Thanksgiving 2015: Lancaster Fun

The Stefany clan was together at G and Poppop's house for Thanksgiving this year.  As always with the Hettinger and Hollencamp cousins, it was a circus.  There was lots of tormenting snuggling Parker, balloon catching, running in circles, playing all together, fighting, crying, laughing, "family" playing....  The usual stuff when the 4 of them get together.

I am noticing a pleasant shift of inclusion with the cousins.  When Braylen was a baby, Evie and Hannah did their thing and Cole was the odd one out.  Then when Braylen was a toddler, the older 3 hung out more and Braylen was the loner.  Now Cole wants to play with Braylen, things like wrestle and sword fights, but nevertheless, play WITH him.  We are very close to the girls in one area playing family and the boys outside doing their own thing.  Should we add another baby to the mix?  Heck. NO.

The weather was nice enough that we spent time at the playground (without coats even!) and were able to check out Dutch Wonderland all decorated for Christmas.  G, Poppop, and Parker enjoyed a quiet evening while the eight of us took in the twinkling lights and amusement rides.  I find it somewhat ironic that so many of our friends in Maryland go to Dutch Wonderland all the time, but I haven't taken my kids yet and my parents live 15 minutes from it.

Here comes the phone photo dump...

Girl cousins waiting patiently for our turn on the ski
lift ride to take us across the park.  Hannah and I were
nervous up so high while little Evie wanted to lean forward
to look below.  A long ride for this height fearing mama...

I was pretty sure Hannah was going to barf after this bouncy ride

Boy heaven

Emotions were brewing...

Yep.

Flying!  Jason kept the crowd laughing with his comments
about the way his crotch was feeling on this ride :)

Supergirls!

Finishing up the night with the carousel

Now it's time to gear up for all things Christmas!

Family Art Night

While I like the idea of having a Thanksgiving program at preschool, I am relieved MDOW does not have a program like last year.  My children do not come across as outgoing performers (at least yet).  Creating a special craft together is much more our speed.

Tonight from 6-7:30 PM families visited our preschooler's classroom to complete an art project together.   Since we have two kiddos there, we were able to visit TWO different classrooms.

Project 1: Mason jars covered with tissue paper with a candle inside.

Evie and Braylen painted the jar with glue while Mommy covered the jar with tissue paper.  Then Daddio put on the final touches.

Showing off the Heart Room project

Project 2: Using our hand prints to create a Christmas tree

Let's hear it for messy projects in a controlled environment.  Zero paint on any clothes.  Is the anti-messy hands gene a thing?  If so, our kids have it strong from us.  Score.

Bear Room project

And have no fear, the kids did plenty of turkey related crafts all month.  These two are preschool classics.  It kind of cracks me up that Braylen's is three times bigger than Evie's :)

 

Onto Lancaster tomorrow for Thanksgiving craziness with my family!  

Morning Snuggles

This week in our small group we talked about birth order of kids.  The first born is the rule follower.  The baby of the family is the comedian.  I can see how those generalizations might be true for our family.  Maybe that also explains why the tot clock still works like a gem for Evie.   Braylen, on the other hand, doesn't follow the color rules quite as well.

Braylen's latest routine is to snuggle in our bed until Evie comes in and ruins joins our snuggle snooze.  Some mornings it is 5:30, some it is at 7 AM.  And of course there are the occasional 1:30 AM snuggles.  I am so dog tired that as long as he is sleeping and allowing me to sleep, I don't mind a little visitor in our bed.  Well, more like a few little visitors.

Braylen originally only brought "Monk" and his blanket.  Then his pillow was added.  Now he brings polar bear for Mommy and Sven for Daddio.  How thoughtful of him to bring us lovies to snuggle too!  This morning he made 3 trips to his room to gather all his goods.  

Bed sharing is not our parenting style at all.  We don't allow the kids to sleep in our bed all night.  Morning snuggles won't last forever though.  These are the times I am thankful to not be rushed to work in the morning, especially the upcoming winter mornings when all I want to do is snuggle under my sheets myself.

