The Wild and Caring Sides of Addie and Alden

We have had some cute and touching moments around here....

Addie loving Dottie and needing to rock her in the rocking chair...


Wild Thing! Growling at his reflection


Alden being kind to Madelyn- helping her have all the cheerios she wants!

Fun Around The House

We have had an interesting week....

Playing in our flooded neighborhood- this was taken on Sunday- 2 days after it had stopped raining and this is a HUGE improvement....


Addie and Avery went around playing "photographer"- Addie would tell Avery to pose somewhere, Avery would hop on over and say "Cheese!"- so cute!


Addie showing off her writing- she's getting pretty good! These are all connect-the-dots, but she'll get there!


Alden is fully in touch with his inner Guido (aka gaudy Italian)- he was given these beads (there is a silver strand, too) by a friend and he hasn't taken them off!

2 Little Pigs

The dreaded Swine Flu has entered our household and strangely, it only seems to have affected the women- Alden and Al both ran low-grade fevers but that is it. Addie and I sound like we have smoked for the last 20 years and are hacking up our lungs. It's been a great time to just lay around and play together and watch more TV in the last few days then the kids have probably watched in the last year combined! The end is in sight, thanks to Tamiflu.

Some lessons I learned from Swine Flu:
1. Never give your daughter her Abuterol before nap time if you expect her to sleep
2. I can only handle 5 episodes of Elmo's World in 1 sitting
3. My kids will drink anything that I do- they both guzzled Gatorade for the first time ever!
4. Alden is 100% boy- and he loves to tease his sister when he knows that she can't get him back
5. There is nothing sweeter than a sick kid needing a snuggle with their Mommy
6. It's okay for the house to be a disaster- I will feel better soon and can clean it then
7. Breakfast food is great 3 meals a day for a few days...

Here are some pics of what H1N1 looks like in our house:

A couch taken apart by a PJ-clad little boy watching his own movie on the portable DVD player. At this point, we had 1 show on TV (for Mom), 1 show on the laptop (for Addie) and 1 show as seen here, for Alden.


Alden, who has yet to get sick, is full of vim and vigor. Here he's make a Choo-Choo with all the couch cushions and pillows. He was crushed when I took 1 cushion back so I could sit on the couch.



Here is 1 of our many "picnics"- the kids loved lounging and eating. We did consume almost an entire container of Clementines in 3 days- can't get enough of that vitamin C! Addie is the only one who got dressed on our PJ day- she gets that from her Dad! Alden was thrilled to be in his PJ's all day!


Fort building- about 1 hr into a Motrin dose, Addie is happy-go-lucky and happy to "camp" with Alden between the coffee table and couch with the cushions and pillows providing the "tent." Notice she took her DVD player with her- they sat side-by-side and watched Elmo- so sweet- just don't breath on your brother!

Play-doh time! I just love the small individual sized Play-dohs- no need to share any germs! Plus they were able to play quietly and peacefully.

We aren't out of the woods yet, but I am grateful for the time to just sit and be with my kids. The pile of essays in my in-box to grade can wait- snuggling with a sick kid cannot. Thank you, Lord, for this special time!

Christmas A Little Early...

I know this is crazy early, but there are some great deasl to be had on Christmas calendars and prints! Here are a few pics from my attempt at getting some cute Christmas pics....

Wings & Wheels

This morning we went to the annual Wings & Wheels- lots of airplanes both on the ground to look at and see in the sky doing "tricks", plus hundreds of old cars to drool over. It was nice weather- which is a first in a long time for us! We loaded up the car and gave it a try.

The kids were excited to see the "cow" plane!

There was an area sponsored by The Boys and Girls Club- facepainting (both kids got pumpkins on their faces), games (love the action shot of Alden throwing the banana to the monkey and yes, it went in!), and chances to win dorky stuffed animals (we declined).

Addie "throwing" the rings over the dolphin

Addie loved the model airplanes- they were "her" size! I think she about gave the owner of this one a heart attack when she posed next to it....

Alden was in heaven- this pilot let the kids look in the cockpit- he kept asking the pilot what things were. This was my favorite part of the day until he then handed my kids BOTH Pixie Sticks the same size as them!! More on that later...

These planes flew over several times. Alden lost it every time- "HAIR PAINES! HAIR PAINES!" He could hardly contain his excitement!

Sitting on the runway, watching touring flights take off and land. No, I did not schedule a flight for him- he's flown enough!

The nice pilot that showed Alden his cockpit- handed out these HUGE Pixie Sticks to ALL the kids that came to his plane. Why oh why did have to give me 2 of them? They are almost the same size as the KIDS?!? Addie is struggling with this- but she isn't about to give up!

We had a great morning and will certainly be going back- they have a cute little dinner where you can sit and watch planes take-off and land.

Trick Or Treating

We celebrated our good friend, Madelyn's, first birthday this evening. After the dinner and cake, we all dressed-up and went Trick-Or-Treating as a large group. We had a blast! The weather was supposed to rain after 8pm- and after a brief, slight, drizzle at 6:15pm, it ended up being a wonderful evening. Word must have gotten out that our neighborhood gives out good candy because at 7pm, we started seeing houses that had run out of candy- and Trick-Or-Treating didn't start until 6pm!

Without further ado....

Minnie Mouse and Bat Man


Ready to go rescue some candy!



Minnie Mouse ready to charm some candy from our neighbors!


"Trick-Or-Treat!"

I started the evening off with the stroller- but since the other family had brought wagons, I had to go home and get ours. In the end, we had 4 kids in this wagon!!

Checkin' out the loot- LOTS of excellent chocolate!

Watch Out American Idol!

She's singing "Hot Cross Buns"- in case you coudn't tell....