Holiday Lights - Reindeer Win!

So last weekend, we decided to take the boys out on a car ride to look at all of the holiday lights in our neighborhood. I kept thinking of ways to keep this interesting as I knew about two houses in, Andrew would designate the activity was "BOR-ing!". Everyone put on their jammies and piled in the car. We took a pad of paper and a pen with us so we could tally up the items we spied along the way. The boys started by listing the common items they thought they would see...reindeer, Santa, snowmen. As we drove around the neighborhood, the boys were calling out their findings faster than I could tally....reindeer, reindeer, Santa, reindeer, snowman! After 49 reindeer, I realized I was spending more time writing than soaking up the spirit of the season. As I expected...."Mom, this is BOR-ing"! Here is our final list of items and tally....the reindeer are taking over the neighborhood!!!

Reindeer - 49
Snowman - 32
Santa - 11
Penguins - 7
Elves and Trains - tied at 5 each
Polar Bears - 4
Big blow up Grinches - 2

Carriage Ride in Annapolis

What a beautiful night for a carriage ride! We tried to do this last weekend, but it rained all day Sunday so they canceled our trip. It was around 40 degrees tonight and with warm blankets over us, we had a great ride around Ego Alley, the State House, Church Circle, and Main Street in Annapolis. Andrew was complaining before we left that it was going to be boring. After he met "Lexi" the horse and found out she eats hay, carrots, apples, and peppermints, it wasn't so boring after all.

Andrew has turned to the Dark Side!

This may not translate as well on video, but Andrew loves his new Darth Vader Voice Changer mask and the Speed slippers pull the outfit together. We came home from dinner tonight and I went running into the family room to find him sitting on the sofa wearing the mask watching TV, not what I expected! Enjoy!!!

Christmas Cookies

Here are a few shots of us making Christmas cookies this past weekend. The boys had a great time as usual, missed Grandma Doris who was here with us last year for this activity!

Favorite Christmas Ornament

Merry Christmas all!


I know you were all tired of looking at the Halloween photos over and over again. So, tonight I have created three new posts. I couldn't go to bed tonight without wishing you all a Merry Christmas and sharing my favorite ornament with you.


Matthew made this at school and he was very proud of his gift when he gave it to us this morning. He had it wrapped up in a brown paper bag that he had decorated himself. It is just terrific...too bad it's not a bobble-head! We love you Matthew!

Sugar cookies shaped like trees with green sprinkles

We took the boys to the mall in Annapolis a couple of weekends ago on a Saturday night. The center section of the mall was completely overhauled and the Santa set up was really nice. We only had to wait in line about 20 minutes. The boys sat on Santa's lap and we had the obligatory photo taken. Santa was really terrific with the kids and completely looked the part.


All was well until Matthew started to walk away. Then he realized he didn't get Santa's cookie order. Matthew turned back to Santa and asked him what kind of cookies he liked. Santa replied "Well, what is your favorite kind of cookie?" Matthew answered, "sugar cookies". Santa agreed but went on to add that he preferred his sugar cookies shaped like Christmas Trees with green sprinkles on top. Good Grief! Can I get you a glass of organic chocolate milk to go with your cookies?


So we spent the weekend before Christmas making sugar cookies, some of which were shaped like Christmas trees with green sprinkles (see future post).

Matthew's 2nd presentation (12/13/07)

Matthew's second oral presentation this year involved him picking a "community worker", finding an age appropriate book, creating his presentation and either dressing as the worker or bringing some of the tools they use to complete their job.


Originally, Matthew was very serious about being an children's book illustrator when he grows up and thought that would be a good topic for his presentation. We had a bit of trouble tying it in as a "community worker" and then we had trouble finding a book. Matthew decided that a good alternative would be a mail carrier.



Matthew did a great job reading his book and creating his presentation with a little help from Dad. We decided to make a mail truck from a cardboard box and multiple colors of duct tape. Then we made a sample envelope and he also took his book with him. He is very fond of his mail truck, he did all of the lettering by hand.

