Thanksgiving 2009

We had a little extra time in Nebraska for Thanksgiving but still time ran out on us. We arrived in Nebraska with wonderful weather around us. It was really quite out of the ordinary. We had the chance to hang out with Jim, Chelsa and Lucy before we headed to Hastings.

On Thanksgiving, Dad and the uncles all went out to hunt for pheasants. Then as an EXTRA bonus, Santa popped in for an early visit. The Papera kids and their cousin Lucy must have been REALLY good this year for Santa to do that. Nicole was not too keen on Santa but was very polite when he gave her a gift!!!






Again, it was a great time but really the days slipped away so fast that it was over before we knew it!!! We definitely had a good time hanging out with everyone and hope to see them soon in the new year.

A Fine Feast

Today was the kid's Fall Feast at LV's School. We had to bring a Thanksgiving dish to the school where the children were able to enjoy it. It was the first year mom could actually attend and had a good time filling up on a lot of delicious food. LV's class is very multi-cultural and one of the Indian families brought the most amazing rice. There were hardly any leftovers to be had!!! Nicole's class justdid a small feast for the little ones that was more low key. But Nicole enjoyed eating in Lou's classroom. The only issue was that she left a blue cupcake in the chair and mom didn't see it and managed to sit in cupcake. Needless to say since it was bright blue, we put a towel down in the car!!

The Big Fish

The Aquarium offers some deals during the week so we took advantage of the Mommy & Me deal and went downtown to check out the Aquarium. Nicole was only 5 months the first time we went and she really got a lot out of it enough to convince us that this might be a good repeat trip for us. We joined up with the Duke family and went through all the exhibits. A lot of it was under repair so that was not fun but the Nicole enjoyed pointing out and seeing all the "fishies" in the tank.

Halloween

Wow, time has gotten away from us. Mom really needs to get on this blog. Well, we had Halloween last weekend. It was a cool, rainy night here. Mom looked up when the sun went down and we headed up our big hill right at 6:45 PM. LV went as Optimus Prime and Nicole was Supergirl. She was reluctant to don on her costume until she realized that she was rewarded with candy!!! On our way up the hill, ran into our neighbors and we all trick or treated around the neighborhood. Then as tradition followed we went to our friend Andy & Angie's to check out his haunted house decorations. Very spooky.

Dinosaur Train

They had a free Georgia Public Broadcast of "Dinosaur Train" downtown Atlanta. THe kids got to meet Buddy the Dinosaur and go home with a lot of fun dino-goodies like books, stickers and pens. I just wish I had dressed LV in another colored shirt - one that didn't match Buddy.

FIrst Day of Pre-K

Wow, time flies. LV started his first day of Pre-K today. It was at the same school he had been attending since he was a little lad so the change wasn't as big of a deal to him. They do a lot more fun activities like write their name and color. So that is a good thing! We were on a search for a backpack. I asked him if he wanted a talking backpack like the one on Dora the Explorer to which he replied "Mom, backpacks do not talk. That is just on tv" I guess he showed me!!!

Touch a Truck

Today we hit the Touch A Truck. We did this event two years ago. It was a lot of fun and very loud as the kids were allowed to honk all the horns. We met up with Aunt Jo and company to check out all the vehicles. It was really hot so we had only a limited time out there but enjoyed some burgers and Italian ice after the fact.

Recess Monkey

Tonight - out of the ordinary, I took LV and Nicole to see Recess Monkey. They definitely had the joint jumping as they played song after song for the kids. Their style was very Beatles-ish which we all enjoyed. Louis is sticking his thumb out pretending he has a lighter like they did in the 'olden' days. Now I hear it is cell phones that people hold up.

Chicken Dance Thing-y?

Untitled from Emily Papera on Vimeo.

How does he do this?!?!

April Showers Bring May Plants

I'm going to subject you all to looking at my flower beds. You look at this to look at my kids (I think) so I am proud to show off my heucheras which I planted at the beginning of may. More photos to come!!!

The NJ visitors!

Grandpa and Grandma P arrived shortly after Grandma H departed (about a week or so) to hang out with us. We had the chance to score some Gwinnett Braves Tickets. It was a nice venue up in Lawrenceville for sure. Great family fun. Nicole was fascinated by the mascot, "Chopper" and had her eyes glued on him when he came over. The kids had a great time hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma P. They were sad to see them go.

End of April

So post race, we all came back home and got back to our lives as usual. Grandma H stayed and spent some quality time with LV and Nicole. She took some great pictures which I've added a few here. I put a few others for the links to the right there. The time went too quickly as I felt like I didn't get the chance to cook enough for my mom for helping me out with the kids. We always enjoy having her here and I think I wasn't ready to let her go back home just yet!!

Just too cute

 
I had to do this pose with him. I grew up watching Married With Children and love this little out fit he got from Vicky and Dave!!!

First 1/2 Marathon!

Yep. I am going to subject you to listening to me talk about my race. I somehow in some fashion or another, managed to run 13.1 miles in Louisville Kentucky. It was for the Kentucky Derby Marathon. Aunt Kate and I ran trained and ran this race. It was a great time. The course was fairly flat. At mile marker 9, the participants got to run around the famous Churchill Downs. And the weather was absolutely perfect. I still cannot believe I did it but I have the medal to prove it!!! Grandma drove out with me and the kiddos to watch the race and cheer us on. It was a great time had by all!!!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone!!

Easter Time

We had a whirlwind weekend for sure. First off, Mom's friend Liz was in town from Spain so we all got the chance to see her. Cousin Annie came down to visit us as well! It was a quick trip but fun nonetheless.

We attempted to go to an Easter Egg Hunt up at Lawrenceville on Saturday. We were there before the starting time (They had it posted on a bulletin board. And so we went to grab lunch. When we came out, we realized everyone was on the lawn and we had completely missed it. Louis was heart broken that he didn't get one egg. This really upset us all so we stopped over at Rita's to go get some Italian Ice (We were going to go over there anyway). Rita's Ice truly makes life better!







Mom remembered another Easter Egg hunt near the house, so we went over there to check it out. This one proved to be a little more fun for LV and Nicole.
They had bouncy places, balloon animals and broke down the hunts by ages. Nicole practiced on her egg hunting skills by putting her brother's shoes in her basket. Mom took Nicole over first since 0-3 went first. It wasn't very short lived. Nicole has only recently been walking so she's not as aggressive as those 2 year old kids yet!


Louis's Easter Egg hunt did not go as well as planned. Another child took one of his eggs out of his basket and he really didn't know what to do. So he was understandably upset. Those hunts get a little crazy for sure. But the coordinator, let him hold the sign for his age group and that helped him cheer up a bit.

We took a few family photos after the hunt but Nicole was not having any over it. She just wanted her chocolate candy and that was final.

Playing around

Well we apparently have been slacking on the photos. We realized we have few February pictures and now its almost halfway through March! Well, for the February dilemma, I'll add in the pictures of Nicole with her new pink tutu she got for her birthday. We found some bunny ears and a flower headband at the dollar store so I couldn't resist dressing up the kids in a some spring wear!!! As you can see the one with Louis and the dog, we truly have the sweetest most patient dog in the world, Locke!!!Nicole is not walking yet but is incredibly busy getting into everything. She is very much content opening up anything she possibly can and taking out all of its contents. The end game is to put small things into larger things which makes it a little tough for mom and dad to put all said things back in order.