Christmas

Here we are on Christmas eve after church...lucky to get this picture with everyone still dressed up!  They were pretty excited to get in their PJ's knowing they were one step closer to Santa's arrival!  And bedtime was so easy since they knew once they woke up they'd finally get to see their presents.

Santa arrived and this is what he left behind...

He left us a snowy footprint too!  On the Santa tracker, Luke saw that in France they leave their shoes out for a gift from Santa.  He immediately put his shoe out (they didn't match).  And santa left him a dissapearing coin game...which he really loves!

Very excited to come down and see what was there (by the way, it was still dark out at this time...early to see Santas gifts!!

Luke was pretty consistent about wanting a billiards table and lucky for Santa, they had a decent one at Toys R Us.  He LOVES it...I'm not sure he's getting better at it, but he spent a good amount of time figuring out where the balls go once they fall in the pockets!

Santa ate all the cookies!!  ( a few years ago, Luke came down and finished off what Santa had left behind!)

Oh, Mario Kart was exciting for Luke too.  Now he doesn't have to wait for the times we visit grandpa to play it!

Olivia got a super cool Barbie camper, some old school colorforms and the original Operation game...they're playing that right now.  Lots of old school toys this year!  I'll post some good video another time.  They had  a great Christmas!

Olivia's Christmas concert

So, yesterday I had one of two days when I wasn't working this month, and it just happened to be Olivia's Christmas concert.  Note to self...20 minutes is NOT early enough to find a seat at an elementary school concert!  I barely found a place for my car, and I just eeked out a bit of wall to lean against!  Unfortunately I had NO idea that Olivia was going to be signing by herself (well, her and a girl named Catherine!!).  Not only would i have been there way earlier, I would have made triple sure that the video camera battery was charged!  Luckily (thank you video god) I had just enough to record her big moment and the rest of the song! I would have liked to get more obviously, but this was lucky!
I get to the gym where the concert is and find my neighbor Jen who tells me that her son Alex told her that Olivia is singing in front of everyone at the microphone.  I didn't really believe it at first, but then I thought about the little hints she gave me about her and a girl named Catherine and the microphone.  But, never did I think she was going to be singing in front of the whole group! 
I think she's a great singer, but she's my daughter, so I probably think she's the greatest person on earth.  I'm starting to wonder if either she just had really good stage presence, or other people think she's a good singer.  Remember last year's talent show when she was one of two kids chosen to sing there too??
Here it is, her latest starring moment!!

Luke is 4!

Luke had a birthday this week and is now officially 4!  He waited until Wednesday to accept this age change.  He was really content at 3.  I think he's worried that 4 means he'll have to grow up a bit.

He had a great day, started off with opening his present from Grandmom: Just Dance 2.  He's gotten really good with his dance moves!  I have to say, I'm getting really good at that game! It's a bit of a workout if you choose the right songs!

Later that day he was blessed with his other gifts including a Leapster Explorer (which is making the rounds between the two of them...they love it) some cool new shoes, and a basketball net (one that will grow with him for a few years).  He's getting good at shooting hoops and asked me to raise the net up even higher so he can jump to dunk

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Trunk or Treating

Yesterday was the MOMS Club's annual Trunk or Treating. We basically pull our trunks up together in a parking lot, decorate them and then set the kids off to trick or treat.  It's great for them because they get to see all their friends in their costumes since we don't see them on Halloween day, and they don't all go to the same school.

A few years ago, we also added a "Spooky Supper" to it, so in the middle of all the trunks are tables of food for the kids to eat before they dig into their candy! It's a lot of fun, and we lucked out with 75 degrees at the start of it!  But, when the sun went down, it became pretty chilly! By then, they were rolling down the hill and playing on the playground...working off some of that sugar!

School Trip

Olivia's class took a field trip to the Firehouse. One of the best things about her school is that it's located right in Old Wethersfield and they can actually walk to many different places. There are museums within walking distance, as well as this Firehouse. And having Luke and Olivia in afternoon school together not only gives me a little peace during the day, but gives me the opportunity to help out with their classes. This was the first field trip they took this year. We walked down to the firehouse on an amazingly warm October day!

After the "tour" they got to eat their snack on the front lawn of the firehouse.  They had a great time walking back and checking out all the Halloween decorations on the houses.  Some of those houses go all out!

Visit from the West

Last weekend Christing flew out with Xavier for her college reunion and came to visit for a few days! It was a nice chance for her to visit with us, and for us to see Xavier!  He's crawling around like crazy, and the kids loved to (try and) play with him. 

Somehow I didn't pull my camera out until the last minute, but here are a few shots.

The Garden is still there!

