Christmas in Texas

This winter, we spent Christmas and New Year's in Texas. My sisters had arranged for us all to fly in to celebrate together, something that becomes increasingly rare and difficult as the years progress and our family sizes increase. Not everyone could be there, of course, but four out of six of us made it.

We spent about five days at a ranch a couple of hours away from San Antonio, and my kids enjoyed hiking, doing a high ropes course, and riding the zip line. They also got to meet some critters and even hold them.

AJ climbing the pole

K at the top of the pole. She had to jump for that trapeze.

Jumping

My niece climbing the pole

AJ at the climbing wall.

K conquering the climbing wall

AJ on the ropes course

AJ and Timo getting ready to do the zip line

Away they go

AJ

Timo

My love

AJ

K

K having too much fun

S holding a snake -- yes, it is real

K holding a tarantula

S hanging out

H with Grandma

Each night, a different family was in charge of dinner. One night, we chose a Hawaiian theme to honor my dad and the time he served in Hawaii during the Korean War. The menu and decor were Hawaiian, and K even performed a couple of dances as entertainment.

My parents and niece, Erika.

AJ

K dancing

Edith and K

After we left the ranch, we drove to San Antonio where we visited the Alamo. It was a short visit, but we had talked about the Alamo during history a while back, so I wanted to share the experience with the kids while I had a chance. Unfortunately, not all of the kiddos were thrilled about being there, so our visit was not as pleasant as it could have been.

Part of the Alamo

K in front of the Alamo

AJ in front of the Alamo

H in front of the Alamo

A rare shot of me (and baby in the belly)

The following day, we visited the children's museum. This was well-received by all of my kiddos. S had been sick, but he perked up at the museum. It was nice to see him happy and playing. 

K checking AJ out at the grocery store

S playing with trains

K giving a baby a bath -- practicing for her baby sibling to be born in April

AJ riding in the ambulance -- unfortunately, he has ridden in a  real one.

Uh, oh! Look who's driving the ambulance!

Riding the "horse"

S riding

H driving the "race car"

AJ controlling the space ship

Astronaut AJ. 

H wanted to ride in the ambulance, too.

Here, they put pipes together to use air to push little fuzzy balls out the top.

Carpenter S

AJ "roasting marshmallows"

K painting her face

All done

During the evenings, we also enjoyed the company of one of my sisters and her family. We walked from the hotel down to the San Antonio Riverwalk for dinner, which was crazy since the Alamo Bowl was just around the corner. Every single restaurant was packed, but it was fun to be able to spend a little more time with her and her family.

The buildings downtown were beautifully lit for Christmas

A church downtown

The day after the children's museum, we visited the zoo with my sister and her family. The weather was perfect, and the kids all seemed to enjoy themselves.

Riding the giant iguana

Fun pigeons

 In one section, you could purchase some special food to feed to these colorful birds.

AJ feeding a bird

K feeding a bird

H taking a turn

S on his favorite spot. We did bring a stroller, but he was happier here.

H looking at a crocodile

 Just outside of the zoo sits a train station. K wanted to see more animals, but my boys preferred a train ride. This got a bit chilly since the sun was setting, and we didn't all bring our coats on the train.

H, Timo, and S

AJ and H

I didn't get a photo of it, but H ended up with my coat on by the end of the train ride. My poor little guy was so cold.

After San Antonio, we drove up to spend a couple of days with my parents. We took it easy there, taking the kids to the park to play, visiting an old fort, and enjoying a more relaxed schedule. We also had the privilege of celebrating my parents' 56th wedding anniversary with them. They are an inspiration and a great model of a happily married couple.

K saluting by a cannon at the fort

Two saluting kids, one silly kid

H saluting by the cannon

Um... yeah

This was the first part of a fun display of Christmas lights. The kids REALLY enjoyed the whole thing.

A rare photo of me with my parents

My parents and I

We left my parents' house the afternoon before our flight left from San Antonio. This allowed us to sleep closer to the airport and catch our early flight.

The first flight went well, but we arrived to discover that our next flight had been cancelled. We rebooked a flight for the following morning, and, after waiting for a while at the airport (we had booked a hotel but could not check in until 3pm), we discovered that the second flight had been cancelled as well. At that point, we started weighing our options and decided to fly as close as we could to home and drive from there. We arrived home around 4:30am, but we were at least HOME.

The next day was a lazy day, and rightfully so. It was good to be home.

