Dance

Meredith has been taking a dance class this fall, and she has really enjoyed it.  Parents got to observe during her class and it was interesting to see what the kids have been learning.  Meredith has been doing a lot of skipping and galloping in class (skipping uses both feet, galloping is only one foot), and that is her preferred method of locomotion now, she is constantly skipping instead of walking.  As I watched her in class I observed that she is very good at listening to the rhythm of a song, we also have noticed this in her music performances at school.  Hopefully she will continue to enjoy dance and music.

Here's a picture of her after dance class, she likes to keep wearing her dance clothes, and when we visited Harner farm she was striking some good dance poses!

Meredith still loves pumpkins so much!

This weekend we got to see some of the dancers who perform the Nutcracker Ballet do some small demonstration performances in costume.  We really enjoyed it and won tickets to see the Nutcracker performance in December.  We are really looking forward to it!  

Picture from the newspaper, see Meredith in the red dress on the right side!

Happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween this year, the weather was mild and the neighbors were generous.  Lots of people were very impressed with Jeffrey's Minecraft Creeper costume, even some teenagers liked it! 

Jeffrey Creeper at the School Costume Parade

Meredith kept me guessing up until the day before Trick or Treating what her costume would be.  She tried out being a penguin for one afternoon, but finally we found a super cute spider costume that she immediately fell in love with.  Other possibilities included: a Witch, Panda, and Owl.

Meredith was a cute spider for her Halloween Parade

We went our usual route for Trick or Treating, and went to the house that gives out full sized candy bars right away.  Jeffrey chose a Hershey's Chocolate bar, and Meredith some peanut M&M's.  We continued until the kids feet hurt and they wanted to go home, then they helped to pass out candy.  The following day we had a donut party and celebrated Daylight Savings Time ending by relaxing and lazing about.  Thanks for visiting us for Halloween again Grammie and Grandpa Paul!

Jeffrey Got His Cast Off!

On the 27th of October Jeffrey got his cast off.  He only had to wear it one month, and we were all happy that he was getting it off before Trick or Treating.  We went to the Orthopedists office after school and went right back to the 'Cast Room' where Jack sawed it right off with a loud mini circular saw!  I think the noise surprised all of us.  Jeffrey got an X-ray and we got to see the new bone growth on the X-ray, then we were off.  Jeffrey has started biking again and still continues to write with both hands still.  He really developed his skill at writing with his left hand during the last 4 weeks.

Last day of Jeffrey wearing a cast!

Jack cutting the cast off

Fall Activities

This week we got to celebrate the beginning of Fall with our Equinox cake!  We all really enjoyed it and I shared it with my book club too.  The leaves are changing and I am loving all the beautiful fall yellow and colorful maples.  We are all drinking lots of apple cider too.  Yay for fall!

Meredith is taking dance class this fall with one of our favorite teachers, Miss Valerie!  She teaches dance when she is not teaching the 3 year old class at Stay and Play.  Meredith has some very good friends in class with her and really likes wearing her dance outfits too.  She told me that she danced like an owl with scarves in her hands for wings.  We are so happy to continue to learn from Miss Valerie!

Meredith is excited to dance with her friends!

Saturday Jeffrey and I went to Harner Farm to find our way through the haunted corn maze.  The corn is very tall, but Jeffrey helped navigate, and eventually we found our way to treasure, zombies and aliens!  Spooky.  Then we happily escaped and hugged some giant pumpkins.   

Navigating the corn maze.

Jeffrey has always loved riding this horse at Harner Farm!

This was finally the weekend when it was clear and beautiful weather and the Hot Air Balloon went right over our house, so very close to us that we all got to say hello to the passengers.  I hope they enjoyed seeing so many people waving!

Unfortunately this weekend Jeffrey also broke his arm.  He fell off the neighbors treehouse after he grabbed a dead tree branch that broke.  He got to rest up on Sunday and got his bright green cast today, and he is feeling a lot better.  Hoping for a quick recovery!

Jeffrey can still play Wii games!  Hooray!

