The most wonderful time of the year

This Christmas was very merry. Incredibly busy and exhausting - but a lot of fun. Samantha remembered Christmastime last year. So, she lit up when I told her that they could stay up late to watch Frosty the Snowman that night; she begged for eggnog at the grocery store so that we could drink it again while we decorated our tree; she reminded me a thousand times that she still hadn't sent her Christmas list to Santa; she sang along with Christmas songs; and she coached her little brother on the answer to "who is going to visit your house soon?"

Samantha's favorite gifts were her Ariel dress-up costume (the Little Mermaid), and her new pet fish for her room.

Kyle ran right to his soccer ball and net and didn't even want to open his other gifts because he was so busy playing soccer. It's so easy for me to let the stress and craziness of Christmas overwhelm me. But, kids bring the magic back and make it all fun again.

School days...

Life has been busy, and it's not always easy for me to find time to keep up this blog! But, I'm doing my best. First of all, Samantha loves pre-school. I had my first parent/teacher conference and I got to hear how well she's doing. Samantha has made lots of friends and the teacher even gave our number out to some of the other families whose children are having a harder time socializing. I could tell that her teacher has really picked up on her strengths and weaknesses in such a short period of time. Every day she comes home with school papers and artwork. It's a lot of fun for her and for us.

The big news in Kyle's life is that he is potty trained! Truth be told - it's also the big news in MY life. He's talking in sentences now and it's a lot of fun hearing what he'll come up with next. He likes playgroup, which consists of general play, an art activity and circle time where we sing songs. He loves the general play, but he refuses to participate in the group activities. He'll color or paint and sing and dance at home, but not at playgroup. Bubble time is the only activity that brings him to his feet. He can't keep up his "too cool for this, James Dean" act when the bubbles come out.

Now that we're in the throes of winter, the kids have been loving the snow. They whine to go out and play every day. Kyle will come in when he gets cold, but Samantha has to be bribed to get her to come in. Here they are in their old ratty coats, enjoying the first "snow" of the year. As you can see from the grass in the background, it wasn't much of a snow, but they insisted on getting out there to play in it.

Little goblins

Halloween was a lot of fun this year. Samantha was very excited about it and was looking forward to being "Belle" from Beauty and the Beast. It's all she talked about. Kyle was really able to enjoy this year too. He was a train engineer. Here is a picture of the kids dressed up before pre-school and playgroup. Samantha's class had a big halloween party and she was able to wear her costume twice.



Halloween night, we headed over to our good friends' the Hughe's for pizza and trick-or-treating. We had a nice big group and it made it a lot of fun for the kids and the parents. The weather was nice and everyone had a great time.

First day of school

On September 18th, the pre-school activities started. Samantha started her first day of school. She was excited and pretty relaxed about the whole thing. Not a tear - from her. She did look a little uneasy as I walked to the door to leave. But, she was fine, and I knew she would be. I was fine too, although I got a little teary in the car as we were pulling out, after laughing/whining to a friend about leaving my "baby". When I returned, she was all smiles, met new friends, had a wonderful time! She had drawn pictures, played at the playground, sang songs and "loved pre-school".

After dropping Samantha off, Kyle and I made our way over to his first day of playgroup. He did great. He stuck mostly to the boys. They all played with the trucks and trains. He seemed to have a nice time. He sang in circle time and had a great time catching bubbles.

It was a nice first day, and we're enjoying our fall so far!

Summertime!

Samantha and Kyle have been enjoying their summer! Kyle has become a lot more fun for Samantha to play with, now that he's talking so much and able to play on the slide, trampoline and in the sandbox. Here they are enjoying their picnic lunch. We started off the summer by having to say goodbye to some good friends. Pfizer's closing forced them to move out of state and it was sad to say goodbye. Samantha still asks about her friend. This picture was our last day with Brandt, Austin and Jennifer.

Here is Samantha playing on her trampoline with the neighbor girls. The picture below was a rainy day that we spent at a farm animal event at the library. Samantha was one of two kids to be asked to help. She did a great job in front of such a large group.








We've had a busy summer. We've been to Tiger games, the zoo and Ludington for a week's vacation.

