NJ Trip

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we got in a quick trip to NJ to visit Bill's family.  It's been awhile since our last visit, so everyone was excited for the trip.  We spent the whole weekend in Spring Lake, because we wanted to limit the driving during the short trip, and be able to spend lots of time with Grandma Jo.  It was also a bonus that Uncle Jim and Rox's house (where we stayed) had a pool table, pinball machine, and old-school milkshake maker to ensure the kids never wanted to leave!  We ate well, as always -- we were able to get in two delicious family dinners: the first was Grandma Jo's meatballs and rice pudding (both to die for!), and the second was Uncle Jim's famous ham and Aunt Janet's flourless fudgecake - also amazing, in addition to a trip to lunch at the Shrimp Box by the beach for Jersey style fried seafood (Bill's craving).  We also got lots of QT with the whole fam, but especially with Grandma Jo, as well as a stroll on the (freezing) beach to collect shells.  Here are some pictures from the weekend, it was a great trip!

Busy kids - Fall 2015

Wanted to post a catch-up blog on the kids' activities during the Fall.  Isaac played soccer, and made amazing improvement this year.  Bill was assistant coach again, and enjoyed it a lot more this year because you could really see the difference in the skill level of the kids, and Isaac was really focused on performing well in the games.  Isaac was lucky enough to have someone special (besides me and Caitlin) cheer him on at almost every game.  Here are some pics from the season:

Isaac started his second (wolf) year in Cub Scouts this year, with Bill agreeing to be the "den master" again (I think he just likes the title).  The boys meet at our house once a month, and do various activities on other days.  Their fall fundraising drive was a popcorn sale - here's Isaac creatively using Caitlin's baby carriage to help in his door-to-door sales.  He actually did great, with some help from the folks at my office, and his den got to win a pizza party and throw a pie in Bill's face for selling the most popcorn in the Pack.  Here are some pics from that as well as a Den hike (with Cate tagging along)

Both kids are taking gymnastics - but they have aged out of taking classes together, so we had to find a gym that offered boy and girl classes for the right ages at the same time (no easy feat!).  The gym where they offer it is a real gymnastics gym, and the kids have learned a lot.  Both are picking up technical skills, and the teachers run them around with calisthenics, scoring extra points with us for exhausting them :)  Here are some pics - Cate is easier to capture because her stuff is toward the front, but we got a pic of Isaac free climbing the rope all the way to the ceiling and ringing the bell, for which he was very proud.  

Caitlin is doing dance again - but this season she opted to go back to ballet and tap. She's enjoying it, but says Hip-Hop was more fun, and will definitely switch back in the Spring.

Finally, Cate started Girl Scouts this year - as a Daisy.  I agreed to co-lead the troop, and we have 12 girls, most of whom are in Cate's class and all of whom are adorably excited and happy to wear their little tunics and earn patches.  Here are the girls at their first meeting getting their Daisy certificates, and doing some art projects.  The first troop activity was a fundraiser for the high school cheerleaders - our girls got to spend a day with them learning to cheer, and then went out to the field with them during their first football game to do a cheer in front of the crowd.  Our girls were awestruck by the cheerleaders, and had a blast hanging with them and learning to cheer.  

Halloween

We started celebrating Halloween early this year, as Caitlin's first Girl Scouts event in mid-October called for costumes.  This year, Cate decided to be Pinky Pie, one of the My Little Ponies, and Isaac was a Mirrored Ninja with 2 swords (obviously cooler than any other kind of Ninja). Here are some pics from that first event, which included a crazy lady dressed up as a kids' storyteller, a potato sack race, and other random fun activities.

The second costume event, was Isaac's second grade music performance.  Here he is with the rest of the second graders, singing Halloween songs to a cafeteria full of parents.  Super-cute.

Take 3 - kids got to wear costumes to school on 10/30.  In a continuing theme of no respect for working parents, the school had a costume parade for the parents at 9:15, and class parties at 10.  It was amazing how many kids had both parents there - I don't think attendance will be that much better for their high school graduation! In any event, Bill and I were able to make it for the parade and a few minutes of the class parties before having to head to work.  This worked fine for the kids, who both agreed that their chances of eating more than one treat each were significantly higher if we didn't stay for the whole party.  Smart kids :)

Finally, the official day!  The kids' doctor held a flu shot  (or as Isaac and Cate keep calling it "fluid shot") clinic on Halloween of all days.  They were brave (Isaac in particular, because his asthma precludes him from getting the mist, so he actually got a shot) and earned chocolate croissants from Moxie before heading home to make Halloween treats (cupcakes with Grandma and "pumpkins" (oranges with string beans) with me) and play outside for awhile.  Hard not to take advantage of the 70 degree sunny weather!

Then we all got dressed up and headed to the Sambur's for the first party of the night.  There were lots of people there, all dressed up and eating / drinking well.  We had fun there, especially with the Samburs and Reisses, but were excited that Grandma, Aunt Alli, Uncle Chad and Seb came to meet us for some early trick or treating.  The kids had a blast racing from one house to the next (Seb did a great job keeping up), as we trailed behind surveying the insanity.

At around 6:30 we headed back to our neighborhood to man our house's candy bowl, and check out what all the neighbors were giving out.  We didn't have to go much further than our street -  there were so many fun decorations, haunted garages, and overly generous candy-givers (and jello shots!) that we all had fun.  By 8:45, the kids had already inventoried their candy, and decided they had enough. They collapsed on the couch of one of our neighbors and asked to be done!  Mission accomplished!