More Christmas 2008

Christmas 2008

This is one year where having someone else post may be useful...my pics did not come out well. I'll post my best, but I'm crying out for help here.....

Birthday Boy Liam

Wow, how time flies. My former little guy is now 6! For his B-day, he received a replacement for his much beloved and long ago lost Nintendo DS....and some other stuff.

Daddy's little helper.

As you may have seen in an earlier post, Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sarah came to visit last weekend. One of the things we did while the guys put up Christmas lights was to go to Toy's R Us. The older boys got the usual star wars stuff and a DS game, but Little O decided to "help" Dad by picking up a toy cleaning set. It came with a vacuum that really made noise and even had a little suction. O really loved it and "vacuumed" everything....including Java.

Cool cup

As a "thank you" for 5K training advice, Julie got me this really cool mug. I think she knows us too well, haha. Note that everyone's hair is the right color, texture, length and the lightsaber colors are mostly matched to each person's favorite color.

Grandpa Bill and Grandma Sarah come to visit

As usual, when the Cox's come to visit, we put them to work. We had a very nice visit and Paul and his Dad got most of the outside lights up. The kids had a grand old time toy shopping with Grandma.

Election Day

Whether you like the new Pres or not, the kids sure had fun on Election Day. In Liam's class, they read "Duck for President" and then the kids had to "elect" either Duck, Cow, Sheep or Farmer Brown. Duck won by a landslide in his class. The older kids actually got to vote for McCain or Obama based on key issues such as favorite food, favorite sport, favorite music and so on. In our school McCain won, based on the fact that more kids liked barbeque and rock and roll than chili and jazz. If sports had been the only issue, Obama would have won with basketball over fishing. That's what I love about kids....they focus on the important things in life.

More King's Island and a rollercoaster junkie is born

I would have thought that my shy quiet timid little Ryan would not care for rollercoasters...boy was I wrong. He went on everyone he could possibly get on...we're taking the Beast, Stunt Car Coaster and his absolute favorite (and my NOT absolute favorite) the Vortex. Here is a picture of my insane 8 year old going upside down on the Vortex. He liked the rides that went around and around, like the swings here, but the rollercoasters really thrilled him. Liam was very disappointed that he was too small for the coasters, but he found a pit of foam and that seemed to make him happy. Here is a picture of the crew. These are most of Ryan's best friends in the world and it was really great to hang out with them for the day.

King's Island Trip

Last weekend was King's Islands last day of Howl-o-ween so I figured I would take the bigger boys on an outting. It was a great day. Perfect weather, NO lines and the decorations were totally cool. I didn't get pictures of them all, as they were little scenes everywhere, but here are a few examples.

More Halloween

After Paul went to go pass out candy, poor Princess Leah tried to tote Yoda around the neighborhood. He kept stopping after every house to eat the candy he received and soon the two were woefully behind the group. Then the Princess wised up and went and got the landspeeder (or a stroller...it was one of those). That made the evening much better. Yoda and the rest of the Star Wars crew (plus a werewolf) had a blast and made it much further around the neighborhood than ever before. Afterwards, everyone stopped at the forest moon of Endor to cook some hot dogs over a bonfire.

The Crew on Halloween

We were shooting for a Star Wars theme and we got it....mostly. Paul refused to dress up, citing past fiascos as reasons not to put on a costume. (One year he dressed as a vampire to pass out candy but the little kids wouldn't come near him.) Liam really wanted to be a werewolf and it was just so appropriate to Liam's personality that we went with it.....blood on his fangs and all.

RenFest last weekend

Ok, so these are actually pictures from last year but what can I say...I forgot the camera this year. They did all the same stuff this year. The only difference was that we had Jakob and Erin (friends from down the street) with us. The kids all had a blast and enjoyed riding the old fashioned rides. They even got to ride a camel. Personalities really came out when we let them get souveniers. Jakob, our knight protector, chose a shield, Erin, our princess, got flowers for her hair and a butterfly wand. Liam, the barbarian of the crew, got an axe and Ryan got a wizards staff.

Gina got some good pictures. I will see if she can email me some and I'll update this post.

Pumpkin Time

It's that time of year again. This is probably my favorite time of year. I love the food, the decorations, the parties and most of all...the kids. This year Liam has decided on a costume that reflects his personality...so he is going as a werewolf. The rest of us are doing a Star Wars theme (yes, I know, that is a big surprise, huh? <---sarcasm in case it doesn't come across in text). Owen is going as Yoda, I am Princess Leah (NOT the bikini costume Leah!) and Ryan is Jango Fett. I am working on convincing Paul to be Han Solo...it doesn't look promising.

Today we picked out pumpkins. Owen was totally enthralled. He loves to roll them around. He finds it especially funny to roll them off the front steps, so we have already had some pumpkin casualties.

Soccer 2008

We are over half way through the soccer season. Both boys seem to really like it and it is fun to watch them. Ryan still tends to get distracted. Liam can either be really focused and kick some booty or mentally on another planet. Watching him is like watching Mountaineer football...you never know which team will show up.

Liam's First Day

Hello folks. Sorry I've been lazy with the blog...it has been crazy with school and soccer and everything. Speaking of school..we got rid of one more kid this year. Liam started the big K. Here he is on his first day. As you can imagine, he was a natural and is already loved by all the little girls in the class. He thinks he could do without going to school, except on cleaning day...then he likes it.