The difference between...

how Anna watches Bambi...

and the boys watch an airplane movie...

Jamestown!

Inside the Powhatan Indian Village home aka our new home when we move to the wilderness after traveling around in a camper... 

Making corn meal for dinner... (in case you are wondering, she stuffed her new pink blankie in her backpack so she could carry it around all day)

Cooking demonstration...

She said they would make corn bread by shaping the dough with their hands and then laying it in the ashes near the fire...when it was time to eat, you just brush off the ashes and voila!  Cornbread for dinner!  So I don't' want to hear any more complaints about my cooking!

Burning out a log to make a canoe...

Skinning an animal....

The kids get into it...using oyster shells to scrape the hide...

Stowaway!  M explores the ships at the dock...which were replications of the ships the first colonists used to cross the Atlantic Ocean...it was a wonder that anyone was crazy/desperate enough to do it!

Working the bilge pump...

L gets suited up in the early settlement...

Mikey the man-at-arms! 

Somebody get this girl a spear...

That's not a pet chicken, that's dinner!

Jamestown.  We've lived here nearly four years now and have never gone (well, L did for a school field trip, but I didn't get to go, so that doesn't count).  We visited the day after Christmas when it was a bit windy and chillier than we'd been used to (although at nearly 60 degrees, I don't think it qualifies as cold), but we had a great time exploring the replications of colonial life.  It's astonishing to see how the people lived back then and realize all the history that came from the act of settling in the wilderness of a  foreign land.  I was glad we were able to see the Powhatan village too, and to realize that the early colonists would have all died out if they hadn't been helped by the Native Americans here.  I'm so glad that the kids got to see it!

Merry Christmas!

Tinkerbell would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas!  Especially with the new shoes/sneaker/boots that Nonnie gave her! 

Cheating Fighting Playing Candyland on Christmas morning...

New Hat and blankie!  Thanks Great-Grandma and Nonnie!

The newest Green Mountain Boy..."Now I can be just like Daddy!"

Falcon Knight!

"Look at me, I'm Woody the Cowboy!  I like Christmas!"

Wonder Twins.... (PS they love their new blankies!)

I really love Christmas with the kids.  I know I wrote a lot about the stress of multiple parties and stealth-shopping with children in tow and all of that, but really, it is the best holiday of the year!  Their little faces are full of wonder and excitement...and we love having all those traditions...this year on Christmas Eve we made more sugar cookies and delivered them to the gate guards (just like we did when I was a child on the air base in Japan) after we went to drive through an incredible Christmas lights display at a local park here. We'd never seen anything quite like that (and the kids were pretty thrilled to be out so late and to see all those lights).  Then, when we got home, Luke wrote the annual Letter to Santa and set out the cookies and milk.  After that, we made sure to sprinkle all the reindeer food (rolled oats mixed with glitter so that the reindeer could see their snack when they were flying overhead) around the backyard.  Surprisingly, the kids went to sleep quickly (I remember laying awake for hours as a kid, convinced I'd just heard the tell-tale thump of a sleigh on our roof).
The next morning, we opened stockings and presents!  And after the initial hyper-excitement, we all calmed down enough to kind of take turns.  Santa brought one big toy present for each kid...and a lot of great gifts from our relatives all around the country!  It was a great day...and apparently the joy of presents was so exhausting that even Mikey took a nap that day!  You should know that the boys received swords and shields from Mom and Dad so that they might be armed when they fight the dragons in our neighborhood (or yours, should we visit you)...have no fear, the Sea Blue Falcon Knight (known as Sir Lightyear of Whaleport) and the Green Dragon Knight (known as Sir Michael Skywalker) are here to vanquish all who dare commit crimes!  (Anna is also asking for her sword and shield, but she'll have to wait until her birthday to get them...I thought Tinkerbell and Wonder Woman were enough for one Christmas).   Watch out world!

Christmas Magic All Around!

M was the first to meet Santa this year...at the Christmas party for F's work...

"I will be four years old on my birthday, Santa!"

 I should mention that as soon as the Man in Red walked into the room, little Anna ran straight for him and hugged him...then held onto his hands and stared up into his face with her big blue eyes for about 10 minutes.  She was so thrilled to see him this year (which makes me think of the last Christmas Santa visit when she freaked out and tried to crawl, screaming in the other direction)...she made sure to ask where his reindeer were and what he fed them.  It was so cute, but I couldn't elbow my way through the crowd of adoring children to get into the right position for that picture, so this one will have to do!  Boo!

