A New Year for Ally

This weekend Olivia, Katy and I went to Maryland to celebrate Ally's first birthday. The drive to Beth & Rob's was generally uneventful, barring some torrential rains between Petersburg and Richmond. The girls rode like champs, and gorged on snacks and watched movie after movie to pass the time. The ride home was a bit less smooth ending with Katy pitching a fit of royal proportions, and Olivia throwing up from what appears to be her first brush with motion sickness. But all of the driving was so worth it to spend that special day with Ally, Beth and Rob!

Ally is at that wonderfully endearing, charming, sweet, delightful stage where the world is just incredibly exciting, fun and new. She's clapping and dancing and standing and crawling and bouncing and laughing and exploring. I can't believe that a whole year has already passed and that we are celebrating her birthday. That first birthday is such a bittersweet one--the changes in that first year from newborn towards toddler are so monumental. And I know that Beth will be kind of emotional tomorrow as she thinks back to where she was, going through labor, giving birth, holding that tiny little baby for the very first time. What a miracle new life is! The OB who delivered Ryan commented soon after he was born that he doesn't understand how anyone can hold a brand new baby and not believe in God. He is so right.

And so, as this first year ends, and a new one begins tomorrow, I pray that Ally will continue to be the sweet soul that has touched all of our hearts. And that Beth and Rob enjoy all of the "firsts" that are going to occur during this next exciting year. I love you guys!

Ally checks out one of the cool toy "cubes" Grandad made for her.
















Beth & Rob--yeah! They made it through the first year!


























Ally shows off her dancing prowess to Laurie Berkner's "We Are the Dinosaurs."















Let her eat cake! (And smoosh it and smear it and make a fabulous mess for our amusement!)

Monday, Monday...

thank God it's over! Not that there was really anything wrong with today. It was just one of "those" days that seem rather pointless and result in a general feeling of insufficient accomplishment. Bah.

Sure, I fed my family three generally healthy meals, cleaned the kitchen, planned the meals for the week and went grocery shopping, straightened the playroom, pulled all the board books from our shelves and sorted out which ones to keep and which to donate, assembled a new shoe organizer for our downstairs closet, cleaned the shower, vacuumed and re-cleaned the kitchen, supervised Ryan's homework and read him 2 chapters of our current book, and even played with the girls for a little while this afternoon...

Okay, so maybe I did get a lot done today and I'm just being too hard on myself. But there is so much that still needs to be done: clean the rest of my bathroom, clean the kids' bathroom, vacuum the house, wash/dry/fold/put away at least 4 loads of laundry (not counting sheets and towels that need to be done this week). And as I look around the house, it just isn't obvious that I got anything done today. But hey, at least I posted something in the blog--and here's some cute pictures for you:
Ryan being his cool self.



Look who learned to swing all by herself!



And look who was inspired to learn to swing by herself too!



Taking a walk with Grandad.

Success!

Last night, both Olivia and Katelyn went to bed WITHOUT A PULL-UP and more importantly, they both STAYED DRY!!!! They've been day-time potty trained for a year now, but only recently have they started staying dry at night. So we decided to take the plunge. Could it be that I've actually bought my last package of pull-ups?

April 16 - A Tough Day

We had no idea what kind of a day we were going to be faced with when the alarm went off on Monday morning. It had rained most of Sunday, but we were expecting sunny weather on Monday. Dad was going to play golf at Mallard Head golf course (just around the corner from us). All we noticed was that it was a bit windy outside. When Kevin returned from taking Ryan to the bus stop, two of our trees next to our driveway had been blown down. Now, these were not little trees. They were easily 35-40 foot tall pine trees, but the wind had blown so hard, and the ground was so soft from all the rain on Sunday, that they were literally blown over with the roots lifting up out of the ground. Wow.

So Kevin borrowed our neighbor's chainsaw to begin getting rid of the mess. He played lumberjack while Dad and I worked to move the debris to the empty wooded lot across the street from us. The wind was blowing the whole time. Dad decided that playing golf was probably not going to happen that day!

Around 10 a.m., we noticed two more of our trees had been blown down in the same general area as the first. These trees were somewhat smaller, but still. While Kevin and Dad were working to remove these trees, they noticed that another tree was starting to show signs of being blown down soon--its roots were beginning to lift up out of the ground as the wind blew and it swayed. So they decided to take it down themselves before it fell.

Meanwhile, a huge gust of wind (an updraft) blew across our deck and managed to lift and open our closed umbrella and shatter the glass top of our table! What a mess! Olivia and Katelyn were quite upset about this latest development.

Finally, around noon, I received a phone call from Stephanie telling me to turn on the news because there had been a shooting at Virginia Tech (Kevin's alma mater), and so far 21 people had been killed. As the wind blew, and our trees kept coming down, we watched the death toll climb and felt so blessed that all we were dealing with was some lost trees. Our hearts go out to the families whose lives were torn apart that day. And while it is difficult for Kevin to keep hearing his beloved VA Tech talked about in relation to such a horrible event, he knows that this tragedy will serve to make the university a stronger, safer institution that he still hopes to send our children to in the future. Go Hokies!