S Turns Two

His ice cream car "cake"

My vibrant, mischievous, energetic boy turned two this month. I love my little toddler, but he sure is a handful. He loves making messes, destroying his siblings' Lego creations, and many other antics know to toddlers. He also loves to sing and read with me, and he gives wonderful hugs and kisses. Oh, and when he looks at me with his big blue eyes, I melt into a puddle of motherly mush.

My sweet boy also does not like cake. I learned that when I tried to serve him his siblings' birthday cakes this year. I was at a loss of what to do other than serve him plain ice cream, and I finally decided to put some ice cream into a car cupcake mold I have to create a car-shaped ice cream "cake".

Oooh, what's in there?

Blowing out the candles

Opening presents

My Little Mooch

Timo does not always eat with the rest of us. Whether he is up early eating breakfast or home late from work and eating a late dinner, he occasionally dines solo. Or at least he attempts to.

S has a habit of climbing into Timo's lap while he is eating to help him eat whatever is on his plate or in his bowl. There is something about seeing his daddy at the table that sparks an appetite in my little toddler. 

Memories and Ramblings

I have noticed that I have not had the time to regularly blog since I gave birth to my fourth child. For this reason, I have very few posts that include him. It is not that my experiences with him are any less entertaining or memorable. This post is dedicated to him and a few memories I want to keep.

S has had a habit of rubbing my arms when falling asleep for a while. When he was really young, he used to give me five when nursing. Now, he likes to put his hand up my long sleeves and rub my forearm as he relaxes. I have started to sing to him (and Hunter) before bedtime, and he snuggles down into my arms while in the rocking chair, sticks his hand up my sleeve, and listens. Sometimes he faces me a little more and sticks both hands up my sleeves.

Another memory I want to capture is that of S singing with me. I have started to sing some Christmas carols at night so the younger two can learn them by Christmas. Today, while I was singing "Away in a Manger" to him, he started singing along with me. We were rocking, looking into each others' faces, and singing together. It was such a sweet moment.

When I am done singing, I say the 23rd Psalm, and S knows it is time to go to bed. He insists on having his sippy cup (it has to be the blue one) in a certain corner of his crib, and he sleeps under his Cat in the Hat blanket. All this constitutes his bedtime routine, whether napping or going to sleep at night. I am not sure how it will all pan out once baby number five arrives. I guess we'll find out in April.

K's Ninth Birthday

My beautiful ballerina turned nine this year. She is an amazing girl who has strong leadership skills, a

helping heart, and a love for reading and baking.

This year, K wanted to help decorate her cake. She told me she wanted a candy-decorated cake, with crushed peppermint candies for a walkway leading up to a graham cracker house. We used Andes mints for the roof and door, and she placed gummy bears and flower-shaped hard candy around the cake to decorate the "yard". Of course, the base was ganache. We love that stuff.

Her birthday party was relatively simple, celebrating at home with family members. We enjoyed a home-cooked dinner, followed by cake and presents.

AJ's Seventh Birthday

This fall, AJ turned seven. He is an amazing boy who enjoys karate, reading, Star Wars, riding his bike, and, most of all, Legos. I love being his mother.

I told the kids that this year we were just going to have home birthday parties with family members. I did this for a number of reasons, one being that I don't want them to think they always have to have an extravagant and expensive party. I want them to appreciate the simple things in life as well.

AJ had originally asked for Star Wars cupcakes, and I had planned on putting Lego light sabers on top as a decoration. That way he would have something to play with afterward as well. When AJ saw the light sabers, though, he decided plain cupcakes were wonderful and the light sabers would be better off in his room in the hands of his Lego guys. So we celebrated with plain chocolate cupcakes topped with ganache.

Timo's sister came over to help celebrate, and we enjoyed a quiet evening with dinner, cupcakes, and opening presents. At the end of the day, I think he was just as happy as if we had hosted a Pintrest-perfect party, and it was a lot less stress for me as well.

A Journey to the Past

My sister's visit prompted me to plan a field trip to Old Sturbridge Village. This living history museum is set up to bring to life an American town set in the 1830s. Most of the buildings are actual structures from that time in history that have been relocated to the museum. I was surprised at this because I thought they would all be more recently constructed to represent what the buildings might have looked like at that time, much like what we saw at Plimoth Plantation.

When we arrived, the children immediately wanted to visit the children's area, called Kidstory. This is an indoor version of the village, where kids can "farm", dress up in period clothing, cook, shop, and "wash" clothes. I finally had to drag them away from it so we could see the rest of the place.

