The Story of Christmas

Jack's classmates at St. Ann's Catholic Preschool celebrated Christmas today by sharing the story of Christmas with parents, grandparents and friends. Jack was the donkey that carried Mary to Bethlehem. We were so proud of him - I started tearing up even before it started! It's so important to emphasize the true meaning of Christmas!

My First Turkey!

Although well into my grown-up years, I have thus far avoiding cooking a Thanksgiving Turkey. Well, that all changed on Thursday. I thoroughly enjoyed playing hostess to friends and family and the turkey turned out great. There were a few spots that got a little too dark due to the oil-based turkey paste/rub but the taste was fantastic! And I will always brine my turkeys and chickens from now on as it make it incredibly moist and flavorful.

Happy Thanksgiving to all cooks!

Pilgrims & Turkey Songs

Jack & Fish

Jack absolutely adores the Georgia Aquarium. He talks about whale sharks everyday - they, along with elephants, lead our list of blessings each evening. So, we finally got to visit again and had a great time. We took advantage of the Mommy & Me special that grants admission & parking for only $25! A real deal!

Happy Halloween

A light rain and chilly temps didn't keep us in last night! Jack had a great time trick-or-treating and ended up with a ridiculous amount of candy! He and his buddy Garrett hit a ton of houses and even Reggie went to a few with us as "pirate dog." The funniest comment of the night was when Garrett pointed at Reggie and exclaimed, "Mommy, Reggie's dressed up as a dog!" Clearly he meant to say pirate but it was priceless.

I let Jack stay up late watching movies as I knew we'd have the extra hour to sleep-in this morning. I wonder if he'll request candy for breakfast? :)

The Hubby and I

Last night Dave and I had what seems to be a rare night out with friends. A fellow Yacht Rock Musician - Bencuya - celebrated his 40th birthday with band members and friends. His wife, Kari, threw a great party in their backyard complete with a stocked bar and catered treats. The crabcakes were accompanied by a fantastic chipotle aioli that I would just love to be able to recreate one day!

There was also a beautiful cake by Highland Bakery. Can you guess what Bencuya plays in the band? He's also a great singer. The cake not only looked great but was extremely tasty. All in all, a lovely night.

A lovely birthday

My husband Dave outdid himself this week for my birthday. We're fairly low key about birthdays in this house, except of course for Jack's birthday parties. So as my momentous birthday arrived, I thought Dave might do something small but he really surprised me. Flowers, balloons, a banner, a princess party hat (requested by Jack) amazing treats from Alon's and a sign with balloons at the neighborhood entrance announcing to all that I was now 40. He also announced my birthday on his blog - a rare acknowledgment of the wife.

It was a great day and I am looking forward to many more with my wonderful family.

Crazy Couple of Weeks

I have failed miserably in writing for the past couple of weeks. We've fallen in line with other families and have just been keeping busy despite one of us being sick at almost all times! Dave's been working a lot but we did manage to find three consecutive days last week to drive to Leland to visit Dave's grandmother and pick up his grandfather's truck. We are very blessed to have received the gift of this truck after his grandfather passed away in January. It's basically brand new and is huge...so of course Jack loves it! It has a back seat so we can travel as a family in it and it just makes it in the garage. Phew!

It was great to visit with Mama and Aunt Pat/Uncle Buck. They're a fun group and we had a great time. Even Reggie enjoyed his visit with his first ever jump into a lake while chasing some geese!

Fall T-Ball!

Well, it's officially Fall as the Fall T-ball season has started for Jack. He really loves it and corrects me if I ever call it baseball..."No, Mommy. It's not baseball, it's t-ball."



We're going to miss this week's practice and game as we're headed to Mississippi to see Dave's Grandma but we'll bring his mitt and ball so that we can still have a catch.

Our weekend was packed and I'm still on the road to recovery. I did too much last week and was exhausted on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I finally found my appetite yesterday afternoon and am trying not to go overboard! Jack has been camping out in our room for the last two nights and pathetically, I was in bed at the same time as the munchkin - 8:30pm. And to make it even more pathetic, I was happy about it! I hadn't slept well in days and was so happy to get a great night's rest.

Recovery

Well, on Saturday morning...really early Saturday morning around 3am...I decided to follow Jack's lead from the previous weekend and experience the stomach virus. Of course it hit me much worse than it did him and I was down 'n out for 3 straight days. At first we thought it was food poisoning because it was so violent (anyone remember the scene from Fever Pitch?) but since I had a fever and the accompanying aches and shakes we decided it was a virus. I never want to lose 4 pounds that way again. I was miserable!

I finally got out of the house for a couple of hours on Tuesday when I took Jack and his buddy Garrett to t-ball practice. I then had a full day today with a preschool parent board meeting, a ministry leadership training session, taking Jack to and from school and then hitting Willy's for dinner...I'm not able to cook yet. It's 6:55pm and I am exhausted. It's funny how getting older makes recovering from an illness just that much more difficult.

Dave was a good caretaker although he would toss things to me from our bedroom doorframe so that he wouldn't get near the germs unless absolutely necessary. Jack was fortunately at my Mom's house when it started so he got to spend two nights with Nonna and Grandpa and then an afternoon with Grandma and Pa so that I could recuperate in peace.

Thanks for listening...I'm going to see if I can get Jack to go to sleep now. Hahaha.

Swine Flu....sorry H1N1 Flu

Okay, the swine flu epidemic is crazy. The first cases have hit Jack's preschool (as they are hitting all schools) and as a result Jack's class had only 5 of 15 kids in attendance yesterday. Only a couple are sick and a couple are on vacation - the rest just pulled their kids out of class for safety. I can absolutely understand their concern, especially as many of them have newborns at home.