Warm End of Summer Weekend

This past weekend we were invited to visit the farm where the veggies we eat are grown.  We are members of a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) called Healthy Harvest and every thursday afternoon from June through November we pick up our choice of veggies.  The farmers are really great and we always talk about recipes and favorite ways to cook the vegetables.  Meredith's favorite veggies  are carrots - she's a little bunny, and Jeffrey's favorite is Broccoli.  Happily these are both in season for the fall and we got to dig up some carrots on the farm!

Meredith and Jeffrey harvesting carrots!

Jeffrey really liked the tractor and 'riding' on it, but he did not want any part of harvesting the potatoes that the potato harvester attached to the tractor had dug up.  This year the potato harvester was restored to its the original red, white, and blue colors.  It was manufactured by the National Company, but had been painted a 'John Deer Green' at some point to boost its resale value.  We were very impressed with the new paint job and I was happy that Jeffrey wore a coordinating shirt. :)

Jeffrey on 'Barney' with the restored potato harvester.

After a hot late summer afternoon we returned home for me to get some rest and for the kids to play, then Meredith helped me take care of the neighbor's Guinea Pig - named 'Honey'.  We brought Honey a freshly harvested carrot, and she nibbled it right up.  Meredith loves taking care of her, Honey makes such cute squeaky sounds, and is very soft.

Sunday we headed out for a yummy family breakfast at the Waffle Shop, then after lunch began our 'Soccer Sunday' activities!  We headed out to watch the Penn State Mens team play Ohio State, it was our first chance to sit in the Soccer Stadium which is named 'Jeffrey Field'!!  It was great watching some skilled soccer up close and at halfime we hurried to our car and narrowly missed getting drenched in a giant downpour!  We made our way to our house, where it was not raining (!) and got ready for the kids soccer game/practice in the afternoon.

It was a very warm day for playing soccer, but Jeffrey had some good defense plays and has started learning the positions on the field this year.  His team has a bright 'safety orange' colored Jersey!  

Time to relax and watch Meredith practice!

Meredith is participating in Soccer Shots this fall, it helps the kids learn skills and practice, then they play a mini game at the end of the session.  She is so happy that some of her good friends from school Carolyn and Ben are there too.  She is getting pretty good at controlling the ball, but is still working on running to get the ball from the other team.  Whatever happens watching 4 year olds play soccer is pretty cute!  

Got the gear on!  Meredith has an orange soccer shirt too! :)

Post-Spring Break!

This spring Jeffrey moved up to Peewee Baseball - the coaches pitch to the kids, no t-ball anymore!  He is having a lot of fun with his team and its great to see how much his skills improve as he gets older.

Proving that Jeffrey is my child, he was very pleased that his cleats match his uniform, which I may add is an awesome color this season.

Meredith has been growing up so much this spring.  She has lots of friends in school that she loves to talk about, they have all been having so much fun together.  

After trying out a fun girl bike with a basket on it at Grammie Laurie's house and realizing how much fun biking on a 'real' bike can be Meredith  has been biking every day for the last few weeks, just like the rest of us!  Biking season is here, and Jeffrey and I really enjoyed riding the 'Tour de Corl Street' a fun event at his school that has kids and parents from each class riding around our neighborhood.  Jeffrey is such a strong biker that he lead the pack of Kindergarden/First grade, and I think he would have zipped past a lot of other kids if we had let him move ahead of our group!  I also enjoyed the ride because I was riding solo with no trailer, its about 65 lbs lighter not towing Meredith in the trailer!  Thanks to Mike for spending one on one time with Meredith so Jeffrey and I could have a fun ride together.  

Scooting and biking are favorite activities now, so grown up and catching up with Jeffrey!

Mike has been busy improving our gardens at the house.  We updated our veggies garden to a 'Square Foot Garden'  plan, which means fresh weed-free soil with good drainage (instead of the clay typical to our area) and personal gardens for both Mike and I.  Mike is concentrating on growing peppers, sunflowers and Brussels sprouts, and I have herbs, flowers and 3-color bean plants.  I am planning on lots of flower picking with Meredith later this summer.  

The new improved gardens!

