Why hello there...

So I came across the idea for this blog Thanksgiving while talking with my Husband (Software Developer by day, Gamer by night) {Hereinafter referred to as M} and my Cousin (who works for an online gaming company) about deciding between the merits of going to PAX East or BlizzCon for M's birthday present (of course we agreed that E3 would be the best, but alas...impossible to get into...)

It kind of dawned on me that I know next to nothing about any of these games...We played World of Warcraft very briefly when we were first married but then life got in the way and I stopped playing. I have absolutely no hand/eye/brain coordination so I find those types of games difficult and haven't really gotten into them. Then again I really havent tried either.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago and I decided to give W.O.W. another try (knowing it would make M a happy guy). This time I started playing it on an actual desktop computer that M had built for gaming purposes and compared to the laptop I was playing on last time the difference is night and day...so I think I may just keep this up.

Not only do I want to keep this up but I want to give other games a try too...let M show me the ropes.

So this blog will be a way for me to chronicle my learning experinces, review games and so on and so forth. Gaming I think will become our escape from everything, the kids, work, house work, and what not.

...and hopefully I'll get enough of the lingo down to understand and enjoy what ever conference we decide to go to next year :)

Foto Friday :)

Here's a little of what goes into making a great Team M.A.C.K. family photo :)

Gotta love timers huh? At least we got one!

Then we had some family fall fun :)

I think this has to be my favorite photo of the two of them I have yet :) Dunno why, you can't even see their faces, but I love it.

A's Six Month Stats

Ok, so I know I'm late with this post, but what else is new huh? Here are her stats!

Height ~ 26.5 inches 75%

Weight ~ 16.8 pounds 50%

She doesn't have any teeth yet, but she has been drooling and chewing on everything in sight so hopefully soon. She also isn't rolling over yet, but she is *a l m o s t* there, literally, she goes from her back to having both her knees and tummy touching the floor, all she has to do is get her shoulder over and she'd be done, but she gives up and flips back. Ah well soon hopefully. (C was a late roller too and she was a very early walker).

What A is doing is sitting up on her own (until she spazzes and throws herself backward lol).

She is eating like a pro and just loves anything that comes in a jar. Also in the picture below you can see her hair is coming in like crazy (literally ~ in the right light she looks like a crazy person) it looks like it's coming in an ash blonde/extremely light brown color. Right now it looks straight, but who knows what it will look like once it starts getting longer :)

She also loves being in her jumper which has earned her the nickname the "happy bouncer" :)

And she just LOVES doing anything that involves her big sister, and luckily her big sister loves being with her too (most of the time lol)

And in addition to the above, so far, month 6 has seen her first Snowfall and her first Halloween!

DIY Christmas to-do

Christmas To-Do list for this week, it's alot, but I think/hope I can do it...

1. Cut pieces for A's and CJ's turtles

2. Color salt ornaments

3. Make pattern and cut pieces for C's dolls

4. Paint Beds for C's dolls

5. Finish blankets for C's Dolls

6. Make Cat beds for APF donation

7. Cut pieces for M's present

8. Cut pieces for A's Cat Softie

9. Cut pieces for CJ's Rocket Softie

Essentially what it boils down to is to make *something/anything* out of this pile of stuff...

***Disclaimer...yes I AM fully aware it is not even Thanksgiving yet...thanks for the reminders though :) ***

Foto Friday :)

It's a pre-Thanksgiving Turkey convention...they must feel safe in our yard since they see the Christmas lights are up :)

And C saying goodbye to the Turkeys...or TurTeys as she calls them, we're trying to teach her a new word to go with each holiday/season (for example, Halloween her new word was Snow :) or Sah~NOH as she said :) )

We're also trying to get her to say "gobble, gobble, gobble" when you ask her what a Turkey says...right now she still says "tweet, tweet, tweet" guess it works they ARE still birds :)

Birthday Planning

Oye, I can not believe that we are planning for C's 2nd birthday already!! Or should I say I can't believe I'm replanning everything lol...I had picked out the theme, decorations, cake, games, etc. etc. And then the birthday girl decides she doesn't care all that much for the theme we had picked out...oh no, Yo Gabba Gabba is just okay now, what she Really loves is...

