Only A Week to Go!!!!

We are pretty excited around here.... can you tell?

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday surrounded by family and friends. I love Thanksgiving. It may be cliché but I do try to take time to reflect on what I'm truly thankful for.... like my three healthy, beautiful, smart, happy, talented, great kids, a wonderful husband who works hard so that I am able to stay home with my kids and do all the things I'm able to do with them, that my parents are still with me and that we have a great relationship, that I get to see my mom nearly everyday, and that my kids have grandparents who adore them. I'm thankful for all my sisters, my mother-in-law, my sister-in-law and brothers-in-law, all my nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles, cousins, and dear friends, near and far away. I'm thankful for my tiny but cozy house, and that although we don't have much, my kids want for nothing. I'm thankful for my health and mobility- after suffering through more than a year of questionable mobility and pain, I realized it's amazing what you take for granted! I'm thankful for this community that we live in, for library story hour and nursery school, for dance class and for my kids' teachers who truly care for them. I’m thankful for the friendly farmer who stops to talk to Ethan, for Dick & Dewitta for being great neighbors, for a church I feel at home in. I'm thankful for the changing of the seasons, for the first snow fall and the crunch of leaves underfoot. I’m thankful for coffee and wine and good conversations and laughter! I’m thankful for it all… that even when something bad happens, I am reminded of all the good I have in this life! - Sarah

Happy Birthday... Finally

Alex got to "finally" celebrate her 9th birthday on Friday afternoon. She had a few girlfriends (and cousins) over for cake and ice cream and pizza. We did celebrate her birthday earlier with a combined family party with Hudson, but she wanted to celebrate with her "girls". She's growing up so quickly!!

Funny things the Boys said....

Now I feel old... Yesterday Hudson asked me if I was born in the 1890's!!

Today Ethan was playing with Hudson's money bank. He asked me where Hudson got some of the dollars. I told him from the tooth fairy. Then he asked, "How much more money does he have in his mouth?"

Alex- Madame Secretary

Good afternoon fellow 4th graders! We are here today to vote for our class officers. I find this exciting! In case you don’t know me, I want to take this opportunity to give you a snapshot of who I am and what I will bring to our class of 2015 when you vote me, Alexandra Williams for secretary!

You may know from posters, stickers and gossip that I will make a great secretary, but for those that haven’t heard let me explain why. First of all I love our class and I also love to help people! That’s the main reason I am running for this office, it’s the best of both worlds for me. With a little elbow grease I can bring this class all the success they could want!

One way of achieving success is being organized, which I am very good at. I bet you don’t want a very important piece of paper lost. If I were secretary this would never happen!
Another reason I’d make a great secretary is I’m very responsible. I hate to waste sticky notes, paper and time. I also always bring in my homework complete and on time. It feels great to know you’ve got a responsible secretary, so, vote for me!

One more reason you should make me your secretary is I’m a Iroquois Confederacy girl! I’m like a chief sitting at a council meeting or for us a school meeting. We would talk about problems and solutions like the Hodenosaunee chiefs did, and like a chief I will not write any thing down in permanent maker or make any decisions with out a clan mother ( or for us) a teacher okay!

Once my grandpa said to me, “Alex, you know you would make a great president someday.” Well, this is my first step, and this would mean a lot to me, my family and especially my grandpa if I were elected for office! Vote for me, and no sticky notes will be wasted! Vote for me, a kind, willing, helpful and smiley 4th grader, like you, just running for secretary!!!

EDITED: SHE WON!!

More Halloween Pictures

Halloween: Day Two

Well, here they are!! Don't they look great? And although he doesn't look it, Ethan was very excited about Trick-or-Treating. Maybe he's annoyed because Alex appears to be eating his "curly ear".

Alex strikes a pose at school.

Blogger is being a stinker and won't let me post more pictures...I'll try again later... so check back!

Halloween: Day One

When you have kids and they go to school you end up "celebrating" holidays more than once... so today was Halloween: Day One. Ethan had his Costume Parade at school. He is a robot. He decided on the costume idea all by himself and I put it together. We "garbage picked" an old printer and smashed it apart for some of the components. It is kind of heavy, so he took it off after the parade- we may have to make some adjustments to it before the Big Night.

The body is made from a box that a case of wine came in (how fitting!) and the head is a Goldfish Cracker box. We sprayed his yellow boots silver.

More Halloween......

Our Jack-o-Lanterns

Ethan as a Jack-o-Lantern

Arrrgh!

Hudson had his 7th birthday bash today. Pirate themed (obviously)... It was lots of fun!Having 8 boys in the house (including Ethan) was, well, interesting! We had a treasure hunt and a pirate ship cake. I think he was afraid the ships flags were going to catch fire... look at his expression!