We even went to our first movie at the theater with the kids. We saw "Ratatouille". I am dreading the end of summer, but to Samantha the fun is just beginning because she is very eager to start pre-school! There's always something new and exciting around every corner.

Look who's two!

Kyle turned two this August. We let him open his swimming pool a day early so that he could have friends over to play and swim in his new pool on his birthday. Here he is opening his pool. He got the rest of his gifts after dad got home on his birthday. Since the kids typically don't have their parties on their actual birthday, we've started a tradition of baking cookies as a family on their birthdays, so that we're not "caked out" by the time all of the birthday parties are over. Candles stick just as well in a warm cookie as in cake! Here is Kyle enjoying his cookies on his birthday.

Then, over the weekend, we had the family over to celebrate with him. The weather was miserable the day of his party, but he enjoyed himself anyway and got lots of wonderful new gifts!

T-ball

Samantha played t-ball this summer. She really enjoyed it and did a great job! Of course, they are still four and five years old, so pee breaks were a constant necessity, even during a 3 inning game. And any airplane or butterfly was enough to distract the entire infield. But, it was adorable to watch and they all had a great time and learned a lot!
Unfortunately, I didn't have my phone camera on the best resolution when I took the first few pictures, so most of these pictures aren't very clear. I had just gotten the new phone and was still learning, so most of the pictures are blurry and it was too sunny for me to see that at the game. Great job, Wend!

Jason's alumni game

The current SAHS baseball coach set up the first annual alumni game. Jason was so excited that he still fit into his old warm up jacket. No beer gut! But, when he jumped up to make a catch, he hurt his knee again. After surgery (ahem, when I was 8 months pregnant...) for a torn ACL, he has a nearly complete tear again. Poor old fella. But, this time he didn't have to be carried away on a stretcher! Here's a few fun pictures from the game.

Above is a group shot of his team. They split the teams up by graduation years, to make it fair. They did even graduation years on one team, odds on the other. As luck would have it, all of the young guys ended up on the even team - and Jason graduated in '91. Needless to say, the evens won - by a lot. But Samantha still talks about seeing her daddy play baseball. And we did get to show her our old stomping grounds.

Pillow Polo

Samantha played pillow polo this winter. It's a version of floor hockey, but they use heavily padded sticks and a soft ball. They were adorable, but it was sometimes difficult to watch a bunch of four and five year olds trying to play an hour long game. They'd lose interest so quickly, some would be sitting off by themselves, others whining for a drink or because they suddenly had to use the bathroom. Whoever was goalie that "period" was always the most comical. The kids would get so distracted playing with the net, the ball could come sailing by them and they'd never even notice. Samantha loved to run around the room, but not really after the ball so much. She just liked the thrill of running with the other kids. But, when she'd get to the ball, the other kids would fight it out to get the ball while Samantha trotted off.

Vacation!

We took our first "family of four" road trip vacation. We were out-smarting winter by going south in March. It would be warm there, cold here, and by the time we got home, we'd be almost into spring. Or so we thought... They had record cold temps in the south and we ended up with a total of one nice day. Every day, the forecast called for a warm up - tomorrow. We ended up driving home in a blizzard.

Since we were gone over Easter, the Easter Bunny had to visit our hotel room in New Orleans. Good thing we remembered to leave him a note! We spent the rest of the day in the New Orleans aquarium - you know, because it was freezing outside. We did have an incredible dinner that night!

Here are some alligators we saw in a cypress swamp off the Natchez Trace in Mississippi. I know they're hard to see in the picture. But, we were thrilled to see them! We had hoped to see some on our Bayou tour south of New Orleans, but they cancelled our tour due to the cold.

We tried to make the best of a rainy, cool day in Natchez, MS. We waited for our carriage ride through the city for over an hour and it never arrived. They "forgot" to tell us they cancelled the rest of the rides for the day because of the lousy weather.

What a trip! Well, it wasn't ALL bad. We ate well and made the best of things by getting hotels with indoor pools so the kids could swim. And, we consoled ourselves with the fact that the weather was MUCH colder back at home!