DAIGNEAULTimates

Platform 9 3/4

2012-01-27T02:47:00.000-06:00

Being a man, Ralph doesn't really like it when I ask for directions. I think he was moved particularly far away from me, so as not to seem associated, when I asked a National Rail employee at King's Cross station if we could get to Platform 9 3/4. Platforms 8-11 were behind barriers, you had to have a ticket to get to them. But, I knew there was Platform 9 3/4 "exhibit."

They should probably put some of these "important information" signs more than 5 feet away from Platform 9 3/4, but still I appreciate that Network Rail sees this as "important information!"

Off we go to board the Hogwarts Express!

Later muggles! ;)

Learning from My Mistakes

2012-01-26T02:46:00.000-06:00

On our last study abroad trip, we were fortunate to have been able to take a Eurostar trip to Paris, though we very nearly didn't because I didn't plan very well. In addition to learning that Connor LO-O-OVES the Eurostar, possibly as much as legos and Star Wars, though the actual ranking depends on the day. We learned a few things about traveling on the Eurostar, the most important of which is book early! So, last week we went to the ticket office at St. Pancras to see what kind of deal we could hopefully get on a Eurostar trip to Brussels, since we've already been to Paris. Booking early makes a very serious difference, and since it only takes about 2 hours to travel from St. Pancras to Brussels, we decided to just make it a day trip, with an extension to any station in Belgium, so we can hop on over to Brugge if we desire. After sorting out our tickets for next month, we decided to head upstairs and take a peak at the Eurostar trains to a refrain of, "how many more days until we get to ride the eurostar to chocolate land?"

Connor questioned the authenticity of these Eurostars on the basis of the logo on the train not having any stars on it, like they used to. I think we finally convinced him that these were real eurostars and that "they" had simply updated the logo, but he was still a little unsure. Lord knows Con has an eye for detail and he has made a fairly exhaustive study of Eurostars, particularly for a 5 year old.

We also took a few minutes to appreciate the beauty of St. Pancras. The train station really is beautiful and impressive, and ready for the 2012 games. I'm also looking forward to the games, even though we'll be long gone, just like the 2008 games, we should have a new born. Nothing like catching the middle of the night NBC affiliate broadcasts while nursing.

And then I took a moment to appreciate Carolina Grace's faces in her cute new hat! :)

The 27 Bus

2012-01-25T04:07:00.000-06:00

On Tuesdays my students have British Life & Culture class, so I usually do not have a set meeting time with them, and get to spend the whole day with my family. Last week we took the 27 bus down to Holland Park and High Street Kensington.

In all our trips to London (well about 3 trips prior to Fall 2010), I had never bothered with the busses, and I probably never would have had it not been for our kids desire to ride a double decker bus. The busses are not the most efficient method of getting around London, but they are a nice relaxing way to get around when you are not in a rush.

I'm delighted the kids made us figure out the busses. Though, take it from Carolina you should not apply dark lip gloss while the bus is in motion.

We always love Holland Park. I still think it is a slightly better playground than the two we've checked out in Regent's park, though those are pretty great, and super convenient.

They needed a little encouragement, but the kids really took to the "sit lion" this year. However, Carolina would really only ride with her daddy.

After a couple of hours at the park, we were all getting hungry. The only thing the kids wanted to eat was Byron, so Ralph and I made the sacrifice and went to Byron. Afterwards I tried to do a little maternity shopping on the high street. I only brought three pairs of pants to London, all maternity pants, but one pair is really too big for me to keep up. I was afraid that before we got back home I would NEED maternity clothes and didn't want to bring pants I would NOT be able to wear for the whole trip. I was not successful with my maternity pant search, but I did get Carolina a new hat,

and Connor a new scarf!

They were delighted to model their new items for me while we waited for the 27 bus to pick us up and take us back to Camden Town.

Trafalgar Square

2012-01-24T03:55:00.001-06:00

Golden Jubilee Bridge

2012-01-23T01:34:00.000-06:00

It's one of our favorite spots in London, probably Ralph's very favorite spot. Great vistas looking west towards Westminster Palace and the London Eye.

Breakfast of Champions

2012-01-20T12:45:00.000-06:00

In Covent Garden.

The New Order of Things

2012-01-19T02:41:00.000-06:00

Our day of behavioral reckoning has come for our children. They've really been very good, see this post, but sleeping in the same room and getting along so well has blown bed time out of the water, and the less they sleep, the less well they behave during the day as well. So we have to get them to sleep.

When we left the states they were really great sleepers (more often than not, anyway), but this past week not so much. The first few nights, new place, and jet lag that was to be expected. Slowly it was getting better, and Thursday night they went to bed and slept right on through the night. Friday however, the kids decided to have a "fiesta" which was pretty adorable, until they were still up at 11:00 at night. They did surprisingly well on Saturday, but Saturday night more fiesta shenanigans and they were still up at 9:00 so we laid down the law. A short-lived fray erupted, but the kids were both asleep by 9:30.

Sunday was not a bright and cheery day. It was a day for focus and thoughtfulness about our behavior, all of our behavior. The kids are getting older and have more responsibility for their behavior and choices, but they are still pretty young, and ultimately, when they have a major breakdown, it is usually the result of our poor parenting. And the new order, at least for now, Connor has decided he will be more successful at going to sleep at bedtime if he is in his own room. So, he's now in the little room.

And Carolina Grace has a princess bed (the two twins pushed together) in the "big" room.

though she told me her bed was too big.

So, we'll see how things go, and continue to try to assess and improve our parenting skills so that we can enjoy the rest of our stay here in old London towne. They are both going to sleep much better, but little jamama cakes hasn't quite figured out how to stay in her bed all night and put herself back to sleep when she wakes up at night. She has a tendency to get out of bed, and doodle around the flat, which can wake up other people. She also tends to make her way into our bedroom to let us know she "needs a grown up cuddle." I've spent a couple of nights, well from some wee hour of the morning on, on the other side of that big bed.

In fairness to the kids, this really is a huge upheaval to their little lives and they are handling it quite well.

Our New Favorite Playground

2012-01-18T03:24:00.000-06:00

in Regent's Park anyway. This is one is much further into the park, the round trip stroll from our flat is actually over 2.5 miles . . . I LOVE all the walking we get to do in London, without even trying.

I HEART Camden Town

2012-01-17T02:24:00.001-06:00

When Ralph and I study abroad in law school (um 10-ish years ago) we lived one tube stop north of our current location at Camden Town. Well we lived north of the Chalk Farm tube stop, and south of Belsize Park, but Chalk Farm was the tube stop we regularly used. Not too far from Hampstead Heath, which I believe to be another fairly posh area of London. Ricky Gervais lives in that general area now, probably not then; he was a struggling artist then. Also, one of the Gallagher brothers, of Oasis fame, lived on the same street at Wake Forest's Worrell House. Then Oasis were quite popular. There was a picture of liam/noel (sorry to liam/noel and you oasis fans) with a group of wake students in an album at the Worrell House.

I was young and naive and sheltered (mostly in a good way I think), but still naive and sheltered. Camden Town and the Camden market, thought quite close, was not on my to do list. Two super strong bows, more recently known as Strongbow blacks, (which by the way, have actually be "delisted" on social responsibility grounds. Apparently, they were like heroine for alcoholics with their high alcohol content (~7.5%) and sweet apple flavor.) is a wild night for me. I'm not into punk music, I don't like to listen to any music too loud, and I've never smoked pot. Camden Town held no interest for me. Yes, it is also fair to say I am boring. I am, I do not deny it or pretend otherwise. I think we went to Camden Town twice. Once to eat at Wagamamas, and once to catch the tube (not sure why it's the same line as Chalk Farm) and Ralph and I got a bit of an eyeful right outside the tube station, but this is a family blog so it would not be appropriate to write about the person we saw drop trow and take care of all their business right on the sidewalk. I had a very negative impression of Camden Town. So, undeserved!!!

Perhaps in 2001 this reputation was deserved, or at least more deserved, but in 2012 not really at all. Though I will be honest I was a bit worried about bringing our children to live in Camden Town. Camden Town is pretty great. There are definitely some pockets of weird,

and both on the small "bohemian" section of the high street and in the market I saw some "pipes," and you can probably find some "other stuff" if you were really looking for it. But, Camden Town is great. The market is quite organized and adorable back behind the locks.

A good deal of there merchandise in the market stalls could also be found on a lot of high streets. Actually, there was a very cute wooden city of London train set that is actually cheaper in the Transport museum in Covent Garden. (Exact. Same. Item.) One shop even handed us a full color brochure that referred us to their website, and said they deliver. This is not the punk/alternative flea market I expected. It is a regular tourist destination complete with it's own starbucks tucked right in, a bit hipster perhaps, but not at all the scary ridiculously pierced, drug frenzied area I'd worked it up to be in my head. :)

Best Friends (and Siblings too!)

2012-01-16T02:58:00.000-06:00

After the Gruffalo we went out to eat at Jamie's Italian. Things did not get off to a great start. Connor was upset because he wanted to order lasagna, and Carolina Grace wanted to order pasagna too.

In fact, Connor was so upset that his sister was ordering the same thing that he wanted that he alleged he was not going to eat at all.

Gracie was completely nonplused by Connor's little fit, in fact I'm not sure even noticed, probably to Connor's dismay. (I corrected her mispronunciation of lasagna and she got it right, but then I wished I hadn't because how cute is pasagna? and she was saying it with the sweetest most adorable most serious little voice!)

Lunch was Ah-MAZE-ING!!! The kids both ate every bite of the lasagna, and Connor also ate most of Ralph's "happy" Chicken. But more amazingly, somewhere between being completely disgusted and annoyed with his sister for picking the same meal he was having, to the two them being the absolute best friends, they did not want to stop holding hands.

All the way home.

They sat being adorable, and planning their activities together for when we got back to the flat. And Gracie said, "sharing is our hearts touching!" And they practiced what they would do if someone messed with the other one, "back off! that's my sister/brother, and no one messes with him/her!" If only every day could be like this, but it is nice when it happens.

LIttle Wiggles

2012-01-14T15:08:00.003-06:00

12-weeks pregnant yesterday, and I'm pretty sure I can feel little Berry moving (as of two days ago) sometimes when I being still. I know it's earlier than they say, so perhaps it's not Berry at all, but I think it is. :) So much fun!

The Gruffalo

2012-01-13T16:39:00.000-06:00

Last time we were in London we took the kids to see Room on the Broom. I had actually wanted to take them to see The Gruffalo, not because I knew what The Gruffalo was, or had ever read it, but because their were posters for it everywhere, and they promotional posters all indicated it got GREAT reviews. It had closed for the summer, and wasn't opening again until after we left, so we had to settle for Room on the Broom, based on another children's book by the same author and illustrator of The Gruffalo, and it was perfect for us. We still love reading Room on the Broom. So, when we started talking about picking a kids show to see this time, I said, maybe The Gruffalo is playing, and it wasn't long before we saw a poster for it in a tube station. So, naturally when we went to the Apple store in Covent Garden I looked it up on one of their computers, located the theatre, and we went and bought tickets.

