Astronaut Academy!

With all of these classes that I've been taking Gabriel to lately during the morning time of the week when Ayden is in school, I've felt like Ayden deserves a fun class too! So I found this great class at the Durham Museum of Life and Science called "Astronaut Academy!" It is a three class series and we've been to one so far on December 3rd and have the second class tomorrow. Ayden seemed to enjoy the class since he has a big interest still in all things outer space!
I'm pretty sure his favorite part was making this "rocket" that you launch by blowing air through the straw! :)
Here is the whole class learning about the largest rocket!

Wednesdays!

This is how our Wednesdays start out every week. Gabriel eating an egg sandwich from McDonalds! He never seems to eat enough in the morning at home and so when we go out to one of his classes or out on errands, I am always getting him snacks. :)
Here we are pretending to be snakes at Gabriel's "Stretch and Grow" class through the Town of Cary.
This is Gabriel's favorite part of the class...collecting the balls in his own little basket and then dumping them into the big basket!
The parachute is a close second!
Look Granny (who is taking the photo)!! I've got a stamp of a smiley face on my hand! :) Gabriel and I have had so much fun with Stretch and Grow and the Art Class that we are going to take them again in the Spring!

Christmas Tree Shopping!

Daddy and Gabriel playing "fill the bucket with rocks and then wear the bucket as a hat (without the rocks thank God!"
Running through all the trees trying to find a good one...well I was trying to find a good one! :)
We went to the same farm to get a Christmas tree that we went to for the hay ride, etc. in the Fall. They just looked cute checking out the view of the farm, so I had to snap a photo!
Cheese!
They are getting to be good pals! :)

Hike with Mom!

Posing for me up on a little hill!
Cheese on a quick break from our little hike. It was a pretty spot north of Durham.
My little adventurer!
This is the name of the spot where we were hiking. It was a great afternoon...we need to do this more often on nice days! I just love being outdoors and not just in my front yard! ;)

November Happenings

The kids playing on the street the day we left for our overnight. Looks like they were having a good time. :)
Gabriel at his art class making a turkey
He decided not to make the turkey the way the teacher showed them, but that is alright...his version was a work of art, Gabriel style! :)
Granny's Birthday celebration at our house a few days before Thanksgiving! I made her her favorite cake, chocolate with white frosting.

Henry!

Ayden has always been my little creative child. He just comes up with craft projects off the top of his head that impress me. :) Right before Thanksgiving time, Ayden found an old poster holder, stuck two hockey sticks down it for the arms and then put a paper mache covered balloon that we had made for a Halloween project that we never finished on for the head. He dressed him up in some of his dress up clothes now Henry is his new friend! He has such a vivid imagination and has always loved pretending. So my thought is that Henry is like his imaginary friend, only he isn't quite imaginary. Does that make sense? :)

Just Hanging Out!

These are just random photos from late November before Thanksgiving. Thanks to Granny and Papi, we have tons of pics to choose from. :) Here's a short selection.

My little cleaning helper!
Granny, Gabriel, Ayden and I went on a walk during their 2 week visit and Ayden found a tree that looked like it had a bunch of "wishies" on it. You know, dandelions! :) He said that it was "snowing on him" and he loved it!
Granny, Papi and Ayden got to visit Daddy at work!

Caryl's Apple Pie!

When Julio and I came home Saturday afternoon from our overnight get away, we were thinking to ourselves...what are we going to have for dinner? We were at the market getting a couple of groceries, but didn't happen to get dinner items. It was a great thing that we didn't because Julio's mom Caryl was busy at work making homemade spaghetti, salad and apple pie! Not only did we get a night away, but we came home to fresh cooked dinner and dessert! We have certainly been spoiled having our parents here to help us for the last month! It certainly has been fun to have them. :)

7 Years Celebrated in Style!

Well, about a two months late, we finally celebrated our anniversary last weekend on Friday, the 20th of Nov. I took it upon myself to make a reservation at a nice little country inn near Chapel Hill. My neighbor told me about this place and so I checked it out online. You could tell a lot from their website, but it was even better! It was so elegant and the grounds of the village made you feel as if you'd stepped into a posh country home decor magazine! I mentioned on our reservation that we were celebrating our anniversary and so they upgraded us to a suite instead of the standard room I had booked. We had a nice living room, bedroom and large bathroom with a screened in porch off the bath. We enjoyed tea time at 4:30 pm complete with tea sandwiches, truffles, treats and of course some fresh herb tea! Our dinner was a fabulous four course meal that was excellent. We had a gorgeous view of the gardens and countryside from our room...it was heaven! I just loved it! We were only gone for about 24 hours, but it was the most relaxed I'd been for 24 hours straight in over a year. Totally worth it!
Julio sitting in the living room of our suite! They left us chocolate truffles and a small gift card of spending money (to redeem at one of their boutique shops) for our anniversary. I was so impressed...everything was included at this place. In room snacks, drinks, tea and treats, breakfast and the extras I just mentioned. The only thing that was not included in the room was our dinner. I could have stayed there for a whole week! Loved it!
We used their bikes and took a nice ride around the housing development that surrounded the village. We visited the "Beltie" Cows that they are famous for. :)

Thanksgiving Feast!

