For the First Time

It was a full, crazy and fun weekend here at the Singer home and it involved a lot of firsts...

let's begin.

Megan came in town for the weekend with 2 friends and she ran the Hartford 1/2 Marathon! A FIRST for her and a FIRST for me in watching a big race. She did great--I was a proud sister, even if I did miss watching her cross the finish line! Talk about inspiring...I hope I'll be having a first of the same sort next year--my goal is to run it!

An excited Megan, post-race

ING was the race sponsor--Andrew loved all the orange free stuff--here he is cheering on runners.

That same afternoon, we all went apple picking for the FIRST time. Why we have lived in ruralish CT for 2 years and have not gone until now is beyond me. It was a lot of fun.

Cute,dwarf apple trees--just the perfect size for kids.

Happy Annie!
Except for my insane-o hair, not a bad picture. Notice the background too--seriously, we live in one of the most beautiful places.

Can't pick apples without making caramel apples--the kids LOVE them (so do I!)
Monday took us to Boston (not a first) to see Katelynne and Julie Hunt. I was one of their Young Women's leaders back in NC like 842 years ago. They were in Boston for the weekend so I took the kids up on Monday and we spent the day with them. It was the FIRST North Carolina friends we have seen since we moved to Connecticut.

The kids didn't really remember them but obviously you can see they warmed up quickly.

Katelynne, me, and Julie outside Cheers (I forgot to tell Andrew to try and take a picture of the sign too). The girls made me feel old b/c they had only vaguely heard of the show.

Andrew's FIRST (and last) picture outside a bar.

I just liked this one of Whit (and I like that Julie's curls are long and pretty--something mine have never quite accomplished)

The long weekend continued as Mary was off school both Monday and Tuesday. Matt didn't teach on Tuesday and so we took the kid's to the Rain Forest Cafe for lunch (another FIRST). This was a celebration of the fact that we finished reading the Book of Mormon for the FIRST time as a whole family. We try and read a chapter a night at the dinner table--it took us 10 months, but we did it. The kids were so excited and really deserved a special treat.

A whole flurry of emotions about the restaurant!
I don't think Whitney would think the restaurant was a reward--she was SO SCARED! There were animals everywhere and sounds galore. She had to be carried in, with her eyes closed. We had to sit in a booth with a high back so she couldn't see anything. She liked the fish tank we were by, but everytime the animals did cool things and Mary and Andrew jumped up to look, she stayed LOW and refused to look. It was so sweet and cute. Just look how tiny she looked in that booth--just how she wanted!

I do think these are faces of happy kids...though it's hard to tell. :)

And, for a final FIRST...we got our FIRST snow of the year this afternoon--

October 15th...simply ridiculous.

Happy Birthday, Dear Annie

Happy Birthday Annie!!!! I can't believe a year has gone by already--she has grown up so quickly. We've been blessed with one happy, content, sweet, and easy-going little girl. What would we do without our Annie.

Here she is with her presents--FYI...she has no clue what is going on

So, Annie owes her cake to her Aunt Megan. Let me explain. I just got over having the flu this weekend and didn't feel any motivation/energy for making a cute cake for Annie (even though it's what I always do). Then yesterday morning, I thought of my sister Megan, fourth child Megan. I could just hear her talking about the short end of the stick that the last child always gets, not even a cute birthday cake nonetheless. I folded and came up with this cute butterfly. Thanks Megan for the inspiration. Annie can't use the birthday cake to prove that the last child is treated differently...she'll have to find some other way to prove that point.

Did she love the cake? Heck no. She did what she does with all food. If it goes in her left hand, I know she's going to put it in her mouth. If it goes in the right, it will be slung to the ground. The frosting got on both hands and face, then she did as I expected....picked it up with her RIGHT. Sling!!!!!! To the floor. Even after multiple re-trys and putting little cake pieces in her mouth. Sling, sling sling....floor, floor, floor.

She did eat her ice cream though. She's like her mother in one way I guess.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANNIE

Jail Houses Rock

This weekend we took advantage of Smithsonian Museum Day. It meant that the Old County Jail and Museum in our town was open on Saturday instead of its typically Sunday. The kids were excited to finally get to go. The jail did not disappoint.

