Christmas 2015

Our Christmas was pretty quiet. After having guests for 9 days, we enjoyed a few days at home by ourselves. And with obscenely warm temperatures, we were able to enjoy our usual late summer/early fall activities. 

The kids asked to go to church on Christmas Eve. Apparently they were going to drag their heathen parents whether we liked it or not! The kids were amazingly good and did a nice job of participating.

Christmas Eve Jeff and I had hoped to go to bed early. However, Ree couldn't sleep and I think her last time to come out for cuddles was at 10:37. Yawn. Poor Santa thought he would never be able to visit our house. It's funny. We thought Ree was on the fence about Santa 2 years ago. So I cooked up a scheme for Santa to bring her a ridiculous gift. Santa brought her a Barbie dream house. It was expensive and enormous. And we had to bring it back from Ohio. That did the trick. 

I sensed some doubt creeping in again this year  (her best friends are all oldest children, so we are sheltered on that front ), but on Christmas Eve it became apparent that any doubt was just due to the mathematical impossibility of it all. We had been watching the Google Santa tracker before bed. Well, technically most of the family was checking it. Leon actually stood there and watched it until we closed the browser window and dragged him away from the computer. Around the time the kids went to bed, Santa had visited over 5 billion households.

Ree was pondering this as she lay awake in bed. So when she asked me about it, I started by saying the magic involved was probably a lot more complicated than they ever show on TV or in books. Then I pulled in math. I argued that Santa has a window from 11pm to 5am to visit each house, and there are 24 time zones in the world so that gives Santa a roughly 30 hour window to make deliveries. That made sense to her and we agreed we probably should've left Santa some strong coffee. Finally, I joked that maybe Santa has a time turner. She laughed and relaxed. Harry Potter for the win!

The kids were given strict orders to stay in their rooms until we got them on Christmas morning. When we weren't quite prompt enough for him, Leon decided to be the human alarm clock. At exactly 7am he opened his door, shouted, "Beep, beep, beep!" and shut the door again. We got the message and were in the kids' rooms by 7:03.

Santa did come (phew!) and the kids loved their gifts. The big kids got Legos and were so busy playing with them that at 9:30 we had to tell them that their little sister might explode if we didn't open gifts soon so they had to stop playing at 10. Then when we did open presents, they wanted to open them one at a time so they could all see what everyone got. Who are these children???

Over the past few days the kids have spent a lot of time playing with their new things. They received several games and a circuit set, so there have even been group activities. We've managed to spend some time outside every day including a Christmas day trip to the park and a beach trip on Sunday.

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas! 

Sights and Sounds of the Season

It's the season for loving and giving so, of course, our house is full of hate and greed. Who knew certain children (who will not be named) could fight so much? And over such silly things? Natalia woke me up the other morning at 5:45 just to fight with me. Why does she do this? It would be so much easier to just sleep in a bit and not fight. But, noooo. And if the volume of the children goes up to 10, it has been permanently set on 11 for awhile now. Thankfully, there are occasional breaks in the squabbles and battles and no one has seriously injured themselves or their siblings (yet), so we have that going for us.

I had a moment on Friday night when I realized how much our kids do actually like each other, despite the indications otherwise. I went to put presents under the Christmas tree and discovered that there were already colorful Ziplocks of stuff under the tree, neatly labeled with each of our names in Sharpie. It turns out that Leon wrapped presents for everyone. Some were paper games he had made, others were real gifts he had "purchased" from the treasure box in his class. But before I could get too enamored with my thoughtful son, I did find the "dead" gingerbread man he decorated and hung up on the wall. (I have to admit though, the sword is a nice touch.)

The kids have actually been decorating the house like mad. Every time I turn around there are more decorations Scotch taped onto the walls. It is fun and festive (although it would drive a minimalist nuts.) Over the weekend the kids also decorated gingerbread houses. I have to say, I am impressed at how their decorating skills have improved. 

