Tooth Fairy

Ryan lost his first tooth!! The tooth fairy made a visit last night - she left a note & some money in exchange for the tooth. He is very excited! Here is a video from last night.

December

Last weekend we headed to Stokoe Farms to cut down a Christmas tree. It was soooo bitter cold that we ended up buying a tree from the lot instead! Here is a shot of the kids in their winter gear ready to treck thru the fields to find a tree.

A closeup of Jess in her bunny hat. She loves this hat!!

Santa's reindeer!! Which ones are they?

After ~10 letters sent to Santa via the US postal service Santa decided to REPLY to Ry & Jess. How exciting!!!! Thanks to the Chili post office!

Ottrott and Strasbourg France

I spent about a week in the Alsace region of France - wine country! They are most known for dry Rieslings and for Gewürztraminer wines. I enjoyed quite a bit of wine while there!! A new bottle was opened for each course of dinner!! And one day I even had wine in the Ortho cafeteria with my lunch! Now that would never happen in the US!!!

I stayed in a very small town called Ottrott - right in the heart of wine country. The hotel is a tourist destination for French & Germans who enjoy wine tasting since it is right on the wine trail. I loved this hotel - great decor, delicious food, and a very nice room!

Here are a couple shots of the hotel lobby - small, intimate and gorgeous! And yes, we did sit in front of the fire and drink wine.

Here is the view as I walked out of the hotel front door - cool huh!

We drove up to the top of a mountain and walked around Mount Sainte-Odile which is an old monastery dating back to Prehistoric Era. Here is a shot down to the town we were staying in.

Here is a another shot - note that over the fence on the right is a sharp drop down the mountain. I can only imagine how beautiful this place is in the summer with the trees & flowers in bloom!

Here is a picture of the town of Ottrott. There were 3 restaurants, one bakery, one pharmacy and once tiny grocery store.

View out my hotel window - just beyond the town here are the vineyards.

Cathedral in Strasbourg - this place was so tall!!! Construction started in 1015. See here for more info on this Cathedral.

Shopping area in Strasbourg. Can you see the German influence in the architecture?!!

Well - that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed!

France

I'm off to Strasbourg, France for work for 8 days.
I'll post pictures when i return.
Au revoir

Happy Halloween

Trick or treating was so fun this year. We headed out with a bunch of neighbors and enjoyed the warm evening (temp in the 50's). This is the first year that Jessica was into it - after every house she ran down the driveway yelling to us that she got candy! So cute!! :-) There were at least 15 kids all running from door to door together - all under the age of 6! Complete chaos and fun!

Here are Optimus Prime (transformer) and Abby Caddaby (fairy from Sesame Street).

Here is Jess at the end of the evening- completely delighted that she rang a doorbell, said trick or treat, and got CANDY!!

Happy Halloween!!

Pumpkins

Every year Mema & Papa help us carve our pumpkins! Last evening they came over for our annual pumpkin carving! We carved & painted 4 pumpkins.

Here is Ryan digging in to the pumpkin to clean it out -- this is the first year he has done this - he usually finds the inside of the pumpkin gross and refuses to touch it.

Jessica cleaned her pumpkin with a scoop - she didn't like the inside!

Mema helped Jessica paint her pumpkin purple, pink, blue and white.

How many boys does it take to figure out a pumpkin face - hahaha

The final pumpkins - sorry the pic is a little blurry. Mine is on the left, then Ryan's with the mean face, and then Mema's painted pumpkin. Jessica's pumpkin didn't make the picture because it was glopped with so much paint that we couldn't move it.

Friends & Wine

Last weekend we hopped in a limo with some friends and headed to the Finger Lakes region to sample some New York State wine. We went to about 7 wineries and came home with 4 bottles :-).

Here is a shot from one of the wineries overlooking Seneca Lake (all photos taken by Charlie).

The leaves were gorgeous!

Group shot minus Charlie who is taking the picture.

Thanks to Gary & MaryLou for taking the kids all weekend! We enjoyed our weekend and the kids enjoyed their time with you!!!

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend we had some unseasonably warm weather. We took advantage of this and headed out to Stokoe Farms with the Anderson family for the day. They have quite a setup - a full day of activities (for all ages) includes wagon rides, the Corn Maze, Tractor Wheel Racers, a Straw Fort, a zip line, a pedal car race track, a Mini-Pumpkin Launcher, Nature Trail, mini train ride, 70 ft slide, and petting zoo.

Here is Ryan on the pedal car - Scott got on one right after him & rode right on by Ry laughing away!
Even Donna and Isabelle took a ride!

Me & Ry by the corn maze.

Here is a video of the tractor wheel race - Ry & Gav are in the white one in front and Scott & Jess in the yellow one behind them. Scott & Jess won the race! It was quite amusing watching the adults race - we saw some good falls!

Here is Scott & Jess doing the mini-pumpkin launcher. This was fun too - the crowd really got into it!
This years Pumpkin crop was great - lots of 'perfect' pumpkins to choose from. It was tough deciding which ones to take home!
Our little pumpkins! :-)
Jess was so exhausted -- we carried her in the house & she continued to sleep for another hour on the couch! So sweet!

Fall Festival

Ryan's school had its annual Fall Festival Friday night. They served pizza, cafeteria style, followed by some entertainment on the stage. The highlight was Mr. Ducky Wucky - a children's singer that entertained us all for 90 minutes! Every child was in front of the big stage dancing away! He played stuff from all the decades - even a little John Denver. Check out Ryan & Jess below!

