“Get Your Program!”

This year’s Christmas school programs were a HUGE success for BOTH Haley and Ian.  Just to give the reader a little background, last year’s program Ian refused to put on his shepherd costume and instead looked dashing in the old sweats and white t-shirt combo that was obviously not supposed to be showing or much less modeled on stage for all to see.  And there was no beautiful singing heard but instead about a thousand boisterous “Hi Mom” or “Hi Dad” throughout the entire preschool play.  Yes, it was our young four-year old’s first preschool play and he was very naive to proper stage behavior.  On the other hand, our oldest daughter is a true uninhibited performer where from an early age she would gladly sing and perform to any listening audience.  One of our favorite memories is Haley singing “Lily of the Valley” to family and friends at only 2 years of age, and well these type performances have continued.  There is not a week that goes by without some sort of home-made play or song and dance number that Haley beckons the entire family to come watch.  But to our delight and surprise both our big kiddos did an outstanding job this year at their programs.  (We were OK with Ian not liking the stage life and having just one Drama Queen so far…).

Ian’s preschool program, “Super Gift from Heaven,” was a toy-themed and toy costume play.  Ian dressed up as a race-car driver, and a huge smile was on his face throughout the entire performance.  He really looked super happy and thrilled to be up on stage singing.  He did yell out a few “Hi’s” to our family this year but it did not interrupt him from doing all the hand motions.  The Mac family may just have another star performer in our family.  Speaking of stars, Haley wore a head  band with a star on it and a green t- shirt for her school play—yep, she was Christmas tree for the program.  The elementary school performance was titled “It’s Christmas Everywhere,” with each grade representing a selected country.  The 1st graders represented the country of Germany and sung “Silent Night” in German.  It sounded beautiful and we were all very impressed that Haley memorized such a tough song.  She gave a fabulous performance and did not miss a beat with the choreography or words.  Haley shines when she is on stage and of course soaks up all the applause.  The cool part was that Haley and Ian enjoyed watching one another perform, and cheered and praised each other.   Mimi and Grandpa would not have missed their plays either—two of their biggest fans!  For Tim and I, it was such a blessing to watch our kiddos perform and see how far they have come, how confident they are, and how they love to sing about Jesus.  Bravo, Bravisimo to our star performers!!

The Duet

Haley’s piano recital this year was extra special.  Why, you might ask?  Well, Haley performed one of her piano pieces with one of her favorite people.  First, Haley opened by playing her solo piece perfectly, “The Hungarian Dance.”  She even added a little bit of her own flare to the song.  Next, the audience was delightfully surprised when Dad joined daughter for the final piece.  Haley and her Dad performed an AWESOME duet of “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.”

For the past year Tim has been taking piano lessons with Haley every Monday evening.  And while Haley has made tremendous progress since beginning piano just over two years ago, Tim is pretty darn good himself for recently starting.  I am so excited they have this incredible opportunity learn to play piano together.  The two have been an encouragement and teacher to one another.  It has been a special father-daughter bonding time.  I love their love for music and all the creativity that comes with it.  Perhaps one year they will play together in Carnegie Hall…or I am totally thrilled with the two of them just performing for our family!

Eight Years and Counting…

Dear Haley, Ian, and Elize -

Your Daddy and I just celebrated our wedding anniversary.  On December 8th of 2001 we were married, and now eight years later we are a family of five.  Wow, how amazing is that and what a journey it has been!  I love the man I married so much on that very special day and even so much more today in 2009.  God blessed me with a great husband and best friend nearly a decade ago.  He continues to be an incredible husband, a best friend who has been my faithful companion through lots of ups and downs, and an excellent, one-of-a-kind dad.  I remember getting a little glimpse of how he might be as a father many years ago as I watched him play with a close friend’s daughter.  Your Dad was amazing and so natural with the little girl.  We were dating then, and once Tim left that evening I told my friend that is the guy I want to be my husband and father of my kids–I got my wish!  I am grateful for how God directed our lives to meet, date, and marry.  Time has changed a lot of things in our lives, but one thing it can never change is the way I feel about you…Tim, you are everything to me.   Happy Anniversary!

