when I am there. I found myself thinking that I could seriously see me and my kids living there if we ever decided to move. As an added bonus, one of my favorite girls on the planet also has a house there, my oldest and dearest friend Jamie. We got to spend some time with her and her kids and for some strange reason we seemed to attract attention wherever we went (more on that later). I'm not gonna lie though, at one point I was giving some serious creative thought to "how can we ditch all these kids and go out?!" but unfortunately (or fortunately) we are not the fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants carefree twenty-somethings that we once were. We're adults now! With responsibilities! And so yes, we were in for the night every night by 9.

Skating at Nordic Village

We were on the go pretty much constantly for 4 days. We started out on Monday with a trip to Zeb's which is a store that my kids absolutely love. Then it was ice skating at the little pond at Nordic Village where we stayed. After that we went out to dinner and over to Jamie's for a little visit. When we got back Alyssa went in the jacuzzi in our room. I mention the jacuzzi because she asked me about a thousand times if she could go in it in the time span of about one hour.

The next morning we went to the pools and hot tubs, which Alyssa was very anxious for. I'd have to say that the outdoor hot tub was the best for me and Luke and Alyssa liked the outdoor pool.

This picture cracks me up....Alyssa looks like she's got no pants on!
This was after we went swimming and were going back to the condo.

Then it was off to Nestlenook to go skating. Joe and I stayed at Nestlenook a few times but I had never been skating there (or even seen people skating there actually). It's really, really pretty and the ice was great and we skated for hours. It was an absolutely gorgeous day. My kids are great, GREAT skaters and I am so proud when I watch them on the ice. They also had sleigh rides here with giant horses (see picture below) but we didn't go on one. This place was seriously beautiful and picture perfect on the days we were there.

That night we met up with Jamie, Kirra and Libby and went to my new absolute favorite restaurant on earth. I had heard about this place a while ago and wanted to check it out. It is called the Shovel Handle Pub and it is located at Black Mountain (also in Jackson). I am a big, big fan of old barns, post and beam style buildings, rustic anything, and when I walked into this place I seriously turned to Jamie and said, "Oh my God Jamie, this place makes me want to.............have a function!!" haahahha. Who knows, maybe I'll throw someone a slammin birthday party soon there :) Really, we sat down and I had to pretend to take pictures of my dinner-mates but really I was taking pictures of the building and trying not to seem like a complete dork. I want to drag my bed to Jackson and live in this place. Live music, great atmosphere, awesome food and perfect company. Between that dinner at the Shovel Handle Pub and skating at Nestlenook it was a seriously great day.

Why only one picture of the Shovel Handle Pub you ask? Well, after snapping all those shots of this beautiful place, I proceeded to delete them all off my phone a few hours later. Something in my head made me think I had already uploaded them to my pute....but alas, I was mistaken.
Yes my brain is in a complete fog at times.

The next day we tried (for the third time) to go tubing at Cranmore but the lines were so long it was just not worth it. So we ended up meeting up with Jamie and we went on a little hike to Diana's Baths. I have been here in the summer but never in the winter and once again it was an absolutely beautiful day. The kids all did great and had a really fun time walking in the woods and sliding down icy hills wherever they found them.

We found this gigantic really cool icicle (you can't tell how cool it is from the picture). It had all kinds of handles and holes and bumps, etc. Luke was having fun here but he's just too cool for pics these days.

Kirra and Alyssa sitting on a perfect log chair (which you can't see)

Now, this is one reason why I love Jamie so much.
Who else would tell all the kids to lick the giant icicle so that we could take pictures? Or was it just because we get a kick of seeing them do whatver we tell them to do? Ahhh, I guess it doesn't matter.

After our walk we went and had sandwiches at our condo and then we all went skating again. It was fun for everyone for about 15 minutes and then Kirra went into serious melt-down mode and it got really ugly for Jamie from there. I think all of us (excluding Kirra, but maybe INcluding a few innocent bystanders) are still recuperating from this episode. It was serious. Let's just say, I don't think Jamie is going to be going back to Nestlenook any time soon with her kids. Sorry Jamie! All was fine a few hours later though when we met them for dinner at Tuckerman's Tavern. For the record, my daughter ordered spaghetti at every restaurant we went to. She had it three nights in a row and one left over lunch. She also discovered Shirley Temples to drink, and that is her new favorite thing to order when eating out.

As I said before there was no tubing this time due to long lines but we'll go up and go some other weekend. We did some other fun little things too and the kids loved sleeping on the pull-out couch at the condo (big highlight of the trip). All in all it was lots of fun and when it was time to leave neither of them wanted to go!

She's got a way about her.

I'm not a huge Billy Joel fan, in fact there are really only two songs that I like of his, but I happen to really love them. One is Summer, Highland Falls- one of my all time favorite songs, the other I love because it reminds me of my daughter. I heard it a few years ago and admittedly, it is a love song most likely written from a man to a woman. However, every word reminds me of Alyssa in some way. Although she completely exasperates me; makes me think she might drive me completely insane at times; never stops talking; singing or humming; is emotional and sometimes moody (even at 6!), I love her so much and feel so lucky to have her as my daughter. She pushes me in ways that I find new to motherhood; She is a busy-body and an incredible artist; She is deeply pained in ways she feels and shows but does not yet understand; She is friendly and beautiful and everywhere she goes she leaves having made a friend; She is all-in, all the time. She plays hard and sleeps hard. She is funny. Luke and I laugh at the things she says and does all the time. We look at each other and shake our heads when she does stuff that is just off the wall crazy. We know, it's just Alyssa. She is a challenge to us both at times, and I for one, and so happy I have him to experience her with. We know, she is a lot, she can be tough, she can make you laugh for days from one of her crazy antics, and thank God, she is ours.

