A Cold Day In Oz

The weather has been pretty crazy around here.  It has been soooo cold, the wind chills went down to -20, this week that school has been closed all week!  Actually, Claire's school was closed today but Mark and I still had to go in.  Since Claire was off someone had to stay with her, and that someone was lucky enough to be me!!! 

I heard about the this exhibit at a local library this morning and since I could not stand the thought of being cooped up in this house one more day, we bundled up and headed out to see THE WIZARD OF OZ EXHIBIT!  The kids absolutely loved it!   It was really neat, it had all of the original copies of The Wizard of Oz books with all kinds of fun facts.  

There was a life size Wicked Witch Of The West that would talk and move when you walked by it, needless to say Oliver wanted nothing to do with her.  But when he saw Dorothy we couldn't keep him away.

The kids loved looking at the all the Wizard of Oz toys, games, shoes, and books!  And when we were finished Claire loved looking at the books.

And Oliver loved playing on the computers.

We had a really nice day at the library.  I really enjoyed spending the day with the kids (not cooped up in the house).  At first I was kind of bummed that I wasn't able to get some work done at school today but now I am so happy that I got to spend the day with my buddies and do something fun!!

Science Museum

Over Christmas break (I know, I know...I am still catching up) we had a great time at the Science Museum!  The Science Museum is one of our favorite places to go and they had a great new motion exhibit so needless to say, we had a blast!

Claire and Oliver loved moving the tubes around to make the balls go all over the place.  The motion exhibit was perfect for both of the kids.

 Claire was amazed by the balls that she could make stay in the air, defying gravity.

She loved showing Oliver how to do it.

I was pretty impressed with myself when I completed this puzzle in just a few minutes!  No one else really cared but, I was very proud.

Then of course, the hurricane tunnel is always a hit!  Not so much for Claire's hair, but fun for the kids none the less.

Oliver's favorite part was obviously the dinosaurs.  He did have a melt down at the end of our visit because the museum did not have a full T-Rex, just the head.  We tried to tell him that this dinosaur was a T-Rex but he was not having it.  The conversation went something like this:
Oliver: WHY ISN'T THERE A FULL BODY T-REX?!  THEY ONLY HAVE THE HEAD!!!!
Me: Oh honey, I think the one down  in the lobby is a T-Rex.  Let's go see him.
Oliver: That is NOT a T-Rex!  He is too small.  It is an Albertosaurus!!!
Mark:  No, I think that may just be a baby T-Rex.
Oliver (through his sniffles): Maybe...I guess it could be....but I really think it is an Albertosaurus.
 In the end he bought it, I actually think he was just playing along.  The dinosaur above actually is an Albertosaurus, how he knew that is beyond me.  God love him.

Overall, we had a great time.  It is always so cool to see their little minds work while they look and play with each exhibit.   They are both so smart, it blows my mind each time we go!  I love these two!

Palm Island

We spent last Saturday night with the Komosinski crew at Palm Island in Batavia!  Grandma and Grandpa treated us all and we had a blast!!!  Click HERE to see the pictures from last year.

The waterpark was obviously the main attraction but the kids LOVED staying in a hotel room just as much as going to the waterpark!

The cousins loved playing together.  It is so nice to watch them play, they have so much fun together!

Oliver loved the water slides.

These are the two fast water slides.  Claire thought it was pretty awesome that the tubes went outside!  The one on the right was SUPER fast!  I flipped right over!  And the one on the left was a semi-fast (it was still pretty fast).  We all had a blast going down the slides!  I missed a picture every time though :( Claire actually went down the fast on this year and she LOVED it!

 I did get a picture of Claire on the little kids water slide.

Claire loved the entire experience.  She just loved being there and looking around.  She kept calling our hotel room the apartment and she loved riding the elevator.  I am pretty sure that this is her most favorite place on earth!

Oliver did his best to keep up with the big kids in the pool.

He did love the hot tub.  Even though I couldn't even watch the kids be in there.  It just looked so hot and gross and germy.

 Kayden was not a huge fan of the water but he looked so adorable in his rob and slippers!!

Claire loved spending time with Kayden.  She loved feeding him!

Kayden was pretty pleased with the feeding too.

The kids even loved the big fish tank in the lobby.  They were thrilled when the woman working the desk let us feed the fish!

We had a great time.  The best part was just hanging out together.  The kids loved every part of it.  They loved playing in the rooms, taking the elevator, eating in the restaurant, playing in the waterpark, playing in the arcade, and just running in the halls.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!!!  We had a blast!!!!

Sledding

Over the break (I know, I am still catching up from over the break) we had a blast going sledding!

Claire loves to go sledding.  The faster the better for her!

Oliver was a little nervous at first but once he took the plunge, he loved it!

He was not a fan of walking back up the hill though.

