Family and a Parade!

Jack, Trey, Eli, and Hannah

Corey, Carrie, Brett, Sarah, and Woody

Aunt Helen, Eli, and Hannah

  Hello again!  Fall has started off great!  In early October, we had an awesome family reunion with the Koellings.  We got to see lots of people that we hadn't seen in a very long time, and the kids got to meet people they'd never met before, including their third cousins Trey and Jack.  And I got to see second cousins that I've missed so much--Brett, Corey, Sarah, and Woody!  I hope we get to connect again soon!  We also saw Aunt Helen that afternoon--that's always a wonderful connection to make.  :)

Hannah's a tiger!

Our "Mystery Basket"

  The next great event for us was when Hannah and I spent the evening at school for their Fun Fest!  Hannah got her face painted like a tiger, played some carnival games, did a cake walk, and had a great dinner of pizza and hot dogs.  And here's the most amazing part--we won two items!  One was a basket from the raffle!  Each class created a huge themed basket with items sent in by families.  (Hannah's class made a cleaning basket--others included a movie basket, a sports basket, a couple Mizzou baskets, a gift card basket, and TONS more!)  The basket we won was one of the mystery baskets with many, many great items!  Hannah was SO excited!  And then, amazingly, we won a pumpkin-drop prize!  Students purchased foam pumpkins to be dropped from the top of a fire truck ladder and they landed on/near certain prizes, and Hannah actually won an iPod Nano!!  Amazing!  It was a very fun event for us to enjoy together--and not just because of the prizes.  ;)

Here comes our float!

Waving to the crowds

  Another fun thing we did recently was be in a parade!  Eli's school had a float in the Mizzou Homecoming Parade, so he and I had a blast sitting on the trailer and riding through the parade yelling "MIZ!!!!  ZOU!!!" with all his friends!  Then Hannah got to go to the Homecoming game with Grammie, Gabah, and Paw Paw.  (The kids take turns going to the games.)  Eli and I enjoyed hanging out with Nannie during the game!  We're all having a great fall, and we hope you are, too! 

Missouri Summer

Hannah before the game

Eli with Truman

Nannie's Birthday

Hannah with Mrs. Harl

Hannah with her friend, Masa

Brent and Hannah

Brent and Eli

     Well, our late summer has been going along very smoothly!  Hannah is doing beautifully at her school (Mill Creek Elementary), and she loves her teacher, Mrs. Harl.  Her teacher challenges her and insists on careful, neat work.  Eli is really getting used to his school (Windsor Street Montessori)--his teacher and friends are great!  The kids are also enjoying their activities--Eli is going to a soccer "class" on Saturday mornings.  It's a small group of kids who are all about the same age, and they love the coach.  Hannah is having fun taking piano from Ms. Vitt on Wednesdays, and is taking ballet on Saturday mornings at the Perlman studio.  Soon she'll be starting Brownie scouts, too.  
     As for me, jobs are finally starting to take shape!  I am a substitute at Eli's school--I've worked for a couple afternoons already!  I'm also going to start working for First Steps as a Speech Pathologist, which is a Birth to Three program, as soon as my state certification comes through.  I've also applied to be a substitute teacher in the public school system.  I'm guessing that my days will start to be really busy really soon!  
  So what else has gone on during the last month in the Weaver house?  Well, Brent came for a long weekend to visit--we had a great time!  We saw a movie, took the kids to the splash park and to ice cream, and tons of other things!  Mizzou has played 2 home games--Hannah went to one and Eli and I went to the other!  We also got to celebrates Nannie's birthday, and Hannah finally lost her first top front tooth.  It was a very exciting event!  We're now looking forward to an exciting October!

The Move

Hannah's 1st Day

Hannah at the Splash Park

Being silly at the park

Eli at the Splash Park

Oh my...I certainly did fall behind!  But I had an excuse this time!  We moved!  Boy--it was sure a crazy process.  I think the worst is behind us though.  They didn't end up getting all our stuff on the moving truck, so we didn't get everything in the initial load.  That was frustrating when we realized what we were missing!  We finally got it all this past Wednesday, though, so now we're all set.  Since we've been here, Eli has started preschool at Windsor Street Montessori School.  It's a great program, and we really like the teachers there.  It's taken him a while to get adjusted to a new school/new teachers/new friends, but he's getting there.  And another big change for Eli is that he's now potty-trained!  I'm so proud of him--he got the hang of it very fast!  We still have a couple accidents here and there, but overall he's done!  Hannah began 2nd grade at Mill Creek Elementary School with her teacher Mrs. Harl.  We are really excited about her teacher--she seems to be wonderful!  We've already seen lots of checked work coming home (didn't have much of that at all last year!) and a great deal of communication, which I think is wonderful!  Eli has started a soccer class called "Little Kickers."  It's a small class with about 6 or 7 three-year-olds and Coach Adam.  He does lots of little soccer drills, and it's amazing how much they learn!  I think having such a small class makes it easier for them to learn and get feedback!  Hannah has started piano with Ms. Vitt, and we think she's wonderful too!  She's already got lots of wonderful music to practice, even after week 1!  The kids have a new favorite place to visit--a great little splash park with a playground close by!  I am still searching for a job.  I've contacted several people, so I'm hopeful that something will come up somewhere sometime!  Overall, we're all doing great here!  Living within 10 minutes of Nannie and Paw Paw is awesome!  Almost too good to be true!  More updates to come...but for now, I'm signing off! 

