Cute Addie

To ring in the holiday season, I bought Addie some special clothes. She got to wear her first outfit yesterday. Just so cute.

No photo shoot is complete without her goofy face.

See her cute hand-on-hip pose? Is she a pro or what?!

Gingerbread houses

You may recall that my work holds a gingerbread contest each December. Well I've been planning my gingerbread house for months now. This weekend I let Addie and Ben try out their gingerbread skills, in preparation for the big competition which begins on December 13. They printed a gingerbread house off of the internet and "tried" to follow it, but that wasn't really a successful venture. No matter,they had fun and made cute houses.

Christmas songs

Addie is really into understanding the lyrics of Christmas songs this year. She's not just about singing the words, she wants to know them. The one that gets her hung up the most is the song "Last Christmas," with the lyrics: last Christmas I gave you my heart, the very next day you gave it away.... Well she and I have had several conversations about how one doesn't actually give their heart to another, but instead loves the person and then gets hurt by that person. If only you could hear our talks in the car about that one!! Well today Graham came over and later this evening they were playing the piano and Graham snapped at her. She got up and left the room. A few minutes later I went looking for her and she was sitting at the dining room table writing. This is what she wrote about Graham: " Last Crismis I gav hart bot the vary nex day you gav away." She is so dramatic.

Ben's biggest issue with Christmas songs so far is his frustration when something is on the radio and not a cd. He frequently wants the song played again since he was enjoying it so much, but that can't be done on our radio. Too bad. Usually once we're 3 seconds into the next song, he's moved on.

Salvation Army Kettle Drive 2010

Addie's voice carried throughout the mall and people were purposely walking towards her voice. It was hysterical. She was so animated the whole two hours. Her two biggest numbers were Feliz Navidad and Santa Claus is Coming to Town (both the traditional and Bruce Springsteen versions).

Ben was really into it too. Addie was trying to download songs on my cell so she had some music behind her.

We ring again in two weeks and then again on Christmas Eve.

Addie's school work

I love her so much. I will translate all of her words for you... ds and bs are backwards.

fimmly- family

cat- cat (which by the way, she doesn't have one!)

love-love

fres- friends

myoosc- music

Her illustration labels say: Ben, Addie singing, and Vada (her friend)

A bear lives at a cave when it's winter. The cave is in the woods.

Do you know how people get fat? People drink soda. A cat can meow.

A mouse lives in a toy house. and it's little. His house has one door.

A elephant is big. A mouse is small.

My dad puts the wood in the fire. I put Christmas decorations on the Christmas tree.

With the exception of the d/b issue, I think she rocks. I love the way that she doesn't shy away from big words like 'elephant' and 'decorations.'

National Press for my program

NACHRI (National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions)'s quarterly publication "Children's Hospitals Today" featured an article about transition and my program is one of three highlighted. Pretty cool!

http://www.childrenshospitals.net/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Current_Issue_Fall_2010&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=54151

How Ben spends his days...

He has become quite the handyman.

How a 4 year old and 5 year old hold a surprise secret

I neglected to mention that for Muddy's big surprise, the kids didn't know anything until Friday night. Once she left I told them that we were doing something fun this weekend (the story was that Addie and Ben wanted to take Muddy on the train ride for her birthday present) and I told Addie that we were having a surprise party for Muddy.
So Saturday morning I tell the kids I have to go pick up a surprise and I'll be back in a bit. Ben asked if he could come with me, and I said, "No, this surprise is so big, it fills up all of the seats in my car!" They were really intrigued. Then I said, "you'll be jumping up and down when you see the surprise." Addie looked at me, smiled and said, "I know what it is." "What?" "A moonbounce." Ben got excited and said, "Bye bye Spongebob!" Addie explained that my comment about jumping up and down gave it away. So then we had a discussion about what's wrong with their massive Spongebob Moonbounce, etc. I had to correct them to say that it was 100% not a moonbounce. I head off to the airport and pick up the New Hampshire contingent and bring them home, with Aunt Wendy too. When the kids come downstairs to see the surprise they see Wendy and are like "that's not the surprise" since they see her regularly. They turned the corner and were super psyched to see Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Amanda, LouLou and Bub. They said that was a great surprise. Then Onkteb arrived and Aunt Kim and Uncle Tom too.
We met the other guests as the railroad station and were allowed to have everyone on the caboose, waiting. Since Muddy was expecting us to be there, Brian, the kids and I waited at the main entrance for her and Guppy to arrive. While waiting we had to explain to the kids to keep it a surprise, until she saw everyone. I told them to act normal and not make a big deal at all. They agreed.
So Muddy and Guppy pull up to the station and as they're getting out of the car, Ben says "Our whole family is not here," but luckily Muddy was out of earshot. As she gets out of the car, Addie says to her, "everything is normal." I about died. I quickly commented on Addie's dress or something to smooth that over.
So that's how we managed to pull off the surprise of epic proportion.

