Happy 9th Birthday Natalie!

Nine years... wow! I didn't realize how old that was until my best friend told me that Natalie has now lived half of the years that she will live at home with us.... 9 more years and she will be 18 and graduating from High School and moving on to independence!
This past year, Natalie has grown up - and in so many ways. Physically, she has gotten taller and her body is starting to look more like a pre-adolescent girl than ever before (which is nerve wracking!) She has faced new academic and social challenges that have come with her being in an inclusion classroom for 3rd grade - and I have been pleasantly surprised how well she has done with this and proud of the hopeful insight that it has given her in her own strengths and blessings. Her personality has stayed strong in the classic "1st born" characteristics. She is bossy of anyone who is willing to take it, she is perfectionist in herself and is her own worst and best critic, she takes such pride in doing her best, she worries for us all, has incredible insight into being a good person and friend. She is so bright and loves learning. She always asks questions that I don't seem to know the answer to and am glad that her dad is a walking encyclopedia and can give her the answers she craves.
As we start down the road of hormones and moodiness, I know that our relationship will have its ups and downs. For now, I will love my little girl who loves to play with dolls and still asks to be put to bed every night by her Dad or I. I will read to hear, I will ask her questions about her day, I will listen and I will always love her.

Happy 9th Birthday!

Natalie got a new bike for her birthday from Nannie and Poppy. This was definitely the highlight of the day. It is a bike with gears and brakes on the handlebars... yet another sign of our girl become grown up!
Nick made Natalie a wooden doll closet for her American Girl doll clothes. It was a copied after a picture of a "wardrobe" done by American Girl that Natalie showed Nick. I love that he can create what we cannot or will not buy! Natalie was so excited!

This was my little surprise for Natalie to find on her walk to the bus!

I love birthdays and am always looking for ways to make the day feel extra special. This birthday didn't go as planned (Sadie was home sick and on top of that, we had an evening meeting at school) but Natalie was so in the moment and enjoyed the day no matter what way it went. Love her for that!

Our Nannie Day!

Like I mentioned in my last post, I claimed mother's day just for me... so we continued the Mother's day celebration the following weekend and had Nannie day!

My children are blessed with an incredible Nannie. She is a constant of love, support, guidance, caring, and much more to them on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I didn't have a close relationship with my Grandparents. However, my children are getting the best of the best now with Nannie. Not only does she provide daycare to them 2 days a week (and on an "on call" basis :) but they feel part of her regular life. They think they have a room at their house and they think they have a dog - it just happens to live at Nannie's house. She is patient, kind, generous and has a young spirit that connect with each one of them in such a special way.

On top of being such a wonderful Nannie... she is also such a special Mom to ME! Always willing to help, always willing to give of herself, yet has been able to be her own person in the midst of it! She tolerates my moodiness that only a daughter can save for her mother. She loves me completely. She is one amazing woman and I am blessed to have her in my life, and feel even more complete with her on our lives.

To celebrate Nannie Day, we tried to give her breakfast in bed. This task was harder than it sounds... seeing that my crew wakes up at an ungodly early hour and she has a dog that we need to pass by and still try and pull off a surprise. We did most of our cooking at home and arrived to her house early in the morning and prepared a tray full of food (and love) and delivered it to her right in bed. The best part about it was that I think Colin ate the whole breakfast... I guess he hasn't learned good manners yet!

Happy Mother's Day to me!

Happy Mother's day to Me!

Being a daughter and a daughter-in-law, often Mother's day has become a celebration about all the mother's in our lives. However, this year I decided to be selfish and after I got all the other Mother's day cards out in the mail... I made our Mother's day about me and our family. I had told Nick that I didn't want any tangible gifts. The Mother's day gift that I wanted was a family hike, defined as a hike to a place that was close by, but yet had a good "destination spot." I didn't care if it was the summit of a mountain, but was hoping for some kind of perfect "look out" spot or other destination where we could feel like we had made it!

This past Sunday, I got my Mother's day wish and more...

The kids and Nick let me sleep in (and because I usually wake up at 4:45, 6:30 felt delightful)! I got a trip to the gym all by myself and then came home to packed lunches and a family ready to hike. We set out to hike Buck Mountain. This isn't a mountain that any of us had hiked, but we knew it was family friendly and on Lake George. I had thought that I had remembered hearing that there were several look out points along the way. Knowing the trip to the top was 3.1 miles, I wasn't sure we would make it to the top, but with the sun shining and kids excited, we figured we would make it to one of those look out spots and call it good!

On the drive out, we realized we forgot the backpack for Colin. Knowing that he is now 3, we didn't think he would be very into being carried, but were planning to bring it as "back up" for when he got tired. Oh well... we will see how it goes.

