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. 

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!

Slightly disjointed group photo as they all wanted to stand on their own rocks!

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!

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!!!

Blowing out the candles with their buddies looking on...

Even got to cut their cake with a real live Samurai sword!!



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). 

First Day Photo!!!

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!

Dressed up for Wacky Wednesday during Dr. Seuss week!

Backwards counts as wacky, right?



Somehow I have a feeling they'll be 21 and still want to go puddle stomping!

STORYTIME!  We are glad they love to read as much as we do...

Before the Father/Daughter dance that Maddie declared TOO LOUD AND DARK.

My handsome, kind and loving boy!

Happy Spring to all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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! 

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!

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...

Early Christmas Gift

Don't mess with the Willner Twins, 'cause they'll take you d-o-w-n!

Earned their yellow belts and very proud of it!

After only 3 months of lessons, the kids have earned their yellow belts.  Their Sensei is always telling me what great kids they are and how impressed he is with how hard they work.  Private lessons are definitely the way to go for us.  They get an hour long hard core workout because they are constantly moving and not just waiting around for their turn and are able to master the skills faster because of the repetition and the undivided attention.  The most important thing is that they love doing it and are very proud of themselves!

Half Days Are the Best Days

I have to say that the kids and I are really enjoying this whole half day Kindergarten thing.  It's just the right combination of school time, preferred activity time, and free time. 

Most mornings we are up and out of the house after breakfast for some sort of a group activity.  Last week they helped Oak Knoll plant their daffodil bulbs for the season and this week they took a class on spiders and went on a spider hunt.  Just this morning they had their Karate lesson and I heard them hard at work on their kicks, punches & chops.  Their teacher commented on what hard workers they are and what a great attitude they have.  Next week we have BINGO at the school and the ZOO BOO at Capron Park.  Weekly soccer games and ice skating lessons are just a given. 

I'm grateful that they can take this year to try out so many activities and hopefully be able to narrow it down to what things they most want to pursue long term.  I am also grateful that I am able to spend so much time with them and take part in their adventures (I was an honorary spider hunter).  I am, of course, especially grateful that they are enjoying school as much as they are and having such a positive experience there.  Lastly I am grateful that they are able to be so busy but still have time to play in the yard, watch their favorite tv shows, build with their legos and just be their silly selves.  I also should mention that I am grateful to Kurt for all of his hard work that provides us with the ability and resources to take advantage of all of these opportunities.

In fact, I am actually a bit sad at the thought of them having to go to school full days next year.  Just the other day on the drive home from nature class, they said they hoped they could do this forever and I realized I was kind of hoping for that too...

K-a-r-a-t-e CHOP!

Pre spider hunt.  (come spring we'll take a photo with what Aidan likes to call the "Willner daffodils")

She's much more aggressive this year and has scored at least one goal during each game!

I've never seen anyone love anything as much as this boy loves ice skating.  He smiles the ENTIRE time :-)

I certainly don't mean to make it sound like everything is perfect and we've not a care in the world.  This isn't Facebook after all.  Aidan still gets anxious now and then and Maddie is still a bit moody and can be really hard on herself.  But overall, they are fabulous children and we do our best to move through the bad days and try to reflect more often on the good ones. 

Just the other day I received a lovely out of the blue email from a neighbor who ran into Kurt & the kids at the grocery store.  She said "I had to tell you that running into your kids made my day.  They are two of the warmest children I have ever met and I really enjoyed all of their stories and hugs.  You and Kurt are doing all good things over there." 

And I'll just leave it at that :-)