Charlie's November Solo

Charlie played his second solo yesterday. It was at the Mesa Arts Center in their smallest venue. It was a very intimate - the audience was also on the floor, and Charlie had a clear view of his dad who was filming, as you can see how he notices and even smiles at him. He wasn't as prepared as I had hoped, but he did well considering how much else was going on this week, and he has improved since last time. His accompanist did a great job (ha ha, that was me!) Anyhow, I'm very ready to move on off that piece, and I'm sure he is too.

Halloween...

Florence and I began Halloween week by going to Mother Nature's farm. I had taken all the kids last year, but this year with all of them in school, it was just the two of us. It was really nice to explore the farm at her pace. If she wanted to linger, I didn't have to worry about the older ones running ahead. If she was ready to go, we could leave...of course she didn't want to leave. We rode the hayride twice. We visited some baby piglets that were only 2 weeks old. She pet the smaller goats - the smaller ones and the big cow scared her too much. She made her way quickly through the maze - it was quite impressive. In fact, she was out and walking away while I was only halfway through. And the haystacks were low enough that you could see easily over them; however, climbing over them would've been a challenge, and possibly humiliating. Fortunately, she came back to lead me the rest of the way out. She also got to decorate a pumpkin with stickers. As a bonus, Tony hadn't left for work when we got home, so he carried our farm smelling selves to a restaurant with outdoor seating.






We did our traditional trek over in Aunt Ginny's neighborhood. We gathered with all the cousins and walked about a block and a half. This year was huge for Florence and Patricia - they really got the whole begging for candy aspect of it this year. Patricia did mention a few times that she was scared, but Florence kept reassuring her: "It's ok, Tricia, we have flashlights". It was cute.






For our family, we went primarily with a Mario Party theme for the kids. Alexander dressed as Mario, Charlie as Luigi, and Florence as Princess Peach. Even though this was the first year Party City offered a Mario and Luigi official costume, I did ours from "scratch". Granted, I had overalls w/ yellow buttons leftover from a few years ago when Charlie was Mario - I handed these down to Alex. I sewed some yellow buttons on Charlie's overalls. We ordered newsboy caps in appropriate colors and glued felt on in the shape of their initials, and I got tshirts from Joanns for about 3 bucks. I painted on their mustaches with black face paint. I was pretty pleased with myself for being so thrifty. For Florence, I got a discontinued generic princess costume for about $6, and glued, again with felt, her "jewel" on the front. The creative part came when I realized that her blue jewel had a yellow outline. I hadn't bought yellow felt, so I used fabric paint to transform my white felt into what I needed. I also used the paint to write "Princess Peach" on her crown from Patricia's birthday party so everyone would know who she was. We even carved our pumpkin to look like Mario. Lucy went as Hannah Montana - we couldn't get her to go along with the theme. I couldn't complain too much as Party City had these costumes on sale for $10. The fun part for her costume was realizing Halloween weekend that even though the package said size 8-10, the shirt was actually a 4-6x. That was why we couldn't get her arms through the sleeve...so I cut the ends, and attached some self-stick velcro to hold them together after she had it on. We doctored up her High School Musical headset and off she went as a Pop Star. Since Halloween was on a Sunday, we were able to get double duty out of our costumes as a local restaurant was offering free meals to kids in costume - w/ four kids, that's quite a steal. We anticipated a low-key evening since some people chose to not decorate, etc; however, the kids pumpkins were all full by the end of their walk....even as I stole regularly out of them.




Tony stole the show as an 80s hair band rocker. He'd been working on this costume for weeks, though we were cutting holes in his shirt even in Ginny's driveway. Everyone loved it. The most fun was making the zebra leggings family friendly with discreetly tied sashes to hide his...well, you know...



I dressed up as Aunt Eileen. I went to her house and Uncle Jim help me steal some scrubs. She tried to con me into taking her shift at the hospital since she had to work that night. I had a dream (nightmare) the night before that I had attempted just that, so I had to decline.

All told, we had a wonderful evening. It wound up being a late night for a school night, but I don't think the kids regretted it a bit.

