Happiness is...

Well, its no secret that Thanksgiving does not rank among my favorite holidays. No offense to the well meaning passengers of the Mayflower, I whole-heartedly appreciate their efforts. Of course, they did travel in the time before travel climates were assigned colors. I ask you, what's a little scurvy if you can bypass security lines?

Still, now that I am a mom, I can no longer escape the harvestfest with macaroni and cheese and beer. So I in the past few years, I have been working to re-frame the holiday in terms of thanks and happiness rather than tense dinners and a root vegetable soup.

This year, my very smart husband suggested we escape to our favorite vacation spot in the Berkshires where we spent a week doing our best to relax. Turns out, there is no real relaxation for parents of two, but we did our best. To our delight, my younger brothers and mother joined us as well so CPea was in the kind of heaven that one can only get to when one is adored by "Uncles."

So in the spirit of happiness-I present to you my happy thanksgiving.

happiness is...

finding magic in a sofabed

a play in the first snow of winter with daddy

love from the uncles

one on one with Uncle Mark

being ready to ski-just as soon as she stops swinging

coooing with Dee Dee

standing at the foot of a mountain

playing with my girls (and dressing them alike)

reading with a very attentive audience

super family fun time

brothers on a winter adventure

happiness is being thankful for what I have, and being grateful for all of you.

thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!

from our little turkeys...

to yours!

All Aboard! Trains and Training

We spent last Sunday at Day Out with Thomas at the Essex Steam Train Station. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time wallowing in the blatant commericalism that is this little blue train phenom. Luckily, not a lead painted train in sight.

CPea was especially enthralled with everything Thomas, riding the train..

LPea was pleased to become a train conductor, now she wants to drive our cars!

Love is, an inflatable Percy


Standing in front of the cultural icon that is Thomas



CPea also rode in her first ride all by herself! And had her face painted!

And we went on the merry-go-round, CPea did not want to ride on a horse


A blissful day for a three year old.


And, for those interested parties, I am happy to report that CPea is officially potty trained! This is a significant milestone in parenting and a lovely relief from being that woman buying two sizes of diapers. It is satisfaction at its best.

A Ghostly Halloween

Ever since last Halloween, CPea planned to be a Scary Ghost, with purple. Mind you, this is not the kind of costume that can be found in stores. So it fell to me, the mother, to create this costume. Which I did, with the help of my friend Amanda.

Here's the highlights of our Halloween extraganza, which consisted of two parades, one contest, and many bags of candy!





Never one to be left out of the loop, LPea did her best to be a little ghost


Everyone knows you can't be a preppy ghost without a monogram...




At the Halloween Parade in Niantic



CPea's costume contest debut...


CPea and I at the Academy's halloween parade




LPea found all of the Halloween preparations just a little exhausting


But once she had her cozy tiger suit on...she perked right up!






Trick or treat...ready to roll!




All and all, a great time for all us!

More photos are on our flikr page: http://www.flickr.com/photos/8140485@N08/sets/72157602846371024/

Poppy and Parades

LPea had a visit by her Poppy and Suzanne last weekend. It was a weekend filled with football and fun as we participated in the Academy's Parents Weekend.

LPea gets a big hug!

And matching outfit again!

The colors on parade by the cadets drilling

CPea posing with Poppy and Suzanne

Outside playing catch with Poppy wearing her Carolina jacket. The Tarheels are going to have a good team this year!

I'd call this a meeting of the minds, wouldn't you?

And get ready for Halloween my friends, CPea CANNOT wait for it!

Vacationland

The other day, LPea casually mentioned in conversation that she had not been out of the state of Connecticut since she was born. So we thought, what better place to go than Maine.

Actually, we thought we had to go to a waterpolo tournament last weekend in Maine.

Our first trip with LPea was a resounding sucess. I think I actually slept better in the hotel than I have at home. And you know you can't put a price on good sleep. You can see how well she took to her pack and play.

CPea had a great time getting to know the locals in Portland.

And playing in the near Bowdoin College. The leaves were just starting to turn.

And of course, the obligatory lighthouse trip. The Portland Head light is beautiful!

Whose taller? The Lighthouse or the CPea tower?

We also go to visit our good friends... Caroline and Mia are great playmates and love to see each other. And I love the Kittery outlets...

The Third Time is Charming

So CPea turned THREE last Friday, the end of a week of celebrations starting with the long awaiting NEMO party. As some of you know, Caroline starting planning this party minutes after the end of her Elmo party last year. She picked the balloon colors, cake design, party favors (bubbles) the whole nine yards. It was a beautiful fall day and we all had a great time.





LPea was a little confused as to what was going on, but was happy to help her sister dig into the cake. Note: no candles this year as CPea is still no fan of flame.



