Happy 2014!

To celebrate New Year's Eve we hit the town and went for a very nice dinner.  After dinner we took the kids for a stroll through town, where we found all the decorations.  The kids are standing in front of the town Christmas tree which is done in blue lights and Chinese lanterns were suspended over head leading to town hall.  It was beautiful.

The kids all went to bed so the grown ups could try to party like its 1999 but someone kept sneaking down to join us.  Turned out he made it all the way to midnight and then crashed on the couch.  Connor loved hanging with the adults and loved participating in all our games.

Emily loved celebrating 2014 and brought the New Year in with style.

Happy New Year!  May the successes of 2013 carry over into 2014.  Wishing everyone health and happiness.

The Buneta's have Arrived

Every year the kids can't wait for the Buneta Family arrival to our house.  If a picture could capture the magic of how much fun our kids have together, I think the below sums it up. For five days, the kids ran around, played football, Xbox, baseball, tag, Apples to Apples, HeadBanz and every other game possible. 

In only a few days, we managed to see the movie Frozen, go to Frozen Ropes and go bowling.  On New Years Eve day, we decided to use our golden asset, Aunt Jenn and finally go ice skating.  I have wanted to bring the kids ice skating for years and we did it.  

After gearing up, we hit the ice and I was amazed at how well they all did.  Garrett told me that Aidan told him how to skate.  Don't look at your feet and just walk...off Garrett went.  My favorite quote is that he told me he has to get faster so he can play ice hockey.

Emily did fantastic.  I thought she might be a little young but she held my hand and off we went.  Aunt Jenn did rescue me on our second lap when my back was starting to ache.  Emily didn't want to stop...after a snack, I thought she could have stayed on the ice for hours.

Connor was a natural.  Slow and steady at first and all of a sudden he was in the middle of the ice skating around.  He was fantastic!

What a fun day of ice skating and many thanks to Aunt Jenn who got us motivated.

A Christmas to Remember

There were only three short weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas and we have no idea where the time went.  We did manage to do all our favorite Christmas traditions - including a visit with Santa.  

The weekend before Christmas we had the best time.  Grandpa, Nana, Ellen and Kevin all came to visit and we had an amazing First Christmas.  (I need to ask Grandpa to send me his pictures from the weekend.)  I cooked us up a Turkey dinner and as soon as we were done, the kids couldn't be stopped getting to their presents.  Thank you for all of our fun and exciting presents.  

The night before Christmas we went to Japanese because it is tradition.  When we got home, we got all snugly in our red pajamas and listened to the book "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" - narrated by Grandpa.  There was so much excitement it was hard to contain but the kids did manage to force themselves to sleep.

When we woke up in the morning, it was Christmas magic as always.  

There were presents and toys throughout the house.

We couldn't believe everything that Santa managed to bring us.

These are our happy kids.

What could this be?  We later found out it is an indoor basketball hoop.

A Flutterfly Fairy for Emily who couldn't be stopped ripping through her presents.

Skylanders - Garrett was a little excited.

Non-stop action.

Connor's face was a permanent smile all day long - priceless.

Emily using her new blender to make us all a yogurt smoothie.

Connor's popcorn machine was a huge hit.  After Connor and I put it together, we were ready for the test run.  Connor is now the official popcorn vendor for our house.

Unfortunately some of the Christmas magic wore off, when Daddy and Garrett came down with a very bad stomach virus later in the afternoon.  Thank goodness they were better for the new year.

Second Grade Sing Along

Connor's teacher, Ms. Teng, had the parents stop in to see how the kids were progressing.  It was great to see them in their classroom with all their friends.  They performed several science songs and taught us all a few new things.  Including the fact that there are now 5 oceans because scientists have discovered the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica.   Who knew - not me.

 

Connor is very serious at school but I think he loved having us.  Thank you for singing so well.  

3 in 6 Days

Connor set a new Tooth Fairy record today.  Connor lost his third tooth in six days.  I don't know how he is going to chew or keep food in his mouth. 

Hopefully the tooth fairy doesn't think we are playing a trick in her.  

Garrett Lost His First Tooth

Garrett was starting to wonder when he would ever lose his first tooth.  As he was putting the finishing touches on his letter to Santa, he realized he was holding his tooth.  He is so excited. 

congratulations big guy!

Forever Friends

Let the Thanksgiving festivities begin.  Can you imagine 6 couples having that many children?  Seriously we must have lost our minds in LV.  Joe and Deb had us over for a night of delicious food and lots of fun.  After lots of begging, we managed to get all the kids together.  

Then, the other kids got together and as you can see by the three on the right, our boys are never going to grow up

I love getting to see everyone and love all the laughing!

