Treat

Parent Talk organized a great activity at the new Treat Cupcake Bar. Reagan and I listened to the story, "If you Give a Cat a Cupcake", watched how they make and decorate cupcakes (they demonstrated on a giant cupcake-see below), and then Reagan got to decorate her own cupcake with three toppings. She chose gummy bears, gummy worms, and sprinkles. She let me have a few bites. For some reason she wasn't very hungry at lunch. And in case you were wondering, it was delicious.
Then they had a raffle to see who got to take home the three giant cupcakes they decorated. We won the one from our group!!! Yea! It's been fun watching each of the older kids come home and see the Treat waiting for them on the table. I can't wait until dessert tonight.

Thanksgiving 2010

We had such a great Thanksgiving this year. We had no family in town but had the next best thing--friends that felt like family.

Rachael and I made these cute turkeys Thursday morning. I'm not a crafty person but I am in love with these very personable turkeys.

Here's a shot of all the kids anxiously awaiting our Thanksgiving Feast.

And then I just had to get a shot of the parents taking pictures of the kids anxiously awaiting our Thanksgiving Feast. We really had a great time eating some amazing food (everyone brought such yummy food), playing games, chatting, watching football, laughing, and browsing through the Black Friday ads. I am very grateful for the friends that we have made in New England. Same time next year?

Not Possible

It is unbelievable, but my oldest is 16. We celebrated by going to Treat and picking up some cupcakes and watching Iron Man II. Happy Birthday Geoff, we think you're awesome!

MN Visitors

In November my sister's husband suggested that she take a weekend and come visit us with my dad. We had a great visit so thank you Bart for watching the girls and Loni and Dad for coming to spend a few days with us. Here's some of the fun things that we did.
This is the Louisa May Alcott house, The Orchard House. I took this picture from the car in the pouring rain so the house looks even older and wavier than it is. I LOVED this tour. I've driven by the house many times but had never been on the tour. I loved how the girls were encouraged to pursue their own talents of art, literature, drama and music. The girls put on plays just like my sister and I used to do when we were young. May was an artist and was allowed to draw on the walls. Loni and I laughed about how she (Loni) had gotten in trouble for that when we were young and we have punished our own children for doing that as well. We also got to see Louisa's room where she wrote Little Women. I certainly makes me want to do all I can to foster creativity in the home.
Dad treated us to dinner at Fuji Steakhouse. The kids of course loved it because they put on a show with knives and fire. We loved the food--and the show. Who can resist an onion volcano?

We spent one of the days in Salem where we saw the Witch Museum and The House of Seven Gables. This tour was not as impressive as The Orchard House tour but we still enjoyed seeing the house and garden.

It had been raining all day but I kept hoping it would let up so we could see some scenery as we drove through Marblehead and along the coastline. We had a beautiful drive along Ocean Ave and just as we got to Chandler Hovey Park the rain let up and the sun came out. What a view!

Loni and I snuck away on Saturday and visited The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Isabella was a women with money on her hands and a love of art. This building was built to house her collection. She arranged everything in the museum and in her will she stipulated that everything must remain in the state that it was at her death. The museum is also home to the biggest art theft in history. When you visit the museum you can see the frames still hanging where the paintings used to be.

We also had fun just hanging out and spending some quality time with Grandpa.

Thanks for the visit. Come again soon.

Halloween 2010

Here is our picture gallery of costumes from Halloween this year.
First up is our very own dinosaur. At first, Reagan was desperate to be a princess, Cinderella to be precise. But when we went up to the attic to help Lilly find a costume she saw the dinosaur costume. Never heard a word about princesses after that.


Lilly had a very tough time deciding this year. So she was pretty excited when I suggested that she be The Tortoise AND the Hare. Two costumes for the price of one.

Tortoise shell and bunny ears and bunny tail.

Rachael was Little Bo Peep. Ironically, when we were headed out the door to the Halloween party, Rachael couldn't find her sheep. After tearing the house apart, we finally found her sheep.

I decided to be Victoria from the books and movie Twilight. I figured with my pale skin I could easily pass for a Vampire. I even had a preteen cheering section at the party. There are definitely some Twilight fans out there.

Mike was a clumsy carpenter. I'm not sure what motivated this costume other than we owned a bloody rag and an eye patch.

Done for another year. Whew!

Halloween Ode

Since it is Halloween today, the day of candy, I thought I would give a shout out to my favorite candy bar---Ritter Sport. I still am a big fan of the American Twix bar but this German candy bar is perfection. Here's the 411 on this candy bar you HAVE to try.

Where to find: Trader Joes, Target, and various specialty shops like Euroguild in Walpole, MA.

When to eat it: Well, one of them has cornflakes in it so eat that one for breakfast. (The real breakfast of Champions) The rest you can eat anytime. A few squares at a time or all at one sitting.

My favorite: Hard to choose but I think Butter Biscuit. It's like a Twix bar minus the caramel but much better chocolate. Mike's favorite is the Peppermint, but this bar is hard to find in the states.

