Trick or Treat 2011

This year for trick-or-treating Mike had a surprise for our boys… Usually Mike and I don’t dress up for trick-or-treating with the kids, but this year Mike and I thought it would be funny if we surprised the boys by having him dress up as the King Pig from Angry Birds. So once the boys were all stuffed into their costumes, we had them go outside in front of the house for pictures. Then we had Mike open the door and surprise them dressed as the King Pig:

As we went trick-or-treating from house to house that night, Mike and I were amazed how popular the boys were in their costumes. Everywhere we went, we could hear kids calling out, “Look! Angry Birds!”, “Hi, Black Angry Bird!” Two people stopped us to ask if they could take a picture of Caleb, and a couple of kids randomly came up to Aidan and gave him high fives on his costume. Needless to say, the boys enjoyed the attention. I remember Aidan smiling at me and saying, “Mommy, everyone knows me!”

We also took note that Aidan has reached the age now where he knows that trick-or-treating for candy is all about speed – going from house to house as fast as those little legs would take him.  All night, Mike and I were calling to him to slow down and wait for us. I remember there was a bit of “trick-or-treat congestion” at this one house, and as Aidan was waiting near the end of the line, I heard him yell out in panic, “What’s taking so long? I need to get some candy!”  Even Caleb wouldn’t stop going from house to house when it was clear that he was getting tired and cold. I remember Mike was carrying him, and Caleb was saying, “More house. I want more candy!” So once the kids started handing us their trick-or-treat buckets to carry because they were getting too heavy from the weight of all the candy, that’s when Mike and I told them it was time to go home. Definitely a memorable Halloween night.

Caleb's Preschool Halloween Party 2011

Caleb’s Preschool Halloween parade and class party were held the morning of Halloween day. As it turned out, Aidan didn’t have school that day, so he got to come with us to Caleb’s preschool. I didn’t want to have to stuff two birds that morning (Hee, hee! That part sounded funny just writing it!), so I asked Aidan if he would be o.k. with waiting to wear his costume later that evening when we went trick-or-treating. Aidan said that it was fine with him, because he wanted to use his hands to play his Nintendo DS. When we got to Caleb’s preschool, I stuffed his costume full of packing peanuts to help it fit him better. Then he held Aidan’s hand as he and his class marched around the preschool parking lot (They looked so cute together!).

 
As Caleb marched around the parking lot with Aidan and his class, he started to get upset…Over the past few days Aidan had been telling him that when he wore his Halloween costume that people would be giving him lots of candy. So there he was for the first time in his costume, and there was no candy in sight being handed out. Caleb found this quite disappointing. Yin-Yin and I told him that even though there was no candy being handed out, that it was so special that he was part of a Halloween parade. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to pull Caleb out of his grumpy disappointment, so he whined to go back into the school and take off his costume. Luckily, his class’s Halloween party came next and Caleb’s spirits were quickly lifted as he enjoyed the Halloween themed craft project, food, and songs. And then at the end of the party, all the kids sat in a circle and passed out Halloween party favors and treats to each other! This was definitely the part of the party that Caleb enjoyed the most!

Aidan's Kindergarten Halloween

Of course, during the month of October we can’t forget about the Halloween class parties and school parades. Aidan’s Halloween class party and school parade was held during Caleb’s naptime, so while Caleb napped I went to Aidan’s school to help him into his black Angry Bird costume.  Both Aidan and Caleb’s Angry Bird costumes turned out fitting a bit big on them this year (they were made to be worn by children ages 8 -12 years). Aidan, however, refused to be anything else for Halloween and Caleb always wants to copy his brother, so… to help the costumes fit we bought a lot of packing peanuts to stuff them with to improve the fit.  I showed up early at Aidan’s school to help stuff him into his costume.

He looked really cute, and loved showing his “Angry Bird face” for the class picture.

