Choo Choo!!!

Sadly on Saturday morning following Thanksgiving we all drove Kathy down to the Saratoga Train Station so she could head back home to her own family. About a year ago the kids had their first experiences with the metro when we went to see Kathy's family in Virginia. This was their first real train station though. We weren't sure if we would be able to pry Ryan away without a multitude of tears.

The kids had a great time looking around enjoying their last few minutes with Aunt Kathy while we were waiting.

The big moment of arrival!

"Bye bye train..." says Ryan reluctantly. I'm still not sure what made him the saddest - seeing the train go, seeing Aunt Kathy go, or seeing Aunt Kathy go on the train without him. My guess is that it was probably a little of all of it. As a surprise the tears that came were actually from Alicia who was only consoled by the promise of somehow seeing Aunt Kathy again soon.

Hunting for Horses

The day after Thanksgiving we bid a sad farewell to Uncle Dan and Aunt Jan as they drove west trying to beat a storm out of town. Thankfully Aunt Kathy had a great idea for the day. Saratoga, made famous for its race-track has horse statues scattered throughout the town. We decided to play tourist and see how many horses (and other excitements we could find).

"Babel Horse"

This was the first horse we stopped to see. I think it was my favorite. Meets all of my basic requirements simplicity of design and makes you think a bit.

"Giddyup"

Alicia's favorite horse, I think she liked all of the sparking mirror tiles used in the mosaic.

"Saratoga Horse"

Horse in front of "The Olde Bryan Inn"

Somehow I missed getting this one's name. I think we were just enjoying the aroma from the restaurant a little too much - definitely going to have to stop there sometime and try it out.

"Magic"

Horse in front of Starbucks

This was Mark's favorite horse. I don't think had a name however and as you can see it's a little different than the others with the platform as well as just being a more traditional statue. Still wondering what it's story is. Once again however, I got Matt picking it's nose - it was a joke from the first horse when we found cobwebs in a nostril - after that they all received similar treatment.

"Comic Relief" - dedicated to Robin Williams honoring his work for the homeless

This one was definitely Ryan's favorite. He immediately decided that it was going to get a shower of kisses. Alicia liked this one second best according to the report.

Obviously this wasn't one of "the" horses but despite Alicia's expression she really liked it and enjoyed getting to see some of the Christmas decorations that were going up.

Okay, so I'm a little biased but how can you resist snuggly cuteness! You may notice a conspicuous absence of Ryan in the following pictures - it's because soon after this he'd had enough (okay we'd had enough of him) and he got to ride out the rest of the trek in his stroller.


There's a store there - I think it's called something like Gee Wilikers. Anyways, if I've ever seen a store that I thought would come close to Mr. Magoriums Wonder Emporium this is it - at least from what I've seen in the the displays, I haven't dared take the kids inside! When we first drove in Wednesday night we were blinded by the lights from these displays. There are actually four winder wonderlands in all that they had put up - The Sweets, The Nutcracker, Winter Forest, and Santa's Shop - they were all just too cute.

"The Realtor" - M.I.A. or MagicallyInvisible?

"Where's the horse?" Alicia wonders. Possibly moved inside for the winter but we certainly couldn't find it so perhaps this horse knows a special trick.

This horse also wasn't one of the "real" horses but still oh so cute with it's scarf wrap. Amazingly I was able to walk by the store without going in to drool.

"Aslan, is that you?"

The last horse we found. Sadly it was inside for the winter and we couldn't get in to see it better. That still didn't stop us from getting our pictures or Matt from once again attempting to pick its nose.

Thanks again to Kathy for the great idea. It was so much fun. Hopefully we'll get to go back this summer and see if we can find any more.

A Time for Thanks

So unfortunately school work seems to considerably cutting into my creative time this year and we didn't really get to do much ourselves for Thanksgiving - I had some great ideas that at most ended up half way completed and set aside for next year. Still, we had an absolutely wonderful time.

Thanksgiving here began about a week before when Alicia's school hosted parents to come and eat lunch with their children. I've got to say it was an interesting experience once again walking through a lunch line and sitting down at the long bench tables. The school had really worked hard to make it a special day with special clothes on the table and the principle even taking his turn as "chef". The kids were all so sweet. In Alicia's class they had learned two songs that they sang for us and they had all made the cutest pilgrim collars and hats for the occasion as well as special placemats that were laminated so they could be brought home. Oh and they had made cute turkey centerpieces with pine cones and feathers but Ryan threw such a fit when we had to leave the school without sissy that the turkey didn't survive.
The next week was spent in the turmoil of papers, cleaning, and packing. After almost having a nervous breakdown on Tuesday about all there was that I needed to do I decided to just relax and enjoy the many blessings in my life. Wednesday Mark got off of work a little early and we drove over to NY to spend time with Mark's family. In addition to Grandma and Grandpa Ostrom and Uncle Matt, Uncle Dan and Aunt Jan were in from Colorado and Aunt Kathy was up from Virginia. Alicia was a little upset when she found out that none of her cousins would be there but had a blast with the attention from all of the grown ups while Ryan attempted to hide lego men in all corners of the house so as to make sure that his presence there would not soon be forgotten.