Other great things about this candy bar: Mike loves that you can open the package with one hand. As you break the bar in half, the package opens in the back. He used to eat this candy frequently on his mission and liked it because he could open and eat while biking.

How to hide this bar from your kids: This is a grown up candy. Let them enjoy the Bottlecaps and the Snickers, Nerds and Skittles. Keep a stash of Ritter Sport hidden. Your kids will actually thank you because thanks to MY stash, I have no interest in taking candy taxes this year.

Happy Halloween!

Pastene

For school, Rachael wrote a letter to the Pastene company telling them that they had incorrectly used the metric system. On the label of a large can of Pastene tomatoes they had written KG instead of kg for kilograms. It is incorrect to write KG in capital letters. Last week we got a large box delivered to our door, full of Pastene products and a letter explaining that she was correct and that they would fix the label. So, of course, we had spaghetti that night. Thanks for dinner, Rachael.

Remembering the 80's

The stake youth decided to do an 80's dance so Mike and I have had a lot of fun remembering the AWESOME clothes that we used to wear. We were more than helpful (probably annoying) as we helped Geoffrey decide what to wear. I'm sure he was glad that we had kept a few lovely outfits. Not that he wanted to wear most of them--I can understand not wearing the pink leg warmers but some of those shirts were classic! It still doesn't seem that long ago but then Mike had to point out that Geoff going to an 80's dance was like us going to a 50's dance. Thanks Mike for making me feel really old. Geoff really wanted to have a Mohawk but his hair was just too heavy for that look. He said he was just going to put glue in his hair. I discouraged that approach and aided him in another great 80's look. I think he looked great but most importantly, he had a fun time at the dance.

Circus

"PLEEAASE can we go to the circus." I had been hearing this from Reagan for over a month. I knew the circus was coming to town and I knew that it had been at least six years since we had been. What clinched it was that when I ran my 10 K, the kids got to run a 1 K sponsored by Ringling Brothers. In return, they each got a free ticket to the circus. That plus another free ticket that Lilly got when she was born, clinched the deal. Mike and the newly traumatized Rachael would just have to deal with the clowns. We were going to the circus. (Click on the word clowns to see Rachael's past clown experience.) The younger kids, at least, enjoyed the clowns and their antics. The circus seemed a lot less chaotic this year as they wove a simple story throughout about Mr. Gravity, the bad guy of the circus.

The elephants were a great hit too. I think the kids liked the performing animals much better than the human performers-elephants, dogs, tigers. I personally liked the girl who got shot out of the cannon the best. What does that say about me? What do you like best about the circus?

The Running Disease

I think the blame can be traced back to Mike. But then, isn't that usually the case? Mike started running last fall. I was pretty impressed when he ran his first mile, then two and then he stayed at about three miles for quite some time. I did not have any inclinations to join him, especially since he was running in some pretty frigid temps this winter. About May, he finally got to me and I agreed to run a whole mile! I won't lie and say it was easy, it wasn't. I ran a few more times and it did get a little bit easier.

There seemed to be a running disease spreading through our ward at church. All of a sudden everyone was running races. I decided to avoid this disease because as everyone knows--diseases are bad! Well the young women leaders caught the disease and it spread to the young women. Suddenly Rachael had signed up to run a 5K.

Once two people in the family have a disease it is almost impossible to not catch it. I started increasing my distance. I made it to 2 1/2 miles and signed up for the 5K. I didn't train much over the summer due to my crazy fun food filled summer but I did start training again in September. Plus, I really HATE running in the heat--okay so I hate running in any extreme--cold, heat, wet.

Thankfully, September 18th was a beautiful cool day. All three of the Rogers got to run the Northeastern Big Dog 5K. Rachael did great and finished in 35 minutes and Mike and I finished in 28 minutes. All of us were also delayed by at least a minute before we could even start the race. Just too many people on the course. Here are a few great pictures of the young women after their race.



Now, at first, I was fine just leaving things at a 5K. But Mike was now running 10 miles. If he could run more, so could I. So I signed up for the 10K in October. I got up to 5 miles and then attempted a 6 mile run just a little over a week before the race. It was 80 degrees that day and I did not fare very well and ended up walking the last two miles. A week before the race I ran six miles for the first time. Then I got sick and didn't run at all until yesterday when I ran the Tufts 10 K in 63 minutes. I was still a bit sniffly and after about mile two the whole right side of my body hurt--sore right shoulder, sore right knee, and a cramp in my right side. But I kept running and made it to the finish line. I guess the next questions are, "Is this a terminal disease?" "Do I really need to be able to run as far and fast as my husband?" I'll answer those questions another day, because today I can barely walk.

Here I am with the kids right before the race. My friend Taryn and I started the race together--along with 8,000 other women!

Blue Hills

Saturday was a beautiful day. Unfortunately, I still felt a little bit under the weather. But one way or another I was going to enjoy my favorite season on a gorgeous Saturday when we didn't have a billion things going on. My first thought was we would go up to Vermont. Then I realized I really didn't have the energy for a whole day trip. Then I thought we'd go to Providence and enjoy Waterfire. They light torches along the riverbanks and have other activities. But that was going to get me back home too late and I needed a good night's rest. So we eventually settled on hiking the Blue Hills. It did wear me out but I was glad that I got out and enjoyed the day.