I didn’t realize how stuffed he was though in his costume until his teacher called out to the students, “Boys and Girls, if you can hear me then clap your hands three times!” I then heard Aidan cry out to his teacher, “I can’t clap my hands together!” It was pretty funny! His costume was so stuffed with the packing peanuts that he literally could not bring his hands together to clap. And when the teacher asked the kids to have a seat on the floor, it turned out that he was also so stuffed that he could not easily sit down either! So while the rest of the class sat on the floor, Aidan’s teacher let him sit in a chair while they waited to get ready to line-up for the Halloween school parade.

Aidan’s class along with the other grades marched around the school.

Then they sat in the grass for pictures and to watch the rest of the other grades march by.  It was pretty funny to watch Aidan basically fall backwards in order to achieve sitting in the grass. After the parade came the Halloween class party.
 

I took Aidan out of his costume during the class party so that he could use his hands to eat the snacks and do the Halloween arts and crafts project. Once the class party was finished, both Aidan and I were excited because instead of needing to ride the bus home, he was allowed to come home with me. Yay!

Kindergarten Pumpkin Patch Field Trip 2011

I was lucky enough this year to rearrange my teaching schedule so that I could be a volunteer on Aidan’s Kindergarten field trip to the pumpkin patch at Butler’s Orchard. This definitely was one of craziest field trips that I have volunteered for… First of all, the buses were 45 minutes late arriving to Butler’s Orchard. So once the kids were unloaded off the bus, they only had a little over an hour to play at various activity stations, get a hayride to the pumpkin patch, pick a pumpkin, get a hayride back, and eat lunch. Aidan and I were paired up with his friend Maya (she is so sweet!). We quickly decided that the two important stations that we wanted to try were the potato sack slides and then the rope spider web. Then it was time to make a bee-line and run to stand in line for the hayride to the pumpkin patch (it was long, as we were not the only school visiting the Orchard that day). After the hayride, I basically told both kids that they had 5 minutes to find their pumpkin and stand back in line to catch the hayride back for a quick lunch. It was a miracle that we were able to do all this in such a short amount of time, but we did (running helped)! As hectic as the field trip turned out though, it was great getting to hang out with my boy and his school friend during their field trip and see their happy faces.

Pumpkin Carving

Every year after hollowing out the pumpkins with the kids, Mike and I like to try to surprise the boys with their own jack-o-lanterns before Halloween.

2009 Jack-O-Lanterns

2010 Jack-O-Lanterns

This year I decided to surprise the boys with jack-o-lanterns carved with their favorite Pixar movie characters. For Aidan I carved Wall-E, and for Caleb I carved Remy from “Ratatouille”. This was the first year that I ever carved a pumpkin in 3 layers using a scraping technique. I copied the Wall-E outline from one of my friend’s who had carved it the previous year, and I found the Remy pumpkin stencil online. For scraping, I used an Xacto knife and a pumpkin scraping tool. Both pumpkins took me a week to carve, and although it was a fun challenge (to see if I could even do it), I don’t know if I’ll do again next year…it was a bit time consuming. However, both pumpkins turned out great. Mike was so impressed he used the Remy jack-o-lantern as his iPhone background and the kids were really happy to use their jack-o-lanterns as temporary nightlights during Halloween weekend.

Pumpkin Scooping Day 2011

“Pumpkin Scooping” day thankfully ended up being a sunny day rather than a rainy one. It has now become a tradition with our family that on “Pumpkin Scooping” day, Mike and I help the kids’ scoop the guts from their pumpkins, then the seeds are weeded out for roasting in the oven and snacking. Then later during the week, Mommy and Daddy secretly carve out special jack-o-lanterns for each boy to surprise and give them the night before Halloween. “Pumpkin Scooping” day this year ended up being interesting because neither of our boys wanted to dig their hands into the pumpkins this time. They were willing to scoop out the pumpkins for a little while with their long spoons, but soon they were saying things like, “Eww! My hand sticky!”, “The inside feels yucky!”, and “I just want to pick out the seeds, but I don’t want to touch that yucky stuff”. So while they picked out the seeds, Mike and I got down into those pumpkins and dug out the guts for our boys.



