Thanksgiving at the Summervilles

We enjoyed a very successful meal and evening at the Summerville's on Thanksgiving. We only visit the Summervilles house once a year, and since there are usually about twenty people around, one or both of the kids in the past has been overwhelmed or crying for much of the night. This time was wonderfully different. There were periods of the evening where I didn't have either of the kids clinging to me and I felt like a new woman. It was so fun watching the kids warm up and really loving everyone's company. Of course, the kids enjoyed hanging out in their usual ways and with their typical favorites -- Eli played a block hiding game with Uncle Brian and Ms. Kathryn, and got some love from Daddy. While Keira played with her bee toys from home with Babo looking on. She also had a ball running between her two grandmas and being generally silly and crazy.







Maybe even more exciting, the kids warmed up to "new" faces this Thanksgiving, too. One of the highlights of the evening for Eli was playing with Ms. Trish. He told me afterwards that he "loves Ms. Trish." They had a great time building with blocks and playing a "guess what" picture game with a camera.


Keira made her own new friend in Mr. John. She brought over and handed him almost a couch full of blocks to his delight.


I think most fun for me was seeing my kids through other people's eyes. It's so easy to get caught up in all the little details of parenting and not really enjoy them for who they are.

CDC Thanksgiving Program

On November 17, Elijah's preschool put on a wonderful Thanksgiving program. Little did they know, they would have a surprise guest appearance! All I knew going into the program was that Eli was a pilgrim. I was tickled to see that he was the "head" of the pilgrims leading the boat out to the middle of the carpet. After he handed off the ship, he snuck over to Keira and I (we were right in front) to give Keira a hug before he got back to the action.



Well, it was all Keira needed. I guess she thought it was an invitation, or she got jealous. In the program, the pilgrims and Native Americans started hugging and after Eli started hugging his favorite little two year old girl, Keira was wriggling out of my lap. Before I knew it she was hugging Eli, too. In this picture you can see Eli hugging Keira in the left hand side of the picture, and his favorite two year old Avani is in the right side of the picture.


I debated jumping up onto the "stage" and grabbing Keira but I realized that I would cause more of a disturbance once she started howling. Also, I don't know how many parents even noticed. Throughout the performance, many of the kids were floating off the stage and into their parents' arms and back up into the action again. I decided to wait it until there was a little break in the program. But, Keira was definitely in her element. She beamed, smiled and clapped.





Eli did a great job of gently directing and herding her. I think in a way, it made it even more special for him to share his moment with her. He's such an amazing big brother.


After a few minutes, and lots of laughter from me and Dendi, the dramatic part of the performance finished, and they regathered to sing. Which gave me a chance to grab Keira. Then, all the preschoolers (at least those actually enrolled!) sang "I'm a Little Turkey." After the song, I got a quick picture with my two little performers.



After the show, we all headed down the hall for a potluck Thanksgiving feast. The room was decorated adorably with the kids' art. Here's a picture of Eli's pilgrim and Eli and Keira sitting at the kids' table for the feast.

Our First Night

Finally, I've caught up to our first night in our new house! I guess I'm only a little over a month behind now... As I've said before, we closed on our new house on Wednesday, November 10. Originally, we planned to close on the house, visit it for a few minutes and maybe have the guys bring the first load over. Those low key plans quickly unravelled, for the better. Instead, the evening turned into a festive, fun event where we ate pizza with Jason, Andrea, Bapa and Dendi, the guys brought a huge load over and we capped the night by spending our first night in our new house sleeping on mattresses on the floor. It couldn't have been better!

Dendi and Jason got together to make a banner to welcome us to our house. Then, Maria (who sold us the house) completed the look by adding balloons and balloon shaped confetti. So sweet. By the way, Eli was absolutely in love with the confetti, he collected it and resprinkled it over and over again!


Eli and Keira got in the celebratory mood by giving huge smiles to the camera, playing hide and go seek and loving the new carpet.

Fall Musings

The weather is decidedly winter-like, but as I'm trying to catch up (and will be for a while!) I'm writing this blog about our fall. These musings are about our ordinary days -- not related to any holiday or the move. Here goes...