Then we bought the book and started reading it at bedtime. Very cute story about a mouse who invents a "gruffalo" to frighten all the creatures in the deep dark wood who want to eat him, then comes face to face with the gruffalo and figures out a very clever way to prevent the scary gruffalo from eating him too.

The kids enjoy the book, and were very excited about our trip to see The Gruffalo, until the morning we were supposed to go, and then Carolina Grace decided she did not want to go that day, she wanted to go tomorrow. When we finally sat down in our seats, this is what Carolina looked like.

However, before the show started she was smiling again,

and so was Con, who requested I take his picture too.

The show started and it was so super cute, worth all the acclaim definitely. It's a cast of just three; its really very simple, but wonderful. Adorable songs! It's interactive with the kids (they get to shout out some lines from the books, which kids in the UK know really well! Adorably, we saw at least three kids there in their Gruffalo costumes, and another one in her "mouse" costume, on top of all the little english children in their school uniforms. precious!) They just brought all the characters to life so adorably. If you ever get a chance to see The Gruffalo, particularly with young kids, go go go!

Things were going really well, the kids were smiling and participating, and then it was time for the Gruffalo to come out, and Carolina Grace wasn't sure she could handle it.

In the end the Gruffalo was not too scary, and our morning was a smashing success, despite the teary start.

A Proper Hamburger and A Proper Tourist Trap!

2012-01-12T08:21:00.000-06:00

Most of our week days in London are fairly structured based on my schedule for class, or class events and activites, but the weekends are usually ours to do with them as we please, last weekend we went to Leicester Square (which is all torn up and being remodeled in preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games--ughh), and Picadilly to purchase our tickets to The Gruffalo. Afterwards we went to lunch at Byron Burgers. Byron is a favorite of ours from our Fall 2010 trip, we used to eat at the one right by Holland Park, well you can hardly throw a stone near the West End, or Kensington without hitting a Byron now, so we went to the Haymarket location for a "proper hamburger."

Afterwards we walked back up to Leicester Square because the kids wanted to go in the new M&M store. As much as I LOVE m&m's (actually I much prefer mini m&ms these days), I've been in the store in Vegas about 10 years ago, and the store honestly didn't hold any interest for me. My memory is that is whole lot of overpriced m&m paraphernalia and this store definitely looked crowded. When I went to the store in vegas back in 1998 I guess, it was pretty cool that you could get any color of m&m, but you can get just about any color of m&m at Michael's and other places now a days. M&M World London was, as I suspected, a proper tourist trap, but they kids enjoyed it, and we got a few cute pics, and let them each create their own mix of personally chosen colors.

This is Carolina Grace doing a ballet pose, I believe, maybe just posing for a picture. She really likes to pose for pictures these days. :)

Those cheeky m&m's copying our daigneaultimate header from Fall 2010. ;)

Gloucester Gate

2012-01-11T03:48:00.000-06:00

One of the things I love about London is the parks, and the playgrounds. Fall of 2010, when we lived in South Kensington, we were relatively close (walking distance) to Holland Park, and Kensington Gardens/Hyde Park. While I'm sure we will visit those parks and their respective playgrounds, they are too far away for us to walk to them regularly. We were sad to be giving all of that up when we consolidated our housing with AAES. We did however notice that Regent's Park looked pretty close to our flat, and it appeared from the satellite image that their was a playground in the nearest corner of Regent's Park. We went to check it out our first week, and success, Gloucester Gate "children's play area."

Near the playground was this cool pile of logs/fort play area as well.

Connor seemed to love it, but Gracie wasn't quite ready for it. I suspect that will change by April.

When we made our trip up to ZSL in Fall 2010 we found a lovely little breakfast spot in Regent's Park, The Honest Sausage. Plus, there are three other children's play areas in Regent's Park we need to check out. I suspect many a weekend morning will be spent in Regent's Park, and I am looking forward to it.

Canterbury "Berry" Shakespeare Daigneault

2012-01-10T02:12:00.000-06:00

So far all is well with our little Berry Baby. Thanks to our extended trip to London, my doctor gave us a second early peek at Berry, who looks just perfect!

Perfect little heartbeat, around 169 bpm, adding to Ralph's belief that this is a little pink Berry.

A cute little profile.

Measuring within range, but a bit larger than expected.

Doing an alien impression, which struck Ralph as looking like Connor. (Mind you, and with all due respect to Ralph, he should wear his glasses regularly, but usually doesn't.)

And just another cute Berry profile.

I still cannot totally believe we are expecting another baby, though I am completely excited. Very shortly after we found out we were pregnant, Ralph and I began working on a nick name for this baby. We began working on a name for this baby as well, and we've got a boys name pretty well set, and a strong option for a girl's name, but since we've decided not to find out the gender until Berry is born, we've also decided not to publicize the name until Berry is born either. However, we have referring to a baby as "it," and we just generally like nick names anyway. At some point in our discussion of names I believe "Canterbury Shakespeare" came up. This is a reference from the british version of the Office. It doesn't have anything to do with a baby, but we like the show, and we were throwing out names that have some meaning or relevance to us, and that one came up. We like Ricky Gervais, we love London, we like Shakespeare, and one of our first movies we watched together when we were first dating (on VHS) was Shakepeare in Love. It had the right elements for a name, but wasn't actually quite right for a name, for our child born in 2012. I liked it for a nickname though; however, Canterbury Shakespeare is obviously too long for a nick name. I tried Canterbury alone, or Shakespeare alone, but they are both still long, and both sound masculine. I tried a few shortened versions of both names before I came up with "berry," short for Canterbury, and we finally got that to stick.

Little Berry we are looking forward to meeting you. As I write this I am 11-weeks pregnant. So far you've been a harder pregnancy on me that either your brother or your sister, but by many women's standards I simply cannot complain. I had a few weeks where I would feel kind of queasy if I hadn't eaten in a while, and if I got to that point the mere idea of food sounded disgusting. Fortunately for me, once I actually got some food in front of me and started eating, it went down fine and I would feel better. For a couple of weeks there the only two things that ever sounded good were whataburger cheese burgers and fries, or twice baked potatoes from Kroger. Yes, I've already gained a couple of pounds. The strep throat really knocked me out, and I think the antibiotic contributed to sick feelings, because after I finished my antibiotics I've been feeling much better, minus that little incident just before landing at Heathrow, but I think you were just a "contributing" factor there, not the primary cause. But you are well worth it, and I am not actually complaining at all!! You may have been a bit more a challenge that your siblings, but by many accounts you've been pretty easy on me. Plus, I think there is some rule about babies who make their mommy's sick having to be really good babies, like rain on your wedding day being good luck, and if there isn't such a rule, I'm making it up now! Thus, I suggest you start preparing to sleep though the night by 8 weeks, and potty train yourself by your second birthday. :) XOXO, Mommy!

Ask Ice Cream

2012-01-09T02:27:00.000-06:00

We were out and about in London last week,

and we stopped to eat at Ask. Their kids menu includes ice cream for dessert, and the kids both got chocolate.

Our Camden Town Penthouse

2012-01-06T17:50:00.000-06:00

Last time we came to London, our housing was through a different study abroad provider than most of the other study abroad services we used. We lived in a great little flat in a really posh area, South Kensington. Kensington High Street has the world's first Whole Foods outside the USA (it was the ONLY when back in 2010), and Holland Park is where Elle McPhearson used to bring her kids to play, the other end of the Kensington High Street is Kensington Palace, former home of Princess Diana, and future home of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. It's a swank area, but our flat was small.

I don't want to slag off our old flat, it served us well, but in terms of size and functionality for our family; it's fair to say it set our expectations pretty low. One room had a set of bunk beds, the other had two twin beds in an L, and virtually NO storage space. I actually NEVER unpacked my suitcase for 12 weeks, I simply lived out of it, on the floor b/t the foot of one twin bed and the head of another. I don't think Ralph and I slept in the room the entire 12 weeks, that had more to do with the kids, than the configuration, but still the configuration didn't help.

This year I consolidated everything with our primary study abroad provider from the first trip (AAES), including our housing. The parent company of AAES is actually a housing company and when it came time for our housing we had two places to choose from. Ralph and I spent lots of time on google earth looking at the two areas, and I spent lots of time fretting over the decision before we finally choose the 3-bed, 2-bath flat in Camden Town, despite the "bohemian" nature of Camden town and the Camden market.

When we finally arrived at the flat we were so exhausted it wouldn't have mattered much what the flat looked like or was configured out, and our expectations were definitely low. We walked into the middle of a relatively long and narrow hallway with lots of doors.

The door on the left in this picture, the wooden door, is the entrance to the flat.

We opened the first door and found this little bedroom.

That was about what we expected. I think we peeked in the open plan living/kitchen, which was pretty nice, and saw that we had a nice big balcony as well. Things were looking up, but we wanted to see the other bedrooms, so we kept opening doors. Next we found this bathroom.

Pretty nice. And what you can't see in the picture (in addition to a toilet) is a nice shelf over the toilet, and a medicine cabinet on the wall. Some storage.

Then we opened the door to this bedroom, things were looking better.

Two twin beds next to each other (just two angle of the room), this was a positive development. It really all hinged on the next door.

Behind the final door was in fact the master bedroom.

A king bed. And, it's own en suite, also with shelf space and a medicine cabinet. Not only where we not all sharing one bathroom, both of the bathrooms had enough storage and space to actually hold all of our toiletries!

As far as bedrooms are concerned, even if Ralph and I end up splitting up to sleep with the kids, no one has to climb onto the top bunk of a bed, and no one should have to physically share a twin bed with a child. And, we had a whole extra bedroom. All of the bedrooms also have a pretty nice size closets with hanging space and shelves. We could easily fit our luggage in the closets, but it all fits under the beds, so we actually have space in the closets, and a WHOLE extra bedroom.

I know in America we wouldn't really call that a bedroom, but for our purposes here it darn sure counts!!!

Here is the living/kitchen combo.

Quite nice really. Plus, we have this great balcony, not that we are really going to be putting it too much use, but it's nice, and we have a lovely view of the City of London,

and we can see the iconic BT Tower.

Other pluses of this apartment, the closest tube stop (Camden Town) is about 200 meters ago (or less), and right across the street, literally,

I took this picture from our balcony, is one of the largest super markets in Northern London. So far so good!! Last time we left London, one of the things I was particularly looking forward to about being home was grocery shopping in a full size store, with everything in one place, and not having to carry groceries for multiple blocks. Woo-hoo! That problem is solved, it's going to be that much harder to leave this time.

Though I will say, it's not all "flowers and sausages," there is construction/renovation going on the the outside of the building, and they start around 7 or 8 in the morning, and they are not particularly quiet. Also, there is an "Infant and Nursery School" on the block as well and we could hear the children playing while we napped. Our South Kens flat was much quieter, but still I think we will be extremely comfortable in this flat for the next 12.5 weeks! Feeling very blessed.

