Christmas Cheer

"The best way to spread Christmas cheer, is singing loudly for all to hear!" -- Elf

Merry Christmas from The Alphabet Kids!

Trick or Treat AGAIN!

I promise this is not just a repeat of my Trick or Treat from Halloween. Or the Halloween party at school. I know I tend to repeat myself or forget what I've said and done (we'll blame that on Ethan's 3 am wake ups) but this is a new blog, about, you guessed it - TRICK OR TREAT!

So, about the beginning of October I was throwing away a bucket full of candy that was left over from a parade the kids and I went to in early JULY. After thinking about that and all the candy my kids would be getting trick or treating, I began to have candy on the brain. It was like a message was sent to me when I picked up a magazine that Joyce had given me and I read an article about a woman who sent Christmas stockings to soldiers serving overseas. I had my moment when the light bulb went off.

We were going to send some of our candy overseas to some soldiers. I thought about it and decided I would ask the other preschool moms (and dads) if they would be interested. I sent home a flyer. At first, I heard nothing. Bryan told me that he didn't think we'd get much, since our kids didn't bring home tons of candy. But I held out hope. I was going to get SOME candy.

But then the candy started coming. Next it was pouring in. But I still had to figure out who to send it to. Through our church I found a woman who is a member of Blue Star Mothers, and her son is serving in the Marines. She actually offered to pay my shipping! So I sent out a follow up email to parents and even made some phone calls. Bring on the candy!

I went in to the preschool Monday morning to have the kids write out cards. They were really cute and asked about where the soldiers lived, how their candy was going to get there, etc.

I had Bryan write up a news release for me and I sent it out hoping that the hometown paper would pick it up and add it to their "School News" section. Today I got a phone call that the Register wants to use us as their feature school article in Monday's paper! Super excited, but with only a few limited pictures I rounded up a few good kids & parents (that donated candy of course) and in less than 20 minutes had 5 kids for more pictures! You guys rock! I also got an email tonight that we'll be in the Catholic Chronicle as well!

Super super excited. I've been on cloud nine all day! While I should just feel good about the "doing good" part and not need the recognition, it's always nice to know that someone does recognize your efforts.

But really it wasn't just my efforts. It was the efforts of the kids in Christina's class. I took my Blue Star Mom tonight 54 pounds of candy. Yes, you read that right! 54 lbs!!! And I guess not only the recognition is good, but it's also good knowing that 54 lbs of candy isn't going straight to my hips & thighs!

I also need to add my funny with Christina & Dominic and the candy. Dominic could really care less what was going on with the candy, but Christina and I had to have a talk about where her candy was going.

After I explained to her, and how well can you explain war to a four year old, she seemed ok with her candy going to the soldiers. Well, Christina & Dominic were helping me box the candy up and she asked him if he knew where the candy was going. She then told him it was "going to soldiers who are fighting for us and fighting for candy - and now they don't have to fight for candy anymore." I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry, but I do know I have one amazing 4 year old!

Snack Time!

Ok, so my kids are usually not picky about what they eat, for the most part. And when it comes to snacks, we stick with the kid favorites - goldfish, bananas, fruit snacks, cheese & crackers, granola bars - you know some good, some not so good for you.


Well, Bryan went shopping on Friday night by himself and brought home this jumbo bag of Shearer's Butter Corn Puffs and asked me if they reminded me of anything. And they did. A little over a year and a half ago this picture of Christina was taken. You can tell by looking at it that she enjoyed her snack.


But I don't think we'd had them since then. We now have two more kids who would most likely be helping their big sister with this new bag. And helping they did! Well, Christina might have called it a hinderance, since she had to share!

Anyway, Saturday at lunch Dominic ate three large handfuls! By Saturday afternoon snack time, Christina and Ethan got in on the action. Then, when I came down stairs last night from putting Ethan to bed, Christina and Dominic were sitting on the couch eating cup fulls.


Don't be to harsh to judge my children's eating habits. I know they need their fruits, veggies, grains and what not, and we try really hard to stay on top of this. But sometimes it's fun to just eat junk food! So we don't do this everyday, and my kids do enjoy their green beans and grapes.

With that being said, Dominic found the bag of "popcorn" this afternoon and the snacking began again. I actually had to pour them into a bowl because the bag was getting torn! They were fighting over it! They finished their bag off this evening. So in a little less than two days my three children ate an entire bag of these things!


Christina was enjoying having the bowl in her possession. She did make sure everyone got some, but at one time she was holding the bowl above Dominic's head and told him to reach!

Everyone sharing nicely. Ethan was quite into this. He doesn't get chips, so this was a real treat for him!


Dominic & Ethan drinking their milk. Christina holding her bowl with a death grip!

Dominic and Christina with their empty bag. Guess we'll have to head back to the Market.

We love Shearer's Butter Corn Puffs!

It's Trick or Treat Time!

Happy Halloween from the Alphabet Family!