Happy Birthday Charlie

Charlie turned 11 this year. We celebrated with our traditional swim party over at Aunt Ginny's house including his friends Sammy, (and her sister Breanna) and Jimmy. Of course, just inviting Aunt Ginny's and Aunt Eileen's family make it a party anyway. It gets easier every year as the kids become better swimmers. At some point, we had taken the babies out and the rest of them swam for another hour while we sat and talked nearby - it was kind of cool. We made one of his favorite dinners, beef and broccoli and had a strawberry cake with chocolate frosting for dessert.



We had a surprise visit from Aunt Kathy. She can really turn any gathering into a celebration with her ability to turn any story into a funny one and her loud contagious laughter. She spent a lot of time with the kids, playing duck, duck goose, board games, she made hair barrettes with Lucy. She made the most of her visit, ensuring that each of the kids will remember her the next time we see her.



Charlie is in 5th grade this year. He continues to study violin and plays in his school orchestra and in MYS. This year, he added trombone to his activities, playing in the school band. These with the kids other activities about kill me with driving, but I'm glad to see him weighing so heavily in music. I can't complain about that!


We continue to fight off his allergies, but we are now down to one food allergy - milk. He passed his egg challenge and along with being able to tolerate them, he actually enjoyed them. This will be a great source of protein and fat for my skinny kid. Now, if we could just get rid of the rest of his allergies (cats, dogs, grass, etc.).

What I did on my Summer Vacation

I can't believe it is August already and that school will be starting back next week. I feel like we just finished packing for our trip, and now here we are with stacks of laundry, a suitcase full of new school clothes and a plan to hit Aunt Ginny's for what may be our last swim of the summer. Though maybe not, it still is hitting 112 or so every day.



We had a wonderful time at Grandma and Poppa Dyer's. We arrived at near midnight since that was the earliest flight we could get out with our coupons. We were there just short of a month and while that's only a few days shorter than our usual trip, we really kept busy cramming activities in and still didn't get everything we wanted to done. The weather cooperated some, but in some cases the oppressive heat and the beautiful thunderstorms hindered our outdoor activities. We did all our usual things, swimming, camping, fishing, going to Wolftrap Children's Theatre in the Woods to see Dino Rock (Florence is STILL saying "That dinosaur's funny")

One of my favorite things we did was to explore some of the bike trails around mom's home and down in DC. One day, we rode to downtown Vienna, inhaled some fries at the old Vienna Inn, and then rode back. Another day, I rode with the three older kids from mom's area to Reston, about 4 miles west. Poor Alex, I wasn't sure he was going to make it. He's so gung-ho so often, I sometimes forget he is only 5. His poor little legs were just pumpin'! Finally, Charlie, Lucy and I rode the bike trail from Gravelly Point next to Ronald Reagan airport to Roosevelt's Island. It was raining a bit, but the breeze off the Potomac (often only 2 feet from the path) dried us off quickly. I'm addicted to bike riding now - it's so fun!

As usual, we visited the downtown DC area to hit some of the endless museum opportunities. Grandma took the younger two to the building museum to play in the Building zone and visit the Lego exhibit, while I took Charlie and Lucy to the International Spy museum. I was fascinated by the spy museum, and could've spent a whole day there. But even though the kids loved it too, (I was surprised by how much they took in, I guess they are growing up) they wore out from walking and we eventually had to give up. They had interesting activities like memorizing new identification information and crawling through an air conditioning vent to try and hear the people below as well as displays of equipment used for spying throughout history. They were particularly interested in displays of the cars used to smuggle people out of countries, Russia, for example. Grandma also carried the three oldest to the top of the Washington Monument - this was a first. Every kid should get to stand in line to see this monument. While they were excited about the monument, their favorite part was feeding the squirrel some grapes - fascinated by how he peeled each one before he ate it. Doesn't he know the vitamins are in the skin? We also went to the National Art Gallery to see the Norman Rockwell exhibit. This really brought back memories of looking through mom and dad's coffee table book of Rockwell paintings, and next time I have the chance to see it, I'm going to leave the kids home. Finally, one rainy Saturday, killed time at the Dulles Uber-Haizy Museum. For the first time, we went to the "control tower" where we could see far off and watch planes take off from Dulles. Very cool. This trip was followed by a trip to Mom's local Moe's restaurant. Our's closed down a few years ago, and we spend all our vacations seeking out "moo-moos" and "homewreckers".