We had our first Thanksgiving feast at Ayden's preschool class! They really do it right in that particular classroom! His other classrooms just did snacks for holidays and such, but Miss Sally and Miss Lisa planned for a huge and yummy feast! The kids made Pilgrim and Indian hats for the occasion. :)
Ayden's friends, Carter and Hayes.
Gabriel and Ayden posing out front. They decided to hug the tree. :)

What Have We Been Up To?

Ever since Halloween week, we've had one if not both kids sick! We've had to watch a lot of movies around this house for the past 3 weeks! I was noticing that I don't have many photos from the past few weeks since Halloween and the illness and craziness lately is pretty much why.

Granny and Papi (Julio's parents) have been here for about a week now and we are all trying to stay well now that everyone is on the mend so that we can all go to Asheville to celebrate Thanksgiving with the whole family there including my mom who is flying in this coming Monday.

Also in the past five weeks, we began hosting a Life Group through church. We've been pretty busy with that since we host 11 adults and 9 kids under 5 in our house for two and a half hours every Sunday afternoon. I sure have been spending more time cleaning! Ha,ha! But really, it has been a great gift to us and we are enjoying getting to know this new group. We are getting ready to host a Thanksgiving celebration after our 6th meeting (and week) to celebrate officially becoming a group (we will be out of the trial period). For those of you that know about small groups through church, this is one of those.

On another note, I arranged for a overnight trip for tomorrow night to celebrate our anniversary that was back in early October. It will be the first time that I've been away from the kids for 24 hours in over a year and a half or more! Looking forward to it! I'm sure I'll have some photos next week. :)

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Halloween on the CMD!

We hosted the second annual Halloween on Chalk Maple Drive this year! We had a great turn out and the weather was awesome, 80 degrees!
Ayden didn't last as the skeleton...the mask broke and he didn't like my fix-it job, so he went back to the power ranger from last year since it still fit! Here he is handing out candy in front of our house. :)
I planned for Gabriel to be a train conductor, but he refused to wear the hat! Oh well. He was pretty much still sick with the cold/cough that I am just now getting over (a week and a half later)! Poor guy, Halloween wasn't much fun for him this year. Guess there is next year when he will understand it better anyhow. :)

Halloween Neighborhood Parade

Neighbor friends: Tyler as the Power Ranger, Quentin as Superman, Lucy as Gymnastics Girl, Bennett as Batman and Ayden as The Skeleton!
Ayden with Tyler and his brother Hunter, the Thomas train!
All the neighbors that came out for the parade! This was the third year that Ayden participated! Crazy! Poor Gabriel was sick that day. :(

Neighborhood Halloween Party!

Our friends Stacy and Andres (goulish lady and biker dude), Gordon and Valerie (German Lederhosen folks) and of course Frankenstein and his Bride! :)
We were trying hard to hold a straight face! Julio didn't quite manage. :) It was a great party! Too bad the other Frankenstein and Bride won the prize for scariest costume! Ahhh, we just looked to good to be scariest! ha,ha!

BOO!

All the kids in Ayden's classroom sang a cute song about Witch's Brew and then the words are, "Tip, toe, tip, toe...BOO!"

Halloween Parade at Preschool!

All the little classmates dressed up for the parade and party!
They sang two songs that they rehersed all week! Ayden practiced at home and on Friday, I got to see the fruits of their efforts! It was too cute. I will post a video of the second song. :)
I had to post a photo of the cake from the preschool Halloween party! Yes, you are reading this correctly...this is a cake! Isn't it amazing! A friend of mine named Wendy who is also a mom of two kids in Ayden's class made this outstanding fondant cake! Of course I was in complete awe! :) Not only was it beautifully done, but she included three different kinds of handmade cake! It was delicious! Ayden had a hard time waiting to eat it until he was through with his lunch!

Spooktacular!

Ayden and his neighbor friend Lucy got to go to the Durham Museum of Life and Science on the Wednesday before Halloween for a great event that included a spooky play complete with real potions and brews! After the play was over, they got to do some hands on activities. See below...