Art By You

The kids had a great time taking a painting class over the weekend!

This was Oliver's first class and he was beyond excited!

Claire and Giada are old pros but they were pretty excited too.

They couldn't wait to get started.

Oliver just kept saying, "I am an artist!"

He was pretty serious the entire time we were there.

Notice his concentrating face!

I love how their pictures turned out!!!  They look great! I can't wait to hang them up!

Halloween

Another Halloween has passed and it was another great one!

Right before Halloween we had a wonderful surprise!  Claire was chosen as the Kiwanis Club's Terrific Kid!  They had a big assembly at her school and we were invited to come and see Claire receive her award.  I am so proud of my girl!!!  And yes, they sent her a new award with her name spelled correctly.

After the big award it was time for the school's big Halloween bash!  This year Claire was Mal from The Descendants and Oliver was a devil.

Claire was very busy with her friends and didn't want too much to do with me this year :(

Oliver was also busy with his buddies but he was still ok with having me around.

And he took a couple of breaks to do some crafts with Grandma.  Daddy has to work and Grandma was more than happy to take Daddy's ticket for the big bash!

Oliver loved working it on the dance floor.

And he was thrilled to see his teacher, Mrs. Filsinger!

Then he took a break and took his friend Allie to a "special place". 

I did get to go into Claire's class earlier in the day to help out with her class party!  I loved every second of it!

Finally, it was Halloween night and time to trick or treat!  The Cappellis came over and we had a delicious dinner before we headed out!

The kids looked awesome!

I love these guys.

Oliver's make up looked awesome.  The design was all his idea!

Claire looked so grown up!  She had me straighten her hair and she put on a little make up.  She looked gorgeous.

 Even the Moms dressed up, a little.

The weather was beautiful and after a nice walk around the block we counted our loot!

It was another great Halloween!!!!

FALL FUN

Last week was the usual hustle and bustle of the work/school week.  And this weekend was full of fall fun.

We had a great time celebrating Nana's birthday this weekend.

The kids loved celebrating for Nana and picking out their own special presents for her.  Claire picked out a beautiful change purse and Oliver picked out some fuzzy red gloves (after he decided against the plastic bat).

Mark and the kids made a special cake for Nana!

 And of course Uncle Johnny made everyone laugh all night long!

And Greg tried his hand at some photography.

We are so busy but it is so nice when everyone can get together.

I was really busy taking pictures this weekend but the kids and I snuck in a quick trip Zittels. 

The kids loved all the spooky stuff!  Oliver was a little stand offish but once he realized everything was plastic he was ok.

The kids loved feeding the goats and Oliver demanded that I take his picture with the goat.  So here is my son, choking the goat at Zittels farm.  I swear the goat was not hurt.

Miss Amy came with us and the kids loved hanging out with their buddy. And she saved the day because I forgot my wallet :(

We even snuck in a visit to Baby Camden!  Claire can't get enough of this baby and Oliver loved reading to him (again).  

Then today we finally made it apple picking. This is one of my favorite traditions and I was so excited when the kids mentioned how much they wanted to go!  Hopefully they will always feel that way!

Claire picked all of her own apples this year!  She is a pro.

And Oliver was beside himself that he could climb up the ladder all by himself to get some apples.

Me and my favorites.

We even got a family picture!  May not be our best but here we are!!

It was a great weekend and having today off was so great.  It was just so nice to have an extra day to hang out with my favorite people.

Week In Review

It was yet another busy week but I don't want to get behind in blogging (again) so here goes.  

We have been crazy with the beginning of school activities.  Here are the kids on picture day.  Notice Claire is holding a violin!  She is thrilled to be starting violin lessons this year!

We had the kids open houses too.  I absolutely love open house.  I love sitting in the kids' desks and getting to see where they spend their days.  I also love getting to know their teachers!  But my favorite is all of the cute stuff they make!  Here is Claire's "About Me" page.  I love that she wants to go to Paris!

I read through Claire's writing journal and I loved what she wrote about her summer vacation!

Oliver's open house was great too!  His teacher is wonderful and I loved seeing all of his artwork!

Oliver seems to be adjusting just fine to Kindergarten.  He won the Monster Drawing contest!!!

He was beyond excited to tell me all about it when he got home! They said his name over the loudspeaker and that about blew his mind. That day he also got to ring the "clean up" bell, hold the gerbil during story time, and take a walk with Mr. Clark.  He told me, "IT WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!"

On Thursday this little guy joined our Komosinski gang!!!  Camden Scott is absolutely adorable and perfect in every way!!!!!

I even got to have a great Bookclub meeting with my favorite readers!!! 

So far the year has started out wonderful!!  I can't wait to see what 2015-2016 brings!!!

Spartan!

Last weekend we spent the weekend in Killington, Vermont while Mark completed the Spartan Race.  This race is 14 miles long and consists of about 39 obstacles.

 Friday we left a school a little early and hit the road!  By the time we made it to Vermont everyone was beat!

Mark got up early to start his race while the kids and I had a nice breakfast and went for a nice swim at our condo's pool. 

After a good swim and nice lunch we headed to the mountain to check out the race.

Those little dots that look like ants, those are the Spartans!!!!!!

Vermont is absolutely gorgeous!

While Daddy was racing Claire and Oliver did the Spartan Kids race.

After a little stretching...

The kids were off!

 They both started out strong!

 Claire made it very clear before the race that she didn't want me to follow her. 

She took off and I couldn't even keep up with her!

Oliver went with the "Slow and Steady Wins the Race" approach.  He took his time and just had fun.

 He was not afraid to ask for a little help.

He made jokes the whole time and had everyone cracking up.  About 10 parents and volunteers approached me to tell me how funny he was.

Oliver also took the "work smart, not hard" approach.  Instead of crawling around the bungee cords, he just pushed them all over his head.

He was so proud to receive his medal! 

Claire was too fast!  She was all business, no fooling around for this girl.

It is hard to see her but here is Claire just before the finish!

MY SPARTANS!!  It was really cute, they gave the kids bananas, water, and a medal when they finished the race.

CLAIRE CAME IN SECOND PLACE!!!!  We aren't sure what place Oliver came, he said he was just happy he didn't come in last.  I love these kids!

After the kids race, we rushed over to find Daddy who had just finished!

My Spartans.

After the race, the Spartans took a nice soak in the hot tub.

Then we headed out to a delicious dinner to celebrate!  

It was a great weekend!  Vermont was gorgeous and I would love to go back!

CONGRATULATIONS TO MY SPARTANS!