See Colin Grow: 2008

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

December 19, 2008 - snow, snow, snow

let it snow... and it did! 14 inches later and snowed in from school/work Friday, here is the view from inside the cozy warm house! Papa Staley was visiting and helped with Colin while Mama worked from home.

December 15, 2008 - first flu (and hopefully the last!)

Colin caught a flu bug, thankfully the 24 hour variety, but it kept him home from school on Monday. He got to watch Rudolph and it helped make him feel much better... Here's the patient mesmerized by his red nose friend :)

December 13, 2008 - festive holiday party

Melissa and I co-hosted a holiday party for our friends and their families and it was such a fun night that I didn't take hardly any pictures b/c I was running around visiting with everyone!

Colin had a great time with his friends; here he is with Brendan eating cookie treats!

Colin and Melissa / The kids climbing on Kevin, Brendan's dad!

December 12, 2008 - Bavarian Inn FFF

Colin and Mama had a blast at the always popular holiday trip to the Bavarian Inn with the FFF gang. Lauren and I couldn't believe that this was the third year that we had been to the Inn together with the boys! Needless to say, they are having more and more fun each year!

Colin, Lauren and Baby Katie dancing to the band / Brendan and Colin being very cute (underneath the skirt of a table...)

Katie playing with Daddy / Colin and Brendan listening to the band

Monday, December 08, 2008

Colin's Christmas List

Click here to see Colin's Wish List on Amazon for Christmas (and possibly his January birthday overflow :)

Please shop locally when you can and beware of odd Amazon pricing!

You can email Santa's Helper (Mama) if you have gotten an item from the list and I will remove it from the wishlist

December 7, 2008 - playing with Griffin

Colin had his friend Griffin over to play today (with a play date for Mommy to catch up with Griffin's Mom, Amy too!)

The boys had a good time overall with only a few true almost-3-year-old tantrums :)

They played with puzzles, tool sets, action figures, had a themed "skewered" lunch and rounded out the day with some bouncy house action and dress up- shown here playing pirates!

We hope to have Griffin over again soon to play! Colin's comment after he left was 'Griffin's a nice boy!'

December 6, 2008 - gingerbread house making part 2

2 gingerbread houses in one day-- the second time at home!!! Friday night we purchased a gingerbread house kit at Trader Joe's before we knew the theme of Saturday's library program so it was a gingerbread themed day!

We had a blast making this one together with Mama in charge of the icing and Colin in charge of the decorating!

Needless to say.... the first gingerbread house didn't make it much past today :)

December 6, 2008 - gingerbread house making at MKE Central Library

We met Lauren, Brendan and Katie at the Central Library for story time (oops, we were late b/c of shoveling and missed this part) and gingerbread house making!!!

SO much fun! Colin and Brendan may have eaten their weight in gingerbread house decorations by the time the activity was over though!

See Lauren's pictures of the morning by clicking here (I forgot my camera)

Cute kids all bundled up to leave!

December 6, 2008 - my snow angel

After working hard to help Mama shovel the driveway Saturday morning so we could get the car out for our morning library fun, Colin ditched the shovel for some snow angel making!!!

December 5, 2008 - snuggles

...from Colin are Mama's favorite kind!

December 5, 2008 - advent calendar

Thanks Grandma Mary for the great advent calendars! Colin and I are enjoying our treats every night as we count down to Christmas morning!

December 4, 2008 - decorating the tree

Colin was a great helper tonight when we finished decorating the Christmas tree!

*and so far, no ornaments broken! :)

November 30, 2008 - santa mice

Colin and I made 'santa mice' treats this afternoon; a Grandma Mary speciality which are pretzel twists dipped in white chocolate for a "santa beard" and an m&m for the mouse nose with the two round tops of the pretzel making the mouse ears! Let's just say that Colin thoroughly enjoyed helping with this activity, especially licking the spoon!

November 23, 2008 - camera skills

Colin was practicing his picture taking skills in the below... and Mama's thankful that as long as Santa thinks Colin has been a good boy, he may bring Colin his very own digital camera to save her new camera (early Christmas from Papa :) from future toddler use!!

self taken by Colin

Mama decorating the tree taken by Colin

November 21, 2008 - Christmas Parade!

We met Melissa and Lauren, Brendan and Katie for the downtown Christmas Parade this morning- it was a FRIGID experience but well worth it for the boys, especially Colin who has a new love for marching bands and the trumpet!

Sunday, December 07, 2008

November 16, 2008- rocking out

I can't recall what song Colin was singing here.. but it was a definite 'rock out' show in his guitar sweater and if I had to take a guess, it would have been 'Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer' our holiday fav!

November 16, 2008 - puzzled

Colin LOVES putting together puzzles these days and Papa Staley bought him this 60 pc tractor puzzle when he visited this weekend which Colin learned to put together in no time! Thanks Papa!

Monday, December 01, 2008

November 8, 2008 - railroad tracks

...that lead straight into the Milwaukee river (outside a local riverside restaurant we visited for brunch) - I'm glad that Colin and our friend Amy didn't follow the tracks for too long because they would have made a big splash!

November 8, 2008 - raking leaves

Colin and Mama had a blast raking the last of the fall leaves this morning! The best part may have been the jumping in... not the raking though :)

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

November 4, 2008 - Weather Kid

Colin was selected as a TMJ4 'Weather Kid' on the morning news!

Of course, I got a voice message that said he would be featured on Nov 4th so we DVR'd 5 hours of the news yesterday morning without seeing him featured when we tried to watch it last night. Then I didn't think to re-set the DVR for today so of course they switched the dates and we missed seeing it live on TV this morning or on DVR. Thanks to the Internet though, we have the great picture of my Weather Kid! Here's the link to the TMJ4 Weather Kids site (and thanks to Adrienne and Colin's friend Cole for the idea to do this after Cole was a Weather Kid earlier this year!)