Around Here in November

In November,

Collin, Reagan, and Katelyn played in their last soccer games of the season.

Kate slept in her crib for the last time.

I took it apart and Tyler brought it to Papa's house where he reassembled it with Papa for Hannah to use when she visits.

Kate has been sleeping in the trundle of Reagan's bed until their bunk beds arrive next weekend.

Reagan competed in the URI Fall Classic gymnastics meet and she placed fifth out of forty girls on bars.

 On November 11th, we celebrated Kelly's seventh birthday.

Reagan started basketball.  This is her first time ever playing and she is enjoying it.  I love this free throw, gymnast style basketball.

Collin made this notebook cover in art class.

This is our skeleton.  His name is Peach and he is a Halloween decoration, but Kate has been playing with him daily, so he's still hanging around.  Poor guy isn't doing so well, but Kate is trying to save him.

Reagan had her last orthopedic visit with Dr. Micheli in Boston.  He is an awesome doctor (he's the official doctor for the Boston Ballet), but I'm happy that we don't have to go back anytime soon.  She had to wear these silly shorts for her appointment so that he could see her legs and feet without pants in the way.

These kids worked with a bunch of others to put together bags of food and personal care items for the local families living in homeless shelters.  I really want to make a point of finding more service projects for us; I think it's important and definitely an area that I have not spent enough time pursuing with the kids.

Around here in October

The months just fly by, don't they?  Here is a peek into the month of October.

Tyler started working at the Venus deMilo and was quickly promoted from bus boy to waiter.

Reagan ran her first 5k.  Tom pushed Kate in the stroller for some of the race, but she ran quite a bit too!  Both girls did an awesome job!

Story hour and Starbucks is how we spend most Thursday mornings.

Collin went to his first middle school dance.  It was right after school and very informal, and he said it was lots of fun.

Reagan, Kate and I went to Boo at the Zoo.

Kate's face in that picture sums up how she felt about the whole thing.  I love experiencing the world through her eyes.

Reagan had her first gymnastics meet at the Xcel Silver level.  She did very well earning second place on bars and third place on floor.

Here is the video of her bars routine:

Video of the floor routine:

Beam routine (every girl at every level seemed to struggle on beam at this meet; you can tell they are all working on new skills; Reagan's new skill this year is a cartwheel on the beam!!!!!):

Kate and I went to a puppet show at the library.  She got to be a helper and that was very exciting!

We went to the Halloween dance at North.  Collin didn't want to go at first, but he was asked to help run one of the games and he thought that would be fun.  After the fact, he said it wasn't fun, but I'm still happy he helped out.  This is the game he ran:

For costumes this year we had a lumberjack,

Cinderella,

and a Zombie Bride!!!

 Reagan had a fabulous time at the dance.

I prepared a caramel apple bar one day.

How cute are these two kiddos?  They were waiting for the Musictown Parade.

While Tom was at the parade with Kate, I was at Reagan's last field hockey game of the season.  I didn't get any good pictures.  I'm kicking myself for not thinking to take a picture of all of the girls together that day.

I have a few more October pictures, but I'll save them for another post!

Around Here

So much has happened since my last post!  Here's just a little bit of what we have been up to.

Lou and Kate invited us to their house for a small party, and the kids swam in the pool almost the entire time we were there.

This was a HUGE day for Kate because it was the first time she swam in a pool without clinging to someone.  She LOVED it and stayed in the pool for hours.  I'm so proud of her for being so brave, and I am happy that she had so much fun.

Reagan, Kate, and I went to see Mary Poppins at the Zeiterion.  It was a great show, so good that even though it was three hours long, we all enjoyed every minute.  The musical numbers were fantastic, especially the chimney sweep number.

Collin made Rice Krispies treats and turned them into ice cream sandwiches.  They were way too good.

We visited one of Kate's favorite playgrounds.

There was more leaping and jumping at the beach.

Collin went to Audubon Camp last week while Reagan was at writing camp, and they are both attending writing camp this week.  They have spent TONS of time just hanging out with kids in the neighborhood.  This is the first summer that they have spent a majority of their time having fun with their friends and very little time doing activities with me.  It's hard to see them grow up, but they are having a blast and I am very grateful for all of the opportunities they have and for all of the kids that they call friends.

Around Here

We are over a month into summer vacation and there has yet to be a down day where everyone stays home and just relaxes! The kids sure are having a great time.

There have been LOTS of friends over:

The girls and I went to Cara Killoran's bridal shower.

Reagan and Kate were happy to see their cousin Audrey there.

 One of the games involved making wedding dresses out of toilet paper; the girls loved this.

We went to Mynt for frozen yogurt and pictures with a minion.

Kate enjoyed some playground time.

 Blocks are one of her favorite playthings, especially these Twig blocks.

 Her absolute favorite thing to do right now is to ride her Strider bike.

We traded in our silver Town & Country.  It was a little sad to see it go.  We bought it when I was pregnant with Reagan, and both of these girls came home from the hospital in that car.

It was time though, and we are very happy with our new to us 2014 Town & Country.

 This car is funny; sometimes it looks blue and sometimes it looks gray.  It all depends on the light.

Kate moved into a booster seat.  She's happy that she can unbuckle herself now, and I'm not sure if that is a good thing yet.

Reagan and Collin had a week of STEM camp run by Camp Invention.  They had a great time.  Here is just a fraction of what they did:

That pencil Reagan invented during the camp is a pencil that you speak into and it writes what you say.  

Collin had some cool inventions too, but he didn't want to be in pictures.