family time

 Today we met Stephen's aunt, uncles, cousin and grandpa for breakfast and bowling.

                                    Cousin Lily                                     Grandpa Wayne

Cousins and Uncle Matthew

Aunt Raena

Stephen, Lily and Uncle Andrew

Grandpa Wayne and Henri

Uncle Andrew and Lily

Can't wait to try this                            

We have a few days left on our Magic Mountain passes. We went with Vinnie and his friend for a few hours today.

Brotherly love.....

just for fun..........

Mike bought me a new camera for Christmas. I LOVE it. I'm having fun experimenting with the different settings. I took this when we were leaving Magic Mountain tonight.....

Sigh....I am now caught up. :)

   

Christmas 2011

I am so behind. Christmas has come and gone. We had a great holiday season. This year we wanted to show the kids that the Christmas season isn't all about gifts under the tree. We went Christmas caroling at the convalescent home. It was great seeing the joy on the faces of the elderly. Stephen and I delivered cookies to neighbors. We donated blankets and water to a homeless shelter. I'm not sure if the impact of what we did will have an immediate effect on our kids. Hopefully, they will look back on it someday and realize the true meaning of Christmas. Stephen enjoyed the antics of Clyde the elf. Everyday was something new. 

 

He drew faces on pictures...

                                                          Made a zipline...

  injured himself (on the zipline)....
                                                     

                                                        was a rebel......

                                                         missing the North Pole....

                                                        brushed his teeth and tagged the mirror.....

                                                        replaced family photos with his own....

Christmas morning

We look forward to Clyde's return next year. 

Elf

Clyde has been busy entertaining our household.

He had game night with some friends:

He decorated Stephen's doorway:

Helped himself to breakfast:

I think some of the other toys might be jealous of the attention Clyde has been receiving. This is what we found this morning:

Elf

Ha Ha. I guess Clyde felt bad for downloading that song on the Ipod.

Elf

Our little friend has been quite mischievous the past couple of days. Tuesday morning we found him on the ceiling fan.

This morning we found Clyde rocking out to Christmas music on the Ipod. He managed to download a song. Sure hope he has a dollar to pay me back.

our elf

I love tradition. New and old. One of our newer traditions is elf on the shelf. Stephen looks forward to Clyde's return each year. Thanks to pinterest Clyde is going to be a bit more adventurous this year.
Clyde made his annual entrance this morning by bringing Stephen a pair of slippers:

Can't wait to see what he has planned for tomorrow. 

Catching Up

Wow! It's been a crazy couple of weeks. We have spent a great many hours getting our house Christmas ready. Mike has been working very hard at decorating the outside. I keep joking that we are trying to be the Griswalds this year.

Stephen spent Thanksgiving with us this year. It's been quite a few years since he has been able to celebrate with the Ardizone clan. It was great to see him with his brother and cousins .

I've been working on many Pinterest projects.

I love wall and window clings. This year we made our annual gingerbread house on the wall.

Then we thought it might fun to make the real thing. Even with a prebaked kit, it was challenging.

We are thankful for so many things this month ( and every month). It has been a good exercise in writing down each day something we are thankful for. The most important things are: family and friends. We love you all. 

end of the week

Every year I worry about having enough time to get everything done in preparation for Christmas and always feel like we run out of time to truly enjoy the magic of the season. This year my classes don't end until December 7. I decided this year was going to be different. So in between homework, house stuff, Stephen stuff and everything in between, this is what I have been doing in my spare time:

               

Saturday Mike had a coworker over to practice Christmas songs for their Christmas luncheon. I always enjoy listening to Mike on the piano. However, adding the clarinet was a new listening experience that I truly enjoyed. While Mike was jamming, Stephen and I checked out the Christmas tree that is headed for our Nation's capital. Stephen wrote Christmas wishes on the trailer. 

Some of the things we are thankful this week:

Friends

Neighbors (we have the best)

School

Family

Dental Insurance 

Have a great week!!

    

Basketball

It's been a year since Stephen has played a sport. Tonight was his first basketball practice. I'm not a huge basketball fan but its always fun to watch the kids play.

Max

My loyal companion. This dog has no idea he is a dog. He rests his head on pillows and likes to be under the blanket on cold nights.

Friday

There should be a law stating that Halloween cannot be on a school night. This has been a very long week. Stephen is a big 5th grader this year. It's amazing how quickly he is growing up.

Stephen is excelling this year. It's a nice change after all of the multiple challenges we faced in 4th grade. He has adjusted quite well to being the 'new kid'.
I cannot believe it is November already. I borrowed a suggestion from Mom K for this month-everyday we have to write something on the calendar that we are thankful for. Here are few highlights from this week:
Mike and I are thankful for each other
Stephen is thankful for ice cream
Mike is thankful he is not his boss
I am thankful for the craziness that is our family.

Halloween

I am so grateful for our neighborhood. Mitzi always includes us in her family's annual pumpkin carving. Stephen and I always have a great time. This year was no exception.


I made spider cupcakes in honor of the spooky season. I was quite pleased with how these turned out.

Fall 2011

I tried to start this blog about a month ago and got completely frustrated with trying to set up. Here I am again with a little more patience and determination. I thought this might be a fun way to show some of the fun, crazy things we do as well as create memories for our family. Here we go......