Fire Engine Celebration

This year, I was the one in charge of the birthday festivities.  Adam and our au pairs have handled it the past two years.  We kept the party low key with just close family in attendance.  We had kicked around the idea of a party at a venue, but Oliver wanted to have it at home.  We let him pick between a construction/truck and fire engine theme, and then when crazy on Etsy.  Oliver's large fire engine made a perfect decoration, and by having it up high, eliminated a potential fight over who would get to play with it. 
   

Here were the little kid attendees, minus our neighbor-friend Mason  --- All of Oliver's cousins - Remi from one side and boys, boys, from the other! 

Easter Sunday

It's been quite awhile since we celebrated a holiday with my dad and Margit's family.  Jana was actually with us the last time.   We're a large, noisy crew when everyone gets together!

Easter Morning with Omi

We weren't at my mom's for long on Easter morning, though it did feel like it took FOREVER to get everyone dressed, fed, and packed up.  Thankfully, we got some family photos in early in the day.  There would have never been a good opportunity, let alone cooperative kids, at my dad's.  

Easter Weekend in New Jersey

This year, we headed up to Jersey to spend the long weekend with family.  On Good Friday, we hung out at Kristy & Ray's.  My mom was watching Devon, because his daycare was closed and Nicole had to work.  Since Bentley had missed out on cousin fun last time we were up, Robin coordinated to have him sleep over at Grandma's Thursday night so he could join in.  

Easter Egg Hunt @ Fitler's Square

I was bummed that Hurricane Sandy had ruined our Halloween festivities.  Fortunately, we were in town for the Easter Egg Hunt, hosted by the same park/organization (where we had our family photos taken).  I was expecting to see lots of summer acquaintances from playground trips and Oliver's former daycare class, and was surprised that none of those people showed up.  They must have gone last year and known this was an event worth skipping.  Oliver was very excited to go, and told us so on the way over. But our lil' introvert was consumed by the hub-bub and didn't really have a good time.  They had different age groups "hunt" for eggs in different locations. In hindsight, we should have stuck Oliver in the 18mo-3yr old group instead of the 3-4yr old group - lesson learned.  

Oliver's face in this photo (right) is priceless.

Oliver ended up with three eggs - mostly containing huge pieces of bubblegum!  Totally not age appropriate. We salvaged the trip with a detour to the playground and some rides on the slide with Daddy.

Our Elf on the Shelf - Ralphie

Been meaning to post this for awhile... We had an Elf on the Shelf join our family this Christmas.  We named him Ralphie, in honor of The Christmas Story.  Ralphie spent a lot of time in high up locations, away from curious hands.  Adam wisely put him in the curio cabinect for his first visit.  We didn't go very gung-ho on creative positions for him {you should see some of the elaborate "mischief" other moms create for the elves to be found doing}. 

 

While Oliver enjoyed looking for him each morning, it didn't exactly work as the discipline tool (encouraging good behavior) that we had hoped.  Hopefully next year, Oliver will understand cause & effect a bit better and Ralphie will be more than just a month-long game of Hide & Seek. 

 

Meeting Santa at the SSC

Last weekend we headed up to the SSC to meet Santa.  It ended up being a stressful day for Adam and I even though there were plenty of people willing to hold babies -- no one likes to hold a screaming baby.  Opa and Tante Nicole were on hand to help out and Oliver had fun playing with cousin Devon.  Santa did not disappoint!

Baby Elves

This is what Grandma was up to yesterday while she was helping out Julia.  

Alex (L) & Lukas (R)

Holiday Au Pair/Kid Party

I had this great idea for Oliver to have a mini-holiday party and am so glad we were able to make it happen last week.  Originally, I was thinking the kids could decorate gingerbread houses, but I thankfully came across a link (ah, pinterest) for a toddler-friendly version -- decorating Christmas trees (aka sugar cones).  Since last week was Pauline's last week working, the party was also an opportunity for a final visit with some of her au pair friends/host kids.  

 

Getting the Christmas Tree

Both Julia & Pauline wanted to participate in our family outing to get the Christmas tree, so we went on Saturday.  While it would have been nice to participate in the annual trek with my dad and that crew, the last weekend in Jersey taught me that staying closer to home would be the less stressful/more enjoyable option.  We went to Linvilla, where we go often throughout the year to pick berries, apples, pumpkins, etc.  We rode the hayride out to pick our own tree, but weren't impressed with the selection of trees they had (dry needles near the trunk of all the trees).  So instead, we opted to pick a pre-cut tree from their garden center.  It was a bit strange, and almost too easy... they have a drive-thru area where you pull up in your car, hand over your ticket, and they tie your tie to the car for you.  Since I'm not the one ever securing the tree to the car, I wasn't about to say that having them do it for us was screwing with tradition.  Let's face it, with twin babies, we need the easy option.  It was completely unplanned, but we ended up making the trip in two cars, which worked great - the babies got tired and cranky shortly after we found our tree, so the girls and I took them home, leaving Oliver & Adam to enjoy the playground. 