Having Fun Isn't Hard When You've Got A Library Card!

If you're not an Arthur fan you may not recognize the title of this post... But that's what Hudson was feeling yesterday when he FINALLY got his own library card. Turning seven is so very exciting!! Not only do you get a library card, but you get to ditch your booster seat too!

Memory Walk

Today Alex, Hudson & I walked in the Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk in Canandaigua. It's about a 2.7 mile walk, and the kids did great. Then we went and told Mum that we walked for her.

Tired out after the walk (with a buddy).

Ten Years....

Has it really been ten years? It doesn't seem that long. I still feel like that same girl- heavier, but basically the same. Justin's hair has come full circle and is near that length again! And I think that may have been that last time I wore lipstick!

We had a nice weekend in "the city"- a play at GEVA, nice dinner, night in a hotel, breakfast and strolling around Park Ave, and a visit to Strong Museum. We sort of felt a little out of place being at a museum devoted to play without our kids- but it was so nice to be able to wander around, not chase or lose anyone, and actually get to ENJOY it. It's a really fabulous place. The new Reading Adventure Land was almost as great as the Butterfly Exhibit. I highly recommend it.

We don't have any plans for tonight. Justin has to work. Alex has dance. Hudson does too- but he is sick on the couch right now with a 102.2 temp. I'll probably have a glass of wine, watch some (hopefully) great TV and fold laundry....such is life. Happy ten years to us!!

Fall

Sarah here:

Ethan and I picked a huge bucket full of pears yesterday and I made pear ginger crisp with some of them last night after he had gone to bed. Today he tried it and he loves it. He had a big serving for lunch. A little later he said, "Mom, can I have more pear crust?" and then "Can we go get some more pears to make some more pear crust?" It doesn't sound as appetizing to me when it's called "Crust", but whatever.

We brought the scarecrow down from the shed attic and tied it to the fence out by the road. We snuck into the field and "borrowed" some corn from the friendly farmer to decorate with. Yesterday Ethan heard the tractor so we took off down the path to go see what the farmer was up to. He was harvesting the corn. We waved, and when the farmer got near, he turned off his tractor and came over to see us. "Are you the little guy Uncle Dick brought out here last year?" he asked Ethan. Ethan was so excited he could barely talk to the guy!

My camera is not operating right now- otherwise I would have added some pictures of Ethan on the ladder.

Hot Cross Buns...

Hi all. As you know it i'm learning to play the flute, I had my 1st lesson today. I know the fingerings for 3 songs but i'm still working on the sound. Hudson and I are back in dance, and we're trying to get Ethan in to going to the preschool program. School is going great for Hud, Ethan and me! I hope you guys all had a great summer! Bye-Bye!!!!!

Ethan's First Day

Here is a picture of Ethan and his friend Meredith just before going into school for their first day. See how happy and ready Ethan looks? See how proudly he is wearing his back pack and holding his show and tell (there is a caterpillar in there)? Well, that didn't last. As soon as he remembered that he gets LEFT there, he wasn't too happy. There were no tears, but there was certainly some apprehension. But when I returned 2½ hours later he was fine. He had played at the rice table. He did a project. He played with his buddies that he remembered from last year. He did ok!

Fugly

It looks like a hillbilly picnic around here

First Day....

Today was the first day of school. The kids were up early and ready to go with lots of time to spare. It helps that their bus doesn't come until 8:55am. In case you have lost track, Hudson is 6 and entering 2nd grade. Alex is 8 and entering 4th. (Doesn't that sound OLD??!!) Here is a picture of last year's first day to compare. Hey look! Hudson is wearing the exact same shirt! Whoops! At least it gives you a good comparison of his size- look at how much he has grown!

And next year we get to watch this monkey go off to kindergarten!


Hudson is looking a little "Jack-o-lantern-ish" lately. He lost his top tooth the other night while he was sleeping.... and we can't find it!! Wonder were it ended up?


* The kids just got off the bus at 4:20pm! Yes, that is late for them...hopefully the next few days will be a bit earlier. Normal time is about 4 or 4:05. Hudson was very quiet and hasn't said much of anything about the first day. Alex was the first person to talk to the new boy in her class.... hmmmmm, sounds a bit like her Papa.

HOT HOT HOT

Its just too hot to do much of anything but complain about how hot it is.... so that's our excuse for not posting much. When it gets this hot, we get sort of silly and then this happens....