That night, I made my addition to the meal by making my first pumpkin pies. After much consideration I decided just to try Libby's Original Recipe and I think it wound up really pretty yummy (best of all I actually could eat it without having any bad reactions to the sugar!)

The following day was a perfect Thanksgiving (excepting of course the family and friends who weren't with us) the whole day the kitchen was full of the most delicious smells from Kathy and Jan. While we waited with mounting anticipation we decide to enjoy the nice weather and go for a walk in the woods.
When we got back inside the four siblings began a game of Cranium while I tried to at least convince myself that I was being productive in my school work and Jan patiently kept tending to the turkey. After much torturing patience we were definitely appreciative of the end result...


The turkey, oyster stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, sweet potatoes, squash, cranberry sauces, gravy, and pumpkin pies left us all with delightfully full stomachs (except perhaps for Ryan who gave up about 20 minutes before it was ready and decided to sleep through it all). I've got to say here how impressed I was by my two wonderful sisters-in-law who pulled off this incredible feast.

All in all, I've got to say that I can't imagine being more blessed than we are.

School Updates!

So I decided this afternoon that my mother probably had reason to maim me when I was in elementary school and I'm not sure I could have blamed her. I remember the many times I either deliberately or accidentally forgot to make sure that she got to see the school picture order forms and we missed out. As Alicia got off the bus and announced proudly that her school pictures came back today I was so excited I could have burst at the seems. I'm totally bias but I thought that they turned out really well.

Our first quarter of the year is down. We've all learned quite a bit a long the way. I for one have learned that somehow even with only one munchkin to chase around during the day it feels like I get less accomplished. I've also amazed myself by memorizing the names as well as random facts about her school friends that I get to hear - who makes funny faces, who likes to draw, who is a good snapper, who got sent to the thinking chair, who is allergic to milk, who played with her on the playground, etc. etc.

With what I've seen at home and what we learned in our first parent/teacher conference we've discovered that Alicia has learned to spell her last name, memorized her phone number, for the most part knows her address, can figure out the numbers up to 100 (mostly), is learning reading words, knows the difference between spiders and insects, has watched a caterpillar turn into a butterfly, used a smartboard, has detailed artwork projects, is a great singer (and good at memorizing all the new songs... and enjoys practicing them... a lot...), she has a significant portion of the school that thinks she's absolutely adorable - her teacher says that she's silently nicknamed her Cinderella because of her tiny feet and definitive princessness. I think that's interesting - we can't walk into the school or out of the school with waves and hugs and people that definitely know who she is by name. I can't even count the number of people that have told me how adorable or cute she is. I'm still not sure if this is a curse or a blessing but it's definitely been how things have worked with her since the day she was born (or at least a week later when she got to come to church for the first time).

She's also earned a reward for "best works" in reading. Teachers have a certain number of kids that they can send to the Principle's office with an assignment that they've done well, they get to show it to him and put it up on the wall to showcase and then there's an awards assembly. For Kindergarten they do about half the class every two months. At the same assembly she got an award for being able to be a good school citizen and knowing and following all the rules (Mark and I laughed quite a bit about all of her good behavior that was praised in this award and on her report card... she must behave so well at school that she gets home and has to let all her craziness out that's built up through the day!)

All in all things are going well, hopefully soon we'll actually start to find a good schedule that will help us run things a bit more smoothly.

Locks of Love

So at last I finally did it. Thanks to our friend's talented sister I was at last willing to give in and chop off my hair for Locks of Love again. We've had a number of very special people who have been through cancer over the past few years so I'm sort of making it a tradition to let it grow out and then chop it all off (last round was about 4 years ago but we're not going to mention the outcome of that event... mostly why it's taken me 4 years before I trust anyone enough to try it again!) Anyways... the before and afters...

Before

AfterThe head shot

The Back Shot (with Alicia's hand trying to get in the picture)

Side-view - taken by Alicia

Stirring our brew...

