School Graduations

All three of our kids graduated from their respective schools this spring.  In addition, Skyler was invited to a couple of the other high school's proms, which entailed different suit/shirt/tie ensembles to be organized.  I will try to post a medley of pix from all of these events....

Sean's Confirmation

After 2 years of preparation, Sean was confirmed at Good Shepherd on May 4.
It was a big day for him, and we tried to keep it simple, as to avoid any anxiety on his part.  He did very well, even though he was nervous.

Pastor Thompson made it a great experience.  On the Thursday preceding, we had a pizza dinner at the church with the other confirmand's family.

 The Big Day

 Sean receiving his "Faith Box" from Uncle Fred, who made both boxes for the two confirmands.

 With Pastor Bruce, who took Sean from the "God doesn't exist" stage into a hopefully more positive place.

 With Godparents Jeff and Helen.

Despite his not looking very happy, he did actually enjoy the day, I think.

Height is misleading here; actually Skyler is not standing on the steps, like the rest of us.  Both boys have grown a fair bit over the last while.

A Busy Spring!

Starting with March break...

A trip to Jay Peak, Vermont, for skiing and indoor waterpark fun.

We came a day early to outrun a massive snowstorm, which ended up dumping 22 inches of snow in one day at Jay Peak.  

 Our condo, the middle section.  See how high the snowbanks were to our door!

I have to give credit to the Jay Peak staff, who managed to get all the parking lots cleared over that crazy day.  We didn't do any skiing in the storm, but lots of people did.

Instead, we hit the water park.  Lots to do here.  The bigger boys tried the surfing, but it didn't go so well.  Skyler also tried the vertical tube chute, came out of that staggering and a little disoriented!

 Finally got skiing on the third day (second was very blowy).  Of course my finger had to get in the way of a Seanie shot.

 Evie with her favorite guy at a great restaurant out in a town nearby.

Storm approaching.

 The incredible boiler room in our condo.  Sean of course enjoyed this very much.

 Beautiful Vermont scenery.

The boys, at supper.

And more will follow, as time permits.....was a very busy spring, lots of family events!

Christmas 2013

 The view from my kitchen on Christmas Eve morning (24th). Steam was rising on the river, the ice from the storm of 2 days before, was still on the trees. 

We went for Xmas dinner at my niece's, and Evie got time with her cousins, and a terrible big brother who is obsessed with touching her nose, of late.  He was having a heyday teasing all of the younger set.  Only the ones that react are fun for him, of course.

Here are the younger group, including Squidgy in the background.  

Our gang, on Christmas morning.  Sean actually joined us for Christmas present opening this year!  Somehow Skyler managed to get him in the room where the tree/gifts were and when he saw his big present of a streetlight, yes you read correctly, he was thrilled!

I did say a streetlight...

His other requests were also met by Santa.  Fire alarm pull stations, and a stirling steam engine.  (It's a miniature real live sterling engine; unfortunately we haven't got it going yet).

I must say Evie and Sky were much easier to buy for.....

Some Pre-Christmas Photos

My little darling had her Christmas concert at Montessori.  Just a couple of hours before, I realized she needed new black shoes to go with her dress, and so off we went after school to buy some.  She chose high heels in her size (I later found out these could be termed "Suri Cruise Shoes"), and was really thrilled about them.  Only when I got them home did I find out they were going to be dancing the jig at the concert!  So I had a few bad moments till the jig was done, but she managed it just fine without falling off the heels!

She's in the middle, and you can just see a bit of the Suri Cruise footwear.  She also got to wear her Chinese pearls, bought when we adopted her.  I don't think she has ever worn them before, and she was thrilled.  A lovely concert, called The Polar Express (top pic has all the children inside their "train" cars, which they lifted up and carried around.)

Evie and the little boy she's crushing on at the moment.  (on her right).

Evie also did a piano solo, just a short bit of Deck the Halls, but she did it very well.  Do I have a picture?  No, just video.

Other Montessori activities included the annual Cookie Walk, where we parents make lots of cookies to sell.  Evie loves to help Mommy bake and so here she is.

Getting Ready For the Man in Red

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here anyways.  We have had a lot of snow and over this weekend, a lot of ice.  I spent about 2 hours chipping ice off vehicles today, good exercise.  The trick, of course, is to let the car run for awhile, but even with that, I still had ice from 1/4" to 1" thick to chip away.  Then there was the little problem of the car not wanting to budge from it's spot.  I had Skyler help push, then chipped/shovelled away some more snow/ice from around the wheels, and rocked it back and forth till it came loose.  (I had long lost Skyler by this point.)

