Thanksgiving Trip!

We traveled down to Mark's sister's house for Thanksgiving weekend. We haven't stayed there since I was pregnant with Annie (we were long overdue!). We had such a wonderful relaxing, bonding weekend. Annie discovered the game Guess Who? and played it for hours with whomever would play with her. Cousin Alex brought out all his matchbox cars for Sam to play with and that made Sam very happy.
Cousins Sarah and Alex both play the piano and brass instruments, so everyone kept taking turns on the piano. Annie had made up her own song and kept playing it all weekend. Mark kept practicing the "Believe" song from Polar Express and Alex kept playing Ode to Joy as fast as he could in a variety of different keys.

Sarah had to play in the pep band at the high school Saturday night so here she is grabbing a bite to eat before she heads off (with her Uncle Mark being goofy). We went to a children's museum during the day on Saturday and we spend many hours there coloring, building, jumping rope, dancing and getting flushed down a toilet! The kids were pooped and both fell asleep at 7:30pm and didn't wake up until 7 the next morning!

Here is Annie after another practice of her song on the piano. She told me this weekend she is finally ready for piano lessons, so I have to call Mark's instructor to see if Annie can come around the same time as Mark. We all slept well and the kids took naps both ways in the car. It was a wonderful weekend with family and we are so glad we went!

Where have I been?

Sam has been in gymnastics since he was two and last week I finally remembered to bring the camera! He really loves gymnastics. He has started to create his own floor routines at home to movie themes (like Mission Impossible and music from Wall-e and Pirates of the Caribbean). I can see that people are having to take their kids activities into budget cuts because Sam only has two other kids in his class. I am sad for the gymnastics place, but it is nice to have it a little less crowded.
Awesome Straddle jump Sam! I am so proud of you!

Halloween 2009

Happy Halloween from Annie and Sam! This Flory family loves this holiday! What in the world is better than getting dressed up and going door to door for free candy?! Annie loved being a princess, surprisingly this was her first year asking to be a princess. Sam loved being Beast, but wanted to make sure all day that he was the mean Beast (not the nice beast that falls in love).
The kids had finished trick-or-treating with daddy in under two hours and their bags were full (Annie's bag was so heavy it broke right before she came home). Here the kids are at the door waiting to pass out candy to other trick-or-treaters-which they love just as much as getting the candy. The kids always surprise me at how much they want to share their candy with Mark and I (or anyone that comes over). I was never that willing to share my candy!

After trick or treating the neighbors came over for appetizers and snacks. All the kids were running around yelling at the top of their lungs "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat! If you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear!"

Can't imagine who taught them that! :)

Getting Ready for Halloween!

This is the first year that the kids actually wanted to help me carve pumpkins. Usually we carve pumpkins a week before Halloween, this year it was two days before. We had fun time. Sam really liked playing with the 'hat' of the Jack o lantern and poking holes in the flesh.
Annie did try to scoop some pumpkin guts out, she has never wanted to try this before because of the goo. Sam refused to try at all but had fun calling the guts "pumpkin boogers."

Here Sam is very focused on poking all the holes around his outlined shapes. He was really having such a great time and so proud of himself that he could do it himself!

ta da! There they are!