Trick or Treat

I can't let Halloween go by without getting into the act, so Mark and I pulled off a couple of costumes at 5:30 pm. We had a great Halloween as usual, tons of kids, parents, and grandparents having a great time in our neighborhood. 64 degrees and no wind, everyone sits outside in their chairs to watch the masses go by. The boys wanted to go trick or treating with the boys across the street, so the final count was 3 Darth Vadars and 1 Storm Trooper.

Halloween Parade at School

Our first Halloween parade at school...it was great! I don't remember my principal dressing up and leading the parade (dice on left)

It's a great day to be LINE LEADER!!!

Pumpkin Carving

The boys did a great job cleaning the "guts" out of their pumpkins this year and choosing what shapes they wanted on the faces. Happy Halloween!

Halloween Parade

Ok, so I have some catching up to do. Unfortunately, updating the blog took a back seat to several other activities, both home and work, in the past week.

Looks like the poll wasn't very exciting...so here is the big reveal...

Saturday morning before Halloween is the big parade in our town and for the first year since we have lived here, we decided we would go. Well, the parade has been going on for 32 years now and this year is only the second time it has been held indoors due to rain!!! (The first time was 5 years ago when the DC sniper was around). I won't mention that it had stopped raining and the sun was shining by the time the parade was supposed to start. Oh well, they moved the parade and costume judging inside to the boys school.

Our second trip to school on the weekend was for the annual Haunted Halls/Monster Mash party on Sunday. This is also the first year we have attended and it was a really great event for the kids. They had the kindergarten hallway turned into a mini haunted house and the teachers and 5th graders made up the witches, goblins, laboratory workers, etc. Then they had pumpkin decorating, coloring, fortune telling, and a DJ in the cafeteria/gym. The DJ stopped about half way through the party and had a couple of contests. Mark volunteered to help out not knowing what he was getting into. The first contest was a dress up relay race, so here is Matt finishing his dress up (with dad's help) and racing back to the finish line...

But wait, it gets better. The next event was to take teams of school kids and have them wrap the "adult volunteers" in toilet paper to resemble a mummy. I'm proud to say that Mark and his team of kids came in last, but I think they had the most fun trying to make it work. In the second photo, you can see the competition on the right side - they had a really tall girl on their team, so now we know the strategy for next year.

On top of all that, we decorated and carved pumpkins tonight and the boys are getting ready for the big parade and party tomorrow at school. Next week is all yogurt and low calorie/fat free food, ugh!

New Feature!

Ok, for the next week, this will be an interactive blog. You will notice a new feature in the upper left corner of the blog - a Poll! This is Andrew's favorite thing to do at dinner...raise your hand if you like the ____ (fill in the blank).

Several of you have asked what the boys are going to be for Halloween. They are heavily engaged in Star Wars (addicted really) so in honor of the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars we really had no choice.

You can choose multiple answers and then click on "VOTE". If you can't read the entire name of the character, hover over the name with your mouse. The poll closes next Friday due to Halloween party commitments on the weekend and I know I will be posting photos prior to Halloween. Have fun!

Dry Run #4

It takes a village to pull off an oral presentation for a 6 year old, but we did it! Matthew wrote out his note cards Saturday (just clues, no sentences) and Sunday we pulled together the poster (didn't take much convincing that a poster was easier than a diorama). Matthew, mom, and dad all worked on this but Matthew had complete control over content, color, and glitter glue decisions.

Matthew practiced once on Saturday in front of me and once in front of mom & dad and I was really shocked at how good he was at this on the first try. He has discovered actually giving the presentation is a lot of fun (not so fun for the writing and drawing). Sunday morning he got up and wanted to practice with Andrew and then we did it again in the evening and video taped it so he could see himself and we could save it for posterity. Each time he delivers the presentation he "ad libs" a bit more!

Update after school today...Matthew said his presentation went well today and that he was the only one who chose dolphins (so far). Unfortunately, the video is about 20 seconds too long for upload to the blog or YouTube, so I will have to edit before posting. Sorry!

Goodbye Super 7

After the pumpkin patch on Saturday, we went by our local volunteer fire station for their annual Open House. This year was special because the Rescue Squad truck that we have affectionately called "Super 7" since the boys knew how to talk is being retired. Every time we drive by the fire house, "Hi Super 7, Bye Super 7". Come to find out her real name is "Betty Lou" and she is built on a 1986 chassis.

