LES Passport to Fitness Night

The kids loved the Rock wall!

This was just one of the many activities the kids got to do on the "passport to fitness" night. The kids went in and got a passport with a list of all the activities and locations of the activities. For each activity they did they received a sticker or stamp. If they completed all activities listed they got a free homework pass! The kids were all over that (even though their homework isn't even hard :)). They did basketball drills, obstacle courses, did ballet and balance, even jazzercise and zumba! We all had such a great time. At the end of the night they did "pacer races" with parents and children together. You had to run from one end of the gym to the other in a certain time frame. You keep doing that back and forth until you don't make it to the end in correct time. That's how people drop out and the last one running wins! Harrison, Keean and I were ALMOST the last ones standing. They all did a great job! What a fun night!

Our Lowe's Projects

The kids still love to go to Lowe's for the "Build and Grow" workshops they do every other week....and so does Jamie :) This one is a castle with a draw bridge that opens and also locks. They are fun and we plan to keep them for posterity :) They give a patch and a certificate after you complete the project. The intent of the patch is to sew it on to the apron they give you so that your apron will be full of these patches. Keean finally "encouraged" me to sew them on after we have been doing these projects for ...how many months? Needless to say, my fingers are sore from sewing them all on, but now I am caught up! :)

Birthday Dinner....and Dessert!

Again, Keean slyly asked Dad about his favorite dinner a few weeks before his birthday. Keean told me that we were making him chicken curry and fresco and banana cream pie for dessert. We threw in the angel food cake. So delicious. Jamie does so many thoughtful things for us and it was finally his turn! We love you Jamie!

Happy Birthday Jamie

The kids all wanted to decorate for Jamie's birthday. They planned his whole birthday. Thank heaven's for kids, because I seem to always fail when it comes to Jamie's birthday. Ireland wanted to decorate so we bought balloons and streamers. The kids all helped after school to put everything up.. It was so fun!
Keean wanted Dad to have a piñata so we bought a bunch of candy (dumdums, starbursts, and york peppermint candies) and let the kids hit at it. Jamie even got a turn to hit. Harrison was holding on to the rope at the top of the stairs. That didn't last long because the rope broke :( So Jamie took his life into his own hands and held the piñata while the kids hit the piñata! surprisingly none got hurt!
The kids wanted to hide his presents. We went down to the basement and played the "hot...cold" game while we sang "Happy Birthday". The kids sang softer if he was farther away, and louder the closer he got. It was so fun. The kids got some pearler beads for christmas so they made him some designs...a present, some candles and a cupcake.

Happy New Year!

Yo and her family went home earlier on New Year's Eve leaving us with no party! So we asked my friend Liz if we could come over and play games with her and her family! Of course they were very welcoming. Her boys are all in our kids' classes at school and so they all get along great. Once again Ireland was surrounded by boys! We came over, had dinner, roasted marshmallows in their fire pit. Don had even bought fireworks! It was a lot of fun. After we were done outside we went inside for rousing games of "minute to win it". We had cup stacking, stacking dice on popsicle stick while the popsicle stick is in your mouth, a box full of ping-pong balls with box tied around your waist...you had to shake your booty until all ping-pong balls came out....and a few other games. The kids had so much fun and we had so much fun watching them! At the end They all got party favors and blowers to ring in the new year. Wow! I didn't realize how loud those blowers could be. I think it was a combination of boys and blowers because Ireland was crying from the noise when we rang in the new year...:) It was mass chaos! So funny...NOW :)

The National Christmas Tree

We walked all the way up to the White House to see the National Christmas Tree. It was beautifully decorated in blue lights. As we were walking from the Capitol Christmas Tree to the National Christmas Tree we were all wondering what tree would be bigger and better. Well everyone thought the National Tree would be bigger, but the Capitol was much bigger. There is a story to that though....Normally the National Christmas Tree is huge, but this past fall when the hurricane blew through, it blew over the tree, so they had to have a new one planted this year. It's short and fat, but it still was beautiful. they had train tracks going all around the tree as well as a christmas tree for every state. I'm glad we made everyone walk soo far to see it! WE got right on the metro from there and went home! What a funfilled day!

