Nana's Birthday And The Pumpkin Patch

We had a great weekend celebrating Nana's birthday and going to the pumpkin patch.  It was a great weekend spent with both sides of the family!

Claire loved picking out a special cake for Nana.

 Oliver loved playing with Uncle Johnny!  

And having some serious conversations.

 And Oliver was beyond thrilled to play police officer with Uncle Johnny.  He was amazed when John gave him his badge to carry around.  He kept saying, "This is my badge!"

We all had a great time celebrating Nana's birthday and just spending time together.

Happy birthday Nana!  We love you more than words can say!

After celebrating Nana's birthday on Saturday, we all got a good night's sleep and headed to the pumpkin farm to meet up with our other side of our family.  Claire and Oliver were so excited to see Owen.

And we all couldn't wait to see baby Kayden!  He was so good the whole time!  He didn't make a peep.  I think he loved his first trip to the pumpkin patch.

Oliver loved hanging out with Uncle Kevin.

The kids are all getting so big!  They were able to ride the train all by themselves.

They loved the spider web.

 These three are so cute together.

It won't be long until Kayden is in the mix with these three!

The kids (and Mark) loved the huge slide!

Claire loved going down all by herself.

And of course, Oliver had to do something different and be daring!

Claire and Owen loved taking the lead to walk us through the cornmaze.

This was the best we could do for a family shot.  I love this gang!

After the pumpkin patch, we headed to Brian and Erin's for a nice dinner.  My mother bought the kids these mustache straws and the kids loved them!

Claire's a little blurry but she loved her straw.

And of course, Oliver hammed it up with his straw!

Even the adults had fun with their straws.

Erin gave us this great dinosaur costume for Oliver and he beyond excited to wear it around and roar at everyone!  We had a hard time getting it off of him!  And Owen loved showing off his Batman costume!

Aunt Erin made a special dessert for Mark's birthday (with some healthy fruit for the Ironman) and we all sang happy birthday to the birthday boy!

It was a great weekend!  I love when I can spend the whole weekend with both sides of my family.  The kids had a blast and the adults love to hang out and chat!  It was a perfect weekend.

Our Goals For 2013-2014

I know, I know I am SUPER late with this post! But wow have we been busy.  Between school, activities, weddings, and babies it has been one thing after another around here!  But I am here now and I am ready for my annual Goals post!

Claire 

~ I want to get up to red at school.

~ I want to learn to take care of pets all by myself.
~ I want to be able to hold my pencil better.

Oliver

~ I wanna learn numbers.

~ I wanna be a robot.

~ I wanna doing a coloring of a dinosaur.

Mark

~ To be an Ironman.
~ To always love and appreciate my wife.
~ To be a good husband and father.
~ To serve as a teacher and role model to the students that I work with at school.

Natalie

~ To laugh each day.

~ To get rid of bad habits.

~ To learn yoga.

~ To have patience for everything that comes my way and RELAX more.

~ To be the best mother, wife, teacher, and friend that I can be.
~ I want to make each day count.  I don't want to take anything for granted.  Your every breath is a gift and I want to savor every single moment, good or bad. 
~ Oh yeah, and to make people take more pictures of me.  Especially one of me on my first day of school :)

I will be back with MANY posts and pictures of all of the stuff that we have been up to while I was away!

First Grade Prep And Some Stitches

HIGH: We got to go to Claire's awesome new classroom and meet her teacher :)
LOW: Poor Oliver had to get stitches today :(

We have been pretty busy over here getting ready for the new school year.  I love that we all get ready for school together!  Here is Claire getting all her cool new school supplies ready for the Meet and Greet at her school.  When we bought her school supplies at Walmart it was slim pickins but never fear, I had a bunch of ideas on how to pretty up Claire's supplies.  We bought tons of scrapbooking stickers and Claire went to town decorating her boring supplies.

Here is Claire's new pencil box that she spent about a half hour decorating.

The Meet and Greet went so well.  Claire was so excited to have a desk this year! Her teacher is adorable and her classroom is amazing (I am already stealing some of her ideas)!  She was very excited to see that her buddies Jacob and Justin are in her class.

My first grader and her new locker.

Then there is this little guy. I got a call from Doodlebugs around 8:30 asking me to come in and check out Oliver's head.  My first thought was, "Oh sweet Lord!  He has lice!!!!!!"  I immediately asked if it was lice and the woman assured me that it wasn't. After the relief that it wasn't lice I wasn't too upset about a little cut!! Apparently a block fell on Oliver's head while he was laying on the floor playing with the cars and he had quite the cut.  I already had a doctor's appointment for myself so Mark had to go and take him to Immediate Care where Oliver got two stitches.  He was a trooper and apparently had everyone laughing at the doctor's office.  I think he loved the attention of it all!!!

Here he is all stitched up, good as new.  He loved telling everyone the story!  Nana called to talk to him and he immediately told her, "Hi Nana! I got a stitch but I am alright!  I got hit by a block!"

He only needed two stitches so I am hoping that he doesn't end up with a big scar but it seems pretty small so I think we will be fine.

On another note, Claire and Oliver got a new fish tank for Pinky and Spot.  They were quickly out growing their little bowl and it was time to move them on to a bigger place.  Claire and I collected all the rocks at the beach and the tank looks great!  I loved collecting the rocks with her.  We had such a nice time walking and talking while we picked out all the most perfect stones that we could find.

Tomorrow we all start our new school year.  I am so excited to get to know my new little chickens.  And I can't wait to hear all about Claire's first day of FIRST GRADE!!!