What really didn’t make sense was what happened next: The boys decided they wanted to get their shovels and try planting some of the pumpkin seeds in the dirt. Mike and I shook our heads as we watched both our boys dig into the dirt with their shovels and hands planting those pumpkin seeds. To make things even more over-the-top, Aidan and Caleb soon started showing us the worms that they were finding in the dirt and collecting. How these two dirt-worm-loving kids couldn’t hollow out a pumpkin was definitely beyond us that day. But one thing that we all seemed to be able to dig into was the pumpkin pie for dessert after dinner.

Butler's Ochard 2011

As soon as we got a sunny weekend, our family headed to Butler’s Orchard for the Pumpkin Festival to enjoy the festivities and pick our pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.

Happy Birthday Nerf Daddy!

Besides Halloween, another thing our family celebrates in October is Mike’s birthday. When I told Aidan that Daddy’s birthday was this month he replied excitedly, “I know the perfect gift that I’m going to get Daddy…a Nerf gun!” Of course, I was ready for Aidan to say something like this because whenever we talk about birthdays or presents he is always mentioning that the perfect gift he could give or receive would be a Nerf gun. I told Aidan that Daddy could buy a Nerf gun any time he wanted and that the best gift would something that Daddy could not buy, something that maybe Aidan could make. As we brainstormed of gift ideas that Aidan could make, Aidan seemed stuck on that fact that his gift had to be associated with a Nerf gun in some way. Then I mentioned that he could compose a song on the piano to Daddy about Nerf guns. Aidan LOVED this idea! So for 2 weeks he worked with me on composing a birthday Nerf gun song for his Dad. This is the song that Aidan composed for his Dad:

On the day of Daddy’s birthday, Aidan excitedly led his Dad to the piano to present his gift:

Mike really enjoyed this gift! In fact, you can often hear him and Caleb singing it occasionally around the house (it is really funny!). As for Caleb and I, we made a peach pie for Daddy’s birthday later in the week. Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you!

Aidan's First Piano Show/Recital

On September 25th, Aidan had his first piano show/recital. I was not only a proud Mommy that day, but also a proud piano teacher.

Since Aidan is the only piano student that I am currently teaching in my spare time, it was interesting coming up with a piano program that featured only him (usually you see something like that for a senior piano recital, but not typically a child’s first piano recital). Aidan insisted that even though he was playing piano, he wanted his first piano show to be fun. So with that idea in mind, we came up with this piano program and Mike did a terrific job making programs:

One of the things Aidan had trouble accepting as we prepared for his piano show was not stopping regardless of any mistakes made, but instead, finishing the piece and acting like nothing wrong had happened. As it turns out, Aidan is very much a perfectionist like his Mommy and it sounded terrible to him to find out that when he performs, it is better to continue finishing a piece even after mistakes were made, rather than starting over and trying again. But with Mommy being his piano teacher, he practiced this technique during his piano lessons as the day of his piano show approached.
Everything that Aidan chose to do for his piano show program I felt comfortable with, except for the violin and turtle puppet parts. Aidan had only been taking violin lessons with me for 2 months and I honestly wasn’t sure if his first violin piece would be ready in time for his piano show (there was a lot of screeching coming out of that violin beforehand). Aidan, however, was determined to surprise everyone at his show that he could also play the violin too. He was also determined that his puppet friend, Mr. Turtle, also be at his first piano show (whenever Aidan is finding a certain music skill or concept difficult to practice, he is often cheered up and made to laugh by his puppet friend, Mr. Turtle…brought to life by me :P). I honestly think I have terrible puppet skills and cringed at the thought of having our family witness it during Aidan’s first piano show, but I love my little boy….so how could I refuse?