Andrew was learning how to vacuum 'old school' style.

Besides just the jail, there are different rooms decorated in the style of different eras of our town. Tolland was named in 1715, we are talkin' old stuff (at least for America!). The jail wasn't built til the mid 1800s though--the kids liked seeing all the things we've been reading about in the Little House on the Prairie seriers.

Once we got through the museum portion the kids FINALLY got to see the jail, that was used until the mid 1960s--thus it looks pretty modern, as far as jails go. They thought it was great. They were a bit nervous by the pretend man sleeping in one of the cells though. :)

Captured!!

After the jail, we got to go out back to the shed and watch a man caning a chair. He told the kids stories about milking cows as a kid--good times.

Mary was in shock! Whit was in 'funny face mode'.

A Moment Like This

Had a few other fun pictures that I wanted to post, basically because children are crazy. The pictures will probably explain themselves.

How is it that the best picture I can get of these 3 kids is when they cram inside a box/tunnel together? They won't hardly look at the camera if we are doing something fun but stick them in a box and the smiles come.

Oh Whitney, you in your high heels, stroller and swim suit--a perfect combination!

Andrew has been playing outside quite constantly lately. The other day I looked out the window to see him with badmitton rackets in hands and in his back. He always is doing something funny with a bat, a racket or a stick.

And this little girl is TOO obsessed with the stairs. A gate won't work b/c of our railing. We've tried several different boxes to block them but she keeps figuring out how to slide them or knock them out of the way.

So she gets stuck here quite a bit if I have to actually be doing something productive. Fortunately, you give the girl a bowl and she's happy.

Yankee Doodle went to Deerfield, Just to Smell a Candle

One look at our life and we realized that this is our last non-filled up Saturday in at least a month. We decided to take advantage and head up to South Deerfield, MA to visit Yankee Candle land. It's been on our to do list and now we can check it off. One down, a billion more places to go.

We had a great time. Lot's of saying "no touching", "remember don't touch", "if you touch, Whitney will try and touch", "that costs a lot of money, just look" and the other repetative "smell this", "smell this one", "ooooo smell this one". Good times.

The 'snow' is falling. It snows every 5 minutes in the wintery part of the store. The kids thought that was great. Annie even got a kick out of it. And yes, we lost her shoe (actually, we didn't even know at this point that it was gone but the camera has the proof), fortunately it got turned in and the search and rescue was called off.

So many fun things to pose by. We took about a kadillion pictures, mainly b/c there were tons of fun photo opps. Kind of silly taking pictures at a candle store if you think about it.

True Royalty!

One of the few 'touchable' things!

This picture is for you Nanu...reminiscent of our time in Buenos Aires...

Only 2 of probably 10 pictures we have of us in front of the Argentine cows.

After our candle excursion, it was over to Richardson's Candy Kitchen for some chocolate. Oh the sin of $18/pound chocolate. Here's the kids loving their chocolate suckers.

My little twins hanging out when we got home. Such good buddies!

Soccer Time!

After a 'not so into it' year of dancing last year, we decided to try a different route. SOCCER! Mary has been really excited and the first day kept the excitement coming.

In our town, through age 6, soccer is just 1 hour on Saturdays with 30 minutes of practice drills and 30 minutes of 3 on 3 scrimmage. It was perfect for her--no intensity, no falling, no drama, just fun. Just what we need for our Mary girl.

GOALIE?! At this point Matt went over to over some pointers (we find ourselves giving lots of pointers--could it be we are awesome soccer players ourselves? Ha!). Mary was obviously not interested and asked him to get back so she could get back to her game.

On the Other Hand....

On one hand, I was really excited that Whitney finally took a nap after 2 weeks of pure overtired insanity at the dinnertable.

On the otherhand, I forgot that sometimes after a 3 hour nap, the girl has a hard time snapping out of it and we still get the emotions.

On the otherhand (if I did happen to have 3 hands that is), post-nap, post-'post-nap' insanity, Whitney is SO fun to be around. We love our crazy 2 year old. :)