Mr. Baseball

Ryan has played teeball and coach-pitch baseball for two years prior to this, and Kevin has always had a role as an assistant coach due to the amount of time he had to spend commuting. One of the great parts of his not wasting so much time on the road is that he can be the coach of Ryan's coach-pitch baseball team now! And he has thrown himself into that role completely.


When they got back from their first practice (about a month ago now), he was feeling a little overwhelmed because so many of the kids on the team didn't have any skills (catching, throwing, hitting) to speak of. He was a bit concerned about their safety, since Ryan can throw the ball HARD and FAST already. Not every child has been blessed with natural athleticism and a Daddy or Mommy who spends lots of time outside playing catch (Ryan sure has, though!).


Anyway, Kevin must be doing something right with his team, because they looked pretty good at their first game this past Saturday! All the parents were commenting about how much he's done with the kids. I was so proud! Every kid got at least one hit, and they were all feeling so good about themselves. They are so lucky to be on a team with Kevin as their coach--he doesn't just run practice drills, he really teaches them the skills, and does it in a way that makes it fun to learn.

Poodles here, poodles there...

poodles, poodles, everywhere!


That's how it felt around here the past few days as we prepared for and cleaned up from the Pink Poodle Party. The day was quite a success with 10 little girls (2 5-year-olds, 2 4-year-olds and 6 3-year olds) running around our house. It is amazing to me how different the party was with 10 little girls from Ryan's party
with 7 boys. Anyone who tries to say that boys and girls can be the same just hasn't been paying much attention. They are fundamentally different creatures!

Little girls will sit quietly and color their placemats quite happily for as long as you let them. (Boys will color for a little bit, but then they will soon start
making a lot of noise and running around!)

Little girls will walk up stairs in a nice neat line without being prompted to do so. (Boys will push and shove and race each other up those same stairs, also without prompting).

Little girls will happily find their square to sit on, and will stay quietly
on that square without any reminding while each child takes a turn playing the various organized games. (Boys won't. 'nuff said.)

Anyway, the party was a success. And apparently I was pretty worn out because I fell asleep in Ryan's bed some time before 8 pm...

Olivia's Favorite Meal

This morning as I was making my menu plan and grocery list for the week, I asked Olivia what her favorite dinner was (since her birthday dinner is on the upcoming week's menu):

Me: Hey Liv, what food do you like best for dinners?
O: Ummmmm, hotdogs!
Me: Good, we're going to have hotdogs after your poodle party on Sunday. What do you want to have for dinner on your birthday?
O: Ummmm, how about......... applesauce and water!
Me: What else?
O: How about, ummmm..... ice cubes in the water!

That's my girl.

Pink Poodles

Olivia and Katelyn are having their first "real" birthday party this year. By "real" I mean that we sent out invitations to their friends at school and a few friends from our neighborhood, and we're planning games, and have a theme. They are beyond excited! We have been counting down how many days until their party ever since the box arrived with all the party stuff in it (nearly a month ago).

I had thought for sure that they would want a princess party, given their current affinity for all things princess. But when we got a catalog in the mail from Birthday's Express that had all types of party supplies and tons of themes, they went positively gaga over the Pink Poodle theme.

And so we are having a Pink Poodle Party (I love alliteration) on April 15. We'll be playing Pin the Tail on Fifi the Poodle; Poodle, poodle, where's your bone?; and Pass the Poodle Bone. If we have time, we'll play Fifi Says (think Simon Says). There will be cupcakes with pink frosting and pink lemonade to drink, and pink M&Ms, and pink & purple candles and balloons and streamers. Gaaa. But Livvy and Katy LOVE it. And that's what really matters, right?

Love to Read

I have always loved to read. My mom would read to me all the time when I was little, and was faithful about getting us to the library every 2 weeks. Growing up where I did, there weren't other kids to play with very often, so I spent a lot of time reading. I can even remember getting together with my friend Laura sometimes, and we'd end up reading side by side. I probably made my eyes go bad with all that reading--particularly the reading done in VERY poorly lit situations (like when I was supposed to be sleeping).

Stephanie has kept me busy through the years passing on books that she's read, and has turned me on to some excellent authors (like Jodi Piccoult--I'm reading her latest, "19 minutes" right now and it is excellent, if you're looking for a good book). And Beth has also introduced me to some exceptional books--to think I hadn't read Harry Potter until she loaned it to me (and I just bought "The Poisonwood Bible" and am looking forward to starting it soon...)!

Recently, my neighborhood has started a book club, and several of my new neighbors are bibliophiles just like me. This month we read "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls, which I also really recommend. After reading about this woman's mother, I feel like I may still have a shot at "Mommy of the Year!"

I am doing what I can to pass this love of reading on to my children. We read books together often--it is the one thing that I will drop whatever it is I'm doing to do with them whenever they ask. Ryan is reading chapter books now (he's reading on a late second grade level according to his most recent report card), but still loves for me to read to him. And I'm having a blast re-reading some of my childhood favorites with him (like Charlotte's Web, and Encyclopedia Brown), as well as discovering some new favorites (like the Magic Treehouse books).

