Where life is worth living....

....That is the slogan for the town we live in. We went to the annual village carnival last Thursday....just about the only event that our little town hosts. I suppose the carnival could be the only reason the slogan exists. 4 days of pure fun (if you're a kid....big money pit if you're an adult)! There was a big parade on Thursday night, which we attended. Some people put out chairs along the side of the road early in the morning to insure the perfect spot to watch the parade. I waited until about 4pm to put our chairs out....we still got a good spot.

The parade was really long. It was already past the kids' bed time by the time it ended. But Iain was so excited to ride the ferris wheel that we had to visit the carnival before bed! We got in line to get on the ferris wheel and Ella started getting a little nervous. I asked her multiple times if she wanted to ride it and she kept saying no. But when it came time to get on, she was fine....didn't cry or whine about it. They both loved it!

After our ride on the ferris wheel we played a few games....games that you can't lose at, both kids got fun prizes. Iain saw a dunk tank and HAD to try to dunk the poor, cold boy sitting in the dunk seat. It only took him ONE throw to dunk the kid!! What an amazing 4 year old! After that it was home to bed. 30 minutes at the carnival is all you need to blow 20 bucks.

Summer time fun....

Just some fun pictures of the kids at the park near our house.

parade, fireworks and fishing....

Well, I feel like every time I post a new blog I have to apologize for not posting in so long. Sorry everyone....Maria this one's for you!

Over July 4th weekend we had some fun times. It was actually our first weekend together as a family since Sean finished school. So, I had been looking forward to some much needed time together (without traveling somewhere first). On Saturday morning we took the kids to the 4th of July parade. Lots of firetrucks and people throwing candy makes everyone happy!

After the parade, it was lunch and then naps. The deal was, if you didn't take a nap, you couldn't go to the fireworks! After 45 minutes of Iain complaining that he couldn't fall asleep, he did finally fall asleep. Good thing.

There was a little festival at the site of the fireworks, so we went at dinner time and had a bite to eat. While we ate Ella put on a show including some pretty good somersaults, which she decided recently, she wants to do all the time. Then the kids wanted to play on the big inflatable slide and win some prizes playing really easy games.

Ella and Iain both stayed up until 10pm waiting for the fireworks to start. Ella was so excited to see them. At every little noise, she would look around for some fireworks. When they finally started, Ella was a little scared and wanted to sit with Daddy so he could protect her from the loud noise. She closed her eyes every time there was an explosion. I'm not sure she actually saw any of the fireworks. After she got used to the noise, she went to sleep....and managed to stay sleeping through the finale. Crazy kid. Iain, however, loved watching the show and wasn't scared one bit. We realized this weekend that whenever Ella is scared, she wants Daddy to hold her. How cute is that? She did the same thing during the parade when the loud firetrucks came through.

On Sunday, Iain's request was to go fishing. He only lasted maybe 20 minutes then he wanted to throw rocks in the water....typical.

What fun times we had! Happy 4th of July!

The real meaning of Easter...

Last week, I was driving to Syracuse with the kids. We where listening to a worship CD in the car and one of the songs caught Iain's attention....the words in the song were....

He (Jesus) lived

He died

He said in three days He would rise

He did

He's alive.....

After hearing that chorus, Iain says "That's Easter." Not realizing that he was talking about the song, I started looking around to see if someone still had out Easter decorations in their yard or something. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, I asked him what he was talking about. He said "The song is talking about Easter."

Leave it to a four year old to remind us that Easter isn't all about bunnies and candy....I love that boy.

Here is a picture of Iain and Ella on Easter Sunday.

Virginia....

Over spring break we visited Colleen and John in Virginia. We all had a great time and the weather was beautiful! Colleen is a wonderful hostess and cooked special yummy food for the kids (and us).

We visited a farm on our first day there. The kids had fun looking at all the different animals. Iain's favorite was the horses....I'm not sure what Ella liked the best. She seemed to be fascinated with it all!

We visited the National Zoo in DC which is amazing! Huge and free! Here is a picture of Ella at the zoo making faces at some frogs.