Betty Lou is retiring to a fire station in Baltimore County. We decided to surprise the boys with this information and at first, they were a bit upset about Super 7 going away, until they saw this....

The new Rescue "Super Squad" arrived just 3 days before the open house. The fire station has been soliciting donations for 15 months to buy this new truck and is it ever impressive! Here's a photo of Matthew in the back:

Hello Pumpkins!

Here are a few photos from our Saturday at the pumpkin patch, same ole, same ole, but the boys always have a great time.

Matthew's First Presentation

Is this wild or what? Matthew has his first oral presentation due on Monday next week! The instructions are a page and a half long and on top of the presentation, he has to have a visual aid in the form of a poster, diorama, or mobile. He's 6 for goodness sake. For some of you younger ones out there - were you required to do this when you were 6?

He has to choose an animal that he knows nothing about, come up with at least 5 facts, answer 7 specific questions from the teacher, use note cards (at his belly button), introduce himself and his topic, and speak for 1 minute or more. I'm still trying to figure out how he is going to read the words he writes on his note cards!?! He is allowed to use "age-appropriate books from the media center or public library" for his research (is the internet considered cheating?).

So far we have...
Subject: Dolphins
Visual Aid: Diorama (at least for now)
Supplies: dolphin photos from Orlando and Delaware, 2 plastic dolphins from b-day cake, scrapbook paper that looks like ocean water
Resources: "age-appropriate" book at library that we will pick up tomorrow, 3 "age-approprate" website stories so we could start reading last night

HELP!

Desk #2

Andrew could hardly wait to get out of the house on Saturday to go shopping for a NEW desk. We convinced him that waiting a week for a new desk was better than a hand-me-down desk like Matthew received (well we didn't say it exactly like that). We headed for my favorite unfinished furniture store looking for a desk to match either the bed/nightstand (pine) or the armoire/bookshelf (oak).

We looked all around the store until we got to the back corner under a large yellow banner blaring "BACK TO SCHOOL" Duh! And there it was, a perfect little pine desk with knobs to match his nightstand. "Look Andrew, it's on sale, and what sir, you want to give us a coupon for an additional $20 off, and you don't have any chairs to match so I can finish the two unfinished chairs I already have at home?" SOLD!!!

This store is all about customer service and they usually have the items in stock. Unfortunately the desk was the last of it's kind, so we took the floor model (no dents and the drawers slid in and out easily). The guys sanded the top, wrapped it in plastic, and loaded it into the car. They also give you "free" sponge brushes. To celebrate our shopping success, Andrew and I had lunch together at McDonald's.

We unloaded the desk and brought the chairs out to the garage on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately I didn't get much further as we had to hear all the details of our neighbor across the street who had a golf cart accident on #9 earlier in the day. Seems as though they were tooling through the rough when the underside of the golf cart hit a water meter that was sticking out of the ground and the cart came to an immediate stop. The driver was impaled on the steering wheel and our neighbor was thrown off the passenger side after hitting his nose on the bar holding the windshield. Both gentlemen were thrown from the cart and landed with a great view of the clouds. I don't even think they were drinking.

So I got up on Sunday and started sanding, painting, and staining. By 5:30 pm we were moving the desk and two chairs up to the boy's rooms. Not bad for a day's work and it resulted in one very happy little boy!

Golf in a sauna

Some days you win, some days you loose, and some days you wish it WOULD rain! Well, I guess we should have paid more attention to the weather before golfing today. We were socked in with fog until 10 am and it was spitting all morning. All in all, it turned out ok, at least we weren't roasting in the sun. It was overcast and muggy up until we turned the cart in on 18.

