Happy Halloween!

Jim and I are cozying up with The Avengers, apple betties and glasses of wine after a busy, fun Halloween.  The kids were amazingly well behaved, especially considering that Auntie Melanie made the journey out from Baltimore to improve the adult:child ration with Tricks or Treat.  The kids love having her around and will often get themselves into trouble vying for her attention. 

Thinking back, we were just getting ready to leave Worcester last year at this time.  It was an incredibly stressful time - preparing for the move, kids winding down at school, closing on the Maryland house, praying the Worcester house would sell quickly, saying good-bye to dear friends, living 400 miles away from eachother and 15" of snow, no electricity and a 46 degree house. 
It was a time I wasn't sure I would escape with my sanity intact. 
But we moved, the kids are doing great in school, our new house and neighborhood are feeling more like home, our Worcester house went under contract the day we moved, we realized real friends never really say good-bye, the snow melted and the power came back on.  
And this year we have Benjamin, too!  Our "Welcome to Maryland" gift.  One of the best gifts I've ever received. 
Funny how those things work.

Halloween was good.  We all got into the spirit.  Caroline was Kirsten Larson , Sam and Nate were Super Man and Benjamin was the most adorable dragon I've ever seen.  Auntie Melanie was Bugs Bunny.  Jim and I dressed as our favorite reject cheerleaders from Saturday Night Live.  Fun stuff. 

Benjamin and Sam pre-gaming for the night's activities:

 Here are the kids enjoying their time with Auntie Melanie:

 And the crazies:

 Auntie Melanie with her awesome costume:

 Ready for the festivities:

 All tuckered out...

Hurricane Sandy

Sandy is over.
Thank goodness.  We got about 8 inches of rain and have a very soggy, muddy yard but the house and trees around us took no damage.  We didn't even lose power.
The kids had yesterday and today off from school.  Hurricanes Caroline, Sam, Nate and Ben came ashore about 10 AM today after flirting with landfall yesterday.  Luckily there were friends to play with and a chorus of chainsaws around the neighborhood to investigate.  There were only a few trees down.  We dodged a bullet.  Big time. 
We are counting our blessing that the only storm related casualty we had was Nate's JJ Hardy bobble-head doll.  He mournfully carried JJ into our bathroom yesterday saying, "Mama, I till Day-Day.  I tilled him."  Nothing a little superglue can't fix...

We had to use a lot of Netflix to keep us entertained, I'm sad to say.  We learned about the geologic history of Washington DC and New York. I found out more about archosaurs than I ever cared to know.   I was able to use "Bo on the Go" to my advantage by getting the us to exercise along with Bo (as annoying as she may be).  4000 steps is 4000 steps.  I can't complain about that.  Especially when I can get 10,000 paces without leaving the house. 

Caroline got in some quality time with Benjamin.  The older kids all still seem enamored with their littlest brother.  Benjamin is downright chatty with the kids and gets so excited when they're around.  So cute. 

Today, despite the 40 degree temps, I took the boys on a walk about the neighborhood to do some damage assessment.  After a rousing game of "Match the Shingle on the Sidewalk to the House it Belongs to", we resorted to puddle stomping. 

Nate, ever the non-conformist, preferred a game of puddle sitting instead of stomping. 

Here's to a quick transition back to reality.  Thanksgiving and Christmas will be here before we know it!
Wow. 

Keeping Up.

Nobody told me that keeping up with 4 kids would be so tough!
Okay, they did.  But I didn't believe them. 
The oldest are at two different schools with two different schedules, which can make it challenging.  Put in homework, gymnastics, t-ball, church activities, playdates, exercise and time for just being (should we really need to schedule that?!?!?) and things can get pretty frenetic. 
My goal is to keep things as un-frenetic as possible.  I don't do well with frenetic.  In the past six years, I have learned that less is more.  Especially when it comes to activities.
So far, we've limited the kids to one extra activity at a time.  Caroline is doing gymnastics and Sam is doing t-ball.  We're signing up for these through the county rather than the town (people take their sports incredibly seriously in Walkersville) to keep the level of competition down and limit our time at these activities.
But the main reason that we're limiting participation is to keep family time at a maximum.  I'm not willing to give up a family dinner.  We need to go to church together.   I'm not willing to sacrifice our family weekends.  I know this will happen eventually.  But we can't do that yet.  
Maybe I'm in the wrong.  I don't know.  My kids certainly aren't the most athletic of the bunch.  Not by a longshot.  They could certainly use the extra practice.  With other kids practicing so much, our kids are  lagging behind (athletically speaking).  Are we doing them a disservice by limiting participation?  Are we wrong by keeping our focus on our family unit (and Mommy's sanity)?  Is it selfish on our part to restrict access to fun activities so we can have more of each other?  Is is unfair that because we've chosen to have four children that our kids won't be able to participate in all the things that families with one or two children do? 
Not sure. 