We had a chilly night, but that didn't stop us from heading out to collect our loot! If you have not seen our last two posts, here's the low down on costumes: Christina was a beautiful butterfly, Dominic was a mischievous monkey & Ethan a pleasantly perfect pumpkin!

What a fun time!

Christina and Dominic were ready to go shortly after getting up this morning. Someone remind me next year not to mention that it's Halloween until about 5 minutes before we get ready to go. It was a long day for them waiting for 5:30 to come! They did pass the time by asking me how soon it would be until they could go trick or treating. Bryan walked in the door and changed his shoes, however he didn't make it far enough in to even take off his tie.

Laying on the couch this morning, giddy with excitment of what was to come later on today!

So out we went.


Christina was into Halloween last year. Dominic enjoyed it, but tonight was different for both of them. Their excitement tonight seemed to feed off each other. Dominic must have tripped about 5 times trying to get out of the wagon faster than Christina. If I would have posted all of our pictures you'd see a theme, Dominic heading back to the wagon as Christina is still making her way up to the house. Here's one of what many of them look like:

Ethan was very happy hanging out in the stroller. He did get his fair share of candy, even after we told people he didn't need it. At one house they even let him pick out his own candy. He decided on a roll of smarties and a tiny tub of play-doh.

Christina was also pretty excited at one house. She got to get a bag of Fritos and proudly showed them off for the camera. Since when do people hand out Fritos for Halloween? These are the same people that also offered her a juice box. You might be thinking maybe they weren't expecting trick or treaters, but they were! They actually had 4 families partying in their yard with baskets of candy and what not that were handing out! So my girl brought home the Fritos!

Dominic had to check his bucket after almost every house. Making sure that they really put the candy in there and then to tell us what he got. Here's the monkey checking things out:

We were only out about 45 minutes but the kids had a blast! We barely got in the door and the buckets were dumped on the table. Obviously by the photos below, they had a great night!

Ethan with his smarties and M&M's

Dominic found some Lemon Heads

And in true Christina fashion, she liked, ALL OF IT!

Hope everyone had a wonderful night trick or treating. Truly a fun, cold evening.

Can't wait for next year!

Happy Halloween (at preschool at least)!

It's been a Halloweenirific week for Christina. She had her Halloween party at the library yesterday. The kids were all asked to wear their costumes. The librarian, Mrs. B, even came dressed as the Cat in the Hat. Christina I think was more excited about the M&M's they gave her and seeing if she could get them all eaten before we got home and her brother saw what she had!

Today we had her Halloween party at preschool. Christina decided she was going to be a butterfly this year. So we hit the sale at Old Navy and got her the cutest butterfly costume around! Of course, it was the cutest because she was wearing it!

This is Christina's costume from behind:

They actually combined the 3 and 4 year old classes for the Halloween party. So if this looks like a big group it's because it is! There are 24 of them when they are all together! I seriously don't know how these two teachers have the patience!

Christina's best friend at school is Jersey. In the picture above we have Reagan (also known as Princess Leia), Elizabeth (backwards Tinkerbell), Christina (the cutest butterfly in the universe) & Jersey (super girl). I unfortunately don't know the princesses next to super girl's names (sorry 3's)!

Christina eating her halloween cupcake. Although when asked if it was good, she informed me all she at was the frosting. And the cupcake was even chocolate! What was she thinking?!

Christina crawling through the tunnel during one of their many fun activities at the party.

This is Christina and Malena. Malena was cinderella. You may remember Malena from the birthday party post a few months back. They shared their party together (with Tinkerbell -Elizabeth) back in June.

Anyway, thought I'd post these up here so that Bryan will get off my back about me not doing a blog. He was nice enough to go to the party and take the pictures, the least I can do is blog about them!

Rest assured for the die hard followers, we'll have a post after Saturday night. Trick or Treating for everyone!

Sleep is calling me and after the week of sickies we've had-boy do I need it!

Night!

Fun For (F)All!

It's guest blogger time again!!! Daddy's back, thanks to mommy taking care of two sick kids. Yuck!

As the leaves have started to change colors and quickly fall off of the trees, the Alphabet Kids have been itching to play outside. So daddy fired up his trusty leave blower and built a pile of leaves in the back yard for the kids to play in. Needless to say, I think they had fun!

Christina and Dominic did their part to help build the pile.

After jumping in the leave pile over and over again, Christina found it fun and amusing to throw the leaves up in the air!

Ethan, who was NOT a fan of playing in the leaves, still found sissy to be quite funny while he was swinging nearby.

This evening, we tried to take our minds off of the horrible Browns game (as Dominic asked me, "The Browns are stinky like the Steelers daddy?". I had to explain to him the difference but ended up telling him, yes, the Browns stink and so do the Steelers, but for different reasons.)

With the weather being nice, we decided to go on a nature walk. So we piled the boyz into the wagon and away we went.

