Christmas

I'm not the best person when it comes to taking pictures.  I would rather watch what's going on.  So, there could probably be better photos in this post, but oh well.  I have great memories!

Waiting impatiently for Christmas to begin.

 Our wall of friends.  We have moved so many times we have wonderful friends all across the country, from Utah to Wisconsin, to Connecticut, to Massachusetts, to Wyoming, to New York, well you get the idea.  We love to get updates and see everyone's children growing up, but it makes us miss all our friends!

 Jackson building his Ninjago Brickmaster.  With a little help from Dad.

 The kids were thrilled to wake up to white.  This is the most snow we'd had all winter.  Of course, it just opened things up and now we have over a foot and a half and it's snowing today.

 Our tree this year.

 The detritus of Christmas.

 And the stockings.

 Best picture of Christmas: James getting the Lego Ninjago set he's been wishing for forever.  He got it built in about 45 minutes.  Made me a little nostalgic for our Christmases growing up when my brothers would get big lego sets and we'd put them together.  Glad I have boys!!

Catchup

Well, we've had many adventures lately and haven't taken time to blog, but I finally uploaded photos from the camera and decided it was time!

For Thanksgiving week, we picked my parents up in Philadelphia and did some sightseeing, including Valley Forge.  We ate at wonderful Max Brenner restaurant and headed off the next day in the van to Outer Banks, NC.

 Lots of fun things to do there.  The boys loved hot-tubbing.

 And blogger takes a brief break from the correct picture order to give you James with his homemade rocket.  He took a class at school where he learned to make this and then they had a day to shoot them off.  Pure happiness.

 James and Steve, the instructor, setting off his rocket.  It was really fun to watch all the rockets go up.

 Back to Outer Banks, Jackson mostly played on the beach, the water and wind were really cold this trip.

 But we loved having my parents there with us to do fun things and spend time with us and the boys.

 A little chilly for Jude.

 But not for Jake and James, out there Boogie Boarding.

 James turned 11 in December and graduated from Cub Scouts.  A little sad, it's been such a fun group of Webelos he's been with and a great leader.  She wasn't at the pack meeting, but most of the boys in the group earned their "Arrow of Light", the most prestigious award in cub scouting and the only patch from cub scouts that can be worn on the boy scout uniform.  Good job James!!!

 James had a very fun birthday party and got some excellent gifts thanks to his great friends!

 One of the activities was Glow in the Dark Silly String.  All over everyone.  But quite the adventure.

 And the all-important blowing out of the candles.  Now he's officially 11 . . . .

 We spent the afternoon Saturday at the Dickens Festival in Skaneatlas.  Such fun and the best patisserie I've been to.

 Father Christmas was the "real thing", so cool and Jackson was so excited to meet him!

 Gingerbread houses, a must every Christmas season

 After these pictures they chowed down on the houses.  Never thought I'd need a limit on how much of your gingerbread house you can eat per day.

And Jude, along for the ride as always!

This is Halloween . . .

 As usual my pictures are totally random order (Thanks blogger . . ).  This is Jackson's class having a dance party during the Halloween party.

 James in the Halloween Parade.  He is dressed as Percy Jackson (from Percy Jackson and the Olympians), if you notice he is wearing holey jeans and his shirt says Camp Half Blood.  I liked the older kids costumes a lot, very creative, lots of homemade stuff.

 Jackson parading.  And observant mom that I am didn't even notice till just now that supergirl is right behind him.  So cute.

 Jackson's class after the parade.

 Before the parade, all the kids got to stand up and show off their costume and tell everybody what they "were".

 My latest project: made a quilt showcasing the art of the children in Jackson's classroom for the upcoming school auction.  Hope it brings in a lot of money!!

Our pumpkins this year.  From left to right: Jackson, James (notice the smile/tail looks like a whale--his favorite imaginary character is something he invented from Pokemon called "the Big Whale Guy").  Pretty clever pumpkin!  Next, Becky's (done from a template, thank you!), and Jake.  We had lost Jude's tiny pumpkin but found it later and James carved it, but we didn't take another photo.  But he did have a pumpkin!!

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

Trunk or Treat

 Here's a few teaser Halloween photos. The ward Trunk or Treat was tonight and the kids had a great time.  So much that when we got home Jack refused to have a photo taken so all we have is this picture of me in the background helping him take off his costume!  James didn't really have a specific title to his character, so we decided he was the King of the Nazgul with his hood and giant sword.

 Jude Yoda and his friend Yoda. He got a lot of attention at the Trunk or Treat! Such a cutie.

I was very brave and dressed up as a cat.  It was kind of fun when I decided not to be self-conscious about it!

Lots of pics!!

 Well, I have stopped remembering to bring a real camera anywhere and just use my phone.  And then forget to upload them and make a blog post!  Facebook is just so much easier!  But I know we have some friends and family that still like the blog so here it is.  

We went to Iron Kettle Farm and went on the hayride.

 James can't understand why cows eat hay, he didn't think it was too tasty.

 I even think Jude enjoyed the hayride.

 We were excited to find a Jude-sized pumpkin.

The most fun part of Iron Kettle Farm is seeing their fun pumpkin-headed character scenes.  They have popular movie characters, nursery rhymes, etc.  This one seemed to fit us best.

 I went for a walk with our neighbor one day and had to catch the beautiful view.  We've had some spectacular leaves this year.

 Hockey season at last!  Go Big Red Womens Hockey!! (and Men's Hockey too, but we have a bias towards the Women, no offense).

 One of the down sides to having big, beautiful trees in our yard.  Endless raking in the fall.  Oh well, at least the piles are fun for the kids!

 We have been running outside and it's getting a bit chilly.  Jude was not too thrilled to wear a hat.

 Jude and I have been doing a children's music class.  He doesn't always get the participation thing, but it's fun anyways.

 We found a "new" gorge to hike.  It was beautiful.

 Welcome to Ithaca, my friends!  This is our beautiful world.

 Waiting for mom and dad and Jude.

 "Mom, quit taking my picture!!"  Apple picking at Grisamore Farms.  A must-do in the fall!  I used to bottle applesauce, but don't anymore so we went and picked apples just for fun.  So far we've made apple pie, apple muffins, apple cake, caramel apples, eaten the apples out of hand, and still have a boxful.  Time to make another pie I guess!

 Jack and Jude had a hilarious time riding in the little wagon with the apple containers.

 One of our fun "adventures" was going to see Lindsey Stirling in concert at SUNY Cortland.  We had such a fantastic time.  She is really talented and such a fun performer.  If you don't know who she is, just look her up on YouTube.

 Jude has been a little crabby lately, he's been getting his molars.  He's also walking and climbing things.  Both of those combined to this moment "I got myself up here and somebody better come get me down right now"

 Hanging out with dad.

 Jackson's birthday party.  He wanted a Star Wars party so his cake was the top of R2D2's head.  Remember folks that I am a very amateur cake decorator and don't look too close!

 Some friends lent us a Star Wars cookbook so we made these x-wing fighters with breadsticks and hot dogs. 

 Jackson loved being the center of attention and having his new school friends there. Oh, and getting a bunch of presents was nice too.

 The friends.  All except one who was playing downstairs.

My messy R2D2.  I figured out why it didn't turn out so fabulous--to get the dark colors I wanted I had to add a lot of coloring and it made the frosting runny which I didn't realize until I piped it onto the design and it wasn't staying put.  Oh well.  He's only five.  Maybe he'll want a Purity ice cream cake next year (fingers crossed . . .)