Thankful Tree

Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful for our many blessings.  To make this idea more tangible for my kiddos we create a “Thankful Tree”…this great idea was actually introduced by our Nana a couple of years ago in Maryland and we have continued the tradition in our family.  Here is how it works:  it begins with a fun family hike to look for the perfect tree-decorating branches.  The hike is a great time to connect with my kiddos out in nature, and this year we hiked on the trail right next to our home.  We laughed at the enormous branches Ian thought would be perfect for our tree–after narrowing it down to sticks that would actually fit through our front door, two were chosen and brought home.  Next, we place the newfound sticks in a sturdy base (this year it was a big glass vase filled with lots of rocks to secure the sticks in place).  Then comes the crafty part of this project…home-made leaves!  We draw, paint, color, and cut leaf shapes out of paper.  The result is many authentic, real-looking leaves mixed with a few car-shaped, blob-shaped, and who-knows-what-shaped leaves!  I love the kiddos creativity with this part and can easily identify whose leaves belong to whom.  Next comes the “thankful” part of this whole project.  Each family member writes what they are grateful for on the back of their leaves.  A few examples from this year are “my teacher,” “my race cars,” “my friends,” “my salvation,” “my home,” and you get the idea.  The neat part is that throughout the month more thankful leaves are added to the tree as more blessings come to mind–one morning Haley came running down stairs and added a leaf that read, “I am thankful for my friend in Peru, Carla” (Carla is a little girl from Peru whom we support).  How sweet of my Haley!  The leaves get hole-punched and hung on the branches like ornaments.  We even hang up leaves from the previous years and leaves that other family members contributed.  One of my favorite leaves is inscribed with “I am thankful for Tim and Haley (04),” and a year later I added Ian’s name, and last year I added baby Elize’s name.   This year I just wrote “ditto (09).”  God is so good!  That is the cool part about creating our Thankful Tree, old and new blessings are remembered and above all God is given praise.  By the time Thanksgiving Day arrives, we are full of thankful hearts and our Thankful Tree is full of colorful leaves.

O my soul, bless God.

From head to toe, I’ll bless his holy name!

O my soul, bless God,

don’t forget a single blessing!

Psalm 103:1 & 2

Super Heros to the Rescue!

To be honest, I was not quite sure what exactly to title this post:  Cute Halloween Costumes, My Heros, Super Villians, Brave But Not Always,  The “S” is for Silly and Sassy, and my list could go   on and on.   But for Halloween Day they got to be Super Man and Super Girl, and loved playing the hero role.  Super Man could be found lifting heavy toy boxes and rescuing his baby Sister.  Super Girl zoomed around with arms stretched out and shouted things like, “I am on my  way,” and “I can save you.”   They looked adorable and tough all at once.  And I think I should have worn a shirt that read Super Mom.  I have a feeling these costumes will be worn many more times to come.  And let’s be honest, we moms know that it really is “Super Mom to the Rescue, Again.”

Fall Fun

The cool, crisp weather has encouraged the McAveney family to embrace fall-themed activities.  Well, OK it actually was chilly for one week (Tim reminds me that our coldest days here in Cali are pull out your shorts and tank tops days in MD), and the rest of October was rather warm even hot in the 90s.  But not to disappoint “fall-like” things were done and here they are in no particular order:  three visits to pumpkin patches, one scarecrow dressing, pumpkin decorating, fall treat baking, one apple picking day, two apple sauce making, one fall leaf hunting day, lots of sipping of hot apple cider, one movie watching of Charlie Brown’s “The Great Pumpkin,” and one cozy night by the fire.  Overall the kiddos have enjoyed loads of fall fun, Mom has baked (and eaten) too many pumpkin treats, and little Elize has learned to say “pumpkin” and wave good-bye to the scarecrow on our front porch.  Welcome Fall!!