We got to visit lots of friends and family while we were there. John G. and Lisa brought up 1 year old Rocco to visit for the 4th of July weekend. While they were there, we visited the Clemy-John Tree park; briefly, for it was one of those 100+days. We also went to the indoor water park - Cub Run, an annual favorite for the kids with water slides, a lazy river and lots of spraying areas. We even convinced Poppa to join us, a first. The bigger kids even got to go off the diving boards this year. Pretty soon, we'll be dropping them off to swim.

We got to spend lots of time with Susannah this year. Now that she moved into the condos next to Harris Teeter (our favorite field trip for snacks), she was able to come over more often and have dinner, go to movies and of course, watch Season four of Boston Legal. I also joined her nearly every morning to work out in the exercise room at her condo. This helped keep my vacation weight down to a mere 7 pounds and hopefully got her into a habit of going regularly. The best part, though, was having a partner to exercise with, followed by conversation and coffee on her balconey afterward. I feel like I got to know her on a whole new level this year, and I really enjoyed that.

We also spent time with Aunt Kathleen's family. Mom and I drove up with the kids to see her during her 38th week of being pregnant with Dustin. We weren't sure our visit wasn't going to put her into labor, but we wanted to make sure my kids got to spend some time with her kids as she won't likely be traveling with her six any time soon. We went to the beach in Greenwich (which will most likely be the kids favorite part of vacation...AGAIN), visited an amazing wooden 3 story playground at Norwalk's Nature Center, and of course, took our yearly pictures of the cousins in matching outfits. The kids played wonderfully together. I got a kick out of seeing Kathleen SOOO pregnant, and enjoyed being with Aislinn who is turning into such a little person from the baby she was last year. Florence loved playing the role of the older sister to Aislinn. P.S. Kat managed to keep the baby inside for the whole trip - he was born two weeks or so later on July 28.

The kids and I traveled to Maryland to visit some old college friends of mine, Sharon and Greg. We have been fortunate to be able to see them every year. My kids especially love it because it's a chance to play with their two kids who are the same ages as Charlie and Lucy. They have a lovely large backyard perfect for running, and this year Charlie climbed to near the top of their tree. We had our annual cookout with hamburgers and hotdogs, followed by (unsuccessful) fishing at a nearby pond. When it got dark enough, the kids played with sparklers and Greg even gave us a mini fireworks show rivaling those you'd see professionally done. The kids loved it.

We celebrated Poppa's birthday with his requisite french dip beef and pecan pie. We did it while John and Lisa were there, and Susannah and Sean came too. It really made it feel like a crazy Dyer party with all those people there.

We managed to see two movies while we were there: Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me, the two kids movies promoted for the summer. We had been waiting for TS3 for a LONG time and despite a few cheesy moments towards the end, it didn't disappoint. It was a great movie. Despicable Me was also fun and sweet and very enjoyable. I saw a few grownup movies from the pay-per-view on the cable, but nothing worth really remembering - enjoyable for vacation time wasting, but glad I didn't pay full price for them.

The kids took their annual camping trip with Grandma. She took them to Fairfax Park which not only has camping facilities, but if you spend the night, you get discount tickets to 'The Water Mine' - a very nice swimming hole complete with water slides, a lazy river and many amenities. Charlie enjoyed it so much, I had to force him to cut off his arm band in time for school to start. This year Alex went and he did very well, not getting nervous at all when the night was truly dark. Charlie caught a few fish, and a turtle, - the only successful fishing trip of the whole summer vacation.

