Hanukkah

Ever since Claire was a small baby, she has always loved when my husband and I sing the blessings after lighting the candles on the menorah during each night of Hanukkah. This year, Claire decided to join in and sing some of the Hebrew words with us. She calls it "the pledge." She enjoyed singing with us each night and helping to light the candles. But, the part of Hanukkah she enjoyed the most was, of course, the presents. Except on night #5.

On the 5th night of Hanukkah (Christmas), Claire was excited to open her gift, as usual. When she opened up the large brown cardboard box covered in menorah paper, she immediately said, "I didn't want clothes for Hanukkah! I wanted toys!"

Despite one night of clothes, Claire had a great Hanukkah. She loved all of her gifts.

Christmas

We all slept in a little on Christmas morning after a late night out the night before. Claire woke up, went into the hallway and picked up a Barbie Doctor set that she had asked me to open for her the night before (Note to self: If I open a new gift and set it up in the hallway, Claire will wake up and begin playing with the toy allowing me to sleep in! A win-win situation!).

After making ourselves presentable, we drove over the river and through the woods to Grandma and Grandpa's house to see if Santa left any presents for Claire. She must have been good this past year, because there was a whole pile of presents under the tree with her name on them! She opened them all before her cousins arrived and was so thrilled with each of the gifts.

This year we had a full house for Christmas because my cousins and Trish and Johnny celebrated with us. We had a nice dinner consisting of spicy lasagna and ham, the proceeded to open gifts. Christmas Day was another whirlwind of gift opening. The kids (3 readers) were able to read the gift tags, pass out gifts and open any gifts bearing their names. The good news was that the gift opening festivities did not take hours. The bad news was that we didn't really get to see what everyone received because of the paper-ripping frenzy. Next year we will be more organized!

Christmas Eve

This year, Christmas Eve was extra special since it was my 60th birthday (according to Claire). I will gladly take "60" because, if I were in fact 60, I would look quite fabulous for my age! My brother and his wife hosted a lovely soiree complete with delectable appetizers, an unbelievable Chilean sea bass dinner and lots of family fun!

The kids eyed the many, many gifts under the Christmas tree, but they were very patient and did not beg us to open gifts the entire day. Once the gift opening began, however, there was a whirlwind of activity with paper flying all over the place amidst squeals of delight and joy. Since both Claire and her cousin can now read, they were reading the names on the gift tags, passing gifts by until they came to packages with their names on them, then proceeding to open them immediately. Next year we'll have to slow things down a bit so we can fully enjoy each of the gifts as they're opened.

We ended the evening with everyone singing Happy Birthday to me and enjoying a delicious ice cream cake. I couldn't have thought of a better way to celebrate my 60th birthday!

Ryan's 6th Birthday

It's hard to believe that Ryan is 6 years old! It seems like just yesterday he was a tiny baby and now he's a soccer-playing, book-reading, two-wheeler-riding first grader!

We helped Ryan celebrate his birthday at a fabulous miniature golf course complete with knights, water features and a castle! Everyone had so much fun playing through the course, playing games in the arcade and feasting on pizza and Lego cupcakes.

Afterwards, we had a little family party back at his house complete with extra rare hamburgers and ice cream cake. Ryan was thrilled opening all of his gifts (Note to self: Buy Lego stock) and being the center of attention on his special day.

Legos!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mimi's 91st Birthday

We celebrated my grandmother's 91st birthday today with a small family get together at my parents' house (My husband couldn't attend since he was flying over the Atlantic Ocean on his way to London. He was greatly missed.). The little kids played so nicely together all day while all of the adults chatted and caught up. Since we don't see each other that often, it's so nice when we have the opportunity to spend time together.

We managed to take our annual "wagon picture." Next year there will be 5 kiddies in the wagon as my cousin and his wife are expecting. They shared the exciting news today when they gave my grandmother a picture frame containing a sonogram as a birthday gift. We are so excited for them!

When the sun was perched high in the sky, partially hidden behind some fluffy white clouds, a rainbow appeared. One of my cousins said that it was his mom (Aunt Karen) making the rainbow in the sky to let us know she was there. Shortly thereafter, the heavens opened up and it POURED!

At the end of the day, before everyone had to start their journeys home, we sang Happy Birthday and enjoyed some delicious birthday cake. It was such a nice family day!

Our Mini Pennsylvania Vacation

We had planned to get away for a few days last week, but were unable to because of Aunt Susana's passing. Luckily we were able to reschedule for this week.