Ryan was actually a little shy and didn't want to dance at first. So we stood off to the side and danced a little - check out the video below. He starts out slow and then finally starts having some fun. He eventually ditched me and danced with his buddies. Oh - and Jess loved it all - she danced right in the middle of everyone and had a blast!

Sweet Ryan

I came home one evening to our wall decorated with Spiderman stickers and post-it notes from Ryan. Click on this picture to see Ryan (heart) Mom. Ahhhhh.....he's so sweet! They've been on the wall for about a week now and I just don't want to take them down yet! :-)

Pee Wee Soccer

After several years of watching her brother from the sidelines Jessica finally has her chance to play a sport. Today was her first day of Pee Wee soccer. It's a league of co-ed teams consisting of 3 & 4 year old kids. The teams have an official coach but parent assistance is also required. It's very cute - they turn drills into games so the kids have fun. Today they had to dribble the ball and then kick it at the coach while he was running from them on his hands & knees!! Yep, the idea here is to HIT the coach with the ball. 15 kids, 15 soccer balls all trying to hit one 30 year old man!! The kids were all laughing hysterically and half of them (including Jess) were picking up their ball and throwing it at the coach!! After about 2-3 drills they play a little 4 on 4 on a very small field. The kids, of course, score on the wrong goal, or forget to kick the ball or just stand there & wave at their parents as Jess did today (cute!).

Here is picture of Jessica kicking it in the goal - as you can see she doesn't quite get that she can't touch the ball with her hands. Future goalie?? Oh, and the little boy next to Jess is scowling at Ryan because he was wearing a Ben 10 watch and thought Ryan wanted to take it from him.

Here's Jess waiting on the sidelines for her rotation into the game.

Kindergarten

Our little boy is officially a Kindergartener! The first day of school was today, and except for the loooong wait for the school bus, everything went very smoothly. Ryan was very excited to start school and thankfully that didn't change after he found out how things work at school. It's hard to see the shear excitement in him in these pictures, but believe me, he was excited. In fact, he looks downright casual here:


Here he is with his new school-bus partners, twins Olivia and Robbie, first graders who know all about that bus-riding stuff. No, the backpack wasn't too heavy for him, he just looks like he's struggling with it. This is after the bus was about 20 minutes late, and he was getting a little tired of waiting. Patience isn't always his strong suit. Of course, Jess couldn't resist getting in on the fun too, but she was very accepting of the fact that it was Ryan's day.

Here he is with his new table buddies before school started. As you can see, there were no tears or "seperation anxiety", unlike his mommy, who couldn't see how the picture came out through the tears. But she made it through OK.

Beach Vacation

Last week we packed up the car and headed out on the road to Myrtle Beach for a Hewitson family vacation with Mom and Dad, Michelle, Connor, Eli, Sean, Staci, and Jackson. Unfortunately, Steve was busy with lawyer stuff, so he couldn't make the trip with us. And we missed him. No, really.

Two days, 7 states, and a few rest stops later, we had arrived. Getting there is half the fun, right?

After spending the first evening settling into our rented beach house, the real fun began. We of course had a pool, and we were right across the street from the beach. I think the kids may still be there.

We did manage to bring home plenty of sand though (in the towels, in the car, in the beach bag, in the our clothes, in our shoes, you get the idea).

The weather was beautiful (excepting the torrential downpours on Wednesday), and it was great fun hanging out with the whole family, relaxing and enjoying each others' company. Especially the Atlanta cousins, who we don't get to see often enough. Below is about as good a picture as you can get of five children ages 5 and under. And Grandpa (A) and Grandma even smiled, too.

We also did some touristy stuff. Family dinners out, mini-golf, the aquarium and the amusement park. Ryan and Connor had a blast on the trampoline/bungee "ride". Here is Ryan's turn. He must have gone about 20 feet off the ground and had a smile on his face the entire time. We ended up outlasting the rest of the Hewitsons at the amusement park and stayed out until 11 pm, finishing the night off with some chocolate Dippin' Dots. Aren't vacations great?

Overall, the kids were very well behaved and treated all of their cousins with great respect. And they were very gentle and quite taken with baby Jackson. Of course, they knew if they weren't on their best behavior, they would find themselves in the stockade:
We took plenty more pictures, which you can view here

The Golden Anniversary

Happy 50th Anniversary Mom & Dad!

You have taught us how to be a good spouse, a good parent, a good friend, and a good person - thanks! We love you!!

We celebrated 50 years of marriage all weekend! Saturday we all went to mass where Mom & Dad received a special blessing. After mass Mom & Dad treated us to a great dinner at Romeo's. We headed to Sharon's later in the evening for some cocktails & laughs - it's rare these days that all of us kids are home together so we pack alot of fun into a short time - I was out till 1am! The next day we had a picnic at Adeline Park (in the neighborhood we grew up in). Lot's of family & friends came by and it was a great day! Here are some pictures from the picnic.

50 Years, 6 children, 13 grandchildren - WOW!!

The Grandchildren:

Dan, Jim, Jon, Mike, Matt, Dylan, Katie, Drew, Abby, Ryan, Gavin, Jess & Isabelle.

The whole Welch family - 28 of us total.

The men playing bocce ball.

Rodney & Scott playing Kan-Jam

Cornhole!

And of course.......Ring Around the Rosie!
Jess had orange soda face!

Jess & Daddy eating cookie cake. It was delicious!
Ryan and Gavin played all day with their older cousins Dylan, Matt and Mike.

They had a blast!!
Here is a picture of most of my cousins. What a crew!