Halloween

Is Halloween blowing up into a huge ordeal or have I just been blind to all of it because I don't really care for the "holiday"?  It all feels like too much to me.   Nevertheless, the kids dressed up and went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.

This was the first year I asked my kids what they wanted to be.  As predicted, Evie wanted to be Elsa and Bray some kind of superhero.  I swayed Braylen to be Superman since that was the hand-me-down costume we had.  The kids asked me numerous times what I was going to dress up as.  I pulled something together at the last minute... next year, maybe, just maybe I will be ahead of the game and plan out some family themed outfits.

Mommy dressed as herself- the housewife ;)

Our pre trick-or-treat festivities included pizza at our neighbor's house.  It was little Caitlin's first Halloween! Our little nook of the neighborhood is starved for little kids, so we are excited Caitlin is turning one and ready to hang with my outdoor-loving kiddos.

Daddio takes pride in two events each year: pumpkin carving and cake decorating.  He keeps setting the bar higher and higher each year.

Braylen's Lightning McQueen pumpkin

Evie's Elsa pumpkin

That's some fine carving skills!

The kids had fun trick-or-treating.  Braylen was "flying" all over the place; he really got into character  :)  I enjoyed seeing all the neighborhood kids (and parents) from my perch on the stoop.  The top costumes were the two middle schoolers dressed as lattes and the Starbucks barista with them.  Lights off by 7:30, in bed by 8:15 PM.  That's a good night.

Gymnastics Part II

Our Evie may be tiny, but she is strong, flexible, and coordinated.  We have seen many of these qualities since she was an infant.  She appears to us to have natural talent as a gymnast.  She took her first gymnastics class last summer.  Frankly, it didn't go well for any of us.  Evie was timid around the instructors and she clung to me all the time.  I vowed never to do a mommy and me activity with Evie again.

Since Evie continues to jump off the couch, hang on the door handles, beg to go across the monkey bars, and do somersaults in the grass, I figured it was time to give it another try.

This time I opted for a legit gymnastics gym in Columbia.  Forget cost, forget 6 week rec class, I went straight to a full year of gymnastics.  Once I started processing that, I regretted my decision since Evie didn't seem excited about it at all, commenting she would do it when she turned 5.  (She seemed ok with it until I said I wasn't with her this time)  But this class is on Wednesday mornings while Braylen is at school.  When will Evie be able to do a morning class again?  Never.  We're doing it.

Week one seemed like a repeat of gymnastics part I: peeling Evie off of me to go with her class, her standing there doing nothing while the rest of the kids played with balls.  I nervously watched her while eyeing up which mom in the waiting area could be my friend.  Thankfully Jesus took the wheel providing Evie with a fabulous instructor who managed to get Evie to follow all of her instructions for the rest of the 45 minute class.  Her class of 6 three and four-year olds were darling learning the "freeze" dismount move.  And mommy made a new friend who reassured me that not all the kids in the class have been doing gymnastics since birth.  Praise the Lord!

Evie asked all week if she had gymnastics that day.  She was eager to go back.  Week two brought a wardrobe upgrade and mommy breaking the rules to get some video of Evie in action.

Looking super cute in her newly acquired leotard

I am seeing a side of Evie I have never witnessed.  I only know what she is like around me.  Take me out of the equation and this girl can follow directions, sit patiently, and complete a task even after messing up.  I love watching her learn new skills and seeing her smile after she does it.  I think our instincts may be correct on this one; gymnastics is for Evie.

First Day of Preschool

The school bells are ringing; it's back to school!

Evie and Braylen got a little taste of Mother's Day Out this summer.  Here we go with a full school year for BOTH kids!

Due to availability and naps, Evie is in afternoon pre-k MWF and Braylen is in the two/three-year-old room MW mornings.  Yeah, exactly.  Thankfully MDOW is only a 2 minute drive from our house.  The ladies there do everything they can to accommodate families; Braylen is allowed to stay for lunch so I only make one exchange at 12:30.  I am excited to have Evie alone two mornings a week; our alone time was cut short by the birth of some cute boy.  It's time for some quality mommy-daughter time before she is in school full time next year!