Before long, Christina wanted to pull her brothers in the wagon. Thanks goodness that rail was there or the boyz might have ended up swimming tonight! I think Dominic's facial expression says it all about his sister's wagon-pulling skills.

Of course, our little nature girl (not to be confused with Dominic, our Jungle Boy -- long story for another blog!) but our nature girl can't pass a pile of leaves without throwing them in the air. She is such the camera hog!


Dominic had to take his turn pulling the wagon.

All in all, the perfect end to a memorable fall day for The Alphabet Kids...

Now bring on Christmas!!!

Long time, no blog!

WARNING!!! This is a guest blogger (daddy). Mommy is WAY too busy watching three kids, cleaning up her spare bedroom and watching her favorite reality shows to blog lately. So, without furter delay, I give you... Daddy's Blog!

We have done quite a bit in the last few weeks. We went to Cedar Point with our friends from Toledo (otherwise known as Dominic's girlfriend Madelyn and her family)

Aren't they just a lovely couple? (Note: I am sure Angie will do a more detailed blog about our trip to the Point as there were a ton of great photos.)

Six kids between two families! All of them under the age of 4!!! Yikes!

In other news, Papa Dick and Daddy made Christina a garden this summer. She did a great job and definitely has a green thumb!

Lots of tomotoes... although they rarely made it in the house before being eaten!

The kids spent a TON of time out on their swingset and slide! Christina can now ride the "banana swing" all by herself, Dominic loves playing in the sandbox and Ethan enjoys crawling around in the grass (with the occasional snack of dirt... YUCK!)

Well, I have to run -- my old lady is yelling about something!

I hope you enjoyed the updated photos. Be sure to post a note on here about how much you enjoy reading our blog and seeing updated pictures of the kids! Maybe the Mrs. can put down the bon-bons and update it herself! (boy am I going to pay for that comment later!)

Oops, I almost forgot, Halloween is just around the corner...

Don't ask! Angie wanted them to dress up like the Wizard of Oz. Obviously, you can see the kids won that argument!

Ethan Turns O-N-E!

Happy 1st Birthday Ethan Noel!

It's official. I finally have to admit, that once you have kids, time truely does fly by. People have told me that you blink and before you know it your kids are grown. Well, Ethan isn't exactly grown, not yet anyway, but the past year has gone by in no time.

Ethan has grown so much in the past year! He's in the process of cutting two more teeth (which will take him up to 6), in the last month he's started crawling and now all we hear is "mama" and "dada". He's our "jumbo baby" weighing in at a little more than 20 lbs and measuring 30 inches tall. He's a super happy little man who loves to eat goldfish, play cars with his big brother Dominic and dance with big sister Christina.

On Saturday, August 1st we celebrated Ethan's first birthday with family and a few close friends. Mom & Dad came up (I guess from Indiana it's technically over) to help get things ready because Bryan had to work during the day. Gamma Chris, Christina & myself spent the morning making the coolest cupcakes. We decided to do a sports theme and made baseball, football and basketball cupcakes. I was really excited how they turned out considering it was a relatively easy throw together.

I made Ethan a baseball cake for him to eat but these are the cupcakes. I was quite proud of our work.

Here is Christina, Olivia, Madelyn & Dominic enjoying their cupcakes at the party. The girls all sat down on one side of the picnic table and Dominic (the ladies man) just had to sit down with them! Dominic just ate the icing off of his and had an orange mustache the rest of the night. I think this was their favorite part of the party.

Birthday boy Ethan really wasn't too sure about the whole cake thing, however once he got into the cake (I cut it so he could pick it up), he really got into it. I think he sat there for like a half an hour and just went to town. I ended up throwing him in the tub just to get the chocolate out of all of his little folds! Even after the bath, I found cake inside his ears!

All in all, it was a wonderful night - good weather, good food and good company. Can't get much better than that! Which is a good thing, because we'll be doing it again in about 12 months (which will be here before we know it)!

Our three musketeers! Can't imagine our life without any of those little faces!

Happy Birthday buddy! We love you!

Fun with the watering hose!

You are all being treated to a guest blogger tonight -- daddy!

Earlier tonight we took the kids out back as they have been begging mommy to take them outside recently. Why you ask? It's not because it is fun playing in the backyard or because the kids are bored in the house, no, they have been itching to go outside with daddy so they can get me wet with their new sponge balls that Christina got for her birthday.

Well, being the wise old dad that I am, I decided that I would trick the kids (it's not too hard, they are all less than four-years-old) and I got out the hose from the garage.

Let's just say that the kids got ahold of hose and had some fun!

Can you guess who got squirted the most? I can!

Sometimes there were battles for the hose:

And even though "sissy" won most of the battles, "bubba" got his own revenge as well!

And Ethan, well he just tried to stay out of his brother and sister's way and enjoy playing in the grass for the first time with mommy!


All in all, I think the kids had a good time tonight (even though daddy stayed dry!)