Just because...

Playdate with Enzo

Enzo turned 2 this month and Eve invited us to a new playspace to celebrate his birthday. The Inside playground is a child's dream. They all had a fabulous time.

Birthdays galore

Nicholas has had a busy social calendar. Not surprisingly, with twenty some kids in Nicholas's classroom, all with birthday's within 5 months of each other, the birthday celebrations will seem never ending. This past weekend we attended two of his classmates birthday parties in one day alone!

Of course, as wonderful a photo opportunity a child's birthday party provides, I, of course, seem to forget my fabulous Christmas gift to myself and am forced to use the not so effective camera on my smartphone. Never wanting to hear the wrath that I never take pictures of the kids, I am sharing regardless of the blur.

First party of the day was Taylor's at the Gymnastics Academy of Boston in Acton. Gymnastics? you might ask. When it comes to three year olds, give them a bouncy house/trampoline, rope swing, and a huge foam pit, and you've got all the fun you need.

This photo is a true and accurate representation of Nicholas's actions during the party. He was a true blur up until pizza time.

Yummy pizza!

Party number two was Jonah's at Jellybean Junction in Concord for a dance party. Nicholas got into it and was dancing up a storm, especially enjoying the Hokey-Pokey. At times, he was the only kid actively dancing. Other parents noticed and commented. I didn't tell them we practice doing the Hokey-Pokey a lot at home. It can be a very effective tool for getting your stubborn child to get dressed.

After a period of 'practicing', the kids got up on stage for what seemed like their very first recital. Again, at times, Nicholas was the only one participating, and again, other parents noticed and commented. What provided much amusement to some of us parents was the stark contrast in which Nicholas participated and Nicholas' BFF Natalie (in the blue) refused to participate with a furious leer directed at her mother. Ah, I wish my smartphone camera had better zoom. It was priceless.

Luckily for Natalie, the recital portion was short and they got to eat pizza and cake for a second time that day.

Nicholas and Natalie enjoying cake.

Ski Lessons - Day One

Yesterday was Nicholas' first day of ski lessons. He's doing a special program for 3 year old kids at Nashoba where I do my Adult Team Racing.

The beginning of class was a bit chaotic. LOTS of kids, and because the class requires a non skiing adult, LOTS of parents but nothing burst this kids bubble of excitement.

Here's the big guy all geared up and listening to the instructor. We did some stretches to warm up, just like Fun-and-Fit at school.
Here we are marching in our ski boots. They are pretty heavy.

Finally we get to the good part. They have these new fangled thingamajigs called H-bars which let the kid focus on standing and lets the parents do all the work.

Nicholas loved this part. Insisting constantly that I wasn't going fast enough.

What's the best part of skiing? Apres ski of course. Nicholas agreed. Despite having made our own hot cocoa for the lodge, the class one-upped me and provides juice and cookies as a end of class treat. Doesn't get much better than this.

More pictures of Nicholas skiing and Alexa sledding over on our share site... http://thepligpen.shutterfly.com/648.

December in Review- Part II- Christmas

I spoiled myself this Christmas and purchased myself a new camera. A Canon xSi DSLR. So far I love it. Here are some photos I've taken on it. So much easier than our old one.

Christmas Eve;

Christmas morning;

Someone was excited about those presents.

Skis too!

And someone was also excited about the kitchen.

Unwrapping presents is almost as much fun as getting the gift.

Yay! Now we can stop taking it out from the library and incurring those late fees!

Some fun in the snow.

Adventures in Potty Training- Part Deux

A year ago, the thought of having two kids out of diapers was inconceivable. Today we are firmly marching into the realm of possibility.

Alexa has always been vocal about her dislike for poopy pants yet almost 2 months ago she'd usually walk, or toddel, straight to her room afterwards calling out "poopy" until we changed her diaper.

About the same time, she became very interested in taking her brothers lead and literally follow him to the bathroom when he must go. We pulled out his old IKEA potty seat for her to play on.

She's asked a few times this last week to sit on Nicholas' seat on the toilet but we don't think she's used it. Maybe she has but last night we obtained proof that she went peepee on the potty!

It was just before bathtime and I had her nudie patutie b/c she expressed interest in sitting on the potty. She had been on and off numerous times and I thought she was playing. I hadn't realized she'd done anything until she started poking at her pee! I think she was just as surprised to see it there as we were.

It will still be a long road but the thought of not having to put a diaper under her adorable tutu cute swimsuit by Kate Mack or Ralph Lauren tankini is really exciting!

Happy New Year!

I'm old. I've hit the age/point in my life where I cannot stay up until midnight to ring in the new year. I wasn't even disappointed. How sad is that?!

Jim and I had plans for a nice dinner after the kids went to bed and then possibly play a cutthroat game of Scrabble. Turns out we had leftover pasta and meatballs out of our freezer and didn't play our game of Scrabble until two nights later.

I did come up with some New Year's resolutions, although maybe I should call them New Year's hopes. This year I'm hoping to find a house and run a half marathon. Two is about all I can handle right now.

So now I'm back at work after 12 days off and starting my Adult Team Racing tonight. Let's hope we have as good of a season as we did last year.

Merry Christmas!

December Review in January, Part I

How in the world is it January already? Since I obviously have not been good about posting I'm going to do a big review of our December.

Since I never got to do fun things when I was a kid (hehe), I tried to make an effort to enjoy the Christmas season as much as possible. This year we started (hopefully) a couple new family traditions. Our first being building a Gingerbread house.

As much as I love homemade gingerbread I decided to purchase a kit this year considering Nicholas' age. What do you think his favorite part of building the house was? Let me give you a couple hints in the form of pictures...

It was also extremely difficult to keep his hands off the candy which was intended to decorate the house. Both during the construction process and afterwards. I should show you a picture of the house now! Ha!

As I mentioned previously, the Elf on a Shelf visited us this year. He loved popping up all around the house and the kids couldn't wait to try to find him every day. Even Alexa got in on the search.

Rudolph worked like a charm this December. Nicholas was very aware of the Elf at all times and would make sure Rudolph was not in the line of sight when he was misbehaving and would ask me repeatedly to "don't tell the Elf".

Here are a few of Rudolph's 'hiding' places. Some subtle, and some not so subtle.

I hope Rudolph comes back next Christmas. When is it too early to ask Santa to send him along?