L was significantly more interested in opening his present than talking to Santa.  But once Mommy gently reminded him not to open until his turn was over, he was happy to lay out his life's plan for the Big Man:  First, joining the Navy to fly jets just like Daddy, then to the Air Force (also like Daddy), then to Air Nippon Airlines to fly the Boeing 777 (not like Daddy).  Also, he's gonna have a falcon and save whales.  He's got a lot of work ahead of him...

Santa brought this pink tea set to Anna and she was thrilled!   This was our first tea party...the first of many...here are our well-mannered guests (she was careful to serve meat to the carnivores and veggies and fruit to the cow)... 

No tiaras for Cinderella?  Well, just use a tiger hat, then!

Tea party!

This will shock all of you but this year we actually got a Christmas tree!!!!  A real one that we put inside the house instead of a bush we deluded ourselves into believing that we could keep alive long enough to plant somewhere...yay!  I love the way it smells!

Headless Chicken...

So, that is what I feel like these days...just like that proverbial barnyard chicken right after it meets the ax, staggering blindly around in circles.  I remembered holidays being full of fun stuff: cookie baking, gingerbread house decorating, tree decorating, tree lighting, etc...and because I was looking at it through the misty eyes of a child, I never realized how much work fun holiday activities actually requires.  Then I had children of my own.  So in addition to gymnastics two times a week, ballet once, and piano lessons once, I also have done some holiday shopping, two birthday parties, and a holiday party at L's school all in the last 10 days.  I think that headless chicken has more direction than I do.  L finished up at school on Thursday (after a week of half-days), but he was able to go to the Montessori school in the afternoons to rehearse for their holiday play (he will be playing the piano for them and has some speaking parts, too!  It is a play about peace...I hope the twins really learn from it!).  So here is a run-down of all the driving I did this week:

• 7:50-ish am: Drive the 20 minutes to L's school (after gently coaxing the kids through their morning routine, which they ignore completely which causes me to YELL at them which causes them to sniffle and me to feel like an ass...which I am for yelling...I got a perfect tip: just get alarm clocks and set them at certain times so they know when to put their shoes on and you don't have to yell..I shall try this over the break)
• 8:10 am: drop L off at school
• 8:15 am: drive the 10 minutes from L's school to the Montessori school
• 8:30 am: drop the twins off for school
• 8:45 am: arrive at the Y so that I can run and life weights in order to pound all the stress, anxiety, and frustration that single-handedly getting three children off to school in the morning induces so that I do not punch anyone in the face...
• 10:50 am: drive the 20 minutes to L's school to pick him up at 11:15.
• 11:15 am: drive the 10 minutes back to the Montessori school to pick the Wonder Twins up and drop L off...
• 12:00: arrive home, get the twins to nap...
• 2:20 pm: drive the 20 minutes from home to Montessori school to retrieve L at 2:45 pm.
• 3:30-5 pm: insert afternoon activities here.
• 5-6 pm on Tuesday and Thursday: Rock climbing wall time at the Y.
• 6:30 definitely home to eat dinner!
• 7:30 pm: get ready for bed...
• 8 pm: Hallelujah!  Bed time for kids!

And then after that is all the cleaning and stuff I didn't get done because I was too busy driving all over the place to do it during the day. Yay! I am looking forward to the schedule quieting down a bit in the coming days. And I'm looking forward to the return of the all-day school day for L! Yeesh. Oh, and here are our pictures so far this month, so you can see what we have been up to:

We did a half-mile race at Busch Gardens that was sponsored by Chic-Fil-A called: "Running with the Cows."  Miss Leah got up and went with us because F was away for work.  M was pretty thrilled to have a sleep-out (read: sleep over) with Miss L the night before because we had to leave the house at 6:30 am.  It was super fun!  In this photo, Angel Face Anna is upset because she was terrified of the cow mascots....she actually threw herself on the ground and threw a shrieking, shaking, sloberry fit that cleared a nice area around the start line for us because her brothers wanted to dance with the cows, but she didn't and I didn't want them to be kidnapped, so we had to move closer to them anyway...

"I'm gonna run super fast!  Like lightning!"  And he sure did!  M ran the whole half-mile without stopping...well, unless you count that time he fell on his face as stopping...

"Hey, Mom!  I ran faster than the speed of sound!"  L ran pretty hard the whole half-mile, too!  It was fun to watch him.  I had to leave Anna with Leah and run with L...then we doubled back to pick up Mikey who was a few minutes behind us.  The real race was a 5 miler (the guy who won it ran it in a little over 25 minutes!)...our friend, the famous Miss Brook ran it and we were so thrilled to be able to cheer her on!  And to play with her daughters...

