This month we had fun at our elementary school's new playground, hosted a holiday party with my high school friends, and decorated our Christmas tree. We lucked out with a warm and sunny day for picking out our tree, and the kids really enjoyed the tractor ride down the big hill to the parking lot.
And for Thanksgiving round 2 - fabulous dinner hosted by Paul and Christine. Sam was in a silly mood, and Emily loved the kids' Charlie Brown Thanksgiving menu.
This has certainly been one bizarre October! But even a snow storm two days before Halloween and the rescheduling of trick-or-treating couldn't ruin our spooky fun. Since we couldn't go trick-or-treating in the neighborhood, we invited the cousins over for an impromptu party and indoor trick-or-treating. The kids thought it was pretty awesome. To get ready for Halloween, I took the kids on an eerie trip to the zoo and we made lots of crafts, including some haunted houses and a creepy gingerbread house. 
We did a lot more in September than have birthday parties for Emily (although both of her parties were awesome!). The kids had a crazy amount of fun drawing train tracks all over the driveway and riding their bikes on them. Emily is getting really good at maneuvering and Sam loved having a "caboose" hitched to his bike. We also took the kids to Halibut Point in Rockport where we all had a blast climbing on the huge rocks by the sea.
We celebrated Emily's birthday (again) with all of her friends at the Discovery Museums. Pizza, cake, boat building experiments, and plenty of time to play in the museums with her buddies. We have one lucky 5-year-old!
Happy Birthday to my awesome daughter! I still can't believe Emily is 5, but, as the mountain of presents can attest, she definitely had a birthday. Thanks to Uncle Paul and Caroline for being the paparazzi and thoroughly documenting the day.
August was a month of day trips - Davis' Farmland and Mega Corn Maze, Canobie Lake Park, the New England Aquarium, the Acton Children's Museum, and a friend's lake house. Good times! We certainly found a lot of ways to entertain the kids this summer!
The Rasoulpour family came to visit in August, and fun was had by all! 6 adults, 7 kids, and 1 bouncy house - how could we not have a fabulous time??
Enjoy our pictures!
Enjoy our pictures!
Easter fun with the Russells, two trips to the Boston Children's Museum, and fun at the playground, Davis' Farmland, with bubbles, and on tractors. April and May were a blast!
Happy 2nd Birthday Sam!! And Happy Birthday John! And Happy Anniversary Sara and John! Phew. Quite a month.
Merry Christmas! Emily and Sam thoroughly enjoyed Christmas Eve with the Matousek/Pilkanis clan and Christmas Day with the Russells. Every present Emily opened was "just what she always wanted!". But it took Sam 2 days to get through all his gifts - he was just too busy playing with his new toys to want to open more presents. 
This month has been all about getting ready for Christmas! We went to a great childrens' Christmas party, visited Santa at the mall, and enjoyed a Christmas tuba concert. Emily had a blast building the first snowman of the year, but Sam was not quite sure how to feel about the snow. In other news, Sam graduated to the kids' table at Nanna and Pop's house!