After nearly a month at Grandma's, we headed south to Alabama to spend some time with Tony's family. Tony met us there in Tuscaloosa. His brothers and sister had brought their kids over to spend time with us. While there, Uncle Andy played baseball and soccer with them out in the backyard. We traveled to McWane Center in Birmingham where they had an excellent Mr. Potato Head exhibit, followed by Johnny Ray's BBQ....mmmmmm...pie. We were able to have a nice visit with our friends Jeanette and Dan at Chuck E Cheese while the kids ran around spending our money. I also got to spend some time with my friend from my days at ASFA, Laura . We even took Tony's brother Ken out bar-hopping for his 50th birthday in downtown Tuscaloosa. We had a good time, but I learned that if you're celebrating a 50th birthday, you're probably too old for the college bar. I also learned I don't stink that bad at darts. We enjoyed some beautiful thunderstorms, though the humidity they brought left something to be desired. All in all, the kids had a wonderful time with their cousins, and we got to spend some good time with Tony's mom and siblings.

Happy Birthday Alexander

Ok, so I skipped a few birthdays - Tony's, Lucy's, mine...but here's some pictures from Alexander's party. We celebrated his 5th birthday at Enchanted Island at Encanto Park in Phoenix. This was where we did his 4th birthday, and he had such a good time and it really was affordable for what you got, so I gladly took him back. The Bigleys and Dawsons were there, along with his best friend from church, Cameron.

Alex chose a Star Wars Lego theme. As popular as this is, it's not easy to find party supplies, so I had to make my own. I downloaded cover art for the games and turned it into a printout I could either insert between two plastic plates or paste onto a cup. I made light sabers for each child out of pool noodles and shiny duct tape. And I visited more than a few Walmarts searching for the Star Wars Lego tshirts in the various sizes so all the boys could have one. I even went to the Lego store in Chandler so I could choose a "kit" to serve as a cake topper. Charlie put it together for me. All in all, I thought it was a fun party.

From his cousins Joe Leo and Patricia, he received a collection of Bakugan balls. He's been asking for these since Christmas. I don't know how he knows about them or what to do with them, but boy was he excited to FINALLY get some. From his Bigley cousins (and godmother), he received a Darth Vader and Obi Wan outfit for his build-a-bear, complete with light sabers and boots. It was funny because one of the other kids mentioned that he got a Luke Skywalker. Just as Aunt Eileen was about to correct him, Alex yelled "No, it's Obi Wan Kenobi and HE'S MY FAVORITE!!!". It was funny. From his friend Cameron, he received a Transformer Star Wars ship. He and Charlie have had quite a bit of fun playing with that.

Aside from the travel to get to the park, this was a great place to have a party. They take care of everything and there's lots of rides. The park is mostly enclosed so it's a little easier to keep track of everyone, so it's a little more comfortable than a bigger area.

Alex rides his bike

Someone in the neighborhood convinced him he had to be 5 in order to take off the training wheels, but I talked him into trying today anyway. I told him that he would be able to ride the trails faster with Grandma this summer with only 2 wheels. Anyhow, his training wheels were so cock-eyed anyway, once I removed them, he just took off. I didn't even need to hold the seat. He still needs to learn how to start himself off and avoid the curbs, but we're getting there.

Charlie's first violin solo

Here's a recording of Charlie's first violin solo. He performed as part of a MYS solo recital. The organization offers several opportunities a year to perform. He was one of the youngest, but he gave a solid performance. He even did well with his bow (which I practiced with him) and acknowledging his accompanist (which I didn't due to modesty, I guess). We were very proud of him. A special shout out to the lady in the back who couldn't stop rattling her plastic bag for 2 minutes - we caught you on tape!!!

Happy Holidays...all of them

It’s been so long since I updated the blog, I feel it necessary to include Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years all together. Hopefully I can keep a new years resolution to be more faithful to keeping up the site.

