Christmas Parade

Now that it is December we start pulling activities out of the 25 mittens that hang in our living room made by Jeremy's mom.  Today we went to the Manassas Christmas parade where we drank hot chocolate, snuggled in blankets, listened to marching bands, and watched all of the neat floats and dancing groups.  It was so refreshing to hear people saying Merry Christmas and not just Happy Holidays.  What a great start to my favorite month of the year.  After, we went home and finished decking our halls and watched Christmas movies.  Let the season begin!

With my own two hands

I am a pinterest addict.  I'm on there almost every day, pinning ideas that I'd like to tackle, most of them great ideas in my head that never leave my computer screen.  One day I found the plans for this great farmhouse table that had benches that I've been wanting for our kitchen for some time.  But I've never built anything, I've never even used a saw before, how could I fathom taking on something this big?  Well, I decided to start small.  Jeff lent me a saw, Dr. Richards lent me something called a Kreg Jig that I needed and I walked into Lowes with the plans for one of the benches.  I made it out of pine which is super inexpensive and I figured if the bench turned out ok then I would make another bench and then the table, if not, I didn't waste that much money after all.  I handed my list of supplies to one of the lumber men and he hooked me up with everything I needed.  I tried to be super precise with each step because I have a tendency to get bored with projects in the middle and either never finish them or become careless and make mistakes.  I watched videos.  I measured each cut twice and took my time.  I sanded and painted and stained and in the end I was pleased with the results.  So I made another that turned out even better than the first.  At last I started the table with the intention of having it done by Thanksgiving.  Colder temperatures threatened to thwart my plans which requires 50 + degrees for painting/staining/polyurethaning.  But we got a couple of warmer days and it all came together nicely.  I must say I am a little bit proud since it is my first go at carpentry.  There are a lot of flaws that I see, but luckily, most people don't.  And it has stood up to the boys now for over a week so that in itself is saying something!  I love how big it is and hope to be getting a new rug for Christmas that will go underneath it.  It makes me happy to see my family eating at something that I made for them.

Thanksgiving.

I love hosting Thanksgiving every year for my family.  It's the cooking mixed with the family togetherness that makes me happy.  My kids may not love the fact that we host Thanksgiving though because I make them help clean and turn into a mad woman about two days before...  This year was smaller than the past few have been, we only had my sister Kristin and her family, mom and Jeff and Jeff's parents here at the house.  You might notice the new addition to our kitchen which will get some better pics to follow, our new table which was made with my own to hands from start to finish!  Please indulge my gloating as I am pretty proud of it for my first carpentry project.  I worked like crazy to get it done for Thanksgiving.  I love that it fit all of the cousins without any folding chairs- just the two benches!  Our day was simple and quiet and cut a bit short by an illness with one of Kris' kids, but still memorable and fun.  We didn't even get to our thankful tree but we did talk about what we are so very thankful for, our family being number one.

Cameron has played chess since first grade.  He's been in chess club and begs anyone who is willing to play him.  I have been amazed at how good he has become.  This weekend he took part in his first chess tournament.  It was a long morning (from 9 until 2!) That first picture shows all of the chess sets ready to go, and the kids filed in to their different sections.  Parents had to wait in a separate room to avoid any coaching but they did let us in during the first round for a picture and you could have heard a pin drop.  In the end, he won two and lost two matches, not enough for a trophy, but a great first effort and he had so much fun.  I;m sure we'll be doing more in the future.

Mason has been taking swimming lessons the last several weeks and has made great strides.  He is doing so much better through the Freedom Center than he did this summer on the developmental swim team so we signed him up for more after these are through.  He really trusts his instructor and she has been able to get him to do things his other teachers couldn't.  We are very proud of his improvement.

Gavin turns Seven!

Early in the morning on November 9th, Gavin woke up to a wall of balloons that fell in on him when he opened his door.  He had chocolate chip muffins and milk for breakfast, and opened his gifts with his family.  He got a new Green Lantern game for the wii which was his favorite gift and he couldn't wait to play.  I brought him McDonalds for lunch at school and he gave out mint Oreo Pops to his classmates with sprinkles.  He was so excited for his name to be on the morning announcements and to go to the office and pick out a special pencil.  He wanted his party the same day as his birthday this year.  Gavin had everything planned and he started talking about it the day after his birthday last year.  He likes to have butcher paper on the table for his party so everyone can draw, like we have done almost every year.  He wants the small cans of soda so everyone can have their own.  And he likes to watch a movie with his friends, either at the theater or at home like he has done for four of his birthdays.  This year he invited four friends from school to come over and have pizza and cookies and creme cake and to go see Wreck it Ralph.  He was in his glory when his friends arrived and just loved being the center of attention. Jeremy took the kids to the show and he says they were wired the whole time.  When Gavin got home he said he had the best time of his life.  That's a win in my book!   Happy Birthday to my little super hero!

Election 2012

Voted today!  Election party with the kids tonight!

Really big, long, Halloween Post

In full disclosure, these first pics of the kids in their costumes were taken over a week ago when getting ready to go to a neighborhood party.  Mason was the adorable train conductor which Cameron wore when he was the same age.  Gavin was a ninja and he loved it so much he wants another ninja costume for Christmas from Santa.  Cameron was Harry Potter as he is full into a HP phase and I love it!  I made the cloak but everything else was store bought- phew!

One reason I was so glad that I had taken these pictures early was because I thought our Halloween might look a bit like this:

 And indeed Hurricane Sandy did arrive in full force here on Monday night, cutting off our power for a day and bringing buckets of rain and some really horrifying wind.  Although the above picture is not our trampoline, ours did in fact blow far into the neighbors yard and I believe is beyond repair but we are counting ourselves lucky compared to the damage that others we know sustained.  During the storm schools were closed, work was closed and we were forced to bond as a family.  It was perfect timing, because I was lamenting the fact that we hadn't done much Halloween-y stuff yet this season.  We carved our pumpkins and made caramel apples and had just sat down to watch Hocus Pocus when the power went out.  In 9 years of living in this house our power has never gone out so we were not all that prepared, but were able to find our flashlights and candles and hunkered down for the rest of the night.  Thank goodness for Grandma and Jeff, we were able to chill with them the next day instead of freezing at home with nothing to do.  Others did not regain power until today so we are thankful that we only had to last one day.

 The hurricane did not ruin our Halloween, maybe due to dome earnest prayers from three little boys.  After filling their tummies with a wholesome dinner, we set off to trick or treat.  Unlike last year when Mason was dragging toward the end of just going up and down our street, this year he was wired and full of himself!  He kept telling everyone who he was (even if they didn't ask) and asked what their names were and why they weren't trick or treating.  As always, the older boys went back out with dad to increase the stash, and they did not disappoint!  We had a whole lot of trick or treaters this year which is unusual, lucky for us we had bought enough candy.  Mason took door duty and made sure to ask about everyone's costume before doling out the candy.

 If you look carefully, you can see Mango, one of our kittens in this lady's arms.  He loves his new home!

 Not a bad take!