Gwen's garden, chives, parsley, basil, viola, marigold, zinnia.  Thanks Aunt Paula for the Birthday gift!  I used it to fund my spring gardening! :)

Spring Break

We started off our spring break this year with a Birthday celebration for Mike - dinner out and bowling.  It was our first time bowling as a family (Meredith's first time) and everyone had fun.  We even let Mike win.  Later that weekend we all went to see the Lego movie together and it was Awesome!

Then we hit the road to Hershey PA.  We learned about making chocolate at Chocolate World on a fun ride with singing Cows.  Then Jeffrey, Meredith and I made our own Chocolate Bars.    We really liked seeing the 'factory line' it was just like one of our favorite TV shows 'How Its Made'.  Our chocolate bars were so yummy and fresh,  Jeffrey's had a white chocolate base and cookie bits with milk chocolate on top.

Wearing our official factory gear!

Jeffrey's chocolate bar comes down the line, he is so excited!

We drove to Easton PA for the night and enjoyed swimming in the hotel pool, dinner at Panera, treats from Wegmans, and movie night in our suite.  The kids really liked staying in the hotel and were very good.  After a quick waffle breakfast it was off to the Crayola Factory!

We learned how crayons are made, and got to put our own personalized wrappers on some crayons.  Then we made some markers, enjoyed making digital art and of course did some coloring.  Then we found the indoor playground and indoor water table - the kids loved those!  Its amazing how many different colors we saw that day - it was fun playing with all sorts of different art supplies.

$5 Friday Funday!

Jeffrey and I went skiing for $5 Friday!  Jeffrey and his friend Ellis had been wanting to go all week, and it turned out that our neighbors were there too.  All our friends made it so much fun for us!  It was also the first time that Jeffrey skied down from the top of the mountain.  On the chairlift up he told me he was excited but a little scared.  Then he did a great job controlling his speed and direction in pretty icy conditions.

Top of Tussey!

Despite the very cold day, we enjoyed some runs down the mountain, then headed in for Cheezburgers and a Pepsi.  Our friends joined us in the lodge and we followed up with some Nachos!  

On one trip down from the top Jeffrey kept skiing all the way down the mountain and down the bunny slope too!  Preston and I spent some anxious minutes scanning the area near the lifts until I spotted him riding the small chairlift from the bunnyslope!  When Jeffrey got off the lift he said that he couldn't stop and had just kept going - hee hee!

After our exciting ski trip, we headed home and Jeffrey inhaled a couple cheesy roll ups for second dinner and it was time for bed.  When I tucked Jeffrey in he was crazy energetic and declared that he 'wasn't tired' and could 'RUN A MARATHON!!'  which he demonstrated while lying in his bed and energetically running his legs, flinging his blankets and stuffed animals all around.  This moment was brought to me by caffeinated PEPSI -  a very rare treat for Jeffrey that I realized is not the best choice of a dinner beverage!  Ha

Jeffrey Turns 7!

This year the annual Penn State vs University of Illinois game was on a Sunday afternoon right before Jeffrey's Birthday!  It was a tough game in many ways, but this time U of I finally won.  We enjoyed seats close to the action, we also got to watch the band and cheerleaders up close.  This was the first year Jeffrey was able to join us for the big game.  

We started Jeffrey's Birthday off with pancakes and bacon for breakfast, then a present and quick change into his number 7 shirt it was off to school.  Jeffrey chose to have ice cream sandwiches for his treat at school and everyone was very excited.  Grammie Laurie and I enjoyed having lunch with Jeffrey and his classmates.

After school it was time for Jeffrey's Birthday Sledding Party!  The weather cooperated and that we were able to celebrate Jeffrey's big day having fun outside with friends.  We were lucky to have some good snow in the last week that made sledding the sledding hill perfect.

Jeffrey and his friends sliding down in a big happy pile

Everyone had a great time at the party, all the friends from school we invited were able to come and I think everyone was happy to play outside on a wednesday afternoon in winter.  After some fun sledding we had a cocoa and cupcakes break, then it was time for more sledding.  The kids were very reluctant to leave, and their parents complimented our fun party idea.  

When we came home we warmed up with a fire, opened presents and Jeffrey began to assemble his lego ninja set.  He is really enjoying his new lego sets.

We all enjoyed tacos for dinner and a happy evening together -  Happy 7th Birthday Jeffrey!