He had taken his shovelling talents over to the snowpile left by our plowing guy, where he and Sean were digging a fort.  (Although it looks more like Sean is taking a coffee break).

Evie found a snow saucer and a place in which to slide.  Sky kept digging the hole till it pretty much went to China (funny how one can't get him to spend the same amount of time on clearing a sidewalk!), and Sean ended up in the tree house, checking on his construction from last fall.  (He had started putting a proper roof on with odds and ends of construction material around the house....stray fans and vents usually end up being added to it as well).

Inside, Evie helped me make cookies for her school's Cookie Walk.  "Come and get all of your baking done in a few minutes" is what the posters for the event advertised.  We contributed some gluten-free fare, then went to the walk to buy our own cookies, technically so we would have a supply to last through the holidays, but in reality, they barely lasted the weekend!  Mommy is going to the gym a couple of extra times to make up for it....

I don't have pictures yet of the tree and our Griswold-like Xmas light display outside.  As of today, some of the lights have gone out due to the ice, and our candy canes are half buried.  Still they look pretty at night.  Sean has it all wired up to timers, and I have no idea what settings he has them on, as they come on at all kinds of odd hours.  But anyway....

With just a couple of days to go until Christmas I suppose the big question is "are you ready?"  I try not to stress overly about it all...the meaning of the season is lost then.  But I do have all the presents bought, most wrapped, (and under the tree, the heck with preserving the Santa myth, as I have run out of room to hide them...Evie just thinks they are for friends), and just a few odds and ends to get sorted out.  I also have to remember where I've hidden the rest of the gifts, as this is another little problem that Bob and I have EVERY year.  We seem to hide things so well that we forget where they are, the result being that the kids get some cool Easter presents that they had thought they were getting at Christmas!

Then there's the whole Elf on the Shelf thing.  I don't have a proper one, just a tree ornament of one (that Evie said we needed to buy because Sean is bad and needs to have an elf watching him), sitting on a shelf, and not getting moved very often.  Sean, when told that the elf reports back to Santa, immediately set up a video camera, wires, antennae, and other paraphernalia because in his view, Santa wouldn't be able to see him without a proper camera and means of transmitting the image.

One more picture, and that is of Evie at her school concert.  She did very well, even performing a little piano solo (Deck the Halls).  I was pretty impressed, as this was a surprise for Mommy.  She was also proud as punch to be wearing her first "high heels" (Suri Cruise Shoes) which we had bought an hour or two before the concert.  I just about flipped when I found out they would be dancing a jig, thinking that she was going to twist an ankle, but all went well, and she was dancing away with no problems.

This is the Polar Express segment, where each of the children had a little box decorated as a train car that they had to pick up and walk around in.  A big event for Evie this night too was her wearing her Chinese pearls for the first time.

All of the kids had a marvelous time and the concert was great fun.

Merry Merry Christmas everybody!

Evie's 5th Birthday

Our girl had a great time on her 5th birthday.  We had a joint party with another little girl from her school, as they both had birthdays surrounding the weekend.  We rented the gym club, same as last year, and it worked out very well.  The other mom is very much into party planning, and so she looked after a lot of the details, great for me, as I was still in recuperation mode from my appendectomy.

OK, DON'T look at the right side of the picture!  My kitchen is still in deconstruction mode, and that is insulation and wiring and God only knows what else hanging off the walls.

What you should see is my beautiful girl stirring up the mix for her cake.  She LOVES to help in this way with any cooking and food prep.

This is the result of our labours.  I attempted a fondant icing this year, no didn't take a course or anything, hence the imperfections.  This stuff isn't too bad to work with, but I haven't figured out how to deal with the excess when you fold it over.  Evie helped me stick the "pearls" in, the ones on top are supposed to be snowflakes.  We added candles later.  

One thing I didn't like about the fondant is that I had to cover the cake somehow till the following day...I don't have a container big enough, so I got creative with Lego blocks, making a frame on which to lay Saran wrap over.  It worked!                                                                                                  

Although the kids liked the cake just fine (it was half chocolate, half white cake inside), I must say the fondant tastes like crap.

The gym portion of the party.  It's kind of hard to take action shots here.  Evie is trying to get her little friend to pose with her.  He is a boy that she likes rather a lot, admitting to me one day that she had kissed him on the cheek.  By his reaction here, he probably didn't like it.  But good girl Evie, got to keep those men organized and in order!

I don't think the spots on this picture are ghosts, as some people say when they see them.  I think it is just dirt on my lens.  Either that or that gym club is terribly haunted.  The ghosts of past Nadia Comenicis...oooooh.

Anyhow, I can relax for another year, and try to think up a new idea and venue before then, as she'll probably have new interests.