The Gingerbread House

I bought this house from Sam's Club 2 years ago. Finally, I opened it only to find out the icing was very hard and useless. I decided to make frosting from a mix I had gotten. It called for shortening and I used some I had bought 3 years ago. BAD IDEA!! I gagged repeatedly when I tried it. I still used it to hold the house together though. Jakob and I went to the store the next day and bought frosting and finished the house. It was a bit more time consuming than I had originally planned, but we had a great time.

Spelling

George and I were having a conversation about him not doing something and me doing everything. This happens in all good marriages right? So, Jakob was around listening to us playfully bickering when I said to George, "You know why you do this right?"
George of course replied in an ever so nice tone, "No why?"
I replied back, "Because you are L-a-z-y." Spelling it because I didn't want Jakob to come back a few weeks later and tell someone they were lazy. Not a word I thought he was ready to use.
Jakob pipes in, "What does that spell?"
I explain it is a word he doesn't need to know yet. Then I started thinking maybe he is beginning to know how to sound out words and I might be surprised with his guess as to what the word is.
So I ask, "What do you think it spells?"
And he replies in his oh-so-sweet six-year-old voice, "Stupid."
Forget spelling. Our son is going to guess a word by how it is used in a sentence. George and I were in tears laughing.

The Perfect Picture

Saturday evening we decided to take a picture for our traditional Christmas card. This year I decided a solo shot of Jakob would be good so I wouldn't have to coordinate outfits and remember how to set the camera to take a delayed picture.

George decided he wanted to try a shot in front of the fireplace. The following shows our evening. The final picture you'll get in the mail.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving with George's family in New Jersey. When we went around the table to say what we were thankful for this year Jakob said, "I am thankful for Mommy." I love you too Jakob.

Leaves

This year Jakob thought we should make a tunnel through the leaf pile. George didn't think it would be possible, but he thought it was worth a try. The tunnel started off very small and Jakob was thrilled when you could see through the other side.

We thought we'd try to make it big enough for him to crawl through, warning him it would probably collapse. It did not.

In fact it stayed up through several passes by Jakob, Mommy and Daddy.

Emmaline May Solbach

Congratulations to Josh, Mel and Ben Solbach.

Emma is beautiful.

Air Force One

George has wanted us to join him on a trip so we could tour Air Force One. It became more of a pressing matter to him because of the change of command next year. Every time a new president is elected there is potential for rules and preferences to change and he wanted to make sure we took advantage of the opportunity.

We were at the airport by 8 a.m. and watched everyone scramble to make the area perfect. Vehicles were moved, a small stadium for spectators was brought in, helicopters were put into position and stair trucks were measured. Jakob helped measure the two stair trucks and make sure they were the right height for Air Force One. He loved that.

The stair truck.

The plane arrived around 10:30 and we watched the President and First Lady descend from the plane and walk to the awaiting helicopter. The amount of people who exited that airplane was amazing. They were all headed to the dedication of the Intrepid Air and Space Museum.

Our tour of Air Force One was so cool. We saw the "Oval Office", their sleeping quarters, meeting rooms and seating for the various guests of the President. The carpet in all the official areas have stars in them and as you move to the back of the plane the carpet becomes more plain. The blue carpet is used to let guests (reporters and invited distinguished guests) know where they are allowed in the plane. There are an amazing amount of televisions in the airplane. All able to play different things. We saw the communications section and were in awe of the technology it possessed, with capabilities to accept calls, make calls and fax information directly to the White House or any other place. The communications area also controlled the entertainment and outgoing calls from the rest of the airplane.

The cockpit was our last stop and Jakob was most impressed with all the buttons. He actually got to turn off four knobs. We still don't know what he did. The whole tour was a memorable experience. We loved it.

The next First Family?

Jakob did a presentation for his kindergarten on Wed. and his teacher, Mrs. Ariale was amazed at all the information he could remember and all the different experiences he had. The Air Force has definitely given us many wonderful opportunities.

New York

Sunday evening we left New Jersey and headed to the Waldorf=Astoria in New York. George was working a stop at JFK and Jakob and I were invited along to watch the arrival of Air Force One on Tuesday.

The Waldorf=Astoria Entrance & Lobby

Driving in New York is a skill I don't think I can ever master. George did an amazing job getting us to the hotel with no new dents or scratches in our car. Jakob commented on how noisy everything was and why did everyone honk all the time.
Sunday for dinner we met a few of George's agents and had dinner at a great little restaurant in NY. Jakob had an omelet the size of his head. He ate about 3/4 of it. Amazing. Jakob is at an age now where he can entertain himself and needs very little help with eating. He did such a good job and even had a few conversations with our dinner companions.
Monday, George was working at the airport and Jakob and I were on our own. We had a late breakfast at a McDonald's on Lexington Ave. In New York it is mandatory for all fast food restaurants to post the calories of each item on the menu. It was a very eye-opening experience. I ordered the Deluxe Breakfast for the two of us to share. It was 1350 calories. WOW!