Cold and Snowy January

 It has been a snowy and very cold January this year.  We have had the usual cancellations for snow (in PA that means that if it is snowing, or looks like snow, or an inch of snow falls, or there is a forecast for snow then there is a delay, cancellation or early dismissal)  and this year we have had some unusually cold days with temperatures at -10 overnight and highs in the low single digits.  They cancelled school the evening before cold temperatures were expected and Jeffrey was hoping that when he woke up there would be a bunch of snow to play in, but instead it was just frigid outside!

This month Jeffrey has really been enjoying skiing at Tussey Mountain.  He took a couple group lessons and now he is doing a great job skiing down the beginner slope.  He can ride the lift up by himself and we have a good time skiing together almost every weekend.  We have lunch from subway on our way there and when we get home Jeffrey has hot chocolate and I have a Latte.  Mike has brought Meredith to watch Jeffrey ski and she can't wait until she is big enough to go skiing too.  (Maybe next winter.)

Jeffrey tests out his new skis!

Other than that we have been having some cozy fires in the fireplace, watching some movies, keeping our pipes from freezing and getting ready for Jeffrey's birthday and Valentines day! 

Christmas Wrappings

The kids have been very good this year (2013) so Santa brought them some presents!  Meredith mailed her list and Jeffrey's to Santa, and we got a letter from him!  He said he likes chocolate peanut butter brownies, so we made him some peanut butter chocolate blossom cookies, and he ate them all up. 

Peanut Butter Blossoms for Santa

1/2lb of pom poms!

Setting the demolition charges....

We enjoyed our Christmas traditions, Party Potatoes Delux and Ham for dinner Christmas Eve followed by Cookie Buffet for dessert, new pajamas then in the morning French Toast and Sausage for Breakfast on Christmas with Yummy lunch buffet, and Turkey dinner.  We had some time to enjoy our presents and then over the river and through the woods to Grandma Axtell's house for Christmas II!

Thanksgiving

Jeffrey and the class mascots are ready for turkey!

Thanksgiving break started early this year with a snow day.  That meant that we got to keep Jeffrey's class Mascots - Peace and Harmony the sea turtles - for the entire break!  The class mascots go home with a student every night and then their activities are journaled, with pictures and drawings.  We made the triangle journey to Franklin NY, Rochester, NY then back to State College, PA.  We truly enjoyed our time with family and the delicious food our Moms prepared.  Thank you to our wonderful Families!

Jeffrey filled with Holiday Excitement!

Meredith drank so so much apple cider... sluurrrrrp

Jeffrey made a crazy tinker toy invention!

Halloween

Detail of Jeffrey's Om Nom Costume - I sewed features on the hood.

We had a great Halloween, the weather was warm with just a little sprinkle of rain.  Didn't need the mittens I had ready for this year.  (Last year Meredith got cold hands!)  We went our usual route and scored some full size candy bars!  Jeffrey chose a Nestle Crunch Bar and Meredith choose M&Ms while my Mom and I chose 3 Musketeers and Snickers.  When us 'adults' wear costumes we also get treats!

The kids and I also had a lot of fun at the Mothers and More Halloween Costume Party.  We had lots of yummy treats, played games and did crafts, then got to play on the playground for a bit.  Our Moms group plans excellent holiday celebrations, such wonderful creative moms I am friends with!

Meredith is a Pumpkin Ballerina

Jeffrey the Om Nom wants Candy!

Fall Update

We had a busy but fun Fall here in State College.  Jeffrey played CSA soccer again, and we had many friends in the league.  Because of their strange schedule, we didn't get to play against all the teams but Jeffrey had a good time.

Meredith is really enjoying school in the 'Thrillin' Threes' Class.  They went on a class field trip to a pumpkin patch, and have done a lot of baking during class.  They made brownies, cookies, gingerbread boys and girls, Santa Lucia cinnamon buns and more.  They go to the park often and have a lot of fun, Meredith always loves to gather leaves, pinecones, rocks and anything interesting she can find outside.  The class has started going to the library to play with blocks on Monday mornings, and Meredith has been staying for the Tumblebus on monday afternoons.  (Gymnastics on a converted schoolbus!)