Tea with Santa

One of the things I really like about N's school, is all the community activities they have. One we joined in on before Christmas was "Tea with Santa," where families get to come and have tea (early dinner) with Santa (or Father Christmas as he's often referred to here.)

It was fun to get to spend some quality time talking to Santa (we had him all to ourselves for quite a while!) without having to stand in any long mall lines. Thank you N's school!

However, not all of us were excited about meeting Santa. Here the elf is showing us into Santa's room... Notice e's excitement!

But, surely once we get up to Santa, my extremely outgoing middle child will get excited, right?

Yep, look at that excitement on his face! What, you can't see little e? Oh yeah, that would be because he refused to go anywhere near Santa at this point! (Although, to be fair, he was sort of a creepy looking Santa... what's with the fur over the eyes dude?)

Finally, at the very end of our conversation we got e to go stand next to daddy for a picture. Now, there's a happy child! I think C even looks happier and he's not even two weeks old!

For the record, when Santa asked what they would like for Christmas this year, N replied "a train." Shocking. And e replied, well nothing. He also refused to talk. Santa also wanted to make sure he had the boys on his list, so he asked them their house number... N recited our phone number, which is really much more impressive because it's like 20 numbers long!

Anyway, we got the picture, even with a scowling e!

And Baby C makes five!

Welcome to the family C! Let the chaos begin...

I went into labor with C at 2 am two days before his due date (the other boys were each only one day before... guess C just had to be different!) Around 5 I woke E and we headed to the hospital... where C didn't feel like making his appearance until 10:22. Yes, an eight hour labor, which seemed excruciatingly long, especially since e only took four! Part of the problem was that I was battling a head cold, and so couldn't breath... sort of an important part of delivering a baby. I actually walked into L & D with my own box of kleenex. Never a good sign!

He weighed just under eight pounds... but lost almost a pound in his first two weeks. He did finally gain all that back, but never has looked quite as chubby as he did in these first pictures!

I think that is the ugliest hospital hat ever, by the way.

That afternoon the boys got to come in and visit their new little brother, however a package from Grandma had arrived the same day, and they were much more interested in finding out what was in the package than meeting C. We eventually got them to sit down for a photo. e's expression says it all! I'm still not sure he knows what to make of being a big brother, he keeps telling us Baby Cow is his baby brother, not C!

After only one night in the hospital (thank goodness...) we were headed home. Um, yeah, we sort of forgot to bring that newborn insert thing for the car seat, so we just rolled up a blanket instead. Ooops, it's been a while since we've had a newborn!

Daddy bringing him into the house for the first time, and after school we let N hold him. He is very gentle with him, and a very concerned (probably soon turning to controlling) big brother!

Just a couple of days after bringing C home, we decided to get a Christmas card photo of all three boys... not an easy task. These are what we ended up with. We have #1, also known as "strangle your baby brother"

And photo #2, "squish your baby brother."

We decided to go with squishing!

And here is C with his blanket and bear at one week. We will take this picture every month until he turns one. We did the same with N and e with an Alaskan moose and black bear, so we thought the Union Jack bear was appropriate!

One Thankful Turkey

I'm cruising through these posts, and am all the way to Thanksgiving now! (Good thing November was a bit of a slow month...) Anyway, we had a little project going throughout the month at our house.

Right at the end of October we had our first parent / teacher conference with N's teacher. She told us one of the things he needed to work on was his scissor skills... how will he ever get into collage! They're also doing lots of handwriting at school, so I stole this idea from a friend of mine to help with both.

We wrote the things we were thankful for on feathers (that N cut out) throughout the month. N kept coming up with pretty creative things to write, like "Fun 2 Play", an indoor playground near by, and airplanes. One day he asked me what I was thankful for, and I said, "my friends." He took the liberty of putting that on a feather for me, and he wrote, "N, e, Daddy." Apparently I don't have any friends outside this house! All month long we kept asking e what he was thankful for, and all he would say is, "Baby Cow." Baby Cow is a little plastic cow that he is completely attached to. Apparently e loves him more than us!

Anyway, it turned out really well, despite my horrible artistic skills. We sort of missed the turkey in the window when we took it down!

Conversations with N and e

Earlier this week, little e and I were having lunch. It was just the two of us, and e wanted to know where N and Daddy were. We talked about that N eats lunch at school now (he just started full days this term... it's still a little rocky!) And then I said daddy was at work... here's the rest of the conversation.

e: Is he flying?

me: No, daddy is in the tower today.

e: Oh

me: We've been to the tower, haven't we?

e: Yeah, I like the tower.

me: What's your favorite thing about going to the tower?

e: Eating. It's my favorite thing to do.

Just so you know, while in the tower we get to see jets land and take off. We have seen cargo planes fly by, seen a helicopter land, and hear the air traffic controllers talk on the radio. But e just cares about the food we take up for dinner... yup, he's got my genes!