Summer's End

HIGH: We had a nice time with the family at the beach :)
LOW: Summer is officially over tomorrow :(

Well, it's official....summer is over.  Tomorrow we are back to school.  Claire doesn't start until Thursday and Mark and I won't have students until Thursday so I will do our annual "Goals" post then.  We spent a nice day at the beach with the family to mark the summer's end.  The weather was very iffy so I didn't get too many pictures but it was really a nice day.

This summer was amazing.  I am really ready to go back to work and settle into a nice routine but I am really going to miss my time with the kids.  We spent so much quality time together summer and I got to watch Claire and Oliver grow so much.  

Claire is quickly turning into a beautiful young lady.  She is so logical and mature it blows my mind.  She is loving and sweet and always listens.  I loved taking walks with her or driving in the car with her and just chatting away.  She loves to read and is really into anything science related.  I can't wait to see her learn more this school year.  None of her friends are in her class this year so it will be really interesting to see her make new friends and change into a first grader.  I love her so much and the thing that I will miss most about this summer with her is our mornings laying in bed watching tv before breakfast.

Oliver has changed from a baby to a little boy this summer.  He loves to make people laugh.  He is funny and sweet and hates to see anyone upset.  If Claire cries about anything he will run in the other room and grab a blanket or a guy and bring it to her to cheer her up.  He still loves trains and dinosaurs and I am not sure that will change any time soon.  I will miss him being a dinosaur or a train throughout the day.  He has gained such a little personality this summer (even though I didn't think it was possible for him to get anymore personality than he already had). I can't wait to see him grow in the three year old program at Doodlebugs.  I love him so much and the thing that I will miss most about this summer with him is him waking me up with a kiss each morning.  He would give me a kiss and then pull his stool in from the bathroom and climb into bed with me and snuggle me up (then ask Mark to take him downstairs because he knows I don't like to get up that early).

Overall I will miss just being together as a family all the time this summer.  Each day Claire would ask me, "What are we doing today Mom?"  and I was lucky enough to always have something planned. Mark and I are so lucky to be teachers and have summers with our kids.  We were really able to just spend time with the kids with no work restraints.  We have made some amazing memories this summer and I am sad that we will not be able to run to the zoo, the playground, or the beach on a whim.  But I can't wait to see what this year brings!  So, I say goodbye to summer but I say hello to fall, apple and pumpkin picking, Christmas, playing in the snow, dance lessons, religion classes, swim lessons, Easter, and many other great things!!!  

See you next year summer!!!! 

Half Marathon And A Surprise Visit From Santa

HIGH: We had a great weekend :)
LOW: We are all exhausted today :(

We have had a busy couple of days.  Yesterday we started the day at an amazing birthday party for our friends Brian and Julie's twins.  The party was incredible and the kids had a blast.

 They had face painting and airbrushed tattoos. The kids loved getting airbrushed tattoos.

They also had cotton candy, snow cones, and tons of great food.  The kids loved eating all the delicious snacks!

My little clowns.

After the party we headed up to Geneseo to have a slumber party at Auntie Kate's house.  Mark ran the half marathon there today so Auntie Kate invited us to spend the night with her before the race.  The kids had a BLAST!

The kids absolutely fell in love with Mimi, Kate's cat.  They could not get enough of her.  After Mimi got over the initial shock that is Oliver, she was wonderful with them.

While Mimi took some time to warm up to Oliver because he was a little much for her, she bonded with Claire right away.  Claire fell in love with her the second she saw her and Mimi loved her too.  Claire was so gentle and sweet with her, it was adorable.  Here is Claire helping Auntie Kate give Mimi her medicine.

After the kids went to bed Kate and I had a nice night gabbing away on the gazebo.  In the morning, we all got up early and headed to the Geneseo school for Mark's half marathon.

While we waited for Mark to cross the finish line Oliver wanted to run in the kids race.  Here he is waiting for them to blow the whistle to begin the race.

They blew the whistle and none of the kids knew what to do, so I helped Oliver get started.  Once I got him going he was off!!

Here he is crossing the finish.  I am not sure of his official time but, he did great!

Oliver at the finish after his big win!  He was so proud of himself!  He kept yelling, "I woned the race!!"  Claire was shy and didn't want to run with her age group.  But she told me later the reason she didn't run was because she didn't have her running sneakers :)

 Even though Claire didn't run, here are my little winners :)

Here is Mark crossing the finish line.

 Mark did really well!  He came in fourth for his age group and 20th overall!!  

After the race we had a nice celebration breakfast at Denny's.  While we there this adorable couple came in and smiled at the kids as they walked by.  Claire's face lit up immediately and she leaned over to me and said, "Oh my God Mom!  Santa is here!!!!!"  I told her to lower her voice and I said he was probably on vacation before he gets busy for Christmas and that we shouldn't bother him.  I didn't want her to offend him in any way.  Well, the next thing I knew he walked by and leaned over and whispered to Claire, "Shhh...don't tell anyone I am here.  I took the Polar Express here to have a little vacation with Mrs. Claus before the Christmas season starts."  and he winked at her and walked away .  I thought Claire was going to lose it.  She was BEAMING!  Then I started crying because of how sweet the man was and how incredibly happy he had just made Claire.  Well, she couldn't stop staring at him and smiling.  So he invited her over to sit on his lap and tell him early what she wanted for Christmas.  Oliver was totally freaked out by the whole thing but he eventually went over and gave him a hug.  Mr. and Mrs. Claus gave Claire a picture of them with Rudolph and told them be good and to look for him at the Macy's day parade and he would wave to her from his float.  I could not get over how wonderful these people were!  They made the kids whole summer!  Maybe it's the child in me and my love for Christmas but, I think they may have been the real deal!!!

After we got home we all took a loonnnggg nap.  After our naps Mark surprised me with Chinese food and we had a nice movie night.  It was the perfect end to a great weekend!!