2010

Whew! This has been a long, cold December with no internet. But, thanks to my handy dandy husband, who got this baby up and running, I am back just in time to recap 2010.

Winter: Julia turned 3. After a busy Christmas trip to NC, we kept her celebration low key and went to the 99 for dinner followed by a pink doughnut cake and presents. She got a keyboard that she used all year to keep us entertained with her sweet musical stylings. Ace turned 5 and had a spaceman party. We visited the Boston Children's Museum over Winter break, tried out ice skating, enjoyed a few too many doughnuts and anxiously awaited Spring.

Spring: Hayley turned 8 and had a spa party. Family friends came up from New Jersey for a visit and Hayley reconnected with one of her first friends from back in Texas. Ace started his second year of Tball and Hayley started soccer. We went to the Franklin Park Zoo. Julia made her television appearance on Sprout's Barnyard Boogie which she watched daily for at least 2 months.

Summer: Ace and Hayley took swimming lessons twice a week at the beach while the little girls enjoyed a lot of mornings with Grandma. We took a lot of beach trips, afternoon naps and picnics. My sister and niece came to visit for the Fourth and we were in the parade, had a barbecue with my family and watched fireworks from the beach. My cousin and her family came for another fun week. We ate a lot (which leads to my one and only NY resolution to lose some weight before our move this summer). Hayley starred in her fourth community musical theater production. Andy took Ace and Hayley to a monster truck rally. Hayley got stung by a jellyfish and I sprained my ankle falling in a hole on the beach.  At the end of the summer, after months of refusing to get  more than her feet wet in the ocean, Lucy finally decided to go for a swim with Grandma. She discovered she loved it, just in time for summer to end.

Fall: Ace started Kindergarten, Julia started her second year of preschool, Hayley started 3rd grade. Lucy turned 2 and we celebrated with a picnic on the beach and a party at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Andy started a new work schedule which (thankfully) means he is home more often. We went apple picking for the first time. We had a fun weekend with my aunt and uncle visiting from NY. All the kids went trick or treating together. We celebrated Thanksgiving at Grandma and Grandpa's house. Julia asked me a bazillion times when the snow was coming.

Winter 2010: Hayley started basketball and Ace started skating lessons. The first big snowfall came just a few days before Christmas and just in time for my sister and niece's visit. The girls dressed up as Sugarplum fairies for a Christmas Eve party at Grandma and Grandpa's house and we loved having my niece with us for Christmas morning. I made black eyed peas for dinner on New Year's Eve and we played board games and twister and now the kids are watching a movie and trying thier best to stay awake until midnight. We talked about our favorite moments of 2010 and what we wanted to happen in 2011. Ace wants to go down a waterslide, Julia wants to have Emily over to her house. I'm just looking forward to seeing what the New Year holds in store for us. Praying for health, for more time with family and friends, for more fun and more laughter. And I'm wishing you all the same.

Still here.. just not here, here.

Our computer must have heard all the smack I was talking about it's broken keyboard because now it has completely shut down on me. It won't even turn on, no matter how much sweet talk (and a few threats of throwing it out the window thrown in) I try.
There are certainly frustrations to not having high speed internet access. Like yesterday when I was watching Celebrity Rehab and I was racking my brain trying to remember if Jeremy or Jason London had starred in Party of Five and I had no way of accessing that crucial information (it was Jeremy, by the way). But, I'm finding plenty of benefits as well. We take more excursions to our wonderful library, I read more books, I go to bed earlier. I do miss blogging though, and reading blogs rather than skimming them.
So that explains my long absence. As soon as we get the computer to forgive me, I'll be back with an update and some pictures.