October
We spent Halloween at Aunt Ginny’s house, as has become our tradition. She and Uncle Joe love to decorate, stringing web everywhere and using lots of talking toys – dangling spiders, witches cooking over a black pot, etc. We went early for dinner of corndogs and taquitos before setting out to collect all our candy. This year, we were excited to have Grandma join us. This was the first year Florence was really getting into the trick-or-treating. Charlie, after two years of being a ninja, went as a Secret Agent. Tony helped him shop at Goodwill for his costume, complete with fedora and gun. Lucy dressed up as “her mommy at 7”. We found a fantastic polyester plaid dress with a giant collar at goodwill and dressed it up with a scarf and some black leather boots. Alex went as Black Spiderman, and Florence inherited the giraffe costume. They had a lot of fun checking out the decorations in the neighborhood and collecting the candy. Without sharing too much information, my surgery in mid-October was to repair some hernias caused by having kids. The initial pain was much more than what originally caused it - I can't imagine anything worse...though I've never actually been on fire. The recovery is still taking place, though the most difficult part - not being able to pick up my baby girl, took about 8 weeks. It was difficult to wrap my mind around that part when even my longest cold was only 2 weeks.

November
November 3rd was Charlie’s first concert with MYS. He placed 6 out of 27 after chair auditions – not too shabby for someone who only auditioned for the experience. Grandma was still here, so he was especially proud to show off his abilities in his adorable black pants/bowtie formal attire. We were so proud of him as well. Speaking as a formally trained musician, I was really impressed with the quality of playing from the kids. The music was well chosen according to their level, and with the exception of 1 or 2 places, was executed nearly flawlessly. The kids watched the conductors closely, used dynamics and different bowing styles, and all began and ended together. As a mom, my kid was definitely the cutest.

November 12, Monica finally got to play a concert with her ex-music minister, Jaime Cortez. She was robbed two years ago when Florence’s early arrival forced her to cancel her appearance at his concert at church. This time, she only did a few songs, but was excited to be included, at a concert celebrating Christ the King’s 50th Anniversary.

Thanksgiving was tame by past year’s standards. Only mom and dad made the trek since Kathleen had a show to prepare for and John Gilbert had used all his time off (and money) taking care of John Rocco’s arrival and surgeries. We had our dinner at Aunt Eileen’s house, as usual. The kids had a great time playing outside, doing races with grandma and jumping in the bouncehouse while waiting for dinner. Every year, as the kids get a little older, it gets a little easier to sit down and eat without chasing toddlers everywhere. Next year, we may actually have a “kid table” that doesn’t need an adult monitor. On Friday evening, we made what may become an annual trip to Rawhide in Chandler for a very nice steak dinner. They had a live band and we were able to keep the kids entertained with dancing while waiting for our food. The town didn’t officially open until the evening, so after dinner we wandered around and took the train, burro, and stagecoach rides. Even Florence rode a burro this year, with Tony marching close by, of course. Florence’s birthday was actually on Thanksgiving this year, and while we actually found a candle to stick into a turkey leg for her, in the hubbub, we forgot to light it. Oh well. She didn’t go without a party. We all gathered on Saturday morning to celebrate with Elmo cake and chick-fil-a. Florence really enjoyed opening presents this year – her favorite being the magnadoodle or maybe the Ariel pjs. That evening, Tony offered a chance for everyone to come over and enjoy Who framed Roger Rabbit on the big screen in our driveway. Only Grandpa came over and braved the cold night air – everyone else was still worn out from the night before.

Sunday afternoon we attended the local production of The Nutcracker at the Mesa Arts Center. It happens to be put on by the company housed in Lucy’s ballet studio, so we saw her teacher in a few dances. It was intimate, there were no bad seats in the theater. It reminded me a lot of how we went to see The Nutcracker with Huntsville Community Ballet, with the recorded music. (I remember watching from way far away a production in DC with a live orchestra. My friend was a percussionist and, just for fun, he stroked the chimes 13 times instead of 12 to denote midnight). I still am always amazed at the way they do the scenery to help you imagine you are, at first, in someone’s glamorous home, then in a rat’s basement and finally in a candy cane castle. The kids enjoyed the production – maybe this will be a new tradition.

December
December was a crazy time. Preparing for Christmas, in addition to all the end of the year performances, was made extra difficult by my continuing recovery. Tony really had to take on extra work helping Santa out. Charlie played with MYS again, this time a holiday concert at a local hotel. Charlie and Lucy both sang with their school choir and Charlie also performed with his school orchestra. Every year, they play the Theme from Ice Castles as they march around the audience…every year, I’ve thought it SO CHEESY, until my own child serenaded me this year, of course.

