For your enjoyment!

Carter's Christmas, sorry, holiday extravaganza at his school this week. Love IT!!!!

Isn't she just glorious?

Athena has had some big milestones this month. On Friday, December 11, she lost one of her front teeth. It happened at school, no less. Could life be much cooler for a seven year old? Why yes, read on after you look at these photos:

Her other front top tooth is hanging on just on one side. The lost tooth helped prop this one up. We keep on telling her when she smiles she looks like she's got in the Billy Bob Halloween teeth. She's hoping to sing "All I want for Christmas are my two front teeth".

Earlier in December, Athena came home with a vision referral from school. She was not very happy. She was actually quite mad about it. We took her to her doctor, Dr. Lenkauskas, and she failed the vision test there as well. Off we went yesterday to an Optometrist. And here is the end result:

She was so sweet about her glasses. One minute proclaiming how much she didn't want them and the next jumping up and down with excitement about having them. She only needs them for things a bit farther away- boards, tv viewing and such. We think she's just beautiful.

And finally, our good friends and neighbors: Susan, David, Zoe and Max gave Athena a body art kit for an early Christmas present. Boy oh boy has she had fun with this. I foresee lots of arguments as she becomes a teenager about what she can (or can't) pierce, tattoo, etc.

Athena's Ballet Performance

Athena was part of a Winter recital that included her ballet group as well as the Cincinnati Russian Children's Theatre. Here's some photos and a few videos from one of the two performances.

Carter Turned Five!!!!

Here's our bat boy:

Here's bat boys bat cake:

Here's photos from his party with his friends:

Here's Carter's party at Thanksgiving with my family. Carter asked for a Turkey cake:

Here's one of his favorite presents. It flashes lights. Pretty cool stuff.

Here they are digging out some dinosaur bones.

Stitches Boy

Thursday night Patrick and I went to Athena's parent/teacher conference. I asked my Mom & Dad to watch the kids for the hour we'd be gone. They let Carter fall asleep on the couch which meant that at his bedtime, he wasn't tired. We let him stay up with Athena to play. This ended up in a trip to Urgent Care and three stitches in his noggin. Here's two photos:

I like the one with the goofy smile as you can just see his two dead front teeth from when he tried to knock them out when he was two. Too bad I didn't get a photo showing the staple he had in the back of his head, then the trilogy would be complete. Why is it always his head that he injures?

He picked out a Ben10 toy last night (how does he even know who Ben10 is???) at Walgreen's for being such a brave boy. The stitches come out this coming Thursday. Who wants to take bets on whether he'll try to weazle a toy out of that one as well?

Boo!

Here's photos from Halloween 2009. The kids went trick or treating with our neighbors, Zoe and Max. David and Patrick took the kids around while Susan and I drank ourselves silly handed out candy. It was a perfect fall night - a little cool and most awesomest of all? no rain!!!! We sat out by a fire in a chimney thingy. Perfection is what I say.

Group Photo (Zoe, Athena, Max and Carter):

Athena (a witch's black cat but she kept messing up and telling people she was a black witch's cat :~) and Carter, our Knight:

Max and Zoe:

My gorgeous girl Athena:

Carter - have you ever seen a bigger smile?

The school Halloween Haunted Festival was on Friday night. On Thursday night, Susan and I gathered the kids at the Stehling's and had a pizza party and cake decorating party. Here's some photos of the cake that were submitted to the cake decorating contest:

This one Carter did on his own:

This one was a joint effort of Zoe and Athena. They spent a week designing the cake on their bus ride to and from school. I think they did a great job:

Jenna Sings a Song

Jenna sang me this song today and I thought it was so beautiful I asked her to sing it again so I could record it. This is the only way I can think of so I can share it with her Mommy. Enjoy!

Irons Farm and Heritage Day

Last weekend soccer was rained out on Saturday which gave us an opportunity to do some Fall fun things! The kids have been asking Patrick if we could go and pick apples. Irons Fruit Farm happens to be the closest place to us. It's about 30 minutes away. First, let me say that the apples are delicious and the kids had a blast picking them. The farm itself is an absolute mess. Patrick and I couldn't get over what a complete state of disrepair the place was in. The apple trees were being choked by poison ivy, poke weed and anything else you could think of. The ground under the trees was covered in hundreds of apples just left to rot. We're so used to seeing Rouster's apple trees. Dan Rouster keeps his place super tidy - no old equipment laying around the trees are well cared for. Not at this place!!!

