Norah News: Birthday Party

We had Norah's birthday party this past weekend.  Since she's been talking about it since August, and it's somewhat of a milestone birthday, we figured we'd go big, and have the party outside the house somewhere.  We've been to a LOT of birthday's recently, and I was looking for something a little different, a little more Norah... well, I found it, and then some! 

We had a Ballerina Tea Party at a local dance studio, which also happens to be in a really neat old Mill building.  We had a total of about 15 kids, and from what I can tell - everyone had a great time.  

Here's the star of the show, waiting to greet her guests

Tea cups and cupcakes at the ready!

A few warm up moves...

Norah in action!

Ta-dah!

Showing Roddie how to get truly prepared...

The girls begin to arrive, and though most were in dance attire, you can never really have enough accessories

Once everyone arrived, we started with a story, Angelina Ballerina no less!

The girls, and Liam were loving the story

Then, we moved on to a dance lesson 

Most everyone danced up a storm

Courtney was our smallest ballerina

Even the moms enjoyed the show!

Norah, shy as ever, really hated the spotlight

Next we moved on to the tea party.  Norah had a special seat and a special cupcake

Drinking tea takes practice..

The whole gang at high tea, including one superhero

After tea, we moved on to a craft project, followed by the gift opening.  I'm mixed on opening gifts at parties especially for really little kids, but I think by 5 they understand the idea of giving gifts.  Anyway, Norah was (more or less) gracious about the gifts, though we felt a little strange hauling more than a dozen pink packages out to the van.

The whole gang!

 Lastly, here's a group picture of all the kids.  That's (L-R) Lauren C, Haley, Cassandra, Erin D, Allie, Riya, Norah, Erin C, Lauren K, Liam and Samantha.  On the floor there's Roddie, Savannah, Julia and Elsa.  We could not have been happier with how things went.  It was very easy for us and just the right thing for Norah and her crowd.

Foto Finish Friday: 2013 Week 7

Foto Finish Friday: 2013 Week 6

Storm Report: Snowmageddon 2013

You may have heard that we had a little snow storm here last week.  Well, more than a little, more like a big snow storm, though not quite as big as expected.  They figured it would roll in some time last Friday, and drop from 2 to 3 feet of snow.  As a result, pretty much everything was closed from Friday morning,even though the snow didn't start until mid afternoon, and we got closer to 2 feet than 3.  It was really windy though, and we were pretty much housebound for 2 days.  It was actually illegal to drive on the roads in most of MA until late Saturday afternoon!

We watched a little more TV than usual...

and also the snow...

the sleeping bags were brought out for movies

and hallway camping

we eventually got outside on a beautiful sunny Sunday

Roddie was not afraid of the snow this time!  He says "I love playing in the snow!"

Dad got to play in the snow too!

Happy Birthday to ME!

Foto Finish Friday: 2013 Week 5

Life on the Other side...

I’ve been really noticing lately how big the kids are getting – Roddie is really starting to fill out -  he’s still got long limbs, but they seem almost the same size as Norah’s some days.  I also noticed that his body core has gotten much wider as well, during one of our late night sleep interruptions recently.  Norah seems to grow out of her pants on a regular basis, usually just after she finally decided she liked a particular pair!  I am thankful that leggings are not only in vogue for little girls and acceptable by Norah, but also quite forgiving in the length department.

I’m also acutely aware of the pending change to kindergarten for Norah.  Registration, after school care, school vacations…all these things are on my calendar already.  She’s also thinking of playing town soccer, you know, on a team, not lessons, this year and we’ve started shopping for a new dance class, now that she won’t be taking lessons at daycare.  Oh, and there is that 5^th birthday party coming up in a few weeks…

Roddie can sing his ABC’s, and recognize most of them.  He has favorite colors, pants, and toys.  He’s differentiating himself from his sister and at the same time they care for each other like no other.

All of these things are indications that we’re moving on to a new phase with the kids – truth be told, we’ve moved on – donated the crib, high chairs, booster seats and so on, but it wasn’t until this morning that it really hit me.

I saw a mom dropping off her child in the infant room, and as she left to go out to her car I noticed she had the tell-tale black Medela cooler – the one that comes with the breast pump.  Man, I thought, I don’t miss those days!  Then, as she drove away, I noticed another mom – turns out it was Roddie’s special pal Kendal’s mom – taking 2 kids out of her car.  Kendall is 2.5 and her little sister is less than six months old – so still in the carrier car seat.  Kendall’s mom, usually very attractive and well put together,  looked anything but herself.  In her defense, she’s either just back to work, or going back soon, but I wanted to give her a hug and tell her that it does get easier!   The winter when Norah and Roddie were roughly that age was definitely the hardest time for the morning routine.

The weather will warm up, the baby will learn to walk, and before you know it you’ll be registering for Kindergarten and wanting to give some other mom, who is where you’ve been, a hug.  It happens faster than you’d think.

Adventure Chronicles: Library!

I actually took these pictures with Foto Finish Friday in mind, but, well, there were other pictures to post, and let's be honest, I forgot!  I took these a week ago last Saturday, and while I could use them this week and you'd never be the wiser, I'd know!

Matt has been working on some things for the house and I've been trying to keep us out of his way, for at least a little bit of time each weekend.  It's not always easy when the weather is cold... we've done lots of errand-running, mall playground visiting and even took a trip to a nearby airport to check out some airplanes a couple of weeks ago.  Anyway, I decided the library might be a good idea! 

Both kids love books, 'reading' on their own, together, and being read to, at bed time or pretty much any time.  I'm told this bodes well for their future academic success (I'll take it)  Norah has been to the library several times, and even has her own library card.  She loves the idea of "buying" books to take home, and always gets a couple for Roddie also.

Rod, on the other hand, had not yet been to the great hall of books... and I'm happy to report there isn't much of a story to tell.  He did great, behaved well, chose a few books (Batman!) and even used the potty while we were there.  All in all, it was a great success, and we only left because it was well past lunch time and we were hungry!

Our town library has a great kids section, with plenty of books, comfy chairs (bean bag and otherwise)  They also have legos, a train table, an aquarium, some hamsters and while it's generally a quiet area, it's separate from the adult areas, and really allows kids to be kids.  I think we should go back again more often!

 

Doing their own library thang...

Norah showing Roddie the ropes

I wish they'd sleep...

... When I put them down for a nap... But sibling love is hard to beat! Lately I pretty regularly find them snuggled up together reading a book in Norah's bed.

Foto Finish Friday: 2013 Week 5