Happy Thanksgiving

Now that Connor had a taste of the tradition of Conn Football on Thanksgiving morning, he now demands that we travel to Long Island to partake in the festivities.  After a morning of riding bikes to the field, playing football and being tackled by cousins, it was time to eat the delicious meal that Grandma prepared.  Garrett is so observant and actually told us all to say thank you to Grandma because she did not leave the kitchen all day.  

What a meal!  The weekend was filled with playing games, enjoying the outdoors, seeing friends and playing some more with family.  It was a great weekend and fun to visit. 

November Art & Accomplishments

The kids work so hard on their many art projects and I have no idea how to keep it all together - I thought a great way to keep track of some of their finest work would be to share it in the blog.

Garrett's Thanksgiving Turkey created in Kindergarten

Emily's Collage of Leaves made in her Llama Preschool class

Connor's Turkey and Scarecrow made in Second Grade

Second grade comes with many amazing new things including tests.  Here is Connor's most recent math test where he scored over 100.  Connor got all the question right including the bonus question.  We are so proud.  Keep up the good work.  

Mom's Birthday

The family threw me a great birthday party and I couldn't have felt more special.  The kids gave me the best gift of all - they let me take them to a portrait studio and as always took gorgeous pictures.  Also, they made me some beautiful homemade cards.  

 

Thank you for an amazing day!

Here is a sample of the phenomenal pictures we now have of our beautiful children.

A Successful Soccer Season

Team William & Mary played a great season and even these last two weeks in the freezing cold at 8 am.  They were one tough soccer team.  Connor hustled his last game to save three goals and played so well.  Congrats!

Pre-Team Gymnastics

Garrett started gymnastics in September and it was a huge success.  He is a natural and at the beginning of October he was invited to join the next level called pre-team.  The team is a small group of four boys who work on skills and technique.  Garrett is thriving and we are very proud of him.  Here he is vaulting today.

Happy Halloween.

As tradition dictates, we were very ready for Halloween at the beginning of October. The kids picked out their individual costumes and they did a great job.  They all pick the perfect costume for their unique personalities.  At school they had a parade and were so excited to dress up. 

Connor - our dedicated police officer

Garrett - Iron Man 3 (aka Captain America Iron Man)

Emily - Our adorable Cinderella

 

When they got home from school, it was off to Kristen's house to trick or treat.  We made it to more houses than ever and took home about ten pounds of candy.  Emily declared it the Best Night Ever because at every house they told her she was so cute and then they gave her candy.  It was a fun filled Halloween.  

A special medal should be awarded to Prince Charming who had hand surgery that morning and still managed to pull off trick or treating.  Now I am not going to disclose how many painkillers he was on but he still made it.  Go Daddy!

Apple Picking

After a busy day of sports, it was off to do our favorite fall activity, apple picking.  

The kids were off and running looking for the biggest and shiniest apples they could find.  

We all had a blast running up the rows of trees. 

Then we headed to the corn maze.  Daddy had flash backs of mommy and Nana getting lost in a corn maze in Ireland and had no faith in my directional sense.  The kids were great explorers and managed to navigate through the corn maze in less than ten minutes.  Go kids!

We then picked out the biggest and most perfect pumpkins.   I think we actually brought home five of them.   It was a perfect fall day.  

Gymnastics and Baseball

What a fall season.  We have Connor playing baseball, soccer and flag football.  Garrett is doing gymnastics and flag football.  We are going to be one busy family.  

Ready to Dance

Emily started a new dance school this year so that she had participate in ballet, tap and tumbling.  She was all business on her first day and is a born performer.  I wonder where she gets that from.  ;)

We are so happy you love to dance and are very proud of how serious you are in class.  Go Ems!

Team Colts

Connor and Garrett are playing flag football this year in a very tough league.  Here is the team all suited up for their first game.

 

This is definitely my favorite sport to watch because of all the action.  Connor has proven he is one of the fastest players on the field and has managed a touchdown almost every game so far.  Garrett is unstoppable.  He has pulled some flags on defense for very important stops and has run the ball for a tremendous gain.  Garrett is the youngest on the team and he has made his presence known.  They both should be very proud of themselves.

 

Of course since Connor is one of the oldest kids, they expect great things and he definitely delivers.  Garrett had to prove himself and did it with ease.  During practice one day, the coach was running a drill where the kids ran out 15 yards and then caught the ball.  When it was Garrett's turn, he told Garrett to only go out 5 yards and Garrett asked the coach why.  So the coach sent Garrett out 15 yards like the big boys and made a diving catch.  He has done this every practice and the coach now refers to him as "Gronk" which is the highest compliment you can get in a New England town. 

 

Go Team Colts!