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| Peeking out from their "insert today's descriptor". |
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| How Maddie put the hieroglyphics chart to use! (Says "Welcome") |
I love their creativity and I hope they never lose it!!!!
Pack Family 2012
14 years ago
Thursday, November 13, 2014
Walk Like An Egyptian...
Out of the blue yesterday, Maddie asked me to please print her out a copy of the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic alphabet. Additionally yesterday, the kids decided to take advantage of the really huge box that was delivered (Yes Grandpa, yet another delivery) and turn it into their fort/clubhouse/office. Blend the two and here's what we've got...
I love their creativity and I hope they never lose it!!!!
I love their creativity and I hope they never lose it!!!!
It's Raining Leaves....
Well our yard is basically one big blanket of leaves! The kids had been dying to get out there and rake up some leaf piles for jumping. Here they are having a blast. Granted no actual leaf cleanup was done; but we are saving that for Daddy and Buppy this weekend :-)
And since it is Throwback Thursday (a facebook thing), here are a couple of links to prior years fall leaf posts. I've always said that the great thing about this "blog" is that it is like an online memory book. I don't get to look back at the posts as often as I would like, but I am sure that once the kids are much older and don't keep me as busy; I will be very grateful to have these memories detailed so vividly for me!!!
2008 - The year they had just turned 1:
2010 - The year they had just turned 3:
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| Best buddies! |
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| Happy Boy! |
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| Peek-a-boo! (Note the newly missing tooth) |
And since it is Throwback Thursday (a facebook thing), here are a couple of links to prior years fall leaf posts. I've always said that the great thing about this "blog" is that it is like an online memory book. I don't get to look back at the posts as often as I would like, but I am sure that once the kids are much older and don't keep me as busy; I will be very grateful to have these memories detailed so vividly for me!!!
2008 - The year they had just turned 1:
2010 - The year they had just turned 3:
Friday, October 31, 2014
Halloween 2014
The kids have REALLY been looking forward to Halloween this year! We kicked things off with Halloween Bingo at the school on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, Maddie was a bit under the weather and had to stay home. But she seemed to really enjoy her one on one time with Mommy reading books and playing games, so she wasn't too sad about missing Bingo. Aidan, however, was a bit sad that he didn't win B-I-N-G-O. Maybe next year!
Though she did stay home from school today, Maddie rallied in time for the annual neighborhood Halloween party. I must say it was a lot more enjoyable this year not being the hosts. Pizza, piñatas and hanging out with their neighborhood friends was a blast. Then I headed home to man the door (we got surprisingly few trick or treaters this year) while Kurt took the kids around the neighborhood with all of their friends.
About an hour into it, Kurt brought Maddie home because she was just too tired. You know your child is truly tired when they forego receiving bucketloads of free candy for relaxing time in their bed. As I type Aidan is still out there pounding the pavement (I think it is a personal goal to hit EVERY house in the neighborhood) and Maddie is fast asleep (poor baby).
I have the kids about 50% convinced it is a good idea to take their Halloween candy to the local dentist for a payout of $1 per pound. We'll see if that works out!
Happy Halloween Everyone!!!!!
Though she did stay home from school today, Maddie rallied in time for the annual neighborhood Halloween party. I must say it was a lot more enjoyable this year not being the hosts. Pizza, piñatas and hanging out with their neighborhood friends was a blast. Then I headed home to man the door (we got surprisingly few trick or treaters this year) while Kurt took the kids around the neighborhood with all of their friends.
About an hour into it, Kurt brought Maddie home because she was just too tired. You know your child is truly tired when they forego receiving bucketloads of free candy for relaxing time in their bed. As I type Aidan is still out there pounding the pavement (I think it is a personal goal to hit EVERY house in the neighborhood) and Maddie is fast asleep (poor baby).
I have the kids about 50% convinced it is a good idea to take their Halloween candy to the local dentist for a payout of $1 per pound. We'll see if that works out!
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| The Scuba (or scooper as Aidan spells it) Diver and the Shark (note the baby shark she brought along in her bucket) |
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
Fun Fall Weekend
Well we are back into the swing of things this week after a very full and very fun fall weekend! Saturday was a gorgeous day for soccer, followed by a family get together - including a very special visit from Aunt Janet & Pierre - to celebrate my and Auntie Deb's birthdays.
Sunday morning was ice skating lessons with a drop by from Mimi & Buppy with some very special and well loved Halloween presents. Then we headed down to Sandwich on the cape for a mini reunion of my closest friends from high school. Luckily our kids are all very close in age and all love to play together! A bit chilly by the water, but we still toughed it out and even had a pretty good find in the Cape Cod Canal Museum. We were so glad to see our friends up from Nashville and hope we can have another similar get together soon!
Maddie & Aidan loved playing on the above tree so much, that we are apparently now committed (we being Kurt) to building a tree house in our yard this summer so we can invite everyone over to it!
