Gingerbread Men

This year we decided to decorate giant gingerbread men instead of a gingerbread house. It was a fun afternoon activity that kept the boys busy for about 30 minutes. Thirty minutes of peace! I'll take it!!


Alex really took a lot of time to decorate his gingerbread man just right.

Hunter wanted me to do the icing for him while he ate his candy toppings.

How does it taste? According to Alex, horrible. He said that he thought they were just for decoration, not to be actually eaten.

Hunter disagreed. He thought it was delicious and would have eaten the entire cookie in one sitting if I had let him.
That boy loves his sugar!

Sledding

We got a whopping 4 inches a few days before winter break was supposed to start, which of course cancelled school for the last two remaining school days. Long vacation for the kids -- yay! Long vacation at home with the kids for mommy -- not as much yay!
We did take advantage of our new sleds, snowpants, and snowboots.
Thanks goodness for the steep driveway and yard!

Christmas Card Photo-Shoot

This was the winning shot....

And here are some of the out-takes.....

A Michigan Thanksgiving

Ghost stories with Aunt Emily, reading with Grammy, relaxing, chillin' with our shades on in the house, 2 year photos in the play room, Alex carrying Saeda, Alex playing with baby Tommy (Holty family friend), playing in the crib, playing, playing, playing, finding Jerry the Elf, eating, laughing, and making memories that will last forever.
Happy Thanksgiving!!

Halloween 2010

Our neighborhood had a costume parade and pot-luck before the real fun started.
Alex was Scream-Face again this year (even though I tried to push Darth Vader on him) and Hunter went as a lion (it was WAY too hot for this costume though - I felt so bad for him when we got back to the house and I realized that he was drenched in sweat!)

Alex's dental work didn't prevent him from Trick-or-Treating like a pro this year and Hunter did pretty well for himself too!



Little Lion

Lion and Scream-Face

Pretty good for a little guy!

Is this for real? Ridiculous!

In need of the tooth fairy!

So, Alex has started down the road towards braces! Two days before Halloween (I know, I know...mother of the year!) Alex had 3 teeth pulled!! He was such a trooper! Although he was VERY nervous, he sat still and let the dentist do his thing (he didn't even need any funny gas!). It was hard for me to watch, so I know it was painful and hard to go through, but in the end he had three teeth - with most of the roots attached - to present to the tooth fairy. At the last minute he decided to keep one, but the tooth fairy was nice enough to still give him money for it! As it turns out, the tooth fairy pays more for teeth that the dentist pulls - Alex was thrilled!
Bonus: Alex can make the perfect beaver face now!


Poor buddy!

Look at those monsters!

How much wood could a woodchuck chuck....

Who wants an apple?

The boys and I went apple picking with Nana when she was here visiting in October. It was a gorgeous day and the trees were LOADED with apples! We picked almost 30 pounds of Pink Ladies! Yum!
After the picking (which took a lot less time than you'd think 30lbs. would take) we enjoyed some apple cider and apple cider donuts (again yum!). We love apple picking in the fall!

Segway

Last year, Frank and I won a silent auction for a night stay at the Richmond Westin and a 2 hour Segway tour of Richmond. We finally had a chance to use both when Nana was here. Thanks for watching the boys, Nana!
It was nice to have the night away...we had an amazing meal at Millie's, drinks at the hotel bar, and a night without two rowdy boys to take care of. It was great!
The Segway tour was lots of fun, although I did feel dorky wearing a helmet and motoring around the streets of Richmond on one of the things. Nonetheless, it was a good time!



Riding this Segway makes me feel....sad?? What is that face I'm making? I definitely was nervous, though. I was totally afraid that I wouldn't be able to make the Segway work. Don't worry....I figured it out!

At Tredegar Iron Works.

He'd ridden on a Segway before and was totally comfortable on it. Well, as comfortable as you can be after standing up and shifting your weight forward and backward for 2 hours!

Virginia State Capitol

Hot Air Balloon

A few weeks ago, Alex came running into the house shouting to me to get my camera and come outside. There was a hot-air balloon flying over our neighborhood! So cool!
Even cooler, another hot-air thing (what in the world is that thing called) came flying into the same air space. I was a little nervous that they were going to collide - luckily that didn't happen!
It looked like it was going down just beyond the trees, so Alex and his friend hopped into my car and we tried to chase it down.  It hovered over a nearby pond and then went back up into the sky.
It's not everyday that we see something so neat so close to our house!!!

Bowling Party

Alex chose to have a bowling party this year (actually he wanted laser-tag, but I nixed it when I found out how expensive it was!). Seven of his closest friends joined him and everyone had a blast! Frank and Hunter bowled on their own lane and the rest of the kids had the other two lanes. Fun, fun, fun!!!
It was so hilarious to watch the kids and all of their super-awesome bowling moves. They told me before we started that none of them needed the bumpers up, but each and every kid proved that they most definitely did need the bumpers - it would have been 2 hours full of gutter-balls otherwise!!
Bowling, hotdogs, french fries, lemonade and cupcakes topped off with some time in the arcade. How can you go wrong???


Listen up, everyone. This is going to be a super-fun party!

Woot woot!! It only took 7 minutes, but my ball finally hit down a pin!! And the guy didn't even have to come and rescue my ball from the middle of the lane this time!!

Alex's first strike!!!

Yummy cupcakes, Mom!