Kelly- I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Alex here- I just wanted to say,"Kelly-I love you"!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes you heard me, I went to a Kelly Clarkson concert at Darien lake yesterday. First we went on rides and then we did something I've always wanted to do...SEE KELLY CLARKSON LIVE!!!!!! It was the most fantastic concert I have ever gone too- actually my first concert too! I loved ALL the songs and her new hair cut. At the end when she was singing Breakaway, we got about 10 feet away from her and she waved to us, and I yelled, as you can guess, "I LOVE YOU KELLY!!!" At the very end they threw confetti out of these big blower things and I got pockets full to take home. One more thing- THANK YOU GRANDMA PATTY for the tickets !!!! I love you tooooo!!!!

The Never Ending Birthday

Ethan is still receiving gifts for his birthday. Today a big package from Target arrived. Ethan was SO HAPPY to find more tractors inside...and a gator AND a buck! Thanks Sheller/Fisher family. That was very nice of you. And I am the WORST about sending out thank you notes... every day I think, Oh, I should really get to those thank you's from Ethan's party and then, again, I don't actually get to them. We do appreciate all of his wonderful gifts... thanks everyone!!

So Long Sammy Davis

Sammy Davis is the name Alex gave to one of the tadpoles we harvested from Megan's pond. We were raising him and his "brother" Samuel (I know, very original names) along with nine "Moonies" (another of Alex's names)- which are actually a different variety of tadpole- in a plastic tote on the breezeway.

This is a picture of Sammy Davis last Tuesday. He still has his tail. On Friday we went to the pet store and asked the gentleman there what to feed a young bullfrog (we are guessing he's a bullfrog). He suggested crickets and gave us a free bag full. "There is no way that this tiny frog can eat a cricket almost as big as him," I thought. Well, I was wrong! I watched him gobble one up yesterday afternoon.

This is a picture of Sammy Davis a few days ago. He still had a nub of a tail. We all had fun watching him change and grow.

This is a picture of Sammy Davis on the right with Samuel on the left, taken yesterday. See how Sammy Davis has completely lost his tail? Then this morning we discovered that he had escaped! He had tried to escape once before, and we found him by the door in the breezeway, scooped him up and deposited him back in his home. But this time there was no finding the little guy. So Long Sammy Davis! You were fun while we had you!

Another One Bites the Dust.....

And another one's gone, and another one's gone, and another one bites the dust....

Yep, Hudson lost his second tooth. He's going to be rollin' in the tooth-fairy dough before the summer is out if this pace keeps up. Alex was calling him Gumby this morning.

And another school year bites the dust too..... can you believe that I will now have a 4th grader!!! That sounds so OLD! And a 2nd-grader too. We got Alex all signed up for her flute. It will be delivered to school in September. They are required by Mr. Gerolomi to stick with it through December, but I think that Alex will love playing an instrument. She plays her precorder All. The. Time.

This summer the kids are signed up for only a few "structured" activities. Alex will be doing theater camp in Canandaigua for 2 weeks and both she and Hudson will play soccer and go to Veggie Camp (for one week). We are planning a vacation to the Adirondacks, and a reunion with Justin's family at Letchworth in August. We plan on getting together with our friends Tessa and Bethany for some trade-off playdates (one day here, one day there) and playing a lot at the lake with all the cousins. I really can't believe that summer vacation starts this afternoon!

Finally....

Hudson has finally lost a tooth! It happened this morning. He is 6 years and 8 months old. And can you see all the gear he is wearing? Does it remind you of anyone? We call him Keenan Jr.

Kristin is Evil!

Sarah here- and all I have to say is, Kristin, you are evil, evil, evil..... Those cookies you sent me for my birthday are far too yummy!!! Sure- she loses all this weight and then sends me a dozen ginormous, delicious, different flavored (so I can't just have one and be done with it...No! I need to try all of the varieties) cookies. So, if you need me I'll be wiping crumbs off my chin in the kitchen.....

I'm BAAAAACCCCKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hello all! Alex here. Guess what?! I got chosen to play the flute in fourth grade! Only about 6 or 8 people get to play it too! Aren't I lucky! My ballet recital went great too!!!!!!! Hudson loved it so much, he wants to do dance again in the fall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

More Dance Photos and Ethan's Party

As promised, here are more pictures from the recital. They don't allow flash photography during the performance, so these are backstage shots. Alex had 3 costumes... Jazz was the hoe-down costume, tap was the Broadway costume (with a cane as well) and ballet was the white cygnet costume. Hudson was a butterfly for ballet (which I unfortunately did not get a picture of- the kids wore all black and had wings and antenna) and he was the frog for tap.

Yesterday to top off our busy weekend we had Ethan's 4th birthday party. It was a John Deere theme, with a tractor ice cream cake and green and yellow accessories (balloons, plates and napkins). He got lots of great toys and a fun time was had by all. The weather could have been better- we were hoping for something like last year's party- an outdoor event.... but it was chilly. The kids played outside and the adults sat around the food in the kitchen and chatted.