So now that the house looks like Christmas, perhaps it will start sounding a bit more like it too. The kids are actually getting better as we get closer to Christmas. (It helps that school and activities are done.) Fingers crossed that everyone actually finds the Christmas spirit by Friday!

December Fun

Although Ree has performed in dance recitals before, this weekend was the first time she danced in a full length ballet. She was a reindeer in a production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and she couldn't have been more excited. Last Sunday night she was already excited, and she didn't know if she would be able to survive the wait until Thursday's tech rehearsal. (Her first tech rehearsal! That alone was exciting to her!) Thankfully, she survived the week, she made it through everything, AND it lived up to her expectations. The show was lots of fun and went fairly well and she enjoyed her debut as the reindeer that "dances" the White Witch off the stage to free one of the main characters.

The weather cooperated too, and after spending Thursday night, Friday night, and all day Saturday at the theater, we had a beautiful day in the mid 70s on Sunday. My parents were in town, and it was a perfect excuse to head to the beach. The water was cold, but the kids (and Grandpa Gene!) didn't care. And at least it was warmer than the snowy days in Narnia.

Thanksgiving

We had a quiet weekend over Thanksgiving. It was just our family, at home. It was both relaxing and a time to catch up on things. It was nice to feel refreshed before jumping head first into the crazy again. At some point over the weekend, it occurred to me that this was our 10th Thanksgiving with kids. How on earth did that happen? Then I decided to look back on our Thanksgivings.

2006 - In 2006 Ree/The Repo Monster/Enemy Garlic was 3 months old at Thanksgiving. We took her to Cincinnati for the first time. (The dogs rode with us too!) Ree cried and then passed out while we ate Thanksgiving dinner with Jeff's family.

2007 - We had just moved to Wilmington that week. Jeff had gone back to Athens to get the dogs, and he and the dogs arrived in Wilmington in time for a late dinner.

2008 - This year was a little odd. The boys were 5 days old and I was home from the hospital but they weren't. The NICU nurses did decorate for Thanksgiving and I think we even got cards "signed" by the boys. Ree, the cutie, had just learned how to fold her hands to pray.

2009 -We had a big crew here for the boys' first birthday and Thanksgiving. The crew was so big, in fact, that there was a kiddie table.

2010 - I have no recollection of this Thanksgiving (hey, I was 8 months pregnant and had 2-year-old twins. And a 4-year-old!) But apparently it was a low key affair with just our family.

2011 - We had a whirlwind week. We were in Orlando for my cousin Michele's wedding. We also went to the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. And we went to the Magic Kingdom two days that week. And we celebrated the boys' 3rd birthday. Phew.

2012 - It was another quiet Thanksgiving at home. With some really interesting faces from Leon.

2013 - Our friend Jenna and her daughters joined us for dinner. After dinner we successfully distracted the kiddos with Charlie Brown Thanksgiving.

2014 - The 2014-2015 school year is the "lost" year. I have no idea what we did! For Thanksgiving or any other day. But apparently we attended lots of school-related Thanksgiving events.

2015 - Jammie Day! Does it get any better than that?

Hope you had an enjoyable Thanksgiving this year (and in prior years too)!

Birthday Boys!

The holiday season at our house has begun! We celebrated the boys' birthdays over the weekend. We celebrated ALL weekend!

The birthday madness officially started Saturday with an early morning trip to Panera and Harris Teeter. The boys are funny. Every year I offer to make them separate cakes, and every year they turn me down. This year I was told "it would be a waste" to have two cakes. They also have historically rejected separate birthday parties every year. Love them! But they disagreed on what to have for a birthday breakfast. Mike wanted donuts and Leon wanted bagels ("because bagels are healthier"). I suggested that perhaps we could have one on Saturday and the other on Sunday, and they both thought this was perfectly acceptable. So off we went!

It was just the boys and me for our early morning shopping, which was nice. The boys were extra happy because I let them wear their pajamas to the store. (We left the house at 6:45. I am a big believer that pajamas are perfectly appropriate street attire on children before 8am. They fully agree.) Other than Natalia being incredibly upset when we got home, it was a good trip. (And Natalia was a green-eyed monster all weekend. She was not okay with the weekend being all about her brothers. Not that she ever wants to share Mama.)