H working on his crops

Farmer S

K serving a customer root beer

K working at the general store

AJ cooking

Once we moved on, we walked by a small house, a Quaker meetinghouse, a barn, and some sheep. Then we arrived at a place where a lady was washing wool yarn and preparing it to be dyed. There were several colors of yarn hanging up to dry that had been previously processed, and the colors were amazingly earthy and natural. A nearby building showed what they used to arrive at each color, and there was a display showing various types of yarn and how they were processed. There was also a lady at a spinning wheel spinning some of the raw wool into yarn. Upstairs was a display about quilting, and the kids enjoyed playing with plastic squares and triangles to design their own quilt squares.

H in the Quaker Meetinghouse

H in a barn

K and AJ with the lady washing yarn to dye

The beautiful colors of dyed wool

Spinning

Weaving

AJ designing a quilt

One of the display quilts

The chair where the lady of the house would have done her knitting and mending

A cute little doll's bed

At this time, I took S down to sit on a bench and eat some lunch. The others soon joined us, and we ate in the shade while looking out across the common. When we finished, we started toward the schoolhouse. I pushed the stroller while everyone else rode a horse-drawn trolley. The kids told me one of the horse's names is Jim.

Upon arriving at the schoolhouse, we stepped inside where a lady was explaining the building, the school, and the requirements for the teachers at that time. One thing that stuck out was that the teachers did not have to have much training, and they usually ranged from 15 to 25 years old. The literacy rate at that time was about 90%, whereas it is now around 75%. S was getting fussy, so I stepped out with him. K and AJ wanted to experience a "lesson", so they stayed inside until the "class" started. They could choose from reading, math, or spelling, and they chose math. The questions were oral word problems, and my kids aced them. The actual math was very simple, and I wished they asked them more challenging questions. K was disappointed that she did not get to use a quill pen, but at least she could write on the slate.

S at a desk in the schoolhouse

A well-used desk top

K practicing her letters on a slate

AJ peaking out of the schoolhouse window

After their lesson was over, they came outside and played with the schoolhouse toys -- jump ropes and a pair of stilts. The stilts were a bit broken and therefore very difficult to use. My sister, Jaime, helped my kids walk on them, but no one could do it solo.

H walking on stilts with Auntie Jaime

AJ walking on stilts with Auntie Jaime

 From the schoolhouse, I stepped over to look at the pottery making building. As they only fire up the kiln twice a year, it was full of unfired pottery. After that, we hurried back to where the musket demonstration was supposed to take place.

The kiln

Pottery waiting to be fired

We arrived at the musket demonstration just in time for the guy to fire off the final round. He showed us how to load a musket and explained why the muskets of that period were so dangerous to shoot. The barrel was formed out of a sheet of metal and welded on the bottom. If that weld failed, the shooter could lose life or limb.

Musket man

The kids wanted to try out the town pump next, so we followed them over where they took turn pumping and playing in the cool, refreshing water. From there, we headed to the bake shop and store, where H convinced me to buy a Colonial soldier costume and AJ bought a hat.

Fun at the town pump

 

 

Jaime pointed out that the craft center would be a fun stop for the kids, so we strolled in that direction. When we arrived, K, AJ, and H chose to dip candles, and Jaime took S to the nearby play area to keep him happy. H grew tired of the tedious process of dipping candles, so my niece, Edith, finished for him while I took him out to join his little brother. When they finished, K asked if she could make the sconce as well. My response? "If you pay for it." She headed back to the craft shop to complete her project, and the rest of us sat in the shade and watched the boys play.

Dipping candles

A cute little sheep

K making a sconce for the candles

A familiar cow and farmer's wife

Once K finished her sconce, we realized that she was missing her bonnet. She claimed that she had it at the well, but after retracing our steps back there and inquiring at the store, it was still MIA. At this point, we split up. Jaime and Edith took the boys to the beekeeping exhibit while K and I retraced our steps even further until we found it at the schoolhouse. Praise the Lord. We then hurried to catch up with the rest of our crew. When we arrived at the beekeeping exhibit, I realized that S had kicked off his shoe somewhere along our hurried way. We turned around and had only walked about 100 feet before someone who had found the shoe returned it to us. Another praise.

At this point, I was ready to get out of there. We made our way to the exit, paused to peruse the gift shop, stopped at the bathrooms, and headed to the car.

It was a busy, day, but I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I don't know what I would have done without Edith and Jaime. They made the trip so much easier, providing two extra sets of hands (and eyes) to help with the kiddos. I am so thankful for their visit out to see us.

My little Continental Soldier