Class Pasta Making

I kind of volunteered Scott last year to make pasta for Avery's class. He and Avery enjoying doing that together and I knew the class would enjoy it as well. It just didn't happen last year - we got busy and never mentioned it again. The month of February Avery's class was studying the continent of Europe and Ms. Christina asked if Scott would be able to make pasta this month.
Last Friday Scott packed up all the pasta making gear and took Avery to class for the morning presentation. I wish I could have gone, but I handed Avery my point and shoot camera and asked if she would get the teacher to take a few pictures for me. I forgot to change the settings on the camera, so some of the pictures look a little off. Even though they're not the best pictures in the world, I think you can still tell what a fun time the class had making and eating pasta.

Scott cuts the cheese. :-) He took all fresh ingredients, even fresh eggs from our chickens!



Scott tried to get the kids to grate the Parmesan, but it was a little more difficult than he expected.


Avery's teacher, Ms. Christina taking over the parmesan grating duty.

I love this picture of the class listening to "Mr. Scott" talk about pasta making. I can tell Avery has a slightly embarrased expression on her face.

Scott shows the kids how to mix the eggs and flour together.

Rolling the pasta dough out. Each kid got to roll their own dough.

Clara is proud of her dough rolling accomplishment.

The pasta hanging after each child rolled their dough.

Scott begins cutting the pasta.

After cooking the pasta in the school kitchen, Scott added olive oil and fresh grated parmesan and the kids got to eat it.

Here are Mary and Brooklyn enjoying the noodles.

Liam and Lia trying it out. I can't be for sure, but Liam doesn't look all that impressed with fresh pasta.

However, Lia looks like she approves of the fresh pasta.

School Birthday Celebration

The birthday celebration at the Montessori school is not your normal classroom celebration.
The class sets out the sun and the months and the child that is celebrating picks up the earth and walks around the months as the class repeats, "January, February, March", (you get the idea) for each year. After each rotation they stop on their birth month and the teacher asks if the child is that year and the kids respond. When the answer is no, the child keeps walking around the sun until they reach the birth year. After each year rotation, the parents are supposed to tell the class what was significant about the child's life during that year.

Here are a few pictures from the celebration.

Avery is excited to be the birthday girl. The other kids are volunteering to set up the birthday walk.


Ms. Christina instructs the helpers.


Clara sets up the light in the sun.

The sun all lit up.

Avery volunteers to put out the October month.

Avery takes her first walk around the sun.


Avery just made her first trip around the sun. Ms. Christina is asking the class, "Is Avery one?" You can see the responses on the children's faces.


Avery enjoying her oatmeal raisin cookie after the birthday walk.

Clara is such a ray of sunshine.

Elyse, Avery R., and Ian pose for the camera.

Isabelle and Avery. I'd say they look like happy 5 year olds.

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a very Happy Valentine's Day. We spent the day in Orlando outlet mall shopping. It was a fun day for all of us. Sometimes a little retail therapy is all that is needed to help repair the WEEK FROM HELL.

This is the card I made for Avery's school. With a little tech support from my friend, I managed to make it all by myself. :-) Thanks Katie.

Happy 5th Birthday Avery Raine

We escaped another birthday party. We gave Avery the option of a party or a trip to Disney and she chose Disney of course (yes!). The thought of 20, 5 year olds running around while I (we all know it would be me) attempt to occupy them scares the heck out of me.

We headed down early Monday morning to go to Chef Mickey. I had high hopes for this character meal and quite honestly it was kind of 'ehhhh'. I have no idea what the hoopla is over this place. Maybe it was because it was breakfast? Maybe the other meals are better? The food wasn't all that good. However, we (mostly Avery) did have fun seeing all the characters.

Here she is with Pluto. It was so cute, she told us he sniffed her.


Minnie stopped by along with Goofy, Mickey and Donald (not pictured).


The weather was not on our side. We toughed it out and walked around for 2 solid days in the on again off again rain.
This picture's caption is, "Are we having fun yet?"


Avery poses by the castle.

Mommy and Avery did the Playhouse Disney show by ourselves. For some reason Scott had no part of sitting on the floor for 30 mintues. This is us sitting on the floor waiting on the show to start.

