Stories & Such

Allison's Stay & Play Concert

Allison is growing up fast and hitting some new milestones. Today marked the end of her Stay & Play experience at her preschool. Her final day of school is actually next Friday, but the Stay & Play group had a little concert today to celebrate the friendships and love for music they've shared this year.

Enjoy these pictures and videos from the show.

A, B, C, D...

Muffin Man...

Do Re Mi...

The Lion Sleeps Tonight...

Goin' To The Zoo...

East Side West Side...

Gillis Mountain...

Tossing & Turning...

If I Had A Hammer...

A Valentine's Message from Allison

Roses are red,

violets are blue,

I didn't buy cards,

and mail them to you.

Don't hold this lack

over my head,

I'm sending these

super cute videos instead.

Happy Valentine's Day!

click here

1st Day of School 2011

Three years ago I watched Alex hop on the school bus for the very first time. Today it was Conner's turn. After waking up to an insanely early alarm, I got going and got breakfast ready and lunches packed. For the first time ever, we had to drag poor Conner out of bed.

We have no idea where that black eye came from. He didn't go to bed with it! Conner soon rallied and got excited for his first day of school.

We really need to work on our routine, because as I'm writing this, it occurs to me that the next step should have involved brushing teeth. There's always tomorrow. We got on shoes and went outside to wait for the bus.

Then the bus appeared, and my three year preschool veteran followed his big brother up onto the bus and headed off to Kindergarten with no hesitation.

And that's when the overwhelming feeling hit me that my tiny little baby boy wasn't a baby anymore, and that my two oldest had just stepped onto the bus and left our home. They have grown up so quickly and the summer break has ended. Life will never be the same again. The emotions were admittedly overwhelming.

Click here for the full photoset from our fun morning.

Allison's 4th Birthday

Allison is 4! And it's about time. I am constantly asked if she and Conner are twins. Here are some pictures from her family party and her Fairy Princess party with her school friends.

Princess (and Prince) Class

This past spring a new children's playspace opened up in the next town over called Jam Time. Aside from providing an excellent environment for little kids to run around and play, the place offers a set schedule of "classes" that appeal to the 2 - 6 crowd. When I saw that they had a Princess Class I just couldn't resist signing Allison up.

Now, Allison is in general a pretty grown-up little girl. She tends towards a maturity and confidence that exceeds her 4 short years. Knowing this, I assumed that Allison would enjoy herself in Princess Class while Conner played outside the little class room in the big open playspace full of other kids and a wide range of toys and climbing structures. Both kids had other plans. Allison would not stay in the classroom unless I stayed with her, and Conner would not play outside the classroom unless I stayed with him. That's how we all ended up staying for Princess Class.

For the 1st 10 or so minutes of the class, the girls were provided with a multitude of fancy costumes, fairy wings, tiaras, jewelry, shoes, wands, etc. They dressed themselves all up, then the unused costumes were put away and the class was taught some etiquette lesson in a very fun and age appropriate way. They played some games and listened to stories, then there was a craft to do and finally, a princess tea party with strawberry milk and a treat.

Conner made it a minute and a half before jumping in. He helped Allison pick out her costume, participated in the lesson, made a craft, and loved the tea party. By the end of class I was writing a second check to the owner because Conner was hooked. They graciously renamed the class Princess and Prince Class, and brought in knight and pirate costumes, but Conner has no interest beyond helping Allison with her attire.

Here are some ridiculously cute pictures I've taken of the class.

Spring time fun

So many things happened this past Spring and I just had a lovely time going through the pictures. It's amazing how much the kids change, and how quickly. I notice a difference even though it's only been a few short months since most of these events happened:

Our nephew Sam had his second birthday.

My mother began the second leg of her battle against breast cancer.

I made too much popcorn.

Paul finally decided to keep me, and made it official by giving me his class ring.

Alex had his art project selected to be put on display at our public library.

Conner lost his first tooth.

And Allison got really really dirty.

Here are a few more pictures from the spring that you may enjoy.

Disney World!

It took months of planning, weeks of packing, and hours of flying, but in February Paul and I managed to successfully take the kids to Florida to vacation with Grandma & Grandpa Hall, visit Great Grandma Russell, visit with my cousin Cyndie and her wonderful family, and in our free time, we all went to Disney World a whole lot.