We left town on Wednesday, went to PA and took care of some business matters in Montgomery County and Philly, then drove to Harrisburg to our hotel. Basically, we spent all day in the car. Claire was a trooper! Thank goodness for our DVD player. Claire watched Lilo and Stitch about one hundred times in the car, so it really helped her to pass the time.

After getting settled in our hotel (Note for future trips: a queen bed is not big enough for tall people and always insist on a room away from the elevator.), we went to a fabulous restaurant, The Firehouse, then made a quick stop at Bass Pro Shops to pick up some men's footwear appropriate for a day at an amusement/water park. We would have loved to have explored the store, but we only had 10 minutes before closing time.

On Thursday we woke up bright and early (Okay, around 8:00.), grabbed some breakfast on the go and drove to Hershey Park. Following a friend's recommendation, we walked all the way into the park and secured a locker by The Boardwalk, Hershey's waterpark. The Lazy River, wave pool, Sandcastle Cove and East Coast Waterworks were where we spent most of our time. Claire's favorite was the little wave pool where we spent over an hour.

Several hours passed and, when we had had enough water, we went to a few dry rides, then packed up and went back to the hotel to relax in the pool and whirlpool. Without a plan for dinner, I suggested we go back to The Chocolate Avenue Grill where we had gone last year, so we drove 20 minutes back to Hershey where we enjoyed a delicious dinner. The Chocolate Avenue Grill was a good choice. Again.

When we woke up on Friday morning, we packed up our belongings and drove to Easton, PA to visit The Crayola Factory.

It was such a fun little place! Claire created many art projects while there -- a print of a fish, a seahorse stick puppet, crayon rubbings, sand art, a Model Magic sculpture, etc.

It was fun exploring the "factory" and we especially enjoyed the demonstration where we learned how Crayola makes crayons and markers. A visit to the Crayola store was the last stop on our journey. We saw lots of fun Crayola products as well as the world's largest crayon, but we didn't find the one item Claire wanted to get as a souvenir (something her friend, Ema, had gotten there). She settled for a paper doll art project and we promised we'd see if we can order what she really wanted to get online.

It was a wonderful, albeit exhausting, little family trip! When I put Claire to bed on Friday night, we had the following conversation:

Claire: Mommy, I liked going to Hershey and The Crayola Factory, but I really love being back at home.

Me: It's fun to go away on vacation, but it's always nice to come back to our home, sweet, home.

Claire: There's no place like home.

Easter 2011

Our Easter preparations began last night when we dyed a dozen hard boiled eggs. Claire was eager to dye the eggs and helped me prepare the dyes, then told me which eggs to put in which teacups and when the eggs were a satisfactory color ("Leave it in longer. It's not dark enough!" "Take it out. It's perfect.").

The result was a bright and colorful dozen. Since no one else in our family eats hard boiled eggs, I suppose I will be eating all of them this week. Anyone want to join me for an egg salad sandwich or other meal where hard boiled eggs are the main ingredient?

This morning, Claire woke up and went straight downstairs. I could hear her gasp, "Oh my!" when she saw that the Easter Bunny had made his yearly visit. She quickly ran upstairs to show me some Pocoyo figurines (aka "guys") that were in her Easter basket. I removed the figurines from the packaging and she took them to her room and introduced them to her other guys. After playing for a while, she came to get me because she was hungry for breakfast. We went downstairs and I saw *for the first time* the loot left by the Easter Bunny. I read the letter he left which informed Claire that he had hidden 12 shiny eggs in the family room. She immediately started hunting for the eggs and, with a little help, the was able to find all 12.

We drove to my parents' house for our official Easter celebration. After feasting on appetizers, the big kids began hunting for 30 eggs (hidden by yours truly) in the yard. I think I overestimated their abilities because they needed some help finding some of the eggs. With 6 eggs left, we took a break and went inside for a delicious filet dinner. The kids were eager to get back outside to find the rest of the hidden eggs after dinner and they were able to find five with assistance, but no one (including me!) could find that last egg. Grandpa was sure he was going to eventually run over it with his lawnmower. Grandma, however, found the egg a while later after it had rained. Needless to say, the egg and its contents were not able to be enjoyed.

We finished our Easter celebration with some low key desserts (low key = There were less people than number of different desserts served.). My grandmother brought a sweet little Easter cake which gave us the perfect opportunity to start off Claire's Birthday Week by singing happy birthday to her! She will be an expert wisher and candle-blower-outer by this time next week!

We had such a nice time together today. It's a good thing we like each other so much because we will be spending the next two Sundays together. Stay tuned!

Birthdays!!!