We enjoyed a nice breakfast, and then Jeff headed out with the girls so they could shop for presents for their brothers. While they were gone we decorated the cake and stuffed goody bags for the party. And then it was off to their bowling party!

Their party was great. The boys and four friends had a lane to themselves at the bowling alley. It's funny how grown up they have become. They kept up with their game and did a great job of taking turns (and going at the right time) without anyone having to remind them. Meanwhile our girls, the girl guests, and a younger brother bowled on a second lane. I think they had fun too. And no one on either lane broke a finger or smashed a toe. Amazing!

Sunday was a combination of regular errands and family birthday celebration day. In the morning we stopped at Dunkin' Donuts before heading to buy groceries. There weren't any tables left, so the kids got to sit at the counter. They enjoyed that. (And, again, amazingly no one got hurt!) Sunday evening we headed to Chuck E. Cheese for games and then to a Mellow Mushroom next door to Chuck E. Cheese for pizza. But, of course, Leon had to squeeze in one more prize winning jackpot before dinner.

Overall, I think the boys had a great birthday. And it was a good way to start the holiday season!

Myrtle Beach

It seems like once the boys hit kindergarten last year, our lives got completely crazy. One of the things that went out the window was blogging on any kind of regular basis, so forgive me for jumping around in time with my posts now. Back in March, as we were packing up to leave our hotel in Myrtle Beach, Mike declared, "Mom! You have to write about this on Nutty Mommy!" Except I didn't. So now, just because Mike asked, I am. But I guess I should back up and start at the beginning.

Last winter it dawned on me that we had never taken the kids on a true vacation. We've traveled out of town to visit family, and we've traveled to weddings, and we've traveled to family weddings, but we've never been anywhere just for fun. With the kids getting four long breaks a year from school, their schedule lends itself well to traveling outside of peak seasons, and the kids are finally big enough that traveling for fun actually seemed like a possibility.

Not wanting to get crazy and spend too much money or venture too far from home the first time we tried this crazy vacation thing, we opted to spend a few days in Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach is less than 90 miles away, and several friends recommended a hotel with an indoor water park. It's not nearly as fancy as a Great Wolf Lodge, but again, when you've never done anything like this before, anything is new and exciting.

The kids were excited, but they also took the trip very seriously. We left in the late morning with plans of stopping at Broadway at the Beach, a giant outdoor mall, for lunch. Leon cracked me up - he was very focused on making sure he had a perfect outfit for this excursion, and he elected to wear a button down shirt and cargo pants. Jeff decided he was dressed perfectly for the occasion, if he was a little old man. The other kids were only slightly less serious in planning their attire.

Because the drive was fairly short, Natalia wasn't completely horrible on the car ride, and we had a great time at Broadway at the Beach, walking around, playing on the playground, and eating lunch at Joe's Crab Shack. The kids even managed to eat all of their food and were very proud of themselves for not having leftovers. After lunch we headed to our hotel, and we pretty much just stayed there for the next two days.

We got a one bedroom suite which worked out great. The bedroom had two queen sized beds, and we gave one to the girls and one to the boys. The kids had their own TV in there, so they were happy to hang out in "their" room. Jeff and I opted for the murphy bed in the living room, which also meant we had access to the kitchen and balcony at night. There was a Food Lion just down the street, and we made daily trips there to pick up stuff for meals so that we only had to eat out once a day. I think we ended up making 5 trips to the hotel's water park over the 2.5 days we were there. The hotel was on the beach, and we even snuck in the first beach trip of the year. We spent one morning checking out more of Myrtle Beach, but other than that, we just relaxed and played. Overall, it was a pretty amazing first vacation. Good enough, in fact, that Natalia has declared that when she grows up she is going to live in Myrtle Beach. (And be a hair dresser.)