Never Enough Time

The entire family took a quick pre-Christmas trip back to Chicago to visit with friends and family for a couple days. We had a blast visiting with the Collins family, Nana, Uncle Shane, Aunt Sunny and cousin Freddie, The Mellman clan, and the High School crew families + Kim--a lot in a short time.  We're sad we didn't get to see everyone else who's so important to us.  Next time hopefully! I didn't capture most of the visit on camera as I spent most of the time catching up with everyone.

Hattie and Heath

Lex adores Hattie

Love these two - serious and then giggles

Love this girl

Finn joining the camera fun

Nana snuggling with Hattie while Finn and Bea focus on the Christmas Charlie Brown Show

The "big" kids saw their first live show while we were there - Pinkalicious.  All in all, it was the perfect first show for them and everyone enjoyed it.

Lexi and Beatrice on stage after the show.

All Things Christmas

Gingerbread houses and Santa are happenings the kids now eagerly anticipate.  This year our gingerbread house decorating efforts vastly improved as my resident artist took great pride in placing the candy in specific locations around the house and telling me explicitly where to put the frosting "glue". There was also a lot more eating going on then decorating, but isn't that why we decorate gingerbread houses in the first place?

Another visit to Santa shows that with the passing of a year in age, the kids had even more anticipation and excitement to see Santa.  Both Finny and Lex practiced what they would tell Santa and both actually told him verbatim what they'd practiced. Heath didn't want anything to do with Santa (or the gingerbread house).

  Waiting to see Santa

Pre-Santa tough guy look.  You can see Finn's shiner if you look closely. We're not sure exactly how he got it sadly.

 

 

Just Yesterday

Seems like it was just yesterday that we were tromping through the snow in search of last year's perfect Christmas tree. It truly is amazing how fast time sometimes passes.

We embarked on our journey for the perfect tree the first weekend in December in chilly weather, but with no snow in sight. This year Maine might have been the last place snow reached. We returned to the same tree farm as last year and had to do a little more "tree hunting" this time to find the "right" tree. For those of you have good memories, this might look a little like the picture from last year, without the slushy mess.

Lexi poses to show-off just how cool the tree farm is.

Lexi believes she's found the perfect tree...

 Team Lennon falling in line after dad in search of the tree.  Heath turns to make sure I'm still in tow.

 

Heath grinning about the idea of cutting down our tree.

No joke - dad shows off his manly skills as he cuts down the tree.

Success.  The one thing I do have to share about freshly cut trees is that they last forever, no needles fall off = a happy mom since there's less to clean up.  It makes you wonder how old the trees we bought from the lots all those years really were.

Showing off Maine

For years we've been lucky to have our friend Gretchen take some really fantastic photos of our kids that we've used on holiday cards annually. Since our move we've been missing Gretchen and her photo skills. We finally took the plunge and hired someone locally (no Gretchen for sure) here in Maine to snap some photos of the family. As it turned out we had a really fun time while also grabbing some memorable photos. You'll note the photos also do a nice job of showcasing why you should all visit us here in Maine. Enjoy!  PS. For all of you who always say I don't post pictures of myself ever, here you go!

 

Triple Treat

I can't remember being so lucky to have 3 opportunities to adorn my Halloween costume in one season (or one weekend)! The Lennon kids experienced a true Triple Treat over the Halloween weekend.

Late Friday afternoon the kids and Patrick met me at work to trick-or-treat the halls of my office and show their costumes off to my colleagues.  They loved seeing my office, running the hallways and checking out all the art of animals on the walls.  We had to egg Heath along, as he decided looking at the animal art was much more exciting than getting candy (we'll see how long that lasts). Trick-or-treating concluded with a Pizza party in the cafeteria, along with big screen movies playing and a photographer to snap shots of the kids.  It was a great event and a nice way to trick or treat (no coats, no darkness, you get it, right?). Oh - no pics from this, but the kids dressed up as Sleeping Beauty, a monkey, and a lion (complete with roaring along the way).

Saturday was one of Finny's friends birthday parties.  Both Finn and Lex were invited and it was also a dress up party.  The kids eagerly put on their costumes again and spent a bounce house filled, candy hunting afternoon with a dozen other sugar loaded kids. We were all exhausted by the time we got home that night.  Remember, this was 2 down, 1 to go for dress-up and candy.

Sunday - Halloween day.  One of our neighbors has an annual Halloween party so we dressed the kids and headed over. The kids were so anxious to trick-or-treat that they really didn't want to be at the party, so after not too long we headed out with some friends to a nearby neighborhood for some trick-or treating.  If you're paying attention, you'll notice there was one costume swap.  The lion became an elephant for Halloween.  All in all a terrific evening despite the chill in the air.  We arrived home with bags full of candy and very happy kids. That night Finn asked "can we do Halloween again the next day?"

Magical Leaves

We set out for a family walk/bike ride and discovered a pile of leaves begging for us to play in.  The pictures tell the rest of the story.

 Finn showing off his balance bike skills.

Discovering the pile of leaves

Running and jumping into the pile.

Heath finally finds the leaf pile too!

Dad finds the leaf pile

Pile on Dad!

Enjoying the ride home

The perfect Fall afternoon.