The path we took was a pretty steep climb up a lot of rocks. Reagan really knows how to scramble up rocks. No fear and no signs of the climb wearing her out.

At the top they have a stone tower that gives you an even higher view of your surroundings. The tower looked just like a fairy tale tower for Rapunzel. The view was amazing.

I thought the view from Noanett peak was great but this view topped it. So, when all of you out-of-towners come visit us we can hike to the top. And if you can't quite keep up with Reagan they also have a ski lift ride up to the top.

Friday Fieldtrips

This fall Reagan and I have been enjoying some great Friday Fieldtrips organized by friends at church. (Thanks!) The first one was to The Butterfly Place. Reagan was very excited about this trip and dressed herself completely in butterflies.

There were butterflies on her shirt and in her hair.
She had butterflies on her jeans and on her shoes.

Even her socks had a butterfly on them.

We spent a long time in The Butterfly Place getting up close and personal with the butterflies.

Reagan enjoyed watching them eat bananas.

If any of you have spent much time with Reagan you would know that Reagan asks questions all day long. I think it is her preferred method of communication. So a trip like this naturally generates a lot of questions. "Why do caterpillars turn into butterflies? Why do they eat bananas? Why do they like flowers? Why didn't one land on my arm? Why are they different colors? Why can't they talk? Why do they have eyes on their wings?" I do love that she is inquisitive and asks questions. But once you have given her a satisfactory (in my opinion) answer to her question she just follows it up by asking, "Why?" Usually the cycle continues until I get frustrated and have to change the subject before I go bonkers. The questions started in earnest when we got home so I was very glad to be able to answer some of her butterfly questions by just turning on The Magic School Bus Butterfly episode. Thank goodness I found old episodes on line.

The next Friday Fieldtrip was Apple Picking. I actually have zero pictures of her actually picking apples but I do have a picture of her in front of the "pumpkin" apple tree.

The playground was definitely Reagan's favorite part of this fieldtrip. Tractor driving and tire horse riding. Are we living in the wrong state for her?

Unfortunately, we missed my favorite field trip of the year. Pumpkin Picking. I got a cold and chills on Thursday so I stayed home and rested all day on Friday. Sigh. This has always been my favorite field trip. I'll have to content myself by looking at my old October blogs from last year and the year before. Next year Reagan will be in Kindergarten and we probably won't make it. AAck Panic. My last child will start school next year. I never cried when my first three started school but this time might be different. I think I need to plan a few more field trips with Reagan. I'll even let her ask more questions.

2010 First Day of School

The First Day of School has inevitably arrived. A few weeks ago I wasn't sure I was ready for the routine to start up again. But, as always, the last few weeks of summer seem to do a good job of helping me to look forward (desperately) to school starting again. Here's the first day pictures. Maybe you can tell who was happy about school starting up again.

Happy--Yea I get to see my friends.
Happy--Yea I get time alone with mommy. Happy and Tired--Yea I get time to myself--maybe a nap.Happy- Yea I love everything about school (except maybe math). No more comments from the author are necessary.

Springfield Museums

Mike took two days off the last two weeks of summer. On the first day off we went to the Springfield museums. Four museums-two art museums, a museum on Springfield history, and a Science museum, plus they had a Dr. Seuss sculpture garden. The museums were just the right size for our children and had plenty of variety.
Here we are in front of Horton the Elephant.
The girls are making peace with The Lorax.
We thought the girl in the painting reminded us of Lilly with Attitude.
Of course, Poseidon complete with horns, we thought resembled Mike.

Geoff is sitting in a chair sculpture made so that you can sit and ponder the other art in the room from many different angles. I'm sure that Reagan's pink sunglasses are aiding in the pondering process.
I think we were pretending there was a fire. I guess I'm just not a very good sport.

More Springfield. . .
The second day Mike took off work was for Lilly's birthday. This year we gave her the choice between a party and taking the family to Six Flags Amusement park. So we went back to Springfield and spent the day HAVING A BLAST!!! Mike and Geoffrey took me on Bizarro first. Truly the fastest roller coaster I have ever been on. Yes, I "screamed like a little girl." Reagan and Lilly rode on most of the little kid rides but truly Loved the scary rides. They almost lost it on Pandemonium, a roller coaster that spins as it speeds down the track. I reassured them that we were having fun and they put on a brave face. Their eyes were really wide but they forced a smile and a Wheee. Now they say that it was their favorite ride. At the end of the day Mike and Geoff took off to ride Batman and Mind Eraser. I thought I was getting a deal by going with the girls on the tame rides but after several whirly rides on the teacups and my first experience with feeling motion sick, I realized I may have done better screaming like a girl (I am a girl, after all) on the scary rides. Thanks Lilly for turning nine and inviting us all to your Awesome Birthday Party.