Uncle!

Despite my best efforts at gender neutrality, Annie chose from the library four books about ballet and Finn will only read books about animals or trucks, with a definite preference for trucks. Sigh.

Christmas fun - 1 of many posts!

We certainly had a very merry Thornton/Cooper Christmas!  Bill and Ms. Sam braved 14 hours in the car (each way) with three 7 years olds, and I am so thankful that they did.  It was so great to see them, and my kids are totally enamored with Hannah, Tristan and Travis. Here are some highlights from the first 24 hours!

 

Taco night! These kiddos very clearly had a serious case of the sillies.  It lasted pretty much the entire week.

 

What's more fun than tacos?  Hiding in the closet after eating tacos!  Why not?

And Uno!  Uno is way fun!  Ms. Sam was SO sweet to let Annie "play" on her team.

Photo props are way fun!  In fact, they were so fun that we adults were always too tired to actually get them out and let the childred play with them, so this is the one and only photo-prop photo from the week.

Tours of fire stations are way fun!  And they give uncles a way to show off their skills and expertise! The kids really enjoyed it, except for the part where Toby blew the horn when he didn't realize Tristan was standing right in front of the truck.  I gave him a very severe version of the the "look" for that.

This is one of the few photos of the cousins that Finn managed to get in. 

But he always has time for photos with Mommy!

See any evidence that Annie idolizes her big cousin?

Hats are WAY fun!

Going to the park with hats doubles the fun!

Hannah can swing terrifyingly high.

Slides are uber fun!

Okay, this is about as much fun as I can handle for today.  More fun to come!

Julliard, here we come!

Tucked into the middle of Finn's daily report from school is a true gem. 

"Finn had a terrific day at school.
He loves when Miss Alicia comes in so he can stand on her toes and dance. He helped with the morning chores and reminded me to feed the birds. Played with the ball bubblegum machine. Likes to play the piano with his bottom. Practiced counting..."

Finn Cooper - the boy who likes to play the piano with his bottom.  With hard work and a little luck, he may even become a future contestant on America's Got Talent.

Tubes

Even though Finn just finished up another round of antibiotics on Sunday and was given a clean bill of health Monday, when we visited the ENT today (Thursday) he had a raging double ear infection with one eardrum perforated. Boo hiss. Poor kid. 

So we have moved up a grade in antibiotics yet again, because apparently his infection may be antibiotic resistant, and we have a surgery date of December 3. 

Toby and I are being brave. That should hold out until about December 2...

Reflections on Halloween craziness

One year, our cute family of four will have a very sweet Halloween photo where nobody looks completely crazed and everybody is smiling nicely and looking in the same direction.  I will probably frame that photo and hang it on the wall, but it will also make me a touch sad for the "good old days."  Feel free to remind me that whatever image I have in my mind of the "old days" is a complete misrepresentation of the actual events. The photos below are the accurate representations...

2012

2013

Halloween Fun!

The forecast is for thunderstorms from 4-7 on Halloween, so I'm not sure how fun Halloween day is going to be this year.  Thank goodness we had enough pre-Halloween fun to make up for it!  Here are some cute photos from my firm's Halloween shindig at a partner's farm.

Annie was dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz.  No, we have not let her see the movie.  No, that has not stopped her full-on obsession with being Dorothy.  She makes everybody call her Dorothy at school and wears a "Dorothy" name tag on the few days when her dress is too disgusting to wear to school.  She wears her ruby slippers to sleep every single night.  I let her watch a clip of the movie last night that involved the Wicked Witch of the West, and she told me later at bedtime that she thought she might wait until she is 4 to see the rest of the move.  Good call, sweetie. 

Anyway, since I love a good theme, I had to dress Finn as a Munchin - one of the Lollipop Guild, of course. He does not understand Halloween and could not care less what he wears, which is a bonus.  The costume is also super easy to make, which is even better!

Back to the party:

Upon arrival we were greeted by some of the resident dogs.  Finn LOVES dogs - almost as much as he loves birds.  He was enthralled by them the entire evening.

Annie loves bouncy houses almost as much as Finn loves animals.  She was the very first kid who got to bounce that night, which is quite a big deal to the average 3 year old.

She bounced right out of her braids pretty much immediately.

This bouncy house had the added bonus of a rope climb and slide.  Pure kid Heaven!

Finn with more dogs.  Gosh that kid is cute.

Our favorite teacher from school came to do face painting.  You will never guess what Annie wanted on her cheek.

Seriously you will never guess.  Oh, wait, something related to the Wizard of Oz?  Shocking!  You can't see it here, but look at some pictures below and you will see, like some weird cosmic irony, the Wicked Witch of the West. 

Finn with more dogs!  Okay, these are the same dogs, but now in costumes of their own.

Finn taking one bite of food before tripping (obviously) and falling into the plate, which went all over me.  Annie has the same look on her face that she always has at dinnertime.  WHAT is THAT? Answer - hamburgers and hot dogs.  Why must you look so disgusted?

What is better than one costume?  TWO costumes, of course!

 
Finn - I'm pretty sure he was looking at a dog.

Finn enjoying non-canines!  This horse's name is Honey, and indeed she was very sweet.

I love this picture of Toby and Finn. Toby is such an amazing daddy.

Annie riding Honey.  And as promised - note the cheek with the Wicked Witch of the West.

A big thanks to Mary Beth for another fun family outing at her farm!

Rock on, Annie!

One of Annie's classmates has a very rock-star daddy, and he brought some instruments to class last week.  I see expensive lessons in our future.