Birthday party season has begun!! For the next month, we have at least one party per weekend, sometimes two. It concludes with Claire's 5th birthday party on May 1st. Our social calendar isn't quite as full in May (hint, hint).

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Yesterday, we went to our friends' house to celebrate Maddie's second birthday! The kids had a great time playing and the beautiful weather allowed them to play outside on the deck. It was wonderful to get some fresh air and sunshine! Maddie was especially cute when her whole face lit up as everyone sang Happy Birthday to her. We even sang it a second time, then she blew out the candles on her adorable "hop bum" cake (translation: bunny) designed by her mommy. We had such a nice time helping Maddie celebrate. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at the party, so I will copy a few once Maddie's mommy posts them. : )

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Today, was Peter's first birthday party. We can hardly believe he's one already! It seems like just yesterday I got a call at 1:00 am asking me to come over and watch Ryan because my sister in law's water broke. Little Peter arrived early on Easter morning 2010.

My brother and sister in law had a small family party. Peter was a little shy at first, but completely adorable. He slowly warmed up to all of his guests. Ryan enjoyed his favorite pastime, playing Super Mario Brothers on Wii with some of the older guests. Claire was quite social, talking to everyone, telling jokes and stories. It was a relaxing, low key party.

We ate lots of great sandwiches and salads for lunch. Later, we sang Happy Birthday to Peter. He was very interested in the cake and tried to get his fingers on the #1 birthday candle. Eventually, he ate bite after bite of cake and frosting. He loved it! I think Peter's favorite part of the day was opening gifts! He loved playing with the gifts as they were opened (So did Claire and Ryan!). All in all, it was such a special day. We were so happy that we were able to celebrate Peter's birthday because he has such a special place in our hearts!!!

Grandpa's Birthday

President's Day was the perfect time to celebrate my dad's birthday since everyone was off from work. The six adults feasted on 200 clams cooked on the grill by my husband. They were delish! We also had hamburgers (Claire ate 1/2 of one!), then sang "Happy Birthday" and enjoyed strawberry shortcake. It was a fun family day!

40th Anniversary

My parents had their 40th wedding anniversary in January. We've never been much for anniversary celebrations, but we decided to do something special for this one because it was a biggie (and my grandmother said we should). We immediately thought of the perfect way to celebrate and made reservations at Perona Farms for their awesome Sunday bruncheon. The last time we went was six years ago to celebrate my dad's birthday.

My parents, my brother and his family, my grandmother and our family all went to the bruncheon which was delicious!!! It was a little more crowded than we would have liked because there were two parties there (including a large group of hungry Boy Scouts who may wish to work on a badge on manners and etiquette), in addition to all of the regular bruncheon guests. We feasted on shrimp, clams, oysters, home made donuts, waffles, blueberry pancakes, eggs, bagels, bread, croissants, fresh fruit and assorted desserts. It was especially nice for my grandmother who used to visit Perona Farms often as a young lady since her parents had a lake house in Lake Mohawk (My parents and grandmother tried to locate said lake house on the way back to our house, but were unable to find it due to the massive amount of snow on all of the properties and the fact that they renumbered all of the house numbers.).

We couldn't let the occasion pass by without a cake. My husband insisted on an ice cream cake since EVERYONE likes ice cream cake. After relaxing and chatting for a while, we enjoyed cake. It was a wonderful family day! Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!!! We love you both sooooooo much!!!

A Very Merry Christmas

We had such a nice Christmas today. We headed to my parents' house around 11:00. When we arrived, Claire went to the Christmas tree and marveled at all of the gifts there. She studied the gift tags until she found one that said "Claire" on it. We read the tag together: To: Claire, From: Santa. She was so excited that Santa had visited Grandma and Grandpa's house and left presents for her!! We let her open a few Santa presents and she was thrilled with the gifts she received. I just love experiencing the magic of Christmas with Claire!

Later, after my brother and his family arrived, we opened a few more presents that were nestled under the tree, then took a break to enjoy a dinner - filet, broccoli, rolls, potatoes and string beans. Everything was quite delicious!

The children were quick to point out that we still had more gifts to open...so we headed back to the family room. Everyone in our family must have been really good this year because there were tons of presents! After Claire opened a gift, she brought it to me and asked me to open it (for most of her gifts anyway). My dad had to help me with a few because they were wired into the boxes so tightly.

Once all of the presents were opened, it was time for dessert! I made Mr. L's cream puffs and I was eager for everyone to try them (They were great!). We enjoyed the cream puffs along with vanilla ice cream with my mom's raspberry sauce, panettone, cookies and chocolates. We always have tons of desserts.

