There should be a rule...

That people living in certain areas of the country that experience cold winters should automatically receive raises from their employers during those months. Why?  Because it is too freaking cold to do ANYTHING outside with children and clearly, staying indoors all winter is going to drive everyone nuts.  However...anything that you do find to do with kids?  Costs $$$$.  Now, I'm not talking millions every weekend.  However, I am talking EVERY weekend.  Or, nearly every weekend.  It gets to be pretty ridiculous.  So far this winter?  We've been to...

SkyZone.  I have to say, I really enjoyed this trip because Josh and I could join in the fun as well.  Although, I will admit that I was insanely nervous the entire time that I was going to pull a muscle, tear an ACL, kill myself.  Don't laugh.  It happened to a friend of ours there.  That place is scary for adults (who happen to not be all that coordinated).

 

And, the Children's Museum (which both kids still really enjoy)...

This crazy bouncy house thing.  I have to say, this place was pretty cool.  It was attached to a mall ( I think that it used to be an old department store - that's how big this place was).  You paid $10.99 for the entire day.  So, we started there and I let the kids bounce for a good hour and a half.  Then, we left and went to Bertuccis for lunch, which was right in the mall. After lunch, in order to let their stomachs settle a bit, I let the kids play a few games.  Somehow, Avery managed to score the jackpot on 2 different games, so between the two of them, they ended up with 1300 freaking tickets!  Awesome.  More junk to add to the house.  But, whatever.  They loved it.  Afterwards, they played on the bouncy houses again.  Until...Alex made a friend.  On one hand, I felt really bad for Avery because she was very quickly left out. But, on the other hand, I didn't feel so bad, as Avery could have just as easily found someone else to play with.  Except?  She won't.  REFUSES!!!!!  She is clearly like her father in this sense and Alex is clearly like his mother.  Anyway...all in all, it was a fun day.

The next weekend, we took both of them to Newport to walk around, which was really nice.  It was chilly, so we didn't walk around for too long.  But, it felt good to just get outdoors. 

We had lunch and then, because we now think that we are arcade experts, we went to the arcade.  But, guess who was the expert this time?  That's right...Mama!  I decided to give PacMan a shot.  I figured, I used to be pretty good at this game, so surely I could win something, right?  Well, as it turns out, you use 4 tokens and you only get ONE chance!  As in, one PacMan and once you die, you die.  So, needless to say, I was defeated the first time around and had to redeem myself the second time around.  And, boy did I!  I made it through the first round and then got the bonus price and ended up with 186 tickets!!!!  It was pretty exciting!

Since then, we've made numerous trips to Target for random, unnecessary things, a trip to indoor mini-golf/more arcade games and another trip back to SkyZone.  Now, some may argue that we should just be forcing them to find things to do at home, which is true.  And, we are going to start that soon.  However, it is just as hard for us parents to be stuck indoors as it is for them, so really?  I don't mind the activities.  I just wish that I got a "cooped up for too long in the winter" bonus to cover them! 

Next up?  Christmas in Houston!!!!

The 2nd Annual Holland Thanksgiving

It started with a great dinner at Grammy and Grampy's on Thanksgiving day!

Then, you may remember that two years ago, during our first Thanksgiving at home, we decided to take the kids up to Boston the Friday after just to get out of town for a bit and do something different.  This year was no different - except we went up on Saturday instead because we had a date with a special someone on Saturday morning...

 

It's pretty cool.  A friend of mine has a family friend who is a professional Santa.  So, every year, they invite their friends and their kids over so that they can sit on Santa's lap.  As you can see, this guy is pretty legit.  Of course, leave it to Avery to question the whole thing.  Mom - why does he have a RI accent?  Mom - why did he come out of the neighbor's house?  Unfortunately, we may be getting to "that time."  But, until we do, I'll embrace every second of the season. 

 

Santa started off with everyone singing Rudolph and happened to choose A-Man to be Rudolph during the song.  Now, we all know how sweet and sensitive Alex can be.  But, he handled it like a pro (even though he admitted later that he was "really embarrassed"). 

 

It helped that his sister also had on a ridiculous red nose...

 

 Because Avery was the oldest there, Santa gave her the job of handing out the bells.  Little did he know how much this would make her day...

 

Afterwards, it was time for some photo ops and then off to Boston!

 

 

As with all of our getaways with kids, we made sure the hotel had a pool.  And, started there...

 

As you can see, I didn't necessarily partake in the pool activities.  The water was way too chilly for this girl.  However, I do look forward to the hot tub and have created quite the tradition for myself.  Every time, I go and get a Starbucks latte and sit in the hot tub to enjoy it.  This time, however?  I walked in and there were 3 middle-aged men sitting in there.  Given that it would have been slightly awkward if I had joined them, I refrained.  However, I was quick to say yes when Alex asked if he could join them!  Needless to say, he was in there for about 5 mins shooting the breeze with them and then they decided to leave.  Score one for mom! 

 



 After the pool, we got bundled up and decided to walk around Faneuil Hall.  About one minute into our walk, Avery spots a horse and carriage and begs to go on it.  Neither Josh or I had ever done a carriage ride in Boston, so we decided to give it a go!

I will say that it was fun.  Was it $40 for 15 mins fun?  Not sure.  But, the kids enjoyed it. 

 

After that, we were on a mission to find a T-stop so that the kids could ride the train.  But, on our way?  We encountered one of the cooler things I've ever seen.   As we were walking through Faneuil Hall, there was an announcement saying that the holiday presentation was going to start in one minute.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out where and what could possibly happen in the middle of all of those people, until this...