As a comparison, N came home from school the same day super excited because they were building an airport in their classroom (complete with a walk-through security check!) He told me he had made an airplane for it in school that day. But he said it still needed, "a runway, taxiway, parking spots, and a control tower!" I said maybe he could help make those the next day. His eyes got really big and he said, "I won't have enough time in free learning time to do all that!" Yup, one kid loves airports as much as the other loves his dinner.

On another note, yesterday morning N said to me, "Mommy, I have a project for you!" He then preceded to pull the overflowing laundry basket out of his room. "Laundry!" Oh, lucky me. N, I don't think laundry can be a project, because a project is something you start, work on for a time, and actually finish. The laundry is never finished... never!

Happy Halloween!

This year we really had a lot of fun with Halloween. N remembered it well from last year, and was excited all month long. We had a fun countdown calendar in the kitchen with little treats in them (usually stickers, with an occasional sucker) for each day. Many days the boys went to school with Halloween stickers on their shirts!

When I asked N what he wanted to be for Halloween, he replied, "a pilot in my uniform." For the third year in a row mind you. What can I say, the kid likes airplanes! We have gotten good use out of that Royal Bag flight suit!

Little e, however, had grown out of his, so wearing the flight suit again wasn't an option for him. So I asked him what he wanted to dress as for Halloween. He said he wanted a "pointy hat," like a witches hat. We asked him repeatedly throughout the month, and the response was always, "pointy hat!" So I went in search for a wizard's costume with a pointy hat. No luck. Only witches. So Grandma to the rescue found a pointy hat and wand to send to make him a wizard. However, somewhere before Halloween we lost the wand, leaving just a witch's hat. But I was still telling e he was going to be a wizard. Eventually he realized that he did not want to be a wizard, but a witch. So there we had it, our little e, the boy witch. But seriously, how cute is he? For the record, his witch's outfit is a pair of his own black pants and one of my maternity shirts, a little rope, and viola, instant boy witch.

We went to a Halloween party, where these awesome photos were taken, and people kept asking him if he was a wizard, or a sorcerer, or a warlock... and his response was always the same. "I'm a witch!" Then the adults would look at us like we were crazy for letting our little boy dress as a witch, but we would just respond that's what he chose, and we were over it!

Then we were on to pumpkin carving. I started collecting this year's pumpkins in September (breaking my mother's rule of waiting until October 1 to get some...) I love to carve pumpkins. I come by it naturally. I especially find great joy in cleaning the guts out of the inside. I know, I'm weird. My children, however, do not share this joy with me. They're more like their dad, they enjoying designing and carving the faces. This left me quite a few pumpkins to clean out!

Here are our finished products. We found most of the patterns online, but the Rocket one was a gift from Grandma B... it tested E's carving skills, but it turned out awesome! We got tons of compliments on our pumpkins during trick-or-treating, and we all had a lot of fun with them.

When it was finally time for trick-or-treating, N was beside himself excited. He seriously could have gone around the whole neighborhood. e however, was slightly less impressed, and after about five houses, was ready to go home.

Here they are on the way out. Notice the reflective belt, safety first!

The Hawks were playing on TV, so after the big event, we vegged on the couch, checking out the boys' loot and rooted on the Hawkeyes. Notice daddy stole N's pixie stick... and the like father, like son, eating technique!

Castle Acre & Priory

Well, after some not-so-gentle prodding from family, I've returned to the blog. This will be a boring post, but something I'll probably forget if I don't blog about it... so sorry!

Way back in October (yes, I know...) we took advantage of the beautiful fall we had here and went up to another local castle site. This one was completely in ruins, but there was an old priory nearby that was also mostly in ruins, but was still really, really neat to walk around. (Or climb around for the boys!)

The priory was built in phases beginning in the 12th century, then torn down in 1537 under the rule of Henry VIII, when the priory and it's grounds were given to the Duke of Norfolk.

The boys inside the priors house. (This part was still standing because it was still usable to the Duke... I will say, the prior had a pretty fancy house, I can see why the Duke wanted it!) Notice the audio guides... again.

We had a picnic on the grounds. As I write this it's cold and snowy, and has been for weeks. It's hard to believe it was ever this sunny here!

N rolling down a hill, while (or whilst, since I'm in England) listening to the audio guide. Did I mention he's obsessed?

N running through the ruins of the sanctuary. Seriously, how cool is that?

I love this picture of e climbing on the ruins of a giant column in the nave. Only in Europe is it perfectly acceptable for your preschooler to climb on 900 year old stone ruins.

This is the front of the church, still standing because it provides a load bearing wall to the prior's house on the far right. I think it's a really neat image with the blue sky peeking through the arches.

Little e was obsessed with this particular leaf. He carried it with him for the rest of the day until he rolled down a hill on top of it, and squished it to bits.

It was a beautiful fall day, and I snapped many more photos, but this is my favorite. They are up on a hill overlooking the castle sight, you should have seen e trying to climb up this very steep hill to get up there!

Stay tuned for more updates... hopefully!