Christmas 2010

Christmas, as always, was great for Luke and Alyssa. In fact, the whole month of December was pretty awesome. One of their favorite things every year is the Advent Calendar that they open every day after school. They get beyond excited about this as you can see (below). They came running and I mean RUNNING off the bus on December 1, both of them screaming "Adveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeent!!!!" I really wish as adults we still got this excited about something...anything (and if you are an adult that screams and throws yourself on the ground in excitement, then please, do tell).

(Let me just interject here that it is not my floors that caused Luke's sock to be so dirty. Early in December there was a lot of mud on the playground at school and Luke's teacher kept making him take off his shoes in the classroom because they were so filthy and he was tracking mud around. So there mom, not my fault.)

We went and cut down our tree early in December and by "we" I mean Uncle Jeff cut it down for us. We searched through hundreds of trees until we found one that we liked and by "we" I mean me, hahaha.

Alyssa walking the rows of trees looking for the best one.

This tree farm was the last place that Joe cut down our tree for us, and it is the first year I have had it in me to actually cut down a tree instead of buying one off a lot.

As it turns out our perfect tree looked much smaller outside. When we brought it in we realized it was HUGE! I had to clear out the corner of my living room for it and as I strung the lights we kept needing more, more, more. 750 lights later it was all decorated.



I went in to Alyssa's classroom for a little Christmas party. They smashed a pinata full of prizes. All the kids were WILD. I don't know how the teachers stay calm amid the chaos sometimes, but I am so glad they do. All the kids had a blast.

(It was also pajama day on the day of the party)

Snowmen cupcakes that I made for the kids.

On the night before Christmas Eve Alyssa put on a show for us. She and Luke have been doing these things for years. Sometimes they include guitar playing, singing, dancing, etc. They always set up the living room with every chair they can find and lots of time they set up Alyssa's stuffies as part of the audience. This "Christmas Eve-Eve" show included singing original songs written by Alyssa and also some readings.

On Christmas Eve we went to Meme and Papa's as we always do. Lots of fun and food and cousins to play with.

All dressed and ready to GO!

Alyssa and her doll had matching dresses.

Luke had a really hard time falling asleep on Christmas Eve. No, no, no....not just like tossing and turning, we are talking hours of escalating tension (for him and I) which resulted in a few minutes of unpleasant, completely un-Christmas-like behavior (for him and I) and some seriously tense moments until finally, FINALLY the poor kid fell asleep. Alyssa........well, she pretty much laid right there, feet away from all the commotion at times, and slept soundly.

At 6:38 the next morning the kids came in my room to wake me up. Santa came through big time with a whole slew of Luke's hockey sticks that he loves for floor hockey and Alyssa got a horse that she wanted.

It's funny, we bought Uncle Jeff a new hockey stick for Christmas. Well, by complete coincidence he gave Luke the exact same stick! If you've ever been in a hockey store and seen the rediculous number of sticks there are then you would appreciate how crazy that is. Luke's stick appears to be lucky for him because he got his first goal in a game using it!

hmmmmm I wonder what this present is...

I bought Luke and Alyssa iPod Touches which were a big hit. They were totally unexpected and they absolutely love them. Of course they aren't allowed to use them any old time they want to, but for the few days after Christmas they spent a good amount of time playing on them and TEXTING! Yes, TEXTING! Luke actually said to me (as he was thinking about this whole texting thing), "Mom, this is great I can just text you when I need something. I won't need to talk anymore". Okay at that point I had a little hint of - What the heck did I just do by giving my kids these things- but of course Luke was kidding. They are really, really good at taking care of their iPods and adhering to the rules.

Christmas day we went to Auntie Steph's. More fun, food and family. All in all, a GREAT Christmas!

One last thing about Christmas. I always get this little tinge of yuckiness about holidays in which gifts are given....and trust me, I know I bring it on myself. I feel such a pressure to make sure that each one, especially each Christmas, is all that my kids expect and dream it will be. So yes, I spend too much money and buy too many things and when it's all said and done and I look at the piles of presents I say to myself, "This just isn't right! This is not what life is all about!" It makes me feel like I am teaching my kids to be materialistic and that I am filling their lives with too much "stuff". This is all despite our talks of what the true meaning of Christmas is, and about the whole dynamic of giving/receiving. But alas, when you're 6 and 9, when it comes right down to it, the most exciting thing about Christmas is getting presents .

However, on Christmas morning after Luke and Alyssa opened their stockings and gifts from Santa, the first thing each of them did was go to the tree and search for their gift for me that they had from school. I watched them do this, all on their own, and and I was truly surprised that at this time when they had mounds of unopened gifts from me under the tree that I know they were beyond excited to open, that they had been waiting, waiting, WAITING to open (at one point I heard Luke tell Alyssa that "it hurt" to wait any longer for Chrismas to come), what they wanted to do most at that moment was GIVE a gift, not receive one.

That moment, for this mommy, made Christmas magical. And it was all worth it.