Christmas in MA

Dylan and Maddie with their cousins Sienna and Steele.

...and the hockey games begin.

Uncle Dan and Crazy Uncle Ryan with the kids (minus Silas)

More fun in WNY

Trip to the bounce house.  Avery and Chelsea were there as well, however getting them all in a picture at once was near impossible.

Dylan's favorite slide -- he and Maddie went down this one about 20 times.

Dylan and Aunt Jackie

Maddie's first attempt using Keva Planks, I have as much fun as she does with these!

Christmas Time in WNY

Opening their Christmas gifts from each other and Grandma

The Polar Express

Once again, the kids were not too interested in actually talking to Santa.  Maddie eventually warmed up and put in her requests (along with Dylan's). 

At the play with Grandma

Potterybarn Kids story time

Dylan had a bit of bed head.

Cookie!



Winter time weather

Well, it is a bit cooler outside -- but not the typical Buffalo Winter weather I am used to.  Not much snow at all, and most of the time it's been in the 40's!

Christmas Vacation

I have 356 pictures to date of our Christmas vacation in Buffalo and Massachusetts.  I didn't bring my laptop with me on this trip and have quite a few posts I'm backed up on.  We've had a great time back in the States and the kids have been able to see all 7 of their cousins as well!  More than likely it will be a few days before I can catch up on the blog.

Christmas Presentation

Here are a couple songs with Maddie and her classmates.

First presentation

Madison had been talking about the big presentation for weeks, today was the big day!  She did a great job, in front of a 200+ crowd!  I will put video on the blog later this week.

Super sized

On the way out of our place today we saw this critter lurking on the wall, roughly 3 inches!  I asked Cathy to hold her hand next to it for a size reference, but she chickened out.

Busted

We restricted treats after school on all days except Friday -- however, we were a bit suspicious on the topic of unapproved handouts given Maddie's random chatter.  This photo was taken by Eliane herself, on a Thursday!

A big day for Maddie

Our 4Y5M28d old tied her shoes all by herself... she mastered the tricky last loop yesterday.

The Easel

I'm not going to go into the story of the easel, let's just say it was supposed to be here back in April and there were some logistical issues from there.  The kids love it, a good activity that they can both do at the same time.  The key for one of these things is finding a safe spot for it in your home, we found a nice place that considerably reduces the risk of paint on our furniture.

Back to the park

A trip to the park needs to be planned ahead of time if you want to obtain optimal parking.  If you arrive after 10AM you're basically out of luck.  We were able to rally the troops and get there just in time.