Thanksgiving Fun

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving... in Virginia Beach with our families. Tim's sister was up from Atlanta with her family and even my Grama was visiting. We squeezed a lot of fun into the weekend~ a hockey game, ice skating, a movie, dining out at our old favorite places (Guadalajara and Athens Pizza if you're ever in the area!) The guys went golfing, I did some shopping of course, and even had a night out with an old high school friend I recently reconnected with on Facebook! Not to mention a delicious dinner for 17 at the Founders Inn. Nothing beats a home cooked Thanksgiving dinner, but this place was a close second, especially since no one had to cook or clean! The kids loved spending lots of time with their cousins- especially splashing in the hot tub at Pop Pop and Nana's house! The beautiful Founders Inn

They had the cutest little kid buffet line with chicken nuggets, tater tots, and mac and cheese! It was perfect for our little non-eater.

"Cheers" from the kids' table! Beware of wine glass wielding babies! She much prefered to drink water out of this "upscale" sippy cup.

Pop Pop and Nana and all their grandkids. We always love looking at the gingerbread house!

Ryan's first time out golfing! He even got to drive the golf cart. They stopped to have lunch at the clubhouse and Ryan lost a tooth! A monumental day he won't soon forget!

We had a Thanksgiving party with some friends and made these cute little turkey cupcakes! And I wish I'd taken a better picture of Katie in her paper bag Indian vest... she wore that thing out!

Claire lost interest in the hockey game pretty early on... maybe before it even started... she kept climbing back and forth onto anyone's lap who would take her, and getting stuck in the seat.

Don't Touch My Chicken

Doesn't she look like some crazed overprotective farmer? She had just woken up and there we were in the middle of playing at the farm museum.... one of the hazards of being a baby is that you just never know where you'll be when you wake up! All she wanted to do was walk around clutching that chicken! After a while she warmed up to the place and had lots more fun...

The Hidden Danger of Living with a Dog...

Today was an especially dangerous day for Woody...
farewell my friend!

Random Tidbits from Ashburn

1. Well, after many weeks and months of prompting, prodding and waiting... Claire has spoken a word. Aside from mama, dada, and the various grunts to indicate things she wants such as "mimi" which loosely translates to "Give me that NOW!" This morning she pointed to Katie and said, "Tay-tee." Katie was of course beaming with pride, Ryan was feeling a bit jilted, but he knows his name will be next. He then was quiet for a while thinking things over, and then announced, "Well, at least now we know she doesn't speak Chinese." WHAT? Did he think she would start speaking chinese? Hilarious!

2. We kinda sorta bought a countertop for our downstairs bar area today. I say kinda because I'm actually not sure if we ordered it or not. You see, the shop we visited started quoting prices, and sent someone over to measure, but no one wrote anything down. No one really spoke English. So in 2 weeks, if someone shows up ready to install a granite counter top sized 9' by 2', I guess we'll buy it.

3. At the Safeway checkout yesterday, I bought $13 worth of apples. WHAT?! Ryan suddenly noticed it on the screen and mentioned, "Mom, $13.46 for apples? Isn't that a lot of money for just some apples?" (Ummm, heck yeah it is!) I was hoping that as I scanned my Safeway Club Card, the price would be magically adjusted by at least half! No such luck, and I warned him that he and his sisters better eat every last speck of those apples! Then he continued, "Well, at least you're using your credit card to buy them- don't waste your real money on them." OK, it will be a very LONG time before Ryan is ready for credit!!

4. Just today we got a birthday card for Roxy... from her vet. Letting us know that she's now eligible for the "Silver Whiskers Program" since she now is considered a "senior" pet. Wow, our little Roxy girl is elderly now.... it doesn't seem that long ago that I carried her curled up in my hands all the way home from the breeder whimpering the entire ride. All 2.9 pounds of her.

5. What? No stories about Katie?? Oh, no, here's a doozy for ya... Yesterday at preschool they were making Indian headbands and Katie's teacher was assigning all the girls a name that begins with Princess, like Princess Flower or Princess Ocean, or Princess whatever they wanted to be named. Well who likes princesses more than Katie? No one; it sounded like the perfect activity until Katie decides she wants to be Sunshine, not Princess Sunshine - just Sunshine. But the problem was that the word princess was already written on the headband. Well apparently all hell broke loose in the classroom as Katie flew into a stomping screaming fit! I'd been wondering when she would show her teachers *that* side of herself... crossing my fingers and hoping NEVER, but here it has happened! At home, she acted like it was no big deal and kept changing the subject. She kept saying, "Why couldn't they just understand that I wanted to be named Sunshine?!" She is so strong willed and stubborn and knows exactly what she wants and will settle for NOTHING less... now where on earth could she have gotten those pesky personality traits?? Great personality traits for adulthood... for toddlers and preschoolers, not so much. By the way, she loves her Indian headband and a very cool paper bag indian vest that she wears all the time... seriously, all. the. time... over the top of her coat at the store and to church. "That is how much I like being an indian," she says.