Should be interesting. Especially considering Maddie doesn't like heights!
School is still going well and we are preparing to hunker down for the upcoming winter. I joined Aidan on his class field trip to Ward's Berry Farm and will volunteer in Maddie's room this week for a Halloween Pumpkin Extravaganza. And of course there will be trick or treat pictures to come.
Happy Fall everyone!
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| All the Maas side cousins - including our beloved Pierre!!! |
Sunday morning was ice skating lessons with a drop by from Mimi & Buppy with some very special and well loved Halloween presents. Then we headed down to Sandwich on the cape for a mini reunion of my closest friends from high school. Luckily our kids are all very close in age and all love to play together! A bit chilly by the water, but we still toughed it out and even had a pretty good find in the Cape Cod Canal Museum. We were so glad to see our friends up from Nashville and hope we can have another similar get together soon!
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| Slightly disjointed group photo as they all wanted to stand on their own rocks! |
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| This tree at the ice cream shoppe was a BIG hit! |
Maddie & Aidan loved playing on the above tree so much, that we are apparently now committed (we being Kurt) to building a tree house in our yard this summer so we can invite everyone over to it!
Should be interesting. Especially considering Maddie doesn't like heights!
School is still going well and we are preparing to hunker down for the upcoming winter. I joined Aidan on his class field trip to Ward's Berry Farm and will volunteer in Maddie's room this week for a Halloween Pumpkin Extravaganza. And of course there will be trick or treat pictures to come.
Happy Fall everyone!
Monday, September 29, 2014
7th Birthday!
I've been very bad about posting here (obviously) as of late. Party it is because my camera broke and partly it is just being busy all the time. We had a fabulous summer with tennis, bowling, skating, beach trips with friends, visits to Mimi & Buppy's house, swim lessons with Sam, trips to RI and down the cape, trips into Boston, visits with cousins and just lots of fun in general. We kept very busy and it flew by!
The transition to school has been a good one and with the new school year comes Maddie & Aidan's birthday. This year they are seven - I can't believe it!! It was more of a birthday season really with multiple celebrations with various family members and just last weekend a friend party at their karate studio. Their Sensei created such a fun party for them and their friends and they had a blast (even came home with their own nunchucks - but that is a different story).
All in all we are very blessed and cannot complain!!!
The transition to school has been a good one and with the new school year comes Maddie & Aidan's birthday. This year they are seven - I can't believe it!! It was more of a birthday season really with multiple celebrations with various family members and just last weekend a friend party at their karate studio. Their Sensei created such a fun party for them and their friends and they had a blast (even came home with their own nunchucks - but that is a different story).
All in all we are very blessed and cannot complain!!!
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| Blowing out the candles with their buddies looking on... |
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| Even got to cut their cake with a real live Samurai sword!! |
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| Even though it was a karate party, Maddie insisted on getting all dolled up! |
First Day of First Grade
So far the transition to First Grade has been a good one! A few snafus in the beginning with the kids feeling that they just don't get enough time for lunch. But other than that they are acclimating to their teachers, classrooms, homework, new friends and everything very well. They especially love having art, gym, music and did I mention art (that's a big hit).
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| First Day Photo!!! |
Tuesday, April 1, 2014
Two Hundred
Just noticed when I logged in that this is officially our 200th post to this blog. Granted I've slowed down quite a bit lately due to our somewhat crazy schedule, but even still there will be quite a lot of interesting tidbits for the kids to look back upon as they get older and want to know more about their childhoods.
So what have we been up to? Well art class is finished and the kids brought home a large portfolio of work to share with us. We can't continue on with the next session because it conflicts with soccer, but we are doing a 2 day family clay workshop starting this weekend. We'll make a masterpiece as a family and this should be very interesting. Kurt and the kids are artistic, but that is definitely not a word I'd use to describe me.
The kids are still keeping up with their typical activities. They both earned their orange belt at karate and are now learning how to work with a bow staff (YIKES)! And they are both now up to Basic 3 at ice skating lessons. This seems to be a bigger jump in skills as they are now learning how to spin and other more complicated moves. Maddie is a SPEED DEMON on the ice and prides herself on being able to weave in and out of people. Of course we do still need to convince her to bend her knees a bit more. Aidan focuses more on the choreography piece and really uses the free skate part of their lesson to put on his "performances". He's very cute and works really hard at it :-)
Nature class is still a big hit! We learned all about frogs today, made a craft and took a walk out on the trails. Every week we monitor the daffodils we planted there in the fall and we finally see them peeking up out of the ground.
School is going great and the kids both seem to be doing very well. One of Maddie's strengths is Math while Aidan is reading at a 2nd grade level. They love their classrooms, teachers and friends; but I do sense some hesitation on Aidan's part about having to go to school ALL day long next year.
Other than the above, we've had a few adventures and are mostly looking forward to the sun, some warmth and lots of time outside!