But the question is, what to do? Do we sign up for the vaccine study at his pediatrician's office or not? That would ensure him getting the vaccine but it also involves weekly blood draws (could be very traumatic for Jack). Is it a trustworthy vaccine? Do we just get the regular flu vaccine?

Also, I'm checking on him several times a night to make sure he doesn't develop a fever while he sleeps. Thus, I'm not sleeping well and am a little cranky (Dave would say very cranky!).

The good news is that they're having fun with a small class at school - they played Bingo yesterday and Jack thought it was awesome. I need to find him a bingo game that we can play at home! I'm sure there are some online...I'm off to search!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

As Jack gets older, it seems as if Daddy is the source for most of the fun activities such as swimming, riding bikes, mowing the lawn, watching Penguins of Madagascar, etc. But one thing Daddy doesn't do is bake so I'm glad that Jack likes to help out in the kitchen.

We made some oatmeal raisin cookies and he's learning to master the cookie dough scoop. He did a pretty good job. I only needed to move a few of them around for spacing purposes.

I'm looking at a homemade granola bar recipe now - I wonder if he'll even try one!

A stomach virus weekend

Well, we started our weekend with a fun trip to Nonna and Grandpa's in Peachtree City. We went out to dinner and Jack ate his entire meal (a rarity) and everyone was in good spirits. He and Dave then went for a golf cart ride and, of course, got lost and were gone for over an hour! They took some funny pictures - including this one here.

The fun stopped early Saturday morning when Jack developed a bad tummy ache and then proceeded to get sick in the kitchen on his way to the bathroom. Poor baby. We headed to the doctor's and he got sick in the car as well. Dave had to bring fresh clothes to the doctor's office. The doctor confirmed that he had a stomach virus and was indeed contagious. We had to miss Garrett's birthday party at the Chattahoochee Nature Center and have now spent two straight days in the house. I think we're both going a little stir crazy.

He is fully recovered and will be at school tomorrow for his first full week! (Tuesday - Friday schedule this year). Hopefully he didn't pass on the virus to anyone at school, although I think that is where he picked it up.

First Day of Pre-K

Jack could not have gotten out of the car faster in carpool this morning for the first day of "pre-K." It's hard to believe that this is our last year of preschool at St. Ann's. But then again, he's ready for the next challenge! He had a great day first day and had lots of fun with his old and new friends.

Back to school tomorrow!

We had a great meet 'n greet with Jack's new preschool teachers this morning. He's in the four-year-old or pre-K program so this is our last year before Kindergarten. I have to admit that I'm glad to have one more year before he goes to school five days a week for those long days!

His teachers are very sweet and it's a nice group of kids and parents! I'll be sure to post first day of school pictures tomorrow. It's also the beginning of my year as Chair of our preschool parent association so I'm looking forward to a busy year!

A side note - today's smitten kitchen recipe looks fantastic so check it out! (it's to the left of the posts)

If we could talk to the animals...

While Jack and I are frequent visitors to Zoo Atlanta, it's rare that Daddy has a day to join us but so it was this Friday. For the five days preceding our visit, Jack kept careful count of how many "mornings" there were until Daddy came to the Zoo. And he also reminded me many times during the week that he and Daddy were going to ride the train or he and Daddy were going to look at the elephants. Mommy was clearly second fiddle but it's a role I've come to accept and enjoy! Nothing is quite so enjoyable as watching the two of them having fun together.

We had a great 4th of July with the Allen brothers and families. Featured here is our lovely niece and goddaughter, Emma Allen!

A Father's Day Gift - He Swims!

Father's Day had some added excited when Jack started to swim on his own! He's turning into a regular fish! He and his Daddy had a great day swimming in the neighborhood pool!

Jack's first trip to Turner Field

Jack went to his first major league baseball game today and he loved it! His fellow Express teammates were there and everyone had a great time. When we walked up to show him how big the field was his response was "wow, that's humongous!"

After a day filled with experiencing all of the sights, sounds and tastes of the ballpark he woke up at midnight with his first cotton candy-induced tummy ache. Ahhh, childhood!

Mother's Day Tea

My Mom

My Mom has black hair and her eyes are brown. She is 7 feet tall and she weighs 10 pounds. She is 10 years old.

She likes to eat soup. Everyday when I am away at preschool she goes to work.

Her favorite thing to do after dinner is go to bed. My Mom always watches Star Wars on TV.

I love her because she loves me.

Love,

Jack

This accompanied a lovely drawing of me wearing a purple bathing suit and coordinating purple necklace. The items in purple above were added by Jack - a preschool madlib of sorts.

It was a lovely day.

Zoo Atlanta!

Jack had a great time at Zoo Atlanta with his buddy Payton! We saw the Lion cubs (no longer small) for the first time and enjoyed the new exhibit...Parakeet Adventure!

The ostrich were also on the run and that was definitely a sight to behold.

It's Springtime!

Well, we've jumped fairly quickly from Winter to Spring...I need to improve my blogging. Jack has embraced Springtime in Atlanta. Although we've discovered that he has an adverse reaction to pollen, happily the worst has passed and we're enjoying spending time outside.

He started playing t-ball and really enjoys practices and games...especially running the bases! Dave is busy with springtime gigs and keeping up with yardwork. Jack and I planted tomato plants (big boy and early gig) along with basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme and italian parsley this week. He enjoys watering the plants and has taken on that as his job.