Teddy Bear Birthday Party

Saturday was Clara's sixth birthday party. The party was a huge success! We came up with the idea of having an "adopt a teddy bear" party......at home. The girls loved getting their own teddy bears! Everything was bear themed. We had a bear treasure hunt, we made collars and personalized 'bear' tags, we took our bears to the 'vet', we played pet bear bingo and had bear story time. The kids had a great time!

Clara waiting for her friends to arrive.

Looking for a treasure clue....in the refrigerator!

The girls with their bears.


Making collars and birth certificates

Visiting the 'vet.'

In addition the the bears & collars, the girls received these teddy goodies in their bags.


The birthday girl enjoying her giant cupcake!

Skiing

On Saturday, Jim took Emi skiing for the first time. They went to Butternut and had a great day. Emi did really well! She took a first-timer lesson in the morning, and then spent the rest of the day skiing with Jim on the real trails. They skied all day and when Emi called me as they were driving out of the ski resort parking lot, she said "I loved it! I am an excellent skier!"

Happy Birthday Clara

Clara turned six this past week! She had a great day and relished every birthday moment! She is a sweetheart!

"Big Boy"

This week brought some changes, for James. For quite some time now, he has informed me that he is "a big boy" and now I am starting to realize that fact. Yesterday we took down the crib, put away his car seat (replacing it with a booster) and last Sunday he graduated from nursery to primary. This is scary, my children are growing up!



James loved his crib! He slept in it until he was three and a half - and never once tried to get out. He called it his "cozy bed". Just last week, he decided all on his own that it was time to move to his "big boy bed". This crib used to be mine when I was a baby. Jim sanded and painted it before Emi was born and it has been in use for the past nine years! It now lives in the attic :)


"Jesus want me for a Sunbeam!"

Jim's car post

(This post is especially for my Dad and brothers. They all love cars, and think it's absolutely heroic, and hilarious that Jim has driven the Taurus for so long).

Well, Jim finally did it. He bought a new car today! The poor man has been driving the Ford Taurus for nine years now. Don't get me wrong, the Ford was a great car and it served us well. But it was definitely time for a new car. The gas gauge hasn't worked for years (Jim would fill up the tank and then reset the odometer, and he knew that he could drive approx. 250 miles before he needed to fill the tank again.) This method only backfired once, when one of my friends and I decided to track different walking routes throughout the neighborhood. I set and reset the odometer several times to record how many miles each route was. But, I forgot to tell Jim of my little exercise, and he ran out of gas later in the week!

The passenger window no longer rolls down, the car is pocked with acorn dents - we park it outside in the driveway underneath 90 ft. tall trees that drop strawberry size acorns each fall, and lastly the doors have some issues as well. Last winter, the driver's door would just randomly fly open without warning - while driving! Jim used a couple of bungee cords to solve this problem (who ever heard of tying yourself into your vehicle?) This winter the doors won't open. They freeze shut every night. One morning, I looked out the window to see Jim climbing through the back door and over the console into the drivers seat! Recently, the heat went out. This is absolutely unbearable in CT. Jim had the radiator flushed, and that helped to increase the "heat" from frigid to cool.

Thus, he finally gave in and began the search for a new car. We don't buy cars often (yeah, like every 10 years). We buy them, and drive them until they die! After weeks of research, looking from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts, we finally found the perfect car and the perfect price. Mission accomplished. Phew!


Here's an old pic of Jim and the Taurus when it was "new" - notice Emi is in a baby carrier!



Jim and his new Maxima....standing with Clara - she loves the moon roof :)