Colleen joined us on our trip into downtown DC. Iain really wanted to see dinosaur bones so we visited The Museum of Natural History. Talk about over stimulation! There was so much to see in there I think the kids were both a little overwhelmed! In this picture we were in front of a huge wholly mammoth skeleton but it is really hard to see.

We walked around a little and saw the white house and few other places, but it was so hot that day it was hard to do much walking. So we got over priced ice cream from a street vendor and sat in the shady grass for a while....until Iain decided he had to go to the bathroom....then we had to frantically look for a restroom.

Thanks for having us Colleen and John! We can't wait until our next visit!

a fresh start

It has been over 2 months since my last post. After several requests from freinds to start blogging again, I figured I should get back to it. Obviously, we are still alive and well. Now that spring is here, I want to start fresh and new with my blogging.

Welcome spring!

Almost warm....

About a week ago the weather got warm for a couple of days. The snow melted and the kids and I started to get a bit restless for spring. So on this particular morning, the sun was shining, the ground was dry and Iain asked if we could go outside and play. I said yes and it wasn't 20 minutes later that it started snowing again. But we decided to go outside anyways and these pictures were the result. Iain spent the whole time running around and wouldn't stop for me to take a picture....he was a little excited to be outside.

Playing with Ella....

Yesterday Ella and I were playing in her room and she was being so cute I just had to take some pictures!

fun in the snow....

A couple of weeks ago Sean took Iain for a fun afternoon of sledding and playing in the snow. When they were done sledding, they came back to the house to build a snow fort. In the parking lot next to our house, the plow had pushed a huge snowbank just on the other side of our fence. So Sean helped Iain dig (well, Sean did all of it actually) a really cool fort into the side of the snow bank. Iain was so excited about the fort, he wanted Ella and me to come outside and look at it. A couple of days later, the plow guy decided to move that snowbank and took Iain's fort a long with it....Iain was so upset when he saw the fort was gone. I guess all good things have to come to an end.

Iain's Birthday highlights....

Here is Iain and AJ eating yummy food! Iain had special requests for his birthday lunch....Bamma's mac and cheese and dino shaped chicken nuggets. Also notice the Batman plates that Iain picked out himself at the party store.

Opening presents was the best! Although you would have never known it. Iain didn't get very excited about any of his gifts....until later when he stated that he liked his birthday "stuff" better than his Christmas "stuff". He got a lot of transformers and action figures!

Hanging out with family....everyone at the party traveled from someplace. We are so glad everyone made the trip safely (the weather was kind of iffy that day). A visit from Oma and Opa is always a treat!

Iain and Ella with their cousins AJ and Micah. They had a blast playing all day! By the end, this was the best picture we could get of all of them together. Iain is already talking about what he wants to do on his 5th birthday!

Blogging slump....

Well, it has been awhile since my last post. Everybody has been sick here at one time or another. We've been busy with.... I don't even know.... stuff. As a result, I just haven't felt like blogging. Iain has had this problem of having blood in his urine for some unknown reason which is stressing me. I haven't been going to the gym or playing with the kids as often as I would like either. I guess I have been in a slump across the board.

Iain just had his fourth birthday party....I can't believe he's four! Something happened at his party that sparked the blogging bug in me. His cousins were here....who he loves. Micah, who is almost three, was playing with some toy food and somehow became very attached to this plastic piece of chicken. All of the sudden, Micah noticed that the chicken was missing. Well, that was just the end of the world....Micah cryed and cryed about the chicken and everyone was looking for it, no one could find it. As soon as he left with his fam, before their car had even pulled out of the driveway, Iain came clean. Apparently (as Iain tells it) he and AJ (his older cousin), hid the chicken in Iain's closet because sometimes Micah hits Iain....a 4 year old's revenge. I am still laughing about it. So the plastic chicken leg has been found! And we've learned not to mess with Iain cause he'll hide your favorite stuff!

Ella's hair

I have been anxiously waiting for Ella's hair to be long enough for me to "put up" (if you can call it that). On Christmas day I was finally able to do that! She got some hair accessories in her stocking from Santa (aka. me) and I couldn't wait to use them! This is a picture of her on Christmas....so cute. I think she looks like Cindy-loo Woo (sp?).