The Adventure Begins

2012-01-05T17:49:00.000-06:00

On 1/4/12 (not quite the same ring as 8/9/10) we left our house around Noon, and headed to Houston for our big flight. We made it to the airport checked our bags and zipped through security. Life is much easier without a stroller; it just is. I LOVE strollers, I am looking forward to getting to use my new--and by new I mean, I got it last summer for my birthday (from my amazing husband), before we knew we were having berry, but thought we might bring it to London this time--micralite fastfold superlite & rider board with our new little Berry, but it really is nice that we have this brief stroller free moment.

The kids were amazing on the plane, we really couldn't have asked anything more of them, well except maybe more sleep. We were in the back row of the air plane, we had two seats by the window, a blank where the aisle seat should be, and then two seats in the middle section of three. We planned to divide and conquer, but the kids wanted to sit together, at least to get started.

It wasn't too long before they realized having a full sized adult next to them was helpful, and we went back to divide and conquer. Carolina Grace who had not had a nap curled up on her daddy not long after take off and fell asleep.

With the in flight entertainment system malfunctioning, Connor found some other activities to entertain himself for a while.

A few hours in they finally got the in-flight entertainment up and running, and we all watched a move or two, mostly without sleeping. About an hour and a half before we landed Connor really wanted to color, Carolina really wanted goldfish, and I REALLY wanted to sleep, but I got up to get Carolina the goldfish (even though I could only find chips in our bag), so I got out the coloring book and crayons again for Connor. As soon as I got them set up he started closing his eyes, so I asked if wanted to color, and he said, "no I want to sleep!" So, I put away the colors and coloring book back away and by the time I looked up Connor was out like a light, fair enough at this point it was around 11:00 CDT and he'd been up since around 6:00 CDT.

Good timing on his part as well, b/c the not too much longer as we made our initial decent into London we started to hit a little turbulence. Not horrible, but we were rocking and rolling. As I watched the flight path twist and turn in what looked like little knots in our holding pattern, my stomach began to feel a little unsettled, and then I started to get hot. I took off my blanket, then my scarf, and then I started praying, "please God land us safely and let me keep everything in and down." exhale. (Is it weird or normal, but my biggest indicator that I am going to "be sick" is always that my body temperature rapidly elevates. when I feel sick to my stomach, but don't get hot, I know I'm not going to lose it.) "In and down please." exhale. I started to fan myself with an in flight magazine, and I opened an air sickness bag, just in case. "In and down please." exhale. God answered only one of my two prayers that morning; I'm really glad he picked landing us safely. And now I can say I have put an air sickness bag to it's proper use, and not just to play tic-tac-toe, or dispose of gum.

Sweet exhausted Connor didn't even know what was going on right next to him. In fact when we landed Ralph actually had to work really hard to even wake Connor up. We made it out of the plane, through immigration, baggage and customs fairly quickly. A little quicker than I expected and so we had to wait a bit for our hired car. I nabbed some water, and a chocolate muffin for us to nibble on.

Finally we were in our car heading into London; a brief second wind.

We were all pretty done at that point. I felt infinitely better, but our super nice polite driver was a little heavy on the accelerator and a little heavy on the break giving me some concern I was going to need another bag. Poor Carolina would start to cry every time I didn't hold her hand, or she took a breath, whatever. It started to break down.

seriously, break down. Frankly, I wanted to join them in both sleeping and crying at that point.

But, before long we made it to our flat, which compared to our fall 2010 flat feels like a penthouse apartment (which will have to wait for another post), which was very encouraging. Then we showered, got in our PJs and took a nice long nap. A shower and a nap do wonders for a travel weary soul. Refreshed we went out for dinner at Wagamama (of course), and then stayed up a little later than usual trying to get ourselves adjusted to our new time zone.

"Get Back!"

2012-01-03T23:23:00.001-06:00

We aren't actually in London yet, but I think we are finally ready to "get back!" there.

For all but about 72 hours a year, this trip seems like such an amazing opportunity, blessing, adventure. However, for roughly the 72 hours immediately surrounding and including our travel and initial arrival in London, "what the BLEEP were we thinking?" usually goes through my head a few times a day as I try to remember to pack everything, think about the college students and making sure they have a good and educational trip, think about how to impress upon the three year old that she really cannot run away from us and/or into the cray streets, think about how to impress upon Connor that if he loses his "Ashoka Tano" lego figurine (is "figure" a better word for a boys star wars lego toy than figurine?) on the plane she is gone for good, etc. etc. But, as the packing goes from this

(This luggage isn't all going. This was just part of the process where we got all the luggage out so we could decide which pieces to actually pack in.)

(This is just the kids stuff. I didn't get around to taking pictures of the packing process for Ralph and I)

to this

I am starting to relax. Ralph has been wonderful about trying to keep me sane and reminding me that we are not intact going to some third world jungle, but to a rather modern and civilized city where we can pretty much get anything I did forget to pack, and that really, as long as we have each other, we don't really need too much anyway. Whew!

So tomorrow we are off across the pond, v. 2.0! If it is half as good as last time, it should be an amazing opportunity, blessing and adventure!!

Santa's Wonderland

2011-12-30T22:16:00.001-06:00

We capped off our Christmas season with a visit from Ralph's sister Danielle, and her daughter, the kids actual first cousin, Rebecca! Cousins are such a wonderful blessing. While they were here we visited Santa's Wonderland (for the second time--the first time it was wayyy too cold to deal with the camera).

The obligatory "Texas flag stage" pictures.

I tried to get a shot of all three of them together. They were a bit too cooperative with one another, and not quite cooperative enough with me. But, a cute picture nonetheless.

We found a reindeer, and once again, couldn't quite get all three of the kids to pose for us!

A little hangin' out around the fire pit,

and having some hot chocolate.

And finally a hey ride through the lights!

We are so glad Danielle and Becca came to visit!!!!

Developing Skills

2011-12-29T07:52:00.001-06:00

Carolina Gracie's writing skills have really come a long way in the last few months. I didn't realize she could write letters on her own until a month or so ago she just started doing it. Last week she and I were in the arts & crafts room and she asked me to print her an alphabet to trace, so I did. Usually she just kind of colors on them, or I will help guide her hand to trace the letters, this time she traced a few of the letters, and rather well I thought.

I had to bride her with "Christmas goldfish" to get her to trace the full alphabet, but she did it!

Some letters are decidedly better than others, but I think not too bad for a 3 year old! (My only real point of reference being her brother, who didn't start writing letters until he was 4!)

Daigneaultimate Dictionary 2011

2011-12-28T08:36:00.000-06:00

Baby Sapphire = Baby pacifier. (CG ~3.5)

BaMANa = (sometimes TaMANa) Gracie's cute pronunciation of "banana."
Bee in my Belly = upset stomach, likely to actually vomit (ie Connor said, "I didn't expect there was a bee in my belly that would make me throw up.") (Connor ~3.5)

Big Blue = The morning sky when the sun has come up all the way, as opposed to "little blue," which is really just before sunrise. In our attempts to get Connor to sleep past 6:00 am, we told him he couldn't come out of his romm until the sun was up. He named it "Big Blue." (Connor 24 months.)

Big Fatties = extremely large versions of old school colored christmas lights
Bowling Finale = bowling alley (CG ~3)

Carage = the enclosed structure where cars are kept, often near or attached to one's house. Sometimes referred to by adults as the "garage." (Grace ~27 mo.)

Frentzels = known to most as pretzels, but for Gracie they are frentzels, not prentzels, but frentzels. (Grace ~27 mo.)
Hair-Fire = hair that sticks up unnaturally, like a mohawk, or spikes, hair with rollers in it, or the Kate Goselin. Ralph frequently styles one or both of our children with hair-fire. (Connor ~2)
Jbootie (Jabootie, J'bootie also J'boot or Jaboot) = Daigneaultimate slang for rear end, bottom, bohonkus.
Kid Show = anything animated, or clay-mated, regardless of topic.

Koosh Balls = Could mean regular old Koosh Balls, or could mean the 6" colored light balls that the Daigneaultimates, and others, hang in outdoor trees at Christmas time. (Grace ~2.5)
Last Day = yesterday (Connor ~2)

Mines = worded uttered often by our young children to proclaim that something belongs to them. ALWAYS with an "s" at the end. Ex. "Hey! that's mines!" (Connor ~3)

Next Day = tomorrow. (Connor ~2)

Old McDonald = McDonalds. We don't eat at McDonald's very often, like very rarely, actually. Not that we never ear fast food, we eat LOTS of chick fil a, but since Connor was about 3 he has called McDonalds, "Old McDonald," almost exclusively.

OuchBombs! = a bump or bruise, usually insignificant in nature. Ex. Gracie dropped an ouchbomb when she fell out of bed. Originated by Gracie ~24 mo.
Pajapas = Daigneaultimate term for pajamas. Origin--My Suessien need to rhyme things, as in, "you can't put those pajamas on, those are papa's pajapas."
Rackamole = mexican dip made principally of mushed up avacado. (Gracie almost 3)

Read A Crayer = say a prayer (Gracie around 2.5)

Sacagawea'd = completed exhausted and "sacked out;" not just a little sleepy, but unbeatable tiredness. As in, "Connor was completely Sacagwea'd and fell asleep in the chair."
Sad Fingers = fingers without any polish on the nails. (Grace ~28 mo.)

Stripe = when you knock down all ten pins with one bowl (Gracie almost 3).
Tomato Chips = potato chips

Trick Sauce = fake out, something you think is, or is going to be cool, good or positive, and turns out to be no good. Origin--a video game ralph used to play with friends that had little jar's of sauce, some of which were good and gave you more "life power," but some of them looked just like the good ones, but were actually bad, i.e. trick sauce. (Ralph ~20 yrs. old)

"And It Was Christmas Day!" 2011

2011-12-27T11:15:00.000-06:00

Well, first it was Christmas Eve, and since it was such a wonderful day we jammed in just as much as we could. We went to Christmas Eve service, then home for a quick dinner and bath time, then out looking at Christmas lights (and stopped by my parents house to pick up some homemade gumbo for pregnant LA born mommy), and then home to set up cookies and milk for Santa, and some celery and apples (not pictured) for the reindeer.

Then we went up for bedtime. The kids were anxious to get to bed, but first we had to open our very last Christmas book, Twas the Night Before Christmas, naturally, and put their names in it. Then we tucked the kids into their respective beds. Carolina was asleep before I finished tucking Connor in, she was very tired, but definitely did not want to get sparkle balled by the "prep & landing" elves if they caught her awake. It took Connor a little bit longer to settle in and get to sleep. We spent some time discussing the "sugar plums that would be dancing in his head." Which apparently included some "light saber" candy canes, and a "jabba the hurt" gum drop that got chased and exploded by an ewok on a speeder made out of hard candy. :)

Once the kids finally went to sleep, we did the same thing . . . b/c nothing left for parents to do once kids go to sleep on Christmas Even. ;) ;). When we woke up in the morning (the kids came and jumped on our bed) Santa had in fact visited and delivered some gifts for the kids. :)

I'm pretty sure these "Princess Shoes" were a bad idea, as Santa is not the one who is going to have to take her to the doctor when she falls and breaks something, but they have certainly brought her a whole lot of joy in the last 36 hours.