Aidan felt so special having his first piano show in one of the biggest studios at Mommy’s workplace (Levine School of Music) with a Steinway grand piano for him to perform on…oh, la, la! On the day of the show, we arrived early into the studio to practice while Mike and Yeh-Yeh set up the chairs, as well as a table with a variety of cookies that Mommy and Yin-Yin had baked during the week. They also decorated the room with a few music balloons for the kids to take home after the show.



Then Aidan’s first piano show began:



Aidan did an amazing job! He was so happy and proud of himself! Caleb was so proud of Aidan too! Mike and I were concerned that Caleb might be distracted during Aidan’s piano show so we wanted him to sit with Yin-Yin just in case he needed to be taken out of the studio. Caleb, however, watched the whole piano show attentively, always excited for when he could clap after each piece Aidan performed. It was too cute!
After the piano show, we went home for lunch where Mike and I gave Aidan a new Nerf gun present. Later that evening we took Aidan out to the Daily Grill to celebrate all his hard work (Aidan asked to celebrate at a nice restaurant as a reward for not giving up when performing during his show, no matter what happened). At the Daily Grill, Aidan ordered and ate his first chicken pot pie. After stuffing his face with the pot pie, he ordered a chocolate cake for dessert. Then before bed, Mike and I each gave Aidan a book that we had picked out and signed, telling him how proud we were of all the hard work he had put into his first piano show.
After a day like that, it wasn’t any surprise when Aidan asked the next day when he could have another piano show :)

Caleb Starts Preschool

This September was not only significant for Aidan beginning public school; it was also significant for Caleb starting preschool. After dropping off Aidan many times at pre-K last year, Caleb was definitely excited to finally have his turn to go to school and feel like a big boy. Mommy, however, was not ready to let two boys go that often, so Caleb only attends preschool twice a week. On his first day of preschool, Caleb put on his “Little Einsteins” backpack and lunchbox with pride (that I luckily stumbled across on ebay) and happily headed outside to go to school….in Mommy’s van. Caleb was pretty disappointed to find out that he wasn’t riding the bus with Aidan to preschool, but that instead he would be going to preschool in Mommy’s van (I’m sure he’ll appreciate this Mommy shuttle service to school when it is too late…). Once we arrived at preschool though, he stopped sulking and ran into his classroom, excited to explore and learn.

It has been a month now of Caleb attending preschool and he still loves it! His teacher informs me how much he enjoys doing the various art projects, singing songs, playing in the sandbox, and trying to eat other kids’ lunches when he has finished his own. Unlike Aidan, when I pick Caleb up from preschool, he does not want to go back home, and when we get to the car, he is very excited to tell me all that he did that morning in class using his limited vocabulary – it is very cute to listen to! Even though I miss him while he is gone during those 3 hours, it is really nice to know he is having a great time J

The Kids' New Office

Since Caleb has moved into Aidan’s room upstairs, Mike and I decided over the summer to turn Caleb’s nursery into an office for both of the boys since they were both starting school this coming fall. Both boys love their new office. They enjoy drawing on the large dry erase board, using the pencil and crayon sharpeners, and studying their weekly calendars to see what’s going on. Caleb enjoys sitting at his desk doing cutting projects while Aidan likes to sit at his desk exploring his globe. The best part for me is that there is a place for everything. Hooks for the backpacks, a clip line for the artwork, wall folders for papers sent home, and the shelves for holding supplies. Some other fun elements that the boys enjoyed seeing in their office were the dinosaur growth chart, the M&M clock (Mike and I frequently reward the kids with mini M&M’s for good behavior and hard work), pictures of themselves on the wall, and the rocket ship hooks for their backpacks (that I made). Now Mike is asking me to help him decorate his office at work…hmmm…I bet his patients would enjoy sitting in his office watching an M&M clock tick the minutes away and noticing Mike's lab coat hanging on a rocket ship hook. LOL!