"EAT MORE CHICKEN!"  It's the cows' motto and the kids thought it was hilarious!  Anna...er...warmed up to the cows once she got some hot chocolate.  We picked up Miss Brook's girls for this photo...

Anna started writing her name...

Mikey scaled the climbing wall at the YMCA like SpiderMan.  He got all the way to the top!

She started reading short books at school and brought her first one home to read to us!  She's yelling, "MY DADDY WILL BE SO PROUD OF ME!" in this photo

We saw Santa at Langley AFB where L was able to hug him...we went to the tree lighting ceremony where we got to sing a bunch of carols (the boys were hysterically funny when they were dancing...especially Mikey)...

Mikey decided to be an astronaut...with a beer box as his helmet...

We went to L's school for a gingerbread making party where he made an Arctic Home Igloo instead of a house and basically ate his weight in icing before I could get there to intercede (we were delayed by the fact that I'd run out of wipes and had to go to Target where Anna threw one of the worst tantrums in her lifetime)...

Miss Leah came over and made gingerbread houses with the other two later that day!  I don't know why she likes to hang out with us, but she does!

Today was F's work's Children's Party.  Santa volunteered to come to see us!  Yay!  Here is Mikey telling Santa he'd like to have some trains, airplanes, and trucks for Christmas.

Anna was over the moon for Santa.  She spent several minutes holding his hands and asking after the health of the reindeer.  Also, professing her love for him.  And the elves.  And the toys.  Here she is telling Santa how old she will be on her next birthday...

L was excited to see the Big Man, but a bit more interested in the present.  He did manage to outline his plan for his life:  1. Join the Navy and become a pilot like Dad. 2. Stop flying for the Navy and join the Air Force, just like Dad; and 3. Become a civilian Boeing 777 pilot and fly commercial jets.  Not like Dad.  Oh, and save the whales!

In all of the chaos of the last 2 weeks, I have also made sugar cookies twice, gotten gift cards for the kids' teachers, and stealth-shopped for presents with 2 kids in tow.  This is not as easy as it might sound.  Also, people are nuts at Toys-R-Us at this time of year, even at 11:50 in the morning.  L was still at school, he'd have been on to me in a heartbeat if I'd tried that while he was around.  Luckily, Mikey was too busy peeing his pants in the aisle to figure it out and Anna was pouting because she wanted me to buy her some toys.  Yay for self-centered commercialism among preschoolers!  And by the way, nothing stamps "Mom" so firmly on your forehead as tucking a pair of pee-stained (and stinky) pants into your purse because you have no other place to put them as you drag your kids back to the check-out stand in a toy store! 
P.S. Making sugar cookies with 3 preschoolers who don't care about the possibility of salmonella poisoning while they fling sugar sprinkles all over the dining room isn't as relaxing and idyllic as one might think when they envision holiday celebrations before they actually have children...

November Roundup...

Anna demonstrates the arabesque...she really loves ballet, but she also throws fits every Monday afternoon when I say it is ballet time, saying that she doesn't like it and doesn't want to go.  Why did I get the 3 year old that is already a teenager?

Front view...

Now, this was taken at L's gymnastics session at the Y.  Not sure how she got these moves without seeing the movie Flashdance!  M is in the background, preparing to swing like a monkey from the rings.  You may recall this red dress is the dress that Anna screamed and kicked and fought against wearing last year to her aunt's wedding.  She is currently in a pretty dress phase...so she often requests this dress (which amuses me as F thought he'd be arrested for child abuse last year when he made her wear this dress and she put up such a fuss and he was worried someone might think he was beating her or something, instead of just making her wear a fancy dress)....

I think I mentioned that L's kindergarten teacher is awesome and this is why!  She gievs him his own math and reading so that he isn't bored and daydreaming and paying less attention to her than he already does (to be fair, he is a good student, he just doesn't respond at all if he doesn't want to stop doing what he is doing and he knows you want him to...as Mrs. F says, "We're working on that.")  He is happy and we are happy, we'll just have to start praying now that we get a good 1st grade teacher next year...sigh...

F was having a nice quiet reading time when M, the monster, came and crashed the party.  He put on a winter hat (it was nearly 80 degrees that day), draped his beloved blue blankie over his head, slapped on some mittens and started stumbling aroung at us.

Here is my knight in shining armor...I got him this costume after Halloween because they mark all the left overs down so much and costumes would be great Christmas presents here!  Unfortunately, he spilled his water bottle on his shirt at the park before gymnastics and all I had were the costumes stashed in the back of the van so he got to be a knight!  Which is good because it gives him a way to dress up in shiny clothes and yet not be wearing a princess dress!  Everyone wins!