Muddy's 60th birthday surprise!

Out of order pictures--oh well.

That's Muddy, Jake, Kathy, Jack, Gwen and Linda

Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Wendy and LouLou

Tom, posing as a walrus.

Muddy giving hugs just as the surprise happened.

We surprised Muddy for her 60th birthday celebration with a private caboose on the Wilmington & Western Railroad. It was a beautiful day of family, friends and fun.

This is how the surprise was revealed. Notice the attendees: Bub, Tom, Kathy, Uncle Jeremy, Aunt Kim, Onkteb in the window, LouLou in the back window, Aunt Amanda, Richard, Aunt Wendy, missing are Jake and Gwen who are inside the caboose.

The cupola up top was really cool. Richard and Muddy

Happy 60th birthday Muds!

Addie waiting very patiently.

Ben and Brian waiting

Up in the cupola.

Aunt Amanda playing the booty bongos.

Guppy's birthday too!

Guppy was nice enough four years ago to share his birthday with Benjamin. After the hayride and bonfire, we came back to our house for a delicious dinner Muddy made.

Ben and Guppy playing with some of Ben's HotWheels loot. You know what they say about boys and their toys.

The birthday boys, age 71 and 4.

Sassy Addie was striking poses.

And making silly faces.

Happy birthday Gups!

Guppy

Benjamin is 4!!!

My baby boy is 4! For the first time ever, we chose to hold a birthday party away from our house. It was a little risky, because of the weather factor, but we chose to have a private hayride and bonfire at a local state park. Turned out to be a great decision.

Ben chose his new hat yesterday. He wanted to make sure it was "a little bit scary, but not too much." Well done.

Getting ready to get into the wagon.

All aboard.

Couldn't look much happier, could he?

Being a goofball.

Muddy started a hay fight.

That blob of hay is Aunt Kim!

MomMom and PopPop thought it was funny, but they weren't involved in the hay throwing.

Brian was at the back of the wagon, and Graham was very worried that Uncle Brian was going to fall out. Our driver was pretty fun too. Whenever there was a clearing, he did sharp turns with us in the wagon, and one time even did a 360.

The bonfire was just for us. We roasted marshmallows for smores.

And the kids enjoyed them tremendously

I LOVE this picture. Ben in his glory. Note the marshmallow residue near his mouth, with two huge fistfuls of cheese curls. Can't get much better than that.

Ben really wanted a Wolverine birthday cake. This was my attempt, which is done freehand, and ended up being ok. It was too windy to light the candles at the bonfire, but we still sang and he blew them out anyway.

Then the present goodness ensued.

Afterwards Ben helped Brian cart the goodies back to our car.

Overall it was a lovely birthday. Ben is such a wonderful little man. He's funny, smart, witty, loving, caring and overall just a great kid. Thanks to all of our friends and family who came out to celebrate with him!

Last soccer game of the season

We had the last game for the Hornets this morning. It was COLD- about 38 degrees to start. And of course the game was at 9:00am. Here's some pictures from the game, and be sure to watch the video at the end.

Addie decided she really wanted to play goalie. She started the second half in this position, and I figured it was only a matter of seconds before she would want to come out. Surprisingly, she was holding her own for a few minutes... (I apologize now for my annoying voice in the video!!!! You probably want to turn your volume down a little!)

So as you can see, that ball smacked her square on the brow line. She actually had mud all over her face from the ball. She stopped it though. Oh, and as you can imagine, she was out of the game from that point on.

The final score was like 18-1, poor Hornets. The team had fun and that's what matters most.