Jamestown Revisited

The kids have been learning about the Pigrims at school and today they created Jamestown with some of our blocks and toys. It started out simple enough with some Lincoln Log cabins, but then evolved... I'm not sure the pilgrims would recognize their little town since it now has a shopping mall with a parking garage. Didn't you know, some of the pilgrims drove Hummers? And look closely to see Mr. Potato Head climbing on some of the buildings like King Kong!

Claire the Painter

Whenever we do a painting project in preschool class, Claire is the first one over grabbing the paintbrushes and ready to go. I used to keep her away from the art table entirely, but now I let her get right in there and do her thing. She loves painting. Her love of markers has also changed a little. She doesn't just pop the lid and start sucking the tip.., now she draws the most beautiful swirling lines on paper and tables and floors, and sometimes walls.

Notice she has 2 paintbrushes in her other hand... apparently no one else is allowed to paint... still working on the sharing!

The Leaves are Falling Down!!

Oh how I love Leaf Day!! The kids helped us rake all the leaves in the yard and we made a big pile and jumped in them. Now our yard is spotless... cue the neighbors tree to start losing leaves... cue the wind to blow them right into our yard... and by next weekend we'll have Leaf Day again!

The kids are SO helpful with yardwork!

Ryan's Erny Family Record

Ryan and Katie like to peruse some of the videos on You Tube (with lots of supervision of course!) We have a few favorites, you might want to check out the Treadmill Dance or Pilobolus or Human Tetris or the Hand Puppets for a sample of our style! The powers that be have taken some of our other favorites off the web due to some copyright issues and we were so bummed! But one of Ryan's favorite videos is a Guinness Book of World Records challenge. After watching several times, he decided he wanted to set our Erny Family "World" record and we had a mission for an otherwise boring Saturday afternoon...

Friday Funnies

No major excitement over here, nothing specifically blogworthy, but lots of little funny things have been accumulating in my brain and I need to get them out before I forget them...

Yesterday we went to Bertucci's for dinner and Katie spilled her drink... nothing funny about that, it happens daily in Katie's world. Well, the guy came by with the mop and pretty much just spread water all around our table. For the rest of the evening everyone who walked past us slipped, slid, and spun around; it was like eating with the 3 Stooges.

Also at Bertucci's, we set Claire up with a plate full of little pieces of bread and gave her her own little bowl of dipping oil - they have a very tasty oil and spice dip and she just loves to dip anything into any kind of dip. Claire happily dipped and gobbled up each piece of bread. She then moved on to dipping crayons and nibbling off little pieces. We finally caught her with several chunks of oily crayon bits floating in her mouth.

At Universal Studios last month Katie fell in love with ET. We finally were able to watch the movie and now the kids love to squeak and point their fingers at each other saying "Phone home." Also, I never realized how much resemblance there is between Claire and ET. She sounds just like him, and she's got the finger pointing down pretty well too!

I had a sudden stroke of genius last week- I moved the dog biscuits to a higher shelf... problem solved! No more Milkbones for Claire! Although she still goes after the kibble when no one's looking. I recently scraped a whole handfull out of her mouth - it almost made me throw up. She seems to enjoy the taste of dogfood...

We've been following closely the news regarding Obama's cabinet choices etc. and one reporter was commenting on what the different candidates would "bring to the table." Katie piped in, "I hope they bring brownies!" She's so funny without even knowing it.

Tim was explaining to Ryan what the "economy" is, since that's a word we're hearing a lot on the news lately. He was telling Ryan that a lot of people are worrying about their money and some people are losing their jobs.. and Ryan interrupted with, "Is it like the Depression?" And then started asking if Obama was going to make up a New Deal like FDR did... hmmm, that's a puzzler for me. That's what happens when your kid is smarter than you are!

We recently discovered through Tim's aunt who has done extensive research on their family lineage that we are related to Barack Obama. I need to look into the exact details, but it dates back to the 1700s in Massachusetts through Tim's mother and Barack's mother. I told Tim he should call up his cousin Barack and arrange a private White House tour or something for us. He teases me that I'm only related through marriage, but he and the kids will get in without me!

Happy Election Day!!

Last week Claire kept turning off the tv while we were watching the Obama 30 minute special so we were calling her our little Wee-publican. But now she has a new word, "bama." I'm not sure if that's an official endorsement or just a prediction.

Last weekend at the Great Country farms Pig Race, Barack "Oinc"bama barely edged out John "Pig"Cain for the win right at the finish line.

I've overheard Katie whispering to herself over and over, "Obama Biden, McCain Palin. Hmmm McCain Palin just sounds better to my ears."

Ryan and Daddy have been playing with the electoral college numbers and trying to get different combinations of states to equal 270.

We have a bipartisan house here, and it's been fun, friendly competition between all of us. We are all on the edge of our seats waiting to find out the results of this exciting election. Either way it goes tonight, Ryan and Katie have learned a lot about American politics and government and are excited to go to the inauguration in January, no matter who is being sworn in. If there's anything we want our kids to learn, it's that you support your president, even if it's not the one you voted for.

Look who I bumped into at the airport in Orlando!