Proud Momma

I have to share with you Olivia's gymnastics routines today. The gym was so small and we were so close to the beam and floor that I got some great video of her today. She really had a great meet and looked oh so sparkly! Here is her beam routine:

She got an 8.275 on that one. I was proud of her that she stuck all her moves and landed her dismount. She has had issues with it in practice and gets it only 50% of the time. As you can she, was happy with her performance too. Now, here is her floor routine. She got a 9.1, the highest score on her team!!! She ended up placing on floor (7th) and bars (6th) and all-around (6th), the team placed 3rd!

A BOY After My Own Heart

A few months ago, I posted an entry about my daughter and her new found skill, talent and love for gymnastics. As we all know, I was a gymnast when I was younger(and still am). I am so proud of my daughter for all her hard work and even prouder that she has taken an interest in a sport that I can relate to her.

This past week, we introduced our oldest kids to the sport of skiing. One of the ski centers in the area was running an unbeatable deal - $10 for a 1 hr lesson, ski rental and unlimited use of the school slopes. I couldn't resist having Jake and Olivia try it out - unfortunately, Gabi was just too young but enjoyed watching the other two and even more, having mommy and daddy to herself. What surprised me was that my sometimes hesitant son took to the sport immediately and insisted as soon as his lesson was done and he had mastered the first school slope, that we move to the next level. During their lesson, they used a tow to get up the very small hill. This is just a rope and pully system that you grab hold of and it takes you very slowly up the hill. When we got to the advanced school slope, it had a chair lift and a much larger hill. My daughter got half way down the slope, fell and lost her ski. Because she doesn't weigh much and the hill was a little icy, she had problems getting it back on herself. Of course, she was barely half way down the hill. Daddy to the rescue!!!! But Jake, I was having flashbacks of my ski days in high school - straight down was his way, straight down!! I was SO proud!

The downfall - now they are in love with skiing and want to go back. Doesn't surprise me that they would choose such an expensive sport! I guess it's time to look for used skis on craigslist!

My lifelong friend and me attempting an expert slope

Blue Mountain Ski Area

Happy 2008!

What a fun night! My dad and his wife, Tom's aunt and uncle from Indiana and his uncle from PA joined us on a fun filled evening. We went to First Night in Bethlehem and enjoyed a night of ice skating, browsing a speciality Christmas bazaar, riding a trolly, watching ice sculpting, enjoying Tom skating for the first time in a long time, roasting Peep marshamallows to make smores, fireworks and the best part - watching the Peep fall at midnight!! Even the kids made it through the night! I had to wake my dad up at five till midnight as he was enjoying one of his daily naps inside a warm, toasty building! It was great to share that night with family and hope to do it all again next year! Hope yours was a blast too!!

The yellow glowing ball at the left is the Peep waiting to fall

Meter-O-Love

I'll admit it. I didn't send a bunch of Christmas cards out this year. I just didn't feel like it and I didn't feel like spending the money on stamps. I didn't do a Christmas picture of us either for the same reasons - except the stamp thing. I would say that it isn't because I wasn't in the spirit of Christmas or was being a scrooge. I wanted to focus my energy's on things that I thought were more important -and at this point in my life, I am finding myself embracing those moments when I have nothing to do and doing just that.

But as the Christmas cards started coming in from friends and family, I started to feel a little guilty that those that had thought of us were going to be ignored by us this holiday season. So, I pulled out some Christmas cards I had stashed away and started filling them out. I sent to those who had sent to us. I also added on a few that I wanted to know that we were thinking about them. I always place my cards on the door to our study. I guess you could say I use it as a meter of how many people are thinking about us and care about us.

What do you think, are we loved enough?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

. . . Til the Cows Come Home

Oh, what a night.

It would have to go under one of the best birthday celebrations yet. We enjoyed great company, great shopping, fabulous food and lots and lots of laughs. Every so often, having one of these nights is food for the soul!

Happy Birthday Kim! I hope you had a great night!

Roasted

Oh my goodness, that hurts so bad. I can't believe I was so stupid. I think I'm going to need some ice. I don't think I'm going to be able to wear shoes, maybe flip flops, but no shoes.

A few days pass.

It still hurts. And it looks worse. Nice shades of purple and yellow. Maybe it's broken, someone says. Huh, I think to myself, maybe it is.

The next day.

The doctor declares, after an x-ray, that it's not broken. Relief passes over me.

3 weeks pass

Still hurts. Still hurts to wear shoes. Hurts when I bang it on anything. No purple colors anymore. The yellow is all gone. But it still hurts.

You ask what I did? You are not going to believe it. Like I said, it sounds so stupid.

I dropped a frozen roast on it.

See, I said it was stupid.

Stuffed

Another piece of ham? How about some turkey? Can I have the skin? Are those brussel sprouts done? Did anyone make pearl onions - those are my favorite? Is there salsa sour cream in the potatoes? Where are the children? Is it time to eat? Who set the table? I don't have a fork. Is it time to eat? Boys, settle down. Can I have some skin? Don't snitch that. Is the turkey cut? Can you get a fork for the ham? Where's mom? Is it time to eat? Where's mom? Who's snoring? Is it granny? Where are the girls? Who went outside? Can you close the window, I'm cold! It's too hot in here. Where's mom?

What can I say, it's Thanksgiving Day at my house!!

