Reese Turns F O U R

Reese turned FOUR on the 21st of December.

A couple of weeks prior to her birthday we celebrated with a few of her friends.

Emelia, Tolly, Juliet, Drew and Bryson all joined us for a fun party 

with lots of great games that CODY came up with.  

Game #1= Marshmallow on the Spoon Race.

During this game each child held a plastic spoon with one large marshmallow atop and one at a time said child was to "race" down the hall, up the stairs and back down the stairs to the starting spot

while balancing their marshmallow on the spoon. It was a hit...only a few tears.  

Game #2 = Bouncy Ball Catch.

Cody held six bouncy balls in his hand. When the music started he bounced all the balls onto the gym room floor and the children were to chase after and retrieve one ball and return it back to Cody as fast as they could. Super great game for this age!

Game #3 = Keep Your Balloon in the Air.

Each child was given one balloon, only one meltdown about who got what color, not bad.

When the music began each child was to keep his/her ballon in the air for the duration of the song.

They loved it!

Game #4 = Sharks.

We spread out a blanket on the floor which represented the "Safety Zone." 

While the music was playing the children, AKA fish in this game, could leave the safe zone and "swim" around the ocean. When the music stopped the children were to hop back
onto the "Safety Zone" before the "shark" AKA Cody, nibbled at their feet. 

This game was fun until two children collided and massive tears were shed...so we moved on.

Game #5 = Freeze Dance....

which turned into Cody whips every child into the air...

which then turned into the cha cha behind Cody for a season.

I was bestowed with the easier job of turning the music on and off

 AND 

I love watching my hubby be an awesome Daddy/party planner/child entertainer!

After the kids were nice and sweaty we went upstairs and moved onto the 

"decorate your own cupcake" portion of the party. 

Think lots of little tiny sprinkles everywhere, rad!

Next was gifts, thank heavens, because if I had to hear Reese ask 

"Can I open presents now!!??!?," one more time I may have had to scream.

After cupcakes, gifts, trampoline time and free play came 

Game #6 = Hot potato. 

When playing ANY game with a group of children this age we chose to tweak the rules.

Most often this translates to "no one really gets out, ever" so that we minimize meltdowns. 

SO, in our version of 3/4 year old hot potato we just play round after round after round and no one ever sits outside of the circle. In fact, we even clap for the one who's holding the potato when the music stops. This was another winner game. 

(Children attack Cody with their party favor blowing toys)

Homemade cupcakes = $3

Homemade frosting = $3

Sprinkles = already had

Decorations = already had

Balloons and bouncy balls = $1

Party favors = $10

Stress = NONE

Party total= $17

Fun experienced and memories to cherish = PRICELESS!

On her ACTUAL birthday Cody took her out for the ritualistic early morning doughnut and she was able to open a few gifts that had arrived from family. 

She also made sure to remind us the night prior that she 

was expecting to wake up to birthday decorations. 

Thank heavens for the few birthday decor items we keep tucked away. 

We love this little FOUR-going-on-fourteen-year-old child who keeps us all laughing 

by doing things like insisting on wearing her birthday headband as shown above. 

She is a bright light in our family and we 

 adore her endlessly!

Thanksgiving 2015

We were SO thrilled to have a full house this Thanksgiving.

Arian and Jill recently moved their family

  back to America after living in Oxford and London 

for the past 3.5 years! We are elated to have them much closer now.

 They now live in Connecticut and drove 10 hours to join us!

Perhaps this drive does not seem so bad to my brother, who now undergoes

a round trip commute length of THREE hours a day in and out of N.Y.C..

We were SO happy that Jen and Austin 

could make the trip from Cleveland to be with us as well.

Having them really helped kick the fun and excitement meter up a few notches! 

All of my girls may or may not have a crush on cousin Austin. 

These sweet Lewis kiddos, so lovely and polite. 

We are enamored with the proper English words they still use. 

Thanksgiving day was wonderfully relaxed and simple. 
Cody was on a week of nights and had to take off at 4:30pm,
so we ate in the early afternoon.

Our girls enjoyed sharing their love of rollerblading with their cousins.

Kenneth had several falls when he first strapped on the rollerblades 
and after one one such fall he proclaimed to his mother:

"Mom, it does not matter how many times you fall,
 it only matters that you get back up and try your best!"

Ever the optimist that Kenneth.
The comment reminded me of his father when he was younger.

During dinner we took turns sharing things 

we were thankful for as we ate.

After dinner Uncle Arian shared several stories about our ancestors

and we all learned a lot!

Aunt Jill had printed off pictures of each person 

we learned about for each family to keep.

During our days together there was time for: 

*cooking projects

*story time

*Backyard football 

*Movie making magic brought to us by our beloved Jen and Austin...

YOU WILL WANT TO CLICK ON THIS LINK!

And last but certainly not least a very fun game called

*Under the blanket! 

(Please do take note of baby Rachel who made her only photo appereance above) 

We also went to the play "A Christmas Carol" downtown.

We had such a wonderful time with our family and are thankful for the sacrifices and work scheduling arrangements they made to be with us this Thanksgiving!!

My Little Bug

The other morning I filled a big pot with 

12 different kinds of dried beans to soak for a soup that night. After stepping away to attend to various morning responsibilities I came back into the kitchen to this...

the beans strewn about the kitchen floor. 

Reese had decided to play a little game with the beans.

In my earlier mothering years I most likely would have been frustrated by this unexpected event,

but with little bug #4 the thought that came to mind first was

"Okay, this is not so bad, 

I bet this will entertain her for a good 20 minutes."

Soon she had spread about 20 paper plates about and was feeding her imaginary classroom bean soup for lunch. After that she moved onto packing about 15 imaginary children their lunches for school, utilizing paper lunch bags of course. 

You can see a remnant in the picture below.

What fun she had being creative. 

She even carried several sacks of beans around with her throughout the remainder of the day. 

These moments where I remember to pause and think before responding

 can prove to be sweet and beautiful. 

In these moments I remember that someday down the road

 I will yearn to have spilled beans on the floor.

These days with just the two of us are lovely and I am cherishing them.

Often in the morning Reese will insist on drinking a "green drink," 

only because I am. 

The powdered greens that Cody and I drink everyday are hardly tolerable, but this little gal wants to be like her parents, so often she chugs it down, bless her heart. 

You can see just how appealing the drink looks in the picture above. 

Reese was so excited to get a haircut recently. 

We only had time to run to the nearest 

Walmart that day to have it done. Bad idea. Good thing she had no clue!

Reese strives to earn money just like her big sisters get to do.

Even though she is not officially part of the "Young Family Economy System" yet, 

she is really good at 

stealing loose change and periodically doing a chore here and there to earn money. 

The other day she came down with a bag full of change after completely 

emptying her piggy bank

and she proudly proclaimed "today I am going to buy a panda bear with my money." 

 I knew that was NOT going to happen since we only had time, in between dance lessons, 

to rush into one store to do a return. 

As luck (or perhaps miracle) would have it, as soon as we walked into Kohls the 

ENTIRE FRONT display was filled with stuffed panda bears.

I was honestly in shock and amazement...but not Reese, she just gracefully walked up and said "Perfect, here it is, my panda!!" I honestly said a silent prayer of thanks. 

Milo has become a treasured member of the family. 

14 Years!

This year for our anniversary I surprised Cody with a 

little two-night getaway to Hocking Hills.

We stayed at the same quaint Scottish bed and breakfast that his late boss loved so much.

It was lovely to spend time hiking and talking, relaxing in the hot tub and eating delicious food...

that I did not have to make, which automatically made it quite excellent. 

 In nearly TEN years of living less than an hour away from these "hills" we had 

only been twice prior.

We agreed to change that going forward. 

Our longest hike lead us to this beautiful waterfall, 

where we enjoyed a picnic lunch, 

on this fallen tree. 

Thanks to our wonderful piano teacher Shauna

and her husband Ryan for watching the children for us while we were away. 

They had a blast!!