A Meal Fit for a Grandad

Today we headed down to Findlay Market. It was cold but sunny.  We've never gone the weekend before Thanksgiving. Boy was it busy and fun! The place was packed with vendors and people.  We bought food for a meal that both Patrick and I thought Nick would have loved.

Tonight for dinner we had various homemade sausages, mashed potatoes, brussel sprouts and salted rye bread. To top it off I bought a bottle of Riesling - figured a German wine should go well with German sausages.  Probably a bit on the inexpensive side for the old git, but wine none the less (and with a cork mind you! How posh am I?).

We bought real hotdogs for the kids to eat in skin casings. I believe that's the first hot dogs they've ever had.

Dinner was super duper yummy!!!

Next week is going to be super crazy busy -

Tuesday is Carter's birthday party at Chuck E Cheese's with his friends;

Thurdsay is Thanksgiving and Carter's family birthday party;

Saturday is our final Nutcracker rehearsal;

Sunday is the Nutcracker - Athena and I have to be downtown at the Taft theatre at 9:30 AM for a 3pm performance. This will be a loooong day!!!

Monday is Carter's 4th birthday - Woo Hoo!!!!

A First Sleepover & Hockey

First for last weekend. We went to a Cyclones Hockey game on Saturday night (11/8). It was throw back night, so the tickets were fairly inexpensive. The best part was the cheap food - YEAH! Hotdogs, beer and pizza for $1; popcorn for 50 cents. Me and kids had fun stuffing ourselves. 

Athena brought along her camera and I think she pretty much filmed the entire game. We have yet to sit and watch her videos. She was super cute filming away trying to catch all of the action. We got to catch a few fights and some goals with the Cyclones winning the game. We stayed the entire game which was a first for us.

This past Friday, 11/14, was the first time Athena had friends over for a sleepover. It was the twins, Ethan and Olivia, of course. It went really well - everyone had a good time.

You're Not the Boss of ME!!!

Thursday morning when we got to Carter's school to drop him off for the morning, he burst into tears. After getting him to calm down, he was able to tell me what was wrong.  Ms. Linda (his teacher) is too bossy in Carter's opinion. Not only had she made him count to seven but then she made him count to eight! He said he didn't like bossy people and she wasn't going to make him count anymore. 

I told this to Paul, Linda's husband, as he let us into the school and he just about fell over laughing. Linda, to her credit, immediately tackled counting with Carter that day getting him to count shining beads instead of the normal things. 

Patrick was pleased as this showed that they make him learn and do things that he might not enjoy doing.

Just Call Her Attie

Today was the first time that Athena asked me to call her Attie. I'm supposed to use it whenever I address her.  Man! How am I going to remember this?  

Halloween 2008

Halloween this year was PERFECT! The weather was warm in the 70s and sunny. The week had started out quite cold so it was a definite pleasant surprise how the week ended.

For the first time, Athena was not with us at Grandma and Grandpa's on Halloween (she's growing up too fast!!!). She was invited to her best friend Olivias' house. Here's a photo of Ethan (Olivia's twin brother), Athena and Olivia:

After trick-or-treating Athena spent the night with them. The next morning, Ronna, the twin's Mom, made pancakes with M&M's from the Halloween candy. The kids thought they were great.

Patrick, Carter and I went to Grandma and Grandpa's to eat dinner and go trick-or-treating with Uncle Glenn. Carter had no interest in his Halloween costume so he wore his orange and black shirt with the skeleton and "I'm all skin and bones - need more candy" on it. He had such a great time. He was invited to spend the night with G&G, but he decided not to.

On Saturday we decided we had to do something outside again as it was going to be sunny and back in the 70's. We went to a park in Mt. Washington and watched them catapult everyone's left over pumpkins down a hillside. The machines used were Trebuchets which looked like were hand built.

Here's the kids holding the Pumpkin Queen's Scepter:

The kids were allowed to pull the trigger on our pumpkin:

and here's our pumpkin mid-flight!

Soccer and Bowling

The weekend of October 24th was super fun once again! 

On Saturday Athena had her last soccer game. She is now thoroughly in love with soccer. She wants to play defense. Her coach this Fall was Coach Susan. She's actually a neighbor and she has been absolutely perfect for Athena. She pushes her just enough but is super kind and enthusiastic as well. On the plus side, she adores Athena.  

Coach Susan put Athena as kind of goalie (don't really have goalies in instructional soccer) and Athena just loved it. I'm going to volunteer next Spring so that we'll get to have Susan again as a coach.

After the game we charged over to the Blue Ash Recreation Center Nature Park to do the Halloween Festival.  The weather was once again perfect- Fall warm and sunny. The kids did trick-or-treating, then had hot chocolate and popcorn and we finished up with a magic show.

On Sunday we had the soccer party at Crossgate Lanes.  It was the first time that the kids had been bowling and my first time in probably 15 years.  We had a blast. Here's some photos from the party:

SHE DID IT!!!

On Tuesday, October 21st, Athena rode her bike for the first time without training wheels. She kept on bugging Patrick that night to take off her training wheels but he wouldn't do it as she's always asked for them to be put right back on. I decided that I'd help her with it. We went next door to the little parking lot and with just a little help from me she was able to get it. 

She rode around for about 15 minutes before it got too dark. She told me, "Mom, I'm the proudest 1st Grader EVER!!!".  I wish I'd had my camera as she was so happy and proud of herself.  

Way to go!!!