Winter has begun

We're in full Christmas spirit here in the Hochberg house. It begun with tree decorating the day after Thanksgiving.

As the kids get older we're able to do more and more with them. A good friend of mine from college came up from Southern Virginia a few weeks ago and we met at National Harbor for ICE. It's a pretty amazing show of ice carvings. This year the theme was The Night before Christmas. I did not have high hopes of this being entertaining for the kid because of some reviews, but we all had fun and wish we could have stayed longer, but we had to rush home for a dinner party.

We've had some snow complete with days off from school and work.

Dave being the excellent father that he is decided to lead the effort in making Gingerbread Houses.

I only baked the Gingerbread Men.

And just like that 2013 is coming to a close and I'm all caught up until next year! Merry Christmas to all!

Mermaids & Pirates

The Fall is always crazy starting before Halloween. This year I thought Id be smart and combine the birthday parties for the kids. Whether is was easier or not remains to be seen. The party was fun however and after all the planning at least it was "one and done." We chose a mermaid and pirate theme to incorporate both boys and girls. The venue was a room at our new community center and the entertainment was a cast of characters from the sea. A mermaid, a pirate and a princess led songs, dances, and games for the kids while parents mingled and took photos of their funny little children having a grand old time celebrating our sweet kids.

Fall Fun

Once again we had a great time this fall. Graeme started preschool. He was such a big boy on the 1st day. No tears! However, the following week or two were rough. Fortunately, now he loves school. He was the first to make a "friend." We are so proud that he's finally begun to talk and is probably the most social Hochberg in this house. He always makes friends when we're out and about. I was just told today by 2 parents at school how sweet he is to their sons. Makes a mama's heart melt.

We visited many farms, picked lots of pumpkins and did our share of corn mazes. We also roasted marshmallows in our new fire pit. Graeme met the funny Kangaroo at his 1st visit to the dentist. Side note, we're proud to report that he is a member of the no cavity club which is surprising giving his fondness for anything sweet.

We saw the horses run the Maryland Million.

Halloween is a favorite holiday for the kids. This year we picked a family theme: Wizard of Oz. Mikaela was Dorothy, Graeme was the cowardly Lion, and I was the Wicked Witch of the West.

and once the trick or treating was done we got ready for the kids joint bday bash and then it was on to Thanksgiving.

Summertime Memories

It's been a cold couple of weeks here on East Coast with some snow. I'm starting to think about escaping to warm destinations. That doesn't look to be happening anytime soon and since it's getting to be the end of 2013 and I'm 6 months behind on this blog... I thought I'd reflect on what a great summer we had. There was a trip to Minnesota to see family, celebrating with our niece Claire on her 5th birthday, lazy days by the pool (although if you ask me it could have been a little hotter) and to top things off a relaxing trip to Bethany Beach. Minnesota was fun and an adventure. We arrived to a power outage that kept us hopping from house to house and eating out for a couple of days. The kids thought it was fun to have lanterns and our DVD players were all charged up so that helped, there are lots of cousins to help entertain, and as usual we spent lots of time outside.

Claire's 5th birthday in Kansas was a lot of fun! The girls love being together and it was so cute to see them cheering at Claire's party. Kansas is lovely in the summer and the kids spent a ton of time outside riding bikes. We went to an arborteum that had a train garden which Graeme thought was awesome!

Lazy summer days are sometimes the best. We joined a new pool this year and had a great time meeting new friends. Mikaela took some swim lessons and Graeme just got comfortable with water.

The beach! We stayed in the same beach house as 2012 and had a great time. Graeme still doesn't care for sand in his pants but he enjoyed himself more than last year. The weather wasn't perfect the whole time, but we made the best of it with another trip to see the wild ponies, putt putt, and time at Funland. We're looking forward to going again.

And then summer was over....