I also got some Christmas cuddle time with each of the kiddos.

A wonderful Christmas, and as usually we are far more blessed than we deserve!!

Quotable Daigneaultable 2011

2011-12-26T11:51:00.000-06:00

"You can't text Santa. He doesn't have a phone, he has acranberry!" -Carolina Grace, after a threat to text Santa about some poor choices she was making.

Carolina: She (referring to her babydoll) needs a sapphire.

Connor: It's called a PACIFIER!

Carolina: You know what I mean. It doesn't matter about how she learns her letters and words.

Connor: Who wants to see General Greivous get shot in the belly?

Carolina Grace: I am!!!!!

"I missed you like people miss their chicken when it's still cooking." -Connor to Mommy upon my return home from work just 4 hours after leaving.

"I'm just going to grow up to 100, because if I grew up to be e-thousand then you would be like, 'where in tarnation is Connor?'"

"Since I'm earning to stay up at rest time, Gracie has to be a little older and a little bit good-choice-ier before she can do it." -Connor

Ralph: What's a porpoise?

Connor: On porpoise means not an accident.

"Daddy, I freeze your cheese." -Connor

"Don't interrupt people when they are getting all settled in with their chicken." -Ralph

"It's not nice to shoot squids at peoples face." -Connor, every time we watch Despicable Me.

"But Mommy, I need to tell you something . . . (point to other side of bed with her finger) . . . I want you to lay down with me for just a couple seconds."

Gracie: Daddy, you have a bamonocle. (Ralph put something round over one eye.)

Ralph: How do you know that word means?

Gracie: Prof. Z has one on Cars 2.

Ralph: Gracie you're dropping cute-bombs!

Gracie: Daddy, you're dropping handsome-bombs!

After dropping Aunt Lauren off at the airport. Connor says, "Mom, I see a coat hanger." "A coat hanger?" I ask, "where?" Connor replies, "Mommy, over there. The big building with that keeps the airplanes safe."

"June is a bad month for 'big blue'." -Ralphie

Carolina Grace: Mommy, I Medusa.

Me: AHHHHHHHHH!

Carolina Grace: No Mommy, not scary Medusa, I friendly Medusa.

"Dear Jesus, please make the cold weather come so no mosquitos will come, and also make all sometimes foods, like candy and cookies, be all-the-time foods." -Connor

Gracie (after bedtime from upstairs): Mommy, I need you to come up here to my bed room. . . don't get crazy Mommy.

Me (to Ralph right next to me): Did she just tell me "not to get crazy"?

Gracie (from her bedroom): Yes, Mommy that's what I said, don't get crazy.

"Mommy, my window broke itself." -Connor

"Dear Jesus, thank you for letting Santa come to my house and bring me a giant gummy bear." -love Connor

Merriest Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T15:47:00.000-06:00

I've had the merriest Christmas Eve so far today that I can ever remember. I was going to get up and run this morning, because after the strep throat and all the Christmas goodies I haven't been in the best form the last two weeks. However, precious little Carolina Grace came in around 5:45, I LOVE IT when she comes in to cuddle after 5:00 am (I'm less excited when she comes in early than that b/c it is usually disruptive to sleep), I still intended to get up and run, or do yoga, but then she fell back asleep on my arm, so I decided to go back to sleep too. We slept until after 7:30, then we cuddled in bed and watched the King Fu Panda Holiday special before getting up and joining the boys. Ralph got up early as always to walk the puppies, but apparently Connor didn't get up until 7:45 this morning either.

When Gracie and I joined the boys we spent some time together watching more Christmas classics, Pluto's Christmas Tree, the Grinch, and Prep & Landing. It's cold and rainy outside (colder in CS today and tomorrow than it is London), so festive and wonderful. And, I completely gave in to the holiday cheer and had a slice of pound cake for breakfast. (Pound cake that Ralph made me last night around 9:00 because I said I wanted to have it.) Then Carolina and I got up and made sugar cookie dough so we could make cookies for Santa. Carolina has grown up so much, and I just had a wonderful time making the dough with her and talking to her about baking.

While we prepped our sugar cookie dough, Ralph prepped our traditional Christmas Eve meal, his famous Egg-Nog Chickens.

And Connor just kind of hung out with us, being his charming self.

I was just filled with the love and warmth and joy and wondrousness of the Holiday, and so thankful for this amazing family that I get to be a part of. I couldn't have been happier or felt more joyful if I had tried, and still we do have even more wonderful joyous news to share. Our little family of four, is going to be a family of FIVE (plus our two sweet labs) before the end of the summer of 2012. We are so excited and blessed (and maybe a little overwhelmed if we think too much about the details) to be expecting a new little daigneault in late July 2012, or if this "berry" is anything like his/her older sister, maybe early July.

Merry Christmas from the Daigneaults! May your families and hearts be full of the love, wonder and blessings of the season all year long!

Blog Hiatus

2011-12-23T12:23:00.000-06:00

I hadn't intended to take a week and a half blog hiatus. I'd been pretty steady with my posts, work was winding down, and we had a nice stream of activities we were doing, plenty for me to blog about, our trip to Austin, and then a couple of Christmas parties. I managed to get a few cute pictures at one of the parties.

We went straight from this party to another party. What fun. Sunday promised rest and relaxation and a few blog posts, but instead it served up strep throat for me, boo hoo! And poor Ralph, I was a total baby about it. I used to get strep throat on a regular basis from elementary school through college. I haven't had it in more than a decade, and man it was really miserable. I didn't do much but lay in bed for two whole days, and when I finally got up on the third day I was still fairly useless. Fortunately Ralph is quite amazing and took great care of everyone!!!

Hoopin' it Up!

2011-12-22T12:17:00.000-06:00

We spent quite a bit of time last summer enjoying watching my cousin Hutch play baseball, quite a bit. My cousin Grace Ann is also quite athletic, and I wanted to take the kids to watch her play some of her sports as well. In part, just because we wanted to watch Grace play, but also because I want the kids to realize girls can play sports too!! We missed volleyball season, but by the skin of our teeth we did not miss all of basketball season, so the kids and I headed out to Austin to watch Grace Ann play.

The kids certainly watched some of the game, but there was a fair amount of monkey business in the stands.

I'm pretty sure Connor got the camera somewhere around this point.

Fortunately, the game was well in hand. You almost felt bad for the other team, they didn't get a basket to go down until there were about 2 minutes left in the game. They had a few that were literally in and out. Grace's coach took her and the other starters out of the game after the first quarter and they never went back in.

And there is our lovely Grace lined up to shake hands at the end of the game. She's the tall beautiful one in the middle of the picture.

After the game we had a really lovely dinner and visit with the Hornfischers as usual. David and Connor had a particularly good bonding experience over David's lego star wars collection. Lucky to have such wonderful family just a little road trip away.

Connor's Fall 2011 Progress Report

2011-12-22T11:20:00.003-06:00

You'll have to excuse this post, because I realize it is kind of an obnoxious mommy post. I've actually considered a second private blog that's just for me for this type of thing; however, that frankly seems like too much effort, and this is the closest my family/kids get to a scrapbook and I want this in the blog book.

Connor is in a "5 year old" preschool class, for kids who turn 5 after September 1, but before January 1. These kids are essentially kindergarten age, but not actually in kindergarten because of their birthday's fall after September 1, the cut-off for starting Kindergarten here in TX. After lots of fretting over moving the kids to a new school, we've really been delighted with their new school, their teachers, and the "academic" process they've made this semester. Connor really enjoys his classmates, and his teacher, Ms. Mimi, and we've enjoyed seeing all the class and art work the kids brought home. This Christmas Card is one of my favorites.

I think Ms. Mimi is great too, and she's apparently been pretty please with Connor with semester as well.

And before you go and roll your eyes at me--if you are even still reading--I do figure that most of the other kids in Connor's class got a very similar progress report. It doesn't matter, we are love and are proud of our little guy for being just exactly who he is!!

The House Our LIttle Elves Built

2011-12-09T08:36:00.000-06:00

Christmas Ballerina

2011-12-08T07:57:00.000-06:00

Carolina's dance class had a little performance at the Bush Library holiday event. First we had to get her dressed.

Then hair.

Then make-up.

Then she did a little practice on my bathroom counter.

(serious dancer concentration going on here.)

And that was all the performing Carolina Grace was willing to do that day. We went to the Bush library,

and I took her "back stage" with the other little performers, but she didn't want me to leave. Rookie mistake on my part, I stayed with her.

All the little ballerinas back stage were pretty adorable.

Ralph actually takes her to dance class every week, and he wouldn't have made my mistake of staying with her. Once I stayed, she wouldn't leave my side to perform "up on the rooftop."

This is the face of a little girl who does NOT want to perform with the rest of her group.

Oh well, she looked beautiful, and Ralph got her a beautiful dozen roses, and it was a nice festive morning. (And as cute as the little group was, the performance was about what you'd except from pre-schoolers. Gracie's performance on my bathroom counter probably had as many or more moves than the whole group sans Gracie during the "actual" performance.)

Texas Ren Fest Tradition

2011-12-07T15:10:00.000-06:00

If you don't know this is about me, I'm an Aggie. (Whoop!) Among other things, this means, if I do something twice, it's a tradition. Well, we've done the Texas Renaissance Festival on Thanksgiving weekend the past TWO years; it is officially part of our holiday tradition. We pick the coldest day of the post Thanksgiving weekend, and that is our Ren Fest day.

This year we kicked it up a notch by having the Hornfischers join us.

Legitimately cold weather, Texas Ren festival and the Hornfischers. I'm not sure how we could have done any better.

Facepainting.

Chocolate Covered Strawberries on a stick.

"Garland," courtesy of Aunt Sharon.

Beheading of unhinged princess, Grace Ann.

Hangin' around in sky chairs.

Swinging a giant swing.

Bungie Jumping . . . I mean he was jumping, and attached to bungie-cords.

The kids spent some time in "the cage."

Their cousins climbed a tower.

And we watched a (fake) joust. Though Knights of Mayhem apparently did a real joust that afternoon, we missed it.

And excellent time as always!

Feet Stink

2011-12-05T08:46:00.000-06:00

Another Daigneault family holiday tradition is driving to Houston to eat at Pappasito's the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. You cannot beat Pappasito's fajitas!! (We actually have a Chuy's in town now, and while I definitely like it, I think their fajitas are sub-par.) This holiday season we actually got a bonus to trip to Pappasito's when we took Lauren and Sean back to IAH. On the ride down the kids decided to take their shoes off and shake their feet stink all over the car.

