Halloween 2011

Another successful Halloween had by all! We spent the weeks leading up to Halloween trying to think of how we could top last year's theme! Those who may recall, we were The Wizard of Oz and we had a blast with it! After much back and forth, we decided to go "old school" with our costumes and it turned out great. We did our typical set up in front of the house with our inflatable haunted castle, the talking ghoul, and a number of other things. Next year we talked about turning our side yard into a foggy graveyard. I also want to get orange sting lights. As you know, we just love Halloween!

Each year we are always amazed at how many kids come through our neighborhood, so this year we bought a clicker to count the number of kids. This year was a record 546 kids, we couldn't believe it!!!!! Our neighborhood is really one of the few in the county that has street lights and sidewalks. There are a number of gated communities that don't do Halloween, so most of the county comes to us for trick-or-treating. Which is fine, it makes it all the more fun! Stacey, Gigi, Pops, and Uncle Scotty stayed and handed out the candy and helped control the masses of kids coming through, while I walked around with Caroline, Jack and Lauren. We walked around LSV for 2 hours. The kids are definitely set for candy for weeks!

As always, we have a lot of fun getting into the spirit of Halloween. It's become one of our favorite family traditions. Let's see what we can come up with for next year! LOL..... Here are some of this year's pictures.

School Pictures

Look at these beautiful faces! This year's school pictures. Hard to believe these little faces we once held in our arms are growing up as quickly as they are. It's hard to imagine that we have 2 third graders and the little one in PreK. The first 9 weeks of school are coming to a close and the kids are doing very well.

We are now approaching the holidays and looking forward to Halloween - it's one of our favorite family holidays. We usually try to go with a theme and tried really hard to top last years theme (who could forget the Wizard of Oz ensemble?!), but this year we decided to go with the traditional oldschool costumes. I will post pictures next week of our costumes. Can't wait!!!!!

Then Thanksgiving and Christmas will be upon us. The next two months are going to be great!!

Twins Turn 9!

Nine years ago, our world became brighter and fuller with the arrival of Caroline and Jack. Over the course of these nine years, we have been filled with so much joy, unconditional love, adventure, and still yet continue to try to master the art of parenthood! It's hard to believe that nine years have passed since these two wonderful bundles of joy came into our lives. As they have grown, so have we and we have enjoyed every single minute of it.

Parenting is certainly the hardest job anyone has; but at the same time, it is the most rewarding. We wouldn't change it for a minute and have experienced a certain kind of love like no other from a child. Looking into the eyes of your child and to see and feel their hopes, dreams, love, fear, saddness, joy, etc is truly amazing and we hope we are able to help guide them into this big world and prepare them for the future.

I still find myself in awe that they are ours; they continue to remind us about the innocence of childhood; looking at the world through their eyes; experiencing their first wonders all over again; and so much more! They have also served as a constant reminder of how quickly time goes and how I wish we could slow down time. These nine years have been absolutely wonderful and we are so grateful for what they have brought into our lives. They have certainly begun to grow into their own little individual selves.

This year, Caroline and Jack wanted to have their party at Pump It Up near Ashland. We had a fantastic time and everyone really enjoyed themselves tremendously!! Even the adults had a blast. LOL......

We want to thank all of our family and friends who made this year's birthday special and were here to celebrate it with them and look forward to many more years of growing together.

Off to a Great Start

We are approaching the tailend of the 3rd week of school and so far things are going well. We did hit a little roadblock with Jack for a few days, but after much discussions and a meeting with the Principal, he seems to be settling into his new classroom just fine now. We are grateful to the Principal for taking the time to sit down and talk to Jack and help in anyway that he could. He was great and we are very appreciative of his compassion toward his kids at the school. We know Jack will have a great year.

Caroline is doing great and has made a number of new friends already (surprised?!, lol)..... she loves her teacher and we think she is going to have a great year. She is still a little bummed that none of her closest friends are in her class this year, but she makes friends quickly, so we have nothing to worry about.

Lauren is absolutely loving school and being able to ride the big bus with "Jackie" and "Sissy" and going to big school. Let's hope this excitement continues for 12 more years. LOL.....

Fall is starting to settle here in VA and we are looking forward to checking out some of the local fesitvals in the region, going apple picking, riding hayrides, getting pumpkins, etc. We all love this time of year. J&C's 9th birthday is approaching (hard to believe!) and we have a good party planned for them this year. It's going to be fun! We have a busy weekend ahead of us.... Pops' brother from TX has been in town visiting his son at Quantico and we will all be getting together this weekend for a family reunion/gathering. Should be a good time. We also have the LSV 5K / 1K run which we will all be participating in. Kids will run the 1K and I may run the 5K. Stacey and I also signed up to volunteer to help during race day. I will definitely run alongside Lauren though. Can't wait to get her started on running, now that Jack and Caroline have taken a liking to these types of races. We may end up doing the F'burg Turkey Trot as well.....

Enjoy the fall everyone!!!