Even I went down a few times!  Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a not a fan of the cold weather or any snow activity.  But I couldn't miss this, it was way too much fun.

I was not a fan of walking back up the hill either.

We all had a really good time!  Even though it was freezing we really enjoyed ourselves.

Well, until the cold got to some people.  And then it was time to go :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

This we stayed home to celebrate New Year's Eve!  We decided to invite some friends and their kids over and have a nice dinner. We had such a great time that I didn't even take that many pictures!  The adults had a great time eating and playing a hilarious game, while the kids had a blast just running around and being kids!

 One of my favorite things about Christmas and New Year's in decorating my table just like my mother used to do.

And of course the kids table needed to be decorated too!

I did my best to get a group shot of all of the children.  I still can't believe that all of these little people belong to us.  It all started with a group of girls becoming friends in high school and college and now we have all this.  Isn't it great?!

These two chickens are my favorite though.

It was a wonderful New Year's celebration! I loved being with my closest friends and family.  I don't make resolutions due to the fact that I never keep them.  But every year I do think of things about myself that I don't necessarily want to change about myself, just better about myself.  This year I would like to work on my photography (specifically infant photography) and blog more.  This time with my family is so precious and I want to remember it all.  I love looking back on my previous blog posts and remembering all the wonderful things that have taken place.  I also love to see how much the children have grown.  So I want to make sure that I keep this up so that in the future we will have all of this to look back on and laugh at all of our great memories.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2014!!!!!!!

Christmas Day 2013

After a wonderful Christmas Eve we had an even better Christmas Day!

Claire was the first one downstairs, well I was the first one downstairs.  I had to turn on all the Christmas lights, start the fireplace, and take my place for picture taking.  But Claire was the first kid downstairs and man was she surprised to see what a mess the reindeer had made!

Oliver was amazed as well.

And they could not believe that the reindeer left them each an ornament (a "C" for Claire and an "O" for Oliver).

Oliver went right for his stocking!  He was thrilled with his pirate gear.

Claire and Oliver loved all of their treats in the stockings.

I loved the treats in my stocking too.

The kids were especially thrilled with the family gift this year.  They finally got a Wii.

Claire couldn't wait to get started!!

Most of the morning was spent playing the Wii!

After we opened all of our presents we headed over to Auntie Rose's house to have a nice dinner and get some more presents!  Fran got the kids adorable gifts and they had the BEST wrapping!

Oliver's present had amazing dinosaurs decorating his gift.

And Claire's gift looked adorable with princess and Hello Kitty pens!  Claire was thrilled enough with just the pens!

Oliver loved his book, "Whose Butt?"!  

Then Oliver nosed his way into helping Uncle Dave open his gift!

Claire and Oliver got the most adorable Doctor Kit from Auntie Rose!  They loved it!  While Claire sat seriously and played with everything, Oliver walked around and entertained everyone by being "Dr. Oliver".

Oliver loved it when Chris would yell out, "Paging Dr. Oliver!"

Lauren and Chris also got engaged this Christmas!!!!  We are all so happy for them and excited for another beautiful wedding!

After a lot of fun at Auntie Rose's we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa's to see the rest of the family.  Claire couldn't wait to see her buddy Owen.

Kayden had a blast being passed around and spoiled by everyone.  He is such a good baby!!!

We all had a great time playing "Shut The Box"!  Even the kids got into it!

It was another incredible Christmas!!!!  But as usual I always get sad on Christmas day night because it is all over.  All the planning, shopping, searching, wrapping, and fun is all over til next year!  But it was amazing while it lasted.  The kids had so much fun this year.  They are both at perfect ages for the magic of Christmas.  I loved doing all of the fun Christmasy stuff with them.  It was also so fun to see their amazement that they got everything that was on their lists this year.  We are so lucky to be able to have such a wonderful Christmas!  I think that this Christmas was so special because I didn't take any of it for granted this year.  I spent a lot of time looking around, enjoying it all, and being thankful for all of it.  I was thankful for every gift given and received.  I was thankful for every conversation, every laugh, and every wonderful moment that I think I have taken for granted during previous holidays.  Soon enough the kids will be older and not so into hanging out with their old Mom and Dad (or maybe not but let's be serious).  But this year my kids just wanted to be with me and Mark.  They wanted to snuggle in their Christmas jammies and they wanted to us to play with all of their toys with them all day long.  Soon enough they won't rush down the stairs anymore and I will have to wait for them to text their friends and all that good teenager stuff.  But this year they were all ours.  I loved seeing their faces as they ran down the stairs and tore open their presents.  I loved playing with every single toy with them. I loved that they needed our help opening everything.  I loved that they needed us to show them how everything worked (because we all know that as you get older your knowledge of technology goes waaayyyy down).  I loved that they just wanted us as much as we wanted them.  I will never take that for granted again.  Their childhoods are too short and I will enjoy every second while I got it.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!