Christmas Morning

Frantically trying to wrap up all of my 2011 posts by today (it's not looking so good since I really only have a three hour nap window to work with later on today.)

In the meantime - here is a fun video shot of the action in our house on Christmas morning. Enjoy!

Merry Halloween! (Yes, Halloween!)

The week before Halloween the Kienzle cousins met up for our annual trip to Smith Family Farm in Brentwood.

I am loving it that my kids are still at the age where I can manipulate them into wearing costumes in the same theme (and usually what Mel's kids have worn two years prior). I am feeling like my days are really numbered on this. I was planning on Popeye and Olive Oyl (Ha!) for this year, but already having Kira's Tinkerbell costume & Mason's Peter Pan costume swayed my decision.

Tinkerbell enjoys the farm animals (much like her costume predecessor.)

Grammy shares some interesting farm facts.

Serious Peter Pan.

Two ninjas (Maile and Mason) and Peter Pan check out the chickens.

+ Rapunzel (Kira) and Tink.

Exploring a...okay, I wasn't paying attention. But it does remind me of those little structures that Mel and I visited when we were in Ireland. (If I wasn't so behind on blogging I would dig up a pic.)

Inside the "structure."

The two little Kienzle princesses - they play so well together!

Playing on haystacks.

Group Cousin Pic.

Add 1 Pop-Pop (+ Tinkerbell's wings)

We jump on the hayride and head out to the pumpkin patch to pick our pumpkins.

Olive took awhile to pick her pumpkin, surveying the rows for the perfect one.

The perfect pumpkin!

Nikos found his winner fairly quickly.

Olive chatting Tyke's ear off on the way back to the car.

Niko wants to pose one more time with his pumpkin (how cute is this kid!) (Ps - this may be the debut of his new smile...)

Back at home we carved the pumpkins - left to right - Olive's pumpkin (from school), Heather's, Taki's (stalk as nose), Nikos', Olive's and Nikos' (from school.) And how cute (and big!) do the kids look in this pic.

And love this one of Olive adoring her big bro.

Flash forward to Halloween morning and the preschool Halloween parade. We all gather at the school and basically walk around the block in the neighborhood and then back to the school. As I'm getting the kids ready I realize Olive is a little bit warm (okay borderline on fire) and like any respectable parent...I drag her to preschool for the parade.

Papouli and Grandma met us at the school. Olive charms Papouli in her classroom (this may have been the last time she smiled all day.)

Preschool parade. Olive (obviously at this point not feeling well), cried inconsolably until Nikos held her hand. (You can see both that she is looking a little peaked and he is looking a little un-thrilled.)

After the parade was over I took my little mini-sauna home with me and she promptly laid in our bed and then fell asleep about 10 minutes into tangled (with a fever of 103.)

Later that night for Halloween Taki took one for the team and stayed home with Olive while Nikos & I met up with Cecchins & the D'Angelos for trick-or-treating.

Not sure how I didn't get any good pics of all of the kids, but here are two.

Peter Pan and SuperGirl (Brookie.)

+Hulk (Marco.)
We had a great Halloween, adults with their roadies, kids collecting lots of candy. Nikos even asked one house for a glow bracelet for his sister since she was home sick (so cute!) Of interesting note, I'm convinced that Olive's fever, which lasted 2 days, was the starter for my lower left lung pneumonia (to debut - and last - most of November.)

September Rain

In late September we headed over to Dreamland at Aquatic Park to burn off a little pent up energy.

We fed the ducks.

And played on the sliding boards.

And played on...what is this thing called??

And then a little puddle jumping on the way home. (I tried my best but couldn't land the double jump shot.)

We are so fortunate to live in walking distances to so many cool places!

End of Summer (yes...Summer) Hurrah

One of our favorite annual summer trips is up to Sarah's cabin near Silverlake. This year the boys (big boys) couldn't make it, so Sarah and I once again crammed three carseats into the back of a car and headed up for some fun.

We had a great time exploring the resort and checking out the "horses" - always a fan favorite.

Turns out we were up there so late in the season that the general store and restaraunt/bar was closed and the game room was in the midst of being dismantled.

Olive enjoyed some time on the motorcycle, one of the few holdouts in the gameroom.

After playing in the dirt the boys took - what I think will be their final - joint bath in the sink.

The next morning we headed to the beach and spent a fabulous morning and afternoon at the water.

Nikos shows off some hula (remember we were fresh off our trip to Hawaii - despite my late blogging...ha.)

Ollie blows bubbles.

The kids entertainment...a downed ladybug.

Our entertainment...highly recommended summer beer.

We headed out for a batwalk and the obligatory photo opp on the bridge that Sarah's grandpa built.
And although I didn't get any pics of the elusive bats, I did capture what I think may be another yearly pic.

Thanks for including us on one of your cabin weekends Marco and Sarah!