Hello HARRY to the MAX

A Christmas Story

Fun Fact: Everyone's favorite holiday movie, "A Christmas Story" was filmed in the next town over, which has a month-long festival dedicated to the movie. (Complete with an "Oh FUUUUDGE!" race, a Mommy's Little Piggy mashed potato-eating contest and much more fun.) The boys haven't seen the movie yet, but Rob and I were very excited about this. (OK maybe it was just me.)

Matching Christmas sweaters in front of the replica of a storefront from the movie.

Intrigued by the model trains but not quite knowing what to make of all this.

Looking out for little brother.

This year's "official" Santa shot. The festival had an awesome Santa. Max brought along his lovey, Puppy, for support.

Kids could ride a slide down after meeting Santa!

Scene: A Restaurant in Indiana

At the end, what you can't hear Max saying and what I try to get him to repeat is: "Coming right up!"

Harry took it to another level for his turn, with an apron and a pen behind his ear. But I failed to capture it in a photo. Bad Mom.

We Live in A Box

Yes, the children have spent much time in boxes over the past month. They've grown so comfortable with boxes that we even feed them there :) With the move, and then trying to unpack, and not succeeding in unpacking, and having two toddlers repack things that you pack or dump bins of unpacked items or undo any organization that you've done, it is quite challenging to actually feel settled. But apparently, HUGE amounts of fun for them to have boxes laying around the house for two months -- one month pre-move, and one month post-move!

We did manage to get Harry off to his new school in our first week.

Daddy and Harry on our new front step!

During the first week, Harry had a field trip to the performing arts center in our new town for a performance of "Sleeping Beauty." Mommy had to work, so we booked Nana as his chaperone. He was very excited for his date -- Note the argyle sweater! Max insisted on being in the photo, even though he is in his pajamas and had big plans of his own with his Grammy, who was also in town to help the super stressed-out parents!

OK, so when you move to Indiana, you get a yard. And when your kids get crazy, you can just turn them loose on a pile of leaves. Glee!

The discussion over what kind of pumpkin to have -- Spooky? Silly? Happy? Max obviously has an opinion. (Are you serious with this, Daddy?)

Harry takes a stab, or a pre-stab. Daddy is not giving up, note him sketching furiously in the background.

Harry's attempt!

The resulting compromise. Yes, Max is in Christmas pajamas. Not because we are one of those families that jumps seasons ahead, but because they fit NOW and we have unpacked THIS box.

A proud Harry and Daddy.

My Super Duper Zero 3000!

Max is very busy these days saving everyone in the household from various imagined villains. He is quite adept at transforming any boring toy into a SUPER DUPER ZERO THREE THOUSAND! According to Max: "It can do anything!" In the example below, he is trying to save Harry from Frankenstein and then describes how he does it.

Overheard

Me: "Harry, your turn to pick a program. What do you want to watch?"
Harry: "Bob the Builder."
Max: "That's shocking."

(Last line delivered with such an appropriate level of sarcasm that I could not help but be proud.)

P.S. Scroll down for an update from our summer. I started the post so long ago, that blogger pushed it way down on the blog. But it's new stuff, so look!

Do not give up on me

We are moving in nine days, and packing, packing and more packing is pushing blog updates off the to-do list. Do not give up on us! I have a camera full of cute pictures to share. I will do that soon! In the meantime, here are some photos of the boys in the new house:

"Mommy, How can I climb this tree?"

Big McKenzie Lake 2011

"We have you booked for next week." -- Resort owner when we arrived after a 9-hour drive crammed in the car with two toddlers.

(Insert expletive of choice here, because I said them all.)

Eventually we got it worked out. YES, these are from two months ago, but dear reader, I want to catch you up! My family squeezed into a lake cabin with Nana and Papa, who were hoping to stretch out in their big cabin. Ha! There were people everywhere, but I think everyone had a nice time :)

Nana and Papa watched the kids one day so we could go out fishing and have a break at The Landing, the shoreline bar that you can drive your boat up to and dock it!