At Night

The Washington Monument and The White House at dusk

Jamie takes such great pictures!

Tour of the Capitol Building

There were so many tours going on at the Capitol so each tour guide and their tour had on headphones so that we could hear just her and not all the other tours going on. She also didn't have to shout so we all could hear. The kids thought they were pretty neat that they could stand right in front of her, yet hear her in the headphones too! Here are pictures of the first Supreme court chambers, and the top of the rotunda.

The Capitol Christmas Tree

We took a trip up to the city with all the kiddos. They love riding the metro and going underground, sitting backwards in the metro cars, or standing and trying to keep their balance as the cars stop and go! It was such a gorgeous day we hardly needed jackets. We went to the capitol and saw the tree. We walked around and found out they were giving tours that day, so jamie got us tickets and we got to go in.

The "Junk Yard"

Another activity we did while Yo was in town was go to Southern Maryland's small version of Bounce U called "the Jump Yard". Everytime I say the name the kids all think I am taking them to the "Junk Yard". Harrison was a great babysitter for baby Jack. He loves playing with Jack and Jack just follows him everywhere. Harrison had a great time with him!

Flat Iron Farms Christmas lights

My sister and her family came down to see us after christmas and stayed for a few days. One of the things we did together was go to this farm that is all decorated with lights, petting farm, and a display of antique christmas decorations and farm ....stuff :) There was even an irish racehorse named Aiden there! They had miniature zebras too! Fun and Free!

Jamie and Monique's Christmas

We got Jamie a massage chair this year! His lower back is always hurting from his chair at work. He will usually recruit the kids to "massage" his back for him by standing and pinching his back. The kids love it, but I wasn't so sure Jamie loved it :) The kids (and Jamie) put together an awesome coupon book for me to use throughout the year. When Jamie was helping them put it together he said they had to choose things they would do for me that would be a sacrifice. One was wash the car inside and out, another was no video games (or even asking for video games) for two weeks, and one free week of eating dinner without complaining! As I was reading these great coupons out loud with their names attached to the coupons I could see it was already hard for them to even hear the commitments they made with the coupon book. It should be fun to see what happens when I cash them in!

Ireland's favorites

Ireland is such a girl! She was easy to please this year too! Barbie's, dolls, and dress-up! So fun! The only thing we were missing this Christmas was family and friends :) We miss you all and hope your holiday was wonderful!

Keean's favorites

Keean was very specific this year on what he wanted! There was this specific lego mini set he wanted, a specific "bat cave"...not the old one because he already had that one. He needed the "new and improved" bat cave. He now has this whole city of imaginex toys downstairs that he and his friends play. I hope this completes his city! We don't need anymore "bases" downstairs!

Harrison's favorites

Harrison loves EVERYTHING you get him, so you would think that would be easy, but there's so much to choose from. Some of his favorites were the most recent "Diary of a Whimpy Kid", his i-touch, and he got some heelys. He's already well adjusted to his i-touch, but he is still trying to get the hang of his heelys! Maybe a helmet is in order for these tennis shoes!

Aedan's favorites

Aedan is not one for change and he has liked the same gifts for a few years now. He likes legos, books, and games! Pretty simple. Pretty predictable :) He loved his christmas! We always try and branch out and introduce something new and this year we got him roller blades. He loves ice skating so we'll see if he adapts to the roller blades!

Christmas Eve tradition

We love to play games as a family. Sometimes, ok most of the time, it can get a little crazy but it is fun! On Christmas Eve when we should be doing something spiritual (:))we are opening our game gifts and getting rowdy! This year we got operation, blokus, bop it, and a word puzzle for ireland. We did read the Christmas story at the end of the evening to help everyone calm down and feel the spirit :)

Operation Santa

Every year Harrison has asked to sleep under the christmas tree on christmas eve so that he can catch santa in the act. This year was no different! The concern for Santa delivering our presents has always come up because we have no chimney either. Harrison wanted to see how he did it, how he came in the house. Well, we didn't let him sleep under the tree this year, but he and Keean were anxiously looking out their bedroom windows with their binoculars in hopes of one little glimpse of santa and his sleigh. Harrison called it "Operation Santa".

more family pictures :)