Happy Spring to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So what have we been up to? Well art class is finished and the kids brought home a large portfolio of work to share with us. We can't continue on with the next session because it conflicts with soccer, but we are doing a 2 day family clay workshop starting this weekend. We'll make a masterpiece as a family and this should be very interesting. Kurt and the kids are artistic, but that is definitely not a word I'd use to describe me.
The kids are still keeping up with their typical activities. They both earned their orange belt at karate and are now learning how to work with a bow staff (YIKES)! And they are both now up to Basic 3 at ice skating lessons. This seems to be a bigger jump in skills as they are now learning how to spin and other more complicated moves. Maddie is a SPEED DEMON on the ice and prides herself on being able to weave in and out of people. Of course we do still need to convince her to bend her knees a bit more. Aidan focuses more on the choreography piece and really uses the free skate part of their lesson to put on his "performances". He's very cute and works really hard at it :-)
Nature class is still a big hit! We learned all about frogs today, made a craft and took a walk out on the trails. Every week we monitor the daffodils we planted there in the fall and we finally see them peeking up out of the ground.
School is going great and the kids both seem to be doing very well. One of Maddie's strengths is Math while Aidan is reading at a 2nd grade level. They love their classrooms, teachers and friends; but I do sense some hesitation on Aidan's part about having to go to school ALL day long next year.
Other than the above, we've had a few adventures and are mostly looking forward to the sun, some warmth and lots of time outside!
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| Dressed up for Wacky Wednesday during Dr. Seuss week! |
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| Backwards counts as wacky, right? |
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| Somehow I have a feeling they'll be 21 and still want to go puddle stomping! |
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| STORYTIME! We are glad they love to read as much as we do... |
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| Before the Father/Daughter dance that Maddie declared TOO LOUD AND DARK. |
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| My handsome, kind and loving boy! |
Happy Spring to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, January 17, 2014
He's in New York I Tell 'Ya
This was just so adorable to me that I had to share it! Kurt took Aidan to a Lab today to get his blood drawn. We've been suspicious that he may have sensitivities to certain foods and we decided to finally bite the bullet, do the official testing and know once and for all what he can and can't eat.
Naturally Aidan was nervous about going and not looking forward to it. We talked through what would happen, that it would hurt - but only briefly, and that the quickest way for it to be over was to just remain calm and let the Lab technicians do their job.
So what does our handsome little cutie do? He comes up with an elaborate (for a 6 year old) plan to fool the technician's into drawing blood from someone other than him!
His plan was to slip the note to the Lab tech. Savvy little buddy! Of course he probably should have hidden the note from us and not shared all the details. Needless to say, he DID have to go through with the blood draw and he did great! And the Lab techs thought his little note was very sweet :-)
As a side note - probably no one but me would get all of the turtle references here but we've got green paper and New York which is home of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He and Maddie are under the impression that New York is pretty much the best place ever now - especially their sewer system!
Maddie is a little grumpy in the above photo because Kurt had just spent a few minutes trying to dig a piece of gravel out of her hand from a big spill she took on the way to the bus stop the other afternoon. Gotta love the fabulous (NOT) new street they put in. Sure Mansfield, save a few bucks on your cheapy, non-pavement, throw-down-weird-gravel-that-impales-children "plan". Wish they'd just left it the way it was and so does MADDIE!
Leaving things on a happier note, it's F-R-I-D-A-Y and the kids start their new art class at the local art museum tomorrow morning. Can't wait to see the masterpieces they create...
Naturally Aidan was nervous about going and not looking forward to it. We talked through what would happen, that it would hurt - but only briefly, and that the quickest way for it to be over was to just remain calm and let the Lab technicians do their job.
So what does our handsome little cutie do? He comes up with an elaborate (for a 6 year old) plan to fool the technician's into drawing blood from someone other than him!
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| Hard to read, but it says - "This is not Aidan. He's in New York." |
His plan was to slip the note to the Lab tech. Savvy little buddy! Of course he probably should have hidden the note from us and not shared all the details. Needless to say, he DID have to go through with the blood draw and he did great! And the Lab techs thought his little note was very sweet :-)
As a side note - probably no one but me would get all of the turtle references here but we've got green paper and New York which is home of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He and Maddie are under the impression that New York is pretty much the best place ever now - especially their sewer system!
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| We may not be a football lovin' family - but we still participate in Spirit Day at school! |
Maddie is a little grumpy in the above photo because Kurt had just spent a few minutes trying to dig a piece of gravel out of her hand from a big spill she took on the way to the bus stop the other afternoon. Gotta love the fabulous (NOT) new street they put in. Sure Mansfield, save a few bucks on your cheapy, non-pavement, throw-down-weird-gravel-that-impales-children "plan". Wish they'd just left it the way it was and so does MADDIE!
Leaving things on a happier note, it's F-R-I-D-A-Y and the kids start their new art class at the local art museum tomorrow morning. Can't wait to see the masterpieces they create...
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