Wow, Just Wow

The Sara P. Duke Gardens is known worldwide for it's, well, gardens. Couples wait years to be married here, people flock to the Gardens all year long for picnics, photo ops, parties, you name it. The Gardens are breathtaking.

This year, my dad took the photo that will be the Duke Garden's holiday card. I'm so impressed and I had to share with everyone! Here is his photo...

The best part is Dad doesn't even know he's half as good as he really is. Awesome.

Elf Yourself!

Oh how I love when "Elf Yourself" comes around. I giggle every time I watch these. Madeleine is loving watching herself dance (she's watched these no less than 100 times) and Austin wants to know where his outfit is so he can put it on. He's not really getting this yet. Love it.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

The Elf and Other Weird Christmas Stuff

Guess who's back...back again...it's the elf, it's the elf, it's the elf...na na na.  You'd  have to know Eminem songs to get that I suppose.  But the creepy little dude is back to put fear into the children.  And they love it.  The elf showed up mysteriously and left packages at the front door along with a note. Inside the package was brand new Christmas PJs! How did the elf know the kids are obsessed with PJs???

I got the decorations out today (against my will). The kids twisted my arm and made me do it. I ventured to the basement to get the boxes and was overwhelmed. We have way too much holiday crap. This is only the tip of the iceberg...

While digging through decorations the kids found their Halloween costumes from a few years ago. So this is how they dressed for Christmas decorating today. Weirdos!

Rockin' out to Christmas music on the iPod.

Happy Thanksgiving From St. Maarten

Early last year Rob's parents had the grand idea that we all take a family vacation together for this Thanksgiving. We figured the kids would be old enough to have fun and travel well. Well, it was a long time in the making but the trip happened and it was a huge success. I'm so glad they thought of it!  The kids were perfect (and I do mean perfect) travelers. Through plane changes, customs, waiting in airports and sitting a long time on planes they never complained. We even had other passengers come up to us later and compliment us on what well behaved children we have. I'm so proud of them (the kids, not those other passengers).

I have far too many pictures to post so I put about 60 on our photo site. You can see those photos HERE.
The kids spent most of their time at the pool. Once they met friends there, they just all hung together in the pool area. We ventured out a little, ate a ton of food, and enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner on a big catamaran. It was seven days of fun but reality is a bitch. The real world is back to slapping us around!

A Day With Great Grandma

I'm too tired to attempt to post our photos from our Thanksgiving trip to St. Maarten so I'll go with today's events instead. Great Grandma Fisher was here visiting for the holiday and luckily she was here long enough for us to get back and have the kids spend a little time with her. Today we all went to a local nursery that is known for their Poinsettia's.  Dad had the idea to do a little photo shoot there.

A grumpy Madeleine. She ran straight into Grandpa's camera and wasn't at all happy about it.

But then Grandpa used his famous "pull my finger" trick.

And it worked! Everyone was smiling. There may also have been some eye-rolling going on.

The "fake smile family"

How they didn't knock this snowman over is beyond me. A true miracle.

Then we went home to do a few crafts with the Grandmas. Great Grandma helped Austin with his Santa and Grandma helped Madeleine with her Snowman.

Great Grandma is now on her way back to Pittsburgh. We'll miss her.

James Fisher 1921-2009

One of the most kind-hearted people I've ever known. We'll miss you Grandpa.

BIOGRAPHY

On Thursday, October 29, 2009, James M., 88, of South Park Twp. Beloved husband for 66 years of Orpah L. (Fawcett) Fisher; Father of Diane Dunbar of OR and Richard (Beth) Fisher of NC; grandfather of Brigid (Wayne) King and Catherine (Rob) King; great-grandfather of Madeleine & Austin King. Mr. Fisher directed the move of the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics to the Allegheny Co, Airport, where he had over 40 years of service and retired as Executive VP, he was also a WWII US Army Air Corps veteran. Jim was very active with the Meals on Wheels (Grace Lutheran Church) program where he was known as the “Can Man”, collecting cans for recycling and giving all of the proceeds to the Meals on Wheels, and he helped to distribute food to many homeless shelters. In 1997, he was also a recipient of the Jefferson Award, a community service award. Jim was one of the founding members of the Windover Hills United Methodist Church. Friends received Sunday 2-4 & 7-9 PM at the Griffith Mortuary, Inc., 5636 Brownsville Rd., Broughton-Curry-South Park Twp. Funeral Prayer Monday 10:30 am with a Funeral Service to be held in the Windover Hills United Methodist Church at 11 a.m. Memorials in his memory are suggested to Meals on Wheels, Grace Lutheran Church, 6810 Hilldale Drive, Pgh., PA 15236 www.griffithmortuary.net.