Luckily Athena and Carter are old enough to understand what not to touch and what too touch. We still expected to see one of us with a spot of poison ivy the next day, but luckily no one got any. Here's photos of the kids in the orchard:

We skipped the hay ride to the pumpkin patch. We heard you took a hay ride and then picked out a pumpkin that was just laying out there - not grown there, but brought in. After too many years of going to a real pumpkin patch at Shaw Farms, we decided to miss this. Plus, the hay ride was free but only on the pretense that you picked out and bought an overpriced pumpkin. Patrick and I are too cheap for that, so we just took a photo of the kids at the pumpkins that were out in the public area.

There was a church holding a mission day at Irons when we went so the kids got popcorn, a pumpkin each and Athena got her face painted - all for free. Woo hoo!!!!

There was also a local fire department there with one of the big engines and the kids were allowed to climb all over it.

The farm had a store that sold apples, pies, donuts and homemade apple fritters. We bought some apples from there in addition to the ones we paid to pick and ate some fritters. Boy were they good!

After we left Irons Farm, we took a lunch break and then drove back into Blue Ash for the annual Heritage Day Festival. We always have such a great time at this festival and this year was no different. We ran into our neighbors, Susan, David, Zoe and Max and the kids enjoyed playing with each other and watching the magic show together along with some friends of Athena from school. We did the scavenger hunt, painted some ceramic ornaments and played some games. We got there late in the afternoon so skipped our normal carriage ride, but we do it most years, so the kids didn't really mind not going on it this year.

The magician, who has been coming for years and who is super good, decided to bring two friends along this year to help the show along. Terrible mistake - the two friends were so so at best and one was just plain boring. Poor Patrick got picked to come on stage and do a card trick. It was so boring that during the middle of the trick Carter got up and asked me if we could leave as he was sooo bored. "But, honey, Daddy's on stage right now. We can't leave, yet." almost had the boy and me crying.

SunROCK Farm

Notice my emphasis on the Rock - this farm is so awesome! We go every single Fall and it's one of our most favorite places in town. I thought I'd taken some photos, but can only find one

Farmer Frank lets the kids put baby chicks on their heads. This is the first time Athena put one on her own head. Normally she just puts them on Patrick's head. She also milked a goat by herself for the first time. She's getting so grown up!

SonRock is always just a good time for everyone. We learn something new every single year that we go and the hands on with the animals is always a thrill for the kids. We always go on the free weekend and this year was no exception. We were hoping to go back for the Halloween event, but Carter just got an invitation to his first birthday party without his big Sissy. He is too excited about it!

Yoga and Money

First yoga - seems that Carter is learning yoga at school. He decided today to teach Jenna how to do it. It was hilarious! Wish I'd had my camera. He did a tree pose and he sat on the floor, put his hand together and raised his arms over his head. Then he closed his eyes and did some "Oooommmmssss". Jenna looked at him like the crack pot he is.

Second money - Carter say a glider today on the way home from school. The kind where there's actually two gliders facing each other. He took a few minutes to fully explain it to me making sure I understand that you sat on one side and your friend sat across from you with your head at the same height as their head and you could talk and swing and have fun with your friend. I explained to him that I thought those were super cool but that they're also super expensive. He thought for a moment and said we should go back that store that gives us all of that free money. He was disappointed to learn that there is no store handing out free money. Trust me, if there was, Carter, your Momma would be first in line to get her (and you) some.

Vacation 2009

Photos from vacation in Michigan on Lake Huron. It was fantastic fun!!!!!

We had a fake birthday for Carter. We didn't want to buy a cake from Walmart, so we talked Carter into having donuts for his "birthday cake". His party was at a beach near the place where we stayed. It was really windy. Can you tell he was excited?:

Then it was Athena's turn for her real birthday. We ate dinner at a restaurant called the Angry Bull. It was the best food we've eaten out in quite a long time. The waiter was excellent and he came up with this for a surprise for Athena:

Can you see how cool she thought her cheesecake was?

After that we returned to our rental house and decided to have a bomb fire near the beach. We found a bakery open on her birthday, but no cakes. She had the best time picking out little pastries that she thought everyone would like to try. She asked that we cut them all up into equal pieces and she served them. It was all scrumptious!

Athena's best birthday present is her new bike that she picked out: