Snow Day!!!

Today was our second snowfall of the year with a whopping inch maybe an inch and a half of snow - and of course school was cancelled - even daycare! Since Katelyn was quite disappointed that she didn't get to play in the snow last time, we were determined to get out there and do some sledding -- at 9:30 in the morning!

It's quite funny to see kids sledding in the south. Not too many of them have actual sleds. I saw one old fashioned sled with metal blades, a few plastic sleds, several lids to rubbermaid storage bins and lots of "Boogie Boards" really meant for riding the waves.

There really aren't any good sledding hills so the neighborhood kids all head to the golf course. We were right there with them this time. Here is some video of the kids sledding:

It was quite cold so after about 45 minutes we were all ready to head inside for some hot chocolate!

The snow definitely looked pretty and I'm glad the kids got a chance to play in it a bit, but I'm looking forward to the weekend when we're expecting temperatures to climb into the mid-60s!

Stay warm!

still here

For those reading this....yes we are still here and doing well. I can't believe a whole month has gone by. Katelyn and Lindsay are truly experiencing the joys of sisterhood these days --- they fight with each other what feels like all the time. And it's all over very important things like Barbie dolls, stuffed animals, who gets to choose the television show, who gets to have a playdate with a friend, etc. Which brings me to why I don't have time to blog - I can't keep up with my kids' social calendar. Last weekend, Katelyn slept at a friends' house Thursday night since there was not school Friday. Friday night went to a sleepover birthday party, then managed to get us to say yes to having friend over Saturday afternoon. Meanwhile, Lindsay and I spent Saturday morning at her friend's house and on Sunday they each had a friend over. So we're keeping things a bit low-key this weekend in preparation for birthday season to start next week -- 4 birthday party invites for next Sat/Sun!! Really I'm very happy that the girls have lots of friends, but it's a bit much when they have more to do in a weekend than I do in a month!

Thankfully it's not all fighting. They did spend a few hours "smash painting" all by themselves in the kitchen. Katelyn did it in school and then she and Lindsay experimented at home. Smash painting led to finger-painting which yielded all of these beautiful pieces of art -- I didn't even mind that they were covered in paint since we ended up with some perfect handprints!

Here's Lindsay growing into the papercrafting hobby. She loves to cut out letters - especially her letters - (the ones in her name - she seems to think they're hers!) It looks like it won't be long and I will be able to have some long scrapbooking sessions with my 2 assistants - provided I make sure everyone has enough elbow room :)

And yes, I know my picture is quite blurry - the flash on my camera is broken, so I'm on a search for a new camera - any recomendations on compact cameras with lots of zoom capability?

Happy New Year!

Wow - 2009 is here already! It's hard to believe that another year has flown by. I can't believe Christmas is over, let alone all of 2008.

For Christmas Eve we managed to get the last 3 seats together at the 4:00pm children's mass (at 3:15!). The kids did great despite being at church for double the time. Then we enjoyed dinner with Nana and Grandpa and Mike's sister's family. The girls both fell asleep in the car after a busy day, so getting to sleep Christmas Eve was a breeze.

Lindsay woke up first at 7:20 and patiently waited until 7:30 to wake up Katelyn. I've never seen Katelyn wake up so quickly. I've already threatened to wake her Monday for school by saying "Katelyn, do you want to see if Santa came?" My guess is she won't fall for it.

There was no sign of a down economy in our family room. The piles of wrapped presents extended far beyond the reaches of the Christmas tree branches....and it took maybe an hour for the girls to unwrap everything :) Thanks to all of our wonderful families for sending gifts! We really are very spoiled! (Real thank yous are coming soon.) On, Christmas Day we went to Kelly's for brunch and then to Nana and PopPops for another delicious dinner and of course more presents.

We had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year with lots of neighbors and friends. Even the kids made it up to welcome 2009!

Best wishes to everyone for a happy and healthy 2009!

Christmas Eve

I can't believe it's actually here already, but more shockingly I can't believe I'm actually ready and not stressed out this year! The house is all decorated, presents are all wrapped, cookies are baked and we're not hosting any meals at our house, so very little left to prepare.

Decorating this year has been interesting.

First, with our ladder and step stool at the lake, adding the tree topper proved to be a bit difficult. After a few failed attempts dangling Katelyn in mid-air, we opted to wait until we could get a ladder.

Lindsay is very much into pretend play. She's often playing with babies or little dolls having quite the conversations. It shouldn't have surprised me, but I did get quite the chuckle when she started arranging my ceramic Santas so they were knocking on the doors or peeking in the windows of the various houses on my coffee table.

I was able to go to both of the girls' class Christmas parties this year. Katelyn's was very fun with a tissue paper snowball fight! And Lindsay's class enjoyed a visit from Santa.

Katelyn and I love to go to the Children's Theater in downtown Charlotte. This year, she and I saw "Peter Pan" and "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". But on Sunday, we got to introduce Lindsay to the theater when all 4 of us went to see "The Velveteen Rabbit". She did great sitting still and being quiet - until she yelled "Wake up Bunny!" But I think she really liked it since when the show was over, she wanted to stay for another one.

Yesterday we had lots of fun baking Christmas cookies. Katelyn, Lindsay and their cousin, Ally, made sugar cookies in all sorts of colors and shapes - even bunnies. I made the old stand-by peanut-butter blossoms and then finished off my baking day with kolachky - walnut and raspberry!

So after sampling lots of cookies yesterday, I decided I better start my New Year's exercising resolution today...we'll see how long it lasts!

Hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Not too late to be Thankful!

So, I know I've been considerably absent from posting in quite awhile. I often think of great things to write about and foolishly tell myself that I'll post a little later when I have more time. I'm slowly but surely realizing that that time NEVER comes! Now I have the issue of what to write about....it's far too late to ramble on about how great Thanksgiving was, but I guess I will start there anyway :)

It really was a great holiday. We have so much to be thankful for after a year full of health issues. We started the weekend before celebrating with Mike's Dad and Ruth and the whole family. The cousins all had tons of fun playing all day!

Then we started our drive up to NY on Tuesday. Our travel plans changed about 10 times trying to figure out whether the kids would sleep in the car, could we drive through the night and still function the next day, was the weather going to cooperate or were we going to get stuck with everyone else who decided that flying was too expensive this year. Lindsay did ask about 10 miles after leaving our house if we were almost to Grandma and Grandpa's house, but all in all the kids were great travelers (Thank God for car DVD players and Katelyn starting to outgrow carsickness!)

For Thanksgiving day, we went to my Babci and Dziadzi's - this was particularly special since my grandfather is home now recovering from a stroke this summer. It was so good to see him up and around since when we last saw him he was in the hospital! There was still a little bit of snow left in the yard, so Katelyn and Lindsay (and me since Linds is connected to my hip these days) got to go sleigh-riding. It was the tiniest of hills, but my kids don't know any better so had a fabulous time! They even made a little snowman with Grandma.

Then back to Mom and Dad's to relax with my brothers and visit with Aunt Kathy. I was able to get in some of my "food fixes" like Tony's (well...Nick's now I guess), Nirchi's, Romas, and Cider Mill....so much for watching my figure ;) It was a bit colder than last year, but the cider press came out and the girls enjoyed making their own fresh apple cider.

Our trip wouldn't be complete without visit Jeff, Christine, Ryan and Emily. I can't believe how big all the kids are getting -- or that they could all fit on the slide to make our own little totem pole!

Before Thanksgiving, I remember feeling on top of things with our annual family pictures done and Christmas cards printed. Now I'm not sure where the last three weeks have gone and how Christmas is possibly going to be here next week when I'm not nearly done with my shopping and haven't baked a single cookie! So stay tuned to hear more of what's going on with us, but keep in mind that I cannot write or post anything while out shopping, at kids holiday parties, or up to my elbows in cookie dough :)

Free Country

Usually Lindsay is the one that comes out with the one liners, comments or stories that really make us laugh. But the other night Katelyn caught us both off guard. To set the stage we were all in my bed watching the Country Music Awards. Depending on the song, the girls were getting up and dancing and just in general bouncing around. After about the hundredth time of being bumped and kicked, Mike asked Katelyn if she could just sit still and watch. Her response: Dad - I need some freedom. This is a free country! I think it's just a side effect of all the political discussions lately, but I'm a little nervous now of what the teenage years will be like ;)

Here's a few of Lindsay's funny conversations:

Lindsay: Mom, I was tough today.
Me: Why, what happened?
Lindsay: I was wrestling at school and I got hurt and didn't cry. But my teacher made us stop.
She sounded genuinely disappointed that she and her friend had to stop wrestling, but very proud of herself that she was a tough girl and didn't cry. If only she could be that tough when I tell her "No"!

Lindsay (after pealing a banana and dropping it): Mom, I dropped my banana wrapper!
(Do you think maybe there is a bit too much packaged food these days?)

After several requests for candy, fruit snacks and any other junk food in the cupboard and me offering crackers, fruit, anything remotely healthy:
Lindsay: Mom, can I have sweet things?
Me(annoyed): No, Lindsay I told you no more sugar or junk food.
Lindsay(protesting): But Mom, you said I could have sweet things.
Me(protesting): NO, I said no more sweet things.
Lindsay(crying): But you said I could have sweet things, like at school.
After looking in the cupboard again, I had a lightbulb moment and realized she wanted "Wheat Thins"!!!

P.S. Hope you like my new blog background...so many fun ones to choose from!

Happy Halloween

With each year Halloween is becoming more and more fun. The girls are getting into it earlier and earlier - planning their costumes and designing their pumpkin faces. Each year they go to Nana and PopPops to paint pumpkins. Mike and I were not prepared for what they brought home. Nana definitely outdid herself this year. I wish I knew of a pumpkin decorating contest nearby because these certainly would have won a prize!

Pumpkin carving is one of my favorite things to do with Katelyn and Lindsay. I remember growing up and choosing the shape of my pumpkin top and all the features as my Dad was carving pumpkins for me and my brothers. I remember year after year choosing more challenging features - especially eyes. Well, technology is giving my girls an advantage I didn't have. This year Katelyn found a pumpkin designing wizard on starfall.com. She and Lindsay each designed their pumpkins and gave me a printout to work from! I'm also glad to see that my girlie girls are finally able to enjoy scooping out pumpkin guts without being grossed out :)

Trick-or-Treating with their cousins, Ally and CJ, couldn't have been better. No more wagons to pull the little ones. Lindsay made it the whole way without needing to be carried -- although her pumpkin full of treats was too heavy for her after awhile :) Does that give a hint as to how much candy we now have??? (At the 10:15 am - the time I'm writing this I've already been asked at least 5 times for candy...I don't suppose that will slow now until sometime after Easter! Who decided we needed candy at every holiday anyway?)

We saw a lot of very cute costumes this year, but I must say we definitely have the cutest witch and princess fairy by far!