I can't remember the exact refrain, but they even made up a little song about feet stink to go along with the shaking. such a proud moment as a parent. ;)

Carolina Grace fell asleep on the ride home,

but it didn't look like a very peaceful sleep.

Maybe it was the residual stink of her own feet!

Christmas Craft

2011-12-02T03:03:00.000-06:00

Sometimes, being a pre-school mom is really hard for me. The kids always want me involved with them, which is awesome, and I try to remind myself how fleeting this time is because sometimes it really annoys me when they are so needy and demand that I been engaged at their level. Ask my mother, I didn't spend too much time acting like a 4 year old when I was 4, I don't really relish it now. I relish my kids, love them every minute of every day, even when they are running around like wild monkeys screaming pre-school dirty words, like "poop" and "butt" and "stinky." I ADORE them, but I don't always love acting their age with them. I miss them both having nap time. Sometimes I have tons of patience for their pre-school antics, sometimes, not at all. (I probably won't post about what a bad parent I am again for a while, I'll just post the good stuff, and even then I'll go on putting the best possible spin on it.) I try to avoid having multiple "blank" hours of time to kill with the kids, hence many of the outings and even just trips to the playground. Another thing I like to do with them are little basic crafts with minimal mess, my numero uno goto on this is inexpensive foam craft kits. I love doing this stuff with the cute kiddos.

This week the kids and I had an awesome time together when we made some new foam Christmas ornaments.

Also, somedays (like this day) we don't do anything with Carolina's hair, we don't even brush it. On this particular day I hadn't finished putting away laundry either and I had laid a pair of Connor's jeans down in Carolina's room. When she was dressed it was overlooked that the jeans were Connor's and she ended up wearing a pair on Connor's jeans all day. Lucky for her/us, she's so stinkin' cute she can totally get away with crazy bed-head scooter helmet hair and boy jeans!

Here the kids are hanging some of the new ornaments on the tree.

While Carolina can write, she clearly inherited my sense of spelling, this is how she wrote "Gracie," "GER." She subsequently added an "l" and an "H" and told me it said, "Carolina." :) I figure it's really just her signature!

And Connor used foam letters to put "Connor" on one of the ornaments.

but they didn't all fit on one side.

These kids are so pricelessly cute, and I am a horrible mother, but I TRY!!

Ghosts of Seasons Past

2011-12-01T09:44:00.000-06:00

Since I decided to start memorializing the blog headers, I thought I would go ahead and archive all the old ones I could I find. So, here's what I've got, in reverse chronological order, or at least that's the plan.

October/November 2011

Summer 2011

More or less October 2010 through April 2011, plus a repeat appearance in early "autumn" 2011. Possibly over-used, but can you really blame me?

London, Autumn 2010

I'm going to be honest, I really don't remember exactly what year/dates the next ones are from. I know the sandals were in the Spring, the collage was in a summer, and the last two, I'm just not sure.

Christmas Treasures (Updated)

2011-11-30T09:39:00.000-06:00

I think if you've ever read this blog it's apparent that we LOVE Christmas, and ALL of our Christmas decorations.

But, I have a few Christmas treasures that are truly priceless to me. The first is this set of sleigh bells.

It fell off of Santa's sleigh, more specifically one of the reindeer I believe, at our house when I was a child. Seriously! That's what my parents told me, and "I believe." It's been a main stay of Christmas for literally as long as I can remember. Sometime in the last 9 years my mom passed it down to me. I just treasure it. I treasure the sound it makes when you open the door, and the strong weathered elf-crafted leather that the jingle bells hang on. This is irreplaceable, and I love it.

This year, I got a few new priceless treasures.

My grandmother, Dolly (my Dad's mom) made all of these ornaments by hand. She must have made hundred's of them. Most of them adorn my parents Christmas tree. I'll be honest, when they first came to reside at my childhood home, and my mom decided we were going to use these ornaments and have a "fancy" tree, no more pipe cleaner and construction paper ornaments, I wasn't a big fan of these ornaments. I wanted colored lights, and fun ornaments, not this frilly variation on the theme of basic round ornaments. But over time, these ornaments have grown on me, both in terms of their own individual and unique beauty, but also because they were all handmade by my grandmother who passed away when I was in elementary school, making them truly priceless treasures. I have coveted these ornaments for some time now.

My parents got a new Christmas tree this year, and my mom couldn't fit all of her ornaments on the new tree, so some of them ended up in a box in storage. I was at my parents storage this past weekend looking through what they had left there and I saw a good handful of them sitting the box. I was shocked, but recovered quickly and acted fast to scoop a few up. My mother is so wonderfully protective of these, when I tried to take a few (okay 5-10) of the excess ornaments sitting in a box in storage, she actually said about her brand new tree purchased this year, "well I won't have this tree forever, maybe they will all fit on my next tree." Did I mention this is a brand-new tree she just got this year!!! Fortunately, reason prevailed and I managed to escape with a few of these treasures. They are now probably my most treasured Christmas decorations.

My sister reminded me about one more Christmas treasure I missed in this post.

My gingerbread girl candy cane holder. She is 1/2 of a matched set. Well actually when my mom gave this to me this year she told me that they were in fact NOT a matched set, but given to her by two different people at different times. The other one is a gingerbread boy, and all of my life that I can remember they have been out in my house (my parents house) dispensing candy canes. My mom actually offered both of them to me (benefit of living close by), but my sister has lots of super-cute food related Christmas decorations, so I asked her if she wanted one or both of them. Before she could respond, we had this one up in our house. The end result is that we both have one now, which actually makes me even happier about this Christmas treasure.

Christmas Traditions

2011-11-29T06:18:00.000-06:00

We initiated two of our daigneaultimate Christmas traditions over Thanksgiving weekend: Christmas book "presents," and The Elf on the Shelf.

At the end of last year's post introducing the "new to us" Christmas tradition of counting down to Christmas by unwrapping a Christmas book every night for that night's bedtime story that I mentioned that I needed to hit up Barnes & Nobles 50% off after Christmas sale, I meant it. I think I bought about 15 books last year after Christmas, so we were definitely going to do more than just 12 days of Christmas this year. I had always planned to kick off with Elf on the Shelf (and of course wrap up on Christmas Eve with "'Twas the Night before Christmas"), and had already wrapped those two in identifying paper when I realized that there was also a little cartoon of "Elf on the Shelf," that was going to be airing this weekend. I had planned to start this on Thanksgiving night this year, and I had the books all wrapped, but I was miserably sick all day on Thanksgiving, and the Aggies lost, boo . . . it was not the right night to start.

The Saturday after Thanksgiving we got started. First we watched Elf on the Shelf, and then we went to the tree to pick a book. Originally, I was going to pick--to make sure we got Elf on the Shelf to kick-off, but since I had already put "Elf on the Shelf" with it's metallic paper on the top of the pile, Carolina immediately picked it. Naturally this lead to Connor being frustrated that Carolina got to pick the book, so I decided one kid picks, the other gets to unwrap. Hopefully that will help us keep things positive. :)

This is the look I got when Connor realized we were going to read the story we had just watched, although the cartoon was more of a story, where the book is more of an introduction. But, before we could read our "new" book, we had to do the second part of the "tradition," having the kids write their names in the book. Although we will eventually just write their names in the "new" books, this is actually the first year they can write, so we will be writing our names in all of this years books, even though they are not all new.

Connor tried twice to write a "2" for 2011, but they both came out backwards, so I put tracing dots down for his 2. He then proceeded to make his own tracing dots for 0-1-1, and then he traced them. :)

I know it isn't particularly impressive that our 3 1/2 year old Carolina can write, but given that Connor didn't even know the alphabet until after he turned 4 I am rather impressed with Carolina's writing. When I told her it was her turn, she responded that she couldn't write her name, but I knew she could write it, she just might need some help with the spelling. She "free-handed" the "G" (it was getting late, I opted for 5 letters, though she eventually insisted on Gracie, not just Grace, rather than all 8 letters in Carolina, or the combined 13 . . . a goal for 2012!), but then wanted to trace the other letters, even though she can actually free-hand them all.

We kind of squeezed the "i" in, because I planned to just have her write "Grace;" however, when she finished Grace she said, "there is one more letter," so I put the "i" in for her. I was so pleased.

Here is the third night of our "countdown." Gracie wrote her name all by herself. I love that her "E's" always have at least 4 horizontal lines. These books are pretty much already priceless to me.

I hope the kids continue to enjoy this little tradition and don't get annoyed with it (they were really excited to write their names), because I think it is amazing. My goal over the next however many years I can get away with doing with this the kids is to collect enough books for Ralph and I to keep a set of 25, and for each of our kids to have a set of 25. I figure I've got at least, AT LEAST, 5 years of this left; hopefully more. :)

Christmas Header 2011

2011-11-28T08:33:00.000-06:00

I've decided I need to start making a post for each new header I put on the blog, so those headers get memorialized as well. So, here I go kicking off with Christmas 2011!

I realize this seems a bit redundant at the time of posting, but it won't seem at all redundant in the archives, or when I print out my blog book each year.

But, to spice it up a bit, I will include a pictorial "making of" the Christmas Blog Header 2011.

Family Photos 2011: Siblings

2011-11-25T08:55:00.000-06:00

Family Photos 2011: Carolina Grace

2011-11-24T07:38:00.000-06:00

Holy smokes! How is it possible I ever thought it didn't matter if I had a daughter? And how did I get so lucky to get this little ja'mama? LOVE her!

Family Photos 2011: Connor

2011-11-23T11:12:00.000-06:00

OH MY GOODNESS! I LOVE this boy!!

Family Photos 2011

2011-11-22T10:13:00.000-06:00

If it were up to me (and it were free) we would have family photos made by a professional at least once a year. Alas, they are not free, and since "family" pictures require the cooperation of the whole family, it isn't entirely up to me. A few weeks ago the stars aligned in my favor, and we had some family photos made by Kelly Smyth, a friend of mine from high school, and very talented photographer.

He's a Lego Maniac!

2011-11-21T08:22:00.000-06:00

Connor has pretty much been non-stop legos since his 5th birthday.

Legos Legos everywhere! I'm not sure you can tell from this pic, but the top of his dresser is all covered in lego projects.

If he is not building legos, or carrying around the lego instruction books like they are blue prints and he is Frank Lloyd Wright (for someone who teaches in one of the largest College's of Architecture in the country, I know surprisingly few "famous" Architects, the only other one I can name without googling is Gaudi, and the only other one I can particularly think of, though couldn't name without googling is, Norman Foster, the one who has designed all those cool curvilinear buildings in buildings in London, like Swiss Re's London headquarters aka "the Gherkin."), he is playing Lego star wars on the wii, or lego Harry Potter on the iPad. Star Wars is the other staple in his life these days. (Allegedly, I am the Emperor, and Connor hears the Emperor music every time I walk into a room. Which, best I can tell, pretty much means, Connor thinks of me as a fat evil/sith Santa. sigh!)