I truly feel so lucky to have such a wonderful, fun, kind, loving family! Being part of such a family is what life is all about.

Christmas Eve

We had a great day celebrating Christmas Eve (and my birthday) at my brother and sister in law's house! They are such wonderful hosts and holidays (and regular days too!) spent there are always filled with fun, laughter and delicious food! Today was no exception. My parents were there too, of course.

Relaxing by the Christmas tree

Reading The Night Before Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa

Singing Happy Birthday to Me!

Justin and Trish's Wedding

The day after Thanksgiving we were up early to get ready for a trip to Philadelphia for my cousin Justin's wedding. When Claire woke up and came into our room, the first thing she said was, "It's wedding day! It's wedding day!" She was soooooo excited!!! After preparing and packing up, we drove to Philly. My husband's expert driving skills enabled us to get to the hotel in 2 hours and 1 minute. The Black Friday traffic was no match for him.

We met up with my parents, grandma, brother, sister in law and nephews in the lobby of the gorgeous Omni hotel in Center City where we had to wait a while for our rooms to be ready (Don't even get my mom started on the early 1:00 check-in she was promised!). Once in our room, we quickly got dressed and made the first (2:15) shuttle to the church. The church was so beautiful. We didn't mind having extra time waiting in the church for the other guests to arrive since there was so much to look at. The ceremony began shortly after 3:00. A violin and a cello beckoned the bridal party down the aisle. My cousin's fiance looked amazing in her sparkly strapless gown. My cousins looked so handsome decked out in their tuxedos -- actually, everyone looked amazing! The ceremony was perfect and there were many tears of joy shed in our part of the church. : ) I'm sure my Aunt Karen was looking down from heaven with a big smile on her face and joy in her heart. Papa too.

Following the ceremony, we took the shuttle back to the hotel to freshen up (I re-curled Claire's hair a bit.) and relax in the lounge area before taking the shuttle to the Downtown Club for the 6:00 reception. We had a nice time at the cocktail hour, enjoying lots of delicious tidbits. My husband told my cousin (the groom) that he didn't get to eat at the cocktail hour at our wedding (We were busy taking pictures.), so he was going to fully enjoy this cocktail hour. He did!

Ryan teaching Claire everything he knows about bus safety on the shuttle.

  

Ryan, Johnny, Claire and Peter

The reception was filled with lots of fun -- TONS of dancing, great food, drinks, a photo booth, a fabulous Venetian room filled with delectable desserts and lots of family time. Claire was scared to go on the dance floor by herself at first, but once she got her groove on, she was a dancing machine! She especially loved dancing with the flower girl (Rylee) and the junior bridesmaid (Makena) who were such sweet, sweet girls! She also enjoyed hanging out with Ryan and the ring bearer (Johnny). Peter took a short nap, but he was up for the majority of the reception. He is quite the party animal at 7 1/2 months! Everyone commented on how well behaved all of the children -- Claire, Ryan, Johnny, Peter, Rylee -- were.

Claire and Trish

We left at 10:30 pm, shortly before the reception was over. The children (and adults!) were all very tired from the day's events. On our short walk back to the hotel in the cold we -- all 10 of us including my 90 year old grandma and 7 1/2 month old nephew -- saw the Liberty Bell! Claire was thrilled! It was a nice way to end the evening!

Saturday morning came way too soon, but we wanted to make sure we spent some time at the family breakfast hosted by the Trish's mom. It was casual and relaxing.

We wish the new Mr. and Mrs. a life filled with love and happiness!

Thanksgiving 2010

For the past seven years we have hosted Thanksgiving at our home. My husband and I loved planning the menu and making everything so nice for our family and a few friends who have joined us over the years. This year, however, my cousin is getting married in Philadelphia the day after Thanksgiving. We were in a quandary: Should we cancel Thanksgiving altogether? Go to a restaurant? Host our traditional Thanksgiving? Then a brilliant family member had an epiphany: We should have a very casual, nontraditional Thanksgiving featuring appetizers only!! We have always said that the best part of a wedding is always the cocktail hour. Who's with me on this? The pigs in a blanket, shrimp cocktail, sushi, bacon wrapped scallops, raw bar, crab cakes, "lollipop lambchops," etc. Delish! So, a Thanksgiving with fun appetizers would be filling, fun and fabulous! Not to mention, the clean up would be much easier than roasting a whole turkey and all of the trimmings. So, that's exactly what we did! Of course we had to have very traditional desserts. It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without my mom's pumpkin or apple pie!!

Playing "Pin the Hat on the Turkey."

Naturally, I felt slightly guilty about having a turkey-less Thanksgiving, so I made one following the tutorial here. When I saw this idea I fell in love with it! Sooooooo cute!!!

A Weekend of Birthdays

We partied hard this weekend while my husband was away on a business trip!
On Saturday we celebrated Logan's 1st birthday. The party was at a church hall filled with lots of riding toys for the kids to ride as well as a bounce house. All kinds of amazing foods, including a whole roasted pig, were served -- delicious! Big Jeff, a local celebrity among the preschool crowd, had all of the kids rockin' while he performed some well-known as well as some original kids songs. In the midst of all of the fun, we sang happy birthday to Logan and he blew out the candles on a really cool rockstar cake that my cousin, baker and cake decorator extraordinaire, created.

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Later that afternoon we helped Oliver celebrate his 4th birthday. It was an intimate party at a gymnastics center where we, coincidentally, had gone with Oliver before. The kids participated in some activities led by a couple of gymnastics instructors, then let loose with some free play on all of the equipment - gigantic blow up obstacle course/slide, trampoline, long tumble track trampoline, balance beams and floor mats. Claire especially loved the trampoline and low balance beams. Her balancing has certainly improved over the last several years! All of the guests enjoyed some snacks in the party area, then feasted on an airplane-shaped cake that Oliver and his mommy created.

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On Sunday, it was my mom's birthday! We spent the day with her, my dad, my grandmother, my sister in law and my nephews. My husband and my brother were away on a trip together so they missed out on all of the fun. Claire and Ryan always enjoy playing with my parents' toys, but today they invented their own game using clothespins! If I had to give it a name, I'd call it the "Hansel and Gretel Game" because it resembles Gretel dropping stones, then breadcrumbs when she was led out into the woods -- one player closes their eyes and the other player makes a path using the clothespins, then hides at the end of the path and calls, "Ready!" The first player has to follow the path to the end and find the other player who may or may not jump out and scare them! The kids played this game many, many times in between lunch (hamburgers) and birthday cake. Grandma, Grandpa and my sister in law even participated too! It was a fun, relaxing day. We always love going to Grandma and Grandpa's house and we loved helping Grandma celebrate her birthday!!!!

Claire's 1/2 Birthday

I decided to celebrate Claire's 1/2 birthday this year for two reasons. First, I like to buy presents for Claire and I feel less guilty about doing so when there is an actual occasion that requires a gift. You know, Christmas, Hanukkah, the first day of fall, Groundhog Day... Also, I wanted to make a big deal about this half year milestone to help Claire realize that she is not just 4 anymore, but 4 1/2. She understood completely. Mission accomplished. Just ask her how old she is.

This morning when she woke up, Claire asked me what time her 1/2 birthday party was. I explained to her that we would not be having a big birthday party for her until she was 5 and that we would be celebrating her 1/2 birthday with cake and one gift that evening when my husband got home. She was cool with that.

We ran out to get a replacement pumpkin (couldn't find one!) and then stopped at a new place to get some Chinese take out. Believe it or not, they didn't have wonton soup, so we settled on seafood soup. We got home and started sharing the pint of soup. After 6-7 spoonfuls, Claire started getting faint red marks on her face and said she didn't want any more, but she wouldn't talk. She was whining and pointing to her mouth. I almost started to panic, but I kept telling her she was ok. I gave her a dose of Benadryl, but she still wouldn't talk and was crying a little (she tends to be dramatic). I was expecting my sister in law and nephews any minute. We were going to go to the pediatrician for my nephews' check-ups. I figured I'd try to get Claire to the doctor as quickly as I could in case she got worse or needed her TwinJect pen. I drove to the doctor's office while constantly checking Claire out in the rearview mirror. Once we arrived, we sat in the car since we were early and she wanted to sit on my lap. After a few minutes, she was back to her normal self, but when she spoke, her voice was raspy, almost as if she had a sore throat. I talked to the pediatrician about it, but at that point she was fine. The next time we go to the pediatric allergist, I will have her tested for shellfish.

We stopped at a great little playground on the way home from the doctor's office. Claire and Ryan had fun running around and playing. I felt a sense of relief seeing Claire play and laugh just as if the soup incident had never happened.

After a nice 1/2 birthday dinner at Frank's Pizza (Claire's choice), we sang "Happy 1/2 birthday to you...," Claire blew out 4 1/2 candles on her cake and she opened her gift: The "Beast" doll from Beauty and the Beast. She was thrilled with it all!

I'm thankful and relieved that today had a happy ending.