Decorating cookies with Grandma

We stopped in WNY for a day before heading out to Long Island, Grandma and the kids were able to squeeze in a cookie decorating session. Dylan, clearly outnumbered by females, was there more for the food than the actual activity.

School Christmas Parties

Maddie and Dylan both had parties at school before the break.  Little D's class sang a few songs for everyone before the festivities began --  Madison's get-together was strictly a social gathering, no performances.

Breakfast with Santa

The kids came prepared with their lists, let's see if Santa thinks these two were good this year.

Missing: Tooth

Maddie lost her first tooth today, the one right next to it is pretty loose too.

Here's the pic of Maddie's first tooth when it came in, dated back on January 27th, 2008 (click First Tooth Link for the blog post)

Hard to say if the first tooth out was actually the first tooth in as well -- take a look at the pictures, you be the judge.  It's a close call, I think it is...

Christmas time

If it were at all clear from the glare in the window in the background, you would have seen snow on the ground -- making this the perfect traditional picture of kids hanging up ornaments.

I did however, capture the "moment" for 2012 though -- that being my children decorating the tree as soon as they got out of bed.  We were supposed to do this the night before, but I was too busy at the airport watching a wheel-less car get put on a flatbed truck -- 'tis the season!

A small surprise

When we arrived back from Arizona and pulled up to our car at the airport, something was missing.  What can you do, it was our lucky day I guess... luckily we got in around 1PM and it wasn't late at night. We ended up renting a car and I went back later that night to get the thing towed out of there

More pics from Flagstaff

Dylan in his usual pose as the Hulk

The kids have way more energy than us 30 somethings

Throwing rocks in the water

At Flagstaff

We went to Flagstaff while we were in Arizona.  It's about 2 hours away from Phoenix, the weather is quite a change since it's at about 7,000 ft elevation.  Very nice place, had a great time.

Thanksgiving in Arizona

All of the cousins in one pic

Uncle Ryan promised Madison a pretend birthday party.  Maddie was scared of the dog all week, so the deal was -- if she pet the dog there would be a pretend party.

I think this is the 3rd time now that we've head down to Arizona with the kid(s) on Thanksgiving.  The weather was nice and fun time was had by all.

Four Wheelin'

Maddie and Sienna

Maddie took her cousin's quad for a spin in the woods -- this was the real deal, not a toy!  She did really well, only took 5 minutes of training before she was able to ride by herself.

A couple days later Dylan took it for a spin as well, I wasn't able to get any pictures of him though, I was too busy running next to it making sure he didn't cruise off in the wrong direction -- he actually did 2 laps by himself without me holding on!

Open Skate

2 minutes for Parents needing a Break



Dylan loves the penalty box.

 



We took the kids to a local open-skate today -- this was Little D's first time on skates, Maddie's second.  By the end of the session Maddie was able to do laps around the rink without any parental assistance. 

School Pictures

Dylan made a last minute out-the-door wardrobe change, Mom wasn't too thrilled.

I love all the options parents get when it comes to selecting the school photo "packages".  My favorite is the $10 extra for "touch-ups".  First off, I don't ever recall touch-ups on my school photos back in the day -- second, they offer a free picture re-take session if you're not happy with the photos.  Which begs the question, why do you need to "touch up" a photo?  Additionally, why the heck would you even want to touch up a photo like this?  Anyway, I opted out of the $10 touch-up -- instead I blew it on a trip to Starbucks.

Craft time

A nearby store had a craft time for kids where they could make their own candles.  Maddie went with her friend Riley from school and they each made two candles... that's two more than I've ever made in my lifetime.