Christmas

We had a good Christmas this year.  Grandma came for Christmas and the kids were excited for the visitor.

We decorated cookies on Christmas Eve.

Maggie ate most of her frosting.

Earlier in the week the kids made a gingerbread village.

Gus came up with the idea to do a Christmas market on Christmas Eve.  The kids were really excited about the idea and spent quite a bit of time making things to sell.  Cormac and Cadel even wore their lederhosen.  Maggie and Cadel had a "booth" together and sold original drawings and watercolors.

 Cormac had a comic book stand with a comic book he made called "Super Cormac:  A Holiday Tradition."  Cadel also had an original comic book for sale titled "The Dinosaurs Have Christmas."

 Gus had the food stand where he sold hot chocolate, cookies, and homemade granola bars.

The food stand was the place to be.

Christmas morning started early and the kids were so excited to see what Santa brought.

Tiny Dancer

Maggie has been taking a ballet/tap class since August and she has been loving it!  Her dance school sends the classes out at Christmastime to perform for the local nursing homes.  Maggie's class had their performance this past Saturday.  They did a dance to "Where are you Christmas?" and Maggie did a wonderful job.  She wasn't nervous at all and was really excited to perform.  Now she's very excited about her recital in the spring.

Birthday Boys

We had two birthdays this week!  Cormac turned 8 on Monday and Gus turned 10 on Tuesday.  Unfortunately we have been plagued with some kind of viral funk around here and Cormac was the last one to get it.  He saved up all his energy for his birthday but by yesterday he was spent.  So Cormac had a trip to the doctor and has been at home since yesterday, poor guy.

This year for these two we did things a little bit differently.  Instead of planning and paying for two big parties that no one RSVPs for anyway, we took a family trip on Sunday to the Aquarium Restaurant in Nashville and then stopped at the Lego store where they each picked out their own Lego set.  They both seemed to enjoy it.

On the morning of their birthday they each got to open one gift since they had to wait ALL day long to open the rest.

Birthday boy Cormac.

Maggie has taken lessons from her Aunt Cassie and is now becoming a master photo-bomber.

Birthday boy Gus.  Notice Cormac in the back feeling pretty bad.

NYC!

Pat and I had a great time on our weekend to NYC!

We wandered around Times Square after dinner the first night.

Our hotel had an awesome outdoor rooftop area.  This was the view.

Getting race numbers at the expo Saturday morning.

We are right up there in the middle--the last two for all those with the last name Bryan.

At the expo.

Late lunch at Momofuku.

Race day! On the bus to Staten Island.

Waiting for the race in front of the Verrazano Bridge.

Finishers! 


















A BIG thank you to Gam-Gam and Aunt Doris for taking care of the kids!  The kids had a great time and we had peace of mind while we took on NY.

Halloween

The kids had a fantastic Halloween--much different from the past two years overseas. There were several houses in our neighborhood that went all out with decorations and the kids thought it was awesome.  Gus is already scheming for what we can do next year at our house.  They also had a blast giving out candy to other kids (i.e. fighting over who's turn it was). Between the awesome costumes and great trick-or-treating Halloween was a big success this year!

Jack-o-lanterns!

Freshly carved pumpkins, ready for Halloween!

Trunk or Treat

Halloween has become an entire season around here and it started this past week.  Tuesday Maggie got to wear her costume to ballet/tap class.  Thursday the boys' elementary school hosted a Trunk or Treat.  They were all excited to get into their costumes.

R2-D2 and Princess Leia

Ninja

Robot


















There will be more Halloween pics to come!

Cadel is 6!

Cadel turned six last week!  Hard to believe this freckle-faced guy is getting so big.

He had a great day on his birthday.  His class went on a field trip to the pumpkin patch and then we had a family party at home.

The next day we had his birthday party at one of those indoor play places with some of his best friends from his class at school.