Nebraska Trip (124 photos), by emily papera

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Christmas 2009

We spent our Christmas Holiday with dad's family up in New Jersey. Again, it was a holiday where time really flew by. We arrived in time for Grandpa P's work Christmas party. They have a traditional "beef steak" party where they serve bread and beef steaks that were really good. Very simple but the kid's loved it.

For Christmas Eve,we then had the traditional feast of the Seven Fishes at Aunt Belle's house where Santa also made a visit. We saw a good number of dad's family as well as a cousin close in age to Nicole. Even though Santa visited there, Nicole was not keen on Santa wherea LV was attempting to get his ear at every turn. In fact he mentioned to Santa that "mommy planted a garden" - you know just in case Santa needed to know that!!

On Christmas morning, after the gifts were opened,we saw Nicole's Godfather (mom & Dad's best man) as well up there. we went over to Aunt Belle's again and had dinner with a smaller group of family. Louis enjoyed all that Santa brought him as did Nicole. She really was into playing with each toy individually as she came across it and the cell phone and watch were a hit. Sadly the rain drove our activities of going out into NYC out the window, so we were bummed about that. (Again mom hoped for a nice family portrait to maybe send in a New Year's card!!) But perhaps we'll try a little later!!

Christmas Time in GA!

Sigh...another year another time where I hope to have a cute picture and card ready to go for people but it just doesn't happen!!! One of these years....We took the kids to see Santa and hopefully snap a nice picture of them. LV is quite excited about the man in red and was eagerly telling Santa what he wanted for Christmas. As you can see in the pictures of Santa, Nicole is not pictured. She is very polite to Santa but she has no strong interest on getting close to him. We took a few pictures of them in their Christmas gear in the beautifully decorated city hall. We were just missing some colder weather though!!!

Yellow Belt

LV had the chance to advance from a white belt in Tae Kwon Do to a yellow belt. One of the things he had to accomplish was break a board with his foot at his test earlier in December. He did all the drills as expected AND broke a board. He was really surprised he could do it and the look on his face was priceless. We were all very proud of his advancement up to yellow belt. The instructors at his Tae Kwon Do school are amazingly patient and good with children!

Fun Projects

We were told by a good friend about some wood working projects at Home Depot and Lowe's. LV and Nicole have been going with mom there to make a few things. We did a car back in November and in December, the kids made their own gingerbread house. This was a really amazing activity for them to be doing. We all had a blast. Nicole is very eager to work things out as quickly as brother is but she is techincally under-age, so mom has to help. That said, Nicole is quite impatient waiting on mom to help finish brother which just irritates her. All in all they love doing it and they get a badge when they complete the project!!

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!!!