Getting into the Holiday Spirit

Last night we met some friends at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens for the GardenFest of Lights. What an amazing display!! This beautiful spider web and the peacock were just a sampling of the light displays throughout the gardens. The kids enjoyed a maze of lights (particularly when the adults were chasing them through it). It was a little chilly and rainy at the gardens, but there was snow coming down at our house. Jordan and Madison ate a few of those huge snowflakes before we left for the GardenFest. At home we all wore our pajamas inside-out and backwards in hopes of more snow to play in this morning. As you can see from the last photo, there was just a dusting. The girls are so into their December Daily books that they really haven't had any interest in decorating for Christmas. Sad to say, I don't feel like decorating either. This house is smaller than the house we left in Texas where we built the curved staircase for our 12 foot pre-lit Christmas tree. We had to get rid of that tree because the ceilings here are considerably lower. I don't look forward to sorting through all of my holiday decorations to find the few things I can put out this year. I've already spent the last three months sorting through everything else we own to pare down to what is essential. I am tired of sorting through stuff. I need Peter Walsh from Clean Sweep to help me out!! Anyway, Jordan is insisting we at least get ornaments on the tree today. Maybe we'll just take it one day at a time.

Time for Advent and Crafting

Looks like I'm lucky to get one post a month done! The girls were excited for the start of the Christmas countdown. They unpacked the Advent calendar (house) and just waited for December first. They still had so much candy leftover from Halloween that I didn't want to fill it with candy. I didn't want to fill it with holiday activities either because during the week there just isn't time for anything but homework and dinner. So my next idea was a scavenger hunt to find the little "treasures" they would receive each day after school. They've enjoyed trying to figure out my lame clues and looking for their little prize everyday. They also embraced the December Daily journal idea from Ali Edwards. The weekend after Thanksgiving they picked out papers for their scrapbook/journal and assembled the book. The first thing they did when they got home from school on December 1st was to run up to the craft room and begin work on their first page and they continued everyday this past week. They've discovered more paper crafting techniques this past week than they (or I) could have possibly imagined. We check in with Tim Holtz everyday for his 12 Tags of Christmas inspiration and have used a few of his ideas on their pages. Hopefully, I'll be able to post a few of their pages within the next week.

It's November Already??

We were just preparing for Halloween yesterday, weren't we? The girls had so much fun this year (they do every year, don't they?)!! There wasn't a ton of planning involved with their costumes, but they both looked so great! Jordan knew a long time ago that she wanted to be Frankenstein. She bought pants and a jacket at a thrift store for a whole $3.00 and we just added shoes, face paint, and black hairspray. Madison wasn't sure what she was going to be until about 4:00 p.m. on Halloween. She ended up being the Bride of Frankenstien. I was so excited about how great they looked tonight. The neighborhood had a parade just before trick-or-treating began and everybody thought these two costumes were amazing. When the girls were trick-or-treating, people handing out canding were taking their picture. Trick-or-Treating starts and ends early here in Virginia, which I like. However, Halloween was on a Friday this year so it wasn't a big deal if the girls weren't in bed at a decent hour. The fun began around 5:30 and ended by 7:00 p.m. There were a few older kids that came by later, but not very many.

Autumn in Virgina

I have to say we are very much enjoying autumn in Virginia. This morning, while driving to school, the girls made mention of the beautiful fall foliage and also noted that in Texas the leaves go from green directly to brown. We all have made a smooth transition. There are so many kids in our new neighborhood, that the girls always have someone to play with, usually four-five kids at a time. They ride bikes, explore the little nearby creek, play table tennis, ride scooters, cruise around on our golf cart, and play flashlight tag (at night). Jordan has already had three babysitting jobs and hopes for many more. It's funny that whenever the phone rings, I immediately know it's for the girls and let them answer it.

The cooler temperatures are a welcome change. However, we had to do a little shopping to get some warmer clothes for the girls to wear to school. The picture I posted shows the girls with our loot at the nearby outdoor mall. Notice the gorgeous trees in the background. There are trees everywhere!! Another thing we love about Virginia that we're not used to, coming from Texas.

I am finally down to unpacking the final boxes in the third-floor storage room. Once these are unpacked, I hope to be able to hang pictures, place miscellaneous furniture, paint a few more rooms, and have a couple of areas remodeled. The girls' jack-and-jill bathroom has six doors throughout and I hope to be able to take out a few of these doors and put in a couple of pocket doors in their place. I feel like I'm walking through a maze when going through there.

The girls have Thursday and Friday off from school this week. They are very excited for a few days off even though they love school. Jordan is especially enjoying her classes this year. I found it interesting, in one conversation we had, I made a joke about the kids at school making fun of her for wearing a shirt we were looking at and she looked at me and said, "the kids there don't make fun of people". That statement sure made my heart happy!!! We really struggled the past few years with mean, inconsiderate, selfish kids at her last school. I am so glad for this change. Maddie, of course always the social butterfly, has loads of new friends in her class.

