Turkey and Stuffing, 2014

This year we tried to get Dane and Finn in on the singing. That went over like a lead balloon.

For a trip down memory lane, visit this post where all of the old videos are linked! 

My Little Magoo Turned FIVE (10 Days Ago)

My littlest girl is not so little. As she tells me, being five automatically makes you a Big Kid, so now I'm not allowed to refer to her as one of the 'littles' anymore. She's charming and feisty and loyal and loving. She still picks her nose, but knows she shouldn't. She asked for makeup for her birthday. She still insists on being rocked and sung to at bedtime. She won't be in kindergarden until next year, and I think that she'll basically be ruling the entire school by the end of the first week. 

We love you Maggie!

My Lulu Belle is SEVEN!

The Sound of Music

Today Sam and Lucy had their first ever piano recital. They began lessons in January, and they have an amazing teacher. She is fairly strict with them, but very kind and encouraging. She actually called Sam out at the end of the recital today because he kept insisting that he wasn't going to perform. Meanwhile, he knocked it out of the park. Lucy played her little heart out as well, and watching her watch the other students was enough to make me weepy. I'm so very proud of how hard they both worked to master their pieces, practicing several times a day for many, many weeks. Sam in particular was very nervous, and we had to bribe him with  a soda to get him in the car, but once we got there he relaxed a bit. Plus he was totally distracted by the cute little girl sitting next to him. (Not Lucy)

It makes me so happy that my children love having music in their lives. Sam just signed up to play cello next year, so he's going to be working on TWO instruments! And Lucy just may be a little virtuoso in the making. In the time she's been working on her two recital pieces, she basically taught herself the next two songs in her book. I have to ask her to stop playing sometimes! Do I sometimes have to remind them (more than twice) to practice? Yes. Are there times when they don't want to? Yes. But we've gotten over this big hump and I think it's going to be smooth sailing from here on out. And that is music to my ears.

Mother Hen

Over the weekend, I quelled my urge to have another baby by picking up eight adorable baby chicks. 

We have been planning all year to get chickens, and the stars aligned on Saturday morning. Right now they are residing in a kiddie pool in our garage, under some heat lamps, nesting comfortably in our old shredded documents. There is a coop to be built, but they won't be big enough for outdoor living for 4-5 weeks, so we have time. The county ordinance states that we can have 5 hens and no roosters, but we got unsexed chicks so I bought some extra to hedge our bets. Plus, we already have one babe who looks like he/she might not make it. The kids are standing vigil, but have already started planning where to bury him/her. (Edited to add: he/she didn't. Super sad face.) 

They are so cute and fluffy, it's hard not to get a little attached. Fred has even been singing them lullabies! You go ahead and try not to get a little misty watching this! 

I had to cut off the cuteness because the furnace kicked on, and since I was sitting nearby, it drowned out all of the extra cute names Fred had given the chicks.

Yes, I have to check their butts to make sure they aren't clogged up, and yes, we may have to deal with an unpleasant situation if and when some turn out to be roosters, but still? I heart them.

State of Emotions

My firstborn takes after his mother in many ways. Obviously, he gets his charm, intelligence and good looks from me, but he has also inherited a flair for being overly emotional.

On Sunday afternoon I was upstairs working, and when I came down to check on the score of the hockey game Sam was watching, I found him sobbing on the couch. I asked what was wrong, and he couldn't even answer he was crying so hard. He pointed emphatically at the television and I panicked, thinking that maybe there had been some tragic news story that interrupted the game. Nope, he was simply crying because the Penguins lost to the Flyers (two days in a row) and he was despondent. 

He is also prone to hyperbole. For example, each and every day is either the worst day ever or the best day ever. If he gets into trouble at school, he'll call himself the stupidest boy in the world, and if he scores a goal at hockey it's because he's the best player on his team.

Lately, piano has been vexing him. For the first two months they were playing simple pieces with the right and left hands playing the same thing. He's flying through his lessons (musical talent runs on my side of the family, by the way) and has started working on a piece where his left hand is playing something entirely different from his right hand. This is incredibly frustrating to him, and when he is in his lesson his teacher will hold onto some tissues so that she can catch the tears dripping off of his nose before they hit the keys. And while he claims to hate piano more than anything in the world, he'll often sit himself down and start playing without any prompting from me, so I know he can't hate it too much. 