2 Pirates & A Princess

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Nothin' Like the First Time

They came, they fought, they conquered. What a way to start a gymnastics meet season by winning first place as a team. I really don't need to post much. The pictures show it all. Olivia scored a 9.5 on vault and won second place for her age division. She scored high enough on floor exercise to also earn a second place medal. Her other events, bars and beam, she scored well enough to medal.Her all-around score (which is taken by adding up all 4 events) was high enough to put her in second place. Check out the standings for the Tricks & Treats Invitational. Her scores would be at Level 4, ages 8 and up. Her gym is the Lehigh Valley SA (Sports Academy).

Bar Routine

Waiting to Salute the Judges

Team Spirit

Trade Off

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday to you,

Happy Birthday my sweet Princess,

Happy Birthday to you!

It was brought to my attention by my now 8 year old daughter that she didn't think she needed a carseat anymore. The law in Pennsylvania is 8 years OR 80 pounds. Well, my daughter will probably be 80 pounds when she is 15! So, we compromised and I let her take the back off of her carseat and put it away to only be used on long trips (so she can rest her delicate head and sleep if she desires).

My kids are growing up. I miss having a baby around the house and a toddler to care for every day. I've traded all the dependence of babies and toddlers for independent school age kids. When I was growing up and dreaming about being a mom and having babies, I always imagined them as babies and toddlers. I would never imagine what life would be like once they were out of that stage. I guess I was afraid of what they would become or even that once they passed that toddler stage that life would be boring and uneventful. But just as much as I loved watching them learn to discover things in those first few years of life, I find this stage more meaningful as I can share and teach them based on my own experiences as a child. I can correct the things that were done to me as a child or the places that I thought my parents lacked in. I love relating to my kids at this level to say to them, 'yeah, my mom did that to me too!', or 'don't worry, I was the same way when I was little.' And just as much as I loved the look in my baby's eyes when they learned to roll over or walk, I love the look in my kids eyes when they realize they each have little traits of their parents.

My message to mom's of babies and toddlers - enjoy where you are today because soon, in the blink of an eye it seems, they will be school aged and have a whole new bag or worries and excitements! Enjoy being a mom!

Pinata Time

Birthday Gifts
The Birthday Girls in Their Tea Hats

I Wouldn't Dare Me

We recently had a huge party for my Granny's 90th birthday. Lots of family came in and we got to spend time with cousin Lexi and the IL cousins. It was a very elegant shindig. My Granny invited 150 people or so and most of them showed up. I was in charge of making the cake for the party so I needed to go with something big to accommodate all those people. I chose a 3 tiered number with picture rings between each tier and a flowing fountain under the tiers. The cake table included lots of pictures of my Granny's life that all the family brought in. The fountain was surrounded by fresh flowers and the topper for the cake was a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. On each tier of the cake was written words that embodied who my Granny is. My sisters and I sat down before the party began and came up with words that we thought really described Granny. I knew that this was going to be part of the cake decorating way before the big day arrived. I spoke to my mom and sisters weeks before and asked them to start thinking about words that I might use on the cake. My sisters and I definitely all agreed on one certain word that we felt summed up Granny. My mother most whole heartedly disagreed with this word. I don't know, maybe she thought it was crass or something but for those grandchildren and great-grandchildren who know her, they know that this is a word she uses often.

So when the day came and we sisters were all sitting around discussing the words to put on the cake, this forbidden word came up again. Just about that time, my mother passed by us. We all looked at her, my sisters sitting in various places, me sitting at the table, cake in one hand, icing in the other and she just gave us that look that said, "Don't you dare!" We all knew full well what she was talking about. She didn't want that word ANYWHERE on the cake. Not only had she scolded me verbally weeks before about this word, here she was scolding me with her looks.

Well, I just have to tell you, those looks just didn't stop me. I did it anyway. That word made it's way onto the cake, despite mom's scolding and disapproval. I guess the greatest thing is, nobody knew but us.

Hint: The 'bad' word isn't 'sincere'. And only those that know us understand the significance of the 'bad' word.

Happy 6th Birthday to Foo

Seriously postdated

Happy Birthday to Foo

Happy Birthday to Foo

Happy Birthday dear my Fiddley Foo

Happy Birthday to you!!!

Breakfast in Bed (with her rubber Llama)

Her Party

My table exploding with tulle ballet skirts

The girls are adding sequins and flowers to them

Bouncy Bounce

It just so happened to be the day to start putting our summer away and start thinking about fall. My project for the afternoon was to deflate the kids little blow up pool that has the blow up slide going into it. I did my part and deflated the pool and asked the kids to help deflate the slide part. Well, they did this instead.

Back 2 School

It's that time again. My children are chomping at the bit to get back to school. What is wrong with them?? Don't they realize that is a 5 day a week ritual of getting up at 7:30 a.m., getting dressed, making their beds, getting to the breakfast table and actually FINISHING their breakfast (Gabi) before school starts and then having their butts in their seats by 8:30 a.m. Don't they realize that mommy has to have her butt out of bed before them and have herself dressed and ready and maybe, just maybe enjoy a little peace and quiet before awakening the chaos for the day.

I guess these things just don't cross their mind. They are eager to learn and I don't want to squash that desire in them. We had a fabulous year last year with minimal speed bumps. I am holding my breath and hoping we are blessed with the same kind of smoothness.

So, without much further ado, here are the kids on their first day of school.

Jake - 5th Grade

Olivia - 3rd Grade

Gabrielle - 1st Grade