Aidan's 1st Day of Kindergarten (afternoon)

I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon enjoying my one-on-one time with Caleb while anxiously looking at the clock from time to time counting down for when it was time to head back to the bus stop to pick up Aidan. When it was time, I got Caleb ready, grabbed my camera, and asked Dad if he would join me to videotape Aidan coming home off the bus. As we walked to the bus stop together, Caleb kept saying with excitement “Get Aidan bus!” A few minutes later his school bus pulled up, I got the camera ready to take a picture, and…… Ashley ran out yelling to me, “Aidan isn’t on the bus! I didn’t see him come out of the school!” Yes, I started to freak out a little bit (thank goodness Dad hasn’t figured out how to use our video camera yet, although, it would have made for a memorable recording). I quickly asked Dad if he would watch Caleb while I drove to the school to check if Aidan was still there. I was definitely worried that Aidan had either gotten on the wrong bus or was waiting at school upset. On the way, I got a call on my cell phone from the school office informing me that Aidan missed his bus and was waiting for me in the office with his teacher. When I arrived at the school office, Aidan was there looking at the fish in the fish tank. I quickly thanked everyone in the office for keeping an eye on him and we headed home. Caleb greeted Aidan with a big hug when I brought him home. It was very cute to watch. As we all ate a small snack at the table, Aidan basically told me that he missed the bus because he wasn’t paying attention to when they were calling out the bus colors/numbers. After our small snack, we did Aidan’s reading homework, and then I lead the boys downstairs for a surprise that Mike and I had been working on over the summer to give them since they were both starting school….a new office!

On their desks Mike and I also gave each of them a wrapped book that we signed with a message. For dinner that night, mom made one of Aidan’s favorite meals, meatloaf with mashed potatoes. At bedtime, Mike read the new books to the boys. Then we reminded Aidan how important it was to listen at school, especially so that he could get home on his bus. Later that night, I told Mike that it is hard for a teacher to remember the names of all the kids in the class on the first day of school, but I was pretty sure that after today she knew who my kid was. The next day Aidan made it on the bus after school and came home very proud himself!

Aidan's 1st Day of Kindergarten (morning)

This school year marked Aidan’s beginning into the public school system as he started Kindergarten. As his mom, it was really sad knowing that on the weekdays I wouldn’t see him from 9am – 3:45pm. Knowing that the school (friends, teachers, etc….) is going to be playing a huge influence in his life now is a scary thing for me since I’ve been the major influence in his life for these first 5 years. I guess kids aren’t the only ones that have problems sharing…so do parents. Aidan was definitely excited to start Kindergarten. The night before his first day of Kindergarten we decided to interview him with some fun questions to mark this big milestone in his life and remember what kind of kid he was.

Then the morning of his first day of Kindergarten came. Mike took the morning off from work and mom baked banana bread with chocolate chips that morning for breakfast. For his lunchbox, Aidan asked to have cereal in his “Cereal to Go” cup along with some fresh blueberries, a juice box, and sugar snap peas. In addition to having lunch, the Kindergarteners at Aidan’s school also need to pack a small healthy snack. So Aidan chose to have pretzels. Then it was time to get ready to go and take pictures! We took pictures of Aidan all the way to the bus stop. Luckily Aidan wasn’t riding the bus by himself for the first time. He neighbor friend, Ashley, was also riding the bus with him and was starting her first day of second grade. So it was comforting for me to know that he would have an older school friend looking out for him. Aidan was thrilled to hear from Ashley that he didn’t have to buckle his seatbelt on the bus and that he could choose to sit in any seat he wanted (he hates buckling his seatbelt in the car). After giving Aidan a kiss, the bus soon showed up. Aidan was obviously excited because he ran and boarded the bus without even looking back. Caleb tried to go on the bus with Aidan too, but I had told Dad earlier to be ready to grab him in case he tried. So as Aidan’s bus pulled away, Dad held Caleb as he yelled, “Aidan! I want bus!” Caleb loves his brother so much. As we all waved goodbye to Aidan on the bus, I felt the tears coming to my eyes. But I fought the tears back as we headed to our car to meet him at the school.

