Cookie Exchange

My friend Wendy and I hosted our third annual Cookie Exchange on Saturday December 1st. We had a great time sampling many delicious cookies this year, getting a chance to visit with each other before the holidays get totally insane, and just hanging out. We made an exception this year and allowed a boy to attend. His name is Oscar and he was just 6 days old!! It was a difficult time voting for the best cookie, but this year Jam Thumbprints (with raspberry jam) won out over some other stiff competition, mainly the Jacob's Peppermint Balls and the Peppermint Bark Cookies. There was also Peppermint Biscotti, which made the exchange this year really have a pepperminty theme. There were also very popular Gingerbread Men (made by the mother of the 6 day old!) that went quickly from the sample plate. We had our usual one game; this year it was to smell six unidentified baking spices and guess what they were. It was a nice touch that Mother Nature decided to have a small snow of an inch or so early in the morning and keep the temperature around 22. It made it feel all the more like the Christmas season, and that isn't a bad thing, even though the weather outside was a bit frightful! This is always so much fun that now I am thinking I need to host a summer exchange, but I don't have the faintest idea what we would exchange? Anyone have any ideas? It isn't too soon to start planning!!


Group Photo
(Oscar is the cute guy in the front row!!!)



Lin, Oscar and Amy


Molly holding Oscar with Meg's help

All the cookies and prizes!!!!

Crazy mothers!

My friend Cathy and I decided spur of the moment to take our 5 kids to Applebee's a few days ago. They were incredibly well behaved and everyone had a great time. Here are a few of the happy crew.

Thanksgiving!!

Thanksgiving guests














Wendy, Caleb, Lin












Thanksgiving guests

Thanksgiving!!

Dave and Jeff
















Thanksgiving guests
















Laura, Alex, and Philip













Potter, Molly, Caleb, Alex















Pat and Caleb are chatting and eating crackers!

Craziness is coming!

We will be hosting our usual Thanksgiving dinner in a few days. We have many house guests coming to stay overnight as well as, currently, 30+ people for Thanksgiving dinner. Please check back, as I will be posting many pictures and captions of the upcoming events. It promises to be a wild ride this holiday week!! Our best wishes to everyone. We have so much to be thankful for this year, our friends and family at the top of the list.

This picture is a couple weeks late

I have meant to post this picture of Caleb and his two friends Laura Jane (left) and Eve (right) that was taken on Eve's first birthday at her party. It is funny to see them now, as compared to when they were little.

November 3, 2007










February 2007

Katri visits us from Finland

I am a little late in posting these pictures. We were fortunate to get a few days with our friend Katri, who moved from Binghamton to Finland this past July. We look forward to when she and the whole family can come over, next summer perhaps.









Katri, Potter, Molly

Molly in the hole

I was told that I should post this picture of Molly. She is standing where the ovens were, before the new ones were installed. It is very cute.

Pictures of the new appliances

Shiny, clean, functioning new dishwasher!!


















Beautiful, shiny, lovely, new double ovens!!

My new oven and dishwasher!

We had a new oven and dishwasher installed today. Oh boy, are they fabulous!!! I have to show them off to everyone. What a difference. At least we know at Thanksgiving that the oven will not stop working and we'll have sushi turkey or something gross like that. And, I can rely on my new dishwasher to get all the gunky dried gravy off of each and every plate!! Yippeee!!!








Old crappy dishwasher















Old crappy ovens

Halloween!

We had a great time trick or treating on Halloween. All of the kids dressed up as their favorite character and we collected what must be about 10 tons of candy! It was a perfect night, the weather was great and we'll be eating candy until Christmas for sure!

Jackson's pumpkin farm

We took the kids to Jackson's this past weekend for a big afternoon of fun! The kids were able to look at all of the animals, go crazy in the hay climb, bounce around in the big blow up inflatable pirate ship and slide, and of course, pick out perfect pumpkins! We all had a great time and enjoyed some sunshine and fall weather, which has been sorely lacking lately in the north. Enjoy the photos!

Caleb walks again!

As promised, here is new video of Caleb walking. He now walks at least 50-75 percent of the time, only resorting to crawling to get somewhere faster. Enjoy the show!!

What good is a post without a picture?

Ok, text only postings are BORING!!! I have yet to be able to get that perfect video of Caleb walking, but let me assure you that he is doing much better than the last video I posted of him. He does have one new setback (which I will also post a picture of) and that is his first pair of shoes. He doesn't like to walk in them, defers to crawling. But I promise to have new stuff up for you to see in the next day or two. Thanks for reading!!

Quick playdate

Caleb and Eve saw each other briefly, but had a great time with Eve's new Leap Frog table. They were vying for the best spot around the table, but took time to smile and give a great picture.

Caleb is walking!!

This weekend was very productive for Caleb, he has really started walking on his own!! We all cheer him on as he teeters and totters along, and when he gets to where he wants, we all clap wildly and he grins and giggles, happy to have such an attentive audience. I was thinking how great it would be once he started walking, but now after watching him, I am not so sure! He loves to be able to get around a little more like Potter and Molly. I am sure his walking will get sturdier and easier and then will turn into running. Maybe he'll be walking the neighborhood at Halloween, trick or treating with the big kids. More video will be following, but this was the best I could get him to do last night. Every time he sees me with the camera, he stops walking and crawls as fast as he can over to me.

First fire of the season!

They could not wait, we had our inaugural fire of this winter a couple nights ago. Potter and Molly helped by shredding paper for the fire and Caleb was a good observer, not getting too close. It was a warm cozy feeling, reminding us all of how much we enjoy fall and look forward to winter. Here are the happy fire builders!

Caleb brushes his teeth!

Now that Caleb is a year old, and he has many teeth, he has reached the point where he needs to brush his teeth. He did have some adult supervision at first to really get the job done, but then he wanted to tackle it on his own. He did a great job!!

Caleb turned one!!

Our baby is finally one year old!! He celebrated in grand fashion with lots of toys and cupcakes. We are in awe of how much he has learned this past year, how big he is getting, and how close to walking he gets each day. We had a small family party for him. The older kids, of course, were much more interested in opening his presents than he was. He enjoyed the attention and his first taste of chocolate frosting. Who wouldn't??!!

Big Weekend at the Clark house!!

This weekend was quite a busy weekend!! Each child had a special moment, as evidenced by the movies and pictures here. Potter has mastered riding a two wheeler and he loves to ride!! After having practiced in the back yard on the grass this summer (softer falls on grass), he was ready for the sidewalk and he spent many happy hours this weekend perfecting his starts, stops and turns. He is doing fabulous with that! Molly has also gotten the hang of pedaling with her feet rather than using her feet to push along on the sidewalk. She can go pretty fast, too, on a tricycle!! Caleb, while not walking by himself, can cook along in the basement and also out in the grass with any type of truck or big wheel. He loves that he can mimick the big kids and he laughs and giggles the whole time is going. I think that this will perhaps wear him out more and help out with sleeping better (or at least that is what I am telling myself!) Our kids are just growing up entirely too fast for me. How can I make them stay little??