Here is one of the reasons I haven't posted much this summer.  The Garden.  I have been to the garden just about everyday since May.  I've weeded for about 20 hours this summer (actually probably more...seriously).  Which is pretty evident if you look around the outskirts of my garden and see all the other gardens full of weeds!  Some of the people around me have pretty much given up on their gardens and let the weeds take over which drives me nuts, but what can I do? (Steal their basil and throw my weeds in their gardens...not that I actually do that...yes I do)

The squash beetles ravaged all my zucchini and squash plants, so I had to rip them all out mid August and plant some new ones.  They're growing nicely now:

I also planted some more lettuce and spinach. I should have a huge crop of lettuce pretty soon! I planted it all at once, instead of staggaring it, so we'll be eating a lot of salads!

One thing I'll really miss about the garden is my Zinnia's.  I've had continuous cuttings of flowers for the past 3 months, so our tables are never bare!  Our garden "neighbor" Bob even gave us some of his clippings, so I've had a ton of Zinnia's!  Next year I'm going to plant them all around the outside of the garden like he did so I can have even more.

Our tomatoes are also doing well, as well as the green peppers.  The red peppers never seem to actually change to red, but they're just as good when they're green!

The kids sprayed the plants with some soapy water today to try and drive all the squash bugs away from my new plants.  I wonder if I should have left more weeds around to deter them...They probably come to my garden because they cant' find anyone else's since they're covered in weeds!  Oh, that's broccoli just to the side of the huge bush of marigolds.  We'll see how that comes up!

Fall = apple picking!

I was adventurous the other day before school and took the kids apple picking.  The super warm summer brought all the apples out a few weeks early, so we get to enjoy picking them while it's still pretty warm out!  We hit the farm at a very slow point...we were the only ones there.  And the apples were almost too perfect to pick!  $23 later, we had a few bags of appled ready to go.

Olivia declared it a perfect sunny day, just right for sunglasses.

You can see the pumpkins in the back.  According to the paper, the pumpkins are out almost a month early this year...better get some good ones soon before they all start to rot! 

Luke's first day...

Luke has his first day of school...last week.  He actually had a whole week of school already, I'm very far behind!  First thing they do when they get in the classroom is hang up their name tags:

He always puts his down towards the bottom...

His favorite thing to do is go to the cutting table.  Basically all they do there is cut papers!  He loves to do it though!
I know he's loving school, but he's still a bit hesitant to go in and stay there. He doesn't chase after me crying like last year, but he's not running off to play with friends just yet.  He does have a friend named Derek that he plays with and he seems to be gravitating towards the boys more than last year!  There is another Luke in his class, so he's Luke K for the year.  I wonder how weird it would be for him to be friends with the other Luke...

Pics from the first day

Here they are waiting for the bus (Somehow an afternoon schedule was never printed, so they told us to just wait outside at 12...the bus came at 12:25...did I mention it was 98 degrees and this is the only shade we could find!)Finally!  We see it coming down the street!Olivia sat next to the boy down the street who was a bit nervous...and he looked a little startled that she sat with him since there were only 6 kids on the bus!  Plenty of open seats!

I remembered to put her badge on...with her bus info on it.  VERY important for the first few weeks!  (That little mermaid patch is there because last year's teacher "accidentally" drew on her with a dry erase marker...it never came out)

First Day of School!!!

So, Olivia was off for her first day of school today!  She was excited from 7 am to 12 pm waiting for her day to begin.  Typical Olivia was a bit nervous, but didn't really say it.  The bus pulled up and she got right on, not even one look back!  Here's some video of her getting on!

The Diving Board

Olivia started jumping off the diving board a few weeks ago, but I am just now getting video on the computer.  She just loves to do some crazy jumps!  I'm guessing Luke might attempt the diving board befor he turns 16...he's not interested in the big pool!

Finally, the Luke can swim proof!

OK, here he is, Luke August Krout (he likes to use his whole formal name) swimming:

Saturday Night's All right for Ice Cream!

Saturday night we went to Old Wethersfield to get some super homemade icecream at the Creamery (better than my ice cream I admit)

This is Comstock, Ferre the oldest continuously run seed shop in the country.  Sadly 2 years ago the owner closed it down because he couldn't make any money and the townspeople wouldn't let him use the barn to turn into apartments, so it sad for a while completely barren and falling apart.  Then last week a seed man from Missouri came in and bought it and reopened it!  I haven't been in yet, but I plan on heading there!  They are operating it in 19th century style, period clothes, computers out of sight, old wooden floors.  Brilliant.

Roses everywhere

Grandmom and Pop pop came up for a visit this week!  The kids had a lot of fun showing off their swimming skills at the pool.  Luke is getting really good! I'll post some video of his moves soon!  On Friday after lessons we packed a picnic and headed to Elizabeth Park in West Hartford.  Seriously the biggest rose garden you've ever seen!  14,000 species of roses in one park!  It was beautiful.  We were probably a few weeks past when they were at their prime, but there were still plenty of perfect specimens to be found!