This was no small feet and there was no small amount of camera action, so witteling the 600+ pictures of vacation perfection down to a reasonable number was...well...beyond my capabilities. I'm afraid I couldn't get it under 246. However, you can rest assured that these are 246 of the best pictures you have ever seen in your entire life of the Russells and Halls and Great Grandma in February. At Disney. In the year 2011. Pinky swear!

January 2011

Okay, so I'm way way way behind in posting pictures of the kids to this blog. But, you're in luck! I have dedicated this very evening to catching up and getting you the kid pics you deserve.

So, without any further ado, I dare you to look at the following picture set without smiling.

Fabulous Fall Family Fun

Here's what we did all last fall:

Pumpkin picking,
Halloween,
Conner's birthday,
Painting the living room,
Making cookies, and
A haunted gingerbread house.

And here are the pictures to prove it:

click the SUPER pic for a slideshow

Allison vs. The Tide

This past summer Allison was lucky enough to spend a day at Hampton Beach with Grandma Hall and Mommy. After playing in the cold surf for a while, Allison noticed another family digging in the sand and building up a wall to try to keep the water out. She asked me to build one for her too, so I did, and in she climbed.

Here is a video of the first castle's unfortunate demise. This video gets interesting at the 1:30 minute mark.

After her first "castle" was swallowed by the surf, Allison moved a little further up the beach and asked me to build her another one. We made it a little deeper then the first, with higher walls.

It didn't take long before it met the same fate as the first.

All in all it was a great day at the beach and fun to watch on this particular cold and rainy day.

A Winter's Romance

Twas just before Christmas, and the winter had been warm and mild. As if to satisfy the hearts of children and the dream of a song, the temperature dropped, and the skies eked out a dusting of snow to cover the ground and just barely satisfy the white Christmas requirement. Then, it seems, mother nature held her temper long enough for all the holiday travellers* to make their way safely home. Now, apparently, she wants us all to stay there.

The first true snowfall was wonderful! Winter had finally truly arrived. Driveways were shoveled out by hand. Snowmen were constructed with care. Children raced down the hills over the white fluffy wonderland. It was glorious and beautiful, and true New Englanders rejoiced.

Then, the snow melted. The days warmed up into the 40s. The beautiful winter wonderland disappeared. Snowmen lost their form, and the brown grass and bare trees sat stark across the landscape. But worry not, it was a temporary breath and what was to come would soon cover the bleakness in so many unexpected ways.

Soon, oh so soon, the second snow came, once again blanketing the land in sparkling white. Children rejoiced as school was cancelled before the first flake hit the ground. The morning brought piles of new snow, inspiring the serious snow enthusiast to once again break out the shovels, and the less so to break out the snow blower. Once again, snowmen were shaped and decorated with love, sleds were seen racing down hills, and snowballs filled the air wherever two children could be found together.

Hardly any time then passed, it seemed, before Jack Frost paid a visit to our land, winter truly

settled in, and temperatures plummeted into the single digits. This time, the snow did not melt, the children stayed inside longer as snow-clothes were challenged, but a toasty fire could still warm the hands and hearts. Along with the cold weather came snowfall number 3. It added to the mounds of white and then iced itself, like a frozen cupcake, with a frosty layer of freezing rain, made solid by the night winds and the negative wind chills. That day, the family snow blower truly proved its worth.

Snowfalls 4 and 5 fell softly on top of the sparkling white, adding two to four inch sprinkles on to the frozen covering.

Hurrah! Sang the children, as the snow fell yet again and school was once more closed up tight. It's possible, if you listened closely, you could hear the feathery light tones of a mother curse softly under her breath. Twelve more inches graced the landscape. The joy of shoveling, having passed three storms ago, the snow blower running low on charm and gas, it became the storm of the plowman.

The icicles that had begun at inches soon grew to feet, and their great toothy daggers could be seen on every home.

We gave up measuring the snow by inches (38.8 but who's counting) and found other, much more poetic ways to describe the scene. This is how I prefer to describe our own.

The snow...