Here is Mark at the bottom of the sledding hill. I don't know what it is with me and beginner's luck (in golf, it shows up if I haven't played for a few months). This is the first time I have played 18 since before the boys were born and I hit great shots on the first 4 holes. Mark was getting irritated and I told him to hold on because I knew it wouldn't last. Sure enough...next hole, yuck! We got around to the back 9 and I had to switch to the ladies tees (Mark and I usually play off the men's tees together). We both played one of the par 3's well - Mark was cracking up that we took a picture of his best shot of the day and I hit off the ladies tee and par'd the hole too. Here is Mark, 165 yards from the tee, downhill, over the water (through the snow), 12 feet from the hole. The laughter continued at Mark's tree pinball on the back nine - he tried this twice and once he even ran the ball up the trunk of a tree about 20 feet and back over his head. Then he tried to hit it out of the woods and caught the raised edge of the cart path - right back at ya babe! Too funny. I shouldn't laugh, I was playing horrible at this point.

On 18, you have to hit your tee shot at least 160 yards to clear the pond. Mark's first shot went to the left and we thought it hit the trees and was dry - turns out he hit this ladies car in the townhouse parking lot. She was just glad we came over and took responsibility for our poor golfing - whew, no damage done. We both hit off the ladies tee which also serves as the drop zone and we hit our way to the green without incident and I managed to sink a 12 footer to finish the day. We played a lot of "cart golf" as evidenced by our tee shots here (yes we missed the green, but look how close!)

I am not terribly fond of our home course and there are plenty of ways to cause damage with all of the housing nearby. All but one hole on the front nine has brush or water between the tee box and the fairway so your tee shot has to be perfect or things go downhill in a hurry. All in all a great day, got home just in time to take a quick shower and get the boys at the bus.

A Twosome again...

Before the boys started back to school I promised Mark that I would take a day off to do "mommy-daddy" stuff. Here is our list of things we would like to accomplish:

Segway tour of Annapolis (http://www.segsinthecity.net/)
Homework space for the boys*
Schedule plumber to install new fixtures in boy's bath
Consolidate 403B accounts
Clean out FROG (front room over garage)**
Revise home budget/Clean up Quicken
Convert all camcorder movies to DVD
Decide on and purchase a new laptop for both of us***
Paint the Laundry Room and install cabinet
Golf at Walden****
Tour of the Naval Academy in Annapolis
Fix the top oven that mysteriously locked itself shut after the last self cleaning*****


* = see previous post
** = In progress
*** = Ordered Sunday and I am blogging on it now (yeah!)
**** = Tee time 10:10 am tomorrow
***** = In case this ever happens to you, just leave it until the next big electrical storm that takes out the power to your house and the oven resets itself. Flipping the circuit breaker would be too logical.


I am a list maker, and in general I complete the painful things first and leave the fun things til the end while Mark is just the opposite. This is why we are a good match as he has convinced me the priority tomorrow is golf!

Matthew's New Desk

Mark and I have been contemplating homework space for awhile now. The dinner table is not working well as we have to get ready for dinner and then get everything cleaned up so they can work. We thought about space in the family room (Drew needs help occasionally and it's good to be close by), we thought about the front room over the garage (eek, my craft space), downstairs in the basement (eek, no space).

So we ended up finding space in their rooms and we fixed Matthew up with Mark's old computer desk, my desk lamp, and a soon to be finished chair out of the front room. This was after we asked him if he was ready to get rid of his story chair and that went over like a lead balloon. (But it's soooo soft). OK, so I moved the bed to a different wall, moved his night stand, and moved the desk from the front room to his and we spent the rest of Sunday evening collecting the needed supplies for his desk. He was so thrilled with his new set up that he made me a card (he is such a thoughtful soul) and spent the rest of the evening writing questions at his new desk (Why do you love me? Why do animals play? Why do we have a government?....interesting mix.)

Last night he came home from school and after snack went straight to his new desk and did half his homework. Andrew is not thrilled with waiting until Saturday to get his desk, so Matthew was kind enough to let Andrew try out the desk last night.

Fire Expo

They have this Fire Expo every year and it is a really neat thing for kids and adults. We went on the fire truck rides (Andrew got to honk the horn), Matthew and Andrew both did a zip line, put out pretend house fires with the fire hose and fire extinguishers, met Sparky the fire dog, watched them put out a propane gas fire, watched them extract someone from a vehicle accident and cut the top off a car, and Matthew and Dad stayed to watch Iris the accelerant detecting dog. Here are a few photos and video (I have to click the play button twice on each video to get it to run):