The celebration continued with a party in her preschool class. I had forgotten the grand tradition of construction paper crowns for classroom parties.

As you can see, it was quite a celebration. Dance party and all!



Of course, no birthday is complete without gifts and CPea was thrilled with all of hers, and the wrapping paper!

We had to leave the night of her birthday to go up to Maine for a waterpolo tournament so on the way out of town, we had dinner at Chili's. You know how they do a little song for birthdays-well we asked our server to do it for CPea. They brought over a dessert and starting singing and as they were doing it, I thought it was a really loud song for three people to sing. It turned out that there were several table of cadets that realized it was Scott's daughter's birthday and so they heartily joining in singing Happy Birthday to her. Needless to say, Caroline was so delighted that the 'Cadets who live at Chili's sang her Birthday song."

Being three and starting preschool has brought out a whole new dimension of Caroline. She is loving her class and is learning a lot. Last we she tasked me with finding coincidences. Apparently, she is looking for them and, "Mom, if you see a coincidence, let me know."

I'm still looking.

Its hard to be a baby

LPea will be the first to tell you, being a baby is not always a cakewalk. Our household is a little topsy-turvey these days. I returned to work this week, which has gone well considering that sleep is not always part of my day or night. The Academy has a child development center on campus that CPea has gone to for the past few years, its wonderful. Unfortunately, they still do not have space for my little baby, so she is going to be with a babysitter three days a week and the other two days I will work from home.


LPea has mixed feelings about this. As a general rule, she prefers that I not work on the computer while I am at home. Instead, we like to bounce constantly and take long drives to nowhere. Scott calls the above outfit her baby inmate uniform. He's funny, that guy.




CPea is doing her best to help her little sister stay comfortable. This is her testing out the Bumbo seat. It looks like its going to be a big help-once LPea can hold her head up.

Meanwhile, we are in the midst of CPea's third birthday celebration. The big day is actually Friday but the festivities have already begun. I will get photos up soon.

Survivor: New London

Forget racing around the world or dancing with celebrities. Here's an idea, one parent, one preschooler, one infant, one weekend: GO!

SPea headed to Colby in Maine this weekend to coach the Academy's waterpolo team, leaving me for the first time with All My Children.

First, I am pleased to report that all of us survived. We even managed a regular feeding schedule and baths for everyone. Quite an accomplishment if you ask me. Since CPea and I have not had a great amount of quality time since her sister arrived, I wanted to be sure that she had a great time so I was a little ambitious with our activities.

Highlights of the weekend include:

CPea's first screening of Cinderella. She loved it and talked about it all weekend, I have been permanently been assigned the roles of Jack and Gus (the mice.) I must sing the Cinderellie song on demand at any time. Which, anyone can tell you, singing like a mouse is not as easy as it looks.

LPea's first trip to the Mystic Aquarium. CPea declared that she liked the penguins the best. If you ask me, the jury is still out on that one since she slept through the whole visit.

While in the car on the way to the mall, CPea asked if I was thirsty... So to play along, I said yes. My answer was, "Great, would you like some beer? My wife loves to drink beer!" I've no idea where this sentence came from (Note: review the lesson plans at preschool a tad more carefully) but upon seeing my astonishment and asking her not to bring up beer anymore-CPea happily marched into Sears chanting "Beer, beer, beer!"

Parent of the Year!

And where are the pictures you say? Are you kidding? Two hands, two kids-no time for amateur photography. Who would stop CPea from running into traffic? Alas, the memories of this week were only captured in my memory. A reminder that the time with these little ones goes so fast-and the memories of the day to day struggles fade away but I'm hoping to remember Caroline inviting Lauren and I to snuggle in her bed on the first chilly night of fall-forever.

Let's just hope CPea's memory of the weekend does not end up on some Psychiatrist's visit notes in 10-15 years!

Things I Never Thought...

I swore that I would never dress my little girls alike... Well, life is short and so we'd thought we give it a shot.



I also did not realize in my twenties, how much fun could be had watching two people play hide-n-seek in the skull of a triceratops.



CPea had so much fun, she tried to take this dude home as a pet. Luckily for us, his cement body made it impossible to fit in our trunk. Still, I am sure he appreciated the snack.



They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, I am not sure that is where CPea was going when she dressed up like me and got her baby ready to go.



Perhaps she was hoping to have a more sophisticated look now that she is a preschooler. Preschool is going great, CPea insists that every night we play 'school.' Last night she told me I was the teacher and had to give her a lesson about buses. I think if I had some time to prepare, I could have come up with more than "Buses have wheels and horns." Citing the Wheels on the Bus song as an educational reference is never a good sign.


LPea has a number of concerns these days, not the least of which being that her nightgowns never stay down!

we interupt this blog!

We are having a technical difficulty with our camera. We are working on the problem and will resume regular posting soon!