And so we enter the planning phase (again) :) soooooo glad I hadn't started making anything lol. And while YGG would have been tough to get decorations etc. for it wasn't anywhere near as impossible as Bubble Guppies lol. This show hasn't even been running for a year now and so there isn't really anything you can buy to go with the theme.

Luckily enough though Nickelodeon has some awesome free printables so it shouldn't be too hard to DIY everything :)

For food we are going to have Macaroni and Trees, Hot "dogs" and, "spring" rolls :) every episode they do a funny take on a food item, these are the three that I think I can replicate pretty easily :)...There will also be goldfish crackers (of course!) and we are going to do melon "bubble" balls and probably chocolate covered fruits (like bananas and kiwis to keep with the circular bubble theme lol) and maybe even some cake bubble pops...we'll see once I actually start making everything...

As for games, I am planning on making a Fishketball Game (with the help of M of course) which is actually just a bean bag toss game with a fancy name :)

Ideas for the Cake...

For the Birthday girl to wear...going to see if I can DIY something like this, probably wont come out as nice though, but we will see :)

For Decorations...going to hang balloons from the ceiling to look like bubbles... (the plus to this? we don't have to buy another helium tank...the one we bought last year is still sitting in the garage since we have no idea what to do with it.)

Cute little decoration...How old is C? 2 Years!! That's 24 Months! :) love the learning.

Ideas for Goodie Bags...

So add all that to our DIY Christmas (umm yeah, thats another post all together though...) and I got lots to do in the next month and a half...hopefully it gets all done and done well!!

And for those of you who would like to see it, here is the link to the pin board with Ideas for A's first birthday...we did Cupcakes for C, we are doing Ice Cream cones for A :) have to make them different!!

Halloween! and Snow??

So snow came to the northeast early this year...hey we had an earthquake and a hurricane, why not throw in some snow in October? And while it didn't add up to be *anything* like storm in 1987 (Link for info!) that hit a couple days before my 5th birthday. It was still pretty cool to see the snow falling before Halloween :)

It was A's first snow fall!!

And wouldn't you believe it, we got about 4 ~ 4 1/2 inches and I was snapping away while it was falling, but I didn't take any pictures after it was all over...since we were too busy getting everyone ready to go out visiting in their Halloween costumes :)

And visit we did, C made an adorable little Pirate Princess even though she wouldn't stand still for any pictures let alone model the skirt I made for her lol.

Ask her what a pirate says however and she would give you the most adorable Argh! You ever heard (as long as you didn't have candy in your hand...then she would tell you a pirate says Please :) )

And our little A made the most adorable little Kitten you ever did see :)

Soccer!

So C started *Soccer* a couple of weeks ago. I think she really enjoys it, she certainly loves running away from daddy and it absolutely wears her (them) down, and I think she gets something out of it every week so i'm pretty sure we are getting our money's worth when it comes to right down to it. Plus? We get to go out just the 4 of us at least once a week, we go do soccer time then go around the corner to Moe's for lunch :) It's nice to have the family time.

Now back up to the beginning...I put the stars around soccer because really, it's not soccer at all, at least not in the way one thinks of soccer, ie...two teams kicking a ball around one team trying to score points in order to win over the other... This is essentially a fine motor skills building program. Actually, there is no essentially about it, it *is* a fine motor skills building program called Soccertots...if you have never heard of it, here is the link for more info!

It's really a great program, they use soccer type equipment to work on building skills...

Each child gets a dot to sit, stand and/or build on and they do kick around a soccer ball for a while...

They also use cones and disks to build towers with...then kick over and build up again...

They also play with things like hula hoops (seriously fun :) ) and balloons.

And parachutes!

And unlike most other programs that I have seen/participated in this isn't a one parent one tot kind of program where the other parent either doesn't come or has to watch on from another room...this program (at least for this age group...I think as kind of a necessity...) allows both parents and siblings to be there and participate...one parent can be the one with the tot and the other can be with the sibling, or they can all be out there on the field participating in the tasks...it's quite awesome.

And A loves the balls :)

So right now it seems to be going well, though we really need to work with C on her listening and following direction skills we had a set back last week since class started 20 minutes late, so we will see how it goes... Another review to come at the end of this session to see how well it all went!