Braylen was up first.  Naturally he was being a squirrel, not letting me get any pictures by our front door.

Walking into school!

Braylen was in the "Smiley" room this summer.  He moved up to the "Heart" room for the school year.  I am thrilled about this placement.  I really like his teachers, Ms. Caitlin and Ms. Carol.  Evie spent some time in the heart room last year, so I encouraged her to show her brother the ropes.

Hang up your bag

Big sister to the rescue

Then find your name tag and trace the
letters with a marker.

We said our good-byes and all was good.  Braylen only cried when I went to pick him up to go home.  He was confused why all the other lunch bunch kids were taking books to nap time while he was leaving with me.  Sweet boy.

Evie is in the pre-k program in the "Bear" room with Ms. Carol (yes, same teacher as Bray) and Ms. Rachel.  She had both teachers this summer, so it should be an easy transition.

Cute smile from this girl

Bear room!

Evie likes to put on a sad front when I try to leave.  She is fine .2 seconds later.  Such a stinker.  There seems to be an even mix of boys and girls in her room, mostly new faces to us.  Evie is the smallest, of course.  Hoping for a good year of play and learning for her.

Summer 2015 Wrap-up

It's Labor Day weekend, the unofficial end of summer!  It was a fun filled summer, with many trips and special outings with friends.  As I was scrolling through my phone, I realized I have a bunch of pictures and no blog posts.  So here is my dump of cell phone videos and pictures from the summer, along with links to the things I blogged about after the fact.

June

Mommy-only trip to Beaufort, SC

Summer School

Frederick Road Fridays- Every Friday in the summer, Catonsville has this event.  It's a family friendly event featuring a different band each week, food vendors, and various kids activities.  We go for about 1.5 hours: get pizza, dance a little, have a huge cookie, chase after kids, then head home.  Each year it gets a little more enjoyable based on our kids' ages.

The first and last time Lisa and I took 4 kids without dads
to FRF.  This was probably the only time they were all together
for more than 2 minutes

He insists on carrying his chair.

That same time we thought it would be a good idea to go with 6
kids and 3 moms.  Dads came every other time after that...

Ocean City, NJ (duh!) post 1 post 2 post 3  post 4.  

July

Our BFFs move to PA- definitely biggest low-light of the summer.  If anyone plans to move in the next year, please consider being my closest friend.  I seem to attract girlfriends that high tail it out of the area as soon as we become close.  Liz leaving rocked my world.  I cried in the fetal position for 2 hours straight the night she told me.  Heart wrenching.  Yes, she's only 55 minutes away, but she was my go-to girl for everything.  I hate thinking about my life without her in Catonsville.  We make every effort to get together at least once every two weeks.  I mean, how can you break up this cuteness?  Even our kids are best buds.  (or I like to think they are since we are always together)

Walking to get ice cream

Eating ice cream... two different trips.
Love those $1 IKEA cones

Evie's first time at VBS

Chincoteague Post 1, Post 2, Post 3

August

Trip to see the Wik family.  The Wiks planned a fun filled weekend for us.  We went into Center City, Philadelphia, played in the backyard on the play "structure", rode bikes, drove around in the Mustang, and went on the slip-n-slide.

Dads walking the kids to the train station for a ride
into the big city!

Kids discovery garden

The source of smiles, tears, laugher, and tantrums

Some Mickey Mouse to wind down after a busy day playing

The dads got really into the slip n slide.

Howard County Fair-

Evie looks in her element

Ice cream for lunch

And we did other summer quick trips like pick flowers at the farm, swim at Roger Carter pool, and the zoo.

Learning how to sun bathe like Daddio

and we did some dog sitting

Picking up Abby dog!

Easiest dog sitting gig out there. 

It was such a fun summer filled with trips, friends, and lots of trips in the van(s).  It's time for some routine in our day though.  Preschool, gymnastics, MOPS, and tutoring all start up again.  I love fall; it feels like a new beginning.  Bring it on!