Beau's 3rd Birthday - September 25, 2012

Blog catch-up post

Beau's 3rd Birthday and his Bear Party!

 Birthday morning with daddy 

 Beau's 3rd Birthday bear cake

 Mamma and her 3 year old bear

Bear crafts

Giant Teddy came to the party of course

and the bear rug from Grandpa

 Love these Hershey gals

 Lighting the candles - Darin trying to block the wind

Gelder Park

So many sweet friends. Beau loves all these kiddies

Beau's First Day of Preschool

Catch up post - Beau's first day of 3 year old preschool, Fall 2012. 

Teachers: Miss Dani and Miss Michelle, Hilltop Christian Nursery school. He also loves Miss Becky, the school director.

Tate's First Day of Kindergarten

Blog catch-up - This is a prior post updated now with pictures.

Tate was soooo excited the night before his first day of kindergarten. So excited in fact, he couldn't sleep. He kept running downstairs saying, 'I tried counting sheep, it doesn't work', 'I am closing my eyes but nothing happens', etc.
He finally fell asleep around 10:30 pm. He woke up at 7 am the morning of school and came and got me out of bed, 'come on mom, I don't want to miss the bus!'. He put on his new outfit, had his favorite cereal - Frosted Flakes, and then started having serious talks with Beau. 'Now Beau, I am going to school now. I am going to ride the bus and be at kindergarten. You will stay here with mommy.'
Beau, 'I'm gonna miss you! Don't go on the bus!' Beau then started to cry and I think Tate got pretty close to crying too. He said, 'I'm going to miss you too Beau' and they gave eachother a big hug.

We went out to the bus stop across the street at 7:50. It arrived at 7:55 and he was off! Happy as can be, waving with a big smile!

Tate really wanted a surprise party for him when he got home from his first day. So while he was gone, Beau and I picked up some balloons and decorated the joint. When Tate got home at 11:45, he came running to me, gave me a big hug and said, 'Mom, sorry I was gone at school so long.' Such a good boy! We love him so much. He was super excited to see the balloons, gave Beau a big hug telling him, 'It was awesome!'

 'Its ok Beau, I'll be home soon'

 Handsome Kindergartener

Election 2012 - Ryan Rally Middletown, PA

Blog catch-up - Fall 2012 Presidential Elections

My good friend Jana and I headed out to the Middletown airport for a Ryan rally, a couple weeks before the Nov 2012 elections. As predicted, I am a big fan of Ryan - and it was exciting to be there. Fantastic speakers at the rally included Ryan, Governor Tom Corbett, Representative Charley Dent, and Senator Pat Toomey.  The policies and ideas discussed were spot on - government accountability, fiscal conservatism, transparency, and individual liberties. And it was great to have Ryan (young and fresh to the national stage) as a candidate, but I believe the GOP would do well to embrace a more diverse PR/media relations face. Romney was very inclusive of women in his cabinet as Massachusetts governor and I believe he would have appointed a diverse cabinet (men, women, Republican, Democrat), but diversity did not translate to his campaign.

Waiting in line in the freezing cold

Inside the hanger 

Congressman Dent

Ryan

Thanksgiving 2012

Blog Catch Up - this may have something to do with nesting, but I am going to be trying to catch up on some events/highlights over the last year and a half since I started being a slacker blogger.

Thanksgiving 2012 was so much fun! Cory and Alyssa came down from Rochester - making it a glorious kid event of course. It was a great day - I remember a good run in the morning past the chocolate factory, cooking all day long with Alyssa, and then the Hatch family joined us for dinner (Andrea even brought the turkey - overachiever!). It was great because Cory and Alyssa knew Dan and Andrea when they were both in med school in D.C.

 The guys

 happy kids

 Thanksgiving Dinner

 I love this picture because it captures that Thanksgiving night/Black Friday/ committed to hunting down good deals magical moment that only comes once a year. And believe me, Andrea has some good strategies!

 More fun kid picts. I know I have a really good pict of Kaiya (with her super cute holiday outfit)  from this day - I'm still searching to find it.