So in honor of Halloween Alicia's class learned a song to sing for the principle. So all week we've heard "Stirring and stirring and stirring our brew ew ew ew ew" Okay, hard to type but it's just been kind of funny, even Ryan's picked it up sometimes. I'm still wondering actually if there's more to the song than that... but it's all I've heard.

The weekend before Halloween was the annual Trunk-or-Treat at church when we all get together, have a big pot luck dinner, the teenagers plan games to keep the kids entertained for a bit and then the kids get to trunk-or-treat going from car to car for candy in the church parking lot (sounds like a sham right... hardly, these kids wind up with more candy and treats in 30 minutes than would take 2 hours of foot time with trick or treating.) This year since we still weren't feeling great we didn't actually stay for the whole thing although the kids did still get some treats from people before we ducked out. All I have to say is that after that night I am giving up on any costume that can't just be pulled on and that has random accessories. Originally Alicia had decided to be a ballerina butterfly, on the night of decided that the wings and antena were funny and she just wanted to be a ballerina... then we had to fight over the ballerina buns for her hair...::sigh:: still she had nothing on Ryan who decided to rip all of the patches on his overalls and refused to wear the hat etc. that would have made him a scarecrow, so he looked somewhat like your average kid in overalls by the time he was finished... I didn't even bother trying to take pictures of him...

Alicia Ballerina

Mark as Indiana Jones (renamed when he wore it to the Middle School "Indi - O")

We've actually found a good use for the whip in keeping the kids in check... shhh... j/k although the thought has definitely crossed my mind.


I just love this one... too sweet!

For the big night we went with some friends from church around Claremont. Even with the rain, there was good food and good friends and good treats... and it was a great night. Alicia wound up deciding to be a butterfly this time (after getting strawberry juice on her ballerina outfit and randomly trying out a bumblebee princess costume) I tried to make Ry a pumpkin but he would only let me go as far as the orange top and green pants. He did have quite the fun time with his first year that he really had any idea what was happening. After about the first two or three houses he started grabbing as much candy as he could get in his hands. Thankfully after a few reminders of "just take one" he settled down and behaved... mostly. Although he did seem to feel cheated when the people put the candy in the pumpkin instead of letting him do it himself. Didn't get too many pictures because of the rain but here's a couple...

Ry - the wet pumpkin?

The evening's loot... after having been raided along the way and driving home... and not counting what was still left from Trunk-or-Treat. I say they came out pretty good.

The Glad and Sad

So Grandma Alice drove up from TN to spend some time with us before the onset of snow that makes traveling a complete nightmare. Unfortunately both she and we got sick and spent most of the two weeks that she was here trying to recover. She and Ryan got whatever it was worst of all :-( Thankfully Dad was able to come up and drive back with her and everything turned out all right in the end. Thanks again Grandpa Bob for always being Mom's night in shining tinfoil! Hopefully we'll all be able to visit again soon when we're not dealing with such yuk. We were still glad to see her and get to spend time with her.

Weekend at Windan

A few weekends ago Mark's brother Dan was over from Colorado for a visit at their parents house so we decided to crash the party as well... here are some of the family pics from that weekend.

Apple Picking Adventures

Once again I'm a bit behind in my posts (this one's about a month overdue) but at the end of September we finally got to go apple picking up at Wellwood. Fall has been crazy, there just weren't too many weekends that weren't rainy and drizzly and just too cold to go. Finally we got a Saturday morning that was beautifully clear and we got to go attempt to supply Ryan's apple addiction (okay and mine... I love apples, especially fresh ones) After picking 3/4 of a bushel (probably a full bushel if you count the ones we taste tested) we went through it in less than two weeks. This weekend is the last one for picking and most of the apples are already down so I don't know if we'll get the chance to load up again. But we did have lots of yummy apple goodness and I got to try a new apple crisp recipie!

Mark loaded with apples while the kids show off for the camera.

Alicia and I hiding under one of the apple trees.

Ryan protecting his apple conquest after finally freeing it from the evil clutches of the tree.

Alicia showing a little pink from the cold.

Alicia and Ryan up on the rock again... note the absolutely beautiful blue sky... and that Ryan refused to wear his sweater dispite the chill.

We didn't do the petting zoo because it was kind of crowded and Alicia was going back in a week with her first class field trip. But the kids had fun tromping all over the orchard and we even made some fun discoveries of some peaches and plums.

The happenings

So I guess I should say the un-happenings... I haven't blogged much lately because things have settled back into a new pattern of mundane chaos, I still am not certain where all the time goes, I just know that I don't seem to have any of it.