Nana and Poppy visit Cali

Fall arrived and so did NANA & POPPY—what a special trip it was!  They arrived just in time to celebrate Tim’s birthday.  How great to be together and celebrate one excellent dad, husband, and son!  It was a fun birthday weekend and the first in years that Tim got to spend with his parents.  Well, the weather was H-O-T so why not go swimming?!  My father in-law, being from the East coast, loves the fact that YES you can swim in 90 degree weather and then BBQ hot dogs in the backyard in the middle of September.  And thank goodness, the temperature turned cool for Nana who enjoys the traditional, expected fall weather.  Of course, as a wonderful daughter-in-law, I do my best to make them both happy.

Since Haley and Ian were in school during the days, Nana and Poppy, spent lots of one-on-one time with Elize.  She loved all the attention and really fell in love with them.  Nana did get an opportunity to help out in Ian’s preschool class and they both attended a school event for Haley.  I appreciate the genuine interest they take in my kids lives.  Nana is fabulous at doing crafts and games and really engaging the kids.  Poppy wrestles and goofs with his grandkids and teaches them silly games.  Their time out in Cali is always quality time all together.  Tim and I even squeezed in a date night.  Tim and his Dad got a chance to play golf.  And I was able to run errands “kidless.”  Overall, I know everyone enjoyed the visit, and the many perks of having Nana & Poppy in town.

Sweet Elize

My baby girl is ONE.  And well, not such a baby anymore.

She is crawling, very close to walking.

She plays with her toys independently.  She often has a car in one hand and a baby doll in the other.

She eats “people food” with the rest of the family.  Her favorite food is fresh fruit and mac’n cheese.

She says “Momma” and “Dadda.”

She makes some great animal noises—a tiger, an elephant, a sheep.  She screams at dogs and waves her arms out of control.

She loves to be read to and look at pictures of the family.  Her favorite book is “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?”

She laughs at Haley and Ian all the time.  Any face they make gets a deep giggle out of her.

She adores her Dad and loves to be carried in his arms.

She is a “Momma’s girl,”  cries when I leave her then squeals when she sees me.

She loves to swing and go for walks in her stroller and little red car.

She has no fear of water and purposely dunks her head under–so of course, shower or bath time is her favorite part of the day.

She has five teeth, auburn hair with curls at the end, and big blue eyes.

She currently weighs 21 pounds and is off the chart for height.

She bites.  She pokes.

She claps and shakes her head to music.

She loves her morning nap.

She is flexible.  Yes, she is a good baby!

Happy 1st birthday Elizabeth Clare.  We could not imagine life without your sweet presence…

Hello to School

The school year has begun and it is truly bittersweet.  I knew this day was coming when two of my kiddos would be out of the home and in school for most of their day.  Thank goodness, Elize is my reality check–I still have one more little one with me during the day.  Those exhausting and fun times with three kiddos under the age of five with Mommy all day long are gone.  When you are in the middle of these years it seems as if  it will never end.  But here I sit with Elize napping and a very quiet house.  I have a joyful heart and a heart-ache as well.  And now I wear “The Mom Hat” to three kids in very different stages.  A first grader full of imagination and a huge desire to learn.  A preschooler full of independence and discovering who he is.  And a toddler full of way too much energy and a huge dose of sweetness.  God has been so good, faithful, and patient with me.  I can still hardly believe He entrusted me to be the mom to three incredible kids—-when did this happen?! What I do know is that God has met all my needs, renewed my strength daily, and been a lamp unto my weary feet.  I am looking forward to this new chapter in motherhood.  Haley adores her teacher and me, and I am OK with this.  She feels happy and safe.  Ian is thrilled to be in a class with his best buds and this makes me so happy.  As for Miss Elize, she now has my undivided attention and a Mom who is really enjoying our days at home together…because all to soon she too will be saying hello to school.

Good-bye Summer

Good-bye to summer vacations…

Good-bye to lazy mornings playing in our pyjamas…

Good-bye to play days with old and new friends…

Good-bye to fun-filled activities…

Good-bye to sleep-overs…

Good-bye to beach days…

Until we meet again dear Summer, again I say “Good-bye.”