The Rise of Technology

I'm constantly amazed at how much technology is growing.  Mom and Dad have told me that when I was 4 or 5 I was amazingly good at a couple computer games--I could even beat their friends!  But of course these games were on a very large, slow, old computer.  As I grew up, computers got smaller and more complex, but still they were nothing compared to what they are today!  I can't even believe we survived without the internet when I was growing up--without whitepages.com, Wikipedia, Google, Mapquest, etc.!  And now there are these cool iPads (and iPods) where you can just touch a small screen and everything happens immediately!  And you can do anything you want!  Play games, look up information, learn...  and even kids as young as Eli can completely navigate their way around on it!  My good friend Beth came to visit last weekend and had some cool games on her iPad that the kids had a ball playing!  I got some new apps for them over the weekend too and now I hardly get my iPad back!  Learning to share is always part of it.  Sometimes they play it together nicely, but usually things work out better when it's one at a time.  :)  I wonder what technology will be like when Hannah and Eli have kids!

Trip and Party

Christy, Hannah, and Ella

Riding in Paw Paw's 1931 Model A Ford

  I'm going to tell about two great things that have gone on within the last week!  Last week, we went on an awesome trip to Missouri!  The best part was seeing the rest of our Koelling family from Virginia!  My aunt, uncle, 3 cousins (Christy, Adam, and Ashley), and Christy's adorable baby, Ella!  We had lots of time to visit and have fun (although there is never really enough time!).  We also did some "moving work."  We chose a wonderful piano teacher for Hannah, made plans to have a fence put in at the new house for the dogs (and kids), and Mom and Dad closed on our lot at Arrowhead Lake where we'll build our house!  It was a super-fun trip.  

Eli and Chandler

  The day after we got back from our trip, we had our going-away party for the kids.  It was a chance for them (mainly Hannah, but Eli had one friend come) to say good-bye to her friends.  Some of them she'll see again, but for the most part, it was good-bye.  It was really hard to say good-bye, maybe more for me than her even!  Luckily, I never actually cried, but the tears were there a lot!  

Hannah and her friends

  The theme of our party was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," so I made LOTS of rainbow-themed treats.  I made rainbow Rice Krispie treats, rainbow fruit kabobs, rainbow cupcakes, and even a rainbow of juice boxes!  I think it was a great party, and everyone enjoyed the company of their friends (both adults and kids!)  I think it's getting to the hard part here.  Tons of packing and saying good-bye. 

Eli's 3rd Birthday

The famous birthday hat

Loving the Superman card

Telling Auntie and Uncle Pat that he's 3

On Wednesday, my little Eli turned three!  I can't believe he's already three!!!  He has grown in so many ways--he talks like a big kid, he moves like a big kid, and he behaves like a big kid!  He's no longer a "toddler"--I now have a "preschooler!"  On his birthday, he opened his presents in the afternoon and then he got to choose where we went to dinner--he picked Denny's.  And when we got back from dinner, he got to talk on the phone to Auntie and Uncle Pat and to Nannie and Paw Paw!  He loved being sung to and talking!  It was very cute--when asked how old he is, he always counts on his fingers, even when on the phone!  He is now having a great time playing with his new cars and action figures--he's SUCH a boy!!!  So Happy Birthday to Elijah Thomas Weaver!

The Pirate Party!

Well the day finally came!  Eli's 3rd birthday party!  I think I enjoyed it more than anyone!  (I guess that's what it's like to be a mom, huh?)  I planned pretty extensively for this and made some really cool decorations/food, so seeing it all together and being enjoyed by the kids and adults at the party was SO rewarding for me!  And, of course, seeing all these little kiddos playing together and so many huge smiles was just awesome.  I will (and I know the kids will) miss all these people so much when we move!  All the kids were so well-behaved and I really enjoyed meeting the parents--what wonderful people!  So anyway, enough rambling about MY feelings about the party!  Let's talk about the actual party!  Obviously there are lots of pictures, and I can't post them all here, but I'll post the best.  