Let's see Alicia is loving school still although has given in and most of the time asks me to pick her up instead of riding the bus. Strange, I had actually begun to be grateful for the extra hour it gave me to get work done! (I guess that's one of those be careful what you wish for cases?) We are still having some fun trying to get her awake in the mornings though, she's just always on the go that when she crashes, she's out.

Ryan has been driving me nuts lately waking up every morning between 2:30 - 3:30 for anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hr before he settles back down completely. We've tried everything we can think of to get him to sleep through the night and no luck so I'm just trying to appreciate the cuddle time and not think about how completely sleep deprived I feel most of the day.

Mark is enjoying rubbing it in my face that he's done with school for now. :-) Thankfully that means he's been able to help a lot more and in general we've gotten to enjoy lots more fun time with Daddy home and not having to be glued to his computer or textbook. I think it's been nice for all of us.

Right now I'm still trying to make it through my last two terms of school until I get my B.A. and decide what I'm going to do following that. I'm working on editing my novel. When I'm not working on my novel or school I'm trying to catch up with stuff around the house - okay, who am I kidding, I'm spending time making train tracks and Lincoln log homes with the munchkins!

Fall has been beautiful, I've gotten some pictures that I'll post here or on the other blog soon but not as many as I would have liked because even though the leaves have been great it's been grey and cloudy and rainy most of the time.

As for the garden... ::sigh:: NOT a good year. Coons and ants got most of my corn, slugs got my tomatoes and some of the pumpkins, some green worm thing killed the broccoli. I think I've gotten a few peppers, one tomato, one zuch, possibly 6 small pumpkins and 1 med/large sized (still waiting to see what happens) oh, and one carrot. Yeah, I think that's about it, kind of depressing actually. Now that I'm starting to get the growing part down I've got to figure out the pests thing so I can figure out how to protect what actually grows.

On that note... there is a little man that has climbed up in my lap that definitely needs a diaper... back to business :-)

First School-Friend Birthday Party

To begin from the beginning. When we went to the step-up day the Friday before school started one of the moms gave everyone in Alicia's class an invite to an upcoming birthday party for her son. My first reactions were mixed - it was pirate themed so I wondered if inviting the girls was just more out of courtesy and we didn't even know the kid or his parents yet but since everyone in the class was invited it would be a good chance to get to know everyone in an informal situation. At last I came to the conclusion that basically entailed "why not" especially because Alicia had been curious about the invitation and I had the big mouth to explain to her what it was.

The invitation included the idea to dress up pirate style for the party so thanks so some friends when the big day came Alicia was ready to go.The problem began as soon as her pirate outfit was on "mommy I look like a boy", no matter what anyone else tried to say or how we tried to make it look more feminine it just didn't work. At last she compromised when I told her we could bring extra clothes she could change into when we got there if she felt uncomfortable.

So compromise made we head out the door in the rain to a party that was supposed to be out doors, wondering if they're even going to have it. We arrive a few minutes later and climb out of the van to be greeted by her classmate who had chosen not to wear his pirate outfit. Actually the only ones that were dressed up were some little girls as princesses. Alicia didn't even make it through the doorway before she realized this and froze still until I took her back to the van to change into her normal clothes.

Now dressed as herself we arrive at the doorway again. Alicia is still quite terrified by all of the people that she doesn't know and soon enough we realize that she is the only one from her class that came. This basically meant that everyone else was friends/family and we were kind of the odd ducks but once inside it's difficult to leave without being impolite and even though I asked her often if she wanted to leave she was determined to stick it out (mostly by refusing to talk to anyone and clinging to me desperately). I will give the birthday kid kudo's he really did make an effort to try and come and get her to play with everyone else. She did have some fun (mostly just with me) when the rain let up and everyone got to go outside - the family had a zipline and a scooter that Alicia thought were pretty cool). I honestly felt bad all the way around, it was just one of those situations that had to be labled awkword for everyone but survival was the end result and Alicia did enjoy the treats and birthday cake.

Kindergarten Updates

We're into the third week now (the first full one that she's had) and Alicia is still loving school. She loves her teachers, has been making some great friends and all in all I'm surprised still that she wants to come home some days. Although she definitely doesn't like getting up in the mornings, but it handling it much better than I expected.


This was following the second day of school. She was just so tired she crashed completely, I felt bad having to wake her up to bring her inside. I think she's still having a difficult time with figuring out how much sleep she needs.


Day three of Kindergarten Alicia rode the bus home from school. Ryan and I took the stroller down to the road to meet her. He didn't much care for the wait but was plenty happy to finally see the school bus... and Alicia of course.

Supplies for the wait....

Alicia home at last... excited from head to toe and loving all the attention that she got from the big kids who thought she was absolutely adorable.