A Very Special Steelers Fan

A very big and sentimental package arrived from Grammie King yesterday. I didn't show the kids it right away (as I'd normally do) because inside I found candy (of course) that was not good timing and a gorgeous football helmet that I didn't want anyone to touch! So I waited. This is a helmet Rob had as a child that was kept in fantastic condition. Grammie King sent the helmet for Austin but implied it should be kept in a safe place - I totally agree! He'll never be allowed to play with it unsupervised! Tonight, Rob gave Austin the helmet. This is super sentimental. This belonged to Rob as a child and the icing on the cake?.......It's a STEELERS helmet! What could be better then a 70's something Steelers helmet. So although it is fun and fabulous, up on the bookshelf it will now sit. 

Don't you just want to eat him alive, he is so cute??

I'm really in love with this helmet and so glad Grammie sent it. I love how sentimental she is (just like me!). We will find a wonderful place to put it in the house. it will definitely become a centerpiece around here. Thank you, Grammie!  All of the helmet/gift pics are posted to the right. 

Positive Parenting - Oxymoron?

In my constant struggle to be a better mom, I have been taking parenting classes with an awesome "coach"- Amy McCready- here in Raleigh. She is the founder of Positive Parenting Solutions. A friend of mine suggested Amy to me (I guess I looked like I needed help???) and her classes and techniques have changed our whole house.  And now it seems everyone else is discovering her too! Amy was quoted in the New York Times in an article about spanking/yelling. Here is the article.

Since that article, Amy has been sharing her wisdom everywhere! She's being interviewed by MSNBC, CBS and Fox. I'm so excited for her! She has online courses and I highly recommend them to EVERY parent. Check her our...you won't regret it!

Here are a couple of videos of her recent interviews.
Fox:
http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/27046248/troubling-trend.htm#q=spanking

MSNBC:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Madeleine the Yogi

Found out two things today.
1) Madeleine likes yoga.
2) Madeleine is really good at yoga!

Boo

We had an impromptu Halloweeny/Crafty playdate this week. Because that is what stay-at-home-mom's do, right? Tracy, Jess, Natalia and all the kids gathered around to make door hangers and monster puppets. None of us could figure out how to make these Witch-Doorhangers (even though it said 4+ on it!) so off went the kids to play and out came the wine while Tracy pretty much did hers and mine. She's easy to pay off with white wine. However, she offers no guarantee the product will pass inspection.

Craft #2 - cookies! I had a great idea that we would use cookie cutters and halloween shapes but it was such chaos in the kitchen (wine may have added to the chaos) that I just plopped the cookies in the oven and forgot the shapes. Kids didn't even care anyway! Jess brought all the cool cookie decorations and the kids did love this craft more that the witches.

 

Then craft #3 - Monster Puppets!  Once again Camp Counselor Tracy made this more fun with cut-out idea. I think this was the kids favorite because they wanted to do a puppet show after. They were acting so cute.

All of the photos are posted to the right in the photo links....

We Can Dance If We Want To...

...we can leave your friends behind! 'Cause your friends don't dance, and if they don't dance, then they're no friends of mine".   Good, now you have this song in your head too!

Madeleine's dance school had a "bring a friend to dance class" week so we invited Abbie T. and Abby K.

Kendall, Austin and Lindsay wanted in on the action too so Abbie gave them a quick rundown of what she had just learned.

Birthday Extravaganza Part 3

Opening Presents. This has to be kept separate from the actual birthday because it's too overwhelming for Austin (and us). Austin got a ton of cool boy stuff (which he so desperately needed). So many presents, in fact, we are cleaning out the toy room and donating all of his old toys to charity.

Four of the cooler presents: