Parker Kenneth & Riley Marie

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Visit to Jersey - Part 1

We really wanted to get the Wadehra/Culver kids together for some time at Christmas. It worked out best with Heather and Ram's work schedules for us to head up to New Jersey for the day on the 23rd. We left really early in the morning (kids in pjs) and made it to the Wadehra house by about 9AM.

From Winter 2012-2013

Of course it took no time for Parker and Cole to break out the trains and start playing! Cole has some great train stuff and Parker was very excited to share!

From Winter 2012-2013

The kids we also of course very excited to break into the presents they had for each other for Christmas - and both big brothers helped to open the presents for their little sisters.

From Winter 2012-2013

Eve even got presents of her own and was pretty excited to play with the pretend smartphone that lights up!

From Winter 2012-2013

Riley spent time chilling in Eve's little lounge chair - just watching all the excitement.

From Winter 2012-2013

Cole got out his new fishing game right away. I had the audacity to try to play with him, but was told my assistance was not wanted. So I just watched instead.

From Winter 2012-2013

But he did take a break to make sure to show Eve how to work her new ball popping Girafe.

From Winter 2012-2013

Then we headed out to one of Cole's favorite breakfast spots - a cool diner! The kids had hats to draw on...

From Winter 2012-2013

The restaurant was really busy, so the boys had a pre-breakfast snack and played with trains while we waited.

From Winter 2012-2013

Eve spent time brushing her teeth.

From Winter 2012-2013

Aunt Heather even took the boys on a "Big Brother" walk while we waited for the food to come!

From Winter 2012-2013

The boys were hooked up with some chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast - so delicious! In fact, all of our food was so good! But there was a TON of food.

From Winter 2012-2013

Eve also enjoyed breakfast of eggs and fruit - I think she ate more than the boys!

After breakfast we took a trip to the awesome New Jersey Aquarium. Stay tuned for Visit to Jersey - Part 2...

Smiley Girl!

Riley is interacting more and more with us each day.

From Winter 2012-2013

She is smiling all the time and "talks" to us a lot. She loves to coo at us and she meows like a cat when she wants attention - seriously, she does. It is hilarious!

From Winter 2012-2013

She is especially smiley first thing in the morning. She will lay in the bed and smile every time she hears a voice - especially big brother's!

From Winter 2012-2013

This one is just for fun - especially for Uncle Jim - we need more cowbell!

Back to Storytime!

On Wednesday we ventured back to the library for storytime!

There were more kids this time so it was a lot of fun. Of course with more kids it was harder for Parker to stay tuned in to what Mr. Marco was saying. But Mr. Marco was prepared for restless kids with some jingle bells!

They did all sorts of jingle dances shaking the bells up high...

And behind their backs...

And then after storytime we went back to the kid corner for puzzles and reading! Great time!

Puddles!!

We had a big storm the other day and the Fire Park ended up with quite a few puddles.

Parker and Ella met up at the park for a playdate and decided they wanted to play in the big puddle in the basketball court.

Of course Ella's mom had thought to put on Ella's rainboots - I had not.

But it really didn't seem to bother Parker at all.

Him and Ella still had plenty of fun running in and out of the water for a nice long time.

Of course the next day we went back to the park and Parker wore his rainboots...but as luck would have it, the puddle was all dried up.

Hearts for Newtown

I know I usually try to keep the blog upbeat and about the daily adventures of Parker and Riley. But I feel like I would be doing an injustice to ignore one of the most impactful things to have happen this year. I believe that the tragedy in Newtown, CT will be something that I will remember for a very long time - possibly the rest of my life. I believe it will be one of those events, like 9/11, that I will always remember where I was when I heard the news. Incidentally, I was in the commissary parking lot when I saw the notice on Facebook. At the time we had no idea that there would be 20 children who would lose their lives along with 6 educators who were trying to protect them. All I remember was saying a prayer and wondering - as so many did - how this could happen. We will never truly know or understand what led to that horrific day. I cry each time I think of those little lives and how they were taken from us so close to Christmas. I grieve for the families who lost their babies, their sisters, their brothers. I feel like in the days after Newtown we all became parents. I know that I was hugging Parker and Riley tighter and kissing them more. Parker probably got to stay up a little bit later and eat a few more sweets. I realized again how trivial some things are and the blessing of reading my little man a book at night before bed truly is that - a blessing. I think that we all were looking for ways to somehow send our love to the people of Newtown and help in any way that we could. I read of a church in town that was accepting handmade hearts to decorate the town, shop windows, etc. and I thought that was a perfect activity to do with Parker. Of course he has no knowledge of what happened that terrible day, but I told him we were sending the hearts off to other little boys and girls.

We did a heart for Parker and a heart for Riley.

Parker drew the rocketship on the heart. Really - all by himself! He said that they were his favorite so he wanted to share with other boys and girls.

We also drew some trains because they are his other favorite - Mommy helped draw those.

Finally we covered them all in glitter and let them dry.

I read in an updated article later that the church of Newtown was inundated with the hearts and they were asking people to stop sending them - they couldn't keep up and it was too overwhelming. But, I am not sad our hearts didn't make it to Newtown. I will be saving these hearts. They will go in the keepsake boxes that Ma Pat gave to Parker and Riley. They will be our reminder of how very lucky we are. I will keep them so that I always do remember that day and keep the memory of those little children and brave adults in my own heart.

Visiting Santa

We had been waiting to take Parker to see Santa until we could all go as a family. One day we were shopping at the new Navy Exchange Store by Walter Reed and realized that Santa was there! It was so great because there were no other kids there at the time and Parker got to spend about 10 minutes talking to Santa.

He told him all about Bernard and where he had been hanging out at home. He told him about the Misty Island Thomas stuff he wanted for Christmas and the Resuce Helicopter. He talked about being a good boy and how Bernard was watching him. When it came time to take the picture Parker was not so sure he wanted to smile for the camera.

So, Santa encouraged him a bit. Riley slept through Big Brother's visit with Santa, but now that we know the best place to see him we will definately be back next year!

Gifts for Neighbors

We decided to make some goodies for the neighbors this year for Christmas. We spent two whole days making chocolate covered pretzels, Oreo truffles, fudge, and peppermint bark! Then we put them in a glass vase Mommy "etched" with "Happy Holidays 2012". It was lots of fun. Parker got to help with all the fun parts - he especially liked helping with the Peppermint Bark.

We had to unwrap all the candy.

Then we got to smash it up into tiny pieces.

Parker got to help melt the chocolate - but was very good not to get too close.

The finished product - yum! Then we practiced our counting and put all the goodies into little bags and made sure that everyone had the same amount. It took a bit more time than I remember from years past...I wonder why?

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