Bryant Park

After breakfast we headed out to Times Square. We started in the wrong direction and ended up at The Container Store. It was huge. Next was Times Square. We stopped at Bryant Park. (I am a huge Project Runway fan and this was so cool to see) Once we made it to Times Square we went to Toys R Us. Inside they had a Ferris wheel. Not a small Ferris wheel, but a full size ride. We purchased tickets and rode this incredible ride. It was so much fun. After we explored the store we headed to M&M World.

Toys R Us Ferris Wheel

On the short walk to the store Jakob asked, "Why do they call them M&M's? Why don't they just call them M's? I thought about it and told him that was a very good question.
We bought red M&M's and mint M&M's. Yum.

M&M World

The Hershey Store was next. It wasn't nearly as cool as the M&M store, but the smell was wonderful. We bought more chocolate.

Times Square

By now it was almost 3:30 and we headed back to the hotel. Dinner was at a great little Restaurant and Pub. We ate lots of food. We didn't eat lunch (I think I was still thinking about the 1350 calories at breakfast) Jakob had a great time in New York and wanted to know when we would be back to see other sites. That night we were exhausted and excited about seeing Air Force One the next day.

Weekend in New Jersey

We had a busy weekend. George had to work in New York and Jakob and I tagged along for some fun.

Friday afternoon we headed out to New Jersey to spend the weekend with George's family. We celebrated George's brother's (Erik) birthday with a meal at Cracker Barrel. George's brother is a police officer and doesn't eat out much because most of the people he arrests work in the resturants in his town. The Cracker Barrel was a good 20 miles from George's parents house. What a crazy life. Erik's son, Shayne, had the staff sing "Happy Birthday" to his dad. He was so proud of himself for surprising his dad. Sunday we watched Shayne play a football game. They won!! Jakob and Shayne worked long hours on Saturday to make a sign for Shayne's game. Jakob was thrilled to have his sign and waved it often. After the game Shayne told Jakob how great it was to have the one and only sign at the game with his name on it.

Jakob loves playing with his cousins and has so much fun at Grandma Betty's and Papa's house.

National Building Museum

Today was Parent Teacher Conversation (Conference) at Jakob's school. After I met with his teacher Jakob and I went into DC to check out the National Building Museum. We had such a good day. I would recommend this to anyone with children over the age of 3. There were so many great things to do and see.

We took 3 different metro lines to get there, however it was a fairly short trip. Once there, we picked up a Tool Kit and did some fun activities looking for patterns within the building. The architecture was beautiful. This kept us busy for about 45 minutes. Then we were off to an exhibit about keeping the earth green and how industrializing our towns has changed the way we live a green life. There were interactive maps and lots of learning opportunities. Our second exhibit displayed blueprints, columns, and bricks. The museum shop was amazing and the items were fascinating. All having to do with building and architecture. On the way home we looked for patterns throughout the city and talked about the architecture we saw.

Halloween

Jakob was so excited about Halloween. He was sure there would be lots of kids this year and he couldn't wait to give them our treat (playdoh). We had 1 child from 6:30 until 7:30. We had 7 teenagers around 7:30 and 1 preschooler at 8:30. Jakob didn't seem to notice there weren't very many kids (he was thrilled he went trick-or-treating himself and didn't miss one kid) and the teenagers thought the playdoh was "cool"

Jakob was a firefighter this year:

George was his dalmation. What a great dad.

Pumpkin Carving

We are way behind this year with our holiday plans. We got our pumpkin the weekend before Halloween and we carved our pumpkins the day before Halloween. We did get it all done though.

This year Jakob picked a spider stencil for George to cut out. They did a great job and got complimented on their work.

I found a McCain stencil and set to work to carve a political pumpkin. It actually turned out really well. I am so proud.

Pumpkin Playground

Last Sunday (the 26th) we went to Burke Nursery for their annual Pumpkin Playground with our friends the Drums. Right when you walked in there was a huge pile of dirt with surprises buried inside. The boys would have stayed there for hours digging to China if we let them. The kids played in a pirate ship, inside a huge pumpkin, slid down two slides, rolled down a hill in a plastic tube and took a "spooky forest" hay ride. They were a solid shade of brown by the time we left.