Little gobblers

I forgot to take the camera to Kelly's for Thanksgiving, but we did get some shots of the turkey cookies the boys made with the cookie cutter Grampy got us. Of course, Liam's is on the top left, because Liam always has to go against the grain!

Little Miss Turns One!

A little, okay a lot, belated on Sadie's actual birthday. You know what they say about the fourth... I'm pretty sure I'm the only kid who never got a photo album at all so I think she's doing pretty well for herself.

Still no steps by her birthday, but she was becoming ever more sturdy standing up on her own. And managing to clap for herself at the same time! She dug into her birthday cake with zeal: gingerbread with cinnamon whipped cream. She gobbled it all up and made a happy mess. She got a few more presents, but none so exciting as the remote control she commandeered at home and was THRILLED about!

The rest of Sadie's birthday, we spent at a Thanksgiving Festival at Red Apple Farm (not that she cared, it was freezing out and her main job was to sit in the stroller and look cute all bundled up.) The boys had a fun time though, particularly Liam whose main goal in life is to be a hillbilly. He spent a long time ogling the old guns and tools (and handcuffs) and tents some reenactors had set up. He also bought a Moose tooth which is still his most treasured possession. Colin, of course, climbed the first tree he could find and tried his hand at making apple cider. We took a very chilly and bumpy hayride and ended the day with some yummy homemade goodies and beer. As usual, Sadie was at the whim of her brothers, but she enjoyed her big day nonetheless!

Warmth is a good thing

Christmas preparations plus some computer problems have brought about the yearly lag in the blog. Hopefully I can catch up before we have any more major excitement!

Luckily before the real cold and storms hit, Chris replaced our old broken woodstove chimney. He first started by cutting a newer, bigger hole in our wall. Which provided some lovely scenery of the outdoors...

Looks like a nicely framed vista of fall leaves. Only it's a hole in my house.

As usual, the boys took any opportunity to help use tools or climb on a ladder very seriously. And of course, if one sees a hole and one's name is Liam, one must stick one's head through the hole.

Colin had to jump in and be part of the fun as well. And of course, every father allows his kid to climb up on the shed roof in the dark and then proceed to climb up a ladder (also in said dark) and finish the last of the external chimney repair. For the record, obviously this took place on a night I was at work. However, in the end, all's well that ends well and I am happy that once the cold and snow did come through we were all nice and toasty warm!

Seven Years!

Colin really really wanted a Star Wars Sleepover Party this year and we thought it would make for a nice relaxing party if he only invited a couple of his very close buddies over. We figured that two extra boys could not really make much of a difference to the chaos in the house anyway. Boy, were we wrong! Here are some of the highlights of the boys' night. We started off by having some Ewok Food as a snack until everyone arrived. Then the boys played Star Wars on the Wii for endless excruciatingly loud hours until dinnertime. Luckily I had found a website where I copied most of the Theme Food that I made which was a huge hit with everyone and they ate every last bite off their plates! The biggest thrill came from the character cookies (Colin thinks we should make them for Christmas too, apparently they celebrate Christmas in Degobah? Maybe Yoda delivers the gifts using the Force.) The Hans Solo in Carbonite Jello was fun, but in the end, they refused to eat the jello and just wanted to get to the action figure inside it! Everyone actually went to bed at a decent hour and slept great which was my biggest fear and we opened up the next morning with pancakes and more Wii Football which ended, of course, in real-life tackles occurring all over the family room. The party (finally, thankfully) came to an end after we took everyone to play LaserTag which was by far the most fun of the entire 24 hour extravaganza (especially for the adults!)! However, five little boys trying to figure out what to get at the Prize Counter after acquiring reams of tickets from the arcade was nearly enough to bring me to tears. We were so wiped out after it ended, we sent the big boys happily off to school the next day while we proceeded to do NOTHING all day but breathe big, quiet sighs of relief that the potty jokes, fart contests, insane giggling and dousing of my entire car with sugar dust was finally over. But Colin had a great time. Next year... it's back to having 24 kids over for TWO hours rather than 2 kids over for 24 hours!

Entering party season

The holidays are coming and the Fall Birthdays are a nice way to enter party season! I know that Sadie is slightly over-represented in the photos from the party, but it IS her first birthday and Colin got to have another party on his actual birthday, I swear! Little Miss got all dressed up in her cupcake party dress and had a blast! She started the day by getting to open her big, huge, gargantuan, "where the hell is this going to fit" pretend kitchen from Auntie Kelly and Grammy and Grampy and has proceeded to play with it every day since! (As do her brothers). She wasn't particularly enthused about blowing out the candle on her gigantic cupcake cake, but luckily Liam was happy to help her out with it! Colin was maniacally happy about all of the Bakugan that he got (we still have no idea how to play with them, but it makes him happy and that's all that matters, right?) Our other birthday girls, Grammy and MaryKate, got to celebrate too, although they didn't seem as excited about smushing cake and frosting into their hair like Sadie was! She quickly got changed into her cupcake jammies and ended the night playing, not with any of the treasure trove of gifts she got, but with some gourds and was just as happy!

Happy Halloween!

These are the kids jack-o-lanterns for the year. Carved JUST IN TIME, for Halloween night! Colin's owl on the left needed a tiny bit of toothpick surgery, but it came out great! Liam cried and cried and cried when his skeleton pumpkin didn't work out, but Chris saved the day by letting him use his power drill to redo a face on the other side ! Eamon gave me orders and drew a face that I cut out for him complete with "round cheeks". And while Sadie, napped, I took the liberty of fashioning her pumpkin message myself!

Protecting the front stairs from spirits!

The 70-degree weather from last week was replaced by temps in the thirties so Tinkerbell had many a layer on under her costume. I guess it doesn't get this cold in NeverNeverland.

J. M. Barrie would be proud of the Peter Pan clan!

Leading up to Halloween, Colin became obsessed with his vampire teeth and you could find him baring them at you at every turn!

Little Ones Play Dress-Up.

One day while the big guys were at school, I took the Littles, as they are known, to get their photos done. Although you'll have to wait for Colin and Liam to complete the full effect of the Halloween theme (it's not much of a theme without Peter Pan and Captain Hook!), the Littles did enjoy hamming it up for the camera!