It's been about six weeks or so since our move and the experience has been nothing but positive.

Busy, busy, busy

We didn't waste anytime falling back into the old school routine. While the girls are at school, I unpack boxes (yeah, I know, it's been more than a month since we moved in) and try to find places for the things I unpack. I think I need to just throw more stuff away. We've been taking a car load to a donation site every weekend. This is taking forever!! Madison comes home from school, does homework and then heads right outside to play until dinner. Once she's eaten, she's gone again. Jordan gets home and does homework until dinner and again after dinner. She tries to get a 10-15 minute bike ride in before it's time to get ready for bed. We did take a little time to go play on the playground at Maddie's school. It was a nice break from house stuff!!

The First Week of School

This was a much anticipated first day/week of school. I don't think the girls were a nervous as I was. We shopped for all of their school supplies and some new clothes before we left Texas. Unfortunately, we only found the box with the school supplies - no new clothes - before school started Tuesday. We shopped a bit over the Labor Day weekend for clothes and shoes. This is the first time in three years that the girls are at different schools and I am not at school too. While Maddie's school is right around the corner (the local public school), Jordan was accepted to the much sought-after I.B. middle school nearly 20 minutes away. The first day was great for Maddie - she loves her "very pretty" teacher and even made a couple of friends. Jordan's week got better with each day. She is still trying to work out the locker thing and getting from class to class within the five minutes allotted.

I, however, thought I would have soooooo much time to unpack while they are at school. The time goes by quickly since I have to leave at 1:45 to pick Madison up and then we have to get right over to Jordan's school in order to get a parking spot in front of the building where she can find us when she is dismissed at 3:15 p.m. It's funny that Jordan was exited to have homework on the first day. Madison luckily hasn't had any homework yet and has enjoyed getting home and going out to play with the neighborhood kids (mostly Zach) - something that didn't happen in Texas because of the late hour we would arrive home from school.

Our New Home

We made it!!! The cats travelled very well. Not a peep out of them the whole six hours of travel time. They were actually crated for nine hours and once they arrived at the new house, I think they would have preferred to remain crated. They didn't know what to do after a week of people in the Westlake house packing and now a new empty house after their first trip on an airplane -- poor girls!!

We still are surrounded by hundreds of boxes. I started unpacking them the day the movers started delivering (August 19th). They unloaded Randy's truck on the 19th and John's truck on the 20th. Randy, John, Donna & Matt came back to unpack on the 21st, but could only stay half the day since they had to get to Ohio and Manhattan to start all over again with other families. We were really sorry to see them go. They were so much fun to be around. Jordan and Maddison still use Matt's "stop it" whenever they can.

Yesterday we took Madison to her new school to register. She was able to see the school. A Girl Scout showed her around and now she's excited to start next week. All students are bussed in because the school is close to a busy intersection, however, Madison wants me to drive her. We then made our way to Jordan's school to complete enrollment paperwork. We spent some time talking with Mrs. Maddox about the fun things to do and see around Richmond. She also mentioned the option for Jordan to complete 15 (of the 30 mandatory) hours of community service during the summer. Jordan began her community service at the school today. She enjoyed it very much.

One great thing about our new neighborhood is all of the kids that live here. I have hardly seen my kids since lunch. They were last seen riding bikes down the street with several other kiddos.

All Packed Up

This is what our family room looks like after a long couple of days of packing. We had four people from Allied packing us on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and eight people packing on Wednesday to get everything in our 6,000 square foot house packed. There were seven people loading Thursday (and probably that many on Friday - today). Hopefully everything will be loaded today so we can get the house cleaned before we leave. Not to mention the fact that we will have our things delivered to Virginia a day earlier if they are done today. The guys (and girls) have been great fun to be around this week. Especially on Wednesday when Jordan locked the keys in the trunk of the car and we had to call a locksmith to let us in. Randy razzed her about that for the rest of the day. Yesterday, Belle tried to stow-away in a couch. Luckily her tail was sticking out of the bottom of the couch when John was packing it into the truck. He hauled the couch back out of the truck and coaxed her out. Then all loading stopped until we found both cats and secured them in an empty room. Hopefully all will go well today and the plane ride tomorrow with two kids and two cats will be uneventful!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MADDIE!

August 9th is a happy day for my little girl. She woke to chocolate chip pancakes in bed, courtesy of Jordan. Madison regularly makes Jordan breakfast in bed, so Jordan wanted this chance to repay her. Then she made her way downstairs and opened several gifts - Blendy Pens, Littlest Pet Shop carry case, Panda and Tiger Webkins, a cute teabag pillow made by Jordan, and cheetah travel bags. She loved them all. Shannon came over to play and Jordan made them their third scavenger hunt in three days.