Okay-enough of that.  I"m listening to CNN right now.  Piers Morgan is interviewing Ann Coulter.  I've never heard her speak or read anything by her. 
I'm not impressed.  So not impressed. 

She is whining and stomping her feet because she didn't get her way and got called out for it.
I've worked with people who are mentally retarded.  Being mentally retarded does not mean you're stupid.  If you want to say someone is stupid, there are many, many ways to get your point across.
What she said was wrong.
Acknowledge your error, apologize and move on. 
And that's all I have to say about that. 

Oh, the things I blog about a 5 in the morning...

Here's Sam at t-ball last night.  He did well, even if he was doing interpretive dance at shortstop...

 Benjamin continues to suck his thumb.  He gets so frustrated because he pokes himself in the eye as he's trying to get his thumb in his mouth.  Pretty funny, actually. 

 The aftermath of Trunk or Treat.  Let the Halloween festivities begin!!!!

Ben-Ben

Caroline lost her first tooth.
Sammy got some alone time with Mommy to investigate prehistoric rock formations. 
Nate to to chill in Rochester with Nina and Pops

So what was Benjamin doing this whole time?
Smiling.  
It's awesome. 

Cunningham Falls

With Nate in Rochester and Caroline in school, this week was the perfect time to get some Sam and Ben-Ben time in. 
Monday we went for a beautiful hike up in the Cactoctin Mountain Park.  We found some trails that little people could handle, a cool playground, a lake  and some fun kids to play with. 
A good morning all around!  The three of us slept very, very well that night. 

We took a short hike at first and found an old whiskey still from Prohibition.  Apparently there was a shoot out here in 1929 when the Sheriff found it. 
Interesting.

 We then drove a bit further up the road and took the hike up to the water falls. 
Sam learned about counting the rings in a tree to find out how old it is.  He then had to stop at every.  single.  felled tree to determine it's age. 

We also learned a little about Maryland geology.  The rocks here date from the Cambrian or Pre-Cambrian period, making them some of the oldest exposed rock formations in the world.  Sam, being obsessed with all things prehistoric, appreciated this tremendously. 

Nate Catch Up

Nate is back from Rochester and life is slowly returning to normal.
Caroline and Sam, after not fighting all week, have been at each other's throats tonight while Nate has a slight fever, shaking chills and is walking around with a finger stuck in his ear.  Ben is going with the flow.  He doesn't know any different yet - and I'm trying to keep it that way as long as possible.

We got some adorable pictures from Nate's time with Nina and Pops.  Though my parents said they really "did nothing" - it looks that Nate was kept busy (and kept them busy) with a myriad of activities such as hanging out with a rubber ducky, going out to breakfast, cleaning, getting haircuts, playing cars, with Aunt Vicky and Uncle Tom, doing poop patrol and hanging out at the Fire Station. 
Nate has already asked to go back.  =-)  He had my parents in stitches because he was calling Uncle Tom "Uncle Stud" and referred to Pops as "Jim".  Too funny. 

We'll see how our return to normalcy goes tomorrow.  I'm farther behind in my work than I usually am because I tried to get stuff done that I can't necessarily do with Nate around - like clean out his closet and take long hikes with Sam.
 Laundry will happen. 
Someday. 
Just not today.
Zzzzzzzzzz....off to bed.
G'night.  

Big Plans

I had big plans for blogging last night. 
Sam, Ben and I went hiking through Cactoctin Mountain Park and had a lot of fun yesterday morning.  We must have been right near Camp David because we saw Chinook helicopters that were so close that the sound the rotors made was buffeting our ears like when you ride in the car with only one window open. 
We weren't close enough for the snipers, though.  =-)

However, after hiking, cleaning, mowing the lawn (or 3/4 of the lawn before I ran out of gas - D'OH), laundry, food prep and taking Sam for a haircut (HORRIFIC)...I passed out while feeding Benjamin at 8pm. 

Here are the updates from Rochester:

Nate apparently is quite attached to the rubber duckie from the Holiday Inn.  

 Here he is talking to us on the phone:

I'm Thinking He's Having Fun.

From Rochester

He's up and no Kryptonite was detected. 

Sunday Morning

Benjamin woke up at 6.
Rip roarin' and ready to go.  Busily working to roll over and suck his thumb simultaneously.
Jim is working and the other urchins do not look to be upright any time soon.
Guess we're not going to early Mass.
After all the excitement of the tooth coming out last night, a good night of sleep was needed.

It's waaaay too quiet around here.  Nate went up to Rochester to spend some time with Nina and Pops yesterday.  We met them halfway and had a picnic before we did the exchange.
Caroline was crying last night (when she didn't have her hands clamped over her mouth) because she missed him.
The volume and overall frenetic-ism is certainly ratcheted down here.
I hate it.
I miss my Nate-Nate.