I must have been in an usually kind mood, or perhaps Connor used a jedi mind trick on me, last weekend because I helped Connor work on a new lego project. To start with, when we build legos with Mommy, we follow directions and sort out all the pieces.

See Daddy, the directions say, don't just poor them all out in a big pile. You poor them out and sort them nicely. ;) However, once I sorted, I really left Connor to it his own devices to build Darth Maul's whatever it is air ship. There was some playing, and lots of building.

Very fun to watch him grow up, and see the things that spark his interest and imagination! I love this little Jedi, even if he does see me as a dark lord, excuse me, far dark lord.

Fall 2011 Soccer Finale

2011-11-18T06:15:00.000-06:00

We finally had our soccer finale for Fall 2011, perhaps our families soccer finale, perhaps not. Gracie's definitely not into if right now, and even Connor said he doesn't want to play soccer in the Spring, he's ready for baseball like his cousin Hutch. Again, I don't blame them. I don't know if soccer is officially characterized as a contact sport, but in my book it is a contact sport, and while I really enjoy sports, I do not have any kind of "fight club" gene, and being body checked or kicked is not fun for me, particularly when running up and down a massively large pitch and never and only occasionally getting the ball anyway. I was/am more of a tennis and swimming kind of girl, team sports that are individual, and specifically do not require contact. But, back to the soccer. The kids had a skills showcase, and a scrimmage if they wanted to participate. Over some objections (mine first, but they insisted we go, and when we arrived, their objections started) they participated in both:

(I think I managed to drop Ralph out of all of these pictures. Carolina more or less wouldn't participate without him by her side in the skills demonstration. Yay Super Dad!!)

They were in the very last scrimmage, so we had to wait around for a while.

And finally, they got to scrimmage.

Connor and Carolina Grace were not all that interested in scrimmaging. Carolina kept running over to us, and Connor didn't really wan tho get into the scrum. He's pretty aggressive when he plays with just his dad, but we think he doesn't know how aggressive he can be around other kids, and kind of stands back, so it's hard to tell if he got the fight club gene. Carolina really just wanted to be finished. So, now we've tried soccer, and unless either one of them asks, we probably won't go back to that well, but I think they both enjoyed the overall experience, and really that's what this was all about.

"Mommy, You're the Fat One"

2011-11-17T08:37:00.000-06:00

It's no secret we like Christmas in our house, and christmas decorations, and pine scented candles. We love it. And we start decorating at the beginning of November. The truth is we start then as much because we love Christmas, as because we hate feeling rushed about decorating for Christmas during our Thanksgiving break. It's fun to put up Christmas decorations when you can walk away from it if you aren't in the mood or it isn't going well . . . it's much less fun to put them up when you've already made and cleaned a whole Thanksgiving meal, or you are just about to make and clean and Thanksgiving meal or travel for Thanksgiving. At any rate, we put this plate out on a plate rack.

And one lovely morning, our darling son announced, "Mom, you're the fat one. I'm the skinny one. Daddy's the one with the magic want, and Gracie you get to the be the one with the tree." Ahh the Chrsitmas joy and generosity. He didn't even make me the fat one at the end by default. He could have decided Gracie would be the one with the tree, and finished with "and mom you have to be the fat one. Not because you are fat. You aren't; actually you look great. I can tell you've been running three days a week since the beginning of 2011, and that you are up to about 7.5 miles/week (maybe lame for some people, but a real accomplishment for you) and doing Yoga at least two days a week. Seriously, you look amazing, but there are 4 santas, and 4 daigneaults, and the other three santas are already spoken for, so by default, you are the fat one. Ho. Ho. Ho."

I have also since learned that Connor told our cute little college babysitter that she is the fat one. Makes me feel slightly better, probably didn't make her feel any better though when I told her Connor called ME the fat one too.

"If I don't do it, I won't learn!"

2011-11-16T06:22:00.000-06:00

It's no secret, Carolina Grace loves her some make-up and some "Sassy Toes," no secret. Recently Carolina asked if she could paint her toe nails, so I said sure and got ready to paint her toe nails for her. That was not what Carolina had in mind. When Carolina asked if she could paint her toenails, she meant the she wanted to paint them, not they she wanted to have painted toe nails. I realized this of course, but thought I could persuade her to allow me to paint them.

No reasonable parent turns their child loose a bottle of nail polish, in their own home. I might have gotten away with painting them for her when Carolina's daddy chimed in, and said "Carolina, tell mommy if you don't do it, you won't learn." So Carolina demanded, "if I don't do it, I won't learn!" I am sucker for this theory. My mom told me a story once about two students in her classroom, one was pretty much a spoiled sh*t (pretty sure my mom didn't use that phrasing) who wined about everything and got frustrated super easily. The other was really helpful to everyone and always kind and generally happy, and I high achiever academically. When she sat down with the parents, the spoiled sh*t's mother told my mom, they just didn't know what to do with him; they did everything for him, they got him everything he wanted and he was never happy. The other mother said basically if she is physically capable of doing something for herself, we teach her how to do it, and then let her do it. The lesson is obvious, one has a sense of self-worth and accomplishment, and has probably even learned to fail and pick herself up. The other has none of that, just a sense of entitlement. Not that we always get it right by any stretch, but this has always stuck with me. So, when Carolina said, "if I don't do it, I won't learn," that was it, I had to let her paint her own toe nails, but that is ralph's hand towel that I let her put under her feet to protect the counter top. ;)

She actually did a nice job with that purple toe, the tenth one she painted. So, I guess she was learning. And, here is a little video, b/c she was being so darn cute.

I mostly think it's cute, the nail painting and make-up, and don't worry about it too much. But, lately when I get ready in the mornings, Carolina stands right next to me and applies some sheer pink blush, and whatever lip stick she can get her hands on. I've been wondering if I'm doing the right thing, letting her put on make-up at will. There usually isn't enough that she can even see it, but I don't want her to think looks are too important, and I certainly don't want her to be one of those 5th grade trollops all decked out. Frankly, I probably don't wear enough make-up, but ironically, my mother--who puts on the same amount of make up for playing tennis as she does going out, and also indulges Carolina's make-up interest, some how left on me the impression that make-up for was a gateway drug for teen pregnancy and prostitution. I think for now we will proceed with caution. Actually, her make-up routine in the morning has already slowed down some. Some mornings she tells me she doesn't need any make-up, just mommy. But I'm keeping a close eye on this make-up situation, especially now that she's been moved up to the four-year old class at pre-school. ;) ;)

Robo-Family

2011-11-15T10:20:00.000-06:00

We still have Ralph's robot costume from Halloween 2009, so I decided I would be a robot this year, and that made Connor want to be a robot also. I didn't get any pictures of all three of us in our robots (Carolina just wanted to be a fairly princess), but I got pics of us preparing our robots.

Happy Halloween 2011

2011-11-13T09:02:00.001-06:00

Even though I got very few decent pictures of our 2011 trick or treat experience it was our best one yet. We haven't been trick or treating since 2009 when Carolina was not even 18 months old, and Connor had just turned 3 (last year we were in London and flew back on the 1st of November, so we didn't trick or treat at all). We had one of the kiddos friends over and her parents and we had mummy hotdogs for dinner and hangout for a bit, and then hit the road.

The kids were so excited they loved running up to every door, where Gracie would proclaim "trick or treat smell my feet give me something good to eat," as soon as she got to the front porch, usually to a closed door.

By the end of the night the girls were completely exhausted and we have about 8 gallons of candy. Ridiculous! We still have about 6 gallons. :)

Gander Mountain Gear

2011-11-08T07:18:00.000-06:00

Last Thursday was a big day for both ralph and I at our respective "work-offices," so Friday morning we both took off and had some family time. We went to Gander Mountain so our turkey professor (Ralph) could get some peanut oil to perfect his fried turkey, which he is really into this year.

Apparently ralph and the kids also needed some supplies for the bank heist they are planning.

Painting Pumpkins

2011-11-07T07:25:00.001-06:00

The kids' sweet babysitter, Kirby, brought pumpkins for them to paint when she was with them Halloween morning.

After cover her pumpkin in paint, Carolina Grace got up. Kirby asked her if she was going to paint anymore, and Gracie responsded, "Kirbbbyyyy, I'm doing BALLETTT!" (can you really emphasize a french word by repeating "t"s at the end of it? hmm.)

Yes, my children are wearing Christmas pajamas, and yes I did leave the house with them still in PJs. I cleaned out the clothes in their closests and drawers the weekend before Halloween--I did toys a few weeks before that--and I put the Christmas/winter PJs back in the drawers. :)

Soccer

2011-11-04T09:57:00.000-05:00

The kids are almost finished with soccer for the fall. Gracie has been enjoying and participating in practice much more, though I still think soccer is not necessarily going to be her ticket to a college scholarship . . . not that I blame her. Last week they had a particularly fun class with a giant soccer ball . . . and it was legitimately cold (which makes everything more fun . . . well, at least in late October)!

Gracie didn't make these posed pictures because she was busy cuddling her daddy. When running after the giant soccer ball she apparently decided to throw herself on top of it, and then flew over it and got run over by it. It was actually fairly hilarious, because she was totally fine, but she did sit out for a bit before joining in for the end of practice.

Halloween at the Kids' School

2011-11-03T06:27:00.000-05:00

The week before Halloween, the kids wore costumes to school. Once again, I tried to get pictures of them in their costumes.

Connor decided he did not want to wear his penguin costume. He was afraid other kids might laugh at him. I am both disappointed he is developing this awareness, and proud of him for not wearing something he wasn't comfortable in and being willing to tell us. He was very happy to wear his fighter pilot suit, but I think this is the last year he is going to be able to wear it, unless it is flooding.

Carolina Grace was a fairy princess, and she did some "bow-way" poses for me. Everytime I repeat "bow-way" after she says it she says, "no mommy, it's ballet." We didn't really get her a costume this year, b/c she has quite a few outfits and tutus that qualify as fairy princess material. This particular leotard with tutu attached was a birthday present last summer, and she absolutely refused to wear it to ballet last summer. However, when I got it out on Tuesday morning she was beside herself with excitement about her costume. (Precious girl, I hope you don't hate me when you get older and read this post.) However, we did got and get her some fairy princess wings before she wore the costume on Thursday.

Here we are at the skeezie Halloween store posing as Frankenstein.

However, despite the general skeezieness of the store, they did have fairy wings. :)

Children's Choir

2011-11-02T20:16:00.001-05:00

We haven't gone to church on Sunday mornings regularly in a long time. I miss going on Sunday mornings, but for various reasons it doesn't quite fit our family right now. However, we regularly go to church on Wednesday afternoons. I used to do a pilates class there on Wednesday afternoon and the kids would just go to the nursery, but this year they've joined the children's choir. (I go with them to choir b/c I want them to be comfortable, but I am hoping to return to pilates while they sing their little hearts out.) I think they joined primarily because before choir starts the kids get to play on the playground, and we used to see the kids on the playground when we were going in to the nursery before pilates. No matter, they are in the choir now, and they had their first performance a couple of Sundays ago.