Pete and I spent the day getting the house ready for the movers to start packing up tomorrow. We also put all of our So You Think You Can Dance episodes from TiVo onto DVDs. We watched a lot of them again (trying to remove commercials during recording) and reminisced about how great last season was with Neil, Lauren, and Sara. However the show is so wonderful we also recorded this season, too.

We ended the day with Madison begging to go to bed because she was so tired and Jordan, as usual, ready to stay up all night.

Almost Ten

I can't believe my baby is turning 10 tomorrow. I've been working on this "almost 10" layout all week. The paper, photo, and "almost 10" chipboard pieces have been sitting on my workspace just waiting for the inspiration needed to finish the page. I've noticed a lot of glitter alphabets lately, which is why I decided to put glitter on the numbers and I chose a pink color because it's Maddie's favorite color. The cheetah print ribbon is there because Maddie loves EVERYTHING cheetah!! The circles came from just needing a little extra pattern and the glitz is another Maddie inspiration. She loves jewels almost as much as she likes pink and cheetah.

We spent today doing whatever Maddie wanted to do. Today is sort of her Birthday Party day because tomorrow we have to spend getting ready for the movers (who incidentally are coming early and will be here tomorrow instead of Sunday). She planned to spend her special day with Shannon - her best friend in the whole wide world. We started the party with bowling and arcade games at Main Event. After the girls worked up an appetite, we had lunch at Chick-fil-a. Maddie was excited to open a gift or two so we went home and did just that. Shannon gave Maddie loads of stuff (make-up kit, cheetah & pink bath towel robe, several packets of the grow capsules that turn into animals, jeweled letters that spell out her name, M & S matching necklaces, and a magnetic penguin). The girls immediately were off to put on make-up. Once they were properly made up, they were off for spa pedicures. The ladies in the shop were very nice in wishing Maddie a happy birthday. Upon their return and after a frosting-loaded cupcake, Jordan had a scavenger hunt ready for them. I am pretty certain she had a fabulous birthday party.

Kimbell Art Museum

Tuesday we took a field trip to the Kimbell Art Museum to see "The Impressionists" paintings (from the Chicago Art Museum) by Cezanne, Monet, Renior, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, and others. I wanted to see this collection because when Pete and I were on our Mediteranean Cruise in June, I visited Paul Cezanne's home in Provence and saw his studio and several items he painted (a vase, table, sculpture, etc.). It was told to us by our guide that France didn't care to keep any of Cezanne's paintings which is why most of them can be viewed in the U.S.

Jordan and Madison enjoyed this trip to the museum, too. Jordan especially liked Monet and Van Gogh while Madison admired Cezanne and Renior, especially the Two Sisters painting, since she found out that the girls in the painting are not really sisters.

The photo is the girls in front of the Fernande Leger Running Flower sculpture.

I'm Stuck.

I love a good laugh! Pete is getting ready to walk out the door to get himself to the airport, but he stopped to asked what he may be forgetting. While he and I are talking, the girls are standing in front of us. Suddenly, we hear, "I'm stuck." We both look at Jordan and see this. She was playing with her necklace and she couldn't move it from where you see it here. She was only slightly alarmed about the fact that the necklace wouldn't move, but Dad was able to get it off. Then we all had a good laugh (even Jordan).

Where have we been?

It's been almost a year since I last wrote!! My how time goes by so quickly. Once school started, I started working and volunteering (possibly too much). In November I began working full time at the Academy and then there was no time for anything else. Our days were very short - at 7:30 a.m. the girls and I left for school/work and didn't get home until somewhere between 5:00-6:00 p.m. If Maddie had Kumon, we weren't home until closer to 6:30 p.m. Then it was time for dinner and homework. We hoped for a 9:00 p.m. bedtime, but were lucky if it was 9:30 p.m. This was our lives every weekday until the last day of school.

About mid-May, Pete was offered a promotion to RMM in Virginia. He had been hoping for this job offer for about the last ten years. Jordan said she would move as long as she was able to go to an IB school. Madison took a bit of pursuading. I sat her down in front of the computer to see the possible houses we could buy. I also let her know that we would be about an hour and a half from the Virginia Beach and could go any weekend she wanted. The last thing I told her before she said "Okay, let's move" was that she would be able to run around in her back yard barefoot and not have to worry about fire ant bites or sticker bushes.

Right after school let out in June, we left for a trip to Italy, Croatia, Monte Carlo, and France. The girls stayed in Minnesota with Aunty Rachel (and Tom, Shelby, Matt, and Buster). The girls definitely had more fun that I did. Jordan enjoyed learning how to make Raggedy Ann dolls and also making monster dolls for her cousins. Madison loved the shopping, especially garage sales. She sure can find a bargain!!