He finally got his hands working together but independently. I was so proud of him, and he was so proud of himself. I want to share this because I'm hoping, like the skating videos, that one day we'll have a fun little chronological order series of his talent developing. 

Lightly Row

OMG Fred is Three!

Just like his brother, Fred wanted his song to be Everything Is Awesome. I don't know how he'll feel about this, but at least I complied. 

Last night I was playing with Freddie on the floor in his room when he kind of tackled me. I laid there, with him laying flat on top of me, and I told him about how he grew in my belly when he was a baby. He sat up and looked at me funny. 'I didn't grow in your belly mom. I grew in your heart. And when I came out your heart was empty so it filled up with love. And bees.'  I may have died laughing. Happy birthday buddy. You'll always be my baby.

Turkey & Stuffing 2013

We've been doing this for a long time now! If you have the time and the interest, here are all of the old ones, including some out takes. Scroll down to see the newest addition to our collection!











And finally, the new one!

My Name Is Amy and I Am Old

As I sit writing this, I have a big, old fashioned red rubber hot water bottle strapped to my low back. Why? Because last Friday I thought I'd be a good mother and take my kids ice skating. Even though she seemed to hate it last year, Maggie begged to be taken along. I hemmed and hawed over whether I should take her. I knew if it was just the big kids, we could skate around and have fun, but with Maggie there, she would have to be my main focus. Her enthusiasm won me over, though, and I suited her up in some snow pants and we headed out.

At the beginning, before we got on the ice, she was still very optimistic. But when we got out there she kind of fell apart. Learning to skate on hockey skates is tough, and she fell about a dozen times in the first five minutes. At that point, all she wanted to do was hang on me, and have me literally carry her to and fro. I was letting her hold my hands to skate her over to the bench for a rest, and she got tripped up on her own feet. All of a sudden she yanked on my hands in a weird, turn-y way, and I felt a lightening bolt of pain shoot up my back. And so now I am that lady, who is always grabbing her lower back and moaning and looking for hot water bottles and heating pads and taking ibuprofen round the clock. 

On the plus side, since there was no way in HELL Maggie was holding my hands after that point, look what she figured out: 

Was it worth the pain I am still experiencing? Not really, but watching this helps at least a little! 

And Just Like That, She Was Four

Maggie turned four the other day, and boy howdy was it a big affair!

 We rented a big bouncy house, complete with slide

We had a piñata, which was totally a unicorn and totally NOT a donkey

And at the end we even went for a family swim!

The party was a huge success, by my estimation. Maybe the best kids party we've ever thrown. We had a great mix of family, old friends, and new friends. There were some folks who we missed, but after a few minutes in the bouncy house it was hard to focus on the negative.

Also, Maggie decided to stop wearing a diaper to bed now that she's four. I was happy to hear that, but not at all optimistic. She's never once woken up dry, but since it was the weekend I thought I'd indulge her. Well guess what? Three days later and she is doing spectacular! Not a single accident! However, for the first two nights she had to come and wake me up to tell me she peed and then to snuggle each time she went to the potty. Sweet, but it got old real quick. I finally convinced her that she didn't need to notify me each and every time she went potty, and last night I slept uninterrupted and she still woke up dry.

So far, four is awesome!

So without further ado, here is the annual birthday montage! 

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Six Going On Sixty

For her birthday she got a sewing machine, and said her favorite part was the train ride because it was so serene and calming. I can't believe how quickly the time has gone by.

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Back To Where???

Every blog and facebook status update I've been reading lately is all about back to school, but we don't go back for two weeks and one day more. There is a humongous and expensive construction project ongoing at our high school, and to maximize the amount of time that work can be done without students present, they pushed the district's first day back until September 3rd. Which is fine and all, but I'm starting to get a little bored, and so are my kids! Luckily, Sam is attending one final camp this week (Lego robotics! Awesome, right?) with the coolest second cousin in the land, and next week Lucy is going to Philly, so we're staving off boredom the best wasy we can. I barely have to do any back to school shopping thanks to a lovely fundraiser program the district offers wherein I send them a few extra bucks and everything just appears in the kids' desk on the first day. And it was only $30 for both kids! I'd easily spend away at least double that in the random aisles of Target if I had to go and procure all of those pencil cases myself. Because we all know I need another fruit scented hair conditioner.