Luke in his typical pose in front of the arches.

A really cool gazebo.  Right now it's covered in vines, but I suspect at the peak season it's covered in hanging roses!

Olivia in the perennial garden.  The most perfect garden I've ever seen!

Portrait by Luke:

I thought this was a really cool greenhouse.  Loved the doorway!

Sharks (or Shaaaaks as Luke and the Bostonians say it)

So, yesterday Luke decided to put his head under the water (remember how long it took me to get him to jump...and I didn't even attempt the head under part).  So, for 1.5 hours we hung out in the pool while Luke went under...down his elevator, exploring the depths of 2 1/5 feet.  I could not believe he did it (and where was the darn camera!!) and felt the need to call everyone I could get a hold of (thanks mom for answering!).  Today he showed off his new stunt in swim lessons and managed to stay in the water the whole lesson (whoo hoo, only a week and a half later!!).  He 'performed' (if you have kids, you know what I mean) all his new stunts, the jumping and the head under looking for a lot of attention, and got most of it from his instructor.
This afternoon we went back for "fun swimming".  Would you believe Luke decided to surprise me again...not only jumping in with no help this time (seriously, it's 2 1/2 feet, his head doesn't even go under), but also SWIMMING!! I mean it looks like he's beating the water to death, and the kicking doesn't always coincide with the arm movements, but his feet are off the bottom and he's moving around!  It's amazing  how kids do what they want when they want...(you can't make this kid do anything!!)
He started out in a tuck position, arms flailing about (had to remind the lifeguard he wasn't drowning) and then a few times actually raised his butt up to the surface and sort of floated/thrashed about in the water. 
Luckily Brad was able to join us and celebrate this milestone!
By the way, I love how swimming totally wears the kids out!  They have to eat dinner a bit earlier (5:30), but by 7:30 (most days) they are totally konked out!
Tomorrow I'll try and get some video, or at least pictures of the thrashing! It's really very amusing.
Go Luke!!

Swimming!

A few days into swim lessons I had almost given up on Luke.  He doesn't want to get in, he didn't want to try floating or jumping or anything.  No matter how much patience I prayed for, I had just about had it with him.  Then I remember how long it took Olivia to really get in and enjoy the water (and truthfully, she was a whole year older than him when she was swimming).  Maybe it was because I loved swimming so much as a child I just figured it would get to them somehow.  

Well, yesterday I tried in vain to get Luke to jump in. I figured once he jumped, it would be cake from there.  That's how it worked with Olivia. Once she jumped she started swimming (and boy can she swim...more on that later).  But, Luke had NO interest in jumping.  But I know that to get Luke to do just about anything, I have to force him, basically throw him in.  So, a few hours into our pool day, I tricked him.  I lifted him out of the water to the wall and then brought him right back in. Soon he was jumping giddily off the side.  He still holds my hand, but WOW, what an improvement!!

A few times I've been able to slip one hand out and just have him hold one hand, but he knows those tricks!  Olivia was jumping on her own in one day, Luke proves to be a challenge (as usual), I predict in a week he might be jumping on his own.   Let's just hope he does it in lessons!!

As for Olivia.  She is proving to be my swimmer.  She can swim across the small pool underwater without any breaths, she jumps off the side with abandon and she has quite a good freestyle going!

With a few tips from grandmama last week (she won't listen to me of course...hello, I was a coach!) she has been getting her strokes down pat!  She loves her goggles and we have "tea parties" on the bottom of the pool (I look like a 13 year old, but i don't care).  I just have to work on her distance and breathing, but she's getting it!  I can see the swim team in our future next year!

July!

It's July, and we've been busy!  We've got tennis lessons, swimming lessons and camp all week long (which makes me very happy...I love a busy schedule!)

Olivia is doing great in her tennis lessons, hitting the ball a few times (she's no Billie Jean King, but she has potential!!)

My mom came up to visit last week and ended up extending her visit for a few extra days (yay!)So, we treated her to a "Steve Songs" concert (OK, it was totally free.  At the library.  The kids had a great time hanging out with their friends and enjoying the music.
Here is some of Olivia's latest artwork.  It's not in order, but it's Olivia yelling "Luke" and daddy looking mad (love the smoke coming out of his head!) and me plugging my ears (I'm on the bottom) "while doing laundry" and Luke is at the very top on the computer.  She's so creative!I cut some hydrangeas from the garden the other day and Olivia insisted on posing with them.  She's a budding model that one.Today (the 4th), we went blueberry and raspberry picking.  Luke LOVES blueberries.  He didn't have much to show in his bucket because he ate everything he could pluck off the bush!  It was hot, but we came home with a ton of blueberries and 2 pints of raspberries.  Luke took this picture of Olivia and I in front of the raspberries.