We parked and arrived at the school just as Aidan’s bus was unloading. I ran ahead and was able to tell him to have a good day and that I loved him before the staff ushered him into the school. Then it was back into the car to go home. I probably made it 15 min. in the house without crying, but soon after the tears began to flow, so I hid in the office crying for a bit. Poor Mike didn’t want to go to work until he knew I was going to be o.k. He even tried to cheer me up by jokingly offering me a third kid if I wanted (He’s so sweet!). Even though time will tell if I will take him up on that offer, the joke worked and I felt much better.

Father's Day Champagne Sunday Brunch

One of the things that Mike wanted to do to celebrate his Father’s Day was eat at the “Champagne Sunday Brunch” at our hotel (The Eden Resorts & Suites). He had read so many great reviews online about the food that it seemed like a good idea. Wrong! It was a GREAT idea! The Champagne Sunday Brunch is like entering brunch world. Everything you could possibly imagine to eat for brunch was in the room. At first I was annoyed that we had to make reservations for brunch the day before, but when I saw how amazing the brunch spread was I totally understood. First of all, the room is beautiful. For a minute you feel like you are walking into someone’s wedding reception. The staff is dressed in formal attire, lots of lights are hanging from the ceiling, piano music is playing, there’s a large fountain, and there are many stations filled with food!

When you walk into the room you are seated by the hostess at a table where your waiter comes and gets your drink orders. Then it’s off to the brunch smorgasbord! I literally had to keep reminding Aidan that he should pick 4 things to go on his plate, because after he was done he could always come back and get more. Aidan had a lot fun going back and forth from the buffet. As we ate brunch we commented at how many stations there were in the room: pastries, pasta, fruits & cheeses, desserts, beef carving, pancakes & waffles, omelet, breads & muffins, etc… It was truly a jaw-dropping array of food. What a way to celebrate Father’s Day!

Day Out with Thomas the Train

On the last day of our Father’s Day Pennsylvania trip we went to the Strasburg Railroad to ride Thomas the Train, and then we went back to our hotel to have brunch at the famous “Champagne Sunday Brunch”. Since Caleb really likes trains, Mike and I were excited to take him to the Strasburg Railroad. When you buy a ticket to ride Thomas the Train it tells you on the ticket that you should arrive 1 hour before your ride. Arriving 1 hour ahead of time is a good idea if you want to park and see some of the other things the Strasburg Railroad has to offer before your ride (food tents, other fun railroad rides, pictures with Thomas the Train, etc…) But if you prefer to ride first then sightsee after, like we did, you could arrive half an hour before your ride time and still make it. We arrived at the Strasburg Railroad in the late morning and I was surprised and thrilled to see a long line-up of food tents there. I love trying out food from food tents! We quickly got our pictures with Thomas the Train and then headed over to the Mini Fried Donuts tent. There was nothing better that morning than fresh, hot cinnamon & sugar mini donuts with hazelnut coffee. Yummmm! We then got in line to ride on Thomas the Train. The kids really enjoyed riding the train. However, if we were to visit again, I would not buy the overpriced tickets for riding Thomas the train and purchase instead a regular train ticket. Our boys enjoyed waving to Thomas pass by on the railroad track more than riding him. Once they were on the train, they couldn’t see Thomas anymore and thus it just became a regular train ride. When our train ride was over we headed over to another food tent to buy some smoothies and an Italian Sausage. It was so good that I stopped sharing with Mike and bought one of my own. Next we did a few rides and then visited the gift shop to buy some souvenirs. It was a fun morning, and we would have stayed longer (definitely to try out some more food tents) but we needed to make our brunch reservation at the Champagne Buffet and save some room in our stomachs.