The Concert of the Year!

Elliott's class performed the Concert of The Year yesterday for all the parents. He was soooooo excited about this. He wouldn't tell us what songs they were singing...it was so secretive that when Grandma and Grandpa called he had to go into his room and close the door to tell them about the songs so that we wouldn't hear! Ms. Jana does an awesome job with the pre-k kids...she makes it so fun and they learn so much.

After the concert we all had pizza at the school and of course the best part of that was getting to mix the Koolaids to make different colors!

This is a song that their class wrote themselves....too cute!

Who Reads?

Elliott has really taken an interest in learning to read more. There are 2 or 3 books that he chooses at bedtime that he knows he does well with and one of them is "Who Hops?" which is in this video. He's very proud of himself (and we are too!). You may or may not get the reference to Ethan swimming in the video.....long story short, he ventured a little too far out into the pool the other day and I had to jump in after him (fully clothed) - yes, quite a sight for everyone watching! He's fine, but they are now both signed up for swim lessons in April!

The Hosselton Clan

Posting this for Lindsey...this is my entire family on the Hosselton side (so far!). It's very rare that ALL of us are together, but we just happened to be at Christmas so we got a group shot. Thanks for standing in the cold guys!

Grandma's 85th!

This is a late post....very LATE! We celebrated Grandma's 85th birthday with an open house type celebration at her church in January and many of us got to go to church with her that morning where she was also honored with three special songs (besides Happy Birthday). It was so fun to see all of the friends and family who came to wish her Happy Birthday, and I believe she really really enjoyed it! She is a very special and influential person in my life and obviously many others.

Bits and Pieces

Sorry it's been a while since I updated this. I guess not much has been happening, plus I had to send my camera off to be cleaned and I don't think about taking pictures when it's not right in front of me (apparently)....I'll have to work on that.

Well, we're getting sleet, snow and freezing rain right now - it's lovely weather! This is one of those days when we really start to contemplate what we were thinking when we chose to move north instead of further south...ya know, the sunshine state. Actually we love it except for the icy roads.

So the boys have found a new favorite TV show that has sparked new activities at our house. American Gladiators. They were so into watching to see who won and they still watch it on the DVR. And now I see pillows all over the floor and hear them making up obstacle courses and "fighting" games to see who will beat the gladiator. At least they're getting exercise, right?

Other than that not much is going on. We've discovered some of their personality differences coming out strong lately....mainly that Elliott is very analytical and takes a lot of time wanting to make the best decision (i.e. he takes an hour to decide how to spend his Valentine's money at Toys R Us changing his mind countless times) and Ethan is more carefree and is almost always happy with the first decision or choice that comes to mind (i.e. he decides what he wants within the first 5 minutes of being in Toys R Us and never waivers from that decision). I'm sure you can figure out which of us each of them get those traits from - ha!

I have my own "paint" story!

I call this my "paint" story because not long ago Ethan's teacher told me a story of when her boys were little and she came home one night to a spray of fluorescent yellow paint all over her living room. She was telling me this to let me know that she really does understand what it is to be a mother of boys! Her kindness and understanding has meant so much to me and now I think she'll laugh when I tell her my own "paint" story:

This afternoon Elliott came out of his room during rest time to ask if it was time to get up (this is an everyday occurrence even though he can read the clock in his room - ya know, just in case we've changed our minds about the time). We said no and then he said "It smells like powder up here!" Thought that was strange for one second but then I smelled it too. I told him to open Ethan's door and see what he was doing. After a few quiet words were exchanged upstairs Elliott came running back out saying "Ethan has powder all over his room!!!!" And so it was. When I first went up I saw him standing in the doorway covered in powder....I had to laugh a little, but I couldn't see his room. I went back down to get my camera (of course) and when I got back up there his room was in full view. What a MESS!!! I couldn't believe he could make such a big mess. There was a fog of powder (still is 7 hours later) - seriously it was foggy in here. And not only had he had fun with the powder but thought the travel sized baby shampoo, lotion and baby bath would be fun to dump on the carpet also.

So if anyone knows how to get shampoo and lotion out of carpet let us know!

Boston

Amber and I had a great trip to Boston! We went to celebrate our friend Shoba's baby shower and just had the best time hanging out with everyone and enjoying the city sights. I think the most interesting part of the trip was walking through the Boston Public Garden and seeing someone walk across the pond! I had to do a double take and realized it was so frozen over that people were just taking a shortcut across the frozen pond. So we had to try it for ourselves - what fun! We got to see almost all the major sights at least briefly on a guided tour and we also took the train to Harvard University, enjoyed pastries (too many pastries) from Mike's Pastries in the North End, shopped on Charles Street and Newbury Street, ate lunch at Cheers, etc. Let's just say we burned a lot of calories walking!

And the shower was so nice! They gave it at the Cafe Fleuri in the Langham Hotel, and it was a chocolate buffet....yummmmmm! The hostesses were so sweet and generous...they did such a great job and made everything so fun and wonderful and memorable for everyone! I'm very grateful to have been included!

Of course a trip would not be complete without funny moments.....such as Amber's lack of navigational skills. My tendency to leave her uselessly yelling my name at the train station when her ticket wouldn't work and she couldn't get through the gate and was holding up the line behind her(it would take a few minutes before I would realize that she wasn't there or anywhere near me!). Our great idea to lug all of our luggage from the airport onto a city bus and then into a train station, up an elevator, down an elevator, onto a train, off of a train, up a flight of stairs, down a flight of stairs, onto another train, off the other train, up some stairs, right onto a busy downtown city sidewalk wondering where in the world we were - really wasn't such a good idea. But we laughed!