Here they are practicing in the church the wednesday before their big debut.

And the morning of the big performance. I got them dressed in their little choir shirts, and attempted to get a picture of them together.

Did not go quite as I had hoped, though I did really enjoy Connor's "statue of liberty."

Gracie spend most of the first service sitting with her daddy, but in the second service they both did great. Even though many kids, including ours, are early risers, I think it's just a bit much to ask them to sing in front of a whole congregation at 8:15am.

Sadly, I only took pictures and video at the 8:15 service, still pretty cute.

Fall Festival

2011-11-01T20:18:00.000-05:00

Sometimes I'm super motivated to blog, other times, not so much . . . obviously this is one of those "other times." The problem with themes like these, is that even though I'm not motivated to blog, I still want to blog and what's worse, I feel guilty that I'm not blogging more. blah. So, here is a totally uninspired blog post about the elementary school fall festival we went to a couple of weeks ago. This is the festival we donated a dozen of our free cupcakes to (and incidentally, we did end up throwing out 10 cupcakes . . . though tonight I've had two bags of skull & bones sweet tarts, and 4 miniature kit kats--I'm so committed to health!)

I just love that Gracie loves wearing her boots everywhere, even though the whole "snow boots" with shorts in 80 degree weather generally annoys me. There are a lot of things you can get away with when you are 3 that you cannot get away with when you are older . . . or maybe it's just mother's prerogative because I genuinely think it works for Gracie! :)

We did a lot of stuff. :) But this one I will highlight.

The climbing wall. I was so surprised they even wanted to try this. It started well, and then Connor crawled up one step higher than where the helper put him on, and he freaked out a little and wanted to get down, but I took a picture before he came down. Still I was proud of them for giving it a try!

Sleeping Beauties

2011-10-31T07:31:00.001-05:00

It's not quite as much fun as looking at Christmas lights, but we still like to drive around at look at Halloween decorations. Last Friday we went out to look at lights. Carolina kept telling us she wanted to go home because she was tired, but Connor just wanted more lights. When we finally started heading home we heard the unmistakable sound of sleep breathing from the backseat.

Saturday afternoon, Carolina Grace fell asleep on the couch.

Happy Halloween All!!!

Hot Shots "Scrimmage"

2011-10-25T07:07:00.001-05:00

Last Friday night, all the little "Hot Shots" had the opportunity to participate in scrimmages during half time of the Lady Aggies soccer match against OU.

Originally Carolina (Carolina Gracie used to tell people her name was Gracie, but she has taken to telling people her name is "Carolina," she still uses and answers to any combination of her names, but I'm trying to be respectful as use Carolina more.) said she just wanted to watch Connor play, which given her rough start with soccer practice, I thought was a wise idea. However, when Friday night arrived, Carolina was insistent that she must play, but not before I painted her fingernails in the stands--our little priss! (her french braids were getting a bit wild, they hadn't been re-done all day long, so I opened my purse to look for a hairbrush, and she saw a bottle of nail polish I have and insisted that I must paint her fingernails right there in the stands . . . . I bargained fingernails for one french braid. :)

(Connor has taken to "vogue-ing"--see lower left pic two collages below-- when I try to take his picture, so I called his name and tried to catch him before he could strike a pose.)

Warming up before half-time with Dad.

Connor was totally into this.

So much so that he not only tried to score in the little yellow cone goals that each little scrimmage group was supposed to score on. He also scored on the actual goal.

AWESOME!

Carolina Grace was also totally enjoying her experience . . . it's just that her experience was more modern dance recital than soccer scrimmage.

But, she did manage to kind of get into the soccer a little bit, eventually.

After all the scrimmaging the kids got to line up and five the Lady Ags as they came back onto the field.

It was a great evening.

Little Carolina fell asleep about 2 minutes after she put her sweet little head on the pillow, painted fingernails and all.

Two Dozen Cupcakes!

2011-10-24T08:47:00.000-05:00

Last week we were in HEB on Sunday afternoon and the store was celebrating it's 1st birthday, and letting kids decorate cupcakes.

In case you didn't want to buy a $2 cupcake, they also had coloring sheets that were free,

and they had a drawing for two dozen free cupcakes. I almost didn't enter, because what would we do with 2-dozen cupcakes, but I figured "what the heck! I never win this type of drawing" and I filled out the entry form and dropped in in that black mesh cup you can see in the picture above.

I mean I NEVER win A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G in drawings. In elementary school we always had a raffle, and I always bought tickets, and basically everyone won something, and 1 of 5 years I did actually win something. I won a set of Rambo themed jacks. Seriously! Like, Sly Stalone topless and ripped with the headband, on a package of jacks with a little bouncy ball, and little (like maybe 4" long by 1.5" diameter) "duffle bag" style carrying case that said "R*A*M*B*O." You cannot make this stuff up! This is the only thing I've ever won in a drawing. . . until last Sunday, when I actually won 24 cupcakes. I'm lucky in lots of other ways, just not drawings.

A year ago 2 dozen cupcakes would have been child's play for the our family, the beginnings of an eat fiesta weekend. Who am I kidding? A year ago 2-dozen cupcakes would have been child's play for me. However, in the past year we have really cleaned up our act; Ralph and I have improved our diets, and been very consistent with our exercise. And we are trying to set the kids up with good eating habits for life. (Ralph really doesn't eat anything he shouldn't; I still eat lots of naughty goodies, just not in the same quantities. I single handedly went through a family size bag of m&m's last week, but I didn't do it in a day, and I still haven't replaced that bag with a new one.) And we definitely still let the kids eat "sometimes foods," but we try to limit it to "sometimes," and help them understand that it is important to only eat "sometimes foods," some times. The truth is, we don't think they know they are missing anything, well I guess the truth is they aren't really missing anything. We gave them their cupcakes they decorated they licked some of the icing off the top, and then they ended up sitting in the fridge all week before we finally there them away.

2-dozen cup cakes is just more than we can handle. Now, if they had "whipped" icing on them, rather than "crisco-cream" icing, I could probably muster the appetite to get us up to about 1/2 a dozen. I considered taking them to the kids school, but they each have 14 kids in their class, so I would have had to buy more to have enough to go around and that seemed a bit silly. It figures that's what I would win, 2-dozen cup cakes, NOW!!

The real irony is, we went into HEB for, among other things, a birthday cake for my mom. If they'd done the drawing 1-hour earlier I would have just picked up those cup cakes rather than buying a cake. But it worked out okay in the end, when I finally went in to pick up our 24 cupcakes, I saw a friend of mine who was there buying baked goods in bulk for her older daughters elementary school carnival, so I gave her 1-dozen cupcakes, and we only have 10 left in our fridge/ My guess is at least 8 of them, if not more, will probably get thrown out next weekend. :)

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-19T14:36:00.001-05:00

It's seems no study abroad preparation can be without it's stressful moments. When we first got the program in motion in 2009 I worried we wouldn't have enough students as it was a new program and we were asking the students to miss football season. We didn't have any problem reaching our goal for first program of 10 students and in fact ended up with 18 students. However, I lost sleep for a few nights in May 2010 when we had a near total failure on getting the students visas, which would have meant a failure of the program. This time around things have generally gone much smoother, now that I have one under my belt, and I haven't really worried about getting enough students . . . until last week. Despite having had over 20 students (20-being my max for the program) express interest, last week I had only 8 officially confirmed, and then once I faced that down and got a revised quote for only 10-students, rather than a minimum of 15, another one that was confirmed withdrew from the program, leaving me only 7. I've lost sleep the last few nights, buts as these things tend to do it's just about "all sorted." Anyway, that has been occupying my time and my thought, but as it seems to be resolving itself . . . well, it isn't really resolving itself, some concerted effort has been put into it . . .so as it seems to be resolving, I'm feel mentally prepared to blog again, but nonetheless, I'm going to start with an easy one . . . mostly pictures of our trip to the "pumpkin patch."

By pumpkin patch I mean what all Texans mean when they say pumpkin patch, a field where pumpkins have been trucked-in and set out for people to buy them, likely on a church property. I do not mean an actual patch of land where pumpkins are growing on the vine . . . according to my husband, not only does such a thing exist, but some people actually think that is what a pumpkin patch is.

I love fall and everything associated with fall, even though I live in a climate of anti-fall where leaves only change colors because they have either been charred by wildfires (none too close to us thankfully), or the ever present oppression of the sun's heat and complete lack of rain. Perhaps, the "symbols" of fall take on an even greater importance because we live in TX. So, as soon as I heard the pumpkin patch was open we headed out.

We did not pass go, we did not collect $200, and we did not stop to put on cute fall/halloween outfits (I kind of wish now we did) . . . but we did have lots of fun picking out 7 pumpkins (a couple of them were really small), supporting Habitat for Humanity, and running in the "maze." I think there may have also been a few princess rescues, but I was pretty much focused on all the cool pumpkins trying to pick out the very best ones!

Our Little Punkins!

2011-10-13T10:16:00.002-05:00

I'm kind of obsessed with pumpkins this fall.

So, we got a few more.

Yay Fall pumpkins! Maybe this weekend, I will be inspired and try to make some of my sister's gorgeous gourds too.

Welcome to the Family, Shamrock

2011-10-12T23:06:00.000-05:00

When Connor went on his, "Better than a Eurostar" trip, it was actually to welcome the newest little member of our family, Shamrock, the Humbolt Penguin.

Aunt Lauren and Uncle Sean (aka "Aunt Warren" and "Sean-cle") adopted Connor a penguin for his birthday because Connor LOVE penguins. Best I can remember the penguin love began in early 2010 when the kids and I flew to NY to visit Ralph's family on Jet Blue and Penguins of Madagascar was the most appropriate kid-interesting programming we could find, and its just grown from there. Connor also gave up his wooby about that time, and since then has had a few different stuffed penguins that are his semi-replacement lovies ("Little Little the Penguin", "Peso" Penguin, another one with an ever changing name, and now a new stuffed "Shamrock," complete with a green & white wing tag, just like the real Shamrock, who obviously has to stay at the Philadelphia Zoo.)

When we left off, Connor was exhausted after an afternoon of travel, better than Eurostar, or so he told us.

(I know this picture is superfluous, but I just love it. He looks both so young, and so old. And, in case you are wondering, that is Peso Penguin in his lap.) He got a brief second wind when we arrived and Lauren and Sean's, but it didn't last too long. After a good nights sleep he was ready to go see Shamrock first thing in the morning, so we headed out.

We really liked this statue until we realized the lion was standing over a lioness that had been hit with an arrow . . .kind of macabre.

Connor: Let's go see the Penguins now!

Connor: Come on, let's go.

Mommy: Wow, this is the best zoo I've been to in the last two years! We are actually getting to see lots of animals, not just exhibits (the list of zoos we've been to in the last two years includes: Waco, Detroit, and London. Philly tops the list followed by Waco, then London and then Detroit.

Connor: Bor-ring! Come on, lets see the Penguins.