A Quiet Thanksgiving at Home

With two (sometimes uncooperative) babies, and two au pairs, it was asking a lot of anyone to take us in for the holiday.  We happily celebrated at home with Ken, Lee Ann, & Tammy-- Adam really enjoys playing host.  This year, Adam handled the bird, stuffing, gravy and I made the string bean casserole, mashed sweet potatoes - the most I have ever contributed to Thanksgiving dinner!

Before we sat down to dinner everyone but me and the babies headed to the park for some fun.  Oliver was ecstatic about going to the playground with Pop-pop.

POTD: Halloween Adorableness

We forgot to put the boys in halloween-themed outfits yesterday, so we did it today.  I love, love, love this shot I got of Lukas!  I think it is my favorite photo of him to-date. 

 

Here are Oliver & Alex in the same outfit.  Oliver was 6mo at Halloween, so a bit older than Alex.  Do you think they look alike?  Once you get past the blue eyes, pasty complection, and baldness, I'm not so sure anymore... 

Trick or Treat

Halloween was a bit of a disappointment this year.  The Halloween event at the local park was cancelled on Sunday because of the looming hurricane and Oliver wasn't too enthusiastic about his daycare Halloween party.  Fortunately, we did get some trick-or-treating in yesterday, but it was chilly!  I got off easy on costumes this year - the babies had received the skelton PJs as a present from my stepsister and Oliver loves his fireman dress-up clothes, so I saw no reason to buy him something new for the occassion.  I promise to put a bit more effort in next year, as my window of getting all three boys to dress in a theme will be very short-lived....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christmas Day - the Main Event

I'm somewhat belated in posting photos from Christmas Day, but time just seems to be whizzing by.  This is the first time I/we woke up in my/our own house on Christmas morning in over a decade and it was such a treat!  We had a low-key present exchange, as we didn't get Oliver too much and Adam & I decided to take it easy with big expenses in our future.

This Year's Big Present

We've been trying not to go too crazy with our gifts to Oliver, since he has plenty of family members that get him things.  Last year, we got him one big present (the rocking horse) and one little present (wooden fire truck) and I wanted to do something similar this year.

This year his main gift was a retro-red kitchen. Many reviews online said that the kitchen was great quality, but the reoccuring complaint was that it took 3 hours put together, including almost a half an hour just to get everything out of the box and set-up.  Adam got to work, confident that it couldn't possibly take that long to assemble - did it ever!  Good thing he did in on the 23rd and not after we got home on Christmas Eve. 

Christmas Eve at Longwood Gardens

We spent Christmas Eve with Scott & Jenn for their first Seven Fishes feast.  After dinner we all loaded up and went to Longwood Gardens, which is nearby to see all the Christmas lights.  Oliver was under the weather and we were really on the fence about bringing him - if I had realized just how much of our time at Longwood Gardens was going to be outside, I would have listened to Adam and stayed home with Bubba.  He was a real trooper!  I haven't been to Longwood since 2001, and it was so nice to walk around and see all the lit trees, with the added bonus of getting to play with my new camera.

Christmas #2

The day before Christmas Eve, Ken, LeeAnn, & Tammy joined us for an afternoon/evening to celebrate.  We were so thankful that they came to us, as Oliver was feeling under the weather and actually took a bizarre 6pm nap.  I loved ending the night with a game of Skipbo - it was a good reminder that we need to make family game night happen more frequently. 

Here are some photos from our festivities.

Looking at Pop-pop's calendar

Thomas!

Oliver will NEVER lay still, so we knew he was really sick when he snuggled up with me just before dinner.  Check out the very awesome Thomas blanket that Grandma MADE for Oliver!!!

 

The very next morning, we put the very fun Richard Scary book from Chris/Steve to good use - so much to see!

Let the Christmas Season Begin!

Yesterday, we drove to Jersey to celebrate Christmas with my mom's family.  Oh how the dynamic has changed now that there are four babies to chase!  And next year there will be 3 more! 

We moved the event up to a 1pm start, which I really loved.  Oliver napped in the car on the way up, we spent the afternoon and early evening together, and managed to get home in time for a normal bedtime.  With enough leftovers for two dinners!  What more could you ask for in a Christmas celebration?!?!

My new camera takes some pretty awesome photos!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... Oliver-style!

We decorated our Christmas tree with Pauline, our new au pair, last night and now the house feels very Christmas-y.  I am in love with our tree.  We have tons of wooden German Christmas ornaments and lots of sterling silver ornaments/bells and red balls.  All we are missing is something to go on top - Oops! 

Getting the Christmas Tree

On Jana's last day, we went with my family to get our Christmas trees.  This was the first time that Adam & I were finally getting a tree too.  The weather was so much more cooperative than last year (which was cold, overcast, & windy), which made the day so much more enjoyable.  After all the trees were found, we put out blankets, enjoyed hot chocolate and German gluewein, along with far too many Christmas cookies.

So glad we had the pack along, Oliver had zero interest in walking around

about to chop down our tree - it was hard work!