(For the record, I have mango, coconut, citrus, and avocado smelling ones. I also have two non-fruit smelling ones. I have issues. Hair issues.)

The weather hasn't really been all that conducive for swimming, but we did learn to ride bikes last week.

Lucy got the hang of things first, and Sam was unsurprisingly PISSED about that. It was a ton of fun, really.

I'm going to try and cram a bunch of fun summer-type activities in over the next two weeks, including a special trip into the city for Lulu's sixth birthday on Thursday. And then we go to Philly to get Lucy over Labor Day weekend and then, finally SCHOOL!

A Conversation with Maggs

This kid? Deserves her own YouTube Channel, at the very least.

Magic Beans and Gardening with Kids

I post a lot about my garden here, don't I? Well, we went away for the weekend, and it happened to be very hot while we were gone, and the garden went crazy! I spent well over an hour shelling and blanching peas last night. In fact, I was so preoccupied with the peas yesterday that I totally neglected our beans. Our magic beans! Why are they magic? Well, let me show you...



(I apologize for the shaky cam, but I was trying to blanch beans, make a video and keep the kids from burning themselves all at the same time!)

Seriously, if you only grow one thing with your kids, make it these beans. I got the seeds on amazon, they've grown easily, and are super tasty.

My only complaint about them is that they are so delicious that the deer have found some way past our DOUBLE fence so that they can eat them all up. Effing deer.

Weekend Escapes

The past day and a half have been pretty freaking awesome. I want to sit and write about it, but I don't want to miss too much of the fun! We've spent time with family...

Went swimming...

And went to Maggie's first dance recital, which was every bit as amazing as you might think. Just see for yourself...

Summer vacation can't come fast enough.

I Wish My Life Were a Fairy Tale...

We have had some big challenges this week, but yesterday Sam performed in his first grade spring concert about fairy tales. It was beyond awesome. So I'm just going to ignore everything else and watch this over and over again...

And Then We Made Sock Puppets

Oh, Spring Break. So much fun!

It's the Lucy Show!

Lucy's school has been prolific lately with recitals and performances. This week was the annual spring concert, in which she got to sing along in four songs. The preparation for the concert was a little weird for us, because since she was off of her normal routine at school she was off her normal routine at home. Plus we've had some changes in child care (AGAIN) which is also making things a bit wonky around here.

The week prior to the show she had a letter in her mail informing us parental types how the children were to be dressed. Since I picked her up early that day, she never got her mail. Which is why in the video below you will see that she is the only child in THE ENTIRE SCHOOL not wearing a white shirt. Parenting FAIL!

My second big failure of the night was not sitting in the same general area where I sat for the William Penn expo. For the entirety of their entrance and first song, Lucy kept looking for me in the area where I sat last time. Instead of singing. And, well, she was a little freaked out when she couldn't find me. So she started covering her face with her hands and being a cute little weirdo. Luckily, she located us between the first and second number and then got down to business, shaking her egg shaker and banging on her tin can.



As you can see from the end of the second number, she thinks it went pretty well.

Family Dinner Films Presents: Beef Stroganoff

It's been a while, hasn't it???

Jumping Jack Fred

So Fred is a pretty good sleeper. He goes down to bed quickly and quietly at night, and sleeps at lease 12 hours, but usually more like 13 or 14. Napping has always been fine, too. Until recently. You see, we have one of those toddler trampolines in the basement, the kind with the bar to hold onto while you jump. Like this:

Well, young master Fred discovered that his mattress has springs, and his crib has rails, which basically means that it is a trampoline, too, no? Observe...

I love the part when he has to take a quick break from jumping to pretend color and paint on the back of his crib. Probably because we let him do things like this: 

And then talk he has to stop to talk to the cat. God, I love this kid. And I guess we'll be heading to out to buy a big boy bed this weekend. Wah!