 

 

How cool was that?  I felt like we were witnessing a flash mob or something. 

 

Anyway...once we were done watching that, we headed for the Government Center T-stop.  Which, as it turns out.....is closed for renovations.  So, we were then on a mission to find another one and ended up at State Street.  Mind you, at this point, the kids were already starting to get cold, hungry and tired.  NOT a good combo.  As you can imagine, we witnessed quite an array of individuals on the T (which is actually why I enjoy doing it with the kids - they need to understand that the world isn't full of white, middle class people...), which of course, led to a number of questions..."Mom, why is that guy sleeping on the street?  Mom, if that guy is a vet, why does he need money?  Mom, is that his bed?"  It was definitely a good lesson to be taught - for both child and mom.  Note to self - be prepared with answers appropriate for 5-7 year olds during the next city visit.

 

 

So, we get off of the T and then proceed to walk to where we thought another stop was, only to find out that I was wrong.  So, we turn around and get right back on the stop that we just got off.  Needless to say, the kids are done at this point and ready for dinner. 

Thankfully, we get to dinner shortly after that, but only to find a large crowd waiting outside to be seated.  Thinking to myself, no sweat!  We have a reservation, I march in and exclaim that we have arrived!  Only for the guy to not even take my name and tell me to go outside to wait. UGH!!!!  Well, no fear, they did in fact not fail us and sat us within 10 mins.  All was good.  Clearly it was a bit dark and the flash was a bit bright! 

Dinner was delicious.  But, unfortunately, Alex started to feel sick right when it was finished.  There went the idea of walking around a bit and most importantly, going to MIKE's PASTRY!!!!  We make it home and the poor kid pukes.  Thankfully, in the toilet.  And, thankfully only once.  As it turns out, I think that it is because the sausage on his pasta wasn't cooked all of the way.  How do I know this, you ask?  Because, before bed, I reached into my purse to get some chap stick and right there, staring me in the face, was the piece of sausage that Alex had dropped.  Disgusting. 

The next day, we had our greasy diner breakfast and then made the trip to Mike's to get my pastries.  Mama was happy.  Afterwards, we went to the Boston Aquarium, which was even better than I remembered it.  Then, lunch and then home. 

It was a great start to the holiday season!

Summer Recap

Luckily, the summer may be the easiest season for me to recap in one post (other than, of course, the WI July trip, which in and of itself took up 4 posts).  As you may know, we live in a beach town, so our summers?  Pretty much spent doing one thing - going to the beach.  This summer was no different.  Except for the addition of Al-Man's baseball at the beginning of the season.  This was the first season that he could play, so needless to say, we signed him up.  He did really well and enjoyed it.  Surprisingly enough, he seems to do better hitting a pitched ball vs. a ball off of the tee, which I guess is a good thing.  He was also chosen pretty frequently to play third base, as he has quite the arm.  He gets that from his mom ( I really did play 3rd base growing up, you know!). 

 

And, of course, since he was on the T-Ball team, he got to walk in the LC Memorial Day Parade!

The rest of the summer was pretty much spent going to the beach on the weekends and both kids going to various camps during the week.  We tried out the zoo camp for the first time - both kids loved it.  Granted, I nearly had to take out a second mortgage to pay for the freaking thing, so not sure if we will be returning or not, but I was definitely pleased as well.  What I was most impressed with was the security of the place.  I mean, given that it is in a not-so-great area of Providence, I get it (and obviously fully support it).  But, wow!  I think that I had to show my id to 5 different people before I could get my kids.  And, the kids were officially introduced to "city life," which as you can, imagine, included a number of different experiences vs. our sheltered "live out in the middle of nowhere" life.  Specifically, I remember one day, Avery was all distraught because the teachers told them that they couldn't give them a hug.  She just didn't understand why. 

The kids both continued with swim lessons with Grammy and Grampy at the point club.  Unfortunately, the camps take up a lot of time and as I said, are quite pricey, so I really don't encourage them missing many days.  But, they were able to get in about a month's worth of lessons.  Avery is doing really well.  I'm relatively comfortable with her in a pool unassisted (while watching, of course). Al-Man, well....he's getting there.  I'd say he needs one more summer and then he'll get it.

This all leads me to a big milestone that occurred this summer.  Avery jumped off of the boards all by herself with no floaties!  And, Al-Man jumped off with floaties, but all by himself!  It was very exciting.  Avery even had a playdate one day and she and her friend both jumped off several times.  Definitely one of those days that I don't think either one of them will forget.

 

We did our annual trip to Water Whizz, where both kids went down bigger and faster slides than they did the in the past.  In fact, Avery went down one of the steepest and fastest slides in the park.  I wouldn't even do it.  That may be because, I still couldn't manage to do one of the other not so fast slides even remotely gracefully and realized that water just goes in places I care not to have water, so we stayed away from any craziness.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures of this, as I have no where to keep a camera.  Just picture a huge water park with, um....every type of person you can imagine there and that is what this place is.

 

We're still working on bike riding with both of them.  I took Avery's training wheels off and realized that wasn't the best plan, so they will most likely go back on this spring.  I am making this my summer 2015 goal, as it would be nice to go out as a family (once Josh and I get bikes, of course). 

 

We did make it up to a Pawsox game in Providence one night, which was fun.  Luckily, the rain stopped just in time for the game.  Although, it was still cool for August!

 

And, of course, we had our annual Polo Match with friends...

And, the rest of the time was pretty much spent going to the beach and relaxing.  It was a fun summer had by all!

Ok - onto the fall and winter now.  Doing my best at keeping this thing up to date!