Holidays

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Fun on the 4th

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Our town puts on a carnival every 4th of July called fun on the 4th, although this year oddly enough it happened the last week of June. Besides being confusing, it meant we missed it while we were on vacation. So we went looking for our own fun during our long weekend. E told me that they didn’t mind, though, because vacation was way better.

We hung out with friends on the actual 4th and went to a parade in search of candy. The candy was a little stingy this year, but enough to keep the kids happy. What did not keep the kids happy were all the guns they shoot off in the parade - some right in front of us. Are those really necessary? I could definitely do without them.

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Valentine's Day

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When the end of January came around, I went looking for the bin of Valentine’s decorations. I was surprised to realize we only had 3 wooden hearts, a table cloth, and two things that hung from the ceiling. I was sure we’d decorated in past years, but couldn’t figure out why we didn’t have more. Which is why I love this blog, because it reminded me that last year we decorated with homemade Elmo and Abby Cadabby decorations, because that was what the kids wanted. And the year before I think we taped paper hearts to the wall.

So this year I was determined to find some more permanent decorations. The kids made it clear they were not happy with what we had, and honestly neither was I. There’s nothing like a nice distraction when life feels too heavy. So throw ourselves into Valentine’s day we did. We ended up with banners and hearts on the walls and a fully decorated house.

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Let's Kick off Christmas

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As we do, we started the Christmas season off early this year. I used to have a strict, wait until after Thanksgiving rule, but it’s definitely been relaxed lately. We still don’t have any Christmas trees up, but there are wrapped presents in my house, decorations are ready to go up soon, and we’ve done a few holiday events already. Speaking of those, we’ve had some hits and misses.

One of the hits for me at least, was visiting Santa! The older two are always a bit confused about why we’re doing it, and claim they don’t want to go, but I swear they have a lot of fun once we’re there. E jumped right in on signing his name to the “nice list” book they had, and then did G’s name too while G was warming up to everything. But soon they were both chatting with Santa, posing for pictures, and of course telling their life stories.

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Happy Turkey Day

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Happy Thanksgiving!

We’re in the middle of a school/daycare break and staying at home for a slow Thanksgiving. We’re not going very traditional - there will be no turkey and more pies than side dishes probably, but we’ll be happy and that’s all that really matters.

We’re wishing everyone else all the favorite foods and relaxed days too, and we’ll see you on the other side with all the Christmas trees!

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Easter Parts I & II

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One of the coolest parts about becoming an adult is realizing you really can make up your own rules a lot of the time. Things are still way less fun than I thought they would be, and I’m still mad that you don’t really get to pick the color of your car or your house like I thought you would, but every once in a while being an adult is totally worth it.

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Green Day

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At this time of year I am 100% looking and planning forward to all the events in the next two months, since April and May are always busy months for our family. So St. Patrick’s Day is not much more than an annoyance. Weird coming from the person with Irish heritage, but “celebrating” this holiday has always had negative connotations to me - pinching and food I don’t like and alcohol. It was the one day I always made sure to not be home when I lived in Southie.

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V-Day

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Is there a limit to what I’m willing to do to make my children happy, assuming it’s something I’m able to do? I’m seriously asking, because I haven’t found it yet. Instead, I find myself decorating the entire house for Valentine’s day, when I’m pretty sure I used to hate Valentine’s day and would often wear black in protest. And then when a certain preschooler tells me that we need to decorate MORE, and this should include Elmo and Abby decorations, I find myself hand creating them out of construction paper.

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Trick or Treat

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This year everything about Halloween seemed up in the air. The pandemic is still raging on, the weather looked questionable at best, and our normal Halloween plans were no longer an option. All that added up to a big question mark about how we were going to spend the holiday. Nothing new there, I guess. Every holiday for the past almost two years now has been a mix of disappointment and change, so I shouldn’t be surprised.

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Halloween Halloween!!

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I’m actually shocked that Halloween is still so far away. We’ve been leaning heavy into all the fall/Halloween activities for a while now, so I’m having a hard time believing we’ve still got over a week to go. The kids are loving it, though, and we still have a lot of fun things coming up. Now that we have three kids, I’m afraid I’ve found my weakness in matching PJs. I’ll admit it’s a bit too early to pull out the Christmas PJs, so I’m going all in with Halloween ones.

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Easter

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So as E tells it, “Our Easter Mouse comes and hides all the eggs!” I’m not sure when it changed from a bunny to a mouse, but either way, eggs were hidden. I saw a tip from a different mom who bought eggs in two different colors for her children, to ensure there was no fighting during the egg hunt. Of course it was after we had gotten out all of our multicolored eggs, but I figured if there was a lot of conflict this year, it could be a backup for next year.

Instead, both G and E were pretty cooperative. Tom and I had to help G a bit to make sure he was finding eggs, but if we told E that a certain egg needed to go to his brother, he was okay with it. By the end, I think the count was 15 to 19 or something like that. Close enough for me.

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Thanksgiving

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We pretty much jumped over this holiday and went from Halloween to Christmas, even putting up decorations a week before Thanksgiving. I was also fully prepared to order pizza and ignore it completely, but in the end we decided to create our own small celebration. It was certainly more simple than anything we’ve experienced in the past - we didn’t even cook a turkey!

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A Final Note on Halloween

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Look, we all know 2020 has all but turned into an expletive. There have been a lot of cancelled plans, a lot of things we’ve missed out on, and a lot of fear. But Halloween seemed like something we could do, albeit with a few modifications. So we made plans for an outdoor scavenger hunt, and as much fun as we could.

And then we had a record breaking October snow storm.

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Halloween Costumes!

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As a parent of two toddlers (I need to stop calling the big one a toddler, huh?), I’m always looking for ways to reduce stress and anxiety. Holidays are times where those things come to a peak. There are big expectations, a lot of excitement and emotions. So instead of trying really hard to get a good picture of them in their costumes when all they want to do is get candy and everyone is tired and tantruming, I did it a little different.

The week before Halloween.

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Happy Easter!

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I think, for the first time since all this home quarantine stuff started, we had a day that felt normal.

So far, Easter has been a holiday that we celebrate at home. We do egg hunts in our living room, and we spend the day here together. So we were able to do everything pretty much the same this year. It was definitely a relief to have a day where nothing felt cancelled or different. Both G and E were excited to find eggs and made the day a lot of fun.

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HAPPY HALLOWEEN

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A more detailed post with costumes coming (get excited!), but I’ll give you a special treat for today.

I’m not sure why I didn’t do this with E. Probably because I was an overwhelmed first time parent and this was too much work, but it definitely would have been easier. Mostly because E was only 5 months old at his first Halloween and small for his age, and G… isn’t.

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The Local Carnival

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I’m not sure when it happened, but probably sometime during that newborn induced amnesia period. But suddenly I have a full blown kid who can do things, and my tiny toddler is gone!

E shocks me daily with all of the things he can do. He’s gone from kind of humming along when we sing to sort of making sounds similar to what we’re saying, to being able to sing “Twinkle Twinkle” all by himself. He doesn’t crawl up the stairs anymore, but walks while holding the wall (he’d hold the railing, but he’s still too short haha). He’ll bring us a bottle of sunscreen and ask us if we can go outside and play.

Mother's Day

Yeah, yeah, it’s a little late. I’m going to stand by my statement that Mother’s Day should be moved to a less busy month. May is just so full already, that I don’t really have time for Mother’s Day. Which is probably why I did my hotel getaway months after Mother’s Day last year, and why I planned a family photoshoot for the fall this year, which is when (and how) I’d really like to celebrate.