Connor: move along people. this is boring.

He did seem to enjoy the "children's zoo," for a little while anyway.

Finally, we made it to the Penguins.

And not a moment too soon. We got to see the penguins being fed, and then Connor was pretty much tapped out, except for a trip to the gift shop, where he got his stuffed Shamrock and a pink penguin for Gracie too.

All in all it was a great trip, and a wonderful gift that I will not be cleaning out of the closet next year. :) Thank you Aunt Lauren, Uncle Sean, Sassy & Pops.

So She Thinks She Can Dance

2011-10-11T09:35:00.001-05:00

I'm a pretty big fan of the Duggars, of 19 Kids and Counting fame. They may be as fake as everyone else on TV, but they seem genuine to me, and I just think they are cute. They are definitely not your average family and frankly our little Daigneaultimate family isn't very much like them at all, but I love the focus they have on family and character. And, in one of their first specials, before they had a regular show, Michelle was talking about how they dress (particularly the girls) and said they choose to dress to highlight their countenance, and I just think that's lovely . . . I don't necessarily think the jumpers they used to wear are lovely, and I can't personally get on board with the skirts only position, but it works for them and that's great, and I am also inclined towards a more modest aesthetic myself.

One thing I can't get on board with is their anti-dancing position (which I realize is not unique to the Duggars), again it's totally fine for them. But, I just don't see how you can watch a young child dance and not see it as an expression as natural as smiling, but that's just me. There is a big difference between getting half naked and dancing the Lambada and moving your body in an expression of joy. I'm not necessarily anti-Lambada either, but I can understand why some people may be opposed to, or offended by, or worried about the slippery-slope of that kind of movement, but that is not what all dancing is. (I'm also generally not a fan of overly restrictive rules meant to eliminate problems with judgment or even the tinniest appearance of impropriety. As a parent in particular, I understand why it might be convenient to have those kinds of rules, and why sometimes they are appropriate. But ultimately I think we have to let people, or our children, develop good judgment . . . and as they say, "good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.")

I'm not really sure why this became an "editorial" blog post, I didn't mean for it to be one. I just wanted to preserve this adorable little video of Gracie joyfully dancing!

I love Gracie's countenance is this video. So, I say, dance on little Gracie, dance on!

P.S. Aunt Lauren, I am going to blog the actual penguin adoption and trip to the zoo, but I have so many pictures to go through and I haven't done that yet. I'm hoping to get that post up tomorrow.

Cool, Like Old School

2011-10-10T00:07:00.001-05:00

So, now that I've gone back to short hair, I sometime use these elasticized head bands to keep my hair out of my face when I wash my face or what have you. One ended up in Gracie's room and she brought it back to me, and Connor ended up wearing it. We told him he looked cool. Later he asked me if he looked handsome. I told him he always looks handsome, but in the headband he looks more "cool." Connor's reply, "Cool, like old school?"

Now that you mention it Con, yes, that is exactly the kind of cool you are; cool like old school . . . not mention cooler than I'll ever be!

Better Than A Eurostar

2011-10-07T00:01:00.000-05:00

Last week Connor and I made a trip to Wilmington, DE/Philadelphia, PA for the official "adopt" day at the Philadephia zoo. Aunt Lauren and Uncle Sean adopted a Humbolt penguin for Connor for his 5th birthday. The weekend started with a flight up to Philadephia with Pops and I.

Connor loves a good trip to the airport, what little kid wouldn't! Moving sidewalks, echo chambers, airplanes everywhere, and at IAH Continental's everywhere, which is good because Continentals are Connor's favorite. He loves the "world" logo on the tale of the plain. He knows that Continental merged with United, and that lots of the planes now say United, but he still likes to call them Continentals. (He's such a fun kid.)

He did lots of looking out the window to watch the planes. He got bored having to wait to get on the plane, but he was a trooper, and he killed a little time with my phone.

Eventually, we did get to get on the plane; which Connor loved.

He was particularly fond of take-off and landing, because we were actually moving faster than a Eurostar for those parts. ;) We eventually made it to Philadelphia where Connor said the flight was "better than a Eurostar." This is pretty high praise for Connor! All the excitement took its toll on Mr. Con.

Just before I took this picture Connor told Pops and I that he was not tired.

Sneak Preview . . .

2011-10-06T00:44:00.001-05:00

of things I haven't had a chance to blog about because my department has its accreditation review/visit this coming week, and I've had to deal with some lower level students missing deadlines, and I'm planning a departmental event for the end of October, and I gave an exam this week, and I'm planning another study abroad for the spring semester and I ignored all that and spent the whole afternoon hangin' and playing with my cute kiddos, and I'm just not awesome enough to do all that and keep up with the blog.

Gracie!

2011-09-30T10:01:00.002-05:00

The Willing and the Willful

2011-09-29T07:50:00.000-05:00

Soccer Week 2.

The Willing.

and, the willful!

Oh man, this little darlin' is willful when she wants to be. We talked up soccer before class, I came with fruit snacks to bribe her. She seemed ready, right up until we got to the soccer field.

Mommy: No worries, if you don't want to play soccer, you can sit with me . . . but if you do not participate you cannot go to the playground after class, and you cannot have fruit snacks.
Gracie: I don't want fruit snacks.
(Gracie goes onto the field and stands by Coach Rachel, but does not participate. This lasts about 5 minutes, then Gracie saunters back to Mommy.)
Gracie: Now can I go to the playground?
Mommy: No. You have to participate if you want to play on the playground.
(Gracie pouts.)
Mommy: Gracie, it's fine if you don't want to participate, you can sit here with me and we'll watch Con.
Gracie: Then I can play on the playground when class is over.
Mommy: No. Carolina Grace you cannot play on the playground if you do not participate.
(Gracie continues pouting.)
Mommy: Gracie it is okay if you do not want to play.
Gracie: I'm just gonna kick 3 balls.
Mommy: 5 balls.
Gracie: 5 Balls, then I can play on the playground.
Mommy: Go kick 5 balls and we'll see how it all works out.
Gracie: 5 balls then I can play on the playground.
Mommy: let's just see.
Gracie: Then I can play on the playground. **Strong willed this one--wonder where she gets that.**

(Gracie starts participating and kicks the ball one time.)
Gracie: Look Mommy, just 5 more balls.
Mommy: smiling wryly Yes, Gracie 5 more balls.
(Gracie continues playing and kicks a few more balls.)
Mommy: Goog job Gracie, just 5 more balls.
Gracie: Okay mommy 5 more balls.

This little white lie about how many more balls Gracie had to kick continued all the way through to the very end of class. For the most part once she got started she had a great time and wasn't too worried about how many balls she had kicked. Con, once again totally loved soccer, and this week did much better at not using his hands every chance he got.

And after all the good fun participation, Gracie was sure not to miss the cheer this week.

So happy she got her soccer patch. Next up: playground . . . and fruit snacks! :)

Game Day in Aggieland

2011-09-28T08:20:00.001-05:00

OK (state, unfortunately!), game day didn't turn out exactly the way I had hoped, but we were excited about it, and dressed for the occasion.

Gracie picked the boots, and the Carolina Blue hair bands for Carolina--the UNC tar heels that is!! :)

Legos

2011-09-27T06:53:00.000-05:00

Apparently 5 is the year of Legos for Connor. He's had legos before, big duplo legos, and regular lego sets, but he has never seemed very interested in them. This year for his birthday Sassy took him to pick out his birthday present and he picked out a lego city police station. I was surprised since to my knowledge he'd never really expressed much interest in legos, but I was wrong. With the help of "Aunt Warren" (as she is affectionately referred to by Gracie), and his daddy, Connor had the whole police station put together within a day or two of getting it home.

Fortunately (both for Connor's new found love of legos, and my blog), he got more legos for his birthday. I finally got in the action helping him put together his alien space blaster tripod that his cousin Becca gave him for his birthday.

I'm proud of the way he really does focus and follow the directions to put the pieces together, and of course I love how happy it makes him.

Thanksgiving

2011-09-26T10:42:00.000-05:00

I think it may have been in the story Flowers For Algernon, or possibly the movie Awakenings (and frankly I'm too lazy right now to do my homework/research to google and determine which one, or be able to provide accurate information other than what comes from my memory), where a mother who's son has a degenerative condition is asked how/why she is handling the situation so well, and her response is something along the lines of: people always ask, "what have I done to deserve this?" when things are bad, but how often do we ask that when things are good. Yes, a rough not very eloquent paraphrase (see parenthetical above), but you get the point, and it has really always stuck with me. And I have to say, "what have I done to deserve this life I am living?"

Our life is not perfect. Make no mistake, we have some real "challenges" and crosses to bear, but still I just can't help but ask myself, "what could I have possibly done to deserve this life we have?" Actually, I'm more or less beyond the point of asking that question. I simply do NOT deserve this life, and I am so thankful for it.

I am thankful for my very wonderful husband who loves me in spite of me. I am thankful for our two beautiful healthy children. I am thankful for how easy it was for us to have those children. I am thankful for a job that I really love. Heck, right now I'm thankful just to have a job. I'm thankful that my incredibly handsome husband really goes out of his way to support my job and make my life easier and happier. I'm thankful that we have a swimming pool. I'm thankful for the automatic sliding doors and rear entertainment system on our minivan. I'm thankful that my back/should/neck pain are only worse because they are getting better. I'm thankful for all the nights our kids sleep though the night in their own bed. I am thankful for those nights I don't sleep so great, but I get to cuddle one or both of our kids for all, or part, of the night. I am thankful. I'm thankful that we have a house that more than meets our basic needs and that we all LOVE. I'm thankful that our life is generally so rosy I have emotion to spare for a ~~often~~ sometimes disappointing college football team. I am thankful that we have and can afford options if we decide the public elementary school we were re-zoned to right after we bought our awesome house is not a good choice for our kids. I'm thankful that our puppies have had more complicated medical issues, and seen more fancy specialists than anyone else in our family. I'm thankful we live near family who love us and love our kids. I'm thankful for our comforpedic mattress. I'm thankful that I don't need to wear high heel shoes to work. I'm thankful that Carolina Grace likes to have her hair put in rollers, sometimes. I'm thankful that I get to park in a parking lot very close to my building, particularly since I regularly leave things in my car and have to walk back to my car to get them. I'm thankful that I've gotten to lead one study abroad, and am leading at least one more next spring. I'm thankful that our kids are generally good natured. I'm thankful that Connor is really enjoying school this year. I'm thankful that our puppies are generally healthy, despite being remarkably "accident" prone and expensive. I'm thankful Ralph loves to decorate for fall, halloween, Thanksgiving and especially Chrsitmas, as much as I do. I'm thankful we can create some illusion of fall inside our house, since we live in a climate that is severely fall deficient. I'm thankful that I have so much to be thankful for I can't even remember everything I'm thankful for. But, I just feel like it's important to say out loud (or publish on the blog, as the case may be), that I am thankful and appreciative for this life, and I don't know why I get to lead this life.