-- Daddy Love.


I'm home with the kids all week, but time with Daddy has a more special, magical quality to it. For one thing, when Daddy's home, we have a one-on-one ratio again. That means that Eli and Daddy can build huge block men and not worry that Keira will knock them over (since she's being entertained by Mommy).



It also means that Eli can go for a bike ride on his Diego bike as fast as he wants since Daddy doesn't have a baby strapped to him.



Not only do both children get more attention when Daddy's home, but as I stated before, magical things happen with Daddy around. Bathtime fish toys turn into "bubbly fish", start talking and jump into the bubbles in Daddy's presence.


Not only do plastic fish talk and jump, but car windows behave magically around Daddy, as well. This fall, suddenly the car windows in the Alero responded to voice commands for lock, roll down and roll up. It had Eli in stitches. Then, one magical Sunday, Eli's radio (child friendly MP3 player) started talking in a tired old-man's grovelly voice. Eli still talks about it, even though the radio only talks on Sunday drives on the golf cart which the weather has now made near impossible.

-- Day Long Golf Cart Rides. Speaking of golf cart rides, that was one of our favorite things to do on the weekend during our beautiful fall weather. We would pack the kids up (sometimes bundle them up) and head out to the park of our choice on the golf cart. We would end up hitting about three to four parks throughout the day. Sometimes, we would eat lunch and nap on the golf cart and sometimes we would head home. Often, we'd only head home if the golf cart charge demanded it. It was an awesome way to spend a weekend day. And, it's one of the things I think I'll miss since leaving Peachtree City. Although, I have a feeling we may do day long golf cart rides to downtown Senoia and the park, instead this spring.




-- Week Day Fun. Of course we love having Daddy around, but the kids and I did okay during the weeks by ourselves, too. With the gorgeous fall weather and no mosquitoes (!) we spent a lot of time in our backyard. Both kids spent a good bit of their time in the sandbox.




They also like playing in the rocks, throwing balls or frisbees, riding in the Cozy Coupe, playing croquet...



Or, just eating --


Speaking of eating, Keira continues to move in the right direction, although some days are faster than others. Her favorite still seems to be spaghetti. She requests it at least once a day and is perfectly content with cold sauce straight from the jar.


But, her highchair was also a great place to learn to color on paper, or her tray or her face (!) with markers.

Halloween, Part IV -- Trick or Treating at Grammie and Babo's and the New Subdivision

This year, we decided to trick or treat at our new subdivision. So, after we had a quick dinner at Dendi and Bapa's, we drove to Grammie and Babo's to Trick or Treat before it got dark and we headed back to Senoia. It was fun to see Grammie, Babo, Keira and Eli's excited faces. Grammie and Babo appreciated our trek and Eli and Keira loved showing off their costumes and trick or treating at such a familiar house.



After our visit to Peachtree City we headed back to our new subdivision to trick or treat. It was amazing -- like a block party. On our new block, everyone was out with their kids, greeting neighbors and enjoying the chilly evening. It's such a friendly, warm neighborhood, we are so lucky to now be a part of it.

As I said before, it was a little cold. We bundled Eli up in his jammies under his costume, and I put some layers on Keira, too. She spent most of her evening trick or treating and cuddling in the sling.

Halloween, Part III -- Subdivision Halloween Party

On Halloween afternoon, our new subdivision held a Halloween party. Even though we hadn't moved in yet, one of our new neighbors (who planned the party), generously invited us to come. We had a great time! There was yummy food -- you never can have too much sugar on Halloween, right? Eli thinks there is never enough chocolate to be had!


The biggest hit of the afternoon was the huge, inflatable slide. Eli, Keira and I waited in line over and over and over again to take our turns -- super, exhausting fun.




After we had stuffed ourselves full of party food, played a few games and slid down the inflatable slide many times, the kids played for a while at the playground. Both Keira and Eli spent some time on the slide and Keira spent a good bit of time playing in the wood chips. It's such a great playground, we are so lucky to now live right behind it.