    For food and decorations, I think the most impressive to they eye were the Jello Oceans and the Melon Pirate Ship.  The Jello Oceans were made by making blue Jello (with slightly more water than called for), putting it in clear cups, and after about 1 hour of refrigerating, pushing in the gummy fish/sharks to where you want them and they'll stay!  The Melon Pirate ship was obviously just carving and slicing and putting together!  (I got tons of these ideas from others on the internet, so they get some credit!!)  I think the most popular eating-wise was the peanut butter cannonballs.  They ran out FAST!  I was told that they tasted like Reese's Pieces.  They were made by mixing 1 cup of peanut butter, 1/2 cup of powdered sugar, and some Cocoa Krispies.  Then, I rolled them in more Cocoa Krispies and refrigerated them.  YUM!  Other things I put out were Goldfish crackers, Shark fruit snacks, Deviled egg "boats" (put pirate flags in them), Gummy fish/sharks, and "fruit cannonballs" (melon balls from the watermelon, cantaloupe, and honeydew I used for the pirate ship and some grapes.)  Of course the cupcakes are always popular, too!  :)  When the guests sang "Happy Birthday," Eli was hugely happy--he had the biggest smile on his face I've ever seen and he was giggling the whole time!

  For games, I had stations set up.  One was for playing the game "Pop-Up Pirate," one was for coloring pictures I printed off the Disney website of "Jake and the Neverland Pirates," one was for playing with the Little People pirate ship/accessories, one was to decorate frames with pirate foam stickers to put pictures I took of the kids wearing a pirate hat and holding a hook in and put foam with magnets on it on the back, and the last station was a plastic tub filled with sand where they went on a treasure hunt for necklaces, ring pops, chocolate coins, silver chocolate "nuggets," and pirate rubber duckies.  The kids all had fun with the stations!  I think it was a really fun party and I'm actually kindof sad that it's over!  Oh...one more thing...check out Eli's t-shirt!  There isn't any "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" stuff out yet, so I found this on E-bay--someone who makes shirts from the show with names on them, so Eli's shirt says "Eli and the Neverland Pirates!"  I so appreciate this person's work!  If you want to see more party pics, here's the link to my Facebook pics.!  http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10100642020397857.2977622.8621722&l=e6444ce026

Fun at the Park

Just like in my last post, Eli is getting bigger and bigger all the time!  Yesterday, we went to the "Purple Park" (across the pond from our house--a much desired destination) while the house was being shown.  Yes, all seven of us!  (Mom, Dad, Me, Hannah, Eli, Buddy, and Noah!)  Dad was playing with Eli on the swings and was able to get Eli somewhat comfortable on the "big boy" swings!  He wasn't able to go very high, but it was a pretty exciting moment for him!  (Well, for Gabah too!)  :)

Rediscovering an Old Favorite...

Hannah and Eli Playing Hullabaloo

Standing on his favorite--the drums.

"Fly to the..."

 Eli is finally at an age where he can enjoy games.  He still has some trouble with following rules, sharing, being a good sport, etc. but he's continually getting better.  Two games we've started out with are the Cranium games Cariboo and Hullabaloo.  These were both favorites of Hannah's when she was his age.  I think his very favorite is Hullabaloo where the speaker tells where to step next (color, shape, category, etc.)  Actually, it's not usually "walk to..." it's "hop to" or "spin to" or "jump to" or "fly to" and lots of others.  And then it says "freeze" and whoever is standing on the announced pad wins.  Then the winner gets to do a "victory dance" or bow or do a "victory jump."  Eli's favorite pad to step on is the drum.  He's usually standing on it unless he's encouraged to move to another pad.  It's great to watch him play, and it's also especially fun to see him do his "victory dance."  Luckily, he has several people who love to play it with him--Brent and Hannah.  Even the dogs like to get in on the fun!  (well, they like to lay in the middle of the game pads.  Ha ha ha)  It's great to watch them all play and I can't wait for him to get better and better at playing games!

Buddy is trying to play

Brent and Eli playing together

We're Back!!

Hannah's 1st Grade Class

It's been almost exactly a year since we've posted on here, so I thought maybe we should get started up again!  We've had a pretty busy year here.  Eli is about to turn three in just over a week and next Saturday we're having a pirate birthday party for him.  We've got some other big news--we're moving to Columbia, Missouri in August!  It'll be great to be living near Nannie and Paw Paw.  Hannah just finished first grade and had a wonderful year, and for the past year Eli has been going to the Montessori school where Hannah spent 4 years.  I'll try to keep things more updated, but for now I'm signing off...