Where Were You When the World Stopped Turning

Just like our parents who remember where they were when President Kennedy was shot, we too find ourselves remembering where we were on this day when terrorist attacked the twin towers and the Pentagon ten years ago. I was working at D&R International and Stacey was working at TLC - the laser eye center. It certainly was one of the most horrific experiences in our lifetime to witness such pure evil strike on American soil and see almost 3,000 lives gone in an instant.

We were both at work watching the events unfold throughout the morning. Neither one of us saw the first plane hit one of the towers. When word spread around the office, everyone thought that it was a small cessna plane. However, we did see the second plane hit the other tower. Hijackers used these planes like an armored missle. I will never forget the amount of emotion running through our hearts and minds as we stood there watching both towers crumble into a pile of steel, debris, and dust. 110 floors came tumbling down in 10 seconds. It was unbelievable. At that time, no one knew how many people were in either building that morning. At around the same time, the Pentagon was hit by a third hijacked plane. "What the hell was going on?" was pretty much on everyone's minds. That is when most everyone started panicking....

Here we are and ten years have passed and memorials have been built to honor those who died on this horrific day, those responsible have been caught and killed, the USA still finds itself in 3 wars, and we remain forever strong and united! America will never forget 9-11-01 and the three of you will most likely learn about this in school as you get older; just like when we learned about JFK.

Let us never forget and continue to hope and pray that a terrorist attack will never occur on US soil again. September 11, 2001 is a day the world will always remember. On this 10th anniversary, let us stop and be thankful to all those who risked their lives to help others. May we never forget those who lost their lives on that tragic day 10 years ago. MAY GOD CONTINUE TO BLESS THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

First Week of School and a Triathlon

We successfully completed the first week of school with just a minor hiccup. Overall, the kids seemed to enjoy the first week of school; they seem to like their teachers so far. Jack doesn't adapt to change very well and we have come to realize that he puts too much pressure on himself and gets all worked up over nothing at the beginning of each school year. On Thursday, he told us he wanted to switch classes (mind you, for no apparent reason!). Mostly because he didn't get the teacher he wanted. We both talked it out with him and hopefully next week will be better. Would hate to see a repeat of last year.

As for the girls, well.... they love it! They had a great week and seem to enjoy their classrooms so far. We are hoping for a great year! Lauren continues to be thrilled about riding the big bus with her brother and sister and going to big kid school :) She is becoming so grown up! We don't particularly worry about Caroline and her adapting to school; she can easily pick up a new-found friend off the street! She is such a social butterfly; hopefully it won't get her in trouble!

The kids had their first 'snow' day (without the snow) on Friday due to all of the rain we have had and because of Thursday night's storms. We experienced a tremendous amount of rain last week due to TS Lee which caused a lot of flooding in areas. For some reason, schools were canceled on Friday. Not quite sure how they will make this day up yet..... We'll see.

Today, Jack and Caroline competed in their second triathlon and did great! We are so very proud of them. Seems they have caught the 'tri - bug' because after the race they informed us they wanted to do another one. We have a local 1K coming up in October and the family will run the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving. Starting to wonder if we need to start planning our 2012 competition calendar?! LOL.... love the fact that J&C seemed to have found something they both enjoy doing and it certainly doesn't hurt that this is promoting exercise and good health at an early age. Way to go Jack and Caroline, we love you and are very proud of you. Lauren loves watching and cheering them on; little does she know in a few years, we will start working on getting her to do these too. HA HA HA.

Our Proud Finishers!!!!!

Back to School

The school year has begun and a part of me is both excited, yet sad..... our little one, Lauren has officially started school. She is in Pre-K at the local elementary school where Jack and Caroline go. It's bittersweet for sure.... We can't believe our last one is off to school. This will take a few days to settle in for me to grapple with this realization. (sniff, sniff)....

All three of the kids are extremely excited and ready for the school year. We met their teachers last Thursday and each of them seemed very nice and we think they will have a great school year. Jack was very happy to see that he knows at least 5 kids in his class; one of whom is a close buddy. Caroline knows 4 of her classmates, but unfortunately, didn't get any of her close BFFs with her this year. I don't think it will be a problem, she is such a social butterfly that she will be making friends in no time! When we put Lauren in preschool, she adjusted very well, so we know she will do just fine today!

Last night before bed after reading books, I took the opportunity to really talk to Jack and Caroline about school and how most likely they will start to hear new things. I praised them for WHO THEY ARE and to not let others tell them differently and gently reminded them to make good choices. We read Jamie Lee Curtis' book, "I'm Gonna Like Me" and I pointed out a few references to convey my message. I think they understood where I was going with it. LOL.....

This year Jack and Caroline will be starting SOLs and this is also the year where the grading system goes into effect. This first couple of weeks will certainly be quite the transition adjusting to a routine and getting a sense of what their homework load will be like. We know they will do fine though.

Here's to what we hope will be another successful school year. Good luck kiddos, we love you and are so very proud of you!!!!!