So imagine how I felt when I came downstairs a few days ago to see this going on in Kevin's office (yes, Katy picked out her own clothes that day).

Another one bites the dust...

Ryan lost his second tooth this morning while eating a jelly bean! That makes two missing baby teeth. He asked me if he could keep this one since it's so cute, but only if he could still get some money for it from the tooth fairy. I told him that the tooth fairy may be understanding, but that he'd need to write her a nice letter asking that she leave it with him.

My, our house is becoming quite the busy place -- last night a visit from the Easter Bunny and tonight a visit from the Tooth Fairy -- perhaps we should check with CPI to make sure that our security system is working properly...

Happy Easter!

Brrrr! What happened to our beautiful spring weather? The past few days have been down right cold. Yuck. We had to bundle the kids up in layers under their fleece-lined windbreakers to go out for the egg hunt yesterday. As you can see, although our neighborhood has considerably fewer houses than our last one, there are still a LOT of kids!
Enza (one of our neighbors originally from NY) put a lot of effort into planning and orchestrating the event for the kids. They each got a little bunny basket to collect their eggs, and each child got 25 eggs! They were thrilled, but I was a bit less thrilled about bringing 75 (!) more eggs into my house. If she does this again next year,
I'm going to donate all these extra eggs towards the effort. This Type-A mommy can not tolerate having hundreds of plastic eggs underfoot when the Easter stuff comes out each year. The 60 eggs that we had was already excessive to me. After all, while this part of Easter is fun, it is NOT what Easter is about. This morning, before heading
downstairs to find the eggs hidden around our house, I sat down with the kids and we talked about why we celebrate Easter, and why the eggs are a symbol for Easter (they symbolize new life, just as Jesus' dying for us, and rising again on Easter is how we can have new life in Him). I also read them the "Jelly Bean Prayer"
RED IS FOR THE BLOOD HE GAVE.

GREEN IS FOR THE GRASS HE MADE.
YELLOW IS FOR THE SUN SO BRIGHT.
ORANGE IS FOR THE EDGE OF NIGHT.
BLACK IS FOR THE SINS WE MADE.
WHITE IS FOR THE GRACE HE GAVE.
PURPLE IS FOR HIS HOUR OF SORROW.
PINK IS FOR OUR NEW TOMORROW.
I hope that you have a blessed Easter, and that you have embraced the message of new life in Christ.

Almost 4?

How did it happen that my sweet baby girls are almost 4 years old?

How did this tiny 7 pound bundle of snuggly dependence:
















Become this 33 pound articulate, compassionate, wise ball of energy and vivaciousness and fierce independence:


























And how did this tiny, quiet, patient 6 1/2 pound package:




















Turn into this bubbly, sometimes demanding, meticulous, LOUD, almost always endearing 32 pound force to be reckoned with:


























And if my daughters have changed so much in just 4 short years, where will they be in 4 more? I have no idea, but I know it's going to be quite an adventure to get there...

Stuff

Ryan's home sick, again. With strep throat. Again. This is the 4th time he's had strep in less than 6 months. His pediatrician said that if he has another year like this one, we should probably go see an Ear Nose Throat specialist to talk about having his tonsils taken out. Sigh. I guess it shouldn't be that big of a surprise since Kevin had to have his removed, and so did most of the grandparents. But if he *does* need them removed, I promise I won't save them in a pickle jar with formaldehyde for our visitors to check out... (sorry, mom!).

I can't believe that Easter is this weekend. How is it already April, anyway? I think there must be something wrong with the calendar, or the clocks, or something... I need to go buy some egg dye tomorrow, and probably a bunch of eggs too. Oh yeah, and I also have to go be the Easter bunny and pick up some stuff to put in the kiddos baskets.

This year, the only candy I'm getting them is a chocolate bunny (and I'll be sure to warn them to eat it before Aunt Beth comes to visit this summer...), some jelly beans and some marshmallow peeps. I can not believe how much candy there is at Target for Easter baskets! The girls love getting a stuffed animal, and I've had my eyes on a stuffed pig and a stuffed frog (also from Target--gosh I love that store!), and I may get them each a Barbie ballerina movie. I've no idea what to get Ryan, maybe some more books... the boy is reading so well, now!

Our neighborhood is having an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning, should be a bunch of fun. We have such a nice mix of teenagers and younger kids here. The teenagers are all helping out with hiding the eggs and kid control. I'll take a bunch of pictures for your amusement.

Later that afternoon our neighbor next door has invited several of the families over for a cookout and suggested we could hide eggs in the woods behind her house for the kids to have something to do. Funny thing... the neighbor having us all over is Jewish. She was raised in a Catholic household and married a Jewish guy and that is how they are raising their children. She thinks it's quite amusing to be doing an egg hunt. Gotta love her twisted sense of humor!

Easter itself will be low key again this year. I have GOT to find a church that I really like before next Easter... I'd love to just pick one and go for the Easter morning service, but I don't want to be one of *those* holiday people, you know?