There were also tons of celebrations. In lieu of exchanging gifts with the neighborhood kids, we gather them together to decorated cookies and ornaments. We set up out in the driveway (you can do that here in the desert) and let them make as big a mess as they like. We also hosted our Marriage Encounter Secret Santa Revealing party, where Santa actually came and brought gifts for the kids. The little kids were blown away – the older kids were very suspicious…

I, myself, prepared and played for 3 masses on Christmas Eve and one on New Years’ Eve, in addition to normal Sunday playing. Charlie and Lucy joined me at the children’s mass to perform Silent Night on violin and Away in the Manger on piano. It was adorable. I’m not sure why they make the 4:00 mass the children’s mass, when anyone who actually has kids will tell you that’s an awful time for them. Granted, this was Florence’s first appearance at Mass (she normally goes to the nursery), and Tony did sit right up front by me where she could see me and come over and play a few notes on occasion…(btw, she played the correct bass notes 4/5 times…it was freaky). Anyhow, Tony wound up so frustrated that he left during communion – unfortunately trying to drag out four kids (one screaming) against the flow of “traffic” of people going to communion. A few days later, I couldn’t stop laughing about it, but at the time, it looked ridiculous. I love what I do at St. Bridget’s, but this year, I was as close to burnt out as I’ve gotten in a long time. I will say, our director did a fabulous job planning everything. His family came and played with us, so we had drummers and extra flutes and a trumpet even. It was beautiful.

Between all the chaos of preparing for Christmas masses, we did our normal assembly of gifts – this year the big one was a kitchen set for Florence. It had no less than 800 pieces to pop out of plastic handcuffs and screw together. Charlie even got in on it – he still believes in Santa, but he may use this moment to put all the pieces together next year. We did get it together in time, though, and since I had wrapped the presents a few at a time for the previous week, and Tony had gotten Lucy’s new bike already assembled, those were set as well. I was able to come home before the midnight mass to help lay out gifts and set up breakfast for them in the hallway behind the baby gate so that Tony and I might get a few minutes extra sleep in the morning…especially since I wouldn’t get home until 1:30.

The next morning was fun, fun, fun. Florence really enjoyed unwrapping everyone’s gifts. We just had to try and keep her slow enough to see what everyone was getting. The kids got lots of wonderful presents, most everything they had asked for, as well as the requisite books and clothes. Charlie’s favorite was probably the new Zelda DS game/book. Lucy’s favorite was her new Touch-n-brush (as seen on tv), though her new bike came in a close 2nd. Alex graduated to the real legos – the tiny chokable ones. Florence loved her new kitchen, though not as much as the shopping cart which she pushed around the house for days afterwards. Our family gift from grandma and grandpa was a new camera. Our old one was becoming unreliable so we were able to replace it. And FINALLY, the big gift from Tony’s mom and uncle (and us) was the Wii. We’ve been talking about it for some time, but we finally made the leap. Tony, who had been put in charge of supplies and games (after I bought a “bad” one) made sure each child had a wii-mote and numchuck, as well as several steering wheels, special remote holders for the mario games and more games than we can play in a month…though we did give it our best shot. The kids love it, of course, but I have to admit, even Tony and I occasionally race into the night or fight the dark side with Star Wars Lego. We’ve even taken it outside to share with the neighbors as Tony hooks it up to our projector and displays it on the carport wall. Talk about a kid magnet.

January
Happy New Year. We actually stayed up until midnight this year. I had to go and play mass at church, but then some friends of ours came back with us and played Wii and arcade. We had planned to play a bit and toast at 10:00 with the east coast since we all had young kids, but before we knew it, it was midnight. I even let Lucy have a tiny sip of champagne. We have had a good 2009 – some ups and downs – but all things considered a very blessed year. God has been good to us, protecting Tony’s job in this rough economy, keeping us healthy and surrounding us with amazing friends and family. We’re looking forward to 2010.