Holidays 2011

Ah, what a holiday. It was long and luxurious.

Before we headed North for Christmas festivities, we opened up some gifts from Gran Leah. Here are some sweet photos of Creston and Ivy enjoying their very first dolls. Creston immediately insisted that his doll be clothes-free, and he's never looked back. Great Grandfather Amory would approve.

When we got to Vermont there was a little bit of snow, just enough for some excellent sledding. Here's cousin Cora in the sledding mix.

 

'Twas the night before Christmas, and Ivy sewed her own stocking with Grandma Robin. Ivy also wore some sort of Brownie beanie for awhile, and every time it slipped a bit shouts of, "My Hat!" could be heard throughout the house.

Handsome cousin Arthur, days away from turning ONE.

The merriment continued over on the New Hampshire side of the river. Readers may recognize this famous horse, still very much in action.

 Cute cousins in the snowy cold.

Grandma Carola's road is closed due to a storm that happened quite awhile ago, and no government agency wants to foot the bill for doing the work to re-open it. People are mad enough about it that you can buy bumper stickers at the village store demanding, "Preserve Lyme's History: Open River Road." But its closure sure does make for a safe and quiet winter walk with toddlers.

We walked down to the Tullar's dairy farm, where Creston was able to satisfy his tractor obsession. We counted many tractors.

And, as is the holiday tradition at this point, Paphanh came to visit bearing crazy amounts of delicious Laotian food. We stuffed ourselves silly.

We even went out to dinner, which is extremely rare for the Lea-Simons clan. In fact, have we ever done it? I am not sure.  But here is Creston practicing his penmanship while Grandma decides to order veal. It was a great meal.

Ivy really likes Grandma Carola's puppy, Mai. Now that we have returned home, Ivy tells a lot of stories about Mai - usually they involve letting Mai lick peanut butter off of her fingers, which is something that Grandma taught her how to do.

When it was all over, we traveled home with the obligatory stop at Friendly's.

And to all a good night!

Happy New Year. We miss you. Come visit. xo

Happy Thanksgiving!

We were lucky enough to host an international Thanksgiving crowd this year. Brockton, Queens, Brooklyn and Trinidad were all at the table. We deep fried our bird and didn't burn the house down which was very exciting. And extremely delicious! I think we'll be frying up some smaller fowl when Grandma Carola comes to town this weekend.

Before:

After:

Ivy will eat ANYTHING and declared a love of brussels sprouts. Actually, she wouldn't eat pumpkin pie. But she'll eat anything else.  Here she is with some sprouts and her cousin, Rylee.

More cousins.

Gran Leah and a speedy boy.

And here's some fun from the local Hot Spot Tot Lot.

Urban gardening, digging in the dirt with sticks.

Things get exciting when we bring the skateboard. Creston has always been a fan and Ivy has recently come around. Check out the form on the Lea-Simons twins! Helmets aren't necessary quite yet, but we're getting there. They're picking up speed.

Ivy launched Creston

And then they opted for a very restful, bellydown style of skateboarding. I think they would have stayed like this for hours, rolling around the park.

It was a great, extra long weekend for the whole family. Beautiful weather and much relaxation. We hope you all had some of the same!

Halloweening 2011

Is this the last year that we'll be able to pick our kids' costumes for them? Probably. Our little salt and pepper shakers looked pretty cute at home. 

But after braving the freak snowstorm to get to the Brooklyn Children's Museum's Halloween special event, we ditched the well-designed cardboard portion of the costume and went with the basics. Still pretty stinkin' cute. Wonder what they'll want to be next year? If we were to guess according to their current loves, Creston would be a tractor and Ivy a grape. Only time will tell.

Some photos of our Long Haul Farm visit rose to the surface, so we'll take you back in time a bit here.

We definitely like to read.

And try on as many shoes as possible.

See ya!