Here is Avery waiting in the Toy Story Mania line. This ride is fun, but not sure it is really worth THAT wait.

Our friends Jay & Michelle came down for a day and hung out with us. They stayed with Avery so we could ride the Rockin' Roller Coaster at Hollywood Studios. Avery was seriously upset that she wasn't tall enough to ride the rollercoaster, so Michelle took her to get a Minnie tatoo. Avery loved it, and days later it is still on her arm.

This is us in the Rockin' Rollercoaster line. It's no surprise Scott is on the phone in almost every picture we took.

The birthday girl enjoying her breakfast at Animal Kingdom. It started out cloudy and chilly, but we managed to have a beautiful day.

It wouldn't be right to not get her face painted again. She loved the face paint.

Avery & Ava (they both have their tongues out).

Out friends Chris, Amy and Ava were also visiting Disney this week, so we met them the morning of Avery's birthday and played at Animal Kingdom. It was great to see them. Ava is turning 2 on the 8th. She is so adorable. The two of them together were precious. Ava kept holding Avery's hand. They were walking around together throughout part of the park holding hands. I didn't get a picture of that, but I hope Chris did!

After 2 days of solid rain, it finally broke and we had a beautiful evening. This is the view leaving Hollywood Studios one afternoon.

Avery and Mommy both did the face paint at Epcot one night.

This girl loves getting her face painted. We love it because she is so happy. Hmmm, maybe we should do this on a regular basis!

We found a great place to watch the fireworks at Epcot one night and the rain started coming down very hard. We decided 10 mintutes before the show to just head back to the hotel. She was whooped.

This was after her birthday meal. She was waving that wand and skipping all over the place (most likely from the TWO desserts).

This is the birthday girl enjoying dessert #1 at Cinderella's Castle.

Here she is heading out of the park and posing one last time in front of the castle.

Avery with Cinderella before our meal.

We were a slight bit dissapointed to only see the Fairy Godmother and two of the mice for the castle dinner. Apparently, all the princesses are out only during breakfast and lunch.

Princess Avery all worn out on her birthday. Heading back home to reality.

First Boat Trip of the Year

Last Sunday our friends invited us to go boating with them. The day started out cold and choppy on the water. As each hour went by the weather got better and better. It turned out to be a beautiful afternoon. The relaxation of being on the boat was something we all needed and enjoyed. The days are always too short when we are out on the water.

Life has been very hectic and stressful this month. I believe January 2010 has been more stressful than the entire year of 2009. I hope it tapers off soon (PLEASE!). I am welcoming February with open arms, as long as 'she' promises to be nice to me.

Tomorrow we head to Disney to celebrate Avery's 5th birthday. I finally got a point and shoot camera, so this time I will be taking Disney pics. We have decided to go bagless to the themeparks during our last few trips, so I have had any pictures to share. Booo.

Avery is super excited for tomorrow and I need to get packing - we leave VERY early in the morning.

I added a few pictures to the Photo A Day link to the right. I've been slacking again on the daily picture taking.

Here are some pictures from last Sunday's boat trip:


Napping on the boat. Scott was napping, Avery was faking it.


Heading back in after a lovely day.



Beautiful ending to the day.

I love cold!

I might be one of the only people I know that absolutely LOVES this cold weather.
I'm not sure why - maybe it's because I grew up in an area that had moderately cold weather. Something about it is just nostalgic to me. I love having hot drinks, wearing sweaters and curling up under blankets by the fire (wish we had working fireplaces). Most of all, I love not sweating or ever being hot. I think I live in the wrong state because soon enough it will be blazing hot.

This weekend we are packing up the Christmas decorations. We have so much Christmas stuff, it is exhausting. It's been a great day though, it feels good to be productive.

Tonight we are going out to dinner (yay!) and to see the Princess and the Frog again (well, again for Avery, but a first for us).

Here are a few recent pics.


This is Fergus (Fergie) outside the kitchen window. He wants to come in because it was 32* outside. I've been keeping them in the bathroom on cold nights and turning a heating pad on for them outside during the day.


In a nutshell....these are two nuts.


Avery poses with citrus (I have no idea what this particular citrus is, we have at least 10 different varieties in the yard).


We are in the "I can dress myself" stage. Luckily, we didn't leave the house until the outfit changed!