Doing some moves at L's gymnastics again.  Miss M, one of Anna's teachers, gave us all these awesome tutus...and um...she's been wearing them ever since.  They inspire her to dance, she says...

We went to the Holiday parade last weekend and L was outraged that everyone was already celebrating Christmas while ignoring Thanksgiving entirely.  He's been irritated all week about it (he got especially annoyed in the stores where they had Christmas decorations up) and was wishing everyone a "Happy Thanksgiving" very pointedly.  He told me he thinks it isn't respectful to forget Thanksgiving.  So last Saturday, he came home and organized his very own Thanksgiving Day Parade complete with a sign and musical instruments.  He had his siblings and Daddy marching along behind him on the boardwalk, singing Thanksgiving songs he composed while banging on a plastic bottle.  The fire truck picture was taken at Operation Hero Day at the base...they organized all kinds of activities for the kids to thank them for the sacrifices they make when their parents deploy to serve the country.  While the kids haven't had F deploy in a long time, they do certainly miss out on some time with Daddy (who, let's be honest, is way more patient with them than I am, but I'm working on it)...here is the fire truck the kids were able to climb on...we watched them extend the ladder the full 100 ft...

Inside the Fire Truck...M told me a while ago that he is going to be a Fireman someday so that he can rescue me if I get into an accident.  That might after he becomes an Army Man...I'll have to check with him on that...

The kids got some camo paint done by some airmen who volunteered their time on a Saturday morning for this event.  (Anna is apparently getting camo'd up to spend some time in a pink garden)...M sat so, so still for this!  I guess we have to whip out the face paint when he gets too rambunctious...

L getting his face painted...I love that little dude, but sometimes I take some creepy looking pictures of him!

I don't think she could get any pinker...

"Now you can't see me!  Well, okay, only my sweatshirt.  But you can't see my face!"

M, the Army Man, all ready for the next field exercise...

Flower Girl...

A spent some time making cards for her friends later that day...she is still enamoured with my friend's sons who moved to Maryland over the summer...

Our weekend wouldn't be complete without a Mikey mishap!  We were at the park when M was running (he was pretending to be a baby squirrel), his feet slipped out from under him and wham!  Right on his face on the log.  It looks worse than it was (despite the blood that gushed from his nose, he didn't break it)...it has almost healed completely in a week.

"I felled on my nose, Mama."

The Fourth Pilgrim and the most helpful one.  L's role in the class Thanksgiving play.  He was the one who fetched a pot for Squanto.  We got to eat a lunch of black bean soup that was boiling hot with L in the foyer of his school.  It was a really nice time (the twins came, too...and that was less pleasant.  It is trickey eating really hot stuff while an extremely tired and fussy 3 year old is squirming around on your lap.  I really love that we have so many opportunities to hang out with L in his class.

This little Pilgrim needs to work on his table manners...

Yay for Grampy and Dawn!  The kids were thrilled for their arrival on Wednesday morning (they stayed in a hotel Tuesday night, so we didn't see them til Wednesday).  I can't remember what we did that day, but I am sure we had a good time!  Here is Grampy trying to read a story to all the kids at one time while L is making his "happy face". 

Happy Thanksgiving Day!  I got up early to prepare the turkey for the oven before I ran a 5K (3.1 mile) race in Williamsburg with Miss Leah!  It was her first race and I was determined that she would finish it, so I ran it with her.  She had convinced herself that she wasn't a runner...and I've been there, thinking I couldn't run, so I was committed to helping her achieve her goal.  It was a beautiful morning and a lovely race course.  A perfect way to start Thanksgiving!  We did it in 29:57, not too shabby for a first race.  She's excited to sign up for another race in the future.

We had a big weekend of firsts.  On Friday, L started riding his 2 wheeler for the first time!  We'd taken off his pedals and lowered his seat so he could get used to scooting around and getting his balance.  Well, Friday, Grampy and Daddy put his pedals on and he was zipping around the boardwalk so fast I could hardly keep up with him!  He has probably biked about 10 miles in the last 3 days, total.  He loves it!  We also got M's little bike tires patched and pumped up, so he's wheeling around the fort after his brother.  Anna still seems more interested in talking than in pedaling, so our bike ride was a bit slower.  She is still on her tricycle, so that might be slowing her down.  Here she is yesterday on her scooter, off looking for adventure.  You may notice that she put her doggy in her hood so she could have her hands free to steer and yet bring her along.  She named her dog, Nyla, after a very special dog in Oregon...