Busy Bee

I have started to call Max, my busy bee. He loves to explore and in true boy fashion he is all over the place and into everything. I don't know how many times a day he gets into my tupperware cabinet and rearranges it! Last week, he loved checking out a Christmas pillow that has little bells on it - he would move them around to get them to make sounds. (I think he is going to be like his sister and love music.)

And one day last week, he helped me to reorganize his bedroom closet. While I was busy putting things away, he was climbing in and out of things and ended up standing/sitting inside the potty seat to supervise!

Zig Zag Zoo On Steriods

Last weekend, Arabella attended the birthday party of her classmate, Matthew. It was held at a indoor sports and activity center called Sports Connection. She was very, very , very excited to attend the party and had a blast. There are some huge differences in the birthday parties we have attended here versus the ones in Montreal. This party was at 10 in the MORNING...by 10:30 the kids were sugared up on cake and pink lemonade...at 10:30 in the MORNING!!! There was nothing else to eat...no veggies, no chips, no sandwiches, not even pizza...NOTHING BUT CAKE!! I mean I get it is a birthday party, but really?!?!

Once they were sugared up, they were let loose in a room filled with nothing but bounce houses...I am surprised no one vomited!  Nonetheless, the kids had a blast going from one bounce house to the next and before they knew it, it was time to go home.

And by now, you are probably wondering where the Zig Zag Zoo on Steroids title came from...well, Sports Connection is like our beloved Zig Zag Zoo but 10 times bigger...they had an aracade, climbing wall, bowling alley and even laser tag. It was a little over the top, but that seems to be the way of the South, over the top...something that I am still learning about!

School Spirit - Jersey Day

Every so often, instead of wearing school spirit wear on Fridays, they have a fun theme. A few weeks ago and it was jersey day. What did Arabella want to wear, but my Patriots shirt...it was more of a dress on her, but we made it work and she was proud to wear it, even if they lost to the Panthers the previous Monday!

School Lunch

One thing that I really like about Arabella's new school, is that I/we can go and have lunch with her any time we would like. We just have to sign in at the main office, then we meet her at the lunch room. She was so excited the day that Max and I came to have lunch with her. This was also only the 2nd time all year that she had bought lunch at school instead of me packing it...and I have to say, I was mildly surprised at the quality...it was much better than I expected. I will still be packing her lunch for the most part though. We all enjoyed lunch together and I will be making sure we join her for lunch more often.

November Randomness

I can't believe that tomorrow is the last day of November. This month just flew by and since I am not feeling creative at the moment to come up with a good title - we did random things to keep busy this month...

Jay installed a chandelier that was my grandmothers in the sitting area of our bedroom - I wasn't sure how it would look, but it really pulls the area together nicely and it is nice to have something in our house that has special memories for me. I don't know how many family meals were eaten under this light, but it knows a lot of family dirt! We are lucky to have this in our new house.

Arabella has poured over the Toys R Us catalog and made a list for both her and Max for Santa.

We enjoyed some nice and warmer than we are used to weather for November. We took in the fall leaves and played in the backyard. We also had some ice on the birdbath!

Arabella worked on perfecting her cartwheel and is doing great! She does them all over the house!

We built a pillow and blanket fort in the living room. Arabella and Max loved it and spent a good while in there just laughing and giggling!

Jay traveled to Georgia for work one week and brought back fresh pecans and cotton on the limb to show Arabella.

And finally, Max got back to his Quebecois roots and devoured his first croissant!

Monday Night Football

It has been at least 14 years since I ventured to a professional football game, but now that we are back in a city that has a team, it was time for me to get my football on! I am lucky that my friend Jennifer loves football as much as I do, and I am even luckier that we were hooked up with tickets! And the best part, was this last Monday, my Patriots were in Charlotte to play the Panthers! She is a Panthers fan and with me being a Patriots fan, we had a fun little rivalry going on! We had great seats and had so much fun! The best part was I was able to see my favorite guy, Tom Brady on the field. We did a bit of tailgating before the game and it was great weather. While the Patriots didn't win, the game was great and a lot of fun to be in the action. It was a sell out and the prices that the scalpers were trying to get for tickets was insane. But I guess that is what happens at a game like this one. I didn't get home until almost 2 am, but it was worth it. I can't wait to go to another game with Jennifer!

Halftime show!

Jennifer's son, Chris, is one lucky high school kid, he gets to help warm up the players on the field! That's him in the grey sweats!

Aw Shucks

Arabella class went on a field trip to a local farm, Aw Shucks. She was very excited to go on this field trip with her class but was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be joining her. She is used to me attending as many field trips as possible during her time in preschool and I loved doing that with her. Id id have the option to attend this time, but it was an all day field trip and I wasn't keen on bringing Max. He is all boy and wants to get into everything, a little busy bee he is, and I wasn't sure this was the right environment to being him along. When I picked her up at school, she was just talking away about everything they did - a corn maze, a big slide, picnic, petting animals - you name it, they did it! She loved it and she even was able to pick out an ear of Indian Corn to bring home, that she was super excited to tell me about. I was lucky enough to get a few pictures texted to me though out the day from my friend, Sabrina, a mom of one of Arabella's classmates that attended. From the looks of the pictures, it seems they really did have a blast.