As we pulled into the trail head parking lot, I swear the sun just disappeared and out came a sky full of clouds and the feeling of rain seemed to loom over us. Oh well... we will see how it goes.

The first 45 minutes or so was awesome. The kids were so excited, loving the hike, feeling interested in nature, having great questions about science and evolution (Natalie asks the most intense questions) and just a fun feeling... we almost forgot that we were cold. When we reached the trail marker that said we had walked 1 mile... I was impressed with Colin's little legs. Not soon after, the complaining started. With no look out spot in sight... I just figured we would see how it goes.

The complaining grew and multiplied to a point when all three kids were telling us they were tired and hungry and I had to re-adjust my "perfect hike." I realized that my dream of reaching the best "look out" spot was not going to be any fun if I had 3 complaining kids with me. I realized that they didn't need that perfect spot to be happy to have their picnic. It was me who wanted that and if I could re-adjust my definition of the perfect picnic spot, all would be good. So... moments later, we found a big rock on the side of the trail and with no look out by trees, we enjoyed a delightful picnic lunch (minus the cold) and then started back down the mountain.

The trip down was full of laughs as Sadie, Natalie and me each needed to do a "nature pee" - which is hilarious if you are under the age of nine. Colin needed to be carried for the last 20 minutes or so and was probably almost asleep in our arms by the time we got the car... but all was good. It was the perfect Mother's day.

I love you, Nick, Natalie, Sadie and Colin!

Our "perfect" picnic spot.


Colin loving hiking!



Natalie was our photographer for this romantic photo!

me and some kiddos!

I guess being a mom means that your "perfect" destination is determined by the needs of kids!

Natalie and Colin.

My guys!

Welcome Giumarra's to the world of baseball...

Since my best friend's boy's are all about baseball, she has been living the life of springtime baseball for several years. I have heard the stories of crazy early dinners (or really late dinners) and night after night on the baseball field, but we haven't ever lived it.... till now!!
Sadie was excited about joining the Queensbury Tball team and and games began this past week. This baseball adventure has been "Nick's thing," which I am happy to have a the back seat parent position for, but it is still fun to see Sadie get excited about a new thing. I love her self confidence about it all and willingness to try new things and feel good about it. We were able to "stack" the teams and convince the draft team to put Caleigh and Sadie on the same team. So, for at least two nights a week... we have become a baseball family.

Caleigh and Sadie after the first big win!

(Just kidding... they don't seem to keep score. They play 3 innings and go by the motto - "If you had fun, you won!"
The social worker in my loved that they were teaching them good sportsmanship right from the get go!

I think Colin is the biggest fan of this new adventure. He has been "playing" on the sidelines for every game thus far.

It's really funny to watch. The kids seem to have little idea on what is going on, but the coaches do a great job "coaching" them through each step. After the ball gets hit, no one moves till the coach says... get the ball, then the remind that person to throw it to 1st base (meanwhile, the runner has been on first base for a minute or two) but I guess it is just to get them use to the idea of the expectations and rules of the game.

Sadie feeling proud during warms ups!

Spring Break

Many months ago, Nick and I had the conversation regarding, "Do we go away for April break or not?"

We had not done anything BIG for our 10 year anniversary back in September with the thought that we would do a family vacation this year, but flying anywhere on school vacation week just seemed so expensive that it never happened for February break and then come April when we started talking about it, we kept going back to the thought that April break is usually SO nice around here, that why do we want to go away during that time... so no vacation was booked and we were looking forward to enjoying the week off from school in Spring weather loving being outside... maybe getting some yard work done, but most importantly, just being together outside and loving it! For at least the past 3 April breaks, the weather has been amazing... 80's and sunny. I didn't think that we would get that lucky again (seeing as there is still spots of snow on the ground) but I was totally psyching myself up for 60's and sunny.

Well this year we learned a lesson that I won't soon forget.... ALWAYS GO AWAY FOR SPRING VACATION!! Instead of 60's and sunny, we had 40's and snowy. It was an awful week of weather. Totally depressing... and unlike February break when it is cold, there are winter sports and outside activities to do in that weather, there was NOTHING to do in this weather, but to be inside and be pissed off at the people who were smart enough to go south for the week.

Every day of spring vacation, starting around 7am Colin would begin asking to go outside. With frost on the grass, rain pouring down or hail falling from the sky, we would have to think of reason after reason to explain to our 3 y.o. why he couldn't play outside. With nothing really planned for the week, the days were spent with nothing to do and trying to be creative with whatever we could.

Around Tuesday of spring break, Nick started to convince me that we should just leave immediately and go start our spring break... maybe drive to Virgina or Washington DC... but I panicked not having time to plan those trips and seeing as we haven't been on a family vacation, I didn't want to "waste" that trip with a vacation where we didn't really know what we were doing.

I think hourly, I would check weather.com to see if some miracle had come upon us and the weather got better... no such luck till Friday of vacation when we had a cold, but sunny day. We made the most of it!!

The funny part of it is that although I had what I thought was a horrible vacation week, as I was prepping for school on Sunday night... I realized how much I was dreading going back into the crazy routine we call life and thus started to really appreciate the week we had just had - even if the week was kind of boring and a bit depressing, it was still OUR week... not filled with making lunches, setting alarms, doing homework and chasing our tails keeping up with all that is going on. Then I realized that although Nick and I complained plenty about the week, the kids never did. I think they thought the week was great... I guess it's good to get a little perspective!

Happy 3rd Birthday Colin!

Happy Birthday to our little man!

And little man, he is! We can't believe the difference between boys and girls. After experiencing "toddler hood" with our 2 girls, it has been so fun to watch and be part of Colin's. He loves sports, construction, "working with dad" and makes the funniest boy noises when he is doing all of these things that he loves. I can only explain them like that... boy noises. They are kind of like a working man's grunt, or something similar. He makes these boy noises as he is working or playing sports. It is so funny, it almost seems as if he studied how men walk and move and is copying them. He struts his stuff around the house and is just so fun.

Most of the time, he is a delight. A happy boy who is just happy to be around his people, doing his thing. He is a man of routine and loves the predictions that come with each day. He ends each night asking us if tomorrow is a "Mommy, Daddy day or Nannie day or Jeanne (our daycare lady) day" and then after he learn what kind of day he will be having, he quickly moves into asking what he will be having for breakfast and so on and so forth.

He has made huge gains this year. Not counting potty training (which he did on his own at 2 1/2) the biggest is probably his speech - he talks all the time and says absolutely everything! He speech is understandable most of the time and he surprises us with the words he can say - just this week, he told my mom that he likes "new vehicles" while he was pointing out new cars on the road!

He has been taking (and loving) sports class at the Y with Nannie. He is mastering soccer and basketball and we are expecting the college scouts to be knocking on our door any day! He continues to LOVE, LOVE his bike and does an amazing job. I really wonder if he will be riding without training wheels by the end of the summer. He tears up and down our road on his bike with no trouble at all... he even with stand up on his pedals to try and ride faster!

Recently, we have started to see little glimpse of the horrid three year old tantrums... but we are working hard on ignoring them and are praying they won't last long - no boy can be perfect, right?

Regardless, we love this little guy and are so sure that he completes are family in the most perfect way.

Happy Birthday Colin!

Showing us his man face while riding on his bike. Buzz and Colin! The birthday donut that has become a tradition in the Giumarra house.

Currently, Colin wants to be outside ALL the time. Regardless of how cold or windy the day is, Colin thinks it is a perfect day to be outside.

Colin and his very favorite froggy!

WRT

Western Reserve Trail, or more commonly known around our neighborhood, WRT - is the name of the street that we live on. The WRT is a small street with only 12 houses and like most neighborhoods, there are some cranky folk and we can't be friends with everyone... but for the most part and for most of the time, I feel incredibly fortunate to live on the WRT. A sweet and special friendship among the WRT kids has formed over the past several years that we have all been here. Because the street is so small and dead ends, there is little traffic on the street and seldom is a car here that isn't one of us... so the kids have been able to overtake the street as their own. Chalk usually starts at our driveway and goes out into the road, paths are made between the houses and the kids seem to have a 6th sense for when the other kids are outside playing. We have been truly fortunate that the neighborhood kids all seem to be about the ages of our kids and thankfully, most of us grown ups seem to enjoy each other's company as well. Spring and Summer days are spent with the kids playing in the yards, biking on the street, swinging in the many swing sets and the grownups all circled around each other in one of the driveways enjoying it all.... We, WRT residents, have a special bond. I think it comes from that the WRT is a new construction neighborhood and outside of the most recent arrivals, we were all here from the "beginning." We have felt and endured the growing pains that came with being amongst construction for too long and all have a common enemy - the builder!! I remember growing up in our Maryland neighborhood were my brother and I would walk around the block to friends house and friends would end up in our yard and together we would find adventures and fun. I am thrilled that my kids have found that here in our neighborhood. Sure... it's not perfect (although I would have to say that my house is perfect - thanks to my ever-so-talented husband